Download or read book Narrative in the Icelandic Family Saga written by Heather O'Donoghue and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Representative of a unique literary genre and composed in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Icelandic Family Sagas rank among some of the world's greatest literature. Here, Heather O'Donoghue skilfully examines the notions of time and the singular textual voice of the Sagas, offering a fresh perspective on the foundational texts of Old Norse and medieval Icelandic heritage. With a conspicuous absence of giants, dragons, and fairy tale magic, these sagas reflect a real-world society in transition, grappling with major new challenges of identity and development. As this book reveals, the stance of the narrator and the role of time – from the representation of external time passing to the audience's experience of moving through a narrative – are crucial to these stories. As such, Narrative in the Icelandic Family Saga draws on modern narratological theory to explore the ways in which saga authors maintain the urgency and complexity of their material, handle the narrative and chronological line, and offer perceptive insights into saga society. In doing so, O'Donoghue presents a new poetics of family sagas and redefines the literary rhetoric of saga narratives.
Download or read book Feud in the Icelandic Saga written by Jesse L. Byock and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1993-03-09 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Byock sees the crucial element in the origin of the Icelandic sagas not as the introduction of writing or the impact of literary borrowings from the continent but the subject of the tales themselves - feud. This simple thesis is developed into a thorough examination of Icelandic society and feud, and of the narrative technique of recounting it.
Download or read book The Medieval Saga written by Carol J. Clover and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in the thirteenth century, the Icelandic prose sagas, chronicling the lives of kings and commoners, give a dramatic account of the first century after the settlement of Iceland—the period from about 930 to 1050. To some extent these elaborate tales are written versions of traditional sagas passed down by word of mouth. How did they become the long and polished literary works that are still read today? The evolution of the written sagas is commonly regarded as an anomalous phenomenon, distinct from contemporary developments in European literature. In this groundbreaking study, Carol J. Clover challenges this view and relates the rise of imaginative prose in Iceland directly to the rise of imaginative prose on the Continent. Analyzing the narrative structure and composition of the sagas and comparing them with other medieval works, Clover shows that the Icelandic authors, using Continental models, owe the prose form of their writings, as well as some basic narrative strategies, to Latin historiography and to French romance.
Download or read book Laxdaela Saga written by Magnus Magnusson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1969 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written around 1245 by an unknown author, the Laxdaela Saga is an extraordinary tale of conflicting kinships and passionate love, and one of the most compelling works of Icelandic literature. Covering 150 years in the lives of the inhabitants of the community of Laxriverdale, the saga focuses primarily upon the story of Gudrun Osvif's-daughter: a proud, beautiful, vain and desirable figure, who is forced into an unhappy marriage and destroys the only man she has truly loved – her husband's best friend. A moving tale of murder and sacrifice, romance and regret, the Laxdaela Saga is also a fascinating insight into an era of radical change – a time when the Age of Chivalry was at its fullest flower in continental Europe, and the Christian faith was making its impact felt upon the Viking world.
Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse Icelandic Saga written by Margaret Clunies Ross and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval Norse-Icelandic saga is one of the most important European vernacular literary genres of the Middle Ages. This Introduction to the saga genre outlines its origins and development, its literary character, its material existence in manuscripts and printed editions, and its changing reception from the Middle Ages to the present time. Its multiple sub-genres - including family sagas, mythical-heroic sagas and sagas of knights - are described and discussed in detail, and the world of medieval Icelanders is powerfully evoked. The first general study of the Old Norse-Icelandic saga to be written in English for some decades, the Introduction is based on up-to-date scholarship and engages with current debates in the field. With suggestions for further reading, detailed information about the Icelandic literary canon, and a map of medieval Iceland, this book is aimed at students of medieval literature and assumes no prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages.
Download or read book The Sagas of the Icelanders written by Jane Smilely and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-02-24 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world’s great literary treasures – as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled in Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate and freedom.
