Abstract
The article discusses the relationship between storytelling and the pragmatic, everyday use of space, thus making a contribution towards understanding the contexts of storytelling, as well as the afterlife of medieval Icelandic literature in modern Icelandic folklore. It approaches these topics through an in-depth analysis of storytelling traditions connected with the alleged burial mound of Steingrímr trolli, the founding hero (landnamsmadr) of Steingrímsfjörður fjord in the Strandir district of Iceland. Steingrímr is first mentioned in Landnamabok, but legends connected with his burial mound are most richly attested in nineteenth- and twentieth-century storytelling. There, the burial mound is primarily identified with a natural landscape formation on the mountain of Staðarfjall at the top of the fjord, from where Steingrím(u)r is said to overlook and protect shipping on his fjord. Yet local storytellers also proposed other locations as the ‘real’ burial site, which, while occupying a marginal position within the wider storytelling culture, actually are more closely in keeping with the traditions that Landnamabok transmits about Steingrím(u)r. The article analyses these divergent narrative traditions about the legendary burial mound with emphasis on their different contexts and offers an interpretation of the differences between them that views them as rooted in both everyday land use and questions of status. In this way, this study highlights the fluidity of the narrative tradition of nineteenth- and twentiethcentury Iceland, proposes to identify two of the mechanisms that govern this fluidity, and throws some light on the modern afterlife of medieval Icelandic literature.
