1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813477403321

Autore

Fjalldal Magnús

Titolo

The long arm of coincidence : the frustrated connection between Beowulf and Grettis saga / / Magnús Magnús

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1998

©1998

ISBN

1-281-99556-8

9786611995560

1-4426-7680-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (187 p.)

Disciplina

829/.3

Soggetti

Mythology, Norse, in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Determining Analogous and Genetically Related Material -- 2. The Making of Heroes and Monsters -- 3. The Hero's Fight against the Monsters -- 4. A Sword by Any Other Name -- 5. Hell and High Water -- 6. The English Hypothesis -- 7. Panzer's 'Bear's Son' Thesis -- 8. The Common Origin Theory -- 9. The Big Bang Theory -- 10. A Saga Author Shops Around: The Eclectic Composition of the Glamr and Sandhaugar Episodes -- 11. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Scholars in Old Norse and Old English studies have for years sought to find connections between Beowulf and Grettis saga, despite great differences in the composition, time period, and country of origin of the two works. Based on some striking surface similarities, the assumption of kinship, or genetically related analogues, has inspired scholars to make more and more daring conjectures regarding the actual relationship between the two works. Magnús Fjalldal has written a lively challenge to those notions, carefully demonstrating how even tangential resemblances that at one point would have been considered questionable, have become progressively assimilated into mainstream Old English and Old Norse scholarship. The author?s refutations are closely tied to the primary texts, and he makes constructive and



plausible suggestions of his own as to how the apparent parallels could have arisen in two texts so separated by time, culture, and geography.Passionately and engagingly written, occasionally forceful, The Long Arm of Coincidence successfully reopens a classic argument in Old Norse and Old English studies, and will be sure to provoke strong reactions on both sides of this question.