Description

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In The Sagas of Norwegian Kings (1130-1265), Theodore M. Andersson offers an orientation to the category of Icelandic sagas known as "kings' sagas," a genre of Old Norse-Icelandic prose literature less known than the somewhat later sagas of early Icelanders and their extended families. The kings'-saga genre culminated in three compendia that appeared prior to 1250: the manuscripts Morkinskinna and Fagrskinna and the compilation of sagas known as Heimskringla. These remarkable sagas are among the most readable of European chronicles. Theodore M. Andersson's book examines not only the evolution of the genre and its associated critical literature but also the genre's points of interaction with Icelandic family sagas.

About the Author

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Theodore M. Andersson is Professor of Germanic Studies Emeritus at Indiana University. He is the author of several books, including The Sagas of Norwegian Kings (1130-1265), The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250), Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy and The Legend of Brynhild; translator of The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason; and cotranslator, with Kari Ellen Gade, of "Morkinskinna" The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157).