The Saint and the Saga Hero

The Saint and the Saga Hero PDF Author: Siân E. Grønlie
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN: 9781843844815
Category : Sagas
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
A compelling argument that far from developing in a literary vacuum, saga literature interacts in lively, creative and critical ways with one of the central genres of the European middle ages.

The Saint and the Saga Hero

The Saint and the Saga Hero PDF Author: Siân E. Grønlie
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN: 9781843844815
Category : Sagas
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
A compelling argument that far from developing in a literary vacuum, saga literature interacts in lively, creative and critical ways with one of the central genres of the European middle ages.

Heroes and Saints

Heroes and Saints PDF Author: Phyllis Granoff
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443810894
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
The present volume makes a unique contribution to the study of dying in ancient cultures by focusing on what happens in the critical moments before death. Employing a wide range of literary sources, the essays in this volume focus exclusively on the moment of death and practices associated with the transition from this world to the next. Five of the essays deal with Asian religions, primarily Buddhism in India, Tibet, China, and Japan. The other five essays deal with the moment of death in the West, old Norse-Icelandic, Old English, and the Judeo-Christian tradition. The authors explore the many ways in which the good death was envisioned. Remarkable parallels emerge between the good death in religious texts and in heroic sagas . Despite the diversity of cultures, time periods and religious traditions represented in these essays, this volume vividly illustrates the fundamental human need to see in the inevitable moment of death a possibility of choice and a promise of hope.

Wayward Heroes

Wayward Heroes PDF Author: Halldor Laxness
Publisher: Archipelago
ISBN: 0914671103
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Drawing on historical events, including King Olaf’s reign in Norway and the burning of Chartres Cathedral, Laxness revises and renews the bloody sagas of Icelandic tradition, producing not just a spectacular historical novel but one of coal-dark humor and psychological depth.” – Publishers Weekly First published in 1952, Halldór Laxness’s Wayward Heroes offers an unlikely representation of modern literature. A reworking of medieval Icelandic sagas, the novel is set against the backdrop of the medieval Norse world. Laxness satirizes the spirit of sagas, criticizing the global militarism and belligerent national posturing rampant in the postwar buildup to the Cold War. He does that through the novel’s main characters, the sworn brothers Þormóður Bessason and Þorgeir Hávarsson, warriors who blindly pursue ideals that lead to the imposition of power through violent means. The two see the world around them only through a veil of heroic illusion: kings are fit either to be praised in poetry or toppled from their thrones, other men only to kill or be killed, women only to be mythic fantasies. Replete with irony, absurdity, and pathos, the novel more than anything takes on the character of tragedy, as the sworn brothers’ quest to live out their ideals inevitably leaves them empty-handed and ruined.

Story, World and Character in the Late Íslendingasögur

Story, World and Character in the Late Íslendingasögur PDF Author: Rebecca Merkelbach
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846667
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Argues for new models of reading the complexity and subversiveness of fourteen "post-classical" sagas. The late Sagas of Icelanders, thought to be written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have hitherto received little scholarly attention. Previous generations of critics have unfavourably compared them to "classical" Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur, leading modern audiences to project their expectations onto narratives that do not adhere to simple taxonomies and preconceived notions of genre. As "rogues" within the canon, they challenge the established notions of what makes an Íslendingasaga. Based on a critical appraisal of conceptualisations of canon and genre in saga literature, this book offers a new reading of the relationship between the individual, paranormal, and social dimensions that form the foundation of these sagas. It draws on a multidisciplinary approach, informed by perspectives as diverse as "possible worlds" theory, gender studies, and social history. The "post-classical" sagas are not only read anew and integrated into both their generic and socio-historical context; they are met on their own terms, allowing their fascinating narratives to speak for themselves.

