http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/219186 Mon, 20 May 2013 04:51:42 GMT 2013-05-20T04:51:42Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/241661 Title: 'How can his word be trusted?': speaker and authority in Old Norse wisdom poetry Authors: Schorn, Brittany Erin Abstract: In the eddic poem Hávamál, the god Óðinn gives advice, including a warning about the fickleness of human, and divine, nature. He cites his own flagrant deception of giants who trusted him in order to win the mead of poetry as evidence for this deep-seated capacity for deceit, asking of himself: ‘how can his word be trusted?’ This is an intriguing question to ask in a poem purporting to relate the wisdom of Óðinn, and it is a concern repeatedly voiced in regard to him and other speakers in the elaborate narrative frames of the Old Norse wisdom poems. The exchange of wisdom in poetic texts such as this is no simple matter. Wisdom is conceived of as a body of knowledge, experience and observation that binds together all aspects of human life, the natural world and the supernatural realms. But its application depended heavily on the way in which it was passed on and interpreted. This dissertation examines the ways that these poems reflect on the interpretation and value of their own contents as a function of the particular speaker and circumstances of each wisdom exchange. The texts which form the foundation of this enquiry are the so-called eddic poems: alliterative verses largely preserved within a single manuscript of the thirteenth century, though many are arguably of much earlier date. About a dozen of the surviving poems might be classed, however tentatively, as concerning wisdom, though the route to this classification is not straightforward. Definition of this corpus, and of the genre of wisdom literature more widely, is thus the principal aim of the introductory Chapter I, while Chapter II expands on the question of material and methodology by scrutinizing the idea of wisdom in general within Old Norse. Crucial here is an examination of the terms used for wisdom and associated concepts, which suggest an antagonistic view of how knowledge might pass from one person to another. Close readings of the text and sensitivity to the manuscript context of each poem, as well as consideration of the significance of their potential oral prehistory and awareness of comparable literatures from other contexts, are established here as the dominant mode of analysis. Observations derived from the interpretation of comparable literatures also inform my approach. With a grounding in wisdom literature more generally and with the salient concepts relating to knowledge transfer thus established, I go on to examine specific points and groups within the body of eddic wisdom poetry which shed light on the evolving interpretation of wisdom exchange. An important case-study analyzed in this way in Chapter III is perhaps the most complex: Hávamál itself, a famous but notoriously problematic text probably reflecting multiple layers of composition. It is at the heart of the question of how mankind relates to supernatural beings – a relationship which could be particularly fraught where the transmission of wisdom occurred. Thus this chapter also contains analysis of terminology for men, gods and other supernatural beings which sheds light on the relationships between the human and the divine. Chapter IV expands on these issues to consider three paradigms of mythological wisdom instruction which bridge different worlds, human and supernatural, or between different supernatural domains: poems in which Óðinn dispenses wisdom; those in which he acquires it from a contest with another living being; and those in which he acquires it from the dead through sacrifice and magical ability. These chapters establish the ‘traditional’ form of wisdom exchange as defined through eddic verses that adopt a broadly pre- or non-Christian setting. Yet eddic verse-forms did not die out with conversion, and in some cases were exploited for new compositions written from an explicitly Christian perspective or with parodic intent. These poems, discussed in Chapter V, cast an important sidelight onto the associations of eddic verse as a medium for conveying information of complicated or questionable authority. The concluding Chapter VI then addresses questions of what we may deduce from the preceding chapters about evolving cultural attitudes towards wisdom, authority and truth in medieval Iceland. Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/241661 2012-01-10T00:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/237473 Title: Novels of Tom Kristensen Authors: Byram, Michael Stuart Abstract: The dissertation consists of five chapters. The first contains a brief introduction to Tom Kristensen as a central cultural figure in Denmark in the decade 1920 to 1930. It also contains an explanation of the point of view and method used in the later chapters. It is explained that Kristensen’s novels aimed to communicate with the public and that, given this kind of work, it is useful to place it in a "literary communication paradigm" adapted from the analysis of ordinary communication. The paradigm helps to relate the work to the society and culture within which it was written, which in turn help us to a fuller understanding of the work’s meaning and significance. The emphasis is therefore very much on the work, but the method leads to accounts of the ideas and emotions of a particular section of Danish society. Such accounts go no further than the requirements for the interpretation of the novels, but they show how the novels lead into and clarify aspects of social, political and cultural life otherwise hidden. It is suggested that Kristensen first used art as a means of exploring and simultaneously sheltering from the crises and brutality experienced throughout Europe in the immediate post-1918 period, (in Livets Arabesk, 1921). Kristensen’s "use" of his art is compared with contemporary attitudes and beliefs about the artist’s social situation and purpose, and Kristensen is related to the contemporary scene. The contextualisation of the second novel (En Anden, 1923) serves above all to relate its epistemological content to an important debate running through contemporary philosophical and critical discussion. The analysis serves to draw out the authorial attitudes and these are given a particular political significance in the described context. The chapter on Hærværk attempts to show how Kristensen’s critical and artistic attitudes change in the mid-1920’s and how these indicate a change in political alignment. The analysis of the novel itself describes the formal and content patterns in the text and brings these together in a total interpretation of meaning. The account of the novel’s context then allows us to assign political significance to the meaning. The final chapter begins with an account of the conceptual and emotional development and change from novel to novel culminating in the "classic of modern Danish literature", Hærværk. As such this chapter makes explicit the links between the preceding three. It also, finally, returns to a point raised in the introductory chapter, the discussion of Tom Kristensen as a typical figure of the post-war decade. A distinction is drawn between a "typical" figure which Kristensen is not, and a "representative" figure which he is. The limitations of his work are then accounted for in terms of his representativeness. Mon, 28 Apr 1975 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/237473 1975-04-28T23:00:00Z