Time Counting in the Landnámabók
Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
For citation: Litovskikh, Elena V. Time Counting in the Landnámabók // Graphosphaera. 2021. Vol. 1. P. 73–81. URL: http://writing.igh.ru/index.php?id=schet-vremeni-v-lknige-o-zaselenii-stranyr
DOI: 10.32608/2782-5272-2022-1-73-81
Abstract: Landnámabók (The Book of the Settlements) allows us to trace which units of time were used by medieval Icelanders for chronological identification of events. As can be seen from the characteristics of the Icelandic units of time counting used in the Landnámabók, there is no detailed, clear and uniform dating system. This phenomenon was quite typical for the specific perception of time inherent in medieval people, and Icelanders are no exception. It should be noted, however, that for the most important events that define the general chronological grid, the source has a link to the events of world history, which allows the relative dates of Landnámabók k to be easily translated into absolute dates of the accepted chronology. The latter even modernizes the Icelandic perception of time, and it is this that allows historians to use this source as representative for dating the events of the first period of Icelandic history.
Key words: Landnámabók (The Book of the Settlements), source criticism, chronology, time units
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