Saga Emotions

Saga emotions is an essential exploration of the representation and function of key emotional states in Old Norse-Icelandic saga literature.

Ranging widely across the sagas, each chapter takes as its starting point a particular Old Norse emotion term - such as reiði (anger), gleði (joy), or víghugr (killing-mood) - offering detailed accounts of its usage in the saga corpus. Illuminating case studies demonstrate the literary function of each emotion term. Avoiding anachronistic projections of modern emotional systems, it maps the native emotion models of Norse textual culture in fine detail, charting changes over time that reflect new historical and social conditions in medieval Iceland, particularly the impact of Christian emotional systems. Written by leading international scholars in saga and emotion studies, Saga emotions adds much-needed emotional granularity to the study of saga literature.

Breaking new ground, this important essay collection pioneers a lexically oriented approach to the textual representation of emotions as complex psychological and physical phenomena and provides a secure foundation for future research into the sagas, literature and history of medieval Iceland.