page_title: List of Icelandic writers
section_title: M
hierarchical_section_title: List of Icelandic writers / M
caption_attribution_description: Matthías Jochumsson (11 November 1835 – 18 November 1920)
context_page_description: Iceland has a rich literary history, which has carried on into the modern period.
  Some of the best known examples of Icelandic literature are the Sagas of Icelanders. These are prose narratives based on historical events that took place in Iceland and the surrounding areas during the Saga Age. Most of these sagas were recorded during the 13th and 14th centuries, but the original authors and subsequent recorders of the works are unknown and thus not listed here. Although it has been suggested that Snorri Sturluson is the author of Egil's Saga. The Saga tradition is not limited only to Iceland, and is an integral part of Norse mythology throughout the Nordics.
  Another dominant form of Icelandic literature is poetry. Iceland has a rich history of poets, with many poets listed here. The early poetry of Iceland is Old Norse poetry, which is divided into the anonymous Eddic poetry, and the Skaldic poetry attributed to a series of skalds, who were court poets who lived in the Viking Age and Middle Ages. The modern Icelandic language is sufficiently similar to the Old Norse language for speakers of modern Icelandic to be able to understand Old Norse texts.
caption: Poet Matthías Jochumsson
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