DOCSLIB.ORG

Cognizing As the Wind and Metaphors of Mind: a Reconsideration of Old Norse Hugr and Huginn

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cognizing As the Wind and Metaphors of Mind: a Reconsideration of Old Norse Hugr and Huginn Cognizing as the Wind and Metaphors of Mind: A Reconsideration of Old Norse hugr and Huginn Alex Benjamin Casteel Master's Thesis in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies MAS4091 (30 ECTS) Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland Spring 2020 © Alex Benjamin Casteel 2020 Cognizing as the Wind and Metaphors of Mind: A Reconsideration of Old Norse hugr and Huginn Alex Benjamin Casteel http://www.duo.uio.no/ Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo Summary Eschewing for lack of evidence notions of an Old Norse “mind” which transgresses the body through breath or is operatively breath, this study adopts and applies conceptual metaphor theory and other cognitive perspectives with a self-referential focus on “mind,” formulates novel cognitive metaphors with which to approach primary sources, and in turn investigates a corpus relevant to Old Norse hugr, “mind, thought” inclusive of skaldic poems thought to date the very early eleventh century or earlier, eddic poems, Útgarðr-Loki’s Hugi, the raven heiti Huginn, and vindr trǫllkvenna kennings with their proposed referent [HUGR]. Investigation revolves around the ontological distinction between “self” and non-“self” as embodied in human experience through somatic and extrasomatic spaces, and specifically as realized in a temporally and culturally disparate schematic in which hugr is not located in the brain but in the breast, reflected in two correspondingly adapted general metaphorical views of mind, MIND AS PHYSICAL SPACE and IDEAS AS EXTERNAL ENTITIES. Conceptual recognition of Huginn as a raven form hugr allows for the generation of Old Norse specific cognitive metaphors HUGR IS A FLYING BIRD and HUGR IS A RAVEN INCITING A WOLF which are employed to seek to better understand the interrelationships between the base-word, determinant, and referent of vindr trǫllkvenna, leading to the development of the hypothesis, subsequently tested on four examples, that [HUGR] is a context specific performance of cognizing as “wind” as extended extrasomatically into space that is agentially difficult or impossible to control. Analysis is framed within broader research questions concerning whether the Old Norse body may have been conceived as metaphysically permeable as well as the interrelations of the semantics of “mind, idea, thought” and hugr. Foreword I would firstly like to thank my advisor, Mikael Males, for the valuable help in this process, as well as Karl G. Johansson and Jan Bill for the same reason; I am very grateful for all exchanged words concerning what is foremost a project of sincere interest. I feel similar gratefulness toward Haraldur Bernharðsson, a tireless leader, organizer, and teacher of Old Norse, and the many, many wonderful others involved with the VMN program. No less, however, would I like to extend my thanks to Mary R. Bachvarova, whose classroom and knowledge bloomed scholastic growth and academic maturity, to Terry Gunnell, to whom I have deep respect and admiration as both an educator and researcher, and to my undergraduate advisor Scott Pike, who provided me with opportunities that have led to this moment. Without the inspirational Medieval educational experiences offered by Wendy Petersen Boring and Joanna Story, it is hard to imagine I would be where I happily am now. I must also extend a word to two of the best educators anyone could ever hope for: Paula Clarke and Ted Hamilton, who catalyzed what was then a much vaguer interest in anthropology; sincerely, thank you. Movement from the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology toward linguistics and Old Norse Studies has been a wonderful and exciting academic challenge, and all interdisciplinary scholars paving the way have my utter admiration. Without the friendship of Meg Morrow and Sam Levin, as well as Catelynn Hendrick, friendships which can, for obvious reasons, only be metaphorically described as colorful blossoms in the Norwegian springtime, the road would have been very difficult and more or less unimaginable. I would also like to thank Camille Zuber, for, above all, her patience, grace, and kindness throughout this process. The VMN cohort as a whole offered so much to look up to, with some notable (yet intriguing) exceptions: to both, thank you friends. To all the folks in Iceland and Norway who I got to know these past months, I look forward to the next time seeing you. On a final note, thanks go to my parents, Bruce and Lisa, for your support. “Ravens about to tease some resting wolves.” L. David Mech, 1966 Table of Contents I. Introduction 1 I.1 Aims and Relevance to Current Scholarship 1 I.2 Adopted Theories and Applied Methods 5 I.3 Introduction to the Sources 7 II. Dispelling the “breath concept” 10 III. Metaphors of Mind and Old Norse hugr 15 IV. Introduction to vindr trǫllkvenna and Huginn 30 V. Three vindr trǫllkvenna