Astronomy and Dream Visions in Late Medieval Iceland: <i>Stjörnu-Odda draumr</i> and the Emergence of Norse Legendary Fiction

O’Connor, Ralph

doi:10.5406/jenglgermphil.111.4.0474

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

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Continuing Without Closure: Analysing Irresolution in the Old Norse Hildr Legend

Olley

2018

Neophilologus

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The article introduces Old Norse material into the ongoing critical discussion about resistance to closure in medieval literature, a discussion traditionally dominated by Old French and Middle English texts. The failure of narrative accounts of the Old Norse Hildr legend to resolve is embodied by the tableaux of the eternal battle at the legend's climax, an impasse which nevertheless functions as a closural device and unites the retellings of the legend around the theme of battle. The open nature of the impasse, however, encouraged medieval authors to work on constructing narrative closure within their own accounts of the legend, not only by writing new endings but also new beginnings for the battle, elaborating on the motivations behind it. Such a strategy confirms that in Old Norse texts, as in wider medieval literature, concepts of closure involved more than merely the ending of a narrative but embraced its broader structure and invites further comparison with other medieval European texts. Finally, in taking as its starting point not a text but a legend, the article aims to explore how issues of openness versus closure can be usefully applied to a narrative unconfined by a single text but represented rather in a nexus of texts with little in common besides a brief overlap in subject matter. The article argues for the necessity of the legendary perspective, in spite of its methodological challenges, in order to distinguish between closure on a textual and closure on a narrative level.

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Continuing Without Closure: Analysing Irresolution in the Old Norse Hildr Legend

Olley

2018

Neophilologus

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Narrative Modes, Narrative Space, and Narrative Play in the Post-Classical Sagas and <i>Þættir</i> of Icelanders

Korecká¹

2019

Auc Philologica

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Scholars have traditionally viewed the post-classical sagas and þaettir of Icelanders, written between the second half of the 13th century and the early 15th century, as inferior to the classical sagas and þaettir in terms of narrative form and social relevance. In the present study we argue that the post-classical texts show an innovative approach to the concept of narrative space, and that they are reflective of the various narrative modes in a way that allows the narratives to become more varied and multi-layered than the classical sagas. We also argue that the increased use of supernatural motifs is not a sign of disinterest in the social concerns, because such motifs contribute to the conceptualization of the social issues that had changed after the end of the Sturlung Age, but they had not become less significant.

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Traumas of 1066 in the Literatures of England, Normandy, and Scandinavia

Goeres

2024

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Astronomy and Dream Visions in Late Medieval Iceland: Stjörnu-Odda draumr and the Emergence of Norse Legendary Fiction

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

Continuing Without Closure: Analysing Irresolution in the Old Norse Hildr Legend

Continuing Without Closure: Analysing Irresolution in the Old Norse Hildr Legend

Narrative Modes, Narrative Space, and Narrative Play in the Post-Classical Sagas and <i>Þættir</i> of Icelanders

Traumas of 1066 in the Literatures of England, Normandy, and Scandinavia

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