Among the texts examined are Sturlunga saga, a narrative cycle depicting the bitter feuding preceding Iceland's loss of independence in 1262/4; Hauksbók or 'Haukr's Book', a manuscript 'micro-library', containing among other things a history of the Christianisation of Iceland, narratives about legendary Vikings, the story of Troy, and computistical material; Víglundar saga, an exemplary romance in saga form; grammatical treatises in which native poetry is analysed in terms of classical rhetoric; and a tiny sixteenth-century manuscript of the vita of St Margaret, written as an amulet for the scribe's pregnant daughter. Showcasing medially-focused responses to a wide range of medieval writing and textuality, the collection demonstrates the promise of a medial approach to Iceland's extraordinarily rich and long-lived textual culture.

Inhalt
Kate Heslop, Jürg Glauser Introduction: Medial perspectives on textual culture in the Icelandic Middle Ages S. 9 62 Kate Heslop Talking heads: The mediality of Mímir S. 63 84 Judy Quinn Looking ahead to what is long past: the mediality of Jóreiðr's dreaming in Sturlunga saga S. 85 108 Else Mundal To what degree did written texts change oral performance? S. 109 120 Karl G. Johansson Compilations, collections and composite manuscripts Some notes on the manuscript Hauksbók S. 121 142 Kevin Müller The terminology of reading and writing in Sturlunga saga S. 143 164 Lena Rohrbach The written legacy of the Sturlung age Reflections on a media change S. 165 180 Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir Saints and sinners. Aspects of the production and use of manuscripts in Iceland 13001600 S. 181 194 Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson The speed of the scribes: how fast could Flateyjarbók have been written? S. 195 226 Margaret Clunies Ross The Fourth Grammatical Treatise as medial poetics S. 227 242 Jonas Wellendorf Virtues and vices: The Fourth Grammatical Treatise S. 243 264 Russell Poole Conspicuous mediality in a medieval poem: the case of Merlínússpá S. 265 284 Gísli Sigurðsson Njáls saga and its listeners' assumed knowledge: applying notions of mediality to a medieval text S. 285 294 Ellen E. Peters Islendingasaga couple romance exemplum: Víglundar saga and the mediality of the söguöld S. 295 325