Njls Saga And Its Christian Background A Study Of Narrative Method Dissertation Andrew Joseph Hamer by Andrew Joseph Hamer 9789036733137, 9036733138 instant download after payment.

'Njáls saga' is universally recognised as the greatest and most complex of all the 'Íslendingasögur'. The saga is a late example of the genre, and by the time of its writing (between ca. 1270 and ca. 1295), the narrative conventions of the 'Íslendingasögur' were well established. But while the author of 'Njáls saga' was clearly familiar with these conventions, he chose at times either to treat them with considerable freedom (for example, the motif of the young Icelander who finds favour at the Norwegian court is treated in a radically original way in the story of Hrútr Herjólfsson), or to ignore them completely ('Njáls saga', for example, does not open with the expected prologue in Norway); other 'Íslendingasögur' fall into three main types: biographies of heroes, histories of dynasties, and regional histories, but 'Njáls saga' cannot be simply categorised in these terms.
The present study seeks to contribute towards knowledge concerning the extent to which the author of Njáls saga used written texts, by looking for sources for the saga narrative within written literary genres which had no associated oral traditions.