Introduction:

Hospitality is an often-seen gesture in saga literature. It is connected to formality and spontaneity, and it can be complex or simple. The form of hospitality may vary in different countries, but its foundation is the same: ‘the reception of a stranger who is provided with food and shelter for the night’. In his monograph, Hans Conrad Peyer lists five different types of hospitality. The most ancient and traditional one is ‘hospitable friendship’ (Gastfreundschaft), when the host and the guest are social equals, and respectful to each other. A similarly simple form is when the host gives only shelter, but no food (Gastlichkeit ohne Verpflegung). This type of charitable hospitality is connected to Christian culture and it is usually granted to poor and weak members of society, or to pilgrims. Sovereignty hospitality (Herrschaftsgastung) is when political non-equals are included, and is mostly offered to a ruler and his retinue. And lastly, there is the commercial type of hospitality that is provided in an inn or tavern. Peyer's classification presented other analyses regarding Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon hospitality. This present essay will limit itself to discussing examples from the first, the second, and the fourth types, and will focus only on Scandinavian sources: the Icelandic Family Sagas (Íslendingasögur) and the Kings’ Sagas (Konungasögur), respectively.

Scandinavian Society and Social Norms

Medieval Scandinavian society was dependent on personal relationships. On the continent, kings ruled the land as the highest members of society. Norway was ruled by different petty kings up until Haraldr hárfagri (c. 872–930) who started to unify the country. During the ninth century, Iceland was inhabited by a mixture of Norwegian and Celtic people. They established a country, led by chieftains (pl. goðar). The main sources for this age are the Icelandic Family Sagas, written down from the thirteenth century. These texts were preserved in vellum and later on, paper manuscripts, mostly from the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth century.