Middle Eastern Tales in Icelandic Tradition

Abstract:The article surveys translations of two Middle Eastern collections of tales, The Thousand and One Nights and The Thousand and One Days, into Icelandic. It demonstrates how both story collections were translated and repeatedly copied. Tales originating from the collections also circulated in Icelandic oral tradition when the recording of folktales began in the nineteenth century and were thus recorded along with others. Shedding light on story-telling tradition in Iceland at a time when national characteristics were being emphasized, the article demonstrates that Icelandic narrative culture was extremely varied and international.