Dialogues with tradition : studying the nordic saga heritage ; [... report on an international seminar held at the University of Tartu, Estonia from April 15th - 16th, 2004

Language editor Zachary Michael Gagnon. This volume, which is number 14 of the series "Nordistica Tartuensia", results from an international network project in the field of saga studies. The volume is partly a report on an international seminar held at the University of Tartu, Estonia from April 15th—16th, 2004, in as far as some of the contributions are based on the papers read during the seminar. With regard to other contributions, certain thematic modifications or shifts in emphasis have been undertaken along the lines of the authors' more recent research interests. The volume as a whole addresses the study of medieval Nordic saga heritage from a variety of platforms, all of which are at the same time united by a broad culturally and historically motivated interest towards the meaning and role of sagas. The papers range from historiographical discussions of saga research and the thematic study of specific categories of sagas to the more detailed case studies of single sagas. A general overview of the project and an introduction of the papers are provided in the foreword of the current volume, followed by a list of authors and short summaries of their papers. Foreword 7 Authors 10 Summaries 11 TATJANA JACKSON: Russian History, Icelandic Sagas and Russian Historiography of the Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries 15 TÕNNO JONUKS: A Few Additions to the Depiction of Estonia and the Eastern Shore of the Baltic Sea in Scandinavian Sagas 45 KRISTEL ZILMER: The Motive of Travelling in Saga Narrative 64 SIRPA AALTO: The Digital "Other" in "Heimskringla" 93 IAN BEUERMANN: "Orkneyinga Saga": 1195 and All That? 113 HEIMIR PÁLSSON: Getting Rid of the Rebels: A Study in Class Struggle in "Brennu-Njáls Saga" 153