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IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 738: After the Icelandic Commonwealth, III: Reforming and Using the Law

Tuesday 5 July 2022, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Basil Price, Department of English, Arizona State University
Moderator/Chair:Basil Price, Department of English, Arizona State University
Paper 738-aThe Compilation of Vernacular Laws in High and Late Medieval Iceland
(Language: English)
Stefan Andreas Drechsler, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Christian-Albrecht-Universität zu Kiel
Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Law
Paper 738-bThe 'Historical Heart' of Hrafnkel's Saga: A Reinterpretation under 14th-Century Norwegian Rule
(Language: English)
Colin Gioia Connors, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Abstract

This panel is part of a series on 'Iceland in the Medieval World', focusing on discursive navigations of the social, cultural, and political position of Iceland, after the island became part of the kingdom of Norway in 1262-1264. This panel considers how medieval Icelanders used law to situate themselves within and distinguish themselves from Norway, after the institution of Norwegian rule. By attending to the composition and compilation of medieval Icelandic and Norwegian laws, as well as their influence on the sagas, this discussion reflects on how legal material could be used to affirm and unsettle royal power in later medieval Iceland.