Non-Native Sources for the Scandinavian Kings' Sagas

Book excerpt: Traditional scholarship on the kings' sagas has tended to focus on the textual histories and interrelationships between the various twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scandinavian manuscripts. Thus previous scholars have striven to ascertain chronology, dating, and potential literary borrowings between the various native medieval manuscripts without considering the possibility of foreign textual influences on native literary traditions. Non-Native Sources for the Scandinavian Kings' Sagas prompts scholars to look beyond the borders of medieval Scandinavia in the attempt to account for seemingly inexplicable literary motifs and historical accounts.