Preservation and Immortatlity: The Transition From Oral to Written Culture in Iceland.

Abstract

The following article comes from Dr. Barbara Crass’s Anthropology 300: The Viking World class during the Spring 2006 semester at UW Oshkosh. It is intended to provide insight on the transition from an oral to a written culture in Iceland. A set of necessary achievements appear to have been in place that were consistent with other cultures that have established written cultures. When these pieces were put together around the turn of the last millennium (circa 1100–1200 CE) they allowed the transition to occur. The main items of this change were Iceland’s excellent history or narrative storytelling, an exceptional cast of storytellers and poets, and the introduction of the written word to the Icelanders by Christian missionaries.