April 7, 2009agenda

Order of events

Small group work on final paper Marvelous oral report Glances: Vikings video and DVD sections Common themes: Gwyn Jones Thorstein, Saga-techniques and

narratology; Roland and group analysis Quiz

Gwyn Jones (1972) Kings Beasts & Heroes

Looks at 3 works: Beowulf, Culhwch and Olwen, and Hrolfssaga

Composed between 8th and 11th century, set in the 6th century, and all concerning Denmark, Geatland Norway, Sweden, and Britain (the Welsh tale)

All associated with heroic legend – a hero tale “accredited to a known and named hero belonging in the early traditions of a tribe, people, country or race” as opposed to a wondertale/folktale

Jones on Beowulf as heroic poem

“a non-divine hero of wondertale descent associated closely, constantly, and prolongedly with the antecedents of northern tribal history …fight[s] to the death a destructive but conventional and nonapocalyptic foe”

Textual metamorphosis

“one kind of tale and telling can become something else: wondertale becoming heroic legend, heroic legend entering the realm of legendary history, and the attachment of floating story-material to a named hero in a known geographical setting….by such process the wondertale as it were, grows up, acquires morality and a social purpose”

Different shades of ‘historical’

Reality – and then there is Historical tradition Legendary history (associates

legendary event with name discoverable in historical tradition)

Heroic legend International popular tale wondertale

Hunters with beasts

Mighty themes: perfect for epics, heroic legends, historical traditions

Hunting the bear

The whale

The boar

The lion

Categories of sagas

Historical sagas: Kings’ lives; Bishops’ sagas

Sagas of Icelanders: Sturlunga saga

Sagas of Olden Times: Volsungasaga and knightly romances

Thorstein….

Thorstein

3 good questions in the Norton Intro, p 1777

What purposes are served by the dialogue?

What is Thorarin’s motive for each of his acts?

How are the two women used as characters?

The Song of Roland

778 ADThe Song of Roland is an anonymous French epic concerning a legendary battle which took place in the valley of Roncesvaux in the Pyrenees in 778 AD and written down much later

1066 AD At Hastings, in 1066, Taillefer the Jongleur is said to have gone before the army, flinging his sword in the air and singing stirring stanzas from the Song of Roland …This is recorded by several medieval writers

Working with Roland

Cultural implications of the period

Notice, p 1705 Norton, how the editors justify their claim that Roland is based on oral tradition

Stanzas for small groups: 87, 92; 128-31; 146-51; 173-6; 276-280

Useful links

http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/sagas.htm

Good intro only http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/index2.html

http://www.sjolander.com/viking/museum/bt/bt.htm

http://www.geocities.com/profviano/medieval/4roland.html