Old Norse Philology

On the basis of an analysis of early spellings of the Old Norse men’s names Erlingr and Erlendr, this article rejects the widespread etymology that relates these names to the common noun jarl m. ‘earl’. An alternative etymology of Erlendr as an original byname *ørlendr ‘out-landish’, ‘foreign’ is reassessed and further substantiated, while a new etymology for Erlingr is proposed, deriving it from Old Norse ǫrn/ari m. ‘eagle’, with the diminutive suffix -linga-. According to this hypothesis, the name is an original byname with the literal meaning ‘little eagle’, but most likely an honorific title denoting ‘the one who acts like an eagle’.

Þórólfrgab derLandzungezwischendem Vigrafjordund Hofsvágr den Namen Þórsnes, "Thors Landzunge". Auf dieser Landzungebefindet sich ein Berg; fürd iesen Berg hatte Þórólfre ine so großeV erehrung, dass kein Mann ungewaschen seinen Blickd orthin richten sollte und manauf demBergnichts undniemandentötensollte, wederViehnoch Menschen, außerwennesselbstwegginge. Diesen Berg nannteerHelgafell,den "heiligen Berg", und glaubte, dasserdorthin gehenwürde,wenn er stirbt, undebensoalleseine Verwandten aufder Halbinsel. Die Eyrbyggja saga über Þórólfr Mostr-Bart,den ersten Landnehmerauf Þórsnesauf derHalbinselSnaefellsnes, und seinen heiligen Berg Helgafell.

In which some passages of the Historia Langobardorum are examined, with the purpose of evidentiating the existence of a "trickster" or shapeshifting figure in the Lombard culture of the VII century.
Parallels among this character and the Norse character of Loki (or rather Loptr) are made.
Original Latin text included.
Emglish translation soon to follow.

Although it is commonplace in scholarship today to talk about a ‘system’ of kennings or ‘kenning system’, critical discussion has tended to take the qualification ‘system’ for granted and left this topic unexplored. The present paper presents a study of extended kennings which reveals that the systemic network of kennings have different referents. It shows that kennings for MAN/WARRIOR are at the center of this network.

This doctoral thesis analyses the occurrence and context of human sacrifice in Old Norse religion. The aim of this study is to investigate the written sources that mention human sacrifices in the Late Iron Age Scandinavian cultures and discuss the interpretation of these sources. An analysis of the archaeological sources from Sweden, dated to the Late Iron Age, which have previously been interpreted as traces of human sacrifices have also been conducted and discussed in comparison with the written sources. The contextualisation of the human sacrifice in Old Norse religion is in focus and a structural categorisation of the social and religious contexts where human sacrifice occurred, as well as how this theoretical structure entails new interpretations of the phenomenon of human sacrifice in Old Norse religion is conducted.
One question in focus in the study is how to interpret and use the term human sacrifice in Old Norse religion. This includes a discussion of the definition of the term sacrifice and human sacrifice and their potential application in the study of Old Norse religion. An overview of previous research about the topic of human sacrifice in each discipline, from the first beginning of the disciplines in the early 19th century to this day is presented. The study also includes a discussion of whether human sacrifice was a living practice in Old Norse societies, in which contexts it appears, which conceptions are connected to the practice, and how it was reflected in the Old Norse myths. The contextualisation of the human sacrifices in the sources includes a discussion of who sacrificed, where and when the sacrifices were performed, which divinities were the intended receivers, who the victims were, as well as the potential results of the sacrifice within the society, what conceptions the sacrifice was connected with, and how the sacrifice is mirrored in the Old Norse mythology.
The primary source material has been given a prominent position in the analysis and the conclusion of the study is that the occurrence of human sacrifice as a living tradition in Old Norse religion up until the end of the Viking Age is confirmed. From a social perspective, human sacrifices have been useful to consolidate and confirm a prevailing or new power hegemony in the martial contexts where the victorious part use the vanquished enemy as a sacrificial gift to, prominently, the god Óðinn. Besides the religious experience, the sacrifice has also been able to confirm the political structure as the warlord affirms his claim and right to his social position. It concludes with the result that human sacrifices have been useful to maintain and confirm an older social order, when this has been exposed to pressure. A political development, connected to the Christianisation, occurs during the Viking Age and finally leads to the extinction of the human sacrifices as a living practice in the North.

Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press. ISBN 978-951-765-977-2

"This special issue of Comparative Literature Studies brings together talks, some extensively revised, others virtually unchanged, that were delivered at a conference entitled "What is Philology?" The gathering took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988 at Harvard University under the aegis of the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The depth and breadth of interest in the conference was deeply gratifying. I had not experienced another occasion when so many scholars from different language and literature departments gathered at Harvard, and I hope that publishing the proceedings will benefit a larger community outside the University.

By way of introduction I will describe how the event originated. My description will explore a few of the reasons why an interdisciplinary conference of a dozen speakers and respondents attracted an audience of more than two hundred, and why a topic that 'may sound rarefied drew participants whose main fields of research and teaching interests ran the gamut from the most ancient Indo-European languages to the most recent African American literature. In short, I will offer tentative explanations for the urgency of the topic to students, professors, and independent scholars who engage in philology, linguistics, literary history, literary criticism, and literary theory."

The topic of this paper is a whole complex of intertwined notions of soul, spirits, forerunners / premonitions and other types of long-distance influence from a person’s mind. I will try to lead you into this ‘jungle’ by looking at some terms from the Shetlandic dialect of English. The noun gander, inherited from Old Norse gandr, has some interesting meanings that have never before been discussed by scholars:
- ‘a high, roaring wind; strong gust of wind.’
- ‘a sudden feeling of powerlessness, nausea, sickness at heart’

This paper presents a case study on formula selection and variation in eddic poetry. It includes a general discussion of approaches to formulae in eddic poetry, problems with these, and offers a new model for addressing the relative fixity of formulaic expressions.  Although focused on Old Norse poetry, this discussion has a broad relevance to approaching other oral-poetic traditions through limited medieval sources or their relationships.

The paper analyzes the thirteen formulaic stanzas in Alvíssmál which ascribe poetic synonyms to different types of mythic being. The formula is approached through linguistics rather than directly from Oral-Formulaic Theory. Meter and alliteration are discussed as conditioning and determinant factors. The ‘alliterative rank’ of terms is correlated with their formulaic use to accomplish alliteration. An inclination to non-variation is demonstrated for the poem - i.e. variation in the use of formulae is avoided rather than tapping its potential.  The concentration on a single text takes this discussion into detail, including e.g. observing indicators of some form of interruption in the documentation process evident through changes in use of manuscript abbreviations correlated with peculiarities in formula use. Binary models of ‘improvization’–‘memorization’ are shown to be insufficient to describe actual variation. ‘Crystallization’ is proposed as an alternative. Comparison with stanzas quoted in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda suggest that a formula and its variable element were inclined to crystallize as a whole-line unit in memory, and that constraints of alliteration, semantics and syllabic rhythm within a line limited variation as a process of social negotiation in transmission. The hypothesis of whole-line crystallization is tested elsewhere in the eddic corpus, drawing examples from Vǫluspá, Skírnismál and Þrymskviða, where it offers an explanation for grammatical peculiarities or inconsistencies associated with repeating lines.

Why Odin hung on the tree, plus new interpretations of the name Yggdrasill, of the portrait of Christ on the Jelling rune stone, of the three-point stone monuments of Scandinavia, and of the connection between Askr the first man and Yggdrasill's Askr,  is what this paper offers.

The myth or tale of the theft of the thunder-instrument from the thunder-god by his adversary (ATU 1148b) is encountered almost exclusively in the Circum-Baltic.  It is found in Germanic, Sámic, Finnic and Baltic cultures.  It is otherwise only encountered in one early Greek source of questionable cultural provenance.  This paper reviews the evidence of the tradition in different cultures, with a critical reassessment of the Germanic traditions, which have often been given priority.  ATU 1148b will be addressed as a Circum-Baltic phenomenon.  The paper approaches the distinct forms of ATU 1148b in each culture’s traditions in relation as reflecting socio-historical processes.  Emphasis is given to patterns of social use and how these are conditioned by relationships to other traditions and conceptions in each cultural milieu.  The evolution of the tradition into its various forms is considered the result of a long and dynamic process of interaction between cultures.  This development makes it unreasonable to attribute the Circum-Baltic traditions and forms exclusively to either Finno-Ugric or Indo-European traditions.  It is proposed that ATU 1148b is best approached as a Circum-Baltic phenomenon and representative of a Circum-Baltic mythology which is dependent on historical processes of linguistic-cultural interaction and exchange.  It is proposed that the concentration of ATU 1148b across diverse cultures in the Circum-Baltic is at least partially attributable to the maintenance of corresponding mythic narratives in adjacent cultures.  This explanation would find parallels in the persistence and form of genres (e.g. oral epic in Northern Europe) and stylistic priorities (e.g. alliteration in Northern Europe), which also appear to exhibit isoglosses related to cultural contact.

