"Von unberechenbarem Wesen"? Der literarische Trickster in den Isländersagas

Abstract

Composed during Sturlungaöld, the Icelandic family sagas depict an era when the Icelandic Free State was still intact. Yet these texts provide a considerable number of protagonists that not only display a striking non-conformity with the Old-Norse society, but also pose a threat to societal balance. How are these characters to be interpreted? Whereas some of them have already been examined from different perspectives, I aim at putting to the test a new interpretation, guided by the concept of »the Figure of the Third«. Especially interesting for my examination is a specific type of third figure, the so-called trickster. In this paper I present a reading of the protagonist of Hreiðars þáttr heimska (»The Tale of Hreiðarr the Stupid«) as a trickster

Keywords

• Iceland
• saga