Sagas and WWW

• Webpages can help to understand the structure and origin of the Sagas

• There are similarities between the evolution of the WWW and the evolution of the writing in the middle ages

Oral literature

• The knowledge is common

• Special storytellers preserve the knowledge (“sagamen”)

• The stories / view of knowledge might change according to the people’s changing of views

The Icelandic sagas´ origin

Oral tradition;

– People used to gosship about their neighbours / others and tell stories

– Professional storytellers became popular

– Somebody wrote down these stories and they were edited

Bla bla bla ...

+

+

The stories were told again and again ...

The stories changed a bit as the times changed ...

The stories were common knowledge, i.e. no authorship existed.

Laxdæla

Hrútur

Njáls saga

Hrútur and Queen Gunnhildur

Egils saga

Egill and Queen Gunnhildur

Laws Geneology Poems

Thin Writing Culture ...i.e. manuscripts were rare and oral telling existed as well. Manuscripts were very expensive.

The Structure of the Sagas

• Lots of ideas which all have in common that the sagas are put together of small pieces that can be viewed individually.

• Why not regard the sagas as websites and the individual pieces as webpages?

WWW (Webpages)

Text, text text link

Text text text text

Link text text ...

Text, text text link

Text text text text

Link text text ...

Text, text text link

Text text text text

Link text text ...

Text, text text link

Text text text text

Link text text ...

Conclusion

• The Sagas as we know them today are “frozen”, static versions of what once existed.

• By using our knowledge of the WWW we can better imagine the days of oral literature and the first ages of writing.

• The evolution of the new technology in the middle ages is similar to that of new technology now-a-days;

i.e. the art of writing, is similar to the art of making webpages.

The past, present and future

1.phase: The technology itself is most important!

• Webpage: Put anything that existed into HTML

• Writing: Write down anything that existed (e.g. laws, geneology etc.)

2. phase: Pictures and colours

• Webpages; Images and colorful backgrounds became the most important factors.

• The Art of Writing; Illuminated manuscripts (7th – 9th century in Europe, later in Iceland). The images and the text are a whole.

3. phase: Information is most important, organization is less important

• Writing webpages; Lots and lots of information but difficult to find one’s way on the sites.

• Writing manuscripts; The oldest sagas (Heiðarvígasaga, Eyrbyggja saga)

4.phase; An editor arranges content and context becomes important• Webpage and websites; An editor controls the

content and organizes it so that the site can be easily navigated - > WWW today.

• Writing manuscripts: An editor organizes the material and special lines of structure become widely accepted. The best known sagas are examples of this. (Njals saga, Laxdæla saga etc..)

Conclusion

Conclusion