The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum

Þorgeirsdóttir, Brynja (CoI)
Judy, Quinn (PI)
Gropper, Stefanie (PI)
Wills, Tarrin (CoI)
Alexander, Wilson (CoI)

Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies

Description

A collaborative research project between the University of Tübingen and the University of Cambridge, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Key findings

https://gefin.ku.dk/

Acronym	ÍSP
Status	Finished
Effective start/end date	1/03/20 → 30/04/23
Links	https://gefin.ku.dk/q?p=isp

Collaborative partners

University of Iceland
University of Cambridge (lead)
University of Tübingen (Joint applicant)
University of Copenhagen

Keywords

Prosimetrum
Old Norse
Skaldic poetry
Íslendingasögur
Sagas of Icelanders

Access Project

Investigating the Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum
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ÍSP: The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum A collaborative research project between the University of Tübingen and the University of Cambridge, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). What is our project about? Verse quotation is intrinsic to the literary style of the medieval Icelandic corpus of Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders), one of the most important vernacular literary genres of the European Middle Ages. While the majority of the sagas in the corpus include quoted poetry, there is nonetheless a striking degree of variation in the number of verses quoted across different sagas in the corpus and, in some cases, divergent content across verses quoted in manuscript witnesses of the same saga. Furthermore, it is clear that the combination of prose and verse constituted a distinctive literary aesthetic, and that in the medieval Icelandic literary tradition it was not a question of choosing between prose and verse as the vehicle for recounting stories about the foundational generations of settlers on the island, but of combining both modes to forge the unique literary form of the saga. Verse quotation has always been recognised as an important aspect of the Íslendingasögur, but there has been very little research on the nature of the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum (i.e. long prose narratives punctuated by verse quotation). To date, the significance of verse for the aesthetics of saga narrative has mainly been explored with reference to the sub-genre of the skáldasögur (sagas of poets), in which the proportion of verse to prose is at its highest. In this project, we have analysed the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum – that is, we have treated the combination of verse and prose as a salient generic feature of this body of sagas. This is an innovative approach that enables a better understanding on the literary mode of the corpus as a whole as well as producing fresh insights into the compositional habits of the (anonymous) authors of individual sagas. The project’s objective has been to create the first comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the prosimetrum of the forty extant Íslendingasögur and to explore the generic qualities of saga prosimetrum that amounts to much more than a simple combination of prose and verse. The initial findings of our research are set out in our co-authored article, ‘Investigating the Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum: A New Methodology’, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 18 (2022): 51-81.

2 Chapter
1 Anthology
1 Article

Sensibilities in Saga Prosimetrum
Thorgeirsdottir, B., 2 Dec 2024, The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects. Þorgeirsdóttir, B., Gropper, S., Quinn, J. & Wilson, A. (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 141-168 27 p.
University of Iceland
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Open Access
The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum – An Introduction
Thorgeirsdottir, B., Gropper, S., Quinn, J. & Wilson, A., 2 Dec 2024, The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects. Þorgeirsdóttir, B., Gropper, S., Quinn, J. & Wilson, A. (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 1-12 12 p.
University of Iceland
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Open Access
The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects
Thorgeirsdottir, B. (Editor), Gropper, S. (Editor), Quinn, J. (Editor) & Wilson, A. (Editor), 2 Dec 2024, Berlin: De Gruyter. 253 p.
University of Iceland
Research output: Book/Report › Anthology › peer-review

Open Access

Quantifying Feelings: Data on Emotive Words in Saga Poetry
Þorgeirsdóttir, B. (Speaker)
30 May 2024
University of Iceland
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation
Emotive Bodily Imagery in the Poetry of the Íslendingasögur
Þorgeirsdóttir, B. (Invited speaker)
5 Jan 2023
University of Iceland
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Prosimetric Saga Feelings: An Examination of Expressions in the Verse and Prose of the Íslendingasögur
Þorgeirsdóttir, B. (Invited speaker)
28 Jan 2022 → 29 Jan 2022
University of Iceland
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk

The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum

Project Details

Description

Key findings

Collaborative partners

Keywords

Access Project

Fingerprint

Sensibilities in Saga Prosimetrum

The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum – An Introduction

The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects

Quantifying Feelings: Data on Emotive Words in Saga Poetry

Emotive Bodily Imagery in the Poetry of the Íslendingasögur

Prosimetric Saga Feelings: An Examination of Expressions in the Verse and Prose of the Íslendingasögur

The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum

Project Details

Description

Key findings

Collaborative partners

Keywords

Access Project

Fingerprint

Research output

Sensibilities in Saga Prosimetrum

The Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum – An Introduction

The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects

Activities

Quantifying Feelings: Data on Emotive Words in Saga Poetry

Emotive Bodily Imagery in the Poetry of the Íslendingasögur

Prosimetric Saga Feelings: An Examination of Expressions in the Verse and Prose of the Íslendingasögur