Fyrirlestrar / Lectures
Ela Sefcikova
Medieval Texts, Modern Approaches
A Queer Reading of Loki in Old Norse Literature
Fimmtudaginn 7. nóvember 2024 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 16.30
Edda 218
Loki plays a central role in disrupting the social order of the æsir in medieval texts like the Prose and Poetic Edda. His transgressions of social norms include gender fluidity, sexual misconduct, cowardice and the breaking of oaths. Even his identity is unstable as it shifts between texts and he takes on multiple names, such as Loptr, Lóðurr and Þǫkk, and shapes, such as salmon, horse and flea. This lecture will explore the ways in which queer theory (especially the works of Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick) can provide new perspectives on Loki’s role in the surviving medieval narratives, focusing on the rifts that Loki creates among the characters around him, as well as the inconsistencies and incoherence within Loki himself. Previous scholarly literature has largely focused on making sense of Loki, or ‘solving’ the problem of Loki. Queer theory, on the other hand, provides a framework for centring the discontinuities and ruptures that can be found on the margins of dominant social structures, which makes it a useful tool in analysing Loki’s character in the surviving medieval texts. Loki’s transgressions play an important role in the texts he inhabits, but his actions also help the æsir and reinforce their dominance over other social groups within the cosmology of the eddas, making him a complex figure that cannot easily fit into any one category or function.
Ela Sefcikova is a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavian Studies at the Nordeuropa-Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She holds a BA and M.Phil. in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include gender and queer studies, new philology and medieval Icelandic literature.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.
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Fyrirlestrar / Lectures
Helgi Þorláksson
Gissur meðal Gaddgeðla
Um ætlaða Suðureyjaferð Gissurar Þorvaldssonar
Fimmtudaginn 31. október 2024 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, October 31, 2024, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu / Edda auditorium
Aðra aðalgerð Sturlungu má skilja þannig að Gissur Þorvaldsson hafi ferðast frá Noregi og dvalist á Suðureyjum fyrir vestan Skotland veturinn 1257-8, síðan farið aftur til Noregs sumarið 1258, hlotið jarlstign og haldið að svo búnu til Íslands. Hin ætlaða Suðureyjaferð er sjaldan rædd í skrifum íslenskra fræðimanna. Hér verður grafist fyrir um hvaðan vitneskjan muni komin um förina og hvort hún sé trúverðug. Fyrirlesari færir rök fyrir því að Gissur hafi verið á Suðureyjum og farið þangað á vegum Noregskonungs. Í fyrirlestrinum verður leitast við að setja förina í samband við ákafa viðleitni Hákonar gamla Noregskonungs til að mynda stórveldi í Norður-Atlantshafi. En hvert var mikilvægi ferðarinnar fyrir Gissur og hvaða áhrif hafði hún á verkefnið sem honum var falið, að koma Íslandi undir konung? Algengt var að telja, og er kannski enn, að Gissur hafi leikið tveimur skjöldum gagnvart konungi og jafnframt dulið eftir mætti fyrir löndum sínum að hann lofaði konungi að fá þá til að samþykkja skattgreiðslur. Er þetta líklegt fyrst hann naut svo mikils trausts konungs eins og Suðureyjaferðin bendir til? Leitast verður við að varpa ljósi á hverja Gissur fann helst að máli í Suðureyjum og gerð grein fyrir áleitni Skotakonungs við suðureyska höfðingja og mikilvægi norskra tengsla fyrir ráðamenn á eyjunum. Spurt er hvort saga norskrar áleitni í Suðureyjum geti ekki varpað nokkru ljósi á sambærilega áleitni á Íslandi.
Helgi Þorláksson er prófessor emeritus í sagnfræði við Háskóla Íslands. Hann fékkst í kennslu og rannsóknum einkum við Íslands- og Norðurlandasögu frá um 900 til um 1800, svið pólitískrar sögu, félagssögu og hagsögu. Doktorsritgerð hans fjallar um hagsögu Íslands á 13. og 14. öld og náin tengsl við Noreg. Fyrirlesari hefur tvisvar ferðast um Suðureyjar, í seinna skiptið í júní sl.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á íslensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in Icelandic and is open to all.
