Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Old Norse-Icelandic'

This thesis examines the vernacular psychology presented in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. It focuses on the concept 'hugr', generally rendered in English as ‘mind, soul, spirit’, and explores the conceptual relationships between emotion, cognition and the body. It argues that despite broad similarities, Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English vernacular psychology differ more than has previously been acknowledged. Furthermore, it shows that the psychology of Old Norse-Icelandic has less in common with its circumpolar neighbours than proposed by advocates of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism. The thesis offers a fresh interpretation of Old Norse-Icelandic psychology which does not rely on cross-cultural evidence from other Germanic or circumpolar traditions. In particular, I demonstrate that emotion and cognition were not conceived of ‘hydraulically’ as was the case in Old English, and that 'hugr' was not thought to leave the body either in animal form or as a person’s breath. I show that Old Norse-Icelandic psychology differs from the Old English tradition, and argue that the Old English psychological model is a specific elaboration of the shared psychological inheritance of Germanic whose origins require further study. These differences between the two languages have implications for the study of psychological concepts in Proto-Germanic, as I argue that there are fewer semantic components which can be reliably reconstructed for the common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages. As a whole, the thesis applies insights from cross-cultural linguistics and psychology in order to show how Old Norse-Icelandic psychological concepts differ not only from contemporary Germanic and circumpolar traditions but also from the Present Day English concepts used to describe them. The thesis comprises four chapters and conclusion. Chapter 1 introduces the field of study and presents the methodologies and sources used. It introduces the range of cross-cultural variety in psychological concepts, and places Old Norse-Icelandic 'hugr' and its Old English analogue 'mōd' in a typological perspective. Chapter 2 reviews previous approaches to early Germanic psychology and introduces the major strand of research that forms the background to this study: Lockett’s (2011) proposal that Old English vernacular psychology operated in terms of a ‘hydraulic model’, where the 'mōd' would literally boil and seethe within a person’s chest in response to strong emotions. Chapter 3 outlines the native Old Norse-Icelandic psychological model by examining indigenously produced vernacular texts. It looks first at the claims that 'hugr' could leave the body in animal form or as a person’s breath. It then describes the relationship between emotion, cognition and the body in Old Norse-Icelandic texts and contrasts this with the Old English system. Chapter 4 examines the foreign influences which could potentially account for the differences between the Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic systems. It looks first at the imported medical traditions which were known in medieval Scandinavia at the time Old Norse-Icelandic texts were being committed to writing. Next it considers the psychology of Christian tradition from the early Old Icelandic Homily Book to late-fourteenth-century devotional poetry. Finally, it examines the representation of emotion and the body in the translated Anglo-Norman and Old French texts produced at the court of Hákon Hákonarson and explores how this was transposed to native romances composed in Old Norse-Icelandic. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis and presents a proposal for the methodology of studying medieval psychological concepts with directions for further research.

The purpose of this thesis is an in-depth analysis of the Eddic poem Grímnismál found in the manuscript known as Codex Regius (GKS 2365 4to), located in Reykjavík, dated to c. 1270 and a fragment (AM 748 I 4to), located in Copenhagen, dated to c. 1300. While a great deal of work has been done on Grímnismál as part of the Elder Edda, there is yet no specific edition focusing on it alone. New studies on Germanic paganism and mythology show its shifting nature and the absence of specific tenets or uniform beliefs throughout the Germanic speaking world and in time. The relatively absent sources are similarly scattered. As such, the thesis suggests a new method of study, following a focused historical approach in which only Grímnismál is analysed in an attempt to understand the beliefs of the people that composed it. The nature of pagan belief itself prevents one from drawing more general conclusions on ‘Norse mythology' as a whole. Part 1 is divided into two chapters and deals with my approach, the nature of Germanic belief, and the sources available as well as techniques of interpretation for them, all relevant to the production of the arguments made in the thesis. Part 2 deals with Grímnismál itself: Chapter 1 provides an analysis of the manuscripts, Chapter 2 contains my editing notes and Chapter 3 analyses the contents of the poem, Chapter 4 consists of my conclusions to this study, focusing on the cosmology and the dating of the poem. Part 3 contains the edition of Grímnismál and is followed by Part 4 which is the commentary to the poem. The thesis is followed by two appendices, one containing a facing transcription of the manuscripts and the other being a glossary to all words used in Grímnismál. Finally, this thesis includes a digital edition worked on xml. This is available in the following link: https://starescomp.github.io/grimnismal/#idm140518410334752