This paper presents a new understanding of the cosmology of pre-Christian Scandinavian myth. The sources appear to give contradictory information; for example, the Æsir are located in different places: at the centre of the world, in the west, in the east, under the sea, and in the sky; Hel is placed both in the underground and beyond the sea. In recent studies, this has led to the conclusion that there is no system. The author argues that there is, and that we misunderstand the passages to other worlds. The otherworld can be defined as ‘the world beyond what we can access by natural means’. The starting-point is the realm that is physically accessible to humans, forming a compressed, wide ‘bubble’ around him/her and the local community, since our natural range is very wide in the horizontal plane in all directions, but very short downwards and upwards. Still, people have always imagined that it is possible supernaturally to transcend this ‘bubble’ through certain passages. These passages point in many directions from the middle of the ‘bubble’, but the locations of the passages are not identical to the location(s) of the other world(s), the passages being interchangeable with each other and often lead to the same (kind of) land/place. The other worlds have interfaces with this world and with each other, but have no geographical location in relation to this world or to the others – they are simply ‘beyond the passages’, ‘on the other side’. Accordingly, the fundamental model may be construed as an opposition between ‘us’ and ‘the others’, with an ever-changing border. This system becomes clear when we examine not only the limited Old Norse sources, but consider them in the light of the abundant folktales and legends recorded in post-medieval times throughout Northern Europe.

Some recent studies concerning early medieval Europe have suggested that Scandinavia and Francia represented two ideological poles with which other populations within the Germanic world might have intended to align themselves. While such a view sometimes may be useful, it may also over-simplify a more complex situation. Scandinavians must have recognised cultural distinctions between themselves and Christian Europeans, but may not have viewed these distinctions necessarily as emblems of opposition unless faced by a direct political or military threat. Indeed, ideological contrasts concerning the way society was structured and power was wielded may have cut across apparent ethnic boundaries.

Roman influences on early Germanic society may have assisted in the creation of a ‘Germanic’ identity. Roman pressure also may have affected the development of Germanic governmental structures, encouraging king-centred governmental ideologies that contrasted with possibly older, assembly-centred systems. Scandinavia, never threatened by Roman domination, may have retained assembly-centred structures longer than other Germanic societies. Southern Scandinavia’s ‘central places’ of the Early Germanic Iron Age, such as Gudme, may have had functions comparable with those of the later Old Saxon Assembly and Icelandic Alþingi. Such sites may have provided a focus for an emergent Scandinavian identity. This assembly-centred system may have been disrupted as chieftains struggled to attain the kind of power enjoyed by their counterparts in king-centred societies (much as happened in medieval Iceland), perhaps explaining the poverty of archaeological finds in the region from the Late Germanic Iron Age.
The growing Frankish threat to Scandinavia in the eighth century may have both spurred further consolidation of power in the hands of the élite and, initially, provoked an ideological reaction against Christian Europe. Yet while wary of domination by Christian European kingdoms, the Viking-Age Scandinavian élite may have envied their powerful model of lordship and had an interest in accessing elements of their culture. Such a situation may be reflected in historical legends, particularly the Scylding-Skjöldung cycle, which perhaps developed during the Viking Age. These legends might represent not source material for historical glimpses of early northern Europe (as is often assumed) but rather Scandinavian attempts at self-definition in relation to the burgeoning and powerful cultures of Christian Europe. Scandinavia’s eventual adoption of Christianity and Christian lordship in the course of the Viking Age largely resolved the ideological contrasts that had existed both within Scandinavian society and between Scandinavia and Christian Europe.

"The God-semantic Field: A Cognitive Philological Analysis" analyses eight different lexemes that belong to the same semantic field – god. The research is a comparative and contrastive analysis of the lexemes within Old Norse prose and poetry according to their use and function within texts with Christian and non-Christian topic.The aim was to use a different approach in the analysis of the words in question in order to give a better structured semantic field according to the use of the words.

This work has been copyrighted and every use of it should be referenced. For any questions regarding the work, please do not hesitate to contact me.

