Sending a Message to the Future: (Deep) Time Travel in and through Medieval Icelandic Literature

• Published in: Exemplaria (Binghamton, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2024-01, Vol.36 (1), p.24-44
• Main Author: Lavender, Philip
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: deep time; General Literature Studies; Litteraturvetenskap; Old Norse; sagas; temporality; time travel
• ISSN: 1041-2573; 1753-3074; 1753-3074
• DOI: 10.1080/10412573.2023.2300244

This article seeks to understand how medieval Icelandic authors may have considered the possibility of speaking to the future. In the absence of explicit statements to this effect, it does this by looking at representations of time travel - or chronodisplacement - within medieval Icelandic sagas. When something from the past abruptly appears in the narrative, the past is seen as communicating with its future. The examples looked at include undead mound-dwellers, long-lived wanderers and the Icelandic version of the Seven Sleepers. The frequent association of voices emerging from the past with the underland is considered, particularly in relation to Iceland's geology. This is also linked to the possibility for medieval Icelanders to engage with deep time. The analysis reveals that Icelandic authors were interested in the dynamic of the past speaking to its future, but chose always to represent it within a past setting. Moreover, authors seem to have been aware that speaking to a future inevitably involves changes in media and the materiality of communication.