From the frying pan of oral tradition into the fire of saga writing : The precarious survival of historical fact in the saga of Yngvar the Far-Traveller

• Main Author: Helgi Skúli Kjartansson
• Other Authors: Skandinavistik / Universität Tübingen
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Universität Tübingen 2004
• Subjects: Saga; Island; 839; Ingvars saga víðförla; historical tradition; saga writing; Hofmann; Norway; Traveller; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46208; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:21-opus-10708

The Saga of Yngvarr used to be classified as a Legendary Saga (Fornaldarsaga) on account of its vague and distant geographical setting and unrealistic subject matter, despite its being set in the 11th century - with Swedish Vikings as champions of Christianity in the East. Lacking the mythological o...