The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum

In our project we will analyse the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum, that is, we will treat the combination of verse and prose as a salient generic feature of this body of sagas. This is an innovative approach that will enable a better understanding on the literary mode of the corpus as a whole as well as producing fresh insights into the compositional habits of the (anonymous) authors of individual sagas. On the firm basis of data that we will collect – on the number of verses quoted in each saga, the number (and social position) of speakers of verses, the metre and style of the verses and their relations to the surrounding prose – we will pose a number of critical questions which have so far been asked separately for prose narrative and skaldic verse, questions which will stimulate new responses when considered in the context of medieval Icelandic prosimetrum as a literary form. The project’s objective is to create the first comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the prosimetrum of the forty extant Íslendingasögur and to explore the generic qualities of saga prosimetrum that amounts to much more than a simple combination of prose and verse.

2020