Fyrirlestrar Miðaldastofu 2022-2023

Fyrirlestrar Miðaldastofur 2022-2023

Centre for Medieval Studies Lecture Series 2022-2023

Program in reverse order:

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A Berserkr in Shining Armour

Berserker Fury, Werewolf, and Mental Trauma in Kentao Miura’s manga Berserk

Fimmtudaginn 30. mars 2023 kl. 16.30

Thursday, March 30, 2023, at 16.30

Lögberg 101

Written by Kentaro Miura (1966 – 2021), Berserk is a dark fantasy seinen manga (young adults’ manga) that has enjoyed immense popularity both in Japan and overseas since its initial publication in 1989. Still ongoing today (despite the author’s recent death), the manga has been adapted in the subsequent years into two animated TV series (aired between 1997 and 1998, and between 2016 and 2017, respectively), an animated film trilogy (2012), and a memorial edition in 2022.

Firmly grounded in the fantasy genre, the manga makes creative uses of an impressive array of medieval and medievalist images, to such an extent that it is frequently compared to George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and regarded by many viewers as its Japanese manga-esque counterpart. However, the central idea is, as its title suggests, constructed around the image of the Old Norse-Icelandic berserkr/úlfheðnar warriors, manifested in the characterisation of Guts, a mercenary-turned-monster-slayer around whom the manga unfolds. However, while Guts does start as someone who fights in a similar style to the Old Norse berserkir as perceived in popular culture (i.e. whose battle frenzy comes from within and who are characterised by lack of protective clothing), his berserkr-ness is represented as originated from his personal trauma, and he does not become a berserkr proper (in the manga’s terms) until he has obtained the Berserker Armour—a full-sized wolf-shaped armour that gradually externalises his fury and trauma, thus contributing to his healing and re-incorporation to the human world. Both the armour’s existence and function, therefore, are the very opposite to the core of the conventional berserkr tradition.

In this paper I address this deviation and the nuanced image of berserkr as portrayed in the manga, which is by no means unique to Berserk; likewise, externalisation of the berserkr fury (originated from some traumatic memories/emotions) in an armour is also found in Fate/Zero, another popular Japanese animated series in recent years. To do so, I divide the paper into three parts. The first two parts focus on the portrayal of trauma—the central theme of the manga—on two levels: societal and individual; the former serves as an introduction to Berserk’s medievalist storyworld—especially its historico-mythological set-up—so as to lay the foundation for the latter, where the role of the Berserk Armour and the multi-layered meaning of berserkr are developed and contextualised. In the second part, i.e. individual trauma, I analyse the two stages of Guts’ development: when he fights physically as a human but in essence as a conventional berserkr; and when he fights physically as the berserk (in the manga’s terms) but in essence as a human. For the second stage, I will also introduce to my analysis the Old Norse-Icelandic werewolf narratives, as the Berserk Armour symbolically transforms him into a wolf, thus uniting two different yet connected traditions from the Old Norse. In third part, I take a step back to look at the larger picture and contextualise Miura’s creation in the discourse of (global) medievalism, inviting the audience to ponder over the a series of questions that Berserk’s presentation of the ‘medieval’ raises and, in particular, the potentials of interpreting the medieval through the lens of modern popular culture.

 

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á ensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

Streymi/Live stream: https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65121313779

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Duane Hamacher

The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars

Þriðjudaginn 28. mars 2023 kl. 16.30

Tuesday, March 28, 2023, at 16.30

Lögberg 101

Indigenous Elders of the world are expert observers of the stars. They teach that everything on the land is reflected in the sky, and everything in the sky is reflected on the land. These living systems of knowledge contain a wealth of empirical science and information about natural events, cycles, and transient events, challenging conventional ideas about the nature of science and the longevity of oral tradition. In this seminar, we will explore the ways Indigenous astronomy is influencing the history and philosophy of science, how it is leading to new advances in astrophysics, how it is helping us better understand natural hazards and climate change, and how we can move forward by scientists collaborating with the Elders.

