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Old Norse Mythology — Comparative Perspectives Old Norse Mythology— Comparative Perspectives
Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature No. 3 OLd NOrse MythOLOgy — COMParative PersPeCtives OLd NOrse MythOLOgy— COMParative PersPeCtives edited by Pernille hermann, stephen a. Mitchell, and Jens Peter schjødt with amber J. rose Published by THE MILMAN PARRY COLLECTION OF ORAL LITERATURE Harvard University Distributed by HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England 2017 Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives Published by The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University Distributed by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England Copyright © 2017 The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature All rights reserved The Ilex Foundation (ilexfoundation.org) and the Center for Hellenic Studies (chs.harvard.edu) provided generous fnancial and production support for the publication of this book. Editorial Team of the Milman Parry Collection Managing Editors: Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy Executive Editors: Casey Dué and David Elmer Production Team of the Center for Hellenic Studies Production Manager for Publications: Jill Curry Robbins Web Producer: Noel Spencer Cover Design: Joni Godlove Production: Kristin Murphy Romano Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hermann, Pernille, editor. Title: Old Norse mythology--comparative perspectives / edited by Pernille Hermann, Stephen A. Mitchell, Jens Peter Schjødt, with Amber J. Rose. Description: Cambridge, MA : Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, 2017. | Series: Publications of the Milman Parry collection of oral literature ; no. 3 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2017030125 | ISBN 9780674975699 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Mythology, Norse. | Scandinavia--Religion--History. Classifcation: LCC BL860 .O55 2017 | DDC 293/.13--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030125 Table of Contents Series Foreword ................................................... -
Stevenson Memorial Tournament 2018 Edited by Jordan
Stevenson Memorial Tournament 2018 Edited by Jordan Brownstein, Ewan MacAulay, Kai Smith, and Anderson Wang Written by Olivia Lamberti, Young Fenimore Lee, Govind Prabhakar, JinAh Kim, Deepak Moparthi, Arjun Nageswaran, Ashwin Ramaswami, Charles Hang, Jacob O’Rourke, Ali Saeed, Melanie Wang, and Shamsheer Rana With many thanks to Brad Fischer, Ophir Lifshitz, Eric Mukherjee, and various playtesters Packet 2 Tossups: 1. An algorithm devised by this person uses Need, Allocated, and Available arrays to keep the system in a safe state when allocating resources. This scientist, Hoare, and Dahl authored the book Structured Programming, which promotes a paradigm that this man also discussed in a handwritten manuscript that popularized the phrase “considered harmful.” Like Prim’s algorithm, an algorithm by this person can achieve the optimal runtime of big-O of E plus V-log-V using a (*) Fibonacci heap. This man expanded on Dekker’s algorithm to propose a solution to the mutual exclusion problem using semaphores. The A-star algorithm uses heuristics to improve on an algorithm named for this person, which can fail with negative-weight edges. For 10 points, what computer scientist’s namesake algorithm is used to find the shortest path in a graph? ANSWER: Edsger Wybe Dijkstra [“DIKE-struh”] <DM Computer Science> 2. A design from this city consists of a window with a main panel and two narrow double-hung windows on both sides. The DeWitt-Chestnut Building in this city introduced the framed tube structure created by an architect best known for working in this city. Though not in Connecticut, a pair of apartment buildings in this city have façades with grids of steel and glass curtain walls and are called the “Glass House” buildings. -
1 the Legendary Saga of the Volsungs Cecelia Lefurgy Viking Art and Literature October 4, 2007 Professor Tinkler and Professor E
1 The Legendary Saga of the Volsungs Cecelia Lefurgy Viking Art and Literature October 4, 2007 Professor Tinkler and Professor Erussard Stories that are passed down through oral and written traditions are created by societies to give meaning to, and reinforce the beliefs, rules and habits of a particular culture. For Germanic culture, The Saga of the Volsungs reflected the societal traditions of the people, as well as their attention to mythology. In the Saga, Sigurd of the Volsung 2 bloodline becomes a respected and heroic figure through the trials and adventures of his life. While many of his encounters are fantastic, they are also deeply rooted in the values and belief structures of the Germanic people. Tacitus, a Roman, gives his account of the actions and traditions of early Germanic peoples in Germania. His narration remarks upon the importance of the blood line, the roles of women and also the ways in which Germans viewed death. In Snorri Sturluson’s The Prose Edda, a compilation of Norse mythology, Snorri Sturluson touches on these subjects and includes the perception of fate, as well as the role of shape changing. Each of these themes presented in Germania and The Prose Edda aid in the formation of the legendary saga, The Saga of the Volsungs. Lineage is a meaningful part of the Germanic culture. It provides a sense of identity, as it is believed that qualities and characteristics are passed down through generations. In the Volsung bloodline, each member is capable of, and expected to achieve greatness. As Sigmund, Sigurd’s father, lay wounded on the battlefield, his wife asked if she should attend to his injuries so that he may avenge her father. -
