When considering the contribution of þættir studies to the question of genre in Old Norse literature, we can begin by remembering that it was a debate about these short prose narratives that sparked the articulation of some long-standing concerns about genre more broadly, namely whether it was valid to impose modern analytical categories on medieval literature whose authors did not seem to think in those terms. The þættir are also an example of a ‘necessary’ genre. Ármann Jakobsson challenged fornaldarsaga scholars to start afresh and only use genres that are arguably needed, and he had already shown how this could be done in other areas of Old Norse literature by demonstrating that he needed the genre of þættir to talk about Morkinskinna.

Like the sagas, the þættir (sing. þáttr) present us with the problem of disentangling corpus from genre, for the modern consciousness of ‘short prose narrative’ as a category of Old Norse literature has been shaped by nineteenth-century editorial choices and is not the product of rigorous analysis. Unlike long literary prose narratives, however, which all fall into the single broad category of ‘saga’, short literary prose narratives can fall into one of two categories: þættir and ‘ordinary’ episodes, and it may be more accurate to postulate a spectrum going from þættir through þáttr-like episodes to ordinary episodes. Þættir thus present a particular problem in regard to genre, in that the base category as well as any subcategories need to be defined and identified. This is usually done on the basis of theme and structure or on the basis of rubric, but both methods are problematic. Theme and structure do not always clearly distinguish a þáttr from an episode, and few of the putative examples are referred to as þættir by the scribes who copied them, which undermines the validity of the term as a label for this category. Texts that are part of the corpus of þættir can be rubricated in terms of their content alone, as with Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka, which is headed ‘Fra þvi er Avþvn enn vestfirðzki førþi Sveini konvngi biarndyri’ (Concerning this, when Auðun the Westfjorder brought King Svein a bear), or Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu, which is headed ‘Af lífláti Albani ok Sunnifu’ (Of the death of Albanus and Sunnifa).