 

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á ensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

Streymi/Live stream: https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65121313779

 

Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands — The University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies

Stofnun Árna Magnússonar — The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies

í samstarfi við Félagsfræði-, mannfræði- og þjóðfræðideild og Íslensku- og menningardeild Háskóla Íslands

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Yoav Tirosh

Towards a Study of Disability in Fifteenth-Century Iceland

 

Fimmtudaginn 2. mars 2023 kl. 16.30

Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 16.30

Lögberg 101

Disability and embodied difference constitute a relatively new avenue of research in the study of medieval Iceland, which allows the researcher to move from medical categorizations and focus on the societal and cultural implications of disability. This field of study was introduced into Old Norse studies through the work of Edna Edith Sayers (published as Lois Bragg), Annette Lassen, and Knut Brynhildsvoll, and significantly expanded through the work of Todd Michelson-Ambelang, John Sexton, and Christina Lee, among many others. The recent RANNÍS-funded project Fötlun fyrir tíma fötlunar — Disability before Disability, run by Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir, offered groundbreaking research by Ármann Jakobsson, Christopher Crocker and Anne Katharina Heiniger that firmly established disability studies as a critical topic of enquiry.

Hitherto, the focus of these studies has mainly been on various corpuses of the Icelandic sagas (such as the Íslendingasögur, konungasögur, and samtíðarsögur), myth, or legal codes, with some exceptions to this rule. The sagas, written between the late twelfth to fifteenth century are usually examined in light of the narrative of the Sturlungaöld civil unrest and takeover by the Norwegian king during the thirteenth century. As a consequence, historical and literary history research of Iceland have tended to focus on the thirteenth century, with the fourteenth century relatively neglected, and the fifteenth century treated as an afterthought. Disability Studies in Old Norse naturally followed suit.

This paper sets the stage for a more thorough examination of the Icelandic fifteenth century in the context of medieval disability. Legal material as well as the wide supply of diplomatic material, namely church inventories, letters, land deals and testaments, will be the focus. The two main questions posed are 1) where can we find manifestations and representations of disability in these sources?; and 2) what do the legal and societal conditions of disabled people reveal to us about attitudes towards embodied difference at the end of the middle ages?

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á ensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

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Terry Gunnell

High seat pillars and settlement. Fact, fake news or folklore?

 

Fimmtudaginn 16. febrúar 2023 kl. 16.30

Thursday, February 16, 2023, at 16.30

Lögberg 101

 

In this paper, I will be returning to the question of whether there was any truth behind the legends of Icelandic settlers throwing their high seat pillars (or even grandparents) into the sea when approaching Iceland to decide where to they should set up their farms. In recent years, with some logic, historians have questioned this practice. To the best of my knowledge, hardly anyone has nonetheless considered the widespread parallels in folk legends across northern Norway and Sweden (also on the Baltic) which talk of very similar practices relating to deciding sites for medieval churches. These suggest that the practice (like that of letting animals decide where people should live) was well known and had deep roots in the customs and beliefs of the Nordic countries. The lecture will discuss these legends (along with their distribution), and link them to other potentially associated beliefs and practices (such as those relating to lot-casting), and foundation myths such as that of Askr and Embla). It will also briefly consider the legal and religious role of the high-seat, and why settlers might have brought these items with them. 

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á ensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

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Neil Price

‘Vikings’ in the (Far) East

The Conceptual Challenges

 

Fimmtudaginn 2. febrúar 2023 kl. 16.30

Thursday, February 2, 2023, at 16.30

Lögberg 101

Over the past three decades, the academic study of the Viking Age has largely shaken off the illusion of discrete ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ arenas of Scandinavian activity in favour of a fluid diaspora of movement and exchange. In the course of this same period, the Rus’ and their complicated ethnicities have been re-evaluated as an integrated part of a wider European world. At the same time, we are questioning our terminologies, labels, and ethnic concepts as never before: not just the ‘Vikings’, but also the Rus’ and the Varangians are all being critically deconstructed. However, these revisionist views have largely focussed on Northern interactions with Byzantium; much less attention has been paid to contacts with the Caliphate and beyond. This situation is changing fast in textual scholarship, but archaeologists have been slower to engage with the Rus’ extended eastern range. There have been preliminary surveys of the excavated record and the Rus’ material repertoire, including Tang silks and objects of Steppe origin in Scandinavian burials. But is it really possible to conduct a genuine archaeology of the Vikings in Western and Central Asia? This talk explores our options and will try to chart a course for future work.

