The Mind’s Eye: The Triad of Memory, Space and the Senses in Old Norse Literature

Abstract

This article examines the intimate connection between the senses and memory. The focus lies on vision, which was believed to be one of the main routes of access to memory in medieval culture. Because descriptions of and reflections on memory are evident across genres, examples will be drawn from various corners of the Old Norse textual landscape and reference will be made to sagas, eddic poetry and the

I: 1 Rhetoric

“…The Scandinavian tradition of the Middle Ages contains numerous sources which may be classified as belonging to the area of mnemotechnics (cf. Carruthers 1990Carruthers , 1998Pethes and Ruchatz 2001, 380-383;Hermann 2017b). In these cases, as in many others, the classical theories of places (loci / topoi) and of topology are a frequently used means of supporting memory.…”

“…Even to a casual observer it quickly becomes apparent that all studies which specifically and jointly address rhetoric and memory of Old Norse narrative sources are of a more recent date. Such recent studies may be concerned with aspects of mediality, a fundamental category for theories both of rhetoric and memory (Glauser 2007;Heslop 2014Heslop , 2018, or with diverse rhetorical methodolo gies which both classical and Old Norse mythological poetry employ to gener ate memory and enable remembering, such as, for example, rhetorical aspects of space, the senses, or memory (Hermann 2014(Hermann , 2017b. Others analyse the impres sive and thus mnemotechnically especially suitable imagery of skaldic kennings (Bergsveinn Birgisson 2010; Malm 2016) or (even more recently) the permuta tion of linguistic theories, relations of texts and imagery, performativity and the resulting creation of memory in the Second Grammatical Treatise (Schneeberger forthcoming).…”

“…Carruthers 1990Carruthers , 1998; see Buchholz 1980 for an early discussion of oral performances in Old Norse liter ature). In more recent years, such observations have also been discussed in rela tion to the importance of unconventional, explicitly 'rhetoricised' verbal imagery for memory (Bergsveinn Birgisson 2010;Malm 2016;Hermann 2009Hermann , 2014Hermann , 2015Hermann , 2017bHeslop 2014;Schneeberger forthcoming). Aby Warburg formulated a cor responding concept for art history in his 'pathos formulae' (see below), but the concept itself has not yet been explored sufficiently in skaldic studies.…”