Old Norse-Icelandic Studies

This chapter examines the works of British Old Norse-Icelandic scholars. It explains that from the start, British interest in Old Norse studies was closely bound up with contemporary Old Norse-Icelandic scholarship in Scandinavia and that the British connection was only established after James Johnstone's translation of extracts from the thirteenth-century historical compilation Heimskringla. This chapter also discusses the trend in Old Norse-Icelandic studies in Britain which involved the recognition of sagas as being informative not in their details of event and character, but in their portrayal of society and culture.