kennings 41 VI. Huginn and the Wolf: Guþþormr’s Hákonardrápa 8 50 VII. Conclusions 64 VIII. Bibliography 68 IX. Appendix: A-C 77 I. Introduction I.1 Aims and Relevance to Current Scholarship The pursuance of this endeavour was motivated from the desire to question if to any extent the Old Norse biological body shell, if indeed a boundary for the “self,” may have been perceived as or believed to be permeable in a sense of “being” and “existing,” as well as one of the most ubiquitous yet puzzling aspects of life as a human being: the intrinsic ability of the mind to think and to cognize.1 This functionality is immaterial and incorporeal, operating apart from any observable laws of physics and belonging to a human agency and will that is similarly formless.2 As operatively metaphysical, exclusively self-apparent, and as a phenomenon often tacitly normalized in everyday discourse, the mind’s aptitude for cognizing performance is of disproportionately high risk for neglection and presumption in any study of the past. This study will utilize metaphorical views of mind and conceptual metaphors to address the notion of Old Norse hugr, commonly translated as “mind, thought,” as an entity which may have the potential to “be” extrasomatic. This approach is demonstrated to be evidentially preferable to the so-called "breath concept," so named and critiqued in a 1983 study by Stephen E. Flowers, which entails that human breath is either an explicit medium for the permeability of the “mind, soul,” or that the “mind, soul” is itself operatively conceived as breath. In particular two such metaphorical views are employed which are adopted from cognitive scientist John A. Barnden, which target any ontological gap in cognitive experience that may exist between what will be substantiated as a cardiocentric hugr of BODY IS A CONTAINER FOR THE MIND, located in the breast and body where one physiologically “feels” emotion, and the performance of cognizing in which 1 Chris Fowler, The Archaeology of Personhood: An Anthropological Approach (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), 5-6. “Dividuality” is the foundation of permeability, in which the composite parts of a person may not be fixed but may instead either enter into or emerge from a person. Cf. Bo Gräslund, “Prehistoric Beliefs in Northern Europe,” Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60 (1994), which embraces a bipartite division of transgressive soul elements from an archaeological point of view: a “breath soul or body soul” and a “free soul or dream soul.” 2 Eric T. Olson, What Are We?: A Study in Personal Ontology, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 3. 1 the “thinking” hugr must connect with extrasomatic “objects”.3 These are MIND AS PHYSICAL SPACE and IDEAS AS EXTERNAL ENTITIES, two conceptual views “that a mind can intermittently use in thinking about itself and other minds,” which provide a capable framework to address if hugr might have been conceived as “mind” in a physical space in which emotion and products of the performance of cognizing (such as "ideas, thoughts") are located somatically and can be manipulated “within,” or if hugr might also have been conceived as “mind, idea, thought” separately in space external to the body of the agent such that the agent is conceptually “being” within a space populated by “mind” or products of cognizing performance (“ideas, thoughts”).4 A survey of hugr in all eddic poems and in skaldic poems widely maintained as having been composed in the years prior to the very early eleventh century yields a corpus which is, with relatively few verses neglected, analyzed in Section III primarily through these two metaphorical views but also other related and entangled conceptual metaphors. These methods are then converged with the generation of two Old Norse metaphors of mind formulated from the raven- heiti Huginn, subsequently applied to four early vindr trǫllkvenna kennings, which are suggested to function as metaphors in their own right to upon which discuss a sense of ontological uncontrollability and “fate”: HUGR IS A FLYING BIRD and HUGR IS A RAVEN INCITING A WOLF. Section V and VI make use of the primary correlations of the respective source and target domains of these two metaphors in order to test the hypothesis that the relationship between the base-word <vindr> and the referent [HUGR] alludes to the performance of extrasomatic cognizing and the “flight” of hugr by hyggjandi, “thinking,” as the bird flies through the wind, and that the relationship between the determinant <trǫllkvenna> and the referent [HUGR] is that of a spatial synecdoche in which [HUGR] is hugr in the view of IDEAS AS EXTERNAL ENTITIES, as the mythological space of jǫtunn is that “outside” preordained bounds. 3 John A. Barnden, “Consciousness and Common-Sense Metaphors of Mind,” in Two Sciences of Mind: Readings in Cognitive Science and Consciousness, ed. P. S. O’Nuallain et. al. (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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 ...................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Uncovering the Origins of Grendel's Mother by Jennifer Smith 1
