Unwashed Children of Eve

This study questions the established view that the writing of prose fiction in Iceland had effectively lain dormant between the end of the classic saga-writing period and 19th-century national-romantic revival. It shows instead how the hugely popular, but critically-maligned prose romances flourished throughout this period, circulating almost entirely in manuscripts. Focusing on ten romantic sagas attributed to the clergyman and poet Jon Oddsson Hjaltalin (1749-1835), the author examines the style and structure of the sagas, their relation to the older literary tradition and more modern ideas of the Englightenment, and aspects of their transmission and reception. The book sheds light on this important aspect of Icelandic cultural history, and also provides a model for the relationship of manuscript, oral and print traditions, with important implications for the wider study of medieval vernacular literature.