In Icelandic Sagas, no single author or saga stands as an Everest compared with other works. Indeed, as the editor of Icelandic Sagas wrote, the literature offers an inseparable cohesiveness—much as the Pledge of Allegiance exalts the indivisibility of the American Union.
Njal’s Saga or Egil’s Saga can be appreciated only in the context of all lesser sagas written by lesser poets and biographers. “Medieval Icelandic literature” differs from other world literature: its authors seem to vanish and only “the voice of an entire way of life” speaks distinctly. Preface Icelandic Sagas, xii The principle applies to both Hebraic and Christian scripture. While the writers, all great men, wrote, their message eclipsed any one author, a truth in both Testaments. In the Old, it’s all about Almighty God revealing himself to Hebrews in visions, prose, poetry, promises, denunciations, but always in absolutes—and all the while promising the coming of an even greater than Moses, than the prophets, than the singers, than the poets. Which the Gospels reveal as Jesus Christ of Nazareth: the God-Man! In a sense, then, Icelandic Sagas and Holy Writ agree: each one’s author fades into his message. The differences between the Bible and all other writings are vast, not limited; comprehensive, not narrow; from eternity to eternity, not to a limited period of time. And, as it seems but one author speaks to and for the entire Icelandic cultures, ONE AUTHOR of the Bible definitely, deliberately and decisively speaks to all ages, in all cultures as the great Creator who became our Savior, and all God’s Fullness dwells in him Colossians 2:3, 9, Hebrews 1:3. There is ONE NAME in every Bible Book mentioned repeatedly: JEHOVAH, whatever other name known by: El Shaddai, God Almighty, JESUS CHRIST.
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