Number Symbolism in Old Norse Literature
Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Medieval Icelandic Studies Number Symbolism in Old Norse Literature A Brief Study Ritgerð til MA-prófs í íslenskum miðaldafræðum Li Tang Kt.: 270988-5049 Leiðbeinandi: Torfi H. Tulinius September 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to thank firstly my supervisor, Torfi H. Tulinius for his confidence and counsels which have greatly encouraged my writing of this paper. Because of this confidence, I have been able to explore a domain almost unstudied which attracts me the most. Thanks to his counsels (such as his advice on the “Blóð-Egill” Episode in Knýtlinga saga and the reading of important references), my work has been able to find its way through the different numbers. My thanks also go to Haraldur Bernharðsson whose courses on Old Icelandic have been helpful to the translations in this paper and have become an unforgettable memory for me. I‟m indebted to Moritz as well for our interesting discussion about the translation of some paragraphs, and to Capucine and Luis for their meticulous reading. Any fault, however, is my own. Abstract It is generally agreed that some numbers such as three and nine which appear frequently in the two Eddas hold special significances in Norse mythology. Furthermore, numbers appearing in sagas not only denote factual quantity, but also stand for specific symbolic meanings. This tradition of number symbolism could be traced to Pythagorean thought and to St. Augustine‟s writings. But the result in Old Norse literature is its own system influenced both by Nordic beliefs and Christianity. This double influence complicates the intertextuality in the light of which the symbolic meanings of numbers should be interpreted. -
Snorri Sturluson Qua Fulcrum
MIRATOR 12/2011 1 Snorri Sturluson qua Fulcrum: Perspectives on the Cultural Activity of Myth, Mythological Poetry and Narrative in Medieval Iceland* Frog The present paper seeks to complement discussions of the social impacts of Snorri Sturluson’s (1179–1241) mythography, concentrating on Edda and the discourse it generated in medieval Iceland. It sets out to build an overview of Snorri’s impact on the cultural activity1 of mythology in medieval Iceland through a complementary set of specific examples with no pretence of a comprehensive survey. These examples concentrate on sites of probable innovation in Snorri’s handling of mythological material as contrasted with broader evidence of the traditions to which they are related. Each example could be presented in a paper-length discussion, but the emphasis here is on the construction of an overview in order to develop a broader frame for further discussion. Although no one example is unequivocally demonstrable, the outline of the broader social pattern presented here is not dependent on the specific details of each case nor on any one case independently. Moreover, the frame of the overview affirms that individual discussions are relevant and warranted when surveying and extending existing research. Of course, the recognition of the social impacts of Edda on the cultural activity of mythology does not demonstrate that individual examples are necessarily responses to Edda, it nevertheless shows that these would be consistent with a pattern and trend rather than arbitrary. For this reason, in addition to late or statistically demonstrable examples which are * I would like to thank my two anonymous reviewers as well as Haukur Þorgeirsson for their valuable comments and suggestions in the preparation of this paper for publication. -
“The Symmetrical Battle” Extended: Old Norse Fránn and Other Symmetry in Norse-Germanic Dragon Lore
The Macksey Journal Volume 1 Article 31 2020 “The Symmetrical Battle” Extended: Old Norse Fránn and Other Symmetry in Norse-Germanic Dragon Lore Julian A. Emole University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.mackseyjournal.org/publications Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, German Linguistics Commons, Indo-European Linguistics and Philology Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Emole, Julian A. (2020) "“The Symmetrical Battle” Extended: Old Norse Fránn and Other Symmetry in Norse-Germanic Dragon Lore," The Macksey Journal: Vol. 1 , Article 31. Available at: https://www.mackseyjournal.org/publications/vol1/iss1/31 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Johns Hopkins University Macksey Journal. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Macksey Journal by an authorized editor of The Johns Hopkins University Macksey Journal. “The Symmetrical Battle” Extended: Old Norse Fránn and Other Symmetry in Norse-Germanic Dragon Lore Cover Page Footnote The title of this work was inspired by Daniel Ogden's book, "Drakōn: Dragon Myth & Serpent Cult in the Greek & Roman Worlds," and specifically his chapter titled 'The Symmetrical Battle'. His work serves as the foundation for the following outline of the Graeco-Roman dragon and was the inspiration for my own work on the Norse-Germanic dragon. This paper is a condensed version of a much longer unpublished work, which itself is the product of three years worth of ongoing research. -
