Anonymous, Landnámabók [Book of Settlements]

Sverrir Jakobsson (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

First circulation or publication c. 1200

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Non-fictional prose

Resources

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Landnámabók [“The Book of Settlements”] is one of the most important historical texts composed in medieval Iceland. It is an episodic narrative which describes in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the ninth and tenth centuries. It mentions around 430 settlers from all four Quarters of Iceland. Moving geographically around Iceland, it relates where each settler took up residence and often there is a brief genealogy listing each settler’s important descendants. There are also anecdotes concerning quarrels between the earliest generations of Icelanders, shorter versions of the material often found in the Íslendingasögur [family sagas], which are mostly devoted to events in Iceland between 870 and 1030.

The first version of Landnámabók is believed to

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2617 words

Citation: Jakobsson, Sverrir. "Landnámabók". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 December 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40707, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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