Why did Icelandic saga writers focus on geography and social life?

Icelandic saga writers focused on geography and social life to achieve verisimilitude, aiming to depict life in Iceland as they had experienced it or imagined it to have been in the past. By grounding their narratives in realistic settings and social structures, these authors sought to encourage their audience to gain a better understanding of their own social environment and to acquire a truer knowledge of themselves through the study of the real and imagined fates of their forebears.1

The sagas of Icelanders, which describe characters who were often farmers or individuals socially close to the author's public, were written with an emphasis on cultural, social, and geographic accuracy. This focus allowed the writers to explore human strengths and weaknesses within a recognizable framework, using the "grim ethos" of a vanished way of life to provide dramatic power and tragic dignity. While these works served an edificatory role, the primary aim of the saga writer remained the provision of aesthetic pleasure.12