University of Silesia in Katowice

OTHERNESS AND MEDIEVALISM IN OLD NORSE-ICELANDIC SAGAS – WHY DOES SCHOLARLY WORK MATTER MORE THAN EVER IN AN AI-DRIVEN ERA?

Over the past two decades, the examination of otherness has become a prominent focus in the study of Old Norse-Icelandic sagas. This trend mirrors a broader movement in medieval studies, which emphasizes understanding societal perceptions of those who deviated from norms and the role of the supernatural in daily life. As research topics often reflect current societal concerns, this presentation aims to both review the topic of “otherness” in the study of Old Norse-Icelandic sagas and examine its relation to medievalism. The presentation then proceeds to its third part: assessing the role of scholarly work by experts dealing with Old Norse-Icelandic sources, the Viking Age, and the Middle Ages in Scandinavia. The proliferation of the Internet has dramatically transformed knowledge dissemination, enabling the spread of both accurate information and misinformation. Old Norse-Icelandic sources have inspired various activities, including Viking and medieval life reenactments, fantasy literature, and game creation. However, these sources have also been appropriated by groups seeking to advance political agendas and spread pseudohistories. The advent of AI further complicates this landscape, presenting unprecedented challenges and opportunities for scholarly work. Through selected examples, this presentation explores the intersection of otherness and medievalism and evaluates the evolving role of scholars of Old Norse-Icelandic literature in an era increasingly dominated by AI-driven knowledge production.

IRONWOOD

Old Norse mythology as preserved in the Edda of Snorri Sturluson and the Poetic Edda revolves around the gods but not as such since the point of view is theirs and they are presented as the norm rather than a higher power that needs to be feared, placated and appealed to. These mythological narratives thus do not seem to concern the transcendental and the gods even seem strangely mundane at times. What these narratives do provide are undefined, vague, mysterious and powerful antagonists that are referred to in various terms and are believed to encircle the non world of the middle. These are also predicted to eventually get the better of the Gods and thus their lack of cohesion can be seen as an advantage, as they flock from every corner of the world to the final battle. This paper concerns these various adversaries, their wolfish nature, size and cunning and whether they can be seen as stronger and smarter than the actual gods.

THE SAGAS OF OBJECTS: MATERIAL NARRATIVES IN THE MEDIEVAL NORSE WORLD

In the sagas we find all kinds of material objects, such as chairs, drinking horns, clothing, ships, amulets, jewelry, tapestries, and swords. When mentioned in a saga narrative, we tend to look for how these items signal or problematize issues of power, community and identity. At the same time, there are several such objects that were quite famous during the Middle Ages, that attracted attention and sometimes written comments in the sources. This talk will focus on a selection of such objects from the Middle Ages – and especially those famous at the time sagas were written down, and the ways these objects were given an agency and a history. By using insights from landscape and memory studies, as well as epistemological approaches in art studies and archaeology, it will be argued that such ‘material narratives’ can be related to well-known discussions of genres and so-called ‘immanent sagas’.

TRIAL APPROACHES: MULTIDISCIPLINARITY AND THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF OTHERNESS IN MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC LITERATURE

The literature medieval Icelanders produced and recorded between c. 1150 and 1450 is full of ‘Others’: giants opposing the gods, trolls opposing humans, the undead opposing the living – it all looks quite clear-cut at first. However, over the last several decades, scholarship has shown that, between these extremes, many shades of grey exist, and that it is the fluidity of these medieval Icelandic ‘Others’ that gives them meaning, both in their original socio-cultural context as well as today. In this lecture, I will investigate how these fluid, nuanced and complex depictions of ‘Others’, of monsters and outsiders, of racialised or gendered forms of alterity, only become readable if we approach them from more than one angle – if we combine the ‘trial approaches’, as Preben Meulengracht Sørensen called them, of more than one scholar, and more than one theory or discipline. Examining examples from different types of saga literature in their narratological, socio-cultural, and generic context, I hope to emphasise that the field is at its best when we collaborate, and that it is indeed the sum of all our attempts that comes closest to a true understanding of medieval Icelandic literature, monsters and all.

THE DEMISE OF NORSE RELIGION: DISMANTLING AND DEFENDING THE OLD ORDER IN VIKING AGE SCANDINAVIA

When describing the transition from Old Norse religion to Christianity in recent studies, the concept of “Christianization” is often applied. To a large extent this historiography focuses on the outcome of the encounter, namely the description of early Medieval Christianity and the new Christian society. The purpose of the present lecture is to concentrate more exclusively on the Old Norse religion during this period of change and to analyze the processes behind its disappearance on an official level of the society. More specifically this paper concentrates on the role of Viking kings and indigenous agency in the dissolution of the old religion. Thus, this study takes an actor-oriented perspective, focusing on the actions, methods and strategies applied by the early Christian Viking kings as they dismantled the religious tradition that had previously formed their lives. In addition, the resistance that some pagan chieftains offered against these Christian kings is discussed as well as the question why they defended the old religious tradition.