Publisher's Synopsis
Employing literary and cultural theory as well as anthropological and historical approaches, Social Monstrosity and the Sagas of the Icelanders reads the monsters of the Íslendingasögur in their literary and socio-cultural context, demonstrating that they are not distractions from feud and conflict, but that they are in fact an intrinsic part of the genre's re-imagining of the past for the needs of the present.