© Petra Mikolić

This article is the second part in a series. It shows that the Old Norse term hrímþurs, often translated 'frost-ogre' or 'frost-giant' in English, was a poetic term as a variation on the archaic and obscure poetic term þurs (addressed in part I) that was employed for h-alliteration. After reviewing the limited poetic examples, the article shows that this term was strategically correlated with hrím ['rime, frost'] as a prime element of the world-creation in Snorri Sturluson's 13th century mythography, where hrímþurs is otherwise uniquely elevated to a distinct ethnonym. This construction of a mythic ethnic category is placed in
dialogue with other places where Snorri seems to have elevated or created a term and constructed a mythic ethnos in Edda. This discussion is put forward as a frame for considering whether Snorri also constructed the category of gods called ‘Vanir’, the controversial topic of the so-called Vanir Debate.

This article builds on the survey of evidence of ATU 1148b traditions in "Circum-Baltic Mythology?" (2011) with concentration on the Germanic evidence. It argues that Thor's adventure to the home of the giant Geirrøðr is an adaptation of or has adapted models from the 'Theft of the Thunder-Instrument' (tale-type ATU 1148b) tradition, which in Germanic culture seems to have become connected with motifs linked to iron-working technologies.  It also shows that the eddic poem Þrymskviða is a culture-specific adaptation of ATU 1148b and that internal evidence of the poem indicates that this adaptation is some form of parody against the thunder god, most likely reflecting a Christian perspective within the contemporary discourse on paganism. This view of Þrymskviða is consistent with the poem's later adaptation and wide circulation as a Scandinavian ballad while the idiom of Þrymskviða makes it highly probable that the poem was composed in Iceland, most likely in the thirteenth century.

This paper addresses variation in lexical semantics by oral-poetic register and genre, including semantic variation in formulaic language.  It reviews uses of the Old Norse term þurs (commonly translated 'ogre') in verse contexts, including runic inscriptions.  It argues that the semantics of this term varied in relation to the genre in which it was used, including uses with reference to mythological giants (jötnar) in mythological narratives, agents of illness in charms, and as a vague synonym for 'monster' in death-songs more like the prose narratives in which these appear.  It proposes that variation by genre includes genres embedded in narrative as speech acts, approaching these as 'registral irruptions' in mertical narrative.

It shows that, especially in the fornyrðislag meter, use of this term was highly formulaic and considers the question of whether it may have indexed excessive or inappropriate sexuality.

A possible relationship between the eponymous hero of Beowulf and the medieval Scandinavian hero named variously as Biarco/Bjarki and Bǫðvarr bjarki was first suggested in the mid-19th century, but remains controversial. Arguments for and against generally depend on the relative weight given to various similarities or differences between the narratives, though either way most scholars seem to have assumed a “tree” model of legendary evolution: either Beowulf and Bǫðvarr/Bjarki are the respective “genetic” descendants of long-separated legendary traditions that nevertheless have a common pre-Viking origin, or they are not and any apparent similarities are largely coincidental. This paper presents an analysis inspired more by “wave” or “network” views of legendary evolution: Beowulf and Bǫðvarr/Bjarki may be related, but not in a strictly “genetic sense”. Both may represent offshoots or snapshots from an evolving Anglo-Scandinavian tradition (as a genuinely “parallel” Scandinavian tradition may not have existed), but the differences may stem not simply from “internal” evolution over time but from the significant transformation of the tradition the infusion of new material and elements in the course of the later Viking Age.

This paper constructs an overview of Snorri Sturluson’s impact, through Edda, on the cultural activity of mythology in vernacular poetries and narration. General evidence of impacts on eddic and skaldic poetries (§1) provides a frame for a series of illustrative examples, beginning with the relatively unequivocal cases of the rímur Lokrur (§2) and the late stanzas added to the eddic poem Baldrs draumar (§3). The kenning ‘mud of the eagle’ is examined in skaldic verse as an indication of Snorri’s reception in a contemporary context (§4), opening a three-part survey of cumulative evidence of influence on the eddic poem Lokasenna (§5–7). The possibility of influence as a model for the eddic poem Þrymskviða’s composition is suggested (§8), which would have analogues in saga prose (§9). Although details may be equivocated, Edda nevertheless emerges as a (sometimes contested) voice of authority in medieval Icelandic mythological discourses.

