Updated: Reading List for Norse Religion, Sagas, and Mythology

Secondary Texts:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

6. 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.

 

 

Primary Texts:

 

1. Translated by Seamus Heaney. Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9^th ed., vol. A, Norton, 2012. pp. 41-108.

1. The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, translated by Jesse L. Byock. London: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.

3. The Saga of Grettir the Strong, translated by George A. Hight. London: Dent, 1965. Print.
4. The Saga of Erik the Red, translated by J. Sephton, Icelandic Saga Database, Sveinbjorn Thordarson (ed.), URL = <http://www.sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en>
5. Egil’s Saga, translated by W. C. Green, Icelandic Saga Database, Sveinbjorn Thordarson (ed.), URL = <http://www.sagadb.org/egils_saga.en>
6. The Story of Burnt Njal: From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga, translated by George W. Dasent. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1911.

 

 

I am taking a different approach to thesis research than I was planning on. I felt as though my early decision to study Beowulf was starting to limit my scope of texts to read, because I was trying to select texts that I thought Beowulf was most identifiable with. This severely limited my thesis topic, because I was not sure how everything was going to relate and connect to one another. So instead, I decided to consult Dr. Christine Schott, who is professor of English at Erskine College, and who was recommended to me by Professor Skalak. She suggested that I read Grettir’s Saga, and pointed out a relation to Beowulf, which was my original plan. I decided to broaden my scope of research and include sagas that I might previously have overlooked, since they aren’t clearly connected to Beowulf. Instead of starting with a plan and finding books to fit that plan, I want to read a whole range of sagas, particularly fornaldarsaga (legendary sagas), and islendingasogur (family sagas). I am going to start reading these sagas soon, since I have no particular direction or things I am looking for (yet). I want to read the legendary and family stories early on and find patterns, similarities, differences, or things I find otherwise strange, and not think (yet) about their connections to Beowulf. After I read all five sagas, some of which are pretty short, I’ll start planning my argument, or something new that I bring to the scholarly discussion. I think this will broaden my horizons of research, as well as train me to adapt to changes in my writing process.