    Smith 1 Ides, Aglæcwif: That’s No Monster, That’s My Wife! Uncovering the Origins of Grendel’s Mother by Jennifer Smith 14 May 1999 Grendel’s mother has often been relegated to a secondary role in Beowulf, overshadowed by the monstrosity of her murderous son. She is not even given a name of her own. As Keith Taylor points out, “none has received less critical attention than Grendel’s mother, whom scholars of Beowulf tend to regard as an inherently evil creature who like her son is condemned to a life of exile because she bears the mark of Cain” (13). Even J. R. R. Tolkien limits his ground-breaking critical treatment of the poem and its monsters to a discussion of Grendel and the dragon. While Tolkien does touch upon Grendel’s mother, he does so only in connection with her infamous son. Why is this? It seems likely from textual evidence and recent critical findings that this reading stems neither from authorial intention nor from scribal error, but rather from modern interpretations of the text mistakenly filtered through twentieth-century eyes. While outstanding debates over the religious leanings of the Beowulf poet and the dating of the poem are outside the scope of this essay, I do agree with John D. Niles that “if this poem can be attributed to a Christian author composing not earlier than the first half of the tenth century […] then there is little reason to read it as a survival from the heathen age that came to be marred by monkish interpolations” (137).
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Savannah Dehart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF
    ABSTRACT Savannah DeHart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF NORTHERN PAGAN RELIGIOSITY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. (Under the direction of Michael J. Enright) Department of History, May 2012. This thesis investigates the religiosity of some Germanic peoples of the Migration period (approximately AD 300-800) and seeks to overcome some difficulties in the related source material. The written sources which describe pagan elements of this period - such as Tacitus’ Germania, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards - are problematic because they were composed by Roman or Christian authors whose primary goals were not to preserve the traditions of pagans. Literary sources of the High Middle Ages (approximately AD 1000-1400) - such as The Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda , and Icelandic Family Sagas - can only offer a clearer picture of Old Norse religiosity alone. The problem is that the beliefs described by these late sources cannot accurately reflect religious conditions of the Early Middle Ages. Too much time has elapsed and too many changes have occurred. If literary sources are unavailing, however, archaeology can offer a way out of the dilemma. Rightly interpreted, archaeological evidence can be used in conjunction with literary sources to demonstrate considerable continuity in precisely this area of religiosity. Some of the most relevant material objects (often overlooked by scholars) are bracteates. These coin-like amulets are stamped with designs that appear to reflect motifs from Old Norse myths, yet their find contexts, including the inhumation graves of women and hoards, demonstrate that they were used during the Migration period of half a millennium earlier.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Goblinlike, Fantastic: Little People and Deep Time at the Fin De Siècle
    ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output ’Goblinlike, fantastic: little people and deep time at the fin de siècle https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40443/ Version: Full Version Citation: Fergus, Emily (2019) ’Goblinlike, fantastic: little people and deep time at the fin de siècle. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email ‘Goblinlike, Fantastic’: Little People and Deep Time at the Fin De Siècle Emily Fergus Submitted for MPhil Degree 2019 Birkbeck, University of London 2 I, Emily Fergus, confirm that all the work contained within this thesis is entirely my own. ___________________________________________________ 3 Abstract This thesis offers a new reading of how little people were presented in both fiction and non-fiction in the latter half of the nineteenth century. After the ‘discovery’ of African pygmies in the 1860s, little people became a powerful way of imaginatively connecting to an inconceivably distant past, and the place of humans within it. Little people in fin de siècle narratives have been commonly interpreted as atavistic, stunted warnings of biological reversion. I suggest that there are other readings available: by deploying two nineteenth-century anthropological theories – E. B. Tylor’s doctrine of ‘survivals’, and euhemerism, a model proposing that the mythology surrounding fairies was based on the existence of real ‘little people’ – they can also be read as positive symbols of the tenacity of the human spirit, and as offering access to a sacred, spiritual, or magic, world.
