In this book, Theodore M. Andersson, a leading scholar of the Norse sagas, introduces readers to the development of the Icelandic sagas between 1180 and 1280, a crucial period that witnessed a gradual shift of emphasis from tales of adventure and personal distinction to the analysis of political and historical propositions. Beginning with the first full-length sagas and culminating in the acknowledged masterpiece Njals saga, Andersson emphasizes a historical perspective, establishing a chronology for seventeen of the most important sagas and showing how they evolve thematically...

The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200 1250) is a study of the genesis of Old Icelandic prose literature from its roots in oral tradition to the compilation of key early sagas at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Theodore M. Andersson devotes special attention to the Icelandic sagas (kings' sagas or konungasogur) that narrate the careers of Norwegian kings, Olafr Tryggvason and Olafr Haraldsson prominent among them.

The author considers the "self-consciously Icelandic filter" that balances Icelanders perception of Norwegian kings and...

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...