Heritaging and the Use of History in Margit Sandemo’s The Legend of the Ice People

This chapter explores the use of heritage and history in the popular romance series The Legend of the Ice People (1982–1989) by Norwegian-Swedish author Margit Sandemo. The epos is the 47-volume multigenerational saga of a family. The series is here defined as a story world in which Sandemo is the creator, but fans are actively involved in collective negotiations. The use of the past within the series offers interpretations to readers, who are putting the old-fashion modes into up-to-date, concurrent, and contemporary understandings of morality by emerging from the historical past within the series.