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The reality of the fantastic : the magical, political and social universe of late medieval saga manuscripts / Hans Jacob Orning.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Orning, Hans Jacob, author.
- Series:
- Viking collection ; v. 23.
- The Viking collection. Studies in Northern civilization, 0108-8408 ; volume 23
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi--Manuscript--AM 343a 4to.
- Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi.
- Sagas--History and criticism.
- Sagas.
- Iceland--History--To 1262.
- Iceland.
- History.
- Genre:
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- Physical Description:
- 387 pages ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Odense : University Press of Southern Denmark, 2017.
- Summary:
- The reality of the fantastic' combines a 'new philological' close study of a fifteenth-century Icelandic manuscript compilation of fifteen fornaldarsögur and riddarasögur, AM 343a 4to, with an historically-based analysis of the manuscript's various contents, demonstrating how fictions that are in many respects non-realistic can be made to yield up insights into the real-world concerns and interests of a group of fifteenth-century Icelanders. Both the methodology of this study and its conclusions should interest readers from diverse fields, including literature, history and manuscript studies. -- cf. ERASMUS BOEKHANDEL BV (Netherlands).
- Contents:
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Using 'unhistorical' sagas as historical sources
- The genre concept : gain or pain?
- What is a saga? : the philological challenge
- The reality of the fantastic? : the historical challenge
- The historical background
- Centre and periphery
- Magic
- The political universe
- Social hierarchy
- Three modes of reading
- Sagas as stories : vehicles of ideology
- Sagas as structures : vehicles of myths
- Sagas as dynamics : vehicles of negotiation
- The setup of this book
- AM 343a 4to
- Short summary of the sagas in AM 343a 4to
- Stories
- A story of the suppression of magic
- A story of the formation of a political realm
- A story of the establishment of social hierarchy
- The Hrafnista story : conclusions and limitations
- Oppositions
- The magical aspect : the periphery as alien
- The political aspect : the periphery as subordinate
- The social aspect : the ideal order
- Conclusion : Us vs. them
- Dynamics
- The magical aspect : the periphery as similar
- The political aspect : the powerful periphery
- The social aspect : a contested order
- Conclusion : self-governed communities
- The literary and historical context of AM 343a 4to
- Otherness
- Power
- Order
- Synchronic analysis : AM 471 4to and AM 343a 4to
- Tensions between magnates and kings
- Magnate rivalry and community
- The king and the people : a distant relationship
- Conclusion
- Diachronic analysis : holm perg 7 4to and AM 343a 4to
- The fantastic and the real
- From text to manuscript
- Sweet dreams are made of this
- Scary monsters (and super creeps)
- You can't always get what you want
- From manuscript to textual community
- From textual community to fifteenth-century Iceland
- A chaotic society
- A feuding society
- From free state to statefree Iceland?
- A new society
- An elite society
- Bibliography
- Index of manuscripts
- Index.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9788776749354
- 8776749355
- OCLC:
- 993859858
- Publisher Number:
- 9788776749354
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