The Saint and the Saga Hero

A compelling argument that far from developing in a literary vacuum, saga literature interacts in lively, creative and critical ways with one of the central genres of the European middle ages. The relationship between that most popular of medieval genres, the saint's life, and the sagas of the Icelanders is investigated here. Although saga heroes are rarely saints themselves - indeed rather the reverse - they interact with saints in a variety of ways: as ancestors or friends of saints, as noble