Holy Vikings: Saints’ Lives in the Old Icelandic Kings’ Sagas

The biographies of royal saints in the Old Icelandic kings’ sagas are usually described as “secular” or “profane” texts and not “proper” saints’ lives. This book argues that theoretical concepts developed by Mikhail Bakhtin can provide new insights into the role of hagiography in the origins of Icelandic saga-writing by enabling a reading of these texts as both saint’s life and saga. The book shows how different generic conventions are brought into dialogue in Orkneyinga saga, Snorri Sturluson’s Óláfs saga helga and Knýtlinga saga in order to depict rulers as “holy Vikings”, sometimes conforming to saintly ideals, but often far from doing so.