Old Norse Literature Interpretation Seminar - ASK500369
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Schedule Noticeboard
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The course shall be devoted to one of Old Norse literary genres. Here two examples:
Interpretation of Old Norse Mythological Poems Old Norse mythological poetry, extant mostly in The Elder Edda represent a unique set of texts describing one of the great pre-Christian religions of Europe – Old Norse heathen religion. Consequently, they are one of the key sources for inquiries into Old Norse worldview. Their interpretation is also necessary for understanding the Old Norse world, although they belong to the most cryptical Old Norse texts. Often, we are not able to grasp and unriddle the ideas and images we find there, their language represents a peculiar „language island“ in Old Norse literature and the question about their date and provenience remain notoriously unresolved. Were Old Norse mythological poems ritual texts or did they just use mythological lore to entertain the readers? Did their unknown authors want to praise heathen gods, or did they view them with sceptical distance? Or were they – as some modern scholars has it – created in Christian period and represent a nostalgic „souvenirs“ of a disappeared world of Old Norse myth? The course obviously cannot intend to answer these complicated questions. Rather, it tries to describe the basic scholarly positions and their background, tries to sketch the history of scholarship standing behind those questions and evaluate the evidence the scholars used when answering them. The course is intended for the students of Scandinavian studies, nevertheless, interested students of any subject (especially historians of literature, historians, philologist, and students of religious studies) are welcome. The course does not presuppose any special knowledges and skills. Even the knowledge of Old Norse is not presupposed, all Old Norse texts will be available in English (and if necessary, Czech, German etc). On the other hand, interest in the matter, active participation in the discussions, willingness to read scholarly literature and preparing reports are required. Interpretation of the Icelandic Family Sagas Icelandic Family Sagas represent one of the most important corpuses of the medieval vernacular literature. It includes some fifty texts of different length, which were written down from oral tradition, usually in 13th century. They describe the histories of important Icelandic families and the lives of their members since the time of the settlement of Iceland up to the acceptation of Christianity around the year 1000. Dark fatality, unerring logic of the blood feud and objective style of narration make the Icelandic family sagas adorable (and inimitable) focal point of modern authors and critics. Ted Hughes describes them as "one of the great marvels of world literature", Seamus Heaney takes them for a "testimony to the human spirit's ability not only to endure what fate may send it but to be renewed by the experience" there is a famous saying of Milan Kundera stating that "the glory of the sagas is indisputable". The lesser-known dark side of the genre is represented by many unresolved philological problems attached to the family sagas’ date, provenience, and mode of emergence. In how far the text we have represent the oral tradition behind them? How much of it do we owe to the literary mastery of the scribes? Are there influences of learned European writing of high Middle Ages traceable in their texts? Do they represent communal “social narration,” or shall we look for self-confident authors in modern style? Do they describe the heathen ethic or Christian worldview? And do they reflect a reality of the Icelandic experience, or should we compare them to the fictions of modern historical novels? The course obviously cannot intend to answer these complicated questions. Rather, it tries to describe the basic scholarly positions and their background, tries to sketch the history of scholarship standing behind those questions and evaluate the evidence the scholars used when answering them. And since reading sagas is a fresh and entertaining activity, analysis of the narrative technique of the sagas will be an inextricable part of the course. The course is intended for the students of Scandinavian studies, nevertheless, interested students of any subject (especially historians of literature, historians, philologist, and students of religious studies) are welcome. The course does not presuppose any special knowledges and skills. Even the knowledge of Old Norse is not presupposed, all Old Norse texts will be available in English (and if necessary, Czech, German etc). On the other hand, interest in the matter, active participation in the discussions, willingness to read scholarly literature and preparing reports are required. Last update: Pastyříková Iveta, Mgr. (21.11.2023)
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Last update: Pastyříková Iveta, Mgr. (21.11.2023)
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