This module introduces students to the heroic world of medieval epic and saga through a selection of medieval texts read in modern English translations. The first half of the module will be devoted to Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, the most celebrated surviving text written in Old English. The second half of the module will focus on texts which were originally written in languages related to Old English (Old Norse and Old High German) and which draw on shared legendary traditions of monster-slaying heroes and warriors’ divided loyalties: the short German heroic lay known as the Hildebrandslied and three Icelandic legendary sagas. Paying due attention to the texts’ historical and literary contexts (including the transition from oral to literary culture), the module will focus on comparing and contrasting the treatment of related subject matter across different literatures, different centuries, and different genres (epic poetry, heroic lay, and prose saga). Topics discussed will also include issues relating to the study of literature in translation and aspects of the post-medieval reception of the texts. In line with the comparative ethos of the module, the assessed essay questions will require students to write on at least two of the set texts.

• Demonstrate close familiarity with two or more texts studied on the module
• Discuss selected examples of medieval epic and saga in ways appropriately informed by historical and literary context
• Demonstrate knowledge of relevant aspects of heroic society and literature
• Understand issues relating to the study of texts in translation
• Understand how the post-medieval reception of medieval epic and saga, including academic scholarship devoted to them, has been shaped by politics and ideology

The module will be taught in two one-hour lectures and one one-hour seminar for each seminar group each week. The lectures will cover historical and literary contexts as well as analysis of the set texts and will make some reference to the texts’ post-medieval reception. Seminar discussions will focus on close textual analysis (including issues relating to the study of literature in translation), essay preparation, and comparative topics.

• Close textual analysis
• Comparative analysis of literary texts
• Relation of texts to appropriate historical and literary contexts
• Construction and writing of a critical essay informed by appropriate knowledge of the texts and secondary literature

Essay (100%) - 3200 words

Week 1: Introductory

Weeks 2–5: Beowulf

Weeks 6–7: The Saga of the Volsungs

Week 8: The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki

Week 9: The Hildebrandslied and The Saga of Ásmundr, Killer of Champions

Week 10: Module conclusion, comparative topics, and assessed essay advice

Primary texts in order studied:

Heaney, Seamus, trans., and Daniel Donoghue, ed., Beowulf: A Verse Translation (London: Norton Critical Editions, 2002)

Byock, Jesse, trans., The Saga of the Volsungs (London: Penguin Classics, 1999)

Byock, Jesse, trans., The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki (London: Penguin Classics, 1998)

Finlay, Alison, trans., The Saga of Ásmundr, Killer of Champions in Making History: Essays on the Fornaldarsögur, ed. by Martin Arnold and Alison Finlay (London: Viking Society, 2010), pp. 119–39. Freely available online at http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/

A translation of the Hildebrandslied will be provided to students as a handout.