Hrafnistumannasögur som symboliskt kapital

The corpus of sagas known under the genre fornaldarsögur has appeared sporadically within academia for as long as old Norse texts have been studied. The main focus of old Norse philological studies has generally been on texts considered to be more accurate in depicting historical events, and it is not until the end of the twentieth century that the corpus started to earn more consistent interest from scholars. The sagas of the heroes from Hrafnista, Hrafnistumannasögur, are part of the corpus of fornaldarsögur and as such have gotten a relatively small amount of scholarly attention, with the possible exception of Ǫrvar-Odds saga. However, it is the usage of these sagas as a means to gain, and maintain, a socially elevated position in the medieval literate milieu on Iceland that is the focus of this thesis. Furthermore, it is the goal of this project to analyze what occurrences in society are reflected in the sagas from a vantagepoint that takes into account the historical background and geopolitical situation specific to the Icelandic society of the time. This is done with a sociological approach as well as by looking upon internal structures derived from the education and scope of literature available at the time. The first part of the project is made up of a description of the sociological approach as well as the historical background of Iceland and Icelandic literature, mainly from a literary standpoint. The second part is concerned with analyzing the sagas for meaningful structures and underlying ideals. Based upon the analysis the collection of sagas known today as Hrafnistumannasögur, they exhibit elements combined of the historical conditions, structural principles of the sagas as well as the sociological circumstances within which they were made. All of which are factors that made the usage of the sagas as resources for creating power and identity within the medieval Icelandic society possible