Between History and Myth: Stories of Harald Fairhair and the Founding of the StateUniversity of Chicago Press, 01.09.2014 - 296 Seiten All groups tell stories about their beginnings. Such tales are oft-repeated, finely wrought, and usually much beloved. Among those institutions most in need of an impressive creation account is the state: it’s one of the primary ways states attempt to legitimate themselves. But such founding narratives invite revisionist retellings that modify details of the story in ways that undercut, ironize, and even ridicule the state’s ideal self-representation. Medieval accounts of how Norway was unified by its first king provide a lively, revealing, and wonderfully entertaining example of this process. Taking the story of how Harald Fairhair unified Norway in the ninth century as its central example, Bruce Lincoln illuminates the way a state’s foundation story blurs the distinction between history and myth and how variant tellings of origin stories provide opportunities for dissidence and subversion as subtle—or not so subtle—modifications are introduced through details of character, incident, and plot structure. Lincoln reveals a pattern whereby texts written in Iceland were more critical and infinitely more subtle than those produced in Norway, reflecting the fact that the former had a dual audience: not just the Norwegian court, but also Icelanders of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, whose ancestors had fled from Harald and founded the only non-monarchic, indeed anti-monarchic, state in medieval Europe. Between History and Myth will appeal not only to specialists in Scandinavian literature and history but also to anyone interested in memory and narrative. |
Inhalt
1 | |
8 | |
Chapter 3 Rögnvald the Powerful | 19 |
Chapter 4 Snorri Sturluson | 32 |
Chapter 5 Commander Guthorm | 41 |
Chapter 6 Ragnhild | 51 |
Chapter 7 Dofri the Giant | 61 |
Chapter 8 Hálfdan the Black | 72 |
Chapter 10 Ingjald the Wicked | 95 |
Chapter 11 Conclusions | 104 |
A Reader Reflects | 121 |
Acknowledgments | 125 |
Synoptic Tables | 127 |
Notes | 205 |
265 | |
279 | |
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Between History and Myth: Stories of Harald Fairhair and the Founding of the ... Bruce Lincoln Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2014 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
A-Text Ágrip Barð Barð’s Black Black’s Saga called daughter district kings Dofra Dofri Dofri’s Foster dream earl Egil’s Saga eigi Einar Eirik epithet eptir Fagrskinna Fagrskinna Appendix Fairhair father Flateyjarbók giant Greater Saga Grímnismál Guthorm Gyða Gylfaginning hafdi hair Hákon Hálfdan the Black’s hamingja Harald Fairhair’s Saga Haraldr konungr harm hefir Heimskringla heir hét Historia Norwegiæ Hringariki Hrollaug Icelandic Ingjald Íslendinga Saga Jomsvikings kalladr King Hálfdan King Harald king’s kingship konungr land lét lineage maðr Medieval menn mikill mikit myndi myth narrative Noreg Norway Norwegian Óðinn ofHálfdan ofhis ofthe Olaf Tryggvason Old Norse Orkneyinga Saga Orkneys poem Ragna Ragnhