Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre
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evaluation
evolution
guide
hybridity
innovation
interdisciplinary subject
literary genre
medieval prose
Old Norse
poetry
prototypical cases
thematic areas
theoretical approaches
understanding
Product details
- ISBN 9781843847656
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 20 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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A comprehensive guide to a crucial aspect of Old Norse literature.
We cannot read literary works without making use of the concept of genre. In Old Norse studies, genre has been central to the categorisation, evaluation and understanding of medieval prose and poetry alike; yet its definition has been elusive and its implications often left unexplored.
This volume opens up fundamental questions about Old Norse genre in theory and in practice. It offers an extensive range of theoretical approaches, investigating and critiquing current terms and situating its arguments within early Scandinavian and Icelandic oral-literary and manuscript contexts. It maps the ways in which genre and form engage with key thematic areas within the literary corpus,noting the different kinds of impact upon the genre system brought about by conversion to Christianity, the gradual adoption of European literary models, and social and cultural changes occurring in Scandinavian society. A case-study section probes both prototypical and hard-to-define cases, demonstrating the challenges that actual texts pose to genre theory in terms of hybridity, evolution and innovation. With an annotated taxonomy of Old Norse genres and an extensive bibliography, it is an indispensable resource for contemporary Old Norse-Icelandic literary studies.
MASSIMILIANO BAMPI is Associate Professor of Germanic Philology at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. Sif Rikhardsdottir is Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland. CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. DALE KEDWARDS is HM Queen Margrethe II Distinguished Research Fellow at the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute, the National Museum of Iceland, and the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle. MASSIMILIANO BAMPI is Associate Professor of Germanic Philology at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Sif Rikhardsdottir is Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland.
