Poesía y economía en la Saga de Egill

This paper analyses the relationship between poetry and economics in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, a long narrative work in prosimetrum form composed in Iceland during the first half of the 13th Century. The study assesses the role of versifying as an economic activity as well as it provides information about production, consumption and exchange in the poems of the saga. Furthermore, it considers the relationship between the material aspects of life as displayed both in the saga prose and in its poetry. The analysis suggests that both are generally congruent, and thus the saga provides the audience with a sense of narrative and ideological unity in regard to these economic matters.