Messages from the Otherworld: The Roles of the Dead in Medieval Iceland
The ghosts in sagas are no phantoms or incorporeal spirits, but appear to the living in their physical and tangible bodies at a dark time of the day or year. The dead look the same as they used to when they lived, and are thus easily recognized by the living.
Outlawry in the Icelandic Family Sagas
The present study scrutinizes the outlawry and outlaws that appear in the Icelandic Family Sagas.
Medieval PhD Dissertation turned into comic
A doctoral student at the University of Iceland has recreated his dissertation in a novel way – by making it into a comic.
The Saga of Jón the Playmate: A ‘Cannibalistic’ Story
At first sight, Jóns saga leikara is but your average chivalric romance, filled with exciting but somewhat generic little adventures.
Not Your Average Maiden King: Ingigerðr, Queen of Ambiguity
Far from being a damsel in distress, the Maiden King is a damsel who creates distress
Children of a One-Eyed God: Impairment in the Myth and Memory of Medieval Scandinavia
This thesis counters scholarly assumptions that the impaired were universally marginalized across medieval Europe. It argues that bodily difference in the Norse world was only viewed as a limitation when it prevented an individual from fulfilling roles that contributed to their community.
Spatial Reading: Digital Literary Maps of the Icelandic Outlaw Sagas
Digital literary maps in particular, or maps that produce spatial data from texts that are considered imaginative or creative as opposed to charters or historical records, offer new critical possibilities for visualizing and understanding the interaction between spatial and geographic knowledge in literary texts.
Life, Fantasy, Sagas, and Whatnot: Some Thoughts on Tolkien the Movie
I felt both very thrilled and scared when I learned that they had made a Tolkien biopic.
The Poetic Edda
Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty and profound, the poems of the Edda have influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and a new generation of video-game and film makers.
I Love You, Please Put Away the Bear: Valkyrjur-turned-Wife
Though they may marry and even support their husbands in the short term, they generally bring ruin upon their partners.
Why is Njáls saga the best Icelandic saga?
Brennu-Njáls saga can—and most often is—be translated to The Story of Burnt Njal. But another way of translating it is The Story of Njáll the Burner. And I believe it is exactly this duality of the saga’s main character Njáll that makes the saga so appealing
Between Fiction and Falsehood: The Ethics of Lying in the Sagas of Icelanders
This paper discusses a series of episodes from the Sagas of Icelanders in which one character attempts to deceive another.
Homicide and Suicide in Viking Age Scandinavia
What was the perception and conception of homicide and suicide in the Viking Age Scandinavia, and to what extent is that traceable in the written and archaeological sources?
Identifying the Ogre: The Legendary Saga Giants
The legendary saga giants are for the most part terrible and ugly. Some are also of incredible size, although no sources agree on how huge giants are.
Well-Pissers and Water Goblins: What the Monsters of Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka Mean
A creature who seems to desecrate wells, a mountain in the shape of a man that rises out the sea, and a spiteful, laughing aquatic goblin: thus runs the cast of monsters found in the saga Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka.
Making a copy of Njáls saga: the story of the Urðabók manuscript
Who scribed Urðabók? And for whom and what? Wawn aims at unveiling the story behind this little, modest manuscript.
Why this is the week to be in Iceland (and learn about sagas)
The scholarly world interested in all things Norse, Viking and saga-related is coming to Iceland this week for the 17th International Saga Conference. Here is a quick guide to what is happening.
New Yorkers in Viking Age Iceland
In Iceland, there are four settlement sites that answer to the name of Jórvík – and all of them probably are Viking Age foundations named after the Old Norse name of York: Jórvík. So basically, there are four ‘New Yorks’ in Iceland.
Rómverja saga: an introduction and a translation
Rómverja saga is an Old Icelandic translation of three Latin works on historical themes from the classical period. In this thesis, I provide the first English translation of this little-known text in the hope that it might prove a resource for scholars interested in the reception of Latin literature in the medieval period.
The Making of Flateyjarbók: What we are learning about Iceland’s National Treasure
Made in the last quarter of the 14th century, Flateyjarbók (Book of Flatey) is probably the finest manuscript that Iceland has ever produced.
Hveiti ok Hunang: Viking Age Icelandic Mead?
This paper will try and draw out the picture of mead in Viking Age Iceland, a picture worth elaborating on due to the importance of Icelandic sources of information for an even larger culture.
Úlfhams rímur: A Tale of An Accursed Prince
An accursed king of Gotland is betrayed by his queen to an untimely death. The young prince, the legitimate heir to the throne, is imprisoned in a burial mound of a blood-drinking (un)dead shieldmaiden until …
Eddic Poetry as World Literature
This article focuses on eddic issues including orality, dating, relationship to the ballad, provenance, international sources, and broadly typological literary relations.
‘To Talk of Many Things’: Whales, Walrus, and Seals in Medieval Icelandic Literature
The use of whales, walrus, and seals in the sagas illustrates a cultural map of the ocean. This network of places, known and imagined, is filled in by trade goods, species and place names, and stories that incorporate the denizens of the deep.
