Paper Ideas for medieval Germanic literature: --Viking Cosmology: Yggdrasil--the World Tree, Urd, Literature Ginnungagap, Midgard and Mi∂gar∂sormr the World Any particular Anglo-Saxon poem or Viking saga (see your Serpent, ----Jotenheim, Bifrost Bridge, the creation Bradley textbook p. 553 et passim for complete list of known account as ideology Anglo-Saxon poems). Viking Myths --Aesir versus Vanir Germanic Perceptions of... --Valkyries --Sexuality --Giants --Eternity --Dwarves --Honor --Trolls and Troll-wives --Death in Battle --Ghosts Anglo-Saxon Riddles --Additive Creatures: Women in the Viking Age --The Norns: Ur∂r, Ver∂andi, Skuld Poetic Techniques: Prosopopoeia, Skaldaparma, Hattatal and --Alfar verse-forms --Huldre-Maids Poets: Skalds, Sceops, Germanic Myths in Old English Literature Medieval Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts --Weiland the Smith Genre Conventions of . . . . --Sources and Analogues of Anglo-Saxon literature --the Sagas Anglo-Saxon Monsters --the Elegies --Bestiaries, The Physiologus --the Chronicles --Dragons --the Riddles --Trolls --the Charms --The Wonders of the East --the Saints' Lives --Sea Monsters A specific symbol in [pick a work] --Phoenix A specific character and characterizatin in [pick a work] --Satan/Demons in Anglo-Saxon Biblical accounts A specific narrative structure in [pick a work] Myths outside the Prose Edda: Wrymskvi∂a., the Elder Eddas, Saxo A specific literary theory applied to [pick a work] Grammaticus, etc. --Gender Studies Shamanism and Viking Cultures --Feminist Criticism Anglo-Saxon Magic Charms --Archetypal Criticism Conversion Narratives --New Criticism/Formalism --Adam of Breman’s accounts of Pagan sites --Structuralism --Rimbert’s Vita Anskarri (Life of Ansgar) --Poststructuralism --Anne-Sofie Gräsland’s arguments about women and --Deconstruction Christianity and Viking reactions --Postcolonialism Missionaries in Scandinavia --Biographical/Traditional Criticism --Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht --Psychoanalytic Criticsm --Evidence for rapid or slow process of conversions --Hermeneutics Biblical Adaptations in Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Old Testament/New --Phenomenology Testament, The Exeter Book --Semiotics --Comparative Literature Historical Viking Activites: --Intertextual Studies The Varangian Guard --New Historicism Martyrdom of Saint Edmund: Viking Accounts versus Christian --Marxist Criticism/Materialist Criticism Accounts --Reception Theory Viking Raids and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles --Reader Response Theory Battle of Maldon Space and Landscape in the sagas The Danelaw The Index of Folklore Motifs applied to Viking/Anglo-Saxon Vikings in Russia literature Viking settlements in Jarvik (York), Dublin, Landnám in Iceland, Medieval Romance as an influence on late thirteenth-century Colonization in Greenland Germanic literature Viking conquests in Scotland, Wales, Ireland (Dublin), York Parzifal and Germanic adaptations of Arthurian Grail legends. Anglo-Saxon defenses against Vikings under Alfred the Great Viking Naval and Military Technology Language: Longboats Linguistic Features of the Germanic Language Family Ironworking Linguistic Distinctions Among the Germanic Language Architecture Viking Loanwords into English Scandinavia and the Laplanders Old Norse Society and the Saami Tribes Viking Magic Vikings and Picts: Assimilation or Genocide in the Hebrides? --Sei∂r (Women’s Magic) Symbolism and Ideology as Revealed in Viking Art Images, --Shamanist and Totemistic Influences (cf. Odin’s Animal Ornaments, etc. ravens, Freyr and boars, etc.) Structuralist Readings of Norse Myth --Dwarf Curses Archetypal Readings of Norse Myth --Runic Charms Viking Rune Stones Viking Paganism --Hof (Viking buildings used as cult centers) Outlaws --Viking Eschatology: Ragnarok, Valhalla, Niffleheim --Gisli Politics: --Danevirke Things and Althings, Icelandic government, democracy in --Trelleborg medieval Iceland --Fyrkat Viking Kings: --Nonnebakken --Svein Forkbeard --Aggersborg --Harald Bluetooth --Viking Burial Sites --Haraldr Finehair --Fakes and forgeries in America --King Gorm Archeological Digs of Anglo-Saxon Sites in Sutton Hoo --Olaf Trygvason --Ivar the Boneless Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse Riddles Viking Kings and Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla The Comitatus or Warband Viking Heroes: --Eric Bloodax Vikings Interpreted in Later Centuries --Eirik the Red Reader-Response Theory, Reception Theory and Adaptations/Re- Travel Narratives and Historical Accounts readings of Viking Culture in the Renaissance, Victorian Period: Gregory of Tours accounts of Danish invasions in History of the Orm’s Monuments of the Danes, Richard Wagner’s opera cycles, Franks (c. 515-20) William Morris’ epic poems like Sigurd the Volsung, William Tacitus’ accounts of the Germanic Tribes Collingwood’s 19th century historical novels, as propaganda Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (c. 79) and his account of imagery in World War II, fantasty-adaptations like Neil Gaimon’s Scandinavia American Gods, etc. --Ohthere the Norwegian merchant’s journey to King Alfred’s court Manuscript Studies "Pointing" (proto-punctuation) in Anglo-Saxon texts Archeological Digs of Viking Sites in Norway, Sweden, Iceland Paleography/Codicological studies --Isle of Samso