191
In order to see the network of beliefs and
attitudes (connected with
the worldview of the
cultural community from which it stems)
which underlie
Rómverja saga and its
texti
recepti, Sallustius and Lucanus (and which
would be otherwise invisible while always
implicit in the texture of the saga), I dig deeper
into the text and its language to find cognitive
structures and metaphors.
On the basis of ancient Roman literature,
Antikensagas and other vernacular Icelandic
sagas and poetry, I draw a social-cognitive
models of personality (based on the ancient
Roman virtues:
virtus,
pietas,
fides,
iustitia,
prudentia,
gravitas,
clementia, etc.) and
cognitive models of luck and fate as understood
by Romans (the
fatum – Felicitas – fortuna –
fors – infelicitas complex) and Icelanders (the
auðna – gifta – gæfa – hamingja – happ – heill
complex) with its cognitive structures,
metaphors, schemata, and explanatory models.
I detect and analyse differences and similarities
between them, and trace Ancient Roman/Latin
substrata in a ON-I model. Using as examples
works by Lucanus and Sallustius, and works
such as
Rómverja saga and
other
Antikensagas,
as well as related vernacular ON-I literature, I
consider the following: First, if and how were
these cultural concepts translated from Latin to
ON-I? Second, how was meaning changed,
accommodated, or adapted? Third, to what
extent was ON-I language, in the sense of
semantics and meaning, influenced by Latin?
Fourth, might these Ancient Roman-Latin
ideas have been to a certain degree integrated
into the mentality of mediaeval Icelanders (or
at least the worldview of certain groups inside
mediaeval Icelandic society)? Fifth, if
yes, in
what way was the mentality of mediaeval
Icelanders affected by these concepts?
Literature is actively involved in the making
of society. It plays a significant role in
discursive practice. Texts participate in
creating the cultural moment from which they
originated and in which they were read, and
should be associated with other phenomena in
society that occurred during a given period.
Literature produces cultural effects. The truly
important feature of this phenomenon is the
creation of hybrid cultures open to continued
changes. Therefore, we should read cultural
transfer in terms of ‘cultural transplantation’:
elements become grafted from one ‘cultural
body’ to another and are in turn adapted to new
cultural
environments.
Through
an
assimilationist
attitude
towards
foreign
language and culture – Latin in the case of
mediaeval Scandinavia – it was willingly and
knowingly embraced by leading mediaeval
Icelandic intellectuals as a
modus operandi of
the society's Europeanisation. Ultimately, a
kind of hybrid identity was developed in the
North, which consisted of the following
substrates:
Old
Norse
oral
tradition,
Christianity, and continental Latin culture.
The present project will contribute to the
extant body of research on the medaieval
cultural transfer by producing a monograph on
the case of
Rómverja saga. This monograph
will enhance our understanding of the
development of the mediaeval Icelandic
society embedded deeply in the pre-Christian
traditions,
but
strongly
influenced
by
Christianity and Latinity.
Bibliography
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Fire og
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Rómveriasaga (AM 595, 4to), ed. R. Meißner. Berlin 1910.
Rómverja saga, e
d. Þorbjörg Helgadóttir. Reykjavík 2010.
Upphaf Rómverja (I, II), ed. Konráð Gíslason, [in:]
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Úr Rómverja sögum, ed. Konráð Gíslason, [in:]
Fire og
fyrretyve for en stor deel forhen utrykte prøver af
oldnordisk sprog og litteratur, ed. Konráð Gíslason.
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Översättning, original textproduktion och tradering
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Berserkir: A Re-Examination of the Phenomenon in Literature and Life
Roderick
Thomas Duncan Dale,
University College Cork
Dissertation project undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at the School of English, University of
Nottingham, U.K., degree awarded on 10
th
December 2014. Available at: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28819/.
Supervisor: Judith Jesch (University of Nottingham).
Examiners: Christina Lee (University of Nottingham) and Alaric Hall (University of Leeds).
This thesis reappraises the nature and
depictions of
berserkir (sing.
berserkr), figures
known primarily from Old Norse literature. It
challenges the stereotype of the violent, out-of-
control, liminal character and seeks to replace
it with a more nuanced interpretation. In doing
so, this thesis defines three models for
berserkir: the probable Viking-Age reality, the
medieval literary character, and the modern
popular depiction.
The key question the thesis asks is: did
berserkir in
literature and reality go berserk in
the modern English sense of the word?
Typically, research has taken it as a given that
they did, and that the key question was how
they did this. Suggestions have included:
eating
amanita muscaria (Ödmann 1925 I:
177–183; Schübeler 1885 I: 224–226; Fabing
1956: 232–257); consuming alcohol (Wille
1786: 273–274; Poestion 1884: 129–148);
suffering from mental illness (Grøn 1929: 43–
58; Shay 2003: 77–99); and via shamanic
practices (Peuckert 1988: 88–100), among
others. The unthinking assumption that
berserkir went berserk has shaped the dialogue
and vocabulary around them to the point where