1. From Lawspeaker to Lawbook A Power Struggle between the Church and Secular Leaders? [1] There can be little doubt that the rich and varied secular literary works that flowed from the pens of the writers of medieval Iceland in their vernacular tongue can only be explained against a background of a people with a stock of tales to tell about… Read more
Introduction. Written Texts and Oral Traditions The Medieval World View and the Individuality of Iceland Life in Scandinavia lies beyond the horizons of most courses in medieval studies, based as they are almost entirely on ecclesiastical sources from continental Europe. To be sure, specialists in the field are aware of the writings in Latin of Adam of Bremen, Theodoricus, and Saxo Grammaticus, but the unique literature… Read more
for Saswati and Pratichi Preface ‘That’s my cue,’ says my father when he wants to get in with one of his stories and link it in with something someone else has just said apropos of something completely different. My interest in the oral telling of stories and reciting of verses goes back, like so much else in our lives, to influences in my childhood. At the… Read more
Foreword The relationship between oral tradition and literary authorship is a classic bone of contention in the study of early epic narrative. Works like the Iliad, Beowulf, La Chanson de Roland and Njáls saga have all been interpreted as orally transmitted texts, but they have also been interpreted as literary artifacts composed in writing by an author. Within the field of saga scholarship this disagreement was for… Read more
Series Foreword This series is dedicated to the empirical study of oral traditions in their historical contexts. The rigorous methods of investigation developed by Milman Parry and Albert Lord, as documented in Lord’s The Singer of Tales (Harvard University Press 1960; Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 24. Second edition 2000, with an Introduction [vii-xxix] by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy) serve as a model for the books… Read more
Ymir in India, China—and Beyond Michael Witzel, Harvard University Abstract: In examining the Old Norse mythological creation story about Ymir, that is, the creation of the world from the body of a primordial giant, from a broadly comparative perspective, this essay refers to a variety of creation myths, some from Indo-European and some from Chinese and Polynesian mythologies, and argues that a “Laurasian myth”… Read more
Baldr and Iraj: Murdered and Avenged Emily Lyle, University of Edinburgh Abstract: Comparing the Old Norse myth about Baldr with the Persian Iraj story, this essay deals with methodological considerations about comparativism and structural models as heuristic tools for reconstructing ancient traditions. The essay points to common aspects of the narratives focusing on familial relationships among the gods, which are analyzed by using a… Read more
Vermin Gone Bad in Medieval Scandinavian, Persian, and Irish Traditions Joseph Falaky Nagy, Harvard University Abstract: The tales in medieval Scandinavian literature centered on the legendary entrepreneur Ragnarr loðbrók, his wives, and his sons famously feature several serpentine motifs. The narrative construct of a family literally and metaphorically bound together by dragon-like creatures under the control of a daughter, wife, or mother is also… Read more
Óðinn, Charms, and Necromancy: Hávamál 157 in its Nordic and European Contexts Stephen A. Mitchell, Harvard University Abstract: Óðinn claims in stanza 157 of Hávamál that he is able to carve and color runes such that a hanged man will walk and talk with him. In this essay the central image of this the twelfth charm in the Ljóðatal section of Hávamál is examined… Read more
Creation from Fire in Snorri’s Edda: The Tenets of a Vernacular Theory of Geothermal Activity in Old Norse Myth Mathias Nordvig, University of Colorado, Boulder Abstract: This article argues that Snorri’s version of the creation myth in Snorri’s Edda contains imagery from volcanic activity described in terms of a “vernacular theory of geothermal activity”. The vernacular theory of geothermal activity mythologizes natural events, volcanic… Read more