This talk is part of the research project Víkingar í Austurvegi — Legends of the Eastern Vikings: https://via.hi.is/the-project-and-the-participants/.

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á ensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend. 

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Helgi Þorláksson

Á sögustöðum: Söguskoðun og dýrlingar

Fimmtudaginn 8. desember 2022 kl. 16.30

Lögbergi 101

Fyrirlesari gaf á dögunum út bókina Á sögustöðum og meginstefið þar er hin gamla „söguskoðun sjálfstæðisbaráttunnar“, sem svo hefur verið nefnd, og  fyrirlesari telur að móti skilning landsmanna almennt á hinum merku og þekktu sögustöðum sem einkum er fjallað um í bókinni; þeir eru sex,  Bessastaðir, Skálholt, Oddi, Reykholt, Hólar og Þingvellir. Bókin er tilraun til að koma að gagnrýni á hina gömlu söguskoðun með því að tiltaka einstök þekkt dæmi um hvernig hún mótar skilning á sögu staðanna sex. Í bókinni eru gagnrýnd atriði sem túlkuð hafa verið  í anda hins gamla skilnings og eru skýrð í ljósi breyttra hugmynda.  Í fyrirlestrinum verður hin svonefnda „söguskoðun sjálfstæðisbaráttunnar“ í fyrstu skýrð og síðan rakin nokkur dæmi um hvernig hún hefur mótað skilning landsmanna og gerir enn.  Fyrirlesari telur að kaþólsk kirkja og kaþólsk trú á miðöldum séu sérstaklega vanækt eða mistúlkuð í sögu fjögurra af stöðunum sex og rekur það til hinnar gömlu söguskoðunar. Hann ræðir einkum um Þorlák helga og Skálholt og Odda, biskupinn og dýrlinginn Guðmund góða og Hóla og Ólaf helga og Þingvelli. Fyrirlesari telur að dýrlingarnir Þorlákur og Guðmundur séu ekki aðeins að miklu leyti vanæktir í umfjöllun um tilgreinda staði heldur njóti þeir lítt sannmælis. Um verndardýrling Þingvalla, Ólaf helga, hefur ríkt þögn. Fyrirlesari grefst fyrir um það af hverju umfjöllun um dýrlingana Guðmund og Þorlák er eins og nefnt var og þögn ríkir um Ólaf og tengir við „söguskoðun sjálfstæðisbaráttunnar“.

Fyrirlesturinn verður fluttur á íslensku og er öllum opinn. — The talk will be delivered in Icelandic. All are welcome to attend.

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Skafti Ingimarsson

„Þá var mikill vetur“

Um skipaákvæði Gamla sáttmála og fall íslenska goðaveldisins

Thursday, October 20, 2022, at 16.30

Gamli sáttmáli eða Gissurarsáttmáli, eins og hann er stundum nefndur vegna aðkomu Gissurar Þorvaldssonar jarls að sáttmálanum, var samningur milli Íslendinga og Hákonar Hákonarsonar Noregskonung, sem fyrst var skrifað undir í Lögréttu á Alþingi árið 1262. Sáttmálinn er stundum talinn örlagaríkasta skjalið í sögu Íslendinga. Þá er litið svo á að hann marki upphaf hnignunar sem á að hafa byrjað þegar íslenskir höfðingjar gengust undir vald Hákonar gamla á árunum 1262–1264. Sáttmálinn hefur verið rannsakaður vandlega. Eitt af því sem vakið hefur athygli er hið svokallaða skipaákvæði hans, en þar segir orðrétt: „Skulu sex skip ganga af Noregi til Íslands tvö sumur hin næstu, en þaðan í frá sem konungi og hinum bestu bændum landsins þykir hentast landinu.“

