MISYUROV N. INDIVIDUAL AND THEIR “FLUID” IDENTITY: ICELANDIC SOCIETY IN GRETTIR’S SAGA // Studia Humanitatis Borealis. 2026. Vol. 1. № 1. P. 26‒34.
DOI: 10.15393/j12.art.2026.4323
Issue № 1
CULTURAL STUDIES
INDIVIDUAL AND THEIR “FLUID” IDENTITY: ICELANDIC SOCIETY IN GRETTIR’S SAGA
| MISYUROV Nikolay | PhD in Philosophy, Professor of Department of Journalistic and Media Linguistics, Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Omsk, Russia Federation, misiurovnn@omsu.ru |
| Ключевые слова: organic unity of society single individual fluid identity heroic narrative | Аннотация: The Icelandic society of the “time of the sagas” is a peculiar historical phenomenon, and the sociological studies of its uniqueness provide sufficient grounds for typological conclusions. The empirical material for the analysis is Grettir’s Saga, a literary monument that records certain changes in the traditional social structure of the “federation of farms” during the era of Iceland’s settlement (linked to the adoption of Christianity in Norway and the ousting of “passionary” individuals and professional groups adhering to the “tradition” outside the boundaries of the emerging unitary nation-state). Both theoretically and practically, the analysis of the pronounced individuality accentuated in the heroic narrative of the biography of the famous obstinate “fighter”, a nonconformist who ended his life as an outcast, is productive in the context of the interaction between the individual and society. It is argued that the “reference” of the social structure with different types of connections (communal and “corporate” communities affected by property stratification, Viking communities, whalers, and merchants) depends not so much on the method of “representing” facts and events, interpreted either objectively or subjectively, but on the choice of effective “descriptions”, with the methodological aspect being of paramount importance. It is also stated that the coexistence of preserved archaic elements with elements of the modernized “new reality” resulted in a distinctive “fluid” identity, both ethnically and socially. The study concludes that this evolution of Icelandic social communities entailed a permanent and inevitable “essential” shift in the basic principle of “collectivism” (from solidarity to competition), and the decisive factor behind this transformation was the individual’s life potential. From this perspective, the conceptualized fate of an individual becomes a projection of the fate of the people. © Petrozavodsk State University |
Is received: 28 march 2026 year Is passed for the press: 30 march 2026 year | |
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