This module involves the comparative study of sagas, short stories, and novels written during the medieval and modern periods in island communities of the North Atlantic: Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, and Iceland. The focus will be on two dominant influences that have shaped the literatures of these communities: their natural environment as islands in the North Atlantic and their Norse and Viking cultural inheritance.

The first half of this module explores a selection of the medieval Icelandic prose narratives known as sagas, focusing on the ‘sagas of Icelanders’ genre. The second half of the module is concerned with twentieth- and twenty-first century fiction in which writers engage with the natural environment of the North Atlantic and with the cultural inheritance from Old Norse; the texts studied include: short stories by the acclaimed Orcadian writer, George Mackay Brown; an historical novel by Margaret Elphinstone set in twelfth-century Fair Isle and Shetland; short Icelandic novels by the Nobel prize winner, Halldór Laxness, and the contemporary poet, novelist, and Björk lyricist, Sjón; and the novel chosen by Faroe islanders as their book of the twentieth century, Heiðin Brú’s The Old Man and his Sons. The medieval and modern Icelandic and Faroese texts will be read in modern English translations.

• write an informed and appropriately documented critical essay on medieval and/or modern literature from Iceland, the Faroes, Orkney and/or Shetland
• demonstrate a capacity to undertake comparative literary study across different periods and/or different national literatures
• demonstrate an informed awareness of key issues in the study of the set texts
• think critically about the interrelation of texts and their contexts and make appropriate use of contextual material and published criticism in assessed work

There will be one lecture and a two-hour seminar per week. The lectures will introduce and analyse each of the set texts, focusing on the key themes of the module, and will also provide appropriate contextual information. The seminars will focus on close reading and literary analysis of the set texts and will include some discussion of broader topics, including issues presented by studying texts in translation.

Students will practise essay writing skills and critical analysis of texts in modern English. They will develop their capacity to undertake comparative study of texts from different periods and/or places. In seminars students will be able to develop oral communication by contributing to class discussions.

Essay 100%
3200 words

The module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Course Guide. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

THE POTENTIAL FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In accordance with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed assessment, with the cap of the individual piece of assessment set at 40.

The set texts are listed in the Reading List below. This is an indicative programme for the module:

1
Lecture
Introduction: North Atlantic Literatures
Two-hour Seminar
Languages and literatures of the North Atlantic

2
Lecture
Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey (Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða)
Two-hour Seminar
Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey

3
Lecture
Hen-Thorir (Hænsa-Þóris saga)
Two-hour Seminar
Hen-Thorir

4
Lecture
Audun and the Bear (Auðunar þáttr)
Two-hour Seminar
Auðunar þáttr

5
Lecture
George Mackay Brown, Hawkfall and Other Stories
Two-hour Seminar
Orkneyinga saga and George Mackay Brown

6
Lecture
Margaret Elphinstone, Islanders
Two-hour Seminar
Elphinstone, Islanders

7
Lecture
Sjón, The Blue Fox
Two-hour Seminar
Literature and Environment: Sjón and George Mackay Brown

8
Lecture
Faroese fiction
Two-hour Seminar
Heiðin Brú, The Old Man and His Sons

9
Lecture
Halldór Laxness, The Atom Station
Two-hour Seminar
Laxness, The Atom Station

10
Lecture
Island Stories
Two-hour Seminar
Comparative readings
 

Essential Set Texts (in order studied)

Gwyn Jones, trans., Eirik the Red and Other Sagas (Oxford: OUP, [1961] repr. 2008)

George Mackay Brown, Hawkfall and Other Stories [1974] (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2004)

Margaret Elphinstone, Islanders ([1994] repr. Edinburgh: Kennedy & Boyd, 2008)

Sjón, The Blue Fox [2004], trans. Victoria Cribb (London: Telegram, 2008)

Heðin Brú, The Old Man and his Sons [1940], trans. John F. West [1970] (London: Telegram, 2011)

Halldór Laxness, The Atom Station [1948], trans. Magnus Magnusson [1961/2003] (London: Vintage, 2014)

Medieval Icelandic Sagas

Bredsdorff, Thomas, Chaos and Love: The Philosophy of the Icelandic Family Sagas, trans. John Tucker (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2001)

Byock, Jesse, Feud in the Icelandic Saga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)

Byock, Jesse L., Medieval Iceland: Sagas, Society and Power (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988); now updated as Viking-Age Iceland (Penguin 2001)

Clover, Carol, and John Lindow, eds, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985) [For finding further reading]

Clunies Ross, Margaret, ed., Old Icelandic Literature and Society (CUP, 2000) [Collection of useful articles on different genres]

Clunies Ross, Margaret, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (CUP, 2010). [Excellent introduction to the sagas. Very highly recommended]

Gísli Pálsson, ed., From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland (Enfield Lock, Middlesex: Hisarlik Press, 1992) [A collection of articles on various texts and topics]

Hallberg, Peter, The Icelandic Saga, trans. Paul Schach (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962) [An introductory overview of the field, arranged by theme]

Jónas Kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature, trans. P. Foote (Reykjavík, 1988) [A wide-ranging survey of the whole of medieval Icelandic literature which therefore necessarily treats individual texts quite briefly]

Jochens, Jenny, Women in Old Norse Society (1995, repr. 1998)

Jones, Gwyn, A History of the Vikings, 2^nd edn (Oxford: OUP, 1984)

Jones, Gwyn, Norse Atlantic Saga, 2^nd edn (Oxford: OUP, 1986)

