essay
The medieval Icelandic outlaw: lifestyle, saga, and legend
from sagas to society : comparative approaches to early iceland • Enfield Lock, Middlesex, Uk • Published In 1992 • Pages: 189-203
By: Amory, Frederic.
Abstract
This is a study of the outlaw in medieval Icelandic society. Amory discusses the legal concept of outlawry in Iceland, the sagas as literary models of outlaw biography, and the folkloric approach to the outlaw sagas. To these the author adds the social aspects of outlawry in which outlaws, for example, band together to form microsocieties within the society as a whole. The text contains data on the life-styles of outlaws, and their relationship to the GOðI or chieftains who offer them refuge and their patronage and protection from prosecution in return for the outlaws' services doing manual work and as assassins in the settlement of old scores in the feuds between chieftains.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2004
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- Scandinavia
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Educator
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 2002
- Field Date
- no date
- Coverage Date
- ninth-thirteenth centuries
- Coverage Place
- general Iceland
- Notes
- Frederic Amory
- For bibliographical references see document 10: [Gísli Pálsson]
- LCCN
- 93150093
- LCSH
- Icelanders