Fræðimenn hafa túlkað skipaákvæðið á ýmsa vegu. Ákvæðið hefur þó aldrei verið sett í samhengi við lýsingar á árferði á Íslandi um það leyti er goðaveldið féll undir vald Noregskonungs. Í fyrirlestrinum verður bætt úr þessu, en greint verður frá lýsingum á árferði hér á landi árin 1258–1262, eins og þær birtast í miðaldatextum, einkum annálum og Sturlunga sögu. Sýnt verður fram á að heimildirnar benda eindregið til þess að mikil harðindi hafi gengið yfir landið árin 1258–1261 og að legið hafi við hungursneyð meðal landsmanna. Um leið verður sett fram tilgáta þess efnis að hnattræn kólnun í kjölfar Samalas-eldgossins á eyjunni Lombok í Indónesíu árið 1257 hafi verið orsök harðindanna og að hallærið, sem af þeim leiddi, hafi verið ein helsta ástæða þess að Íslendingar gengu Hákoni gamla Noregskonungi á hönd með gerð Gamla sáttmála á árunum 1262–1264. Tilgangur skipaákvæðis sáttmálans, þess efnis að sex skip skyldu sigla milli Noregs og Íslands næstu tvö sumur, hafi verið sá að tryggja að vistir og varningur bærust landsmönnum, sem voru hjálparþurfi.

The talk will be delivered in Icelandic. All are welcome to attend.

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Rosemary Power

Iona: abbey and nunnery in a Norse-Gaelic context

Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 16.30

The ancient abbey of Iona, situated in what are now the inner Hebrides of Scotland, has a long and rich history, occupying a significant role in the history of Ireland, as the head house of the Columban familia of monasteries, and housing a major scriptorium. It may also have had, in pre-Viking times, a small female community as well the large male one. By the twelfth century, though much diminished due to repeated raids and the move of the headship to inland Kells in Ireland, accompanied by many of the relics, it continued to be a significant centre, in terms of Irish, mainland Scottish, Hebridean, and by extension Norwegian, areas of influence. It became part of the Diocese of Man and the Suðreyjar, which was based at Peel on the Isle of Man, and after 1153 was part of the archdiocese of Niðaróss. Nevertheless, there was an attempt to re-orientate it toward Ireland in 1164.

This paper concerns the late-twelfth-century foundation for Augustinian canonesses, the re-foundation of the abbey as Benedictine in 1203; the roles, if any, played by the archdiocese; the politics of the Hebrides at this period, and the consequences. Of especial interest is the way in which Iona may have been one conduit for information from the Gaelic world to the Norse, alongside those provided by the secular powers and the bishopric. It will also consider apparently incidental contact, such as the storm-bound visit of the bishop-elect Guðmundr Arason to Iona’s outlying dependencies in 1202,just before the change from Columban to Benedictine Rule.

The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

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Elizabeth Walgenbach

Translating the Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar

Thursday, September 15, 2022, at 16.30Háskólatorg room 101 (HT-101)

This paper discusses the ongoing project to translate the Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar into English and document its sources. This code, the “new” Christian laws compiled for Iceland and accepted at the Alþingi in 1275, has remained relatively understudied and inaccessible for readers not familiar with Old Norse-Icelandic. This project, which is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (RANNÍS), aims to make the Kristinréttr accessible to a wide audience of scholars and students. We intend the translation to be useful for those specifically interested in medieval Iceland as well as students and scholars of medieval canon law and medieval studies more broadly, who might have no knowledge of Old Norse-Icelandic.

After briefly introducing this law text and the reasons for our project, I will discuss several examples to highlight some of the challenges we have faced in bringing these laws to a modern audience. These issues include the translation of specific legal concepts that might be alien to modern readers, how to translate from a language that has grammatical gender into one that does not, and the ways to preserve the style and character of the language while producing a translation that is readable and useful to a modern audience.

The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.

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Erik Kwakkel

Ephemera from the Middle Ages

Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 16.30Lögberg 101

While medieval manuscripts were generally produced for posterity, not everything written down in the Middle Ages was intended to be kept forever. Some written text was regarded disposable and acted as a sort of short-term memory. Such ephemeral material makes for exciting research, because it shows a side of medieval life not witnessed in manuscripts or official documentary sources such as charters and account books. This lecture introduces three different kind of ephemeral artifact from medieval culture: scrap parchment with scholarly notes, paper slips with domestic messages sent within a household, and name tags worn by orphans. While highlighting the context in which these transitory objects were used, the lecture engages with their materiality, querying how the brevity of their lifespan is reflected in their physical features.

The talk will be delivered in English. All are welcome to attend.