Long lives of short sagasThe Irrepressibility of Narrative and the Case of Illuga saga Gríðarfóstraaf Philip Lavender

Over the last few decades, a number of works have appeared which have
increased our knowledge and appreciation of the pre-modern Icelandic
genre of fornaldarsögur (often translated into English as legendary
sagas, heroic sagas or the sagas of ancient times). This new work builds
upon the preceding research but takes as a case study a short, late
version of the genre. By looking at a peripheral narrative - one which
many would exclude and ignore when considering the genre - new
perspectives on many of the questions, which researchers put to this
genre, can be provided. Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra turns out to be a
story, which has served many functions for multiple audiences. By
tracing the complete history of this work, from its origins, through
multiple manuscript witnesses, its use in Scandinavian intellectual
history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and through to the
many poetic reworkings produced in Iceland up to the twentieth century, a
comprehensive picture is produced which allows us to see how a short
story can have a much fuller life than is immediately apparent if we
look at it merely as a brief saga alongside its more extensive and
polished generic siblings.