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This is a review of Icelandic history from the settlement until the advent of the Reformation, with an emphasis on social and political change, but also on cultural developments such as the creation of a particular kind of literature, known throughout the world as the sagas.
List of contents
Introduction: Long-term economic and social trends
Part 1. Early Medieval Iceland
1. Land-taking
2. The Foundation of Society
3. Christianisation
4. The Settlement in Cultural Memory
Part 2. High Medieval Iceland
5. Church and Society in the Twelfth Century
6. The Creation of Domains
7. Civil Strife
8. Enter the Kingdom
Part 3. Late Medieval Iceland
9. Pacification and Growth
10. Towards a New Era
11. Trade Wars and Social Anxiety
12. The Reformation
Conclusion: The Course of Icelandic Medieval History
Biographies
About the author
Sverrir Jakobsson is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Iceland. He is the author and editor of numerous works, including Historical Dictionary of Iceland, 3rd edition (2016) and The Varangians: In God´s Holy Fire (2020), The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (2017), Sturla Þórðarson. Skald, Chieftain and Lawman (2017) and The Making of the Eastern Vikings. Rus’ and Varangians in the Middle Ages (2024).
Summary
This is a review of Icelandic history from the settlement until the advent of the Reformation, with an emphasis on social and political change, but also on cultural developments such as the creation of a particular kind of literature, known throughout the world as the sagas.