HISTOIRES RÉGIONALES DU NORD DE L’ISLANDE 
(lxxx + 360 p)
-
Traduit du vieil islandais, introduit et annoté par Grégory Cattaneo

Histoire des gens du Ljósavatn (Ljósvetninga saga)
L’Histoire des gens du Ljósavatn existe en deux versions. La plus ancienne nous est parvenue par fragments, tandis que la plus récente, existant sous la forme d’une œuvre complète, est complétée par des « dits »  (v. isl. þættir) indépendants qui ne peuvent pas avoir fait partie de l’original. Problématique dans ses formes existantes, la saga originale peut avoir été assemblée de manière maladroite en trois parties très différentes. La première partie décrit les conflits causés par le trouble-fête Sölmundr. La partie centrale tourne autour des personnages de Þórir Helgason de Laugaland dans le Hörgárdalur et Þorkell d’Öxará, fils de Þorgeirr le « chef » (v. isl. goði) de Ljósavatn, qui sont à la source de rumeurs malveillantes sur Guðmundr le Puissant de Möðruvellir, grand seigneur du nord de l’île boréale. Guðmundr réagit en affrontant et en tuant Þorkell. La dernière partie de la saga décrit une variété de conflits opposant les jeunes générations et particulièrement les descendants de Þorgeirr et Guðmundr. Les événements dépeints à la fin du récit se déroulent après 1050 et une période proche plus de la date de composition de la saga que pour le reste des Íslendingasögur ou « sagas des Islandais ». Les liens entretenus avec des personnages de sagas de contemporains (samtíðarsögur) comme ceux de la saga des Sturlungar et les sagas des rois (kónungasögur) ainsi que sa forme narrative brute et orale, suggèrent que l’Histoire des gens du Ljósavatn pourrait être l’une des plus anciennes Íslendingasögur, dont la rédaction remonterait au début du XIIIe siècle.
Cette traduction, inédite en français, de la Ljósvetninga saga ainsi que du Sörla þáttr, de l’Ófeigs þáttr et du Vöðu-Brands þáttr sera faite à partir des rédactions médiévales des manuscrits AM 561 4to et AM 162 C fol et de l’édition de référence : Ljósvetninga saga með þáttum […]. Björn Sigfússon gaf út, Reykjavik, Hið íslenzka fornritafélag (Íslenzk fornrit, X), 1940, p. 1-106.

Histoire des gens du Reykjadalur et de Skúta le Meurtrier (Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu)
Les événements de l’Histoire des gens du Reykjadalur se déroulent dans la même région que la saga précédente (Histoire des gens du Ljósavatn) mais à une période antérieure (le Xe siècle) et par conséquent les deux œuvres ont peu de points communs. L’Histoire des gens du Reykjadalur comporte deux parties distinctes : la première traite périodiquement de Vémundr la Frange (chapitres 1 à 16) et la seconde de Skúta le Meurtrier (chapitres 17 à 30). Un autre personnage important de la première partie de la saga est Áskell le Goði, oncle du fauteur de troubles Vémundr. Homme de paix, Áskell finit par dissimuler sa blessure mortelle afin d’éviter d’être la cause de nouveaux conflits : il représente un noble païen conçu par l’auteur de la saga en termes de vertus chrétiennes. La saga se divise non seulement en deux parties principales, mais également en de nombreuses sections thématiques plus petites; selon toute vraisemblance, le texte médiéval a été maladroitement assemblé à partir de récits oraux. Bien qu’il soit difficile à dater avec certitude, le style primitif de la saga et les références fréquentes à la tradition orale suggèrent que cette narration pourrait être parmi les plus anciennes des Íslendingasögur ou « sagas des Islandais ».
Cette traduction, inédite en français, de la Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu sera faite à partir des rédactions médiévales des manuscrits AM 561 4to et AM 507 4to et de l’édition de référence : Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu, dans Ljósvetninga saga […]. Björn Sigfússon gaf út, Reykjavik, Hið íslenzka fornritafélag (Íslenzk fornrit, X), 1940, p. 149-243.

Inför vår snart stundande konferens om Teorins ställning i svensk litteraturvetenskap, vars föredrag kommer att samlas i nr 2002:4, har vi bett tre välinformerade forskare att kommentera några kritiska perspektiv som rar allt större uppmärksamhet i den internationella litteraturforskningen: ekokritiken, ekofeminismen, mansforskningen och den postkoloniala kritiken. Här öppnas för nya forskningsfält, metoder och tolkningar av försummade eller redan välkommenterade verk-och för förnyad diskussion om vårt ämnes inriktning och gränser. Till vår serie om litteraturvetenskapliga work in progess välkomnas den här gången Lena Malmberg, som presenterar sitt projekt om den s.k. nomadfilosofin och uppbrottets estetik hos några betydande svenska och danska lyriker. Även här erbjuds som synes nya perspektiv för litteraturstudiet, liksom i vart och ett av numrets övriga bidrag.

