Mountains, Hills and Highlands in the Sagas of Icelanders

The University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies

Mountains, Hills and Highlands in the Sagas of Icelanders

Jan Alexander van Nahl

Thursday, 5 November 2026, at 16:30

Edda auditorium (E-103)

Mountains are a primordial phenomenon, and profane and practical aspects of how they are perceived have always gone hand in hand with symbolic and ideological meanings. However, the Middle Ages have not generally featured prominently in scholarly attempts to explore attitudes towards mountains. Instead, mountains have been cast by many scholars as the realm of demons forbidden to medieval man. This view appears biased because medieval ascents of Alpine mountains have long been recognized, often being motivated by a worldly desire for new experiences in an as yet undiscovered world – mountain climbing as a symbol of the twelfth-century renaissance. This lecture aims to contribute to the recently emerging discussion by taking a closer look at several Sagas of Icelanders. Well-known and lesser-known examples are examined to reveal narrative patterns that encourage reflection on medieval Icelandic mountains as a reality of the mind.

Jan Alexander van Nahl is an Associate Professor of Medieval Icelandic Literature at the University of Iceland. He completed his PhD at the University of Munich in 2012 with a monograph on Old Norse mythology and medieval theology, and his Habilitation in 2020 with another monograph on contingency and chance in the Kings’ sagas. His current research focuses on neglected aspects of the medieval perception of nature, the reading of saga literature as crisis literature, and the formation of Old Norse studies in the post-war era.

The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.

The University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies

http://midaldastofa.hi.is/