[Gandur] Strengleikar á fimmtudaginn kl. 12: Kevin Wanner

[Gerður Halldóra Sigurðardóttir]

Strengleikar - Miðaldastofa / Medieval seminar

Fimmtudaginn 7. júní / Thursday June 7th, 12:00

Erindið verður flutt á málstofu Stofnunar Árna Magnússonar, Árnagarði, 1.
hæð / Held in the Árnastofnun seminar room, Árnagarður, 1st floor

 

 

“What Gods Demand: On Norse Poetry as a Source for Norse Poets’ Religion”

Kevin J. Wanner

Associate Professor

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo


While scholars tend to view Old Norse poetry as a good if in some ways
limited resource for heathen mythology, they have not generally been
optimistic about its usefulness as a source of information for heathen
religious beliefs or practices. In this paper, I suggest that there is
greater potential to connect Norse poetry with Norse religion than many
critics have allowed, so long as we are modest about whose or what kind of
religiosity we hope to access. I argue that the poetry is best approached as
a source of information for a distinctively skaldic religiosity, one that is
expressed and enacted in the context of the poet’s profession, and part of
the practice of which is the poetry itself. A range of both heathen and
Christian poetry will be taken into account, with particular attention being
paid to what poets represent themselves as receiving or hoping to receive
from their gods, and what they imagine these gods to demand in return. One
of the conclusions for which I will argue is that the religiosity of heathen
skalds was uncommonly self-assured, and that it can be usefully understood
as a way of interacting with a god who demands next to nothing in return for
his charismatic gifts.

 

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