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This thesis is an edition of Flóamanna Saga based on a selected number of its many manuscripts. The Introduction consists of three chapters: Chapter I deals with the textual history of the saga. First, the 67 extant manuscripts known to the present editor are listed. Special attention is then given to those used for this edition, which are as follows: AM 445 b, 4to (M); AM 516, 4to (K); AM 517, 4to (A); Cod. Holm. Isl. papp. fol. No. 60 (S); IB 45, 4to (B); AM 165 m, fol. (J); AM 515, 4to (P). While this last manuscript is being discussed, the fact that part of it is a(n) (inferior) copy of lost leaves of AM 445 b, 4to is stressed and an attempt to assess its value in this respect is made. The relationship between the texts of the seven selected manuscripts is then investigated. It is first demonstrated that while M and parts of P represent a longer redaction of the saga (M-version), the other manuscripts (and the remaining parts of P) (called the X-group) represent a shorter one (X-version). The manuscripts which represent the X-version are then discussed. It is argued that K, A and S (Y-group) represent a far better text of the saga than B J and the majority of P (Z-group). Further, it is shown that, contrary to the belief of various previous editors, the latest common source for J, A and most the variants added by Arni Magnússon in K (called AM) is a different and older manuscript (called *Y) than the latest common source for A and M (called *y). The scribe of *y is, on the basis of Stefán Karlsson's investigations, identified as Magnús Pórhallsson and the manuscript itself is identified as one of those given by Peder Resen to the University of Copenhagen at the end of the seventeenth century. The relationship between the longer (M-) and the shorter (X-) versions of the saga is then given detailed attention: it is suggested that, wherever the two texts diverge, it is, in the majority of cases, the M-version which agrees most closely with the saga as it was in its original form. Two older theories on the nature of the original text of the saga, that put forward by Dr. P. Nijhoff and that in Origines Islandicae, are discussed and dismissed. Previous editions and translations of Flóamanna Saga are enumerated and the method by which the text of the present edition is arrived at is explained. Chapter II is divided into two sections. The first deals with the relationship between Flóamanna Saga and Landnámabók. An attempt is made to show that Flóamanna Saga and the Hauksbók-redaction of Landnámabók have as their latest common source a manuscript of the Sturlubók-redaction which was not identical with Sturla Pórðarson's original. The text of chapters 1-10 and 18 of Flóamanna Saga is compared with the parts of Landnámabók from which it borrows and various observations made on the way the author of the saga has adapted this particular source and on the borrowed elements he has worked into the framework it provides. It is also shown how borrowings from Landnámabók are probably to be found in chapters of Flóamanna Saga other than chapters 1-10 and 18. Some older theories on the relationship between the saga and Landnámabók are reviewed. The second section of Chapter II is devoted to borrowed and stereotyped elements in the body of the saga and a large number of sources and parallels (a number of which have gone unnoticed by previous investigators) are pointed to. Egils Saga is mentioned as the source for a number of borrowings from hagiographic sources are mentioned, or sources which themselves show strong hagiographic influences. The Section is prefaced by various terminological and methodological considerations. Chapter III falls into three sections. In the first of these it is argued that the historical elements in Flóamanna Saga is minimal and that it draws on oral traditions to no appreciable extent. The second section considers the artistry of the saga and its place in Old Icelandic literature; an attempt is made to account for the curious blend of religious and profane elements to be found in the saga. In Section C, it is firstly argued that Flóamanna Saga was written in Flói by a cleric, almost certainly between 1290 and 1385 and less certainly between 1290 and 1330. Finally, the more specific suggestion is made that the saga was written at Gaulverjabær in Flói for Haukr Erlendsson (died 1334), or was merely written for Haukr Erlendsson. The Main Text of the saga is given on pages 1-61. This is an attempt to reconstruct the text of *Y (see above), a text which closely resembled the latest common source for the X-group. The Main Text is followed by the part of P which is mainly a copy of lost parts of M (pages 63-75). Finally the preserved fragments of M are to be found on pages 77-85 and 87-9. All the texts are given in normalized form. They are followed by the Textual Notes, which, in the case of the Main Text, give selected variants from other manuscripts. After the Textual Notes comes the Commentary on the text ('Notes'), which is intended to be as comprehensive as possible. Points of particular interest or importance are discussed in the following Notes: 1/6; 12/4-6; 13/19; 13/22-3; 26/23-5, 27/3-4; 32/4-5; 40/6; 40/15-8; 47/6; 61/6-9; 61/8-9; 64/12-3; 70/5; 79/16-7; 79/18-9. The thesis is concluded with three Appendices. In the first of these, a section of P is edited which has relevance to the question of the point at which the scribe of that manuscript started copying lost parts of *M (see pages *38 ff.). In Appendix II, the rune-inscribed oar mentioned in the M-version at 77/20-78/3 fully discussed: it is argued that the verse itself is a rowing chant. Finally, in Appendix III, on the basis of a reading in Fló, an emendation to Hárbarðsljóð, verse 60 is suggested.

