The Cambridge History of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature [Hardcover]

An authoritative and accessible guide to Old Norse-Icelandic literature, featuring chapters from internationally distinguished scholars.An in-depth, accessible history of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, this book provides analysis of all key genres in this celebrated body of writing and of their literary and historical contexts. Through essays by internationally distinguished scholars, it presents a fresh, unified, authoritative guide for specialists, students and general readers.An in-depth, accessible history of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, this book provides analysis of all key genres in this celebrated body of writing and of their literary and historical contexts. Through essays by internationally distinguished scholars, it presents a fresh, unified, authoritative guide for specialists, students and general readers.A landmark new history of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, this volume is a comprehensive, up-to-date guide to a unique and celebrated body of medieval writing. Chapters by internationally recognized experts offer the latest in-depth analysis of every significant genre and group of texts in the corpus, including sagas and skaldic verse, romances and saints' lives, myths and histories, laws and learned literature. Together, they provide a scholarly, readable and accessible overview of the whole field. Innovatively organized by the chronology and geography of the texts' settings  which stretch from mythic history to medieval Iceland, from Vinland to Byzantium  they reveal the interconnectedness of diverse genres encompassing verse and prose, translations and original works, Christian and pre-Christian literature, fiction and non-fiction. This is the ideal volume for specialists, students and general readers who want a fresh and authoritative guide to the literature of medieval Iceland and Norway.Introduction; Part I. Contexts: 1. History: Iceland from the settlement to 1400 CE Haki Antonsson; 2. Manuscripts and textual culture Emily Lethbridge; 3. PlÓ'