Ker, W. P., Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature (1897; repr. 1957), Chapter 3 'The Icelandic Sagas'. [Although now very old, this chapter remains one of the best pieces of criticism on the Old Icelandic Sagas]

McTurk, Rory, ed., A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)

Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben, Saga and Society: An Introduction to Old Norse Literature, trans. John Tucker (Odense: Odense UP, 1993) [An excellent guide, especially strong on relations between literature and society]

Miller, William Ian, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland (University of Chicago Press, 1990)

O'Donoghue, Heather, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004) [See especially Chapters 1, 2, 3]

Pulsiano, Phillip, et al., eds, Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 1993). [A useful reference work containing many articles of relevance]

Tucker, John, ed., Sagas of the Icelanders: a Book of Essays, (New York: Garland, 1989)

Vésteinn Ólason, Dialogues with the Viking Age: Narration and Representation in the Sagas of the Icelanders, trans. Andrew Wawn (Reykjavík, 1998)

Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey

Andersson, Theodore M. ‘The Displacement of the Heroic Ideal in the Family Sagas’, Speculum 45 no. 4 (1970), 573-93; also reprinted in John Tucker, ed., Sagas of the Icelanders: a Book of Essays, (New York: Garland, 1989), pp. 40-70.

Bredsdorff, Thomas, Chaos and Love: The Philosophy of the Icelandic Family Sagas, trans. John Tucker (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2001) [Includes some interesting discussion of Hrafnkels saga in Chapter 5]

Herman Pálsson, trans., Hrafnkel’s Saga and Other Stories, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. [See the introduction]

Nordal, Sigurður, Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, trans. R. George Thomas (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1958)

Óskar Halldórsson, 'The Origin and Theme of Hrafnkels saga' in John Tucker, ed., Sagas of the Icelanders: a Book of Essays, (New York: Garland, 1989), pp. 257-71.

Audun and the Bear

Fichtner, Edward G. ‘Gift Exchange and Invitation in the Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka’, Scandinavian Studies 51 (1979), 249-72.

Miller, William Ian, Audun and the Polar Bear: luck, law, and largesse in a medieval tale of risky business (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman, and Joseph Harris, ‘Short Prose Narrative (þáttr)’ in Rory McTurk ed., A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 462–78.

Old Norse Language

Barnes, Michael, A New Introduction to Old Norse: Part 1. Grammar (London: Viking Society, 1999)

Zoega, Geir T., A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Oxford: OUP, 1910) [Can also be consulted online]

Modern Icelandic Literature; Halldór Laxness; Sjón

Hallberg, Peter, Halldór Laxness, trans. Rory McTurk (New York: Twayne, 1971)

Halldór Guðmundsson, The Islander: A Biography of Halldór Laxness, trans. Philip Roughton (London: MacLehose Press, 2008)

Hannity, Mary, ‘Interview with Sjón’, The White Review online issue (October 2012) http://www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-sjon/

Neijmann, Daisy L., A History of Icelandic Literature (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007)

Oslund, Karen, Iceland Imagined: Nature, Culture, and Storytelling in the North Atlantic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011, repr. 2013)

Popescu, Lucy, ‘In the Grandmothers’ Archipelago: An Interview with Sjón’ http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/in-the-grandmothers-archipelago-an-interview-with-sjon/ (2010)

Stefán Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature (New York: Johns Hopkins Press, 1957)

Sjón’s author website: http://sjon.siberia.is/

Orkney and Shetland; George Mackay Brown; Margaret Elphinstone

D’Arcy, Julian Meldon, Scottish Skalds and Sagamen: Old Norse Influence on Modern Scottish Literature (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1996)

Fergusson, Maggie, George Mackay Brown: The Life (London: John Murray, 2007)

Gifford, Douglas, ‘Contemporary Fiction II: Seven Writers in Scotland’ in A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, ed. Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), pp. 604–29 [Elphinstone is discussed on pp. 604–07]

Hall, Simon W., The History of Orkney Literature (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2011)

Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, trans., Orkneyinga Saga (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics 1981)

Murray, Rowena, and Brian Murray, Interrogation of Silence: The Writings of George Mackay Brown, (London: John Murray, 2004)

Phelpstead, Carl, ‘A Viking Pacifist? The Life of St Magnus in Saga, Novel, and Opera’ in Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture, ed. David Clark and Carl Phelpstead (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2007), pp. 119–32. [Also available online at http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/ ]

Schoene, Berthold, Making of Orcadia: Narrative Identity in the Prose Work of George Mackay Brown (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1995)

Smith, Mark Ryan, The Literature of Shetland (Lerwick: Shetland Times, 2014)

Margaret Elphinstone’s author website: http://www.margaretelphinstone.co.uk/

Faroese Literature

Bønner, Hedin, Three Faroese Novelists (New York: Twayne, 1973)

Jones, W. Glyn, ‘Faroese Literature’ in A History of Danish Literature, ed. Sven H. Rossel (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), pp. 545–87

Oslund, Karen, ‘Chapter 5. Reading Backward: Language and the Sagas in the Faroe Islands’ in Iceland Imagined: Nature, Culture, and Storytelling in the North Atlantic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011, repr. 2013), pp. 123–51

Literature and the Environment

Clark, Timothy, The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment (Cambridge: CUP, 2011)

Garrard, Greg, Ecocriticism, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2011)

Phelpstead, Carl, ‘Ecocriticism and Eyrbyggja saga’, Leeds Studies in English, New Series 45 (2014), 1–18 [To be made available on Learning Central]