Reading List for Norse Religion, Sagas, and Mythology:

 

  1. Littleton, C. Scott. “The Comparative Indo-European Mythology of Georges Dumézil”. Journal of the Folklore Institute. Vol 1, No. 3. Dec. 1964, pp.147-166. JSTOR

 

  1. Baker, Peter S. Introduction to Old English. Wiley-Blackwell: Feb. 2012. Print.

 

  1. Hill, Thomas D. Sources of Wisdom: Old English and Early Medieval Latin Studies. University of Toronto: 2007.

 

  1. Byock, Jesse L. Viking Age Iceland. Penguin UK: Feb. 2001. Print

 

  1. Byock, Jesse L. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. UCLA Press: 1982. Print.

 

  1. Jakobsson, Armann, and Jakobsson, Sverrir. The Routledge Research Companion to Medieval Icelandic Sagas. Routledge: 2017. Print.

 

 

Journal: Vikings and Medieval Scandinavia. Brepols. http://vms.asnc.cam.ac.uk

 

Keywords: Translation theory, Vikings, Norse, Saga

 

In order to study the primary texts that I will use for my thesis, I need to first be able to read them. Since I cannot begin to decipher ancient Icelandic or Old English, I must be working from translations alone. Professor Skalak pointed out that I need to consider translation theory since I cannot close read the original text. Baker’s Intro to Old English will help me with Beowulf, and I’m going to look in the academic journal for help with the original sagas. Then, I want to break down the sagas and find common tropes or story patterns. Jesse Byock is an expert and a great writer, and I’ve read him before. I’m going to study at least two of Byock’s books. Part of the reason I am so interested by the Nordic gods is because they look nothing like the Judeo-Christian-Muslim monotheistic god, or even the gods and goddesses of the other pagan religions. They are immoral and mortal.  They lie, have sex, fight with each other, and die. So, a question I had to frame my research is a more complex version of “what’s the point?” If the gods and goddesses, weren’t created for a didactic purpose, or to show people that believed in them how to live, what purpose did they serve? What real life application came out of the pantheon? What was the nature of mythology, and how did it form? What about the Christianization of the Scandinavian countries? How did the one religion give way into the other, and what was the effect of this transformation on the mythology, folklore, and legend? Depending on what direction my interest takes, I may also want to study shamanism. I will probably also look at the conceptions of masculinity, since it was such a “macho” society. Finally, I am considering re-watching the series Vikings on HBO for a modern-day recreation of the lives of the Vikings. Both myself and my professor of Nordic Mythology last semester found this series to be astonishingly accurate in its portrayal of the religion and shamanism. Sometimes I can tell which primary source the show-makers are getting their information from. I may study some of the film theory that we have been reading recently to apply this to my thesis.

2 thoughts on “Reading List for Norse Religion, Sagas, and Mythology:”

  1. I really appreciate the thought put into this and the interesting path you’ve charted here. I have wondered the same thing about the purpose of these gods in the study I’ve done of their myths, so your conclusions will be very interesting to me, and I’m sure many others. I’ve never given much thought to the battle for Christianity to overtake native practices, so that is really intriguing too. I’m guessing you might not pursue all of these, but all sound fascinating!

  2. This is a fascinating thesis subject. You say, though, that these gods were “immortal,” but that they “died” – which was it? Or were they perpetually dying and then reappearing in later myths? I also wonder if you can write off the notion of the myths being didactic so quickly. Even though the gods and goddesses were not representations of an “ideal” citizen or conscience, perhaps they taught listeners other lessons? Or simply offered entertainment and escape from reality, a purpose stories have served throughout civilizations?

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