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Tialilja Tomasdottir, born and raised in Isafjordur, a small town in the west side of Iceland, is a young author who has been writing books based on the visions she's been having since she was a young girl. Unbeknown to her, she is a threat to certain groups in the world, and they set out to hunt her down and stop her from publishing any more books. In between running for her life, falling in love, being attacked, and losing people she loves, she finds out there is something special about her. The plot thickens when she realizes that she is a part of an old prophecy and a certain power-hungry man will do everything to get his hands on her. After being hunted for so long, the big question is who can she trust? Who is giving out information about her? Who is betraying her? Read Tia's story and find out how she unravels the prophecy.
Icelandic Baroque seeks to approach the writings of Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-1674), Iceland's leading devotional poet, from a new direction. Hallgrimur is best known for his Passiusalmar, fifty hymns that contemplate the crucifixion and death of Christ, using a variety of meters and melodies; they have been sung in Iceland over Lent for many generations. This book offers a new evaluation of his poetry. First, seventeenth-century Icelandic literature in general, and Hallgrimur's works in particular, are set in the wider context of contemporary European literature, particularly from Scandinavia and Germany. Second, the influence of the poet's social milieu, both domestic and overseas, is explored. Third, the author, Margrét Eggertsdóttir, explores whether and, if so, how aesthetic and literary theories of the baroque can enrich our understanding of seventeenth-century Icelandic literature. Her principal aim is to contribute to a reevaluation of Icelandic seventeenth-century literary history by applying new interpretative perspectives to works by leading poets of the period, most notably the iconic figure of Hallgrimur Petursson.
As a departure from previous practice, this volume of 'Opuscula' presents ten articles on a single theme: manuscript and print in late pre-modern Iceland, the period between the advent of print in the early sixteenth century to the establishment of the Icelandic State Broadcasting Service in the early twentieth. Throughout this period, manuscript transmission continued to exist side by side with print, the two media serving different, but overlapping, audiences and transmitting different, but overlapping, types of texts. The authors take their point of departure in recent developments within literary and cultural studies which focus on the artefactuality of texts and the social, historical and cultural contexts in which they are produced and consumed. The volumes title, 'Mirrors of virtue', refers not only to the popular late medieval and early modern genre of exemplary and/or admonitory mirror literature several examples of which are discussed but also to the idea that both manuscripts and printed books are reflections of virtue in a broader sense.
The medieval Norse-Icelandic saga is one of the most important European vernacular literary genres of the Middle Ages. This Introduction to the saga genre outlines its origins and development, its literary character, its material existence in manuscripts and printed editions, and its changing reception from the Middle Ages to the present time. Its multiple sub-genres - including family sagas, mythical-heroic sagas and sagas of knights - are described and discussed in detail, and the world of medieval Icelanders is powerfully evoked. The first general study of the Old Norse-Icelandic saga to be written in English for some decades, the Introduction is based on up-to-date scholarship and engages with current debates in the field. With suggestions for further reading, detailed information about the Icelandic literary canon, and a map of medieval Iceland, this book is aimed at students of medieval literature and assumes no prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages.
A cross-cultural, comparative view on the transition from a predominant ‘culture of handwriting’ to a predominant ‘culture of print’ in the late medieval and early modern periods is provided here, combining research on Christian and Jewish European book culture with findings on East Asian manuscript and print culture. This approach highlights interactions and interdependencies instead of retracing a linear process from the manuscript book to its printed successor. While each chapter is written as a disciplinary study focused on one specific case from the respective field, the volume as a whole allows for transcultural perspectives. It thereby not only focusses on change, but also on simultaneities of manuscript and printing practices as well as on shifts in the perception of media, writing surfaces, and materials: Which values did writers, printers, and readers attribute to the handwritten and printed materials? For which types of texts was handwriting preferred or perceived as suitable? How and under which circumstances could handwritten and printed texts coexist, even within the same document, and which epistemic dynamics emerged from such textual assemblages?
An examination of hagiographical traditions and their impact.
This major survey of Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culturedemonstrates the remarkable continuity of Icelandic language andculture from medieval to modern times. Comprises 29 chapters written by leading scholars in thefield Reflects current debates among Old Norse-Icelandicscholars Pays attention to previously neglected areas of study, such asthe sagas of Icelandic bishops and the fantasy sagas Looks at the ways Old Norse-Icelandic literature is used bymodern writers, artists and film directors, both within and outsideScandinavia Sets Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature in its widercultural context
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.
Njáls saga is the best known and most highly regarded of all medieval Icelandic sagas and it occupies a special place in Icelandic cultural history. The manuscript tradition is exceptionally rich and extensive. The oldest extant manuscripts date to only a couple of decades after the saga’s composition in the late 13th century and the saga was subsequently copied by hand continuously up until the 20th century, even alongside the circulation of printed text editions in latter centuries. The manuscript corpus as a whole has great socio-historical value, showcasing the myriad ways in which generations of Icelanders interpreted the saga and took an active part in its transmission; the manuscripts are also valuable sources for evidence of linguistic change and other phenomena. The essays in this volume present new research and a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the Njáls saga manuscripts. Many of the authors took part in the international research project "The Variance of Njáls saga" which was funded by the Icelandic Research Council from 2011-2013.