Aspetti del fantastico e del mostruoso nella saga

The paper starts from the fact that even ‘realistic’ sagas such as those called Íslendinga sögur (family sagas) usually include fantastic elements such as monsters, prodigies, and other similar marvels. The study investigates the role of such elements in the narration focussing in particular on the figure of the draugr, a sort of roaming ghost or undead, analysing his function on the basis of a number of examples and showing that the use of monsters and other supernatural events, creatures or objects correlates with specific aims in relation to different narrative, but also social contexts.