Summary: <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//sagathing.podbean.com/mf/web/7742yk/Icelandic_Horses_Fighting.jpg" alt="Icelandic_Horses_Fighting.jpg" width="904" height="509"></p><br> <p>Welcome to the first episode of <em>Saga Shorts</em>, a side project of <em>Saga Thing</em> where John and Andy review the þættir of medieval Iceland. In this episode, we provide a brief introduction to þættir and the difficulties one faces when trying to define the genre. If you’re not interested in those technical details, just skip ahead to 10:10, where we begin our review of <em>Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs</em> (<em>The Tale of Thorstein Staff-struck</em>). This fun little tale tells the story of an old Viking’s son named Thorstein who gets into some trouble with Bjarni Brodd-Helgisson, the local goði, after killing 3 of his farmhands. </p><br> <p><strong>Bibliography</strong></p><br> <p>Harris, Joseph. “Genre and Narrative Structure in Some Íslendinga þættir.” <em>Scandinavian Studies</em> 44 (1972): 1-27.</p><br> <p>Harris, Joseph. “Þættir.” In <em>Dictionary of the Middle Ages</em>, vol. 12, edited by Joseph R. Strayer, 1-6. New York: Charles Scribner, 1989.</p><br> <p>Jakobsson, Ármann. “The Life and Death of the Medieval Icelandic Short Story.” <em>Journal of English and Germanic Philology </em>112 (2013): 257-91.</p><br> <p>Kristjánsson, Jónas. “Íslendinga þættir.” In <em>Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature</em>, translated by Peter Foote, 299-309. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1997.</p><br> <p>Miller, William Ian. “A Case Study of the Sagas as Sources: Þorsteins Þáttr stangarhöggs and the Politics of Accident.” In <em>Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland</em>, 51-76. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.</p><br> <p>Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman. “The Long and the Short of It.” In <em>The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas</em>, edited by Ármann Jakobsson, Sverrir Jakobsson, 151-63. New York: Routledge, 2017.</p><br> <p>Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman and Joseph Harris. “Short Prose Narrative (þáttr).” In <em>A Companion to Old-Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture</em>, edited by Rory McTurk, 462-78. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.</p><br> <p><strong>Music Credits:</strong></p><br> <p>Intro: From <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnf0Rl2PUA">“Death Awaits” by Billy Malmstrom</a></p><br> <p>Outro: From <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqjYOasI6YI">“Óðinn” by Krauka</a></p>
