Medieval Iceland : an atypical society and outstanding literature

A large island in the middle of the North Atlantic, Iceland was discovered and populated during the Viking expansion of the ^8th to ^11th centuries. Separated from Scandinavia by the perilous waves of the ocean, Icelandic society resisted political integration with the Kingdom of Norway until the second half of the ^13th century, preferring a social organization based on power-sharing by a large dominant class, the "goðar". Converted to Christianity in the year 1000, the Icelanders maintained sustained exchanges with the Nordic countries and the rest of the medieval West. It was against this backdrop that a vernacular literature, unlike that of any other Nordic country, developed from the ^12th century onwards. This first lecture will alternate descriptions of Icelandic society and the literature that grew up there, with the aim of showing how the latter developed and accompanied the evolution of the former.