Teaching Beowulf in the Context of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
June 20-July 15
Schedule and required reading assignments
June 20
June 21
June 22
June 23
June 24
June 27
June 28
June 29
June 30
July 1
Week 1
Contextualizing the Poem (Jana Schulman)
Hitting the Highlights: What’s It All About? (Jana Schulman)
Analogues and Sources (Rob Fulk)
Harris, “A Nativist Approach to Beowulf: The Case of Germanic Elegy”
Phillpotts, “Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought”
Rosenberg, “Reconstructed Folktales as Literary Sources”
Tacitus, selections from Germania
Language, Poetic Style, and Oral Composition (Rob Fulk)
Calder, “The Study of Style in Old English Poetry: A Historical Introduction”
O’Brien O’Keeffe, “Diction, Variation, the Formula”
Schaefer, “Rhetoric and Style”
Modeling Translation, Part I: 5-10 Lines of Beowulf (Jana Schulman)
Liuzza, “Beowulf in Translation—Problems and Possibilities”
Schulman, “Translating Beowulf: Translators Crouched and Dangers Rampant”
Week 2
Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: An Introduction (Heather O’Donoghue)
O’Donoghue, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction
Orchard, “Myth and Legend”
Anderson, “Sources and Analogues”
Bjork, “Scandinavian Relations”
The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Heather O’Donoghue)
Fjalldal, The Long Arm of Coincidence
Garmonsway and Simpson, trans., “The Fight against Manlike Monsters”
The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Heather O’Donoghue)
Orchard, “Grettir and Grendel Again”
de Looze, “The Outlaw Poet, the Poetic Outlaw: Self-consciousness in Grettis saga
Ásmundason”
Arent, “The Heroic Pattern: Old Germanic Helmets, Beowulf, and Grettis saga”
Opland, “A Beowulf Analogue in Njáls saga”
The Saga of Halfdan, Foster-son of Brana (Jana Schulman)
Puhvel, “The Aquatic Context in Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra and Beowulf’s Adventure with
Breca”
Jorgensen, “Beowulf’s Swimming Contest with Breca: Old Norse Parallels”
Schulman, “Teaching Beowulf in the Context of Old Norse Literature”
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki (Jana Schulman)
Hume, “From Saga to Romance: The Use of Monsters in Old Norse Literature”
Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon (selections)
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July 4
July 5
July 6
July 7
July 8
July 11
July 12
July 13
July 14
July 15
Week 3
Independence Day
Norse Mythology and Religion (Kevin Wanner)
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: “Prologue” and “Gylfaginning”
Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda: “The Seeress’s Prophecy,” “Sayings of the High One,”
“The Poem of Atli,” and “The Greenlandic Lay of Atli”
Christian versus Pagan Elements of Beowulf (Kevin Wanner)
Bede, The History of the English Church and People: “Preface,” and Books I and II
Wanner, “Warriors, Wyrms, and Wyrd: The Paradoxical Fate of the Germanic Hero/King in
Beowulf”
Material Culture and Mythology (Dawn Hadley)
Bailey, “Gods, Heroes and Christians”
Karkov, “Object and Voice”
Fuglesang, “Viking and Medieval Amulets in Scandinavia”
Webster, “The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) Hoard: Problems of Interpretation”
Harke, “The Circulation of Weapons in Anglo-Saxon Society”
Burials and Belief (Dawn Hadley)
Hadley, “Warriors, Heroes and Companions: Negotiating Masculinity in Viking-Age
England”
Carver, “Reflections on the Meanings of Monumental Barrows in Anglo-Saxon England”
Hadley, “Masculinity”
Price, “Passing into Poetry: Viking-Age Mortuary Drama and the Origins of Norse
Mythology”
Price, “Belief and Ritual”
Week 4
Eddic Heroic Poetry and the Tradition behind the Poems (Gisli Sigurðsson)
Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda: “The First Poem of Helgi Hundingsbani,” “The Poem of
Helgi Hiorvardsson,” “A Second Poem of Helgi Hundingsbani,” “The First Poem of Gudrun,”
“The Second Poem of Gudrun,” “The Third Poem of Gudrun,” “Oddrun’s Lament,” “The
Poem of Atli,” and “The Greenlandic Lay of Atli”
Sigurðsson, “On the Classification of Eddic Heroic Poetry in View of the Oral Theory”
Mitchell, Heroic Sagas and Ballads
Mythological Material in a “Christian” Oral Tradition (Gisli Sigurðsson)
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: “Prologue” and “Gylfaginning”
Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda: “The Seeress’s Prophecy”
Sigurðsson, “Past Awareness in Christian Environments: Source-Critical Ideas about
Memories of the Pagan Past”
Sigurðsson, “Völuspá as the Product of an Oral Tradition: What Does That Entail?”
Sigurðsson, “Snorri’s Edda: The Sky Described in Mythological Terms”
Electronic Beowulf and Online Resources; Translations and Their Merits (Jana
Schulman)
Magennis, Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse
Kennedy, Translating the Sagas: Two Hundred Years of Challenge and Response
Modeling Translation, Part II: 5-10 Lines of Old Norse (Jana Schulman)
Maxwell, “On Translation—I”
Johnston, “On Translation—II”
Conclusions
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