were the sagas of the Norwegian kings and the family sagas. The
latter tell us about the first generations of native Icelanders.
They are all anonymous and the majority of them were written in the
thirteenth century. Most of them contain a more or less historical
core. Above all, however, they are fine literature, at times
realistic, whose excellence is clearly seen in their descriptions of
events and character, their dialogue and structure. Most of them are
in fact in the nature of historical novels. The Viking view of life
pervading them is characteristically heroic, but with frequent
traces of the influence of Christian writing.

Besides these there were short stories (þaettir) about Icelanders,
of which THE STORY OF AUDUNN AND THE BEAR (Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka)
is one of the best known. [Footnote: In this edition, the specially-
Icelandic consonants þ and ð are printed as th and d respectively,
and the superstressed vowels á,í,ó, and ú, are given without the
acute accent, when they occur in proper names in the stories, e. g.
Pórður: Thordur.]

These may be regarded as a preliminary stage in the development of
the longer family saga, simpler, yet having essentially the same
characteristics. Both types then continued to be written side by
side. Although the geographical isolation of the country was stated
above as one of the reasons for the preservation of the language,
too great a stress should not be laid on this factor, especially not
during the early centuries of the settlement. The Icelanders were
great and active navigators who discovered Greenland (shortly after
980) and North America (Leifr Eiriksson, about 1000). Thus THE STORY
OF AUDUNN AND THE BEAR recounts travels to Greenland, Norway,
Denmark and Italy. It was then fashionable for young Icelanders to