[Gandur] Fyrirlestur miðvikudag: Norræn trú - Rannsóknir og lokaverkefni

[Félag þjóðfræðinga á Íslandi]

Miðvikudaginn 18. október munu þrír nýútskrifaðir mastersnemar segja frá
lokaverkefnum sínum í norrænni trú. Þetta eru þau Felix Lummer, Ólöf
Bjarnadóttir og Joshua Rood.
Fyrirlestrarnir verða milli 17:15-18:15 með umræðum í lokin, í Árnagarði,
stofu 201, og verða fluttir á ensku. Útdrætti úr rannsóknum þeirra má sjá
hér að neðan.

Next Wednesday, 18th October three newly graduated students of Old Norse
Religion will be presenting their master's thesis. The lecturers are Felic
Lummar, Ólöf Bjarnadóttir and Joshua Rood. Abstracts from their thesis can
be read below.
The lectures will be in Árnagarður, room 201, from 17:15-18:15 and in
english.

Felix Lummer
Guðmundr á Glasisvöllum: A Study of Potential Foreign Influences

This thesis aims to continue the scholarly debate on the potential Irish
influence on the Guðmundr á Glasisvǫllum subject matter, which allows a
careful comparison of the Irish and Old Norse data. The study will then
bring into question whether Irish origins are more likely than a background
in the Nordic culture. To do so, other material is considered that was
largely omitted from the discussion about Guðmundr, Glasisvellir and
Ódáinsakr to this day, namely past and present local folk tales of magical
and vanishing islands found in both mainland Scandinavia (especially the
so-called “Utrøst” legend in Norway) and the North Sea area (Faroe Islands,
Iceland and Orkney). As will be shown, a Norwegian background seems most
likely. It seems reasonable to interpret Ódáinsakr as a separate motif
other rather than being intrinsically connected with accounts of Guðmundr.
As this motif is found in both Irish and Old Norse literature, it can be
suggested that Ódáinsakr has shared Christian origins.

Þetta rannsóknarverkefni er ætlað sem framlag til frekari umræðu um
hugsanleg írsk áhrif á efni Guðmundar á Glasisvǫllum til þess að gera
samanburð á írskum og norrænum upplýsingum. Ritgerðin rannsaknar hvort
írskur bakgrunnur sé líklegri en uppruni í norrænni menningu. Til að gera
það eru ýmis gögn notuð sem hingað til hefur verið sleppt í umræðunni um
Guðmundi, Glasisvǫllum og Ódáinsakri. Þessi gögn eru gamlar og nútímalegar
þjóðsögur Skandinavíu (“Utrøst” í Noregi) og eyjanna í Atlantshafi
(Færeyjar, Ísland, Orkneyjar) sem fjalla um yfirnáttúrulegar eyjar sem
hverfa. Norskur bakgrunnur virðist vera líklegastur út af því að það er
hægt að tulka Ódáinsakr sem óháð motif sem er ekki tengt við lýsingar
Guðmundar. Þar sem mótifið er bæði til í írskum og norrænum bókmenntum er
uppruni Ódáinsakrs sennilegt kristilegur.

Joshua Rood
Ascending the Steps to Hliðskjálf: The Cult of Óðinn in Early Scandinavian
Aristocracy Uppgangan að Hliðskjálf: Óðinsdýrkun í árdaga norræns aðals

Joshua Rood´s MA thesis is a study of the cult of Óðinn as it seems to have
evolved within the newly emerging warrior-based aristocracy of southern
Scandinavia during the centuries prior to the Viking Age. By approaching
sources critically and focusing on archaeological evidence, it looks
specifically at how the deity developed within the said milieu and at the
uses his cult may have served for those who worshipped him. It subsequently
seeks to address other related questions such as when Óðinn came to become
associated with warrior-kings in Scandinavia, where this seems to have
occurred, and how it might have happened, including an examination of the
social and political influences that might have been involved in the
development. By means of this process, the study attempts to provide
contextual insight into the relationship that seems to have existed between
rulers and religion in pre-Christian southern Scandinavia. As is well
known, the later medieval literary sources often portray Óðinn as being the
ultimate sovereign, ruling over other gods and earthly rulers alike. This
thesis attempts to shed some new light on the centuries prior to these
accounts, offering a model of an earlier manifestation of the god who would
become the “alfǫðr”.

Ólöf Bjarnadóttir
A New Kind of Feminine. The Effects of the Icelandic Conversion on Female
Religious Participation and the Image of the Feminine Divine


The aim of the thesis was to discuss the possible effects and influence of
the feminine divine on religious women during the time when Scandinavia and
Iceland were converted to Christianity and to assess the role of these
women in the conversion process. In socio-religious terms the concept of
the “feminine divine” refers to those aspects of the divine which any given
social group strongly or exclusively associates with the female gender. It
then follows that this concept can only be defined and understood if it is
studied in the context of the culture that produces and maintains it.
Therefore the feminine divine and the roles of professional religious women
inevitably had to be considered from within the two distinct cultural,
historical and religious environments in question, namely Old Norse
religions and Christianity.