The Prosimetrum of The Íslendingasögur

The Prosimetrum of The Íslendingasögur PDF Author: Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir
Publisher: de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783111271804
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Verse quotation is intrinsic to the literary style of the medieval Icelandic corpus of Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders), one of the most important vernacular literary genres of the European Middle Ages. The essays collected in this volume demonstrate that the combination of prose and verse constitutes a distinctive literary aesthetic, and that in the medieval Icelandic literary tradition, it was not a question of choosing between prose and verse as the vehicle for stories about the foundational generations of settlers on the island, but of combining both modes to forge the unique literary form of the saga. Verse quotation has always been recognised as an important aspect of the Íslendingasögur, but to date, the significance of verse to the aesthetic of the narrative has mainly been explored with reference to the sub-genre of the skáldasögur (sagas of poets), in which the proportion of verse to prose is at its highest. The contributions to the volume analyse the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum - that is, they treat the combination of verse and prose as a salient generic and aesthetic feature of this body of sagas. The contributors are leading scholars in the field of Old Norse studies, and their work represents current research trends in the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark, and Germany. Their innovative approaches will enable a better understanding on the literary mode of the corpus as a whole, as well as producing fresh insights into the compositional habits of the (anonymous) authors of individual sagas.

Gisli Sursson's Saga and the Saga of the People of Eyri

Gisli Sursson's Saga and the Saga of the People of Eyri PDF Author:
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141941898
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
These sagas recount fierce feuds in which honour is fought for, sacrifice is demanded, and blood is shed. The fate of the characters at the centre of each saga, however, is very different. Gisli is a traditional Viking-age hero who is determined to exact revenge at any cost and whose death is tragic when it comes. In contrast his nephew, Snorri, represents a new generation and acts to strengthen the new social order. Taken together these sagas reveal the richness and variety of the saga tradition.

A Handbook to Eddic Poetry

A Handbook to Eddic Poetry PDF Author: Carolyne Larrington
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316720853
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive and accessible survey in English of Old Norse eddic poetry: a remarkable body of literature rooted in the Viking Age, which is a critical source for the study of early Scandinavian myths, poetics, culture and society. Dramatically recreating the voices of the legendary past, eddic poems distil moments of high emotion as human heroes and supernatural beings alike grapple with betrayal, loyalty, mortality and love. These poems relate the most famous deeds of gods such as Óðinn and Þórr with their adversaries the giants; they bring to life the often fraught interactions between kings, queens and heroes as well as their encounters with valkyries, elves, dragons and dwarfs. Written by leading international scholars, the chapters in this volume showcase the poetic riches of the eddic corpus, and reveal its relevance to the history of poetics, gender studies, pre-Christian religions, art history and archaeology.

Creating the Medieval Saga

Creating the Medieval Saga PDF Author: Judy Quinn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : is
Pages : 348

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Book Description
The essays in this book are a selection of papers delivered at the symposium Creating the Medieval Saga in Bergen 2005. The essays have been revised after discussion with respondents and other members of the audience, and further refined in exchanges with the editors and the general editors of the Viking Collection since. Focus at the symposium was on the ways in which editorial practices have created out of complex manuscript witnesses (dating from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century) a body of deceptively neat narratives, the medieval Icelandic sagas.

Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World

Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World PDF Author: Judy Quinn
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
This volume presents twenty essays by leading scholars of Old Norse which bring into focus the nature of learned traditions - both oral and written - in medieval Scandinavia and the interpretation and re-interpretation of them over time. Theoretical frameworks for understanding Old Norse literature is the initial topic of the collection, which then moves on to present recent work on Old Norse myth and society; current perspectives on oral traditions in performance and text; and reflections on medieval ideas about language, both vernacular and Latin. The collection is rounded off by a section on prolonged traditions - the transformation of local and imported traditions into new literary forms. Individual essays in the volume offer significant primary research as well as reconsiderations of key issues in scholarship, their subjects ranging widely, both conceptually and chronologically, around the twin themes of learning and understanding. Like the research of the volume's honorand, Margaret Clunies Ross, Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World exemplifies the diversity and vigour of current research in the field of Old Norse and draws together philological, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives on the subject.

