This article reviews the two most recent English-language translations of medieval sagas of Icela... more This article reviews the two most recent English-language translations of medieval sagas of Icelandic bishops, both from 2021: Margaret Cormack's The Saga of St. Jón of Hólar, published with the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Theodore M. Andersson's Bishops in Early Iceland, published with the Viking Society for Northern Research. Both translations represent valuable new contributions to the field. In addition to a critical overview of these texts, the article overviews the history of English translations of the genre of medieval Icelandic bishops' sagas.
Despite its fame as the pre-eminent medieval Icelandic saga, Njáls saga lacks a stemma comprehend... more Despite its fame as the pre-eminent medieval Icelandic saga, Njáls saga lacks a stemma comprehending all the saga’s manuscripts. As part of the Variance of Njáls saga (Breytileki Njáls sögu) project, we produced a stemma of all witnesses to chapter 86 (forty-eight out of the total sixty or so surviving manuscripts and fragments). Besides providing an independent confirmation of the findings of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson regarding the medieval manuscripts (1953), this affords the first systematic insight into the post-medieval manuscript transmission of the saga. Our methods develop past experiments in using software created for parsimonious phylogenetic analysis to assist stemmatology. A further methodological advance is that this paper takes a first step towards learning how to crowd-source stemmatic data: the authors of the article were participants in the Tenth International Arnamagnæan Summer School in Manuscript Studies, and undertook the core research for this paper as part of the...
Despite its fame as the pre-eminent medieval Icelandic saga, Njals saga lacks a stemma comprehend... more Despite its fame as the pre-eminent medieval Icelandic saga, Njals saga lacks a stemma comprehending all the saga’s manuscripts. As part of the Variance of Njals saga (Breytileki Njals sogu) project, we produced a stemma of all witnesses to chapter 86 (forty-eight out of the total sixty or so surviving manuscripts and fragments). Besides providing an independent confirmation of the findings of Einar Olafur Sveinsson regarding the medieval manuscripts (1953), this affords the first systematic insight into the post-medieval manuscript transmission of the saga. Our methods develop past experiments in using software created for parsimonious phylogenetic analysis to assist stemmatology. A further methodological advance is that this paper takes a first step towards learning how to crowd-source stemmatic data: the authors of the article were participants in the Tenth International Arnamagnaean Summer School in Manuscript Studies, and undertook the core research for this paper as part of th...
Ideologies of Kingship in Thirteenth Century Scandinavia: Heimskringla and the Gesta Danorum
Historical writing blossomed in Scandinavia at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the th... more Historical writing blossomed in Scandinavia at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries. Most of this writing came out of Iceland and, though the origin of many texts is still debated, possibly Norway as well. But in a wider frame, Denmark and its earliest historical texts, notable among them Sven Aggeson\u27s history, the Chronicon Roskildense, and the Chronicon Lethrense, are part of this milieu as well, though they are more closely associated with continental Latin culture. Among all these works, two authors and two works of grand scope and scale appear plainly at the height of this period: Snorri Sturluson\u27s Heimskringla and Saxo Grarnmaticus\u27 Gesta Danorum. One of the most difficult issues in determining the perspective and purposes of each author is that both Heimskringla and the Gesta Danorum are broad collections of stories, each with a long story of a particular king. Saint Olaf Haraldsson is the center of Heimskringla and Valdimar I of the Gesta Danorum, and each appears to be the main focus of the author. But given the size and diversity of each work neither man can be taken as the only major concern. Further, each author has obvious concerns for pagan kings and writes about them extensively, while including strong hagiographic elements in the Christian portions of their work. There is far more pagan material in Saxo, and far more obvious hagiographic influence in Snorri, but Snorri had also written the mythologically concerned Elder Edda, and Saxo with his clear clerical education has far more ecclesiastical concerns and a more damning attitude towards the pagan gods. Clearly, first impressions towards their religious concerns can be misleading and potentially contradictory. It is my purpose to examine these religious elements in relation to the ideas of kingship in Heimskringla and the Gesta Danorum. There are multiple conceptions and ideals of kingship in each work, often appearing to stand in stark contrast to each other, even in descriptions of individual kings. I don\u27t intend, nor would it be prudent, to attempt to isolate an individual concept as more significant than the others. Rather, I will attempt to equate on some levels the use of distinctly pagan and Christian myths and literary tropes in the portrayals of kings and kingship. Further, within this leveled context of Heimskringla and the Gesta Danorum, each cultural paradigm becomes interrelated: conquest and the gaining of honor are irrevocably tied to conversion, and thus the sainthood of missionary kings is tied into the ancient ideal of the warrior king. And the peaceful kings, the stay-at-home kings, the great legislators, appear as both pagans and Christians, their accomplishments described in similar ways and with similar stock phrases
The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2019
