Introduction

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars’ main concerns were of an empirical nature. They tried to establish the age of the sagas, their validity as historical sources and what factual information could be derived from them. The fact that the term ‘saga’ traditionally encompasses all of these categories in Icelandic has influenced the vocabulary of modern saga scholars, though a tendency may also be noted to use the term only about those narratives that least resemble foreign models. There is no doubt that saga research began to flourish in the 1960s and the ensuing decades, mostly because of a turn from the overwhelming emphasis on saga origins to other pressing issues. Thus the last half-century has been an exciting period in saga research, which is demonstrated by the ever expanding triannual saga conferences.