Abstrakt
In the absence of kings, the Icelandic bishops always played a significant role as central figures in the definition of Icelandic identity. In the 14th century, the social situation in Iceland seems to have been mostly stabilized - although some minor problems inevitably occurred - and that allowed the Icelanders to finally fully turn their attention toward the questions of their position within the political, social, and cultural environment of Late Medieval Europe.
In this context it is fully understandable that they opened this matter to debate not only in works dealing with the secular politics of the recent times, but in almost all the texts that they produced, including the sagas of the distant past, as well as the sagas of bishops. All of these texts reflect the Icelanders' relation to the stronger, richer, and more central Norway, which was necessarily ambivalent.
On the one hand, the Icelanders acknowledged the mutual bond and enjoyed the benefits of being integrated into the European cultural and social structures through their link to Norway. On the other hand, however, the increased awareness of their peripheral position must have brought about a feeling of insecurity that they inevitably had to take into account in the re-construction of their identity.
And since it was the bishops and saints who had provided Icelanders with cultural strength and replaced kings in their earlier narratives, they offered themselves as the best identity bearers also now.