Scandinavian Studies, 2009, Volume 81 № 3, pp. 287–
308. Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.Compared to other medieval Scandinavian societies, Iceland produced a literature that distinguished itself in its extensive use of the vernacular language and in its capacity to develop new genres, among them the Icelandic sagas and Snorri Sturluson's Edda. This literature displays an intense interest in the traditional past and bears witness to the fact that the Icelanders took advantage of the possibility to record the memories of the past in writing.
In the following pages, I will investigate the preoccupation with the past in medieval, primarily, Icelandic literature and will refer to studies of memory and point to two concepts of memory that apparendy were used in Iceland when the first records of the traditional past were made.
