Icelandic Literature Research Articles

Contact with the Dead in Iceland Past and Present: The Findings of a New Survey of Folk Belief and Experiences of the Supernatural in Iceland

This article focuses on the figures concerning experiences of and beliefs in possible contacts with the dead amongst Icelandic people that have come to light from three national surveys that were undertaken in 1974, 2006–2007, and 2023, focusing in particular on the most recent figures. It starts by reviewing the earliest evidence of such beliefs in Iceland (expressed in both Old Icelandic literature and Icelandic folk legends), which evidently laid down the foundations for modern-day beliefs. After listing the main findings of the surveys and noting the changes in belief that appear to have taken place over the last 50 years, the article offers some brief conclusions relating to what seems to have caused not only some obvious gender and age differences in belief and experience, but also differences in figures between urban and rural areas.

Рецепция древнеисландской словесности в исландской поэзии 1990-2020 гг.

The reception of Old Icelandic literature in the Icelandic poetry of the 1990-2020ies is to be found mainly in its' contents. Contemporary Icelandic poets seek mostly to the well-known sagas of Icelanders or mythological songs of the Elder Edda. There are events, characters and winged words of the Old Icelandic texts, that become the objects of the reception. There can be several approaches to that materail: 1) drawing“ the ancient text near to the modern time by means of its' psychologization; 2) reassuming it as a precedential text for some universal situations; 3) ironical attitude to the ancient text and parodizing it (actually, not so much the text itself, as its' hugh status in the modern culture); 4) using the Old Icelandic text as a starting point for the poet's personal associations. All of these approaches can be obsereved during the whole period examined, but in length of time the ironical approach is being reduced, and the psycologizing and the universalizing one become more wide-spread; partly it is related to the fact, that the young generations of poets appear.

Sending a Message to the Future: (Deep) Time Travel in and through Medieval Icelandic Literature

ABSTRACT This article seeks to understand how medieval Icelandic authors may have considered the possibility of speaking to the future. In the absence of explicit statements to this effect, it does this by looking at representations of time travel — or chronodisplacement — within medieval Icelandic sagas. When something from the past abruptly appears in the narrative, the past is seen as communicating with its future. The examples looked at include undead mound-dwellers, long-lived wanderers and the Icelandic version of the Seven Sleepers. The frequent association of voices emerging from the past with the underland is considered, particularly in relation to Iceland’s geology. This is also linked to the possibility for medieval Icelanders to engage with deep time. The analysis reveals that Icelandic authors were interested in the dynamic of the past speaking to its future, but chose always to represent it within a past setting. Moreover, authors seem to have been aware that speaking to a future inevitably involves changes in media and the materiality of communication.

The Biblical Metaphor of “Governing as Shepherding” and Catholic Biopolitics in Medieval Icelandic Contexts

This paper studies the Old Icelandic use of the Biblical conceptual metaphor of “governing as shepherding”, based on projecting patterns of the practices of shepherding on the notion of governing. It examines the transfer of this conceptual metaphor to Old Icelandic literature through the reception of Christian literature, the frequency and chronology of occurrences of the linguistic realizations of this conceptual metaphor in different textual genres and periods of Old Icelandic literature, and the possible lineages of texts’ transmission that might have enabled the cultural transfer of this conceptual metaphor from Latin to Old Icelandic. On the theoretical basis of Michel Foucault’s governmentality theory, the emergence of the discourse of pastoral power over human life in Old Icelandic literature is correlated with the development of specific biopolitical practices of governance regarding the protection of human life applied by the Catholic Church in medieval Iceland.