Laws of Early Iceland

Laws of Early Iceland PDF Author:
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
ISBN: 0887553346
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
The laws of Mediaeval Iceland provide detailed and fascinating insight into the society that produced the Icelandic sagas. Known collectively as Gragas (Greygoose), this great legal code offers a wealth of information about early European legal systems and the society of the Middles Ages. This first translation of Gragas is in two volumes.

Literature and Law in the Middle Ages

Literature and Law in the Middle Ages PDF Author: John A. Alford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429575521
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Originally published in 1984, Literature and Law in the Middle Ages is a comprehensive bibliography on the subject of literature and law in the Middle Ages. The collection was composed with the notion that early society regarded literature, law and religion from the same single point of view. It discusses how for many medieval poets, their art existed primarily to enforce obedience to God and king and suggests that society viewed law as a chief instrument of the divine will in human affairs. The book’s comprehensive introduction argues that eventually, these areas of diverged and became separate; this bibliography covers the broad period of the Middle Ages from the 5th to the 15th century and examines this period of transition during which, the process was not yet complete. This bibliography will be vital resource for those studying medieval studies, both in literature and history.

Women in Old Norse Society

Women in Old Norse Society PDF Author: Jenny Jochens
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801455952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Jenny Jochens captures in fascinating detail the lives of women in pagan and early Christian Iceland and Norway—their work, sexual behavior, marriage customs, reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities, religious practices, and legal constraints and protections. Women in Old Norse Society places particular emphasis on changing sexual mores and the impact of Christianity as imposed by the clergy and Norwegian kings. It also demonstrates the vital role women played in economic production.

Law and Literature

Law and Literature PDF Author: Maria Aristodemou
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This book is an original contribution to the field of law and literature. In addition to seeing law as a form of literature, it sees literature as a form of law, and examines the law-making qualities of fiction to explore the fiction-making qualities of law. Its examples range from Greek myth to contemporary writing, film and popular music, and suggest new ways of living with and entering the legal labyrinth. Aristodemou's style is both accessible and entertaining. The book is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates in law as well as other disciplines concerned with law and literature, jurisprudence, and other options addressing the intersections between law and culture.

Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders

Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders PDF Author: Margaret Clunies Ross
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 184384639X
Category : Sagas
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Sagas of Icelanders, also called family sagas, are the best known of the many literary genres that flourished in medieval Iceland, most of them achieving written form during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Modern readers and critics often praise their apparently realistic descriptions of the lives, loves and feuds of settler families of the first century and a half of Iceland's commonwealth period (c. AD 970-1030), but this ascription of realism fails to account for one of the most important components of these sagas, the abundance of skaldic poetry, mostly in dróttkvætt "court metre", which comes to saga heroes' lips at moments of crisis. These presumed voices from the past and their integration into the narrative present of the written sagas are the subject of this book. It investigates what motivated Icelandic writers to develop this particular mode, and what particular literary effects they achieved by it. It also looks at the various paths saga writers took within the evolving prosimetrum (a mixed verse and prose form), and explores their likely reasons for using poetry in diverse ways. Consideration is also given to the evolution of the genre in the context of the growing popularity in Iceland of romantic and legendary sagas. A final chapter is devoted to understanding why a minority of sagas of Icelanders do not use poetry at all in their narratives.g prosimetrum (a mixed verse and prose form), and explores their likely reasons for using poetry in diverse ways. Consideration is also given to the evolution of the genre in the context of the growing popularity in Iceland of romantic and legendary sagas. A final chapter is devoted to understanding why a minority of sagas of Icelanders do not use poetry at all in their narratives.g prosimetrum (a mixed verse and prose form), and explores their likely reasons for using poetry in diverse ways. Consideration is also given to the evolution of the genre in the context of the growing popularity in Iceland of romantic and legendary sagas. A final chapter is devoted to understanding why a minority of sagas of Icelanders do not use poetry at all in their narratives.g prosimetrum (a mixed verse and prose form), and explores their likely reasons for using poetry in diverse ways. Consideration is also given to the evolution of the genre in the context of the growing popularity in Iceland of romantic and legendary sagas. A final chapter is devoted to understanding why a minority of sagas of Icelanders do not use poetry at all in their narratives.