Málþing — Symposium
Forn kveðskapur enskur og norrænn — Old English and Old Norse Poetry
Málþing á vegum Miðaldastofu Háskóla Íslands — A University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies Symposium
Föstudaginn 25. október 2024 kl. 14.00-16.30 — Friday, October 25, 2024, at 14.00-16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu — Edda auditorium
Dagskrá — Program:
14.00-14.30 Miriam Conti, University of Bergen: The jigsaw of Alvíssmál: false fits of textual transmission
14.30-15.00 Yulia Osovtsova, University of Stavanger: Snorri the architect: Prosimetrical creation of the mythological universe
15.00-15.30 Kaffihlé — Coffee Break
15.30-16.00 Bianca Patria, University of Oslo: How to Kill a Dwarf: Snorri, the Mead of Poetry and a Late Kenning Type
16.00-16.30 Nelson Goering, University of Oslo: Type A Verses with Light Second Lifts in Beowulf: Reviewing the Evidence
Málþingið fer fram á ensku og er öllum opið. — The symposium will be conducted in English. All are welcome to attend.
Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands — The University of Iceland Center for Medieval Studies
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Miriam Conti
The jigsaw of Alvíssmál: false fits of textual transmission
Alvíssmál is a puzzling poem in many different ways. It has a relatively rigid and repetitive structure, and the narrative frame is rather subsidiary. Its main scope is to provide poetic synonyms about earthly and heavenly matters, rather than tell an original mythological episode.
It is also interesting with regard to intertextuality, as Snorri quotes stanzas 20 and 30 in Skáldskaparmál. There are, however, remarkable lexical and, sometimes, syntactical inconsistencies between the Poetic and the Prose Edda, not least within the different manuscripts of Snorra Edda. In order to better understand the process of transmission of this poem, it is necessary to consider such differences singularly.
This paper will focus on a selection of the textual inconsistencies between stanzas 20 and 30 of Alvíssmál between the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda and the witnesses of Snorra Edda, and whether those can be attributed to different oral traditions or be the result of scribal transmission.
Miriam Conti is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bergen, working on a thesis about the prehistory and intertextuality of Eddic poetry. Her background is in linguistics (Sapienza University of Rome) and Old Norse philology (University of Oslo). Her interests include textual criticism, historical linguistics, Latin influence in Old Norse, and language acquisition.
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Yulia Osovtsova
Snorri the architect: Prosimetrical creation of the mythological universe
The famous medieval Icelandic handbook on poetics called Edda, traditionally dated to the years 1221–25, takes a central position within the corpus of Old Norse literature. It often serves as the first introduction to the world of Old Norse mythology and poetry. Despite being a medieval work written some two hundred years after Iceland’s Christianization, Snorra Edda, and Gylfaginning specifically, remain our main sources to Norse mythology.
In Gylfaginning, Snorri quotes a large number of eddic stanzas, which have the purpose to corroborate the account given in prose. The poetry thus receives an auxiliary function in the overall structure of the text – the stanzas are generally inserted to provide evidence to Snorri’s narrative. At the same time, they are presented as authentic and as the source of traditional knowledge, which is transmitted in prose in Gylfaginning.
The treatise thus bears witness to Snorri’s reception and interpretation of poetry, both of its form and content. However, since Snorra Edda is generally considered as an important source to Norse mythology, there is a strong tendency to interpret the myths and allusions to myths found in eddic and skaldic poetry in accordance with Snorri’s narratives. In my opinion it is crucial to analyse Snorri’s attitude to poetic tradition and to examine his method of prosimetrical composition in order to get a better understanding of the lens through which we tend to approach Old Norse tradition.
The presentation will focus on Snorriʼs method of prosimetrical composition in Gylfaginning. The overarching question will be: How did Snorri use identifiable poetic sources in order to create the mythological universe we find in his work? Moreover, it will be demonstrated how his attempt to align Old Norse myths with the Biblical narratives enabled him to construct non-existent connections between mythical creatures and places, which had a significant impact on the mythological topography presented by him in Gylfaginning. The famous world tree, Yggdrasill, found in the centre of this universe, will provide a great case study to exemplify Snorriʼs method.
Yulia Osovtsova is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Stavanger. She holds an MA in Viking and Medieval Studies from the University of Oslo (2021) and is a member of the research project Old Norse poetry and the development of saga literature. Her research interests are Old Norse poetry and grammatical literature, as well as Snorra Edda.