Download or read book A Companion to Old Norse Icelandic Literature and Culture written by Rory McTurk and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-03-11 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major survey of Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culturedemonstrates the remarkable continuity of Icelandic language andculture from medieval to modern times. Comprises 29 chapters written by leading scholars in thefield Reflects current debates among Old Norse-Icelandicscholars Pays attention to previously neglected areas of study, such asthe sagas of Icelandic bishops and the fantasy sagas Looks at the ways Old Norse-Icelandic literature is used bymodern writers, artists and film directors, both within and outsideScandinavia Sets Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature in its widercultural context
Download or read book Hrafnkel s Saga and Other Icelandic Stories written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written around the thirteenth century AD by Icelandic monks, the seven tales collected here offer a combination of pagan elements tightly woven into the pattern of Christian ethics. They take as their subjects figures who are heroic, but do not fit into the mould of traditional heroes. Some stories concern characters in Iceland - among them Hrafknel's Saga, in which a poor man's son is murdered by his powerful neighbour, and Thorstein the Staff-Struck, which describes an ageing warrior's struggle to settle into a peaceful rural community. Others focus on the adventures of Icelanders abroad, including the compelling Audun's Story, which depicts a farmhand's pilgrimage to Rome. These fascinating tales deal with powerful human emotions, suffering and dignity at a time of profound transition, when traditional ideals were gradually yielding to a more peaceful pastoral lifestyle.
Download or read book Iceland s Relationship with Norway c 870 c 1100 written by Ann-Marie Long and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Iceland’s Relationship with Norway c.870 – c.1100: Memory, History and Identity, Ann-Marie Long reassesses the development of Icelandic society from the earliest settlements to the twelfth century. Through a series of thematic studies, the book discusses the place of Norway in Icelandic cultural memory and how Icelandic authors envisioned and reconstructed their past. It examines in particular how these authors instrumentalized Norway to explain the changing parameters of Icelandic autonomy. Over time this strategy evolved to meet the needs of thirteenth-century Icelandic politics as well as the demands posed by the transition from autonomous island to Norwegian dependency.
Download or read book Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150 1400 written by Ármann Jakobsson and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology of international scholarship offers new critical approaches to the study of the many manifestations of the paranormal in the Middle Ages. The guiding principle of the collection is to depart from symbolic or reductionist readings of the subject matter in favor of focusing on the paranormal as human experience and, essentially, on how these experiences are defined by the sources. The authors work with a variety of medieval Icelandic textual sources, including family sagas, legendary sagas, romances, poetry, hagiography and miracles, exploring the diversity of paranormal activity in the medieval North. This volume questions all previous definitions of the subject matter, most decisively the idea of saga realism, and opens up new avenues in saga research.
Download or read book Land Sea and Home written by John Hines and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-11-15 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twenty-eight papers in this volume explore the practical !ife, domestic settings, landscapes and seascapes of the Viking world. Their geographical horizons stretch from Iceland to Russia, with particular emphasis on new discoveries in the Scandinavian homelands and in Britain and Ireland. With a rich combination of disciplinary perspectives, new interpretations are presented of evidence for buildings and technology, navigation, trade and military organization, the ideology of place, and cultural interactions and comparisons between Viking and native groups. Together, these reveal the multivalent importance of settlement archaeology and history for an understanding of the pivotal phase within the Middle Ages that was the Viking Period.
Download or read book Old Norse Icelandic Literature written by Carol J. Clover and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current revival of interest in the rich and varied literature of early Scandinavia has prompted a corresponding interest in its background: its origins, social and historical context, and relationship to other medieval literatures. Even readers with a knowledge of Old Norse and Icelandic have found these subjects difficult to pursue, however, for up-to-date reference works in any language are few and none exist in English. To fill the gap, six distinguished scholars have contributed ambitious new essays to this volume. The contributors summarize and comment on scholarly work in the major branches of the field: Eddie and skaldic poetry, family and kings' sagas, courtly writing, and mythology. Taken together, their judicious and attractively written essays-each with a full bibliography-make up the first book-length survey of Old Norse literature in English and a basic reference work that will stimulate research in these areas and help to open up the field to a wider academic readership.
