Long Lives of Short Sagas: The Irrepressibility of Narrative and the Case of Illuga Saga Grarfstra

Over the last few decades a number of works have appeared which have increased our knowledge and appreciation of the pre-modern Icelandic genre of fornaldarsogur (often translated into English as legendary sagas, heroic sagas, or the sagas of ancient times). This new work builds upon the preceding research but takes as a case study a short, late version of the genre. By looking at a peripheral narrative--one which many would exclude and ignore when considering the genre--new perspectives on many of the questions which researchers put to this genre can be provided. Illuga saga Grioarfostra turns out to be a story which has served many functions for multiple audiences. By tracing the complete history of this work from its origins through multiple manuscript witnesses, its use in Scandinavian intellectual history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and through to the many poetic reworkings produced in Iceland up to the twentieth century, a comprehensive picture is produced which allows us to see how a short story can have a much fuller life than is immediately apparent.