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I have a class to prepare for tomorrow so I'll keep this brief, but here's a short THREAD with some resources to share about studies that counteract the traditional view of The Viking.
Of course my perspective is that of Saga Studies. https://twitter.com/queertyyr/status/1346915269470466049
Of course my perspective is that of Saga Studies. https://twitter.com/queertyyr/status/1346915269470466049
I think we need to constantly remind ourselves that the work we do in queer theory, gender, sexuality, and disability, as well as problematizing Old Norse religion and myth are important for the overall understanding of the Viking Age as not at all what people want it to be.
I've already shared Christopher Crocker's bibliography about disability studies in Old Norse, but it's worth sharing again: These studies overwhelmingly show a much more complex attitude towards disability than one would expect. https://cwecrocker.com/bibliography-of-disability-studies-and-the-medieval-icelandic-sagas/
An important focus on the body can be found in @SarahKuenzler's book Flesh and Word. Reading Bodies in Old Norse-Icelandic and Early Irish Literature https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/516469?language=en
The student journal Kyngervi, focused on Old Norse gender and queer studies, is a great place to see where this newly formed generation of scholars is taking the field. The next issue will focus on the politics of Norse studies, especially apt. https://www.kyngervi.org/
Key research into Old Norse gender and sexuality can be found in the work of @sagaknitter, @quothgareth, @ArmannJa, @rmkarras, @JudithJesch, Jenny Jochens, Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, Bjørn Bandlien, Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir, and more....
The Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150–1400 book edited by @ArmannJa and @stjarnahugr produced some great research problematizing the usual perception of the monstrous and paranormal. Both editors' research in general is great in this context as well. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/558194
To that I would add any research done by @BeccaMerkelbach, in particular her Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/558344?language=en
As is the volume co-edited with Gwendolyne Knight, Margins, Monsters, Deviants. Alterities in Old Norse Literature and Culture.
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503585864-1
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503585864-1
In the context of Race Studies, Richard Cole and @arnvidalin have done some impressive research into the perceptions of race in the Old Norse context.
https://au.academia.edu/RichardCole
https://hi.academia.edu/Arngr%C3%ADmurV%C3%ADdal%C3%ADn
https://au.academia.edu/RichardCole
https://hi.academia.edu/Arngr%C3%ADmurV%C3%ADdal%C3%ADn
See also @Nahir_Otano and @BasilMenethil's recent work into blackness in the sagas:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lic3.12545 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41280-020-00195-4
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lic3.12545 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41280-020-00195-4
Sif Ríkharðsdóttir's recent research into emotions and her project alongside @profcarolyne and Massimiliano Bampi is also great to pay attention to. Check out Sif's Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts. https://boydellandbrewer.com/emotion-in-old-norse-literature.html
As @ArmannJa's doctoral student I am 100% biased, but his work is constantly breaking down understandings of Old Norse gender, sexuality, disability, age, and what it means to be human. And he has made so much of it available online:
https://hi.academia.edu/%C3%81rmannJakobsson
https://hi.academia.edu/%C3%81rmannJakobsson
As I mentioned, I'm teaching tomorrow so this is far from a comprehensive list, but it was important for me to point out that anti-fascist work has been done in Old Norse research... we just need to start realizing that this is what it actually is, and what the stakes are.
Feel free to add work you feel is relevant, I'm too tired and must have missed a lot, especially since I didn't touch at all the topics of myth, religion and archaeology!
The link to @Nahir_Otano's article disappeared... https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lic3.12545
Generally I appreciate all things Chris Crocker, but I should especially point out his Vinland project where he questions whiteness, indigenous erasure, and the early Norse presence in Newfoundland. https://cwecrocker.com/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-vinland/
Ah, yes!
@davidcrangel's super important work on Queerness, particularly in the context of the Birgittine Order but more broadly touching upon issues of touch, texture and memory!
https://uib.academia.edu/DavidCarrilloRangel
@davidcrangel's super important work on Queerness, particularly in the context of the Birgittine Order but more broadly touching upon issues of touch, texture and memory!
https://uib.academia.edu/DavidCarrilloRangel
One important thing I "neglected" to address is Christian influence; with no disrespect towards people practising pagan religion, it's important to acknowledge that most of the written sources we use in our scholarship were written under a Christian mindframe.
A really cool resource is the Islandia Latina, where one can find Latin authors and works used as source for Old Norse material or found in manusripts and diplomatic material like church inventories. The list is overwhelming and, frankly, humbling.
http://islandialatina.hum.ku.dk/
http://islandialatina.hum.ku.dk/
Works such as Andrew Hamer's Njáls saga and its Christian Background (I couldn't find a link to the book so here's @lethbridge_e's book review with some bibliographic info https://muse.jhu.edu/article/633683 ) gives us a sense how some sagas are positively immersed with Christian themes.
Siân E. Grønlie's The Saint and the Saga Hero: Hagiography and Early Icelandic Literature similarly reveals much of the Christian undertones in saga writing. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/saint-and-the-saga-hero/8D2CC60D0C8B1AE30CA1E2B8E5CEE2B2
I'd recommend checking out Ármann and Sverrir Jakobsson's The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, in particular Annette Lassen, Jonas Wellendorf, Haki Antonsson and @sirpa_aalto's chapters. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Research-Companion-to-the-Medieval-Icelandic-Sagas/Jakobsson-Jakobsson/p/book/9780367133658
In general the @routledgebooks companion holds many treasures that problematize our perception of the Old Norse world, like Pernille Hermann on literacy, @Tuestef on Fate, Hans Jacob Orning on class... the list of relevant chapters there is endless.
Stefka G. Eriksen's Routledge chapter about Courtly Literature brings us back to courtly literature (which Künzler writes a lot about), which was in fact a much more popular corpus in the medieval period than the ""Viking stories"" of the Sagas of Early Icelanders.