Download or read book Independent People written by Halldor Laxness and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author: a magnificent novel that recalls Iceland's medieval epics and classics, set in the early twentieth century starring an ordinary sheep farmer and his heroic determination to achieve independence. • "A strange story, vibrant and alive…. There is a rare beauty in its telling." —Atlantic Monthly If Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to free himself is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic. Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is a masterpiece.
Download or read book The Bookish Riddaras gur written by Geraldine Barnes and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with a fascinating, but largely neglected, area of late medieval Icelandic literature: the indigenous prose romances, generally known as riddarasogur (i.e. sagas of knights), a group of some 30 sagas composed in Iceland from the late 13th or early 14th century onwards. These sagas take place in an exotic (non-Scandinavian), vaguely chivalric, milieu and are characterized by the extensive use of foreign motifs and a strong supernatural or fabulous element. Although the riddarasogur are clearly modeled on continental chivalric romances and are influenced by the 'translated' riddarasogur (in terms of subject matter, style, and ethos), that debt tends to be limited largely to the surface attributes of romance - typically, princes on quests in exotic foreign lands which ultimately bring material rewards, noble brides, and the acquisition of new kingdoms. Contrary to European chivalric romance, however, the Icelandic riddarasogur manifest a substantial debt to medieval encyclopedic and historiographical traditions. One effect of this is to bring an element of 'biculturalism' to the textual landscapes of the riddarasogur, which suggests that their authors, and, by implication, their audiences, were familiar with both learned tradition and traditional lore, and accustomed to moving back and forth between them in creative literary composition. The author, Geraldine Barnes, has written extensively on the riddarasogur throughout her long career. The book represents the culmination of Barnes's work in this area and presents an interesting 'take' on the riddarasogur, focusing on their learned or 'bookish' elements. (Series: The Viking Collection: Studies in Northern Civilization - Vol. 21)
Download or read book The Nature of Narrative written by Robert Scholes and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2006-09-25 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past forty years The Nature of Narrative has been an essential work for students of literature, teachers, writers, and scholars. Countering the tendency to view the novel as the paradigm case of literary narrative, Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg offered a compelling history of narrative from antiquity to the twentieth century. Their main goal was to describe and analyze the nature of narrative's key elements: meaning, character, plot, and point of view. The Fortieth Anniversary Edition of this groundbreaking work has been revised and expanded to include a new preface and a lengthy chapter by James Phelan on developments in narrative theory since 1966. This new material describes the principles and practices of structuralist, cognitive, feminist, and rhetorical approaches to narrative, paying special attention to their work on character, plot, and narrative discourse. A continued leader in the field of narrative studies, The Nature of Narrative offers unique and invaluable histories of both narrative and narrative theory.
Download or read book The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales An epic Njal s saga written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The set contains "the first complete, coordinated English translation of The sagas of Icelanders, forty in all, together with forty-nine of the shorter Tales of Icelanders."--Preface.
Download or read book The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason written by Oddr Snorrason and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oddr Snorrason, a Benedictine monk in northern Iceland in the late twelfth century, composed a landmark Latin biography of the legendary Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason (died 1000 C.E.). This biography was soon translated into Icelandic, and the translation (though not the Latin original) is preserved in two somewhat differing versions and a small fragment of a third. The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason is the first English translation of this text, augmented by an introduction and notes to guide the reader. There is a strong possibility that Oddr's biography was the first full-length saga of the Icelandic Middle Ages. It ushered in a century of saga writing that assured Iceland a unique place in medieval literature and in the history of prose writing. Aside from being a harbinger of the saga tradition, and indeed of the modern novel, The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason has its own literary merits, including an epic description of the great Battle of Svoldr, in which King Olaf succumbed. In significant ways the narrative of this battle anticipates the mature style of the classical sagas in the thirteenth century.
