Viking Age Landscape Knowledge in Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts

This article introduces a landscape-oriented material narratological approach to the reconstructed medieval Icelandic codex Melabók (1390–1425). The text order within the codex zooms clockwise from a broader notion of space into actual places, thus constructing an image of a coherent geographical area. The ocean-centered perspective of exploration during the settlement and the accumulated knowledge about Icelandic Ocean currents have produced a stylized way of storytelling that repeats the act of place-making, thereby carrying the early Icelandic being-in-the-world into medieval manuscript production. My literary- anthropological reading of the compilation demonstrates how Viking Age landscape knowledge can be identified in medieval manuscripts and what we might gain from it. Understanding Melabók as a meaningful compilation rather than a loose collection gives an insight into a specific sense of space and place.