essay

Introduction: Text, life, and saga

From sagas to society : comparative approaches to early IcelandEnfield Lock, Middlesex, UkPublished In 1992 • Pages: 1-25

By: Gísli Pálsson.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The Icelandic sagas have been extensively studied as pieces of text, as literarly and historical documents, and as potentially valuable sources of ethnographic information on early Iceland and medieval Scandinavia. As a source of cultural data, this essay examines the sagas from the standpoint of how they can be used to extract information about social life and its transformation, and their ethnographic and historical validity.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Reviews and critiques
Verbal arts
Status, role, and prestige
Districts
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Early Icelanders
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2004
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Europe
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Scandinavia
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Social Anthropologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 2002
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
medieval period
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Iceland
NotesAdditional notes
=Gísli Pálsson
For bibliographical references see document 10: [Gísli Pálsson]
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
93150093
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Icelanders