    [Show full text]
  • "Ok Er Þetta Upphaf´"--First-Stanza Quotation in Old Norse Prosimetrum
    Judy Quinn “Ok er þetta upphaf”— First-Stanza Quotation in Old Norse Prosimetrum* hen prosimetrum involves the quotation of poetry — as medieval Scandinavian prosimetrum almost invariably does1 — the narrator’s voice is at once in competition with another voice, which through its Wpoetic form is graced with significance and authority. Verse quotations in sagas are conventionally very short, most typically of only one stanza, but occa- sionally of two, three, or more stanzas. As the evidence of other records demon- strates, however, a verse presented by a saga-narrator as a lausavísa, or single- stanza composition, may well be an excerpt from a longer poem.2 Sometimes acknowledgement is made of the loosening of the stanza from the whole poem through the narrator’s mention of the poem’s name, particularly in kings’ sagas where praise and memorial poems are frequently cited to verify aspects of an account,3 but even in this genre — avowedly indebted to the existence of whole * I am grateful to the Modern Language Association of America and the organizers of the Discussion Group on Old Norse Literature at the 1995 convention for inviting me to present an earlier version of this article there. 1. One important exception to this is Snorri Sturluson’s pedagogic prosimetrum composition, Hátta- tal, in which Snorri follows the learned Latin practice of crafting prosimetrum from his own verse and prose. Otherwise Old Norse prosimetrum seems to have conventionally been composed of prose and quoted poetry — either as evidence of events narrated or as the declamations of the participants in the narrative (see Einarsson 1974 and Friis-Jensen 1987 for a survey of these types).
    [Show full text]
  • Widsith, Beowulf, Finnsburgh, Waldere, Deor. Done Into Common
    Dear Reader, This book was referenced in one of the 185 issues of 'The Builder' Magazine which was published between January 1915 and May 1930. To celebrate the centennial of this publication, the Pictoumasons website presents a complete set of indexed issues of the magazine. As far as the editor was able to, books which were suggested to the reader have been searched for on the internet and included in 'The Builder' library.' This is a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by one of several organizations as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. Wherever possible, the source and original scanner identification has been retained. Only blank pages have been removed and this header- page added. The original book has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books belong to the public and 'pictoumasons' makes no claim of ownership to any of the books in this library; we are merely their custodians. Often, marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in these files – a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Since you are reading this book now, you can probably also keep a copy of it on your computer, so we ask you to Keep it legal.
    [Show full text]
  • “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.
