In this second part of the book, I focus on Nítíða saga’s characters andhow they interact with each other; I consider inthis first chapter the main characters and the heroof the story in particular. I will discusssupporting characters, focusing on the romance’smany female characters, in Chapter 5, and I willfinish by looking at the role of the narrator inChapter 6. I will also examine the importance ofspeech to characterization by comparing dialogue inNítíða saga asrepresented by both direct and indirect speech. Justas Nítíða sagachallenges many of the boundaries of the romancegenre as we have seen in earlier chapters, so doesthe saga reconsider traditional or expected norms ofromance characterization, most importantly withrespect to the hero. In medieval Icelandic romances,heroes are usually identified through features suchas a text’s introductory and concluding remarks, orits title – these alert the audience to who thestory will be about. In almost all Icelandicromances, the saga’s eponymous hero is male and theplot focuses on his exploits; in many romances theculmination of the plot is the hero’s marriage. Notall romance sagas bear titles as such in manuscriptand titles are more common in later post-medievalmanuscripts. Of the three medieval (pre-1600)manuscripts of Nítíðasaga, only one, AM 529, preserves thebeginning, and it does not bear any sort of title,nor has a larger opening initial been added, thoughspace has been left in the manuscript. In thismanuscript the saga begins immediately after Gibbons saga, and withoutactually reading the words written on the manuscriptleaf, it would be difficult to tell simply byglancing at it that a new text has begun.Conversely, most of the sixty post-medieval Nítíða saga manuscripts beara title of some kind, clearly marking off the newtext. I will discuss titles further below. However,many romances, whether accompanied by a title ornot, begin with a formulaic introduction of theirheroes, and end equally formulaically by stating thecharacters on whom the story has focused.Considering Nítíðasaga, where the title character is awoman with a prominent role throughout the story,the question of what constitutes this romance’s herohas not yet been satisfactorily addressed.