Bard of Iceland

Bard of Iceland PDF Author: Dick Ringler
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299177201
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Bard of Iceland makes available for the first time in any language other than Icelandic an extensive selection of works by Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845), the most important poet of modern Iceland. Jónas was also Iceland's first professionally trained geologist and an active contributor in a number of other scientific fields: geography, botany, zoology, and archaeology. He played a key role as well in Iceland's struggle to gain independence from Denmark. "Descriptive power and fullness of spirit were the hallmarks of his soul," wrote a contemporary admirer. Dick Ringler, one of the premier scholars of Icelandic literature in the world, offers a substantial biography of Jónas, a representative selection of his most important poems, and some of his prose work in science and belles lettres. Ringler also provides extended commentaries and an essay on Icelandic prosody. The poems are translated into English equivalents of their original complex meters in Icelandic and Danish. As a poet Jónas was intimately familiar with his nation's medieval literary inheritance--the sagas and eddas--and also with the groundbreaking work of contemporary German and Danish Romanticism (Chamisso, Heine, Oehlenschläger). A master of poetic form, Jónas not only exploited and enlarged the possibilities of traditional eddic and skaldic meters, but introduced the sonnet, triolet stanza, terza and ottava rima, and blank verse into the Icelandic metrical repertory.

Bard of Iceland

Bard of Iceland PDF Author: Dick Ringler
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299177201
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Bard of Iceland makes available for the first time in any language other than Icelandic an extensive selection of works by Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845), the most important poet of modern Iceland. Jónas was also Iceland's first professionally trained geologist and an active contributor in a number of other scientific fields: geography, botany, zoology, and archaeology. He played a key role as well in Iceland's struggle to gain independence from Denmark. "Descriptive power and fullness of spirit were the hallmarks of his soul," wrote a contemporary admirer. Dick Ringler, one of the premier scholars of Icelandic literature in the world, offers a substantial biography of Jónas, a representative selection of his most important poems, and some of his prose work in science and belles lettres. Ringler also provides extended commentaries and an essay on Icelandic prosody. The poems are translated into English equivalents of their original complex meters in Icelandic and Danish. As a poet Jónas was intimately familiar with his nation's medieval literary inheritance--the sagas and eddas--and also with the groundbreaking work of contemporary German and Danish Romanticism (Chamisso, Heine, Oehlenschläger). A master of poetic form, Jónas not only exploited and enlarged the possibilities of traditional eddic and skaldic meters, but introduced the sonnet, triolet stanza, terza and ottava rima, and blank verse into the Icelandic metrical repertory.

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland PDF Author: Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253044081
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
A study of the influential Icelandic composer’s career and his work. In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland’s iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising “Icelandic” sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation. In addition to exploring Leifs’s career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs’s major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs’s music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships’ chains, shotguns, and cannons. Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs’s music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work. “Composers of fearsome originality seldom have an easy path in the world. Jón Leifs, who translated the landscapes and legends of Iceland into sound, comes vividly to life in this brilliant, panoramic biography, his myriad personal and political conflicts delineated with clarity and candor. A major twentieth-century figure at last receives his due.” —Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of The Rest Is Noise “Jón Leifs was the first major Icelandic composer and it is insane that most of his pieces were not performed or recorded until recently. His works were almost just a myth to us Icelanders and therefore this book is so magnificently important. . . . This book is incredibly well written and Árni Heimir’s analysis of the music is deeply satisfying. I listened to each work as it was being discussed, which turned the experience from black and white to color! An extraordinary achievement!” —Björk, singer/songwriter

The Bard's Gift

The Bard's Gift PDF Author: Meredith Mansfield
Publisher: Meredith Mansfield
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The Reluctant Story-Teller: Sixteen-year-old Astrid keeps mostly to herself, finding companionship in the stories her grandmother used to tell. She's too shy even to talk in front of Torolf, the young man she secretly dreams of. Then the Norse god of eloquence appears in Astrid's dreams and forces her to drink the Mead of Poetry. Suddenly, she's compelled to tell her stories. In public. Even in front of Torolf. Astrid is meant to use these stories to guide her people from starvation in Greenland to a better future in Markland. A place legends claim is the abode of dragons. But not all of her fierce and independent people are willing to follow a mere girl, even the chieftain's daughter--especially when she counsels peace. Some have other plans for the new land and want to use Astrid and her gift as a tool. The Inventive Young Man Who Loves Her: Torolf never dreamed that quiet Astrid could choose him. Now he's stranded in Iceland as she sails in the opposite direction. To attain the promise of a future with Astrid, he'll have to attempt the impossible--sailing alone across the North Atlantic. Together, they might defy the plans the gods have made for them and change the fate of more than just their own people. Norse gods, Thunderbird, Norse Sagas, Norse mythology, Iceland, Greenland colon, Vinland, Markland, Noblebright

A History of Icelandic Literature

A History of Icelandic Literature PDF Author: Daisy L. Neijmann
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803233469
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Book Description
As complete a history as possible of the literature of Iceland.

Heroes of Iceland

Heroes of Iceland PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature, Icelandic
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Tales of the first people to settle in Iceland.

Bard of Iceland

Bard of Iceland PDF Author: Dick Ringler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789979331117
Category : Poets, Icelandic
Languages : de
Pages : 474

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Book Description


Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles

Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles PDF Author: Guðbrandur Vigfússon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description


The Book of the Settlement of Iceland

The Book of the Settlement of Iceland PDF Author: Ari Thorgilsson (the Learned)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Iceland
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description


The Sagas of the Icelanders

The Sagas of the Icelanders PDF Author: Jane Smilely
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141933267
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world’s great literary treasures – as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled in Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate and freedom.

Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles

Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles PDF Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108052495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
This four-volume set (1887-94) includes sagas of Orkney and of King Hákon Hákonarson of Norway, in Old Norse and English translation.