The Rewriting of Njáls Saga: Translation, Politics, and Icelandic Sagas

The Rewriting of Njals saga concerns itself with the process which enables literary texts to cross cultures and endure history. Through six interrelated case studies, Jon Karl Helgason focuses on the reception of Njals saga, the most distinguished of the Icelandic sagas, in Britain, the United States, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, between 1861 and 1945. The editions and translations in question claim to represent a medieval narrative to their audience, but Helgason emphasises how these texts simultaneously reflect the rewriters’ contemporary ideas about race, culture, politics and poetics. Introducing the principles of comparative Translation Studies to the field of Medieval Literature, Helgason’s book identifies the dialogue between literary (re)production and society.