[gothic-l] The Sagas as History

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

Sagas are literary sources and not historiographical ones. They 
must be treated accordingly and be subjected to text criticism and 
a concise analysis of their contents, their tradition and their literary 
structure and connections. They must not be used as a prima-facie 
historiographical evidence, because they may combine elements 
and persons from different centuries  and historic and fictitious 
material (e.g. dragons and monsters). They tell us something about 
literary traditions but not about history.
Kind regards
            Andreas Schwarcz 
 
Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universität Wien
Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Wien
Österreich
Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
Fax 0043/142-77/92-72

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/