The Vinland sagas

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Dale Kedwards (University of Iceland)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1220- c.1280

Places

Iceland (Location)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

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The Old Norse Vínland sagas, which include

Eiríks saga rauða

[

Saga of Erik the Red

] and

Grœnlendinga saga

[

Saga of Greenlanders

], are the two major accounts of the Norse exploration of North America. Vínland [“wine land” or “vine land”] was the name given to the Norse to a land south of Greenland, so-called for the wild grapes that Norse explorers found there. The two Vínland sagas are generally counted among the

Íslendingasögur

[sagas of Icelanders], which relate the doings of Icelanders in the centuries between the discovery of Iceland in around 870 CE and their conversion to Christianity in around the year 1000. The Vínland sagas were likely composed in the thirteenth century, but relate the Icelanders’ settlement of Greenland and exploratory voyages to Vínland…

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1879 words

Citation: Kedwards, Dale. "The Vinland sagas". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19651, accessed 27 April 2024.]

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