The Image of Mother in Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas

The paper discusses the differences between the construction of the image of the mother in the sagas of Icelanders and contemporary sagas. The difference between these sagas is that the first ones record events that occurred 250-300 years before the actual fact of recording, while the compilers of contemporary sagas often witnessed the events described themselves. It turns out that the compilers' view of the "historical mother" in the sagas of Icelanders is represented in many ways by cliche episodes, such as incitement, packing for the road and magical protection. At the same time, in the sagas of modernity, the image of mother does not differ from other women, and her mention is limited to the economic function. The work explains the special bond that is built between mothers "versed in witchcraft" and their children, as well as the differences between the understanding of mother–son and mother–daughter kinship. Against the background of the broad context of motherhood presented in the sagas, it also becomes possible to look at how the images of mothers from the ancestral sagas affect translated texts using the example of the "Parcevals saga".