The Multiple Facets of Time: Reckoning, Representing, and Understanding Time in Medieval Iceland

• Main Author: Ceolin, Martina
• Other Authors: Torfi H. Tulinius, Íslensku- og menningardeild (HÍ), Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies (UI), Hugvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Humanities (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Iceland, School of Humanities, Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies 2020
• Subjects: Time; Old Icelandic Literature; Íslendingabók; Íslendingasögur; Eyrbyggja saga; Laxdæla saga; Miðaldabókmenntir; Doktorsritgerðir; Ari; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/1914

This work investigates the multivalent and dynamic portrayal of time in a selection of early Old Icelandic texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The main objective is to map out the representations of time in terms of the patterns conveyed, and to examine how the authors configured time through narrative. An extension of this goal is to build up a theoretical understanding of how the people involved in the production of the texts, and possibly their contemporaries as well, reckoned, organized, and understood time. The primary texts analysed for these purposes are Íslendingabók and two Íslendingasögur, Eyrbyggja saga and Laxdæla saga. Íslendingabók is a concise history of Iceland from its settlement, ca. 870, to 1118, written by the priest Ari Þorgilsson inn fróði (“the Learned,” 1067/68–1148) between the years 1122–33. The two Íslendingasögur, Eyrbyggja saga and Laxdæla saga, date from the thirteenth century, but, like Íslendingabók, are narratively set in the Settlement Period, although Íslendingabók continues further. The treatment of time in each text, especially the sense of the past, along with the explicit and implicit connections that can be established between the texts, allows for a comprehensive comparative analysis of the time patterns they convey. Alongside this analysis, a focus on the historical period of the writing of the texts leads to a deeper understanding of how medieval Icelanders of that time at once measured, managed, and understood time. This in turn allows for a better appreciation of the ideological foundations that influenced the representations of time and the mechanisms involved in reconstructing the past in these texts. The analysis is conducted by tackling the issue from different theoretical perspectives: narrative, sociological, and philosophical. Such an analytical approach aims to do justice to the multiplicity of times that concurred in medieval Iceland. This approach also attempts to bridge gaps that currently exist within this research area, paving the way for ...