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A comprehensive guide to a crucial aspect of Old Norse literature.We cannot read literary works without making use of the concept of genre. In Old Norse studies, genre has been central to the categorisation, evaluation and understanding of medieval prose and poetry alike; yet its definition has been elusive and its implications often left unexplored.
This volume opens up fundamental questions about Old Norse genre in theory and in practice. It offers an extensive range of theoretical approaches, investigating and critiquing current terms and situating its arguments within early Scandinavian and Icelandic oral-literary and manuscript contexts. It maps the ways in which genre and form engage with key thematic areas within the literary corpus,noting the different kinds of impact upon the genre system brought about by conversion to Christianity, the gradual adoption of European literary models, and social and cultural changes occurring in Scandinavian society. A case-study section probes both prototypical and hard-to-define cases, demonstrating the challenges that actual texts pose to genre theory in terms of hybridity, evolution and innovation. With an annotated taxonomy of Old Norse genres and an extensive bibliography, it is an indispensable resource for contemporary Old Norse-Icelandic literary studies.
List of contents
Introduction - Massimiliano Bampi and Sif Rikhardsdottir
Genre - Massimiliano Bampi
Hybridity - Sif Rikhardsdottir
Terminology - Lukas Rösli
Form - Mikael Males
Orality, Textuality and Performance - Judy Quinn
Manuscripts and Codicology - Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
The Body Politic - Hans Jacob Orning
Geography - Dale Kedwards
Time and Space - Torfi H. Tulinius
Memory - Pernille Hermann
The Human Condition - Stefanie Gropper
God(s) - Carolyne Larrington
Wisdom - Brittany Schorn
Skaldic poetry - Case study: The Poetry of Torf-Einarr Rognvaldsson of Orkney - Erin Goeres
Eddic poetry - Case study: Sólarljóð - Carolyne Larrington
Þættir - Case study: Stjörnu-Odda draumr - Elizabeth Ashman Rowe
Íslendingasogur - Case study: Vatnsdæla saga - Russell Poole
Byskupasögur and heilagra manna sögur - Case study - Kevin J. Wanner
Romance - Case Study - Jürg Glauser
Annotated Taxonomy of Genres
