Saga Writing, Folklore, and Labour: The Death of Svanr in Njáls saga

Abstract

The article approaches the episode of the death of Svanr of Svanshóll in Njáls saga (ch. 14) through the workflow of coastal fishing before the arrival of modern marine technology. It discusses commonalities between the medieval story and its variants in twentieth-century folklore and proposes that they have a common denominator in being narrative plays on techniques of orientation in coastal fishing. This both grounds the episode of Njáls saga in processes of everyday labour and, from a methodological point of view, suggests a possible use of folklore for elucidating medieval narratives that can contribute a new angle to the discourse on the relationship between folklore and saga literature.