Nú Mun Hon Sökkvask
Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask: The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Lauren Hamm Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Leiðbeinandi: Terry Gunnell Útskriftarmánuður: Október 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Lauren Hamm Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Leiðbeinandi: Terry Gunnell Félags - og mannvísindadeild Félagsvísindasvið Háskóla Íslands Október 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask: The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Ritgerð þessi er lokaverkefni til MA – gráðu í Norrænni trú og er óheimilt að afrita ritgerðina á nokkurn hátt nema með leyfi rétthafa. © Lauren Hamm, 2019 Prentun: Háskólaprent Reykjavík, Ísland, 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible if it were not for the endless kindness and patience of my thesis advisor, Dr. Terry Gunnell. I truly do not have words eloquent enough to iterate how very much he deeply cares about his work and the work of his students nor how much this meant to me personally. The year of waking up to 6:00 AM skype meetings every Tuesday with Terry provided a gentle reminder of my duties and passion for this topic as well as a sense of stability and purpose I badly needed during a tumultuous time in my life. -
How Uniform Was the Old Norse Religion?
II. Old Norse Myth and Society HOW UNIFORM WAS THE OLD NORSE RELIGION? Stefan Brink ne often gets the impression from handbooks on Old Norse culture and religion that the pagan religion that was supposed to have been in Oexistence all over pre-Christian Scandinavia and Iceland was rather homogeneous. Due to the lack of written sources, it becomes difficult to say whether the ‘religion’ — or rather mythology, eschatology, and cult practice, which medieval sources refer to as forn siðr (‘ancient custom’) — changed over time. For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to identify a ‘pure’ Old Norse religion, uncorroded by Christianity since Scandinavia did not exist in a cultural vacuum.1 What we read in the handbooks is based almost entirely on Snorri Sturluson’s representation and interpretation in his Edda of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland, together with the ambiguous mythical and eschatological world we find represented in the Poetic Edda and in the filtered form Saxo Grammaticus presents in his Gesta Danorum. This stance is more or less presented without reflection in early scholarship, but the bias of the foundation is more readily acknowledged in more recent works.2 In the textual sources we find a considerable pantheon of gods and goddesses — Þórr, Óðinn, Freyr, Baldr, Loki, Njo3rðr, Týr, Heimdallr, Ullr, Bragi, Freyja, Frigg, Gefjon, Iðunn, et cetera — and euhemerized stories of how the gods acted and were characterized as individuals and as a collective. Since the sources are Old Icelandic (Saxo’s work appears to have been built on the same sources) one might assume that this religious world was purely Old 1 See the discussion in Gro Steinsland, Norrøn religion: Myter, riter, samfunn (Oslo: Pax, 2005). -
University of London Deviant Burials in Viking-Age
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON DEVIANT BURIALS IN VIKING-AGE SCANDINAVIA Ruth Lydia Taylor M. Phil, Institute of Archaeology, University College London UMI Number: U602472 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U602472 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT DEVIANT BURIALS IN VIKING-AGE SCANDINAVIA The thesis brings together information yielded from archaeology and other sources to provide an overall picture of the types of burial practices encountered during the Viking-Age in Scandinavia. From this, an attempt is made to establish deviancy. Comparative evidence, such as literary, runic, legal and folkloric evidence will be used critically to shed perspective on burial practices and the artefacts found within the graves. The thesis will mostly cover burials from the Viking Age (late 8th century to the mid- 11th century), but where the comparative evidence dates from other periods, its validity is discussed accordingly. Two types of deviant burial emerged: the criminal and the victim. A third type, which shows distinctive irregularity yet lacks deviancy, is the healer/witch burial. -
WAGNER and the VOLSUNGS None of Wagner’S Works Is More Closely Linked with Old Norse, and More Especially Old Icelandic, Culture
