The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas
The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas

Author: Ármann Jakobsson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 131704147X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The last fifty years have seen a significant change in the focus of saga studies, from a preoccupation with origins and development to a renewed interest in other topics, such as the nature of the sagas and their value as sources to medieval ideologies and mentalities. The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas presents a detailed interdisciplinary examination of saga scholarship over the last fifty years, sometimes juxtaposing it with earlier views and examining the sagas both as works of art and as source materials. This volume will be of interest to Old Norse and medieval Scandinavian scholars and accessible to medievalists in general.

The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas
The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas

Author: Ármann Jakobsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 1317041461

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The last fifty years have seen a significant change in the focus of saga studies, from a preoccupation with origins and development to a renewed interest in other topics, such as the nature of the sagas and their value as sources to medieval ideologies and mentalities. The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas presents a detailed interdisciplinary examination of saga scholarship over the last fifty years, sometimes juxtaposing it with earlier views and examining the sagas both as works of art and as source materials. This volume will be of interest to Old Norse and medieval Scandinavian scholars and accessible to medievalists in general.

Medieval Iceland: Politics, Patronage and Power
Medieval Iceland: Politics, Patronage and Power

Author: Sverrir Jakobsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2024-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781032348940

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is a review of Icelandic history from the settlement until the advent of the Reformation, with an emphasis on social and political change, but also on cultural developments such as the creation of a particular kind of literature, known throughout the world as the sagas.

Barbarians in the Sagas of Icelanders
Barbarians in the Sagas of Icelanders

Author: William H. Norman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1000415805

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores accounts in the Sagas of Icelanders of encounters with foreign peoples, both abroad and in Iceland, who are portrayed according to stereotypes which vary depending on their origins. Notably, inhabitants of the places identified in the sagas as Írland, Skotland and Vínland are portrayed as being less civilized than the Icelanders themselves. This book explores the ways in which the Íslendingasögur emphasize this relative barbarity through descriptions of diet, material culture, style of warfare and character. These characteristics are discussed in relation to parallel descriptions of Icelandic characters and lifestyle within the Íslendingasögur, and also in the context of a tradition in contemporary European literature, which portrayed the Icelanders themselves as barbaric. Comparisons are made with descriptions of barbarians in classical Roman texts, primarily Sallust, but also Caesar and Tacitus, showing striking similarities between Roman and Icelandic ideas about barbarians.

Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150–1400
Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150–1400

Author: Ármann Jakobsson

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-03-23

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 1501513869

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This anthology of international scholarship offers new critical approaches to the study of the many manifestations of the paranormal in the Middle Ages. The guiding principle of the collection is to depart from symbolic or reductionist readings of the subject matter in favor of focusing on the paranormal as human experience and, essentially, on how these experiences are defined by the sources. The authors work with a variety of medieval Icelandic textual sources, including family sagas, legendary sagas, romances, poetry, hagiography and miracles, exploring the diversity of paranormal activity in the medieval North. This volume questions all previous definitions of the subject matter, most decisively the idea of saga realism, and opens up new avenues in saga research.

Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders
Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders

Author: Gareth Lloyd Evans

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-01-10

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0192566857

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume is the first book-length study of masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders. Spanning the entire corpus of the Sagas of Icelanders—and taking into account a number of little-studied sagas as well as the more well-known works—it comprehensively interrogates the construction, operation, and problematization of masculinities in this genre. Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders elucidates the dominant model of masculinity that operates in the sagas, demonstrates how masculinities and masculine characters function within these texts, and investigates the means by which the sagas, and saga characters, may subvert masculine dominance. Combining close literary analysis with insights drawn from sociological theories of hegemonic and subordinated masculinities, notions of homosociality and performative gender, and psychoanalytic frameworks, the book brings to men and masculinities in saga literature the same scrutiny traditionally brought to the study of women and femininities. Ultimately, the volume demonstrates that masculinity is not simply glorified in the sagas, but is represented as being both inherently fragile and a burden to all characters, masculine and non-masculine alike.

Story, World and Character in the Late Íslendingasögur
Story, World and Character in the Late Íslendingasögur

Author: Rebecca Merkelbach

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2024-06-11

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1843846667

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.

Discourse in Old Norse Literature
Discourse in Old Norse Literature

Author: Eric Shane Bryan

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1843845970

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An examination of what dialogues and direct speech in Old Norse literature can convey and mean, beyond their immediate face-value.

In Search of the Culprit
In Search of the Culprit

Author: Lukas Rösli

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-12-06

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 3110725487

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite various poststructuralist rejections of the idea of a singular author-genius, the question of a textual archetype that can be assigned to a named author is still a common scholarly phantasm. The Romantic idea that an author created a text or even a work autonomously is transferred even to pre-modern literature today. This ignores the fact that the transmission of medieval and early modern literature creates variances that could not be justified by means of singular authorships. The present volume offers new theoretical approaches from English, German, and Scandinavian studies to provide a historically more adequate approach to the question of authorship in premodern literary cultures. Authorship is no longer equated with an extra-textual entity, but is instead considered a narratological, inner- and intertextual function that can be recognized in the retrospectively established beginnings of literature as well as in the medial transformation of texts during the early days of printing. The volume is aimed at interested scholars of all philologies, especially those dealing with the Middle Ages or Early Modern Period.

An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders
An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders

Author: Carl Phelpstead

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2020-06-17

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0813057566

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Combining an accessible approach with innovative scholarship, An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders provides up-to-date perspectives on a unique medieval literary genre that has fascinated the English-speaking world for more than two centuries. Carl Phelpstead draws on historical context, contemporary theory, and close reading to deepen our understanding of Icelandic saga narratives about the island’s early history. Phelpstead explores the origins and cultural setting of the genre, demonstrating the rich variety of oral and written source traditions that writers drew on to produce the sagas. He provides fresh, theoretically informed discussions of major themes such as national identity, gender and sexuality, and nature and the supernatural, relating the Old Norse-Icelandic texts to questions addressed by postcolonial studies, feminist and queer theory, and ecocriticism. He then presents readings of select individual sagas, pointing out how the genre’s various source traditions and thematic concerns interact. Including an overview of the history of English translations that shows how they have been stimulated and shaped by ideas about identity, and featuring a glossary of critical terms, this book is an essential resource for students of the literary form. A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh