The Icelandic Sagas

The Icelandic Sagas, as they were written down by Snorre Sturluson and others, have in some cases limited value as historically accurate works. They were heavily influenced by the Christian perspective of the scribes, and can not be seen single handedly as reliable sources that reflect the Viking daily life (Hall 2007: 166). The older Edda was written down in the 13th century, at the same time as Snorres younger Edda was written, which places them firmly in the Christian times.

The Icelandic Sagas has previously been used as guides uncover the geographical positions of Viking age archaeological sites. When houses and graves were uncovered in the places directed to by the Sagas, the finds in those sites were almost automatically attributed to the Viking age, even without any archaeological finds to back that up (Hall 2007: 155). The Icelandic Sagas are now treated with a bit more care, and the fashion described in them, when it comes to clothing are widely seen as depicting the fashion and style of the medieval period, and not that of the Viking age.

When studied, we thus have to take the works into the context of when, where and for what purpose they were written down. It would be highly hazardous to make any firm statements about religion of the Viking age from sagas written down by Christian scholars. Likewise, the accounts of Viking activity in England, as it was depicted by English scholars at the time, of course paints a picture which only shows the mentality of the Viking as that of a northern barbarian. The picture of a barbaric north was created partly on ideological grounds, where the Christian Europe wanted to appear superior (Roesdahl 1998: 13-16).

Many of the sagas, however, do not depict kings, queens, raids or larger than life individuals, but ordinary man, as is the case of the Icelandic family sagas, which often serve as historical records of individual families. While the same critical eye should be applied to them, they would perhaps provide a better understanding of the mentality of the people of the Viking age, seen through their struggles between each others and with the harsh climate, as well as through their every day activities, some of which are described in the family sagas.

One of the more popular and well researched of these sagas is the Njáls saga, where many of the events described in the saga can be traced back and found in other sources as well, such as the christening of Iceland, and historical references to known kings at the time. This would give the saga some level of authenticity on which one can assume that the other parts of the saga should also be reasonably accurate. Despite the factual accuracy of some of the sagas, the purpose, audience for which they were written and the bias of those who wrote them down make them rather unreliable sources of Viking age, and they probably tell us a great deal more about traditions of early medieval Iceland and Sweden than about the traditions of the Viking age (Nordström 2002: 22).

While not all written sources that remain from the Viking age, or were written down in the centuries afterwards, can be seen as wholly authentic accounts, we can learn much by studying the works together, and hopefully gain some more understanding of the Viking age, or the centuries after that, through such studies.