WAGNER AND THE VOLSUNGS None of Wagner’s works is more closely linked with Old Norse, and more especially Old Icelandic, culture. It would be carrying coals to Newcastle if I tried to go further into the significance of the incom- parable eddic poems. I will just mention that on my first visit to Iceland I was allowed to gaze on the actual manuscript, even to leaf through it . It is worth noting that Richard Wagner possessed in his library the same Icelandic–German dictionary that is still used today. His copy bears clear signs of use. This also bears witness to his search for the meaning and essence of the genuinely mythical, its very foundation. Wolfgang Wagner Introduction to the program of the production of the Ring in Reykjavik, 1994 Selma Gu›mundsdóttir, president of Richard-Wagner-Félagi› á Íslandi, pre- senting Wolfgang Wagner with a facsimile edition of the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda on his eightieth birthday in Bayreuth, August 1999. Árni Björnsson Wagner and the Volsungs Icelandic Sources of Der Ring des Nibelungen Viking Society for Northern Research University College London 2003 © Árni Björnsson ISBN 978 0 903521 55 0 The cover illustration is of the eruption of Krafla, January 1981 (Photograph: Ómar Ragnarsson), and Wagner in 1871 (after an oil painting by Franz von Lenbach; cf. p. 51). Cover design by Augl‡singastofa Skaparans, Reykjavík. Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 7 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD WAGNER ............................ 17 CHRONOLOGY ............................................................................... 64 DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS ..68 ICELANDIC STUDIES IN GERMANY ......................................... -
Re-Christian Scandinavian Royalty. from the Legendary Kings P to the 11Th Century Kingship
Revista Română de Studii Baltice și Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies, ISSN 2067-1725, Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2014): pp. 95-104 RE-CHRISTIAN SCANDINAVIAN ROYALTY. FROM THE LEGENDARY KINGS P TO THE 11TH CENTURY KINGSHIP Alexandra Airinei “Alexandru-Ioan Cuza” University in Iași, E-mail: [email protected] Acknowledgements This paper has been presented at the ”Alexandru-Ioan Cuza” University Paper Session in October 2013. The participant has attended the Summer School of Nordic and Baltic Studies A piece of culture, a culture of peace. The publication is supported by EEA Grants, contract no 4/22.07.2014. Abstract: This article focuses, as the title already expresses it, on the Pre-Christian Scandinavian Royalty, not from a political point of view, but from the perspective of what we nowadays call ideology of power. This means that we will try to identify the whole system of beliefs regarding the ideal ruler and the concepts that support his right to the throne and to the exercise of his authority . The ideas used to build the image of the perfect kingship in the pagan Scandinavia continued to exist long after the difficult process of christianisation, thing which meant in fact that the conversion was never fully completed and that this area remained distinct from the rest of the continent during the Middle Ages and even later. Even if the article refers to the Northern monarchy up to the 11th century, we included in our references a 13th century work allegedly written by the king Håkon Håkonsson, “Konungs Skuggsja”, to show this particular aspect: the fact that the pagan ideas were deeply rooted in the endemic society, the fact that they still shaped the concept of the perfect king and that there was no breach between the Christian period and the previous one, but rather a balanced continuity. -
Agrarian Metaphors 397
396 Agrarian Metaphors 397 The Bible provided homilists with a rich store of "agricultural" metaphors and symbols) The loci classici are passages like Isaiah's "Song of the Vineyard" (Is. 5:1-7), Ezekiel's allegories of the Tree (Ez. 15,17,19:10-14,31) and christ's parables of the Sower (Matt. 13: 3-23, Mark 4:3-20, Luke 8:5-15) ,2 the Good Seed (Matt. 13:24-30, Mark 4:26-29) , the Barren Fig-tree (Luke 13:6-9) , the Labourers in the Vineyard (Matt. 21:33-44, Mark 12:1-11, Luke 20:9-18), and the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19). Commonplace in Scripture, however, are comparisons of God to a gardener or farmer,5 6 of man to a plant or tree, of his soul to a garden, 7and of his works to "fruits of the spirit". 8 Man is called the "husbandry" of God (1 Cor. 3:6-9), and the final doom which awaits him is depicted as a harvest in which the wheat of the blessed will be gathered into God's storehouse and the chaff of the damned cast into eternal fire. Medieval scriptural commentaries and spiritual handbooks helped to standardize the interpretation of such figures and to impress them on the memories of preachers (and their congregations). The allegorical exposition of the res rustica presented in Rabanus Maurus' De Universo (XIX, cap.l, "De cultura agrorum") is a distillation of typical readings: Spiritaliter ... in Scripturis sacris agricultura corda credentium intelliguntur, in quibus fructus virtutuxn germinant: unde Apostolus ad credentes ait [1 Cor.