This was in volume 15-16 (2020-2021), which actually came out in 2022.

In the 16th century, numerous translations into Danish were made of the 13th-century Old Norwegian law-code, the Landslov, which was still in force in Norway. This article argues that these translations were made not only due to the linguistic difficulties facing Danes working with a law-code in Old Norwegian, but also reflect an attempt to stop the Norwegian legal system fracturing as a consequence of a multitude of Danish versions of the law.

2 RMN Newsletter is a medium of contact and communication for members of the Retrospective Methods Network (RMN). The RMN is an open network which can include anyone who wishes to share in its focus. It is united by an interest in the problems, approaches, strategies and limitations related to considering some aspect of culture in one period through evidence from another, later period. Such comparisons range from investigating historical relationships to the utility of analogical parallels, and from comparisons across centuries to developing working models for the more immediate traditions behind limited sources. RMN Newsletter sets out to provide a venue and emergent discourse space in which individual scholars can discuss and engage in vital crossdisciplinary dialogue, present reports and announcements of their own current activities, and where information about events, projects and institutions is made available.

The lay begins with a dialogue between Óðinn and Frigg (Vm 1-4), where Óðinn declares his desire to have a contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir, while Frigg warns her husband of the dangers of such an endeavour and wishes him good luck. Vm 5 sees Óðinn move from his world to the giant world of Vafþrúðnir, and the protagonists exchange greetings in Vm 6-10. Then the giant decides to test the knowledge of the newcomer and does so in Vm 11-18, while Óðinn gives answers, so that in Vm 19 Vafþrúðnir expresses his satisfaction and proposes exactly the contest that Óðinn desires, with the prize for the winner being the head of the loser. Óðinn then begins, in his turn, to question the giant, and does so in two series of questions that differ in the first halfstanzas, the refrains. The refrain of the first part, Vm 20-42, is a slightly varying pattern with numbered questions; the refrain of the second part, Vm 44-54, is uniform, and questions remain unnumbered. Vm 54

The article deals with a particular class of "extra" elements in skaldic kennings for man which feature either a heiti for wolf/raven or a subordinated kenning for the same. Such extra elements form tight semantic groups with core notions of either "hunger" or "damage", they may form a compound word with the baseword or appear as separate wordforms. As they cannot be basewords themselves, there arises a question as to whether the kennings for man they are encountered in are true kennings. The article aims to demonstrate that these are, in fact, true kennings and that such extra elements must be treated as components always forming a formal compound word with the baseword, even if they appear in the verse as separate wordforms and are distanced from the baseword by one or several other words.

During the early medieval period in Scandinavia, writing could be accomplished using one of two different writing systems. Runes had been in use since long before the Viking Age, and stayed in use until the late Middle Ages. The Latin alphabet was introduced to the area along with Christianity during the tenth and eleventh centuries, and eventually became the main writing system used by Scandinavians to this day.

The production and transmission of texts by women, and in religious contexts, both in runes and in the Latin alphabet, have in this thesis been examined in order to shed light on how medieval Scandinavian women participated in different acts of writing, in connection to their religious expression. As much comparable research within the fields of history and Norse literature has so far been focused either on the literate activities of men, or on the roles of pre-Christian women in cultivated literature, this thesis seeks to identify women who expressed themselves within the context of pragmatic literature, and within the Scandinavian Catholic orthodoxy, using either one of the two available writing systems.

The research has been conducted through close readings of three main sources, a runestone from the eleventh century, a charter issued in 1352, and a testament issued in the same year. Each case study has been placed in its own historical setting, and analysed with this context in mind.

The thesis finds that women of a certain social standing had the opportunity to commission acts of carving or writing by others, and that they through these commissions show a certain awareness of the different purposes which the carved or written word could serve. Through involving themselves in literate processes, these women managed to significantly alter their own surroundings, whether through erecting monuments or influencing the actions of ecclesiastical institutions.

Additionally, the last two chapters show that women could appropriate some of the social authority of Church officials in order to further their own spiritual, as well as practical, aspirations. The thesis concludes that women were not excluded from engaging in the production or transmission of texts, nor did they have to take on the social roles of men in order to actively participate in literacy. Instead, they seem to have employed mutually beneficial relations with literate professionals, and thus been able to actively participate in the creation of text through the role of commissioner.

