Approaches to Old Norse literature - YBEC229

• Title: Approaches to Old Norse literature
• Guaranteed by: Programme SHV - Language and Literature Module (24-KO)
• Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
• Actual: from 2025
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 3
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, MC [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unknown (40)
• Min. number of students: 5
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Marie Novotná, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Mgr. Marie Novotná, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses available to incoming students

Annotation

English

The course draws on Icelandic sagas and Eddas to explore a variety of approaches to medieval literature. Selected Old Norse poetic and prose texts will be examined through the lenses of memory studies, narratology, religious studies, the history of ideas, media studies, and linguistics, revealing the rich and varied world hidden behind them. Guest lectures by experts from leading universities in the field of Old Norse studies will be an important part of the course, offering the opportunity to develop an understanding of academic English. Previous background in Viking Age or Old Norse literature is not required. It is possible to register over the limit - send me an email.

Last update: Novotná Marie, Mgr., Ph.D. (16.09.2025)

Syllabus

2.9.     Introduction: Genres of Old Norse literature
9.10.   Where do heroes come from?  -  Judy Quinn, University of Cambridge:

          Preparation: read all 3 Helgi poems in the Poetic Edda: https://cuni.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/420CKIS_INST/14fn9of/alma9926113237806986, pp. 110-137 (možno také v českém překladu EDDA od Ladislava Hegera, k dispozici v knihovně)

16.10. Rethinking narrative theory by considering the historical situatedness of storytelling -  Madita Knöpfle, University of Zürich
23.10.  Did Vikings have a soul?  -  History of ideas
30.10. Trolls through History -  Rudolf Simek, University of Bonn
6.11.    Gifts in Old Norse literature and in medieval Iceland and Scandinavia-  Historical anthropology 
13.11. The aura of the text -  Jürg Glauser, University of Zürich
20.11. Epic and Romance - Elizabeth Archibald, Durham university.
27.11. History of Old Norse Religion -  Pierre-Brice Stahl, University of Sorbonne
4.12.   Is it important to know the "Viking" language? -  Ivar Berg, University of Trondheim
11.12. What is hidden behind the words - Pragmaliguistics
18.12. Concluding discussion

Last update: Novotná Marie, Mgr., Ph.D. (12.10.2025)