Old Norse Paper B 15

Almannagjá at the site of the Old Icelandic parliament, ãingvellir





Set texts for translation and essays
See entries for individual texts in: In Medieval Scandinavia. An Encyclopedia. Eds. P. Pulsiano and K. Wolf. New York and London: Garland, 1993.
1.Hrafnkels saga Freysgoña
Text: in E.V. Gordon (ed.) Introduction to Old Norse. Oxford, 1927.

Further reading
S. Nordal: Hrafnkatla, tr. by  R. G. Thomas, as  Hrafnkels saga Freysgóña, Cardiff, 1958
E. V. Gordon: 'On Hrafnkels saga Freysgóña', Medium Ævum, 8, 1939, pp.1-32.
H. Pálsson: Art and Ethics in Hrafnkels saga, Copenhagen, Munksgaard, 1971.
T. Andersson: 'The Displacement of the Heroic Ideal in the Family Sagas', Speculum 45, 1970, pp.573-93
S. D. Hughes: review of Oskar Halldórsson, Scandinavian Studies 52, 300-8.
R. D. Fulk: 'The Moral System of Hrafnkels saga Freysgóña', Saga-Book 22, Part 1, 1986.
O.D Macrae-Gibson: 'The Topography of Hrafnkels saga', Saga-Book21: 1975-6. 239-263.
T. M. Andersson: ‘Ethics and Politics in Hrafnkels saga’. Scandinavian Studies 60, 1988, 293-309.

2. Gylfaginning
Text: A. Faulkes' edition: Snorri Sturluson: Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning.Viking Society 1988;
Transl. A. Faulkes, Snorri Sturluson, Edda, Everyman, 1987 - read also Skáldskaparmál in this translation.
For paper B15 you need to translate ch. 43 to the end.

 Further Reading:
A. Faulkes, 'Pagan Sympathy: Attitudes to Heathendom in the Prologue to Snorra Edda' in Edda: A Collection of Essays, ed. R. J. Glendinning and H. Bessason, Manitoba  (1983).
M. Clunies Ross and B. K. Martin, 'Narrative structures and intertextuality in Snorra Edda: the example of Thor's encounter with Geirrøñr' in Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature, edd. J. Lindow et al. Odense, (1986).
J. Lindow. 'Mythology and Mythography' in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, A Critical Bibliography, edd. C. Clover and J. Lindow, (Cornell UP, Ithaca), Islandica 45, (1985). pp. 21-54
J. Harris: 'The Master-Builder's Tale in Snorri's Edda and Two Sagas', ANF 91, (1976), 66-101.
A. Faulkes, 'Descent from the Gods', Medieval Scandinavia11 (1979-80): 92-125
M. Chesnutt 'The Beguiling of Ãórr' in Ur Dölum til Dala,ed. R. McTurk and A. Wawn. Leeds Texts and Studies n.s. 11, 1989, 35-63.
Britt-Mari Näsström, 'The Goddesses in Gylfaginning' in  Snorrastefna, ed. U. Bragason, Reykjavík, (1992).
M. Clunies Ross 'The Mythological Fictions of Snorra Edda' in  Snorrastefna, ed. U. Bragason, Reykjavík, (1992).
J. McKinnell, Both One and Many: Essays on Change and Variety in Late Norse Heathenism, Philologia, Rome, (1994). Ch. 3 in particular.
*M. Clunies Ross, Prolonged Echoes Vol. I Odense, (1994) on Norse myth in general.

3. Hamñismál
Use text in The Poetic Edda, vol. 1 ed. U. Dronke, Oxford (1969)

Further reading
Commentary in Dronke 1969
T. Andersson in Dictionary of Middle Ages.
T. A. Shippey, ‘Speech and the Unspoken in Hamñismál'. In Prosody and Poetics in the Early Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of C. B. Hieatt. ed. M. J. Toswell. Univ of Toronto Press, 1995. Pp. 180-196. (EFL)

4. Íslendingabók
Use text and translation of Islendingabók ed. Halldór Hermansson, in Islandica 20 (1930)

Further reading:
Jón Johannesson: A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Islendinga Saga. University of Manitoba Press, (1974)
Jón Hnefill Añalsteinsson: Under the Cloak: The Acceptance of Christianity in Iceland with Particular Reference to the Religious Attitudes Prevailing at the Time. Studia Ethnologica Upsaliensia, 4, Stockholm (1978)
Dag Strømbäck: The Conversion of Iceland, London:Viking Society, (1975)
John Lindow: ‘Islendingabók and Myth’, Scandinavian Studies 69 (1997): 454-64.
Kirsten Hastrup: Island of Anthropology. Odense UP. Viking Collection 5 (1990) ? selected articles on Iceland’s origins and notions of ethnicity.

You might also look at the account of the Conversion in Njáls saga, and of the discovery of Greenland and Vinland in Eíriks Saga Rau?aand Grœnlendinga Saga.

5.Skírnismál
Text in Jón Helgason, (ed.) Eddadigte II, Copenhagen

Further Reading
U. Dronke: 'Art and Tradition in Skírnismál' in Tolkien Festschrift, 1962, pp.250-68.
J. Harris: "Cursing with the Thistle: Skírnismál 316-8 and OE Metrical Charm 9, 16-17", in Neuphilogische Mitteilungen 76 (1975)., pp.26-33.
G. Turville-Petre: 'Fertility of Beast and Soil in Old Norse Literature' in Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Symposium, ed. Edgar C. Polomé, Texas, 1969.
C. A. Larrington, 'What does Woman Want? Mær and munr in Skírnismál.' Alvíssmál 1 (1992), 3-16.
P. Bibire: 'Freyr and Gerñr: The Story and its Myths' in Sagnaskemmtun Vienna (1986)
S. Mitchell, 'För Skírnis as Mythological Model: friñ at kaupa', ANF 98, (1983) 108-22
P. Orton: 'The Wife's Lament and Skírnismál: some parallels' in Ur Dölum til Dala, edd. R. McTurk and A. Wawn, Leeds 1989.
L. Motz: 'Gerñr: A New Interpretation of the Lay of Skírnir'. Maal og Minne, 1981. 121-36.
 

Also for comparison with Old English Charms  in G. Storms, ed., Anglo-Saxon Magic, The Hague 1948,
especially Nine Herbs Charm, Wiñ Æcerbote, Wiñ Færstice (Against a sudden stitch)