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Bianca Patria
How to Kill a Dwarf: Snorri, the Mead of Poetry and a Late Kenning Type
We are all familiar with Snorri Sturluson’s account of the mead-of-poetry myth in Skáldskaparmál: the inspiring drink is brewed by the dwarfs Fjalarr and Galarr from the blood of the wise being Kvasir and it passes from hand to hand, by means of trickery or violence, until it is eventually obtained by Óðinn. Several details of this complex story are attested in eddic and skaldic sources. A survey of the kennings for ‘poetry’ reveals, however, an interesting distribution: while most of the other creatures named by Snorri are attested in datable early sources, the dwarfs Fjalarr and Galarr are less securely attested in poems composed before the late twelfth century. In early verse, dwarfs and poetry seem to be connected only in a few and textually dubious cases. After c. 1150, by contrast, ‘the mead of the dwarf[s]’ suddenly becomes a widespread kenning-type, but is found in fully Christian, learned and antiquarian poems such as Rekstefja, Snæfríðardrápa and Íslendingadrápa. This kenning type is prescribed in Skáldskaparmál, however, and this has influenced not only the later poetic tradition (including rímur), but also editorial readings and interpretations. By means of a critical evaluation of the datable poetic evidence, this talk suggests that dwarfs were not involved in Viking Age versions of the mead-of-poetry story.
Bianca Patria is a postdoctoral fellow in Old Norse Philology at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo. Her interests include Old Norse and Germanic poetry, historical linguistics and metrics, while her research focuses mainly on the diction of skaldic poetry.
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Nelson Goering
Type A Verses with Light Second Lifts in Beowulf: Reviewing the Evidence
The most frequent verse pattern in Beowulf is what Sievers labeled type A, with the stress contour SwSw (strong-weak-strong-weak), that is, with a roughly trochaic rhythm. Normally the two metrical prominences (lifts, S-positions) are both either heavy syllables or a resolved sequence of a light syllable plus some other syllable. There are well over 2000 half-lines of this type (roughly a third of all verses in the poem). The second lift can only be filled with a light syllable on its own if the position before it is also stressed: SsS̆w (type A2k). There are, however, perhaps type A six verses in Beowulf that seem to show a light second lift, SwS̆w, unprompted by any normal condition that would allow suspension of resolution: 719a, 845a, 881a, 954a, 1828b, and 2430b. The last of these, Hrēðel cyning “king Hrethel” exemplifies the type. There are also six examples of possible light lifts in type A3 verses (wwS̆w).
For three of the type A verses, the standard editions generally adopt alternate readings (719a) or posit archaic/dialectal linguistic variants (881a, 1828b) that result in the second lift scanning as heavy after all. But the other three are often accepted as valid, if rare, metrical variants (e.g. Fulk, Bjork, & Niles 2008: 330; Pascual 2013: 56). I propose instead that two old emendations should be revived and adopted in 845a (ofer·wunnen for ofer·cumen, Kaluza 1894: 82) and 954a (ge·fēred for ge·fremed, Andrew 1948: 138), which would provide these verses with heavy second lifts as well (the latter example is also supported on non-metrical grounds). In the interest of time, the type A3 verses will not be considered in detail, but they too can be treated similarly.
This leaves only 2430b, long recognized as metrically problematic, to stand as an example of a possible light second lift. How this anomalous verse should be viewed depends on one’s general views of textual criticism. It could be emended as well, but only through a more interventionist reordering of several words. Alternatively, an exceptional and linguistically unmotivated second stress has been posited for the second syllable of Hrḗðèl, eliminating the metrical anomaly but introducing a linguistic anomaly. However this verse is approached, it is isolated and cannot serve as reasonable evidence for the theory that the Beowulf-poet accepted light second lifts.
Nelson Goering is an MSCA postdoc at the University of Oslo, previously of Ghent and Oxford (where he received a DPhil in comparative philology and general linguistics). He works on the phonology of early Germanic. His open-access monograph Prosody in Medieval English and Norse is available from Oxford University Press.
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Málþingið fer fram á ensku og er öllum opið.
The symposium will be conducted in English. All are welcome to attend.
Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands — The University of Iceland Center for Medieval Studies
Fyrirlestrar/Lectures
Rosemary Power
‘The great Book of Columcille, the chief relic of the western world’
The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the late eighth century
Fimmtudaginn 19. september 2024 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, September 19, 2024, at 16.30
Edda 218
The Book of Kells was apparently conceived in the late eighth century in honour of the bi-centenary of the death of Iona’s founding saint, Columcille, latinised Columba. It is a Gospel book with preliminary material and numerous illuminations consisting of ‘portraits’, full-page text images and minor passage-markers. They use an extensive palette, and refer to both the text and to each other through intricate yet visibly delightful concepts. The paper considers briefly the life of Columcille as known through an early Vita and other writings; his journey from Ireland to the Hebridean island of Iona, now part of Scotland; the influences that persisted in the monastic community he founded there and on its daughter-houses throughout the Gaelic-speaking world and beyond; and the reasons the book was taken to Kells in Ireland and later to Dublin. Battered and incomplete, it remains a remarkable work with evidence of widespread influences, both geographical and intellectual, which scholars have only recently began to interpret again.