This thesis argues that the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature which pertains to Iceland contains an intertextual narrative of the formation of Icelandic identity. An analysis of this narrative provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between literature and identity, as well as the potency of the artistic use of the idea of the past. The thesis identifies three salient narratives of communal action which inform the development of a discrete Icelandic identity, and which are examined in turn in the first three chapters of the thesis. The first is the landnám, the process of settlement itself; the second, the origin and evolution of the law; and the third, the assimilation and adaptation of Christianity. Although the roots of these narratives are doubtless historical, the thesis argues that their primary roles in the literature are as social myths, narratives whose literal truth- value is immaterial, but whose cultural symbolism is of overriding importance. The fourth chapter examines the depiction of the Icelander abroad, and uses the idiom of the relationship between þáttr (‘tale’) and surrounding text in the compilation of sagas of Norwegian kings Morkinskinna to consider the wider implications of the relationship between Icelandic and Norwegian identities. Finally, the thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of Sturlunga saga within this intertextual narrative, and its function as a set of narratives mediating between an identity grounded in social autonomy and one grounded in literature. The Íslendingasögur or ‘family sagas’ constitute the core of the thesis’s primary sources, for their subject-matter is focussed on the literary depiction of the Icelandic society under scrutiny. In order to demonstrate a continuity of engagement with ideas of identity across genres, a sample of other Icelandic texts are examined which depict Iceland or Icelanders, especially when in interaction with non-Icelandic characters or polities.

The Íslendingasögur, written in Iceland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, primarily describe the lives of Icelanders during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Many of these lives involve encounters with foreign peoples, both abroad and in Iceland, who are portrayed according to stereotypes which vary depending on the origins of those people. 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 thesis 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. Innovatively, comparisons are made with descriptions of barbarians in classical Roman texts, primarily Sallust, but also Caesar and Tacitus. Taking into account the availability and significance of classical learning in medieval Iceland, the comparison with Roman texts yields striking similarities between Roman and Icelandic ideas about barbarians. It is argued that the depiction of foreigners in the Íslendingasögur is almost identical to that of ancient Roman authors, and that the medieval Icelanders had both means and motive to use Roman ideas for inspiration in their own portrayal of the world. Ultimately it is argued that when the medieval Icelanders contemplated the peoples their Viking Age ancestors encountered around the world, they drew on classical ideas of the barbarian to complement the mix of oral tradition, literary inspiration and contemporary circumstance that otherwise form the Íslendingasögur.

