This paper is the continuation of my study of the spatial ideas of medieval Scandinavians. As I have shown elsewhere, before the
settlement of Iceland in the ninth century the Norwegians imagined the inhabited world as consisting of four quarters, with Norway
forming the northern quarter and the islands in the Atlantic Ocean the western. However, according to the sources, travel from
Norway to Iceland was described not by the term vestr “westward”, but by út “out, towards the outer side”. Here, I attempt to
explain this phenomenon and to demonstrate the diversity of the spatial ideas and traditions preserved in the sagas.
Norway and the islands of the Atlantic Ocean in the Icelandic sagas. Kringla heimsins before
and after the settlement of Iceland
In the course of this study of the principles of spatial orientation of medieval Scandinavians reflected in the monuments of Old
Norse–Icelandic literature, I refer to the position of Iceland in the four-part world circle and discover that Iceland per
se found itself «outside» the traditional north-Germanic world circle (kringla heimsins) which the
settlers had arrived from (movement from the «former» world circle to Iceland was described in the sources not as to the British
Isles with the term vestr «westward», but út «out, towards the outer side»). This
indicates the existence of such spatial ideas long before the discovery of Iceland. This picture of the world was, no doubt,
introduced in the ninth century to Iceland, which resulted in the fact that in 965 the country was divided into the four Quarters
named after the four cardinal points. However, settlement of the island resulted in the «creation of a new world». Along with the
creation of new social, legal and political orders, a new state and a new people, its residents formed their own world circle in
which Iceland occupied the central position, with Norway and the British Isles to the east. Stories about people who had come to
Iceland from the British Isles vestan «from the west» are likely to be based on a very old oral tradition that
was formed at a time when these saga characters had just left their homes on the islands labelled in «the old system» as
Vestrlönd. The old «north-Germanic» and the new «Icelandic» world circles meet in the saga texts, which might
mean their coexistence in real life. Thus, we achieve a glimpse of the literarization of old traditions and gain extra insight into
the process of formation of Icelandic national identity.