This thesis examines the function of commemorative skaldic verse at the Viking-age court. The first chapter demonstrates that the commemoration of past kings could provide a prestigious genealogical record that was used to legitimize both pagan and early Christian rulers. In the ninth and early tenth centuries, poets crafted competing genealogies to assert the primacy of their patrons and of their patrons’ religions. The second chapter looks at the work of tenth-century poets who depict their rulers’ entrances into the afterlife. Such poets interrogate the role public speech and poetic discourse play in the commemoration of the king, especially during the political turmoil that follows his death. A discussion follows of the relationship between poets and their patrons in the tenth and eleventh centuries: although this relationship is often praised as one of mutual trust and reliance, the financial aspects of the relationship were often juxtaposed uneasily with expressions of emotional attachment. The death of the patron caused a crisis in these seemingly contradictory bonds between poet and patron. The final chapter demonstrates the dramatic development in the eleventh century of deeply emotional commemorative verse as poets become adopted into their patrons’ families through such Christian ceremonies as baptism and marriage. In these verses poets express their grief after the death of the king and record the performances of public mourning on the part of the kings’ followers. As the petty warlords of the Viking age adapted to medieval models of Christian kingship, the role of the skald changed too. Formerly serving as a propagandist and retainer in the king’s service, a skald documenting the lives of kings at the end of the Viking age could occupy an almost infinite number of roles, from kinsman and friend to advisor and hagiographer.

This thesis investigates the representation of land and landownership in medieval Icelandic texts. I shall demonstrate that there is scant homogeneity in this representation; the variation between different narratives is startling and unusual. I seek to categorise this variability by identifying the lack of a secure tradition surrounding land and landownership, and exploring the possibilities open to the saga author to use land practices and myths as literary devices or to glorify the past. I also examine variability caused by the differences in the realm of 'actual' experience. I shall explore a range of narratives, from stories of the initial settlement of Iceland, to issues of inheritance, to conveyance and to dispute over territory. The last chapter takes a flip-side view of landownership to consider the representation of the landless of family saga narrative. The texts which I shall examine are the Íslendingasögur, Landnádmabók and Íslendingabók. Throughout the thesis I also make reference to Grágás for illumination and comparison. In the first and second chapters I also include archaeological evidence for discussion.

Le poème Vafþrúðnismál présente la rencontre entre deux figures mythologiques, Vafþrúðnir et Óðinn, qui s'affrontent dans une joute verbale. Une lecture attentive du texte conduit à la conclusion que le dieu, dans les questions qu'il adresse au géant. L’analyse de la nature de l’interaction apporte ainsi une nouvelle compréhension du texte et permet d’expliquer plusieurs aspects du poème, jugés jusqu’à présent problématiques. L’étude montre qu’il n’y a aucune injustice dans la distribution des questions ou dans la dernière énigme, comme on l’a traditionnellement interprété, mais que tous deux répondent à une logique bien précise du texte. A travers cette fiction littéraire, le poème transmet sous une forme ludique un savoir traditionnel au moyen d’un genre particulier : la joute d’énigmes. / The poem Vafþrúðnismál presents the meeting of two mythological figures, Vafþrúðnir and Óðinn, who compete in a verbal duel. A close study of the text leads to the conclusion that the god is not seeking any knowledge with his questions to the giant. Therefore, the analysis of the nature of the interaction provides a new understanding of the poem and explains several aspects that have, until now, been perceived as problematic. This study shows that there is no injustice regarding the distribution of questions between the two protagonists, but that this follows a specific logic in the text. In the same way, the analysis of the final riddle reveals that it is not ‘unfair’, as it has traditionally been interpreted, but that it has a precise function in the text. Through this literary fiction, Vafþrúðnismál transmits – in a playful way – traditional knowledge, by means of a specific genre: riddling.

This thesis argues that the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature which pertains to Iceland contains an intertextual narrative of the formation of Icelandic identity. An analysis of this narrative provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between literature and identity, as well as the potency of the artistic use of the idea of the past. The thesis identifies three salient narratives of communal action which inform the development of a discrete Icelandic identity, and which are examined in turn in the first three chapters of the thesis. The first is the landnám, the process of settlement itself; the second, the origin and evolution of the law; and the third, the assimilation and adaptation of Christianity. Although the roots of these narratives are doubtless historical, the thesis argues that their primary roles in the literature are as social myths, narratives whose literal truth- value is immaterial, but whose cultural symbolism is of overriding importance. The fourth chapter examines the depiction of the Icelander abroad, and uses the idiom of the relationship between þáttr (‘tale’) and surrounding text in the compilation of sagas of Norwegian kings Morkinskinna to consider the wider implications of the relationship between Icelandic and Norwegian identities. Finally, the thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of Sturlunga saga within this intertextual narrative, and its function as a set of narratives mediating between an identity grounded in social autonomy and one grounded in literature. The Íslendingasögur or ‘family sagas’ constitute the core of the thesis’s primary sources, for their subject-matter is focussed on the literary depiction of the Icelandic society under scrutiny. In order to demonstrate a continuity of engagement with ideas of identity across genres, a sample of other Icelandic texts are examined which depict Iceland or Icelanders, especially when in interaction with non-Icelandic characters or polities.