El objetivo de la presente tesis es realizar un estudio sistemático de la recepción de los Hávamál, un poema éddico contenido en un manuscrito islandés del siglo XIII con el código MS GkS 2365 in 4°, conocido con el nombre habitual de Codex Regius. Los Hávamál son el segundo poema éddico que aparece en el manuscrito y su elección como objeto de estudio se debe por un lado, a su notable recepción ecdótica y crítico-literaria, y a sus múltiples traducciones. Es uno de los primeros textos en norreno occidental antiguo en ser publicados tras la aparición de la imprenta. La larga polémica existente en torno a su interpretación ha suscitado múltiples estudios críticos, que aún hoy en el 2015 continua siendo motivo de debate y controversia. La tesis desarrolla un estudio de la recepción ecdótica y los usos teórico-críticos de los Hávamál, que incluye las traducciones en los países de habla germánica. Para ello, la estructura de nuestro estudio se divide en dos partes: la primera contemplará la historia de las ediciones (recepción ecdótica), es decir, de la fijación del texto desde los procedimientos de la crítica textual, y la segunda se centrará en las traducciones y en la recepción de dicha obra en el discurso teórico-crítico. La primera parte de la tesis está centrada en la crítica textual del manuscrito: análisis del soporte material de los Hávamál y las cuestiones relacionadas con la datación de la copia del manuscrito y la datación de la composición del poema, la descripción de la letra del copista (análisis paleográfico) y de la lengua del poema, así como del lugar y de los motivos de su composición. Este primer recorrido sobre la historia textual y sobre la historia del manuscrito, se complementa con un estudio de la ecdótica del texto, reseñándose y analizándose las diferentes ediciones mecánicas de los Hávamál realizadas tras la invención de la imprenta. Se describirán las ediciones del poema y la fijación del texto en términos de legibilidad. La segunda parte de la tesis abre con un primer apartado en el que se detallarán las traducciones y versiones realizadas en Escandinavia, principalmente en Dinamarca, en Inglaterra y en los países de habla alemana entre los siglos XVII y principios del siglo XX. Se describirá en cada caso cuáles eran las coordenadas culturales, políticas y literarias en las que los Hávamál fueron recibidos y se irá trazando a lo largo de estos siglos la historia de la recepción teórico-crítica en las diferentes literaturas nacionales. El segundo apartado amplía con detalle una de las tendencias investigadoras más relevantes en el estudio de los Hávamál. Se describirá el paradigma de los estudios realizados hasta los años 70, llevados a cabo principalmente por autores alemanes. En el tercer apartado, se especificarán los diferentes paradigmas por los que ha pasado la investigación de la poesía éddica hasta la actualidad. Se expondrán las principales líneas de investigación más recientes, y los enfoques y conclusiones más relevantes en el análisis del poema. A mediados del siglo XX, los usos críticos de la poesía éddica y de los Hávamál dejan de estar al servicio de la legitimación cultural de proyectos políticos para pasar a ser un objeto problemático de los estudios literarios en el marco de la Academia. Las diferentes perspectivas sobre los Hávamál a partir de los años 70 serán fruto de la utilización de diferentes prácticas que darán importancia al estudio del poema desde diferentes dimensiones: la dimensión histórica, la dimensión ritualística, la oral-performativa e, incluso, la emocional.
The Odyssey of the Havamal is an investigation into manuscript transmission, translation, and literary and critical reception of the Havamal, in German-Speaking countries. The Havamal is an Old Norse poem preserved in the 13th century manuscript Codex Regius GkS 2365 in 4°. The first part of this study is concerned with the history of this manuscript. I analyze its paleographical and ecdotic aspects, and describe the main critical editions. The second part of the investigation examines the history of the poem's reception through political, cultural and literary appropiations from the first reference to the poem in the 17th century until the present. The main paradigms related to the Old Norse research studies will be observed and described, especially in relation to the Eddic poetry and specifically with the Havamal. The first paradigm begins in the 17th century and ends in the Second World War. During this time, the first edition and translation of the Havamal in 1665 was part of a major cultural and political programme carried by the Danish crown. In addition, the Romantic movement in England and Germany awakened enthusiasm for Old Norse poetry and inspired the first translated versions of Eddic poems, as well as discussions relating to translating policies. By the end of the 19th century, positivist philological studies were applied to Old Norse texts. These were characterized by text-oriented approaches that employed the genealogical or stemmatic method. This paradigm was developed mainly by German researchers, who applied this methodology in order to study the original form of the Havamal. The second main paradigm is related with the emergence of the literary studies in the 70s. After 1945, critical studies on the Havamal were not participatory in cultural legitimation of certain political and nationalistic purposes. Studies of the poem became a problematic object of study in the Academia.

