ABSTRACT
This book presents a range of approaches to the study of Old Norse poetry in performance.
The contributors examine both eddic and skaldic poems and consider the surviving evidence for how they were originally recited or otherwise performed in medieval Scandinavia, Iceland and at royal courts across Europe. This study also engages with the challenge of reconstructing medieval performance styles and examines ways of applying the modern discipline of Performance Studies to the fragmentary corpus of Old Norse verse. The performance of verse by characters who appear in the Old Icelandic saga tradition is also considered, as is the cultural value associated not only with the poems themselves but with their various means of transmission and reception.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of Old Norse studies, Performance and Theatre History.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|28 pages
The Social Dynamics of Performance
chapter 1|26 pages
Framing Old Norse Performance Contexts
part II|63 pages
Voice and Performance
chapter 3|22 pages
… með skarða skjöldu ok skotnar brynjur
part III|47 pages
Collocation and Quotation
part IV|59 pages
Material Culture
chapter 7|32 pages
Performing Old Norse Poetry in Visual Art
chapter 8|25 pages
How the Hell Do You Read This?
part V|87 pages
Modern Approaches to Performing Old Norse Poetry