Hurstwic recently traveled to Iceland to shoot our next film, “The Final Battle of Grettir the Strong”. The saga hero Grettir, and his brother Illugi, lived on the remote island of Drangey about 1000 years ago. There, they were attacked and…
A handout produced by Joanne Shortt Butler on the Old Norse literature topic of 'The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi', including background reading, questions to think about, and a glossary of terms and letters.
A handout produced by Joanne Shortt Butler on the origins of sagas: composition and tradition, including a timeline, extracts from sagas, and a reading list.
Handout on Laxdœla saga saga (The Saga of the People of Laxárdalr) by Joanne Shortt Butler, including extracts from the saga, a family tree and reading list.
A handout produced by Rebecca Merkelbach to accompany an introductory lecture at Cambridge on Gísla saga Súrssonar (one of the Sagas of Icelanders dealing the outlaw figure Gísli).
Notes produced by Rebecca Merkelbach for an introductory lecture at Cambridge on Gísla saga Súrssonar (one of the Sagas of Icelanders dealing with the outlaw Gísli ).
Essay Question: How is the figure of the poet presented in the skáldasögur (Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, Hallfreðar saga, and Kormáks saga)?
Essay Question: Why do the authors of the skáldasögur (Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, Hallfreðar saga, and Kormáks saga) incorporate poetry in their sagas?
Essay Question: To what extent do the authors of Gísla saga Súrssonar and Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar critique Icelandic law and the sentence of outlawry?
Matthew Driscoll (University of Copenhagen/Ulster University), ‘ Stories for all time: The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur’. Chaired by Orla Murphy. Presentation at the IRC-Funded Conference ''Rediscovering the Vikings', UCC, 25 Nov. 2016.