The Fornaldarsögur: Stephen Mitchell’s Contribution

The fornaldarsögur (literally, “sagas of antiquity”) have long been relegated to the status of “poor cousins ” within the family of Old Icelandic literature. To a large degree this downgrading has occurred because the fornaldarsögur are often fantastic narrations that read very differently from the more sober and worldly íslendingasögur [family sagas]. Written in the period from roughly the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the fornaldarsögur, a mixture of tradition and invention, often recount legendary and mythic events from the recesses of Scandinavian folk memory. Sometimes a tale follows its hero or heroes into the supernatural world and also recounts quasi-historical memories of events that can be traced as far back as the migration period. In general, the fornaldarsögur focus on Scandinavia; southern Germanic matters and events are less evident and usually only enter the tales in connection with stories built on, or sharing motifs and traditions with, Eddic material, as they do in the Völsunga saga. Both the family and the kings ’ sagas, as well as other Norse sources, offer a good deal of evidence suggesting that the fornaldarsögur, or similar prose narratives, were told orally by Icelanders both before and after writing became common in the twelfth century. Sturlu áttr, from the Sturlunga saga compendium (1946), contains a description of such oral storytelling. It records the following tale about Sturla órarson, who journeyed to Norway in the mid-thirteenth century. Sturla undertook his trip hoping to restore his standing with the king, to whom he had been slandered. As fate would have it, Sturla, though gaining access to the royal ship, found the king displeased with him, and the Icelander was lodged in the forward part of the vessel away from the king (vol. 2:232