Pallas, son of Evander, was an ally of Aeneas, and died heroically in combat against turnus in bo... more Pallas, son of Evander, was an ally of Aeneas, and died heroically in combat against turnus in book 10 of the Aeneid. From at least the first half of the twelfth century, possibly earlier, a legend began to develop around the discovery of his body, perfectly preserved, in Rome, in strange contrast to the account of the Aeneid, where the body is burned. Most of these accounts note that the body was gigantic, in addition to being intact, but that soon after the tomb was opened, the body decayed as normal. While accounts of the excavation of a renowned historical figure were not uncommon in the later Middle Ages, no similar legend seems to have had a comparable breadth of circulation and versatility of use throughout Europe, from Iceland and Norway to Italy and Spain. the legend of Pallas's tomb is highly flexible and self-contained, and it appears in different contexts in chronicles, romances, histories, and annals, in Latin and in a variety of vernaculars throughout late medieval and early modern Europe. the popularity of the legend owes much to its ability to be fitted into a variety of texts with different subjects and concerns. this modularity, in turn, can be partly attributed to the details of the legend itself, the distinctive combination of sources, information, and narratives that are used to construct the complete text. the goal of this study is to explore the use and transmission of this legend in several medieval Icelandic and Norwegian sources in the context of its full transmission through medieval and early modern texts. Despite its popularity, very little scholarship has dealt with the legend and its transmission, and no study has been written focusing upon it. 1 No scholars seem 1. by far the most frequently cited scholarly discussion of the Pallas legend is Arturo Graf, Roma nella Memoria e nelle Immaginazioni del Medio Evo (turin: Giovanni Chiantore, 1923), p. 72, which is in fact only a very brief note on the legend, mentioning four versions. While focused on the romance versions, the discussion is more substantial in Edmond Faral,
This thesis would not have been possible without all the staff at the Medieval Icelandic Studies ... more This thesis would not have been possible without all the staff at the Medieval Icelandic Studies program at Háskola Íslands, nor without my undergraduate adviser, John Ott, and the head of the MIS program, Torfi Tulinius, who did most of the work of getting me into Iceland and started on the MA program in the first place. I would like to thank my adviser, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, for getting me started on this project and guiding me, in particular, through the early stages of research. I likewise owe a great debt to Haraldur Bernharðsson for teaching me Old Norse with amazing skill, passion, and efficiency and guiding me through all the difficult stages of translation in Breta sögur and Merlínusspá. My thanks to Hélène Tétrel, for her excellent advice, her generosity with her knowledge and transcriptions, and her help with the source material. Thanks also to Terry Gunnell, for introducing me to what hamingja and fylgja can represent, which provided one of the earliest inspirations for what this thesis would be about. Much appreciation, finally, to all my fellow students who helped edit and advised me on this work, particularly Magda, James, and Paul. Saxon kings. From the story of the saintly king Oswald in chapter forty-nine, which will be discussed in detail in the next chapter, until the end of the work, Breta sögur appears to put Anglo-Saxon kings on equal footing with the British kings. The work is significantly shortened here, and every detail stands out. For example, when the rather unsympathetic chieftain Peanda is attacking the Saxon king Oswi, Oswi gives a speech added into Breta sögur-despite the great abbreviation of the section-expounding upon his faith; it is also noted that he praised God for his victory. 19 Both details, which enhance the Saxon king's virtuous character, are lacking in the Historia. While Geoffrey must, on some level, confront the saintliness of Oswald, he has no such obligation to his brother Oswi. The Breta sögur translator, on the other hand, uninvolved in the racial and political tensions of Geoffrey's milieu, could expound upon the nobility of Oswi's character. In the translation, then, there is a sort of unity created between the two brothers, in stark contrast to the rather unsympathetic and treacherous, yet Briton-allied, Peanda. From here the death of the great British king Caduallo is told relatively fully, but the great exodus of the British people to Brittany is very short and a key detail is missing. In the Hauksbók Breta sögur, Ivor and Yni, son and nephew of Cadualadrus, do not appear. In the Historia, they are a sort of compromise Cadualadrus makes, before he makes his pilgramage to Rome, giving up his kingly office for a holy life; they continue the line of kings on the island, while he pursues divine virtue. 20 Thus in Breta sögur, the religious sacrifice is more complete, but, more importantly here, the Britons have fully given up their 19 Finnur Jónsson, ed., Hauksbók, 300. "[O]ss mvn þat fyri betra er þeir neita saettvm. [S]kvlv ver þangat saekia til travst sem vrvgt er heitvm a almattkan gvð oss til fvlltings ok mvnv ver í hans travsti fagran sigr vega. Gongvm fram rosklega ok synvm enga raezlv a ors þvi at gott er hvart sem helldr kemr vpp at ver fallim a foðorleifð vaʀi ella sigrimz. siþan tokz harðr bardagi með þeim ok eigi langr aðr Pendan fellr ok með hanvm .xxx. iarla en Vsvið ok hans menn lofvðv gvð fyri fagran sigr." ("That will be better for us, that they deny reconciliation; we would seek for truce, which is negligent. Let us call on Almighty God to help us, and we will win a fair victory in his good faith. We go forth bravely and show no fear in ourselves, because it is good whether it happens that we fall into our patrimony or are victorious." Then a hard battle began between them, and it was not long before Peanda fell, and with him thirty jarls, and Oswi and his men praised God for the fair victory.) 20 "Filiam autem suum Iuor ac Yni nepotem suum ad reliquias Britonum regendas in insulam dirigeret, ne gens antiquo genere illorum edita litertatem barbarica irruptione ammitteret." ".. . but he should send his son Ivor and nephew Yni to the island to rule the surviving Britons, so that the people descended from their ancient race should not lose their freedom because of barbarian invasion." (Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, ed./trans. Reeve and Wright, 280-81)
This study explores how education and the medieval intellectual and pedagogical discipline of \(g... more This study explores how education and the medieval intellectual and pedagogical discipline of \(grammatical\) developed in Iceland during the medieval period, defined roughly from the official conversion to Christianity c.1000 to the Reformation c.1550, The first chapter deals with social, institutional, and financial aspects of teaching and learning in medieval Iceland, surveying key figures and places, but also arguing that more attention shoulder be paid to the costs of learning and the effect of that on poor students. The second chapter addresses Latin education, discussing the importance of Latinity in medieval Iceland and the types of education that would involve Latin. It also addresses the idea of bilingual education and suggests ways in which extant venacular writings can provide evidence for how Latin was taught and learned using the vernacular, using the model of Old English bilingual education. Finally, the third chapter addresses vernacular topics of learning, focusing ...
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