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The Icelandic genre known as the Family Sagas, Sagas of Icelanders, or Sagas about early Icelanders consists of anonymous works, and the genre, as well as the individual sagas, are therefore difficult to date. This literature is also difficult to date since sagas are stories that were transformed both during oral and scribal transmission. The authors of the present book address methodological problems and discuss the dating of individual sagas and the genre itself. Focusing their attention on an important period in the history of Icelandic literature, the authors are particularly concerned with the several new written genres which developed in Iceland in the thirteenth century, of which the ...
Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland explores the life and legacy of Jón Halldórsson, Bishop of Skálholt (1322–39), a Dominican who had studied the liberal arts in Paris and canon law in Bologna. Combining different disciplinary approaches (literary and intellectual history, manuscript studies, musicology), this book aims to examine the conditions under which literate culture thrived in 14th-century Scandinavia. The studies included in this volume consider Jón Halldórsson’s educational background and his contributions as a storyteller to Old Norse literature, focusing especially upon legendary sagas such as Clári saga and examining their link to the Dominican tradition of exemp...
Despite various poststructuralist rejections of the idea of a singular author-genius, the question of a textual archetype that can be assigned to a named author is still a common scholarly phantasm. The Romantic idea that an author created a text or even a work autonomously is transferred even to pre-modern literature today. This ignores the fact that the transmission of medieval and early modern literature creates variances that could not be justified by means of singular authorships. The present volume offers new theoretical approaches from English, German, and Scandinavian studies to provide a historically more adequate approach to the question of authorship in premodern literary cultures. Authorship is no longer equated with an extra-textual entity, but is instead considered a narratological, inner- and intertextual function that can be recognized in the retrospectively established beginnings of literature as well as in the medial transformation of texts during the early days of printing. The volume is aimed at interested scholars of all philologies, especially those dealing with the Middle Ages or Early Modern Period.
Chris Bray is the backgammon columnist for The Independent newspaper in London. In this anthology he traces the development of on-line play and looks at many other aspects of the game. In the five years since the publication of Chris's last book "What Colour is the Wind?" the spread of broadband connectivity has driven unprecedented growth in backgammon on the Internet. Backgammon playing computer programs, such as Snowie and gnubg, are helping players of all strengths to develop their game. The material in this book covers not only the development of backgammon theory but also looks at the history of the game. Several new players, including the Dowager Duchess, have joined his menagerie to help to paint a graphic picture of life in the high stakes chouette - the very lifeblood of backgammon. Chris's articles are targeted at a broad range of players and everyone from the casual player to the expert will improve their game by studying the diverse positions in this book.
Written in Iceland by an unknown author about 1280, Njals saga has been called the greatest work of vernacular prose fiction from the European Middle Ages. Allen's finely written and perceptive study is one of the first in English to offer a critical examination of the text.
Includes entries for maps and atlases.