Feud in the Icelandic Saga

Feud stands at the core of the Old Icelandic sagas. Jesse Byock shows how the dominant concern of medieval Icelandic society—the channeling of violence into accepted patterns of feud and the regulation of conflict—is reflected in the narrative of the family sagas and the Sturlunga saga compilation. This comprehensive study of narrative structure demonstrates that the sagas are complex expressions of medieval social thought.

Jesse Byock is Professor of Old Norse and Scandinavian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of Medieval Iceland (California, 1988) and translator of The Saga of the Volsungs (California, 1990).

Preface 
Acknowledgments 

1 Introduction 
2 Feud in Saga Narrative: Its Roots in Icelandic Society 
3 The Syntax of Narrative Elements 
4 Units of Travel and Information and the Feudeme of Conflict 
5 The Feudeme of Advocacy 
6 The Feudeme of Resolution 
7 Feud Clusters and Feud Chains 
8 The Importance of Land in Saga Feud 
9 Two Sets of Feud Chains in Njals saga 
10 Saga Narrative with Low Cluster Density 
11 Conclusion 

Appendixes
A. A Brief Account of Legal and Social Terms 
B. Examples of Conflict 
    Material Sources of Conflict 
    Nonmaterial Sources of Conflict 
C. Examples of Advocacy 
    Brokerage 
    Self-Advocacy 
    Goading 
    Information Passing 
D. Examples of Resolution 
    Arbitration 
    Direct Resolution 
    Rejected Resolution 
    
Index 
Maps