Book
Open Access
The Legendary Saga as a Medium of Cultural Memory
A Study of Late Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts
-
Alisa Valpola-Walker
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
This book examines the representation and historical significance of the legendary Scandinavian past as it is depicted in two late medieval Icelandic saga manuscripts: AM 589a–f 4to and AM 586 4to. It situates the manuscripts within their literary, media, and historical contexts to read the legendary sagas (or fornaldarsögur) within them as works of historical writing. The qualities about them that are often used to deny them the label of ‘history´ — their proximity to romance and ‘folklore’, and their playfully self-conscious narration — are reinterpreted as conscious attempts to reconfigure cultural memory to suit the needs of the manuscripts’ fifteenth-century patrons. The first half of the book takes a literary approach, offering an intertextual and genre-based analysis of AM 589a–f 4to. The second broadens out to view the manuscripts as historically situated media. It examines their relationships to orality and literacy and then argues that they served particular functions at the time of their production and continued to shape cultural memories as they were read (or vocalised) in the centuries that followed. Drawing on insights from cultural memory studies and material philology, this book will be of interest to scholars of Old Norse literature, folklore, and manuscript studies.
Author / Editor information
Alisa Valpola-Walker, London, United Kingdom.
Topics
|
Open Access Download PDF |
I |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
V |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
VII |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
XI |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
XIII |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
XV |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
1 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
22 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
25 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
53 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
75 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
103 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
108 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
133 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
164 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
169 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
177 |
|
Open Access Download PDF |
197 |
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 17, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111338651
Hardcover published on:
February 17, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111338439
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
16
Main content:
201
Illustrations:
4
Coloured Illustrations:
5
Audience(s) for this book
Scholars and students of Old Norse literature, folklore and manuscripts, memory studies and media studies
Creative Commons
BY-NC 4.0
Safety & product resources
-
Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