Investigación sobre los orígenes, orden y destino del cosmos según las cosmologías germánicas, teniendo en cuenta las fuentes, desde Julio Cesar hasta Snorri Sturluson.

https://ne-np.facebook.com/CapitulosUniandinosOficial/videos/argonautas-retransmisiónenvivo-el-árbol-y-los-mundos-cosmologías-germánicas-/254887406480005/

The Arkenstone, its nature, and its influence on the story of The Hobbit share deep roots and similarities with the nature and story influence of the Silmarils on the Quenta Silmarillion. Although the connections were not overtly made in either story, the relationship between the Arkenstone and the Silmarils becomes unmistakable through close readings of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, as well as the ancient story sources that influenced Tolkien (the Norse Poetic Edda and the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf).

This paper presents a pilot study on 340 metrically situated battle-kennings. The pilot study was intended to assess whether kennings might become metrically entangled or metrically bound semantic formulae beneath the lexical surface texture of dróttkvaett poetry. The paper presents an introduction to the pilot study, its background, methods, test corpus and the information it produced. Theoretical frames for considering language in oral poetry, formulaic language and metrical entanglement are introduced to advance from observing the recurrent use of battle-kennings in certain metrical positions to regarding these as outcomes of the generative use of semantic formulae. Demonstrating formulaicity then reciprocally provides a context for assessing lexical variation in entextualizing the kennings. The
paper concludes with a discussion of how the evidence of the pilot study relates to the way poets generated verses, whether in reflective composition or in more immediate situations.

This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realized. Metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry provide material for a series of case studies focusing on variation in realizing formulae of this type. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. Focus will be on variation between two broad semantic categories in expressing the formula’s consistent unit of meaning that are otherwise unambiguously distinct: proper names for mythological beings and poetic terms for weapons and armour. This article introduces an approach to kennings as semantic formulae and includes an illustrative case study on kennings meaning ‘battle’ in the last three metrical positions of a dróttkvætt line. The case study is simultaneously used to demonstrate the degree of integration of mythological proper names in the poetic register. This article contains only the first case study of a series. It provides foundations for examining variation in the associative links exhibited by names of mythic beings as a category according to the metrical positions in which a battle-kenning is realized, as will be discussed further later in this series. In additions to insights into how language was used in the practice of this tradition, this study highlights that mythological names could be used in the poetry for purely metrical reasons without linking to the name's mythological significance.

There is a long history of stylometric approaches to questions of authorship of the Íslendingasögur, most particularly the question of whether Snorri Sturluson wrote Egils saga. Wieselgren (1927) used the frequencies of a series of syntactic features to substantiate the argument that Egils saga shared an author with Snorri’s Edda. Although the value of the particular features Wieselgren used was undermined (Nordal 1933), later researchers—van den Toorn (1959) and particularly Hallberg (1962) and West (1980)—have demonstrated conclusively that Egils saga is closer to Snorri’s known works than the other Íslendingasögur are, and closer than to Snorri’s known works than it is to the other Íslendingasögur. Outside the Old Norse-Icelandic sphere, such methods, particularly in the form proposed by Mosteller & Wallace (1964), have had many successes, settling the case of disputed authorship of the Federalist Papers, the Junius letters (Ellegård 1962), proving that Robert Galbraith is really J.K. Rowling (Juola 2013), and confirming that Shakespeare authored Double Falsehood (Boyd & Pennebaker 2015). In this paper, rather than attempt to answer a single question of shared or distinct authorship for some pair of texts, I use statistical methods to map the stylistic geography of the Íslendingasögur. Are there any other clusters of texts as similar as Egils saga and Snorri’s works? Can we see stylistic change over time, or stylistic differences between different types of narrative?

A comparative study of the earliest historiography in Scandinavia, focussing on the interaction of cross-cultural relations between the Scandinavian countries and Western Europe and the different local and political preconditions for the writing of history in the North.
The combination of philological analyses of six Latin and five Old Norse texts with the investigation of the political and learned networks behind their authors provides new insights into the emergence of cultural identities and saga literature as the result of cultural transfer.

