Iceland is often referred to as the Saga Island, and Icelanders have long defined themselves as a literary nation. Literature is without a doubt the strongest aspect of the cultural history of the people that settled this northerly island in the ninth century and immediately started recounting its story and committing it to calfskin two centuries later. This great emphasis on the art of articulation has followed the nation ever since and is one of the cornerstones of its identity and history, not least because of the status of Icelandic medieval literature at home and abroad.