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Discourse in Old Norse Literature

Discourse in Old Norse Literature

Bishops in Early Iceland

Bishops in Early Iceland

Icelandic Volcanoes in Medieval Sagas, Chronicles, Annals and in Modern Scholarly Literature

Iceland is an area of incredibly active volcanic activity. Volcanic eruptions accompany life on the island from the very moment of its settlement. According to scientists, more than two hundred eruptions have occurred in historical time, the most recent of which is the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, 40 km from Reykjavik, in August 2022. Iceland is the birthplace of unique medieval literature written down in the 12th and 13th centuries. The attention of scholas is drawn to the fact that in the most famous narrative genre of Old Icelandic literature, the so-called Íslendingasögur, or Family sagas, describing life on the island in the “Saga Age”, volcanoes are not mentioned at all. The analysis carried out in this paper of references to, or descriptions of, volcanic eruptions in Landnámabók, biskupa sögur, and Icelandic annals demonstrates that their presence or absence was regulated by the requirements of the genre.

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Graeco-Roman Metaphor of Human Fate as a Fabric Woven and Thread Spun by Supernatural Beings in Medieval Icelandic Contexts

This article offers an analysis of the Old Icelandic use of the weaving and spinning of fate metaphor, which projects the patterns of the practices of weaving and spinning on the notion of fate. The study aims primarily at reviewing the Latin provenance of this metaphor in the Old Icelandic literature, and examining the probability of the transfer of this metaphor through the reception of ancient Roman literature in medieval Iceland.

Grundtvigs brug af det islandske digt Odins ravnegalder


 
 
 The article investigates N.F.S. Grundtvig‘s reception of the Icelandic eddic poem Hrafnagaldur Óðins / Forspjallsljóð and is a contribution to knowledge about the nineteenth century reception of Old Icelandic literature in Denmark. In his writings from 1807 to 1860 Grundtvig repeatedly returned to, reevaluated, and reinterpreted Hrafnagaldur Óðins. In his puzzlement over the poem Grundtvig was not alone: Since the beginning of research scholars have struggled with this poem, and hypotheses about its age, importance, and significance have varied to a greater extent than is true of most other eddic poems. In the nineteenth century, Hrafnagaldur Óðins was considered to be one of the most important sources to Old Norse mythology, whereas today it is largely forgotten and has been dropped from collections of eddic poetry, because it is no longer dated to the Middle Ages but is believed to be written in the seventeenth century. In 1807, Grundtvig quoted a stanza of Hrafnagaldur Óðins as an emblem for the gloomy destiny of the Æsir; in 1832, he considered the poem a little symbolic tale about sunrise and sunset; in 1847, he read it as a cheerful comedy about immortality and marriage; and finally, in 1860, the poem inspired him to give expression to a Christian utopia in his Dansk Ravnegalder. Thus, his attitude and use of the poem changed substantially throughout his oeuvre, which gives testimony to Grundtvig’s zealous and tireless philological work.
 
 

As Though “Wit” Never Were: The Dual Pronoun as Interpretive Crux in The Wife's Lament

As Though “Wit” Never Were: The Dual Pronoun as Interpretive Crux in <i>The Wife's Lament</i>

Readings in Times of Crisis: New Interpretations of Stories about the Settlement of Iceland

Readings in Times of Crisis: New Interpretations of Stories about the Settlement of Iceland

Slaying the Dragon in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus

Abstract Within William Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus, the title character Caius Martius Coriolanus refers to himself as a “lonely dragon.” This image of a dragon in the play represents a powerful fusion of Celtic, Nordic, and classical myth as well as Christian theology—all of which contain depictions of dragons. Reading Martius as a dragon, using Jungian and archetypal terms mediated through Icelandic literature, unveils Shakespeare’s use of myth to fashion Caius Martius’s transformation into an untamable anti-social beast whose primal violence and aggression ultimately leads to his slaying by Aufidius, the dragon-like dragon-slayer.

Report of the President for the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study

Report of the President for the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study