A Hero on Mount St. Helens

A Hero on Mount St. Helens PDF Author: Melanie Holmes
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252051343
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
Serendipity placed David Johnston on Mount St. Helens when the volcano rumbled to life in March 1980. Throughout that ominous spring, Johnston was part of a team that conducted scientific research that underpinned warnings about the mountain. Those warnings saved thousands of lives when the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history blew apart Mount St. Helens, but killed Johnston on the ridge that now bears his name. Melanie Holmes tells the story of Johnston's journey from a nature-loving Boy Scout to a committed geologist. Blending science with personal detail, Holmes follows Johnston through encounters with Aleutian volcanoes, his work helping the Portuguese government assess the geothermal power of the Azores, and his dream job as a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Interviews and personal writings reveal what a friend called "the most unjaded person I ever met," an imperfect but kind, intelligent young scientist passionately in love with his life and work and determined to make a difference.

The Last Hero

The Last Hero PDF Author: Leslie Charteris
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga

The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga PDF Author: Margaret Clunies Ross
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139492640
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
The medieval Norse-Icelandic saga is one of the most important European vernacular literary genres of the Middle Ages. This Introduction to the saga genre outlines its origins and development, its literary character, its material existence in manuscripts and printed editions, and its changing reception from the Middle Ages to the present time. Its multiple sub-genres - including family sagas, mythical-heroic sagas and sagas of knights - are described and discussed in detail, and the world of medieval Icelanders is powerfully evoked. The first general study of the Old Norse-Icelandic saga to be written in English for some decades, the Introduction is based on up-to-date scholarship and engages with current debates in the field. With suggestions for further reading, detailed information about the Icelandic literary canon, and a map of medieval Iceland, this book is aimed at students of medieval literature and assumes no prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages.

Damnation and Salvation in Old Norse Literature

Damnation and Salvation in Old Norse Literature PDF Author: Haki Antonsson
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN: 9781843845072
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
A full survey of the "Last Things" as treated in a wide range of Old Norse literature. The hope of salvation and the fear of damnation were fundamental in the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, however, this topic, as reflected in Old Norse literature, has received limited critical attention.This book addresses this lacunain the scholarship, from two major perspectives. Firstly, it examines how the twin themes of damnation and salvation interact with other more familiar and better explored topoi, such as the life-cycle, the moment of death, and the material world. Secondly, it looks at how issues relating to damnation and salvation influence the structure of texts, with regard both to individual scenes and poems and sagas as a whole. The author argues that comparable features and patterns reoccur throughout the corpus, albeit with individual variations contingent on the relevant historical and literary context. A broad range of the literature is considered, including Sagas of Icelanders, Kings' sagas, Contemporary Sagas, Legendary sagas and poems of Christian instruction. HAKI ANTONSSON is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Scandinavian Studies, University College London.

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre PDF Author: Massimiliano Bampi
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845644
Category : Literary form
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comprehensive guide to a crucial aspect of Old Norse literature.

The Saint Makers

The Saint Makers PDF Author: Joe Drape
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780316268820
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Part biography of a wartime adventurer, part detective story, and part faith journey, this intriguing book from New York Times journalist and bestselling author Joe Drape takes us inside the modern-day process of the making of a saint. The Saint Makers chronicles the unlikely alliance between Father Hotze and Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, a country priest and a cosmopolitan Italian canon lawyer, as the two piece together the life of a long dead Korean War hero and military chaplain and fashion it into a case for eternal divinity. Joe Drape offers a front row seat to the Catholic Church's saint-making machinery-which, in many ways, has changed little in two thousand years-and examines how, or if, faith and science can co-exist. This rich and unique narrative leads from the plains of Kansas to the opulent halls of the Vatican, through brutal Korean War prison camps, and into the stories of two individuals, Avery Gerleman and Chase Kear, whose lives were threatened by illness and injury and whose family and friends prayed to Father Kapaun, sparking miraculous recoveries in the heart of America. Gerleman is now a nurse, and Kear works as a mechanic in the aerospace industry. Both remain devoted to Father Kapaun, whose opportunity for sainthood relies in their belief and medical charts. At a time when the church has faced severe scandal and damage, and the world is at the mercy of a pandemic, this is an uplifting story about a priest who continues to an example of goodness and faith. Ultimately, The Saint Makers is the story of a journey of faith -- for two priests separated by seventy years, for the two young athletes who were miraculously brought back to life with (or without) the intercession of the divine, as well as for readers -- and the author -- trying to understand and accept what makes a person truly worthy of the Congregation of Saints in the eyes of the Catholic Church.