Reception of sagas of the Icelanders in modern Icelandic historical novels

The article deals with one particular aspect of the reception of the Old Norse literature and culture in the Icelandic fiction between the 1990s and the 2010s - historical novels about the Icelanders from the period between the IX and the XIII centuries. Such texts in modern Icelandic fiction are quite rare, and have not yet been researched even in Iceland. This paper examines several novels by different authors written between 1994 and 2015. There is a difference between the novels on medieval Iceland (and the Nordic lands in general) composed by non-Icelandic and Icelandic authors: in Iceland such novels are usually based not on significant historical events, but on symbolic texts. These are the “Sagas of the Icelanders”, which have a very high status in modern Icelandic culture. The interplay with these texts gives the authors freedom for new interpretations. It can be a story about some period of the hero’s life, not described in a particular saga (Thorvald Viöförli by Ami Bergmann or Auöur by Vilborg Davfösdöttir); rewriting a particular saga from a marginal character’s point of view (Glwsir by Armann Jakobsson); a stylistic experiment (Geirmund s Saga by Bergsveinn Birkison); or an attempt to reconstruct the lost ancient text (Here Lies the Scald by Thorarinn Eldjarn). There are very few historical novels describing these ages, which are not based on particular sagas (e. g., Korka s Saga by Vilborg Davfösdöttir). The necessity of the interplay with the texts of the sagas imposes certain restrictions on the authors of such historical novels, not known by historical novel writers of other countries: in Iceland, the sagas are regarded as a standart for the art of narration, and their plots are familiar to the most readers and are not modified. The interpretations of particular saga plots can be various, while the plot itself remains unchanged. It puts the reception of the Old Norse literary heritage in modern Icelandic historical novels about the period between the IX and the XIII centuries into a unique situation in relation to such reception in other modern literatures of the countries of European culture.