Global ETD Search
Search theses and dissertations gathered from participating repositories worldwide. Every result links back to the library that holds it. No account is needed.
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Showing 1 to 20 of 39 for “"Old Norse"”.
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Seið the Magic Words: Two Case Studies in Old Norse Etymology
… origins of various magic terminology in the Old Norse language. Using seiðr and galdr as case studies, this thesis presents a methodology that may be repeated in the future for other magic-related words in the Old Norse literary corpus. By examining diachronically the history of these words’ …
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Boundaries of the Human: Identities, Ontologies and Transformations in Old Norse Literature
… reveals the relational and contingent nature of Old Norse ontologies as expressed in literary texts, which posit identity as an evolving process rather than a fixed state. Chapter 1 investigates the productive dismemberment of male bodies in mythic narrative (*Snorra Edda*, *Poetic Edda*), …
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Birds and Humans in the Old Norse World, c. 600-1500 AD
… of human-bird coexistence in Scandinavia and the Norse North Atlantic from 600-1500 AD, primarily focusing on the period c. 800-1400 within this time period. In particular, this thesis explores if and how literary representations of birds correlated in any way with zooarchaeological sources …
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'How can his word be trusted?': speaker and authority in Old Norse wisdom poetry
… in the elaborate narrative frames of the Old Norse wisdom poems. The exchange of wisdom in poetic texts such as this is no simple matter. Wisdom is conceived of as a body of knowledge, experience and observation that binds together all aspects of human life, the natural world and the …
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Þá varð hlátr mikill: On the role of laughter in Old Norse saga literature
… laughing, grinning, and smiling, represented by Old Norse *hlæja* (to laugh), *glotta* (to grin), *brosa* (to smile), and their cognates. Even though this analysis is informed by all of these instances, a selection has been made of the most intriguing and relevant examples to be looked at in …
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Attitudes towards Paganism in Medieval Irish and Old Norse Texts of the Trojan War
… first half of the twelfth century) and the Old Norse Trójumanna saga (‘The Story of the Trojans’; first half of the thirteenth century), which are both based on Dares Phrygius’s Late Antique De excidio Troiae historia. The two vernacular adaptations are presented in the wider context of the …
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Kinship and Narrative in Old Norse Literature: Parent-Child Relations in Mythic-Heroic Texts
… illuminating both the role of kinship in shaping Old Norse narrative and the complementary role of narrative in aiding the conceptualisation and characterisation of Old Norse kinship. Informed by the work of anthropologists Marilyn Strathern and Marshall Sahlins, I argue that Old Norse kinship is …
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Craftsmen and Wordsmiths: An Investigation into the Links Between Material Crafting, Poetic Composition and Their Practitioners in Old Norse Literature
… and their products resonate across the corpus of Old Norse literature—not only in skaldic metaphor, but also in historical, mythological and saga material. To judge by the frequency of their appearance in this literary corpus, these connections were clearly considered to be highly significant in …
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Literary Activity and Ecclesiastical Authority in Medieval Iceland: The Old Norse Reception of St Ambrose of Milan and his Exemplary Role in Bishops’ Sagas
This thesis investigates the literary and socio-political impact of the Church’s struggle for *libertas ecclesiae* in the medieval Icelandic Church. I argue that hagiography –in the form of Saints’ sagas– constituted an instrument to promote Gregorian ideals of ecclesiastical independence against …
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Emotions in Njáls saga and Egils saga: Approaches and literary analysis
… particularly rich and complex thirteenth-century Old Norse Íslendingasǫgur (Sagas of Icelanders). The genre is notorious for the apparent emotional reticence of its narrative style. This dissertation challenges that notion from the fundamental premise that, to understand the literary …
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The Matter of Gautland
… scholarship. This model has also been applied to Old Norse saga literature, particularly the fornaldarsögur, within which the ‘Matter of Hrafnista’ and the ‘Matter of Gautland’ have been identified as prominent examples. The latter cycle consists of Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and …
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"""Le Cort Mantel"" and ""Mottuls Saga"": A literary comparison"
This dissertation is a literary comparison of the Old French Le cort mantel, also entitled Le mantel mautaillie, and Mottuls saga, an adaptation into Old Norse made by an unknown writer working for King Hakon (1217-1263).
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"Ne canstu me noght knowe?": Disguise, Exile and Medieval Romance
… in order to create a conceivable story for Isolde to tell when she is brought to trial for adultery. Tristan and Isolde manipulate Mark and deceive him in order to keep their affair a secret, but in doing so, they also bolster his rule by keeping scandal out of the court. It is only in the Old …
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Grímr-Visaged War: Viking Age Battle, With an Eye to Performance
The tools of performance theory are applied to Old Norse material by casting battle in the late Scandinavian Iron Age and medieval period in terms of a performance process. The community analyzed is the hall-based warrior elite that developed throughout the Viking Age. By approaching the material …
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Why Aren't More Heathens Eco-Pagan Vegetarians? The Intersection Of Gender, Politics, And Spiritual Environmentalism
… the natural world using interpretations of Old Norse lore. A Heathen's connection to nature and how this connection is incorporated into his/her daily life supports the idea of environmentalism, yet their patriarchal and conservative political beliefs devalue environmentalism. My focus is on …
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The window in local construction
Windows (from old Norse vindauga = wind-eye) provide a building with natural Iighting, fresh air or ventilation, and views or contact with the outside world. Al I these make an edifice much more comfortable to Iive in besides giving the occupier a sense of orientation and time from the shadow cast …
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She is Right to Behave Thus: Implications of Illicit Rendezvous in Medieval Narrative
… by scholars of four different cultures (Irish, Norse, English, and Italian) to examine the connections between the reception of women who act outside of the boundaries of both their society and our modern expectations of medieval female sexuality. To do this, this thesis presents a chapter on …
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The setting and practice of open-air judicial assemblies in medieval Scotland: a multidisciplinary study
… Place-names derived from Gaelic, Scots, Old Norse and English indicative of assemblies, and drawn from established studies, are brought together and supplemented by a preliminary survey of additional material. Over 200 place-names are considered. Published historical references to …
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