Anonymous, Eiríks saga víðförla

Alessia Bauer (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL)

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), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1300

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

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The Icelandic short saga

Eiríks saga víðförla,

whose protagonist is a Norwegian heathen, was composed in the fourteenth century. It tells the story of the Norwegian Eiríkr the Traveller who leaves his country and ventures to the unknown East in order to find

Ódáinsákr

, a sort of paradise on earth of heathen people. During his journey, the protagonist comes into contact with Christianity and comes back home with the intent of Christianizing his compatriots.

The saga is a quest-narrative, containing features of the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur) as well as of a romance, intermingled with moralizing and didactic contents. Among the sources of the clerical anonymous author there are Elucidarius and Imago mundi, both of them by Honorius Augustodunesis, as well as Isidor’s

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248 words

Citation: Bauer, Alessia. "Eiríks saga víðförla". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41020, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Anonymous, Eiríks saga víðförla

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