Most of the action in the Sagas of Icelanders takes place in the isolated settlements and sweeping landscapes of medieval Iceland. The characters are seen discussing matters of concern in the main rooms of their (rarely described) turf and stone farmsteads, or in the temporary booths at the Althing or national assembly. They fight in hay-fields, ford rivers or ride across lava fields. Most of these sagas also have a wider theatre, and collectively they range through the known world from Greenland to North Africa, from Vínland in North America to Russia and Byzantium. The majority of the foreign episodes, however, are set in the Nordic-speaking realms of mainland Scandinavia and the British Isles. Among plot motifs which recur in these sagas and are based on historical reality are a prelude in Norway prior to emigration to Iceland, and the útanferð (journey abroad), in which an ambitious young Icelander sails abroad, usually to Scandinavia and the British Isles, to trade, raid, or to serve kings and earls with his sword or his poetic gifts.

The women in the sagas are often counters in male transactions, the object of seductions, marriage proposals and male rivalry. As wives, mothers, daughters, or sisters they watch as grim-faced young men set out with spears in hand, or as neighbours bring news of their deaths. Unable to vent their anger or hurt by physical means, their classic role is as 'female inciter', goading their menfolk to acts of revenge. This is famously exemplified by the feuding wives in the first half of Njáls saga, the staunch Bergthora/Bergþóra of the ugly hands and the flighty, beautiful virago Hallgerd/Hallgerðr. The premonitory dream and four marriages of another outstanding woman, the magnificent Gudrun/Guðún Ósvífrsdóttir, provide the backbone of Laxdæla saga / The Saga of the People of Laxdale. Erotic love is rare in the sagas, but is present in the sagas of poets (skáldasögur, see below), which feature themes of frustrated love and offer a striking gallery of female portraits from the wistful beauty Helga in Gunnlaugs saga to the forceful Steingerðr of Kormáks saga, who unusually voyages abroad and is even seen ramming her boat against Kormákr's. However, she also has to be rescued from kidnap by Vikings — a reminder of the limits to female action — and on the whole male rivalries are more prominent in the skáldasögur than the love affairs which give rise to them.

The better-structured sagas are tightly organised, with most if not all episodes feeding into the main plot, although their relevance may not always be obvious at first sight. The plot derives momentum and direction from powerful themes or tragic conflicts. Laxdæla saga is united by Guðrún's dream and the four marriages it presages, together with the fateful relationship between the cousins Kjartan and Bolli. Njáls saga is in two great linked acts each showing the inexorable progress of a feud involving people of good will as well as trouble-makers, while the shorter Gunnlaugs saga focuses on the mortal rivalry between Gunnlaugr and his fellow poet Hrafn, who cheats him out of possession of the beautiful Helga. Other sagas give a more episodic impression, such as the lengthy Eyrbyggja saga or the shorter, rather primitive Kormáks saga, which has some inept transitions and episodes that are digressive or duplicated, as well as lacking crucial explanation at some points.

Some topics in this essay:
Sagas Icelanders, Ernest Hemingway, Egill Skallagrímsson, ETHICS SAGAS, Family Saga, Bolli Njáls, Hermann Pálsson, British Isles, Complete Sagas, Bodvarsholar Thorbjorn, sagas icelanders, njáls saga, laxdæla saga, grettis saga, gunnlaugs saga, egils saga, direct speech, eyrbyggja saga, individual sagas, kormáks saga, sagas poets skáldasögur, scandinavia british isles, eyrbyggja saga laxdæla, saga grettis saga, saga laxdæla saga,