The study of phonology and morphed-soundshifts in both Æthiopic and Old Ænglisc remains incomplete. The present research focuses chiefly on morphed-soundshift or velarization and the epenthetic nasal or /n/ (ን). This velarization occurs in both palatals (e.g. /y/ > /g/) and uvulars (e.g /q/ > /g/), and furthermore within velars (e.g. /g/ > /k/ and /k/ > /g/), which all aid in the processes of nasal epenthesis as will be drawn out in the present study. Consequently these processes of change notwithstanding rest primarily upon particular combinations of consonants, such as certain organic double palatals, velars and uvular consonants or couplets: e.g. /yy/ and /gg/, /kk/ and /qq/.
    Therefore the paper deems to draw out and evidence, that, all these organic combinations become in Æthiopic through (morphed) sound shift and as a consequence of epenthesis, shift to what we might call nasal-velars or nasal-uvulars: e.g. /qq/ > /nqq/. While in Old Ænglisc similarly the like or following is observed to occur, /yy/ > /gg/ > /ng/; besides /kk/ > /nc/ or /ng/; and /qq/ > /nc/ (nk) or /ng/.
    Whence most notable is that /yy/, and /gg/, /kk/ and /qq/, may due to their combinational environments all become /ng/ or /nc/.
    This may all be exemplified in both languages by the Æthiopic term /þanqaq|a/ be accurate                                      and its Old Ænglisc cognate þenc|an to think; consider, of which both forms contain /nqq/ or /nc/ respectively, the nasal however not being organic to the root, as here evidenced by the Æthiopic form with the double uvulars. Notwithstanding to further substantiate the latter, the Old Norsk has /-kk/, while the Gothic attests /-gk/, id est both somewhat seem to retain or evidence the final radical, albeit with a morphed-soundshift from /q/ to k/g; ONors. ðekk|ja to perceive  (Vigfusson 1864: 614); Goth. þagk|ian think (Balg 1887 - 89: 753, 754).
    Moreover in addition, it is also to be further noted that the Æthiopic and Old Ænglisc also besides velarizing and epenthetizing, do also labialize, palatize and as already shewn syncopate their velars and uvulars; these changes this is important for it will also be evidenced, of these for example that labio-velars and labio-uvulars and so on, are also of particular import for the present study, as these may affect the process of epenthesis, velaraization an the like: e.g. /gg/> /gwgw; /kk/ > kwkw and /qq/ > / qwqw/ &c.
    Thus the paper endeavours to illustrate all these anomalies towards a better understanding of both Æthiopic and Old Ænglisc phonology and synthetic morphology and of further significance for the latter tongue, organic root forms, and thus generally a better understanding of cognation between the two languages and their language families. The research serves also as a contribution to a comparative phonology and grammar of the languages under analysis. Finally it ought to be mentioned that scholars of the Anglo-Saxon language on the whole, including those of the OED, evidently are unaware of the organic root forms of many of the epenthetic terms ending in /ng/ and /nc/ (OED 1933/61:[vol.x] 76). This in the same way that Æthiopic scholars appear to be unaware of the prime movers and processes that causes nasal epenthesis. The latter group (Æthiopic) presently having mainly a labial consideration, id est epenthesis is first considered a labial phenomenon, then occurring it is said, in the so called palatal-guttural-mutes (velars &c.) and asparates and finally sibilants &c. Otherwise little else is mentioned of the processes (Dillmann 1907:134, 135; Leslau 1987 {1989}:222). Also observe that /ng/, organic or epenthetic, phonetically may be considered in both Old Ænglisc (Moore and Knot 1934:6, 16) and Æthiopic as [ŋg], unless palatized, whence [ŋj].

Draft Paper, copyright, January 2018, By Rev Dn. Gabra ’AGZI’AABHER JR

[Title: Velarization & Systematic 'Nasal Epenthesis' in Coupled Velars & Uvulars: contra, Labialization, Palatization & Syncope (A Comparative Study in the Phonology of Æthiopic and Old Ænglisc)
By: Rev Dn. Gabra ’AGZI’AABHER JR,
Æthiopian Linguistic and Philological Association]

Imitative verse-translation (into ljóðaháttr) in Modern English. (This poem offers inter alia a useful handy model for ljóðaháttr.)
This is a draft for a projected book of ON Eddic and Skaldic verse-translations, wherein each text should be presented furnished with an introduction and notes. I have, thus far, also made metricostylistically imitative translations of Vǫluspá, Hávamál, Hervararkviða,  Vǫlundarkviða, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrífumál, and the Old Icelandic Rune Poem (with acrophony!), and hope to finish more in due course if I can.
These translations are commissioned and owned by Reaktion Books.