This thesis takes a fresh, character-based approach to the Íslendingasögur. It is inspired by a narratological study that unites the functional and structural role of characters with their human, individualistic portrayal. My major objective is to demonstrate the important connection between characterisation and structure in the sagas. By drawing attention to characters that I term narrative triggers, I offer a way of reading the sagas that relies both on the narrative conventions of tradition and on the less predictable, personal interactions between the cast of any given saga. In the case of both major and minor figures in the Íslendingasögur a certain type of character is often present to perform necessary motivational functions, allowing the plot to develop. In Part I I emphasise the functional aspect of these characters, before exploring unusual examples that emphasise their individuality in Part II.The motivation of the plot is linked throughout to the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr. A secondary objective is to provide a clearer understanding of the nature and function of this commonly occurring character type. The ójafnaðarmaðr is frequently alluded to in scholarship,but this thesis provides the first in-depth study of the portrayal of these characters. The quality that informs them (ójafnaðr,‘inequity’, lit. ‘unevenness’) is a threat to one of the core values of saga society and hints at an ‘unbalancing’ of social interactions and of the narrative equilibrium itself. That this unbalance leads to changes in the social structure of the setting is a key factor in driving the plots of the sagas along. For this reason, a detailed examination of the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr is long overdue: they can be observed to perform a specific narrative function but are always fitted to suit their particular context. Focussing on the structural conventions of character introduction, Part I establishes my methodology and catalogues the examples of characters introduced as ójafnaðarmenn. The scope is limited to those introduced as such because it allows me to establish for the first time the full corpus and conventions of these characters and their introductions. Following developments in our understanding of the oral background to the sagas, my approach to these narratives is built upon the evidence of their shared origins in pre-literate storytelling [...]. The intersection between functionality and individuality in character brings certain aspects of the Íslendingasögur to the fore. Part II of this thesis shows that in combination with the structural markers explored in Part I, the sagas employ the collective perspective of the general public, other characters and ‘irrational’ motivators such as fate to contribute to their techniques of characterisation. Because disruptive qualities speak inherently of a difference in the way an individual sees themselves and in the way the public sees them, or we as an audience are meant to see them, figures termed ójafnaðarmaðr are an ideal focal point for the development of this study.

This thesis examines the memorial meaning attributed to royal power in the Icelandic legal tradition, as it is textually negotiated in sources extant from the period c. 1250-1500. It discusses the significance and functions of the Norwegian king's legal authority as part of the Icelanders' collective remembrance of their country's legal past (spanning the years c. 870-1302), and as a defining element in the creation of the Icelandic identity as a community of law. The scope of analysis covers thirteenth- to fifteenth-century legal sources (sections of law-books and legal texts preserving legal arrangements between Iceland and Norway made in the eleventh century and in the period c. 1260-1302), and a fourteenth-century account of the Norwegian king's involvement in a settlement dispute in ninth-century Iceland. These main sources are analysed against the background of several auxiliary sources (saga narratives, diplomas) from a New Philological perspective and scrutinised using the methods developed in cultural memory studies. This provides a novel perspective on the primary sources, filling a gap in recent scholarship on cultural memory in Old Norse literature and historiography. Both categories of texts, drawing on oral and written traditions of law-making and story-telling, are vehicles for multi-faceted culturally meaningful and often contradictory memories of the Norwegian king. The Icelandic laws preserve provisions bestowed upon the Icelanders by the Norwegian monarchs, whereas the sagas convey semi-mythological images of the monarchs, who act as legislators, negotiators of legal agreements with the Icelanders, and as law-keepers. By analysing the memorial functions of royal power in the primary sources, the thesis argues for the complexity of the Icelanders' self-definition as a kingless community of law, who nevertheless incorporate and actively engage with royal power, which shapes the collective memory of the country's legal tradition.

The argument of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it is to show that from the eighteenth century onwards Scottish scholars and writers have made a distinct and important contribution, hitherto mostly unnoted, to the dissemination of Old Norse history and literature in Britain. Furthermore Scottish writers such as Samuel Laing, Thomas Carlyle, and R.M. Ballantyne played a significant role in the creation of the literary notion of a Norse ethos which was to be a central point in the literary and journalistic debate in Scotland between c.1880 and 1940 on the relative merits of opposing Norse and Celtic influences on Scottish history, culture and society. Secondly, and more particularly, the thesis illustrates how this consciousness of a literary and historical Norse heritage in Scotland influenced many minor authors in Orkney and Shetland, and eight important Scottish writers in the twentieth century: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil M. Gunn, John Buchan, David Lindsay, Naomi Mitchison, Eric Linklater, and George Mackay Brown. The thesis examines in detail the Norse-inspired works of these writers and investigates how and why they became influenced by Old Norse history and literature, what sources they used, and what effect this had on their work. The Old Norse influence is mostly notable in the writers' attitudes to the Norse/Celtic debate, their use of saga and skaldic styles, their knowledge and application of Viking history, their interpretation and use of Old Norse mythology, and a belief in atavism and contemporary applications of a Norse ethos. The nature of this influence on each individual author varies both in extent and form, but its existence and relevance cannot be questioned, and the thesis argues that this Old Norse influence has thus played an interesting and significant role in modern Scottish literature.