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation of the Kennings in Ragnarsdrápa and Øxarflokkr
    Universitet i Oslo, Fall 2013 Exploring the Emotive versus the Scholarly: an Investigation of the Kennings in Ragnarsdrápa and Øxarflokkr By Sydney A. Krell Guidance: Mikael Males Master Thesis in Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture Summary The poetry of Bragi inn Gamli and Einarr Skúlason has been thoroughly studied by many Old Norse scholars, but never directly in comparison to one another. This paper will investigate the nuances of each author’s verse, specifically regarding the way in which they utilize kennings, and draw conclusions based upon their similarities and differences. Both Bragi and Einarr composed within the same language, geographical area, and poetic tradition; they used similar kenning types that evolve from pagan imagery; and each describes a precious weapon given to them by a ruler whom they praise via a traditional skaldic long style poem. However, they could not be more different. This is due to the fact that Einarr’s kennings are meant to show his scholastic prowess, and Bragi’s are meant to affect his audience and move his plot based verse forward. The poetry of Bragi Boddason makes use of pagan mythology, ekphrasis, nýgerving, ofljóst and metaphors in the form of kennings, just as the poetry of Einarr Skúlason does. And yet the poems differ so greatly. Bragi’s kennings are meant to affect his audience on an emotional level, whereas Einarr’s are meant to impress on a scholarly level. Each author accomplishes magnificent prose, but with different expectations and outcomes achieved. 1 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Mikael Males for his support, useful comments, encouragement and guidance throughout the process of writing my master thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Prose Edda
    THE PROSE EDDA SNORRI STURLUSON (1179–1241) was born in western Iceland, the son of an upstart Icelandic chieftain. In the early thirteenth century, Snorri rose to become Iceland’s richest and, for a time, its most powerful leader. Twice he was elected law-speaker at the Althing, Iceland’s national assembly, and twice he went abroad to visit Norwegian royalty. An ambitious and sometimes ruthless leader, Snorri was also a man of learning, with deep interests in the myth, poetry and history of the Viking Age. He has long been assumed to be the author of some of medieval Iceland’s greatest works, including the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, the latter a saga history of the kings of Norway. JESSE BYOCK is Professor of Old Norse and Medieval Scandinavian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Professor at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. A specialist in North Atlantic and Viking Studies, he directs the Mosfell Archaeological Project in Iceland. Prof. Byock received his Ph.D. from Harvard University after studying in Iceland, Sweden and France. His books and translations include Viking Age Iceland, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, Feud in the Icelandic Saga, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki and The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. SNORRI STURLUSON The Prose Edda Norse Mythology Translated with an Introduction and Notes by JESSE L. BYOCK PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN CLASSICS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
    [Show full text]
  • Geologic Map and Stratigraphy of the Yggdrasil Quadrangle from the 2015 Canmars Msr Analogue Mission
    47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2016) 2225.pdf GEOLOGIC MAP AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE YGGDRASIL QUADRANGLE FROM THE 2015 CANMARS MSR ANALOGUE MISSION. P. A. Christoffersen1, J. D. Newman1, Z. R. Morse1, L. L. Torna- bene1, G. R. Osinski1,2, 1Department of Earth Sciences & Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada. [email protected] 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London ON, Canada. Introduction: The 2015 CanMars MSR analogue grated with orbital datasets [6] to characterize the stra- mission was a Mars Sample Return Analogue Mission tigraphy and lithologies within the Yggdrasil quadran- carried out in partnership between the Canadian Space gle. The integration of these data sets allowed for the Agency (CSA), MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates creation of a finer scale bedrock geologic map, and a Ltd. (MDA), and the Centre for Planetary Science and stratigraphic column of the quadrangle. Exploration (CPSX) at the University of Western On- tario, as part of the NSERC CREATE project “Tech- nologies and Techniques for Earth and Space Explora- tion” [1]. The 2015 CanMars mission took place in an undisclosed location in Utah, USA over the course of ~2 weeks during November using the Mars Explora- tion Science Rover (MESR) rover, built by MDA. Mission goals included evaluating hardware and soft- ware capabilities along with exploration strategies, workflow, and logistics associated with a Mars Sample Return mission. The mission payload instrumentation used by the rover included: a hand-held XRF stand-in for Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) [2], portable XRD, a hand-held Raman spectrometer, the Three Dimensional Exploration Multispectral Mi- croscope Imager (TEMMI) [3, 4], a MastCam [5], a push tube solid sampler, and a portable field core drill as a stand-in for a rock core sampler.
    [Show full text]