SCAND 501: Old Icelandic Language and Literature
This graduate-level course directly builds on SCAND 500 by advancing students’ skills in reading and interpreting Old Norse-Icelandic texts. The course centers on a complete reading of the famous outlaw story Gisla saga Súrssonar, including its skaldic verse, in the original language. We will use this narrative as a foundation for translation practice, close philological analysis, and discussion of medieval Icelandic narrative technique and literary history. Alongside our translation of the text, the course introduces key aspects of the cultural world behind the saga, including law and the Alþingi, feud and outlawry, magic and belief, dreams and fate, kinship, gender, and the material and environmental realities of medieval Scandinavia. By integrating linguistic study with historical, literary, and cultural inquiry, students will gain a deeper understanding of both the Old Icelandic language and the intellectual world that produced one of its most enduring narratives.
If you would like to take this course but have not taken SCAND 500: Introductory Readings in Old Icelandic, then the permission of the instructor is required. Please contact Professor Timothy Bourns at tbourns@uw.edu. When writing, you should discuss your motivations for wanting to take the course as well as your preparedness for tackling the Old Icelandic language at this more advanced level.
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Who kills Þorgrímr Þorsteinsson, and why?
What are the consequences of this act, and what are its sexual-symbolic entanglements?