Narratives of Nordic pre-history are common in textbooks of the Swedish 'folk school'. This thesis discusses them from an ideological critical perspective and analyses them as textbook myths. This analytic concept of myth is constructed and used as a tool for studying ideological expressions in pedagogical texts. It is compatible with a historical materialist, social constructivist and Gramsci inspired perspective towards folk schooling and can handle questions of selection and re-organisation of ancient narrative material. The study shows how a paternalistic ethnic ideology which showed the pupils how their ancestors immigrated and set up society and order is replaced by nationalistic myths where the Swedes are projected on the totality of the past. Idealisation of farmers and expressions that neutralise poverty and legitimates subordination are used continuously throughout the study period. After 1868 a national folk concept is established. Textbook myths with a euhemeristic portrayal of civilisation are replaced by other scientific ways of handling pre-historic religions including elements from nature mythology and evolutionary theory. The myths handle religions both through Christian polemics and theological projections. The results of the analyses are interpreted in the light of the contemporary socio-economic changes where a feudal agrarian society's principles for classifications and hierarchies are challenged and broken by the principles of a class society with a nationalistic ideology. In the concluding chapters the myths are discussed and interpreted in relation to curriculum codes and in a Gramsci inspired perspective as expressions of a passive bourgeois revolution, where intellectuals of the middle class conquered the school and the textbook myths by making alliances with the farming class and trying to neutralise the poor and the working class. The thesis contributes to research in the use of history, representation in pedagogical texts and to research in nationalism.

This dissertation explores certain attitudes towards Jews and Judaism in Old Norse literature. Regardless of an apparent lack of actual Jewish settlement in the Nordic region during the Middle Ages, medieval Icelanders and Norwegians frequently turned to the image of 'the Jew' in writing and in art, sometimes using him as an abstract theological model, or elsewhere constructing a similar kind of ethnic Other to the anti-Semitic tropes we find in medieval societies where gentiles really did live alongside Jews. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the differing histories and functions projected onto the absent Jew in medieval Scandinavia.
Germanic Languages and Literatures

This thesis investigates the representation of land and landownership in medieval Icelandic texts. I shall demonstrate that there is scant homogeneity in this representation; the variation between different narratives is startling and unusual. I seek to categorise this variability by identifying the lack of a secure tradition surrounding land and landownership, and exploring the possibilities open to the saga author to use land practices and myths as literary devices or to glorify the past. I also examine variability caused by the differences in the realm of 'actual' experience. I shall explore a range of narratives, from stories of the initial settlement of Iceland, to issues of inheritance, to conveyance and to dispute over territory. The last chapter takes a flip-side view of landownership to consider the representation of the landless of family saga narrative. The texts which I shall examine are the Íslendingasögur, Landnádmabók and Íslendingabók. Throughout the thesis I also make reference to Grágás for illumination and comparison. In the first and second chapters I also include archaeological evidence for discussion.

