Sagas of the Vikings
SCAND 270 A / GLITS 252 A, University of Washington (pdf)
Instructor:
Dr Timothy Bourns
Email: tbourns@uw.edu
Office: Raitt Hall, 305 X
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 3-5pm, or by appointment
Teaching Assistant:
Amy Swanson King
Email: swanson@uw.edu
Office: Raitt Hall, 305 Q
Office Hours: Mondays, 12-2pm, or by appointment
Note that our offices are not currently accessible by elevator; please do not hesitate to ask for alternative meeting arrangements if needed.
Classes:
Condon Hall, 135
In-person, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30-4:20pm
Autumn Quarter, 2025
Course Description:
Welcome to the Sagas of the Vikings! This course will introduce you to one of the greatest treasures of medieval literature: the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas. We will explore a range of texts from medieval Iceland in English translation, with a focus on three of the most famous and celebrated genres. During the first half of the course, we will read some of the mythical-heroic fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda (legendary sagas from Northern lands), followed by the historical and action-packed konungasögur (kings’ sagas); in the second half of the course, we will then turn to the dramatic, psychologically profound Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders). Throughout the quarter, we will place the sagas in their cultural, historical, religious, and literary contexts; acquire skills in Old Norse textual criticism and analysis; and discuss a range of themes including landscape and the environment, mythology and religion, magic and the supernatural, prophecy and destiny, honor and vengeance, gender, identity, social power, and more.
Learning Objectives:
- Acquire a base knowledge about Viking history and medieval Icelandic culture and society
- Read, understand, and appreciate a diverse selection of texts from medieval Iceland’s rich literary legacy
- Develop source-critical reading and analytical skills to meaningfully engage with and examine Old Norse prose sagas, as well as the poetry embedded within, and place them in their cultural, historical, and religious contexts
- Compare literary and thematic elements across multiple sagas to understand genre conventions, narrative strategies, and evolving cultural values
- Demonstrate awareness of the manuscript tradition and oral origins of the sagas, including how transmission affects interpretation
- Prove this knowledge on a midterm test and final exam, and apply these skills in four writing labs, demonstrating both critical and creative thinking
Grading:
Final grades for this course will be calculated as follows:
Writing Lab 1: 10%
Writing Lab 2: 10%
Writing Lab 3: 15%
Writing Lab 4: 15%
Midterm Test: 20%
Final Exam: 30%
Grading Scale:
|
4.0 – 96-100% 3.9 – 93-95% 3.8 – 90-92% 3.7 – 89% 3.6 – 88% 3.5 – 87% 3.4 – 86% |
3.3 – 85% 3.2 – 84% 3.1 – 83% 3.0 – 82% 2.9 – 81% 2.8 – 80% 2.7 – 79% |
2.6 – 78% 2.5 – 77% 2.4 – 76% 2.3 – 75% 2.2 – 74% 2.1 – 73% 2.0 – 72% |
1.9 – 71% 1.8 – 70% 1.7 – 69% 1.6 – 68% 1.5 – 67% 1.4 – 66% 1.3 – 65% |
1.2 – 64% 1.1 – 63% 1.0 – 60-62% 0.0 – 0-59% |
Writing Labs:
There will be four in-class writing labs during the quarter, and additional details about each will be provided beforehand, including sample prompts and a rubric, though you won’t be expected to prepare your responses in advance.
These will be open-book – you can bring your text with you to class, but no additional papers or notes. To encourage you to think for yourselves and to discourage the use of AI-generated writing, there will be no access to a phone or computer during these writing sessions. Each lab will be 50 minutes long and the anticipated length will be 2-4 pages.
The first writing lab will be a close reading of a select passage in which you demonstrate skills in textual and thematic analysis. It will be held during the second half of class on Tuesday, October 7th and is worth 10% of your final grade.
For the second writing lab, you will focus on the identification of a particular theme or motif across two different sagas, demonstrating awareness of similarity and difference. It will be held during the second half of class on Thursday, October 16th and is worth 10% of your final grade.
For the third writing lab, you will critically examine the relationship between a character’s individual identity in the sagas and broader social and cultural forces. It will be held during the second half of class on Thursday, November 13th and is worth 15% of your final grade.
The fourth and final writing lab will provide an opportunity to compose a personal reflection or creative response to a saga (or sagas) of your choice. It will be held during the second half of class on Tuesday, November 25th and is worth 15% of your final grade.
You are expected to attend the writing labs in-person. If you are unable to attend class on one of these days, please contact the TA (Amy Swanson King) in advance to make alternative arrangements, or be prepared to provide a doctor’s note.
Midterm Test and Final Exam:
The Midterm Test will be held at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 28th. It will consist of thirty multiple-choice questions, evaluating your knowledge of the material from weeks one through five of the course (based on the readings and lectures).
The final exam will be held on Tuesday, December 9th, during Finals Week. It will consist of two components: thirty multiple-choice questions, evaluating your knowledge of the material from weeks six through ten of the course (based on the lectures and readings), as well as three long-answer questions which cover major themes from the course in its entirety (you will have the opportunity to select topics from a broad range of options).
Please let me know if you will require any accommodations for these evaluations; I am happy to make arrangements as needed.
Course Structure:
In-class lectures are a major component of this course, consisting of the presentation of topics and themes relating to the main subject of the course: Old Norse-Icelandic saga literature. Lectures will occasionally be supplemented by films and video clips, and there will also be plenty of time for discussion and group activities.
Course Readings:
Most of the required readings for this course are available via the UW Bookstore: The Saga of the Volsungs with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok (trans. Jackson Crawford), The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki (trans. Jesse Byock), and The Sagas of Icelanders (trans. Jane Smiley et al.). All other required readings will be uploaded to Canvas as PDFs in advance. Optional readings may also be uploaded to Canvas from time to time.
Course Schedule:
Week 0: Welcome and Introduction
Thursday, September 25: The Story of Audun from the Westfjords
Week 1: Sigurd the Dragonslayer
Tuesday, September 30: The Saga of the Volsungs (chs. 1-21)
Thursday, October 2: The Saga of the Volsungs (chs. 22-42)
Week 2: Legendary Women and Warriors
Tuesday, October 7: The Saga of Ragnar Loðbrók
Tuesday, October 7: Writing Lab 1
Thursday, October 9: The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise
Week 3: Ancient Kings
Tuesday, October 14: The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
Thursday, October 16: The Saga of the Ynglings
Thursday, October 16: Writing Lab 2
Week 4: Medieval Kings and Tales
Tuesday, October 21: Readings from Heimskringla (The Circle of the World)
Thursday, October 23: A selection of Þættir (short stories)
Week 5: Introducing the Sagas of Icelanders
Tuesday, October 28: Midterm Test
Tuesday, October 28: The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi
Thursday, October 30: The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue
Week 6: A Viking Warrior-Poet
Tuesday, November 4: Egil’s Saga (chs. 31-61)
Guest Lecture, Amy Swanson King: “Fearful Trader, Splendid Seeress: Examining the Sámi as ‘Other’ in the Íslendingasögur”
Thursday, November 6: Egil’s Saga (chs. 62-90)
Week 7: Medieval Icelandic Outlaws
Tuesday, November 11: Holiday (Veterans Day)
Thursday, November 13: Gisli Sursson’s Saga
Thursday, November 13: Writing Lab 3
Week 8: Gender and Power
Tuesday, November 18: The Saga of the People of Laxardal (chs. 1-38)
Guest Lecture, Caroline Brekkan: “Þá mælti hún: Women Speaking in the Íslendingasögur”
Thursday, November 20: The Saga of the People of Laxardal (chs. 39-78)
Week 9: Romance and Revenge
Tuesday, November 25: Readings from Njáls saga (chs. 19-45)
Tuesday, November 25: Writing Lab 4
Thursday, November 27: Holiday (Thanksgiving)
Week 10: The Vínland Sagas
Tuesday, December 2: The Saga of the Greenlanders & Eirik the Red’s Saga
Thursday, December 4: Greenlandic Inuit Tales
Final Exam:
Tuesday, December 9, 4:30-6:20pm: Final Exam
-o-
Policies, Procedures, and Acknowledgements:
Academic Integrity: Cheating and plagiarism include, but are not limited to:
- Copying the work of others or allowing others to do your work
- Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks, indented format, and in-text citations to identify them
- Using sources (published or unpublished) without identifying them
- Paraphrasing materials or borrowing the ideas of others without identifying the sources.
Plagiarizing, or copying and/or using the words or ideas of others without acknowledgement can undermine your learning and devalue the degree that you are seeking. It can result in failure of the assignment or course. Acknowledge and/or cite every single source that you consider when producing assignments. Over-citing is better than under-citing! If you need help understanding and avoiding plagiarism, come talk to me. Consequences for plagiarizing will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Please refer to the Community Standards & Student Conduct – Academic Misconduct webpage for more information about plagiarism and other forms of misconduct.
Use of AI:
All work submitted for this course must be your own. Any use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, when working on assignments is forbidden. Use of generative AI will be considered academic misconduct and subject to investigation.
Since all work will be written in-class without access to technology, this should not be a problem. While I cannot prevent you from using these tools to consider your responses to the writing labs in advance, I discourage you from doing so due to their falsehoods, limitations, and hallucinations. In addition, the writing assignments in this class have been designed to challenge you to develop creativity, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills. Using AI technology will limit your capacity to develop these skills, to think for yourselves, and to meet the learning goals of this course.
If you have any questions about what constitutes academic integrity in this course or at the University of Washington, please feel free to contact me to discuss your concerns.
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course.
If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS directly to set up an Access Plan. DRS facilitates the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations. Contact DRS at disability.uw.edu.
Land Acknowledgement:
The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations, including the Duwamish, on whose traditional lands the University of Washington-Seattle stands in violation of the Treat of Point Elliott.