Introduction to the Concordance Project and Site.
These idioms and saws, and such laconisms . . . are the very life-blood of a true Saga; where they abound, they are the infallible tests of good traditions ripened on the lips of good narrators; where they are absent, the story is the work of the scribe writing from his head without the genuine impulses of the story-teller before his audience.
F. York Powell, Introduction, The Tale of Thrond of Gate, commonly called Færeyinga saga, Oxford, 1896, p. xxxix.
Use. This site is intended for those who seek information on the occurrence and uses of proverb texts in Old Icelandic literature. It is structured by genres, then presenting the paroemial, or proverbial, inventory of individual works. While primary focus is placed upon the Íslendinga sögur, or Family Sagas, as they are frequently known in English, the intention is to include eventually all of the genres of the medieval Icelandic period.
Origins and Rationale of the Project. Some years ago, while considering the literary uses of proverbs in the Íslendinga sögur, I came to see a clear need for a new and exhaustive listing of the paroemial materials found in this genre as well as in medieval Icelandic literature more generally. Such a focused compilation has been neglected now for nearly a century, although during that time there have been several useful collections of Icelandic proverbs partially inclusive of the medieval corpus. The present need is made more urgent, however, by the positions we have reached over recent decades in the progress and directions of literary critical saga studies.