This study demonstrates how the dominant concern of medieval Icelandic society - the channelling of violence into accepted patterns of feud and the regulation of conflict - is reflected in the narrative of the sagas. It explores how the sagas are complex expressions of medieval social thought.

Feud stands at the core of the Old Icelandic sagas. Jesse Byock shows how the dominant concern of medieval Icelandic society--the channeling of violence into accepted patterns of feud and the regulation of conflict--is reflected in the narrative of the family sagas and the "Sturlunga saga" compilation. This comprehensive study of narrative structure demonstrates that the sagas are complex expressions of medieval social thought.