1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996630071303316

Titolo

The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur : Aesthetic and Narrative Effects / / ed. by Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir, Stefanie Gropper, Judy Quinn, Alexander Wilson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; Boston : , : De Gruyter, , [2024]

2025

ISBN

9783111280325

3111280322

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (V, 253 p.)

Disciplina

839.609

Soggetti

Old Norse literature - History and criticism

Sagas - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum – An Introduction -- Preface – Skaldic Verse as an Authorial Signature -- Stanzas in the Margin: Njáls saga as Prosimetric Narrative -- The Variance in the Distribution of Verses in the A, B, and C redactions of Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar and Its Impact on Our Reading -- “Hvat er þar frá at segja?” Prosimetric Rhythm in the Íslendingasögur -- Unspeakable Stanzas: Voice, Narration and Interiority in Eyrbyggja saga -- Sensibilities in Saga Prosimetrum -- Competing Geographies in the Poetry and Prose of Víga-Glúms saga -- Absent Audiences in Family Saga Prosimetrum -- What’s in a Name? The Phantom Poems of the Poets’ Sagas -- Bibliography and List of Abbreviations (SkP, ÍF) -- List of Figures -- Index of Works and Poets

Sommario/riassunto

Verse "ation is intrinsic to the literary style of the medieval Icelandic corpus of Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders), one of the most important vernacular literary genres of the European Middle Ages. The essays collected in this volume demonstrate that the combination of prose and verse constitutes a distinctive literary aesthetic, and that in the medieval Icelandic literary tradition, it was not a question of choosing between prose and verse as the vehicle for stories about the



foundational generations of settlers on the island, but of combining both modes to forge the unique literary form of the saga. Verse "ation has always been recognised as an important aspect of the Íslendingasögur, but to date, the significance of verse to the aesthetic of the narrative has mainly been explored with reference to the sub-genre of the skáldasögur (sagas of poets), in which the proportion of verse to prose is at its highest. The contributions to the volume analyse the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum – that is, they treat the combination of verse and prose as a salient generic and aesthetic feature of this body of sagas. The contributors are leading scholars in the field of Old Norse studies, and their work represents current research trends in the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark, and Germany. Their innovative approaches will enable a better understanding on the literary mode of the corpus as a whole, as well as producing fresh insights into the compositional habits of the (anonymous) authors of individual sagas.