This dissertation examines the relationship between wisdom and identity in Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. At present, the study of medieval wisdom is largely tangential to the study of proverbs and maxims. This dissertation makes wisdom its primary object of study; it sees wisdom not just as a literary category, but also as a cultural discourse found in texts not usually included in the wisdom canon. I therefore examine both wisdom literature and wisdom in literature. The central characteristic of wisdom, I argue, is its liminality. The biblical question “Where is wisdom to be found?” is difficult to answer because of wisdom’s in-between-ness: it is ever between individuals, communities, and times (Job 28:12 Douay-Rheims). As a liminal discourse, wisdom both grounds and problematizes identity in Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. After a preliminary chapter that defines key terms such as “wisdom” and “wisdom literature,” I examine heroic wisdom in three characters who are defined by their wise traits and skills and yet who are ultimately betrayed by wisdom to death or exile. The implications of this problematic relation to wisdom are then examined in the next chapter, which analyzes the composition of wisdom in proverb poems. Like the wise hero, the poets represented in these poems blend their own voices with the voice of community, demonstrating that identity is open and therefore in need of constant revision. Next I examine how the liminality of wisdom is embodied in the figure of the wise monster, who negatively marks the boundaries of society and its desires. This then leads to a study of the reception of wisdom in chapter six, which focuses on instruction poems. Like narratives of wise monsters, these texts present lore as the nostalgic remnant of a tradition that defines identity, in this case the identity of a community. However, nostalgia assumes loss, and these texts also reveal an underlying fear that wisdom, the basis of the community’s identity, will be forgotten. Whether communal or individual, identity in this literature is both formed and threatened by liminal wisdom.
Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-08 15:35:46.885

abstract: This study examines the ways in which translators writing in two contemporary medieval languages, Old Norse-Icelandic and Middle English, approached the complicated doctrine of the bodily Assumption of Mary. At its core this project is dedicated to understanding the spread and development of an idea in two contemporary vernacular cultures and focuses on the transmission of that idea from the debates of Latin clerical culture into Middle English and Old Norse-Icelandic literature written for an increasingly varied audience made up of monastics, secular clergy, and the laity. The project argues that Middle English and Old-Norse Icelandic writing about the bodily Assumption of Mary challenges misconceptions that vernacular translations and compositions concerned with Marian doctrine represent the popular concerns of the laity as opposed to the academic language, or high Mariology, of the clergy.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation English 2014

Comparison of Old Norse and Proto-Norse Noun Declension The purpose of this thesis is to follow the development of noun declensions from Proto-Norse to the Old Norse (Old Icelandic) language. The first of the three chapters seeks to give a comprehensive overview of Proto-Norse noun declensions. This overview is based on the evidence of the older runic inscriptions and on reconstruction using relevant linguistic literature. Each of the declensions is presented in the form of a paradigm accompanied by commentary and quotations of preserved grammatical forms. The second and largest chapter presents a survey of Old Norse (Old Icelandic) noun declensions. The survey has two aims. The first aim is to provide a synchronic description of the Old Norse noun declension system which would not be encumbered by an excess of diachronic approach as is often the case in the traditional grammars of Old Norse. At the same time, however, it should show how Old Norse inflectional exponents and classes continue the Proto-Norse declensions as presented in the first chapter. There is also a discussion of some of the systemic causes leading to morphological changes in inflection. The third chapter sums up the previous diachronic analysis and questions the validity of the traditional designations of declension classes based on...

My Interdisciplinary dissertation examines illustrations in manuscripts and early print sources and reveals their participation in the transmission and reception of Old Norse mythology. My approach encompasses Material Philology and Media Specific Analysis. The reception history of illustrations of Old Norse Mythology affects our understanding of related Interdisciplinary fields such as Book History, Visual Studies, Literary Studies and Cultural Studies. Part One of my dissertation begins with a discussion of the tradition of Old Norse oral poetry in pagan Scandinavia and the highly visual nature of the poems. The oral tradition died out in Scandinavia but survived in Iceland and was preserved in vernacular manuscripts in the thirteenth century. The discovery of these manuscripts in the seventeenth century initiated a cycle of illustration that largely occurred outside of Iceland. Part One concludes with an analytical survey of illustrations of Old Norse mythology in print sources from 1554 to 1915 revealing important patterns of transmission. Part Two traces the technological history of production of digital editions and manuscript facsimiles back to the seventeenth century when manuscripts were hand-copied and published by means of copperplate engravings. Part Two also discusses the scholarly and cultural prejudices towards images that are only now slowly fading. Part Two concludes with a description of my prototype for a digital image repository named MyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository). MyNDIR will facilitate the emergence of images of Old Norse Studies from the current informal crowd sourcing of material on the web to a digital image repository supporting the dissemination of accurate scholarly knowledge in a widely accessible form. Part Three presents two thematic case studies that demonstrate the value of applying the skills of visual literacy to illustrations of Old Norse mythology. The first study examines Jakob Sigurðsson’s illustrations of Norse gods in hand-copied paper manuscripts from eighteenth-century Iceland. The second study examines illustrations by prominent Norwegian artists in the editions of Snorre Sturlason: Kongesagaer published in 1899 and 1900 respectively. What emerged from these studies is an understanding that illustrations offer insights for the study of Old Norse texts that the words of the texts alone cannot provide.
Graduate
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0377
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pabaer@uvic.ca