Эпоха Стурлунгов в современной исландской исторической прозе: Эйнар Каурасон

The period from 1220 to1262-64, the so-called Sturlung era, is significant in Icelandic culture, not only due to its dramatic political events, but also because by that time the great works of the Old Icelandic literature have been written down. In modern Icelandic historical fiction the most noticable text, devoted to the Sturlung era, is the tetralogy by Einar K?rason ("A Gathering of Foes“ 2001, "Fury“ 2008, "The Skald“ 2012 and "The Axe era“, 2014). It is based on the Old Icelandic "Sturlunga saga“, in particular, on "The Saga of Icelanders“ by Sturla Thordarson. The writing technique in the tetralogy s nevertheless antipodal to the saga manner: the events are described fragmentary, from the subjective point of view of a variety of persons, also the episodical ones; thus the complexity and the multifaceted character of the historical prcess is being stated. In each novel of the tetralogy there is one central character, the other narrators reflect upon. Snorri Sturluson, the most iconic figure of this era, is often mentioned, but is never among the narrators. The writing of sagas is being described (especially in "The Skald“), and the inner intentions of the 13th century scribes creating their texts turn out to be similiar to the intentions of modern authors. The narration manner and the universal thinking way of thecharacters neutralizes the historical distance between the narration and the readers. In modern Icelandic literature a firm narrative tradition of perception of the Sturlung era is absent, thus, the works of Einar K?rason can be regarded as the direct reception of the Old Icelandic sourse texts as they are, but not as an interplay with a set tradition of their perception. But such a tradition can be formed in future by this tetralogy.

The Serpent and the Crow: Reassessing Fairy-Tale Motifs in the Old Icelandic Ragnars saga loðbrókar

This article examines folkloric motifs and motif clusters in medieval Icelandic literature with a special focus on Ragnars saga loðbrókar (The Saga of Ragnarr Shaggy Breeches), composed in the thirteenth century. While Ragnars saga has previously been mentioned in connection with the fairy tale ‘Cinderella’, this article provides an in-depth study of the saga’s fairy-tale characteristics, which may further illuminate the literary link between Ragnars saga and the Old Icelandic Völsunga saga (The Saga of the Völsungs). However, while ‘Cinderella’ variants from the modern fairy-tale tradition are comprehensible and single-stranded narratives, the Cinderella paradigm in Ragnars saga proves to be adapted for a many-stranded, complicated, interlaced literary saga text.

The “Quest of Seth” in Old Icelandic Literature: Sethskvæði and Its Antecedents

In this article, Sethskvæði is identified as a poetic re-working of a text which Esther Quinn calls “The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life.” This connection is important not only for Old Icelandic studies but also for the study of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, because the Quest has not been preserved elsewhere in medieval or early modern literature separated from the Legend of the Holy Cross. The transmission of Sethskvæði is traced from its early Judaic beginnings up to its inclusion in Icelandic literature. Three trends are explored: the shortening of the Legend of the Holy Cross in the Legenda (The “Quest of Seth” plus the Legend of the Holy Cross), the use of rubrics that title the text as having to do with Adam and Seth rather than the Holy Cross, and the eventual existence of the Quest on its own in the form of Sethskvæði. Because Sethskvæði has yet to be edited, a transcription of two versions of the poem from AM 100 8vo is included in the appendix.

Dreamworlds, Storyworlds: Narrative Proliferation and the Case of Stjörnu-Odda draumr

Dreamworlds, Storyworlds: Narrative Proliferation and the Case of <i>Stjörnu-Odda draumr</i>

Fashions of Snæfellsness

The sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur) are an important part of European literary history. Both the sagas’ historical background and their literary techniques were studied intensely in the last century, but dress and fashion in Old Norse–Icelandic literature received comparatively little attention in this period. Moreover, the literary corpus and textile history have rarely been used to illuminate one another; however, as this article will demonstrate, synthesising data and methodological approaches from both fields can yield new knowledge about both historical textiles and the sagas. This article focuses on four of the sagas of Icelanders that are set on the Snæfellsnes peninsula: Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa, Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss, Eyrbyggja saga, and Víglundar saga. The central question the article poses is, how are social norms and cultural ideas reflected in clothing and textiles in these sagas? This study presents a comprehensive and multifaceted view of the textile and clothing imagery by combining qualitative and quantitative textual analysis showing how the imagery is an integral part of the narrative rather than an embellishment. The article reveals that clothing and textiles serve an array of functions in the sagas which are linked to the societal order. Several themes — such as masculinity, social rank, and the practice of magic — are shown to have a close connection with clothing as well as other textiles.