Studies in the Transmission and Reception of Old Norse Literature: The Hyperborean Muse in European Culture

Description

The compelling world of the Vikings and their descendants, preserved in the sagas, poetry, and mythology of medieval Iceland, has been an important source of inspiration to artists and writers across Europe, as well as to scholars devoted to editing and interpreting the manuscript texts. A variety of creative ventures have been born of the processes of imagining this distant ‘hyperborean’ world. The essays in this volume, by scholars from Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, and the UK, examine the scholarly and artistic reception of a variety of Old Norse texts from the beginnings of the manuscript tradition in twelfth-century Iceland to contemporary poetry, crime fiction, and graphic novels produced in Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Iceland. The influence of Old Norse literature is further explored in the context of Shakespeare’s plays, eighteenth-century Italian opera, the Romantic movement in Sweden and Denmark, and the so-called ‘nordic renaissance’ of the late nineteenth century (including the works of August Strindberg and William Morris), as well as in some of the political movements of twentieth-century northern Europe. Interest in Old Norse literature is charted as it spread beyond intellectual centres in Europe and out to a wider reading and viewing public. The influence of the ‘hyperborean muse’ is evident throughout this book, as the idea of early Nordic culture has been refashioned to reflect contemporary notions and ideals. Front Matter ("Contents", "List of Illustrations", "Acknowledgements"), p. i Free Access Colour Plates, p. xiii https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.113356 Introduction, p. 1 Adele Cipolla, Judy Quinn https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.111583 Part I. The Transmission of Old Norse Literature Before and Between Manuscript Witnesses Editing and Translating Snorra Edda: Some Observations on the Editorial History of Snorri’s Ars Poetica, p. 21 Adele Cipolla https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109259 The Principles of Textual Criticism and the Interpretation of Old Norse Texts Derived from Oral Tradition, p. 47 Judy Quinn https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109260 Parsimony in Textual Criticism: On the Elimination of Intermediary Manuscripts, p. 79 Odd Einar Haugen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109261 Part II. Adaptations of Old Norse Literature and their Influence In Search of Amlóða saga: The Saga of Hamlet the Icelander, p. 101 Ian Felce https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109262 Ambleto: A Study of an Italian Libretto of the Eighteenth Century, p. 123 Marcello Rossi Corradini https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109263 Translations of Old Norse Poetry and the Lyric Novelties of Romanticism, p. 151 Mats Malm https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109264 Hrólfr kraki: from Sentimental Drama to Fantasy Fiction, p. 165 Tereza Lansing https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109265 Building up the Ties with the Past: August Strindberg and Starkaðr, p. 181 Massimiliano Bampi https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109266 August Strindberg’s Remaking of Áns saga bogsveigis, p. 197 Maria Cristina Lombardi https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109267 William Morris and the Poetic Edda, p. 211 Alessandro Zironi https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109268 Old Norse Myths and the Poetic Edda as Tools of Political Propaganda, p. 239 Julia Zernack https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109269 Part III. The Contemporary Reception of Old Norse Literature A Place in Time: Old Norse Myth and Contemporary Poetry in English and Scots, p. 277 Heather O’Donoghue https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109270 An Old Norse Manuscript to Die and Kill for: Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson’s Flateyjargáta, p. 295 Chiara Benati https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109271 Arnaldur Indriðason’s Konungsbók: Literary History as MacGuffin, Or: Raiders of the Lost Örk, p. 311 Carolyne Larington https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109272 Sagas as Sequential Art: Some Reflections on the Translation of Saga Literature into Comics, p. 327 Fulvio Ferrari https://doi.org/10.1484/M.AS-EB.5.109273 Back Matter ("Index of Names", "Index of Old Norse Manuscripts"), p. 346