Perspectives from the Fourteenth Century: Narratives on Christianisation in Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss

Abstract

This article examines Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss , reading it as a story about the Christianisation of Iceland. At the core of this reading lies an understanding of the epithet “Snæfellsáss”, borne by the saga’s protagonist, not as an element of folk memory but as a device used deliberately to blur the boundaries between different categories of beings. Tracing how the text utilises and repurposes structures and motifs already existing in saga literature, the present study aims to provide a better understanding of Bárðar saga ’s plot and intended message. The article concludes by pointing out some historical circumstances in fourteenth-century Iceland which might provide a fitting background for the message thus identified.