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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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.

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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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