This work presents an interpretation of icelandic narrative about the Seal Skin with regard to the Old Norse symbolic frame, so the possible paralel motifs and motivic "cores" could arise, even in spite of the temporal period between the origin of our primary text and the origin of Old Norse myths and sagas. The approach of this work is based in structural theories and tools used by Claude Lévi-Strauss, where these tools help us identify the basic narrative units called mythemes: primarily they include characters, objects and settings. The basic principle of founding these mythemes in different genres and cultural contexts is the method of amplification, which is used in psychological and clinical practice of Carl Gustav Jung. The aim of this work is to grasp and comprehend the narrative and its meaning and connect the Old North mythical tradition with modern folklore of Iceland. The result is in-depth analysis of the symbolical net, in which the narrative and its mythemes are embedded. Furthemore this analysis displays the contribution and benefits of the particular interpretation levels and its usefulness for future research. Key words: seal skin, seal woman, seal, icelandic folklore, Old Norse myths

This dissertation considers the literary treatment of revenge in medieval England and Iceland. Vengeance and feud were an essential part of these cultures; far from the reckless, impulsive action that the word conjures up in modern minds, revenge was considered both a right and a duty and was legislated and regulated by social norms. It was an important tool for obtaining justice and protecting property, family, and reputation. Accordingly, many medieval literary works seem to accept revenge without question. Many, however, evince a great sensitivity to the ambiguities and paradoxes inherent in an act of revenge. In my study, I consider three works that are emblematic of this responsiveness to and indeed, anxiety about revenge. Chapter one focuses on the Old English poem Beowulf; chapter two moves on to discuss Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale and Tale of Melibee from the Canterbury Tales; and chapter three examines the Old Icelandic family saga, Ljósvetninga saga. I focus in particular on the treatment of the avenger in each work. The poet or author of each work acknowledges the perspective of the avenger by allowing him to express his motivations, desires, and justifications for revenge in direct speech. Alongside this acknowledgement, however, is the author’s own reflection on the risks, rewards, and repercussions of the avenger’s intentions and actions. The resulting parallel but divergent narratives highlight the multiplicity of viewpoints found in any act of revenge or feud and reveal a fundamental ambivalence about the value, morality, and necessity of revenge. Each of the works I consider resists easy conclusions about revenge in its own context and remains incredibly current in the way it poses challenging questions about what constitutes injury, punishment, justice, and revenge in our own time.

Some such as Schwink (2004) have analyzed diachronic developments in Germanic gender as a whole, while others like Steinmetz (1985, 2001) and Trosterud (2006) have looked at diachronic changes in grammatical gender in the North Germanic languages. Specifically within the history of Icelandic, Steinmetz and Trosterud both argue for a neuter-default gender system for Old Norse (and for Modern Icelandic). This report looks at loan words from the Old Norse period drawn from historical sources, such as the Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) and Laxdœla Saga, and compares their gender assignment then with their gender in Modern Icelandic in order to see if any of their originally assigned genders changed in the modern language. That none of the loans analyzed in this report changed their gender assignment from neuter to masculine as in West Germanic supports Steinmetz' and Trosterud's notions of Icelandic having a neuter-default gender system. These findings also support Schwink's view (2004:99), when he writes that Icelandic's gender system remains relatively unchanged from that of Old Norse.
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