This resource gathers links to and provides limited publication details about various published editions of medieval saga texts (in Old Norse, normalized, and/or modern Icelandic) available in online open access, electronic, and/or scanned formats. Some editions are hosted on more than one site and are available in different formats. The list is far from exhaustive and is regularly updated. It was not generated in a systematic way, so feel free to pass along information about any relevant hosted editions I may have missed or corrections of any information or links in the database by emailing at cwe1 [at] hi.is.
Editorial practices and standards have changed dramatically over time and are not even consistent in a specific given time. As such, there is no comprehensive way to organize this amount of material to account for different ideas of what constitutes a standalone text or can be viewed as isolated redactions of the same narrative material. Thus, material is generally listed under generic titles with no distinction between different versions of the same narrative material (e.g. Gísla saga, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, etc.). In the future, information about the different versions of specific texts and the primary manuscripts used in different editions of a text may be added to the notes. The so-called þættir, many of which are preserved in the context of kings’ sagas, are not generally included in the database as distinct texts, though more may be provided with unique entries in the future.
Not all editions listed in the database are appropriate to be used and/or cited in academic research. Yet, many are and those that aren’t may still be useful in helping researchers locate relevant passages that they can follow up on in other editions of a text. Furthermore, although far from comprehensive, the database may also be of interest from a book history perspective as it contains entries for some of the earliest print editions of a number of different sagas. Note that the database does not include links to texts from the Netútgáfan website, which is already quite well known. At present, the database is available as an excel spreadsheet, but future plans may include a fully online, filterable, and searchable interface.
Click here to view the database of online open-access, electronic, and/or scanned saga editions
Christopher W. E. Crocker 