The talk will focus on a small number of the images, demonstrating the multiple uses of colour; interpreting the intentions in terms of the very positive theology found in this Gospel book and in relation to some of the interpretations of the time; and the visual links between images.
Rosemary Power gained her doctorate on the Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda and their Irish material. She has published academically on Norse-Gaelic literary links, Hebridean history in the Norse period, and folk tradition. She has also published some ten books for the general reader, including Image and vision: reflecting with the Book of Kells (Veritas, Dublin, 2022). Now retired, she works on the medieval pilgrimage routes between Donegal in Ireland and Iona; and is completing academic articles and a book on Vatnsdalur in the 1970s, a time when she lived there. She is an Associate Researcher of the University of Galway, Ireland.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.
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Fyrirlestrar Miðaldastofu
Ryder C. Patzuk-Russell
Financing Piety, Work, and Retirement
Exploring Próventa and Próventumenn
Fimmtudaginn 9. nóvember 2023 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu / Edda auditorium
The issue of retirement is at the center of the current reappraisal of Icelandic monasteries and monastic culture. In the past often viewed as little more than retirement homes for aristocrats, recent research has helped illuminate the variety of social and cultural functions Icelandic monasteries could perform. And yet, some medieval Icelanders did move to monasteries late in life, and lived at monasteries without living under the Rule. Retirement, in whatever form the concept can be understood in a medieval context, was a part of Icelandic monastic culture, but in a more complex and nuanced way than has yet been explored.
This paper will present preliminary research exploring the term próventa, its uses and significations, and its relationship to the idea of retirement. A próventa was a type of financial agreement, a payment for long term housing and services, made by a próventumaður. Most próventumenn lived at monasteries, but some also lived at cathedrals, or even outside any such major religious institution. Some of them worked, some had children. Examining the various meanings and contexts of the term próventa can thereby give us not only greater insight into monastic culture, but into medieval Icelandic social and religious history more broadly.
Ryder C. Patzuk-Russell is a Polonez Bis research fellow at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He finished his MA in Medieval Iceland Studies at the University of Iceland in 2012, and a PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2017. His first book, The Development of Education in Medieval Iceland, was published by De Gruyter and MIP in 2021. His current project, „Monasteries on the Edge of the World: Church and Society in Late Medieval Iceland,“ explores monastic history in Iceland from numerous perspectives, and he is also producing a new English translation of Lárentíus saga byskups.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.
Fyrirlestrar Miðaldastofu
Ciaran McDonough
What relevance did medieval Irish law have in the nineteenth century?
Fimmtudaginn 2. nóvember 2023 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu / Edda auditorium
The project to translate the corpus of medieval Irish law was the antiquarian project of the longest duration in nineteenth-century Ireland, running between 1853 and 1901. At its inception, the proposed legal translations were widely anticipated for their purported potential in unlocking the secrets of Ireland’s “ancient” past. At the publication of the first volume in the series in 1865, European Celticists celebrated the work for its philological value. Yet, early Irish law has held a special place in the popular imagination for what various non-scholarly authors have imagined society under these laws to have been. Tying in with the idea of a golden age, this frequently includes an egalitarian society with little gender disparity and, as such, means that the laws were imagined to provide an alternative justice which was denied through official channels.
This lecture will focus on the afterlife of medieval Irish law by discussing the genesis and production of Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland and how this publication made the legal corpus more accessible for further use. It will begin with an overview of the medieval corpus before turning to previous attempts to translate the laws. The mid-nineteenth century will be discussed and will be set in the context of the pan-European phenomenon of medieval legal translations from around the same time period. It will then look at the project itself and the various problems which led to its long duration. The remainder of the presentation will examine how the publication and translation of the laws led to discussions about their contents and potential for use. This included Nationalist views about a potential law code for an imagined future independent Ireland; a court case where early Irish law was invoked in the 1930s and 1940s; and a series of articles on early Irish land law in a Norwegian newspaper in the 1880s.
Ciaran McDonough is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow in the Institute of History at the University of Iceland, where she runs her project Medieval Irish and Medieval Icelandic Texts in Nineteenth-Century Translation. She was awarded a PhD by the University of Galway in 2017 for a thesis on nineteenth-century Irish antiquarian research. Her research focuses on antiquarian research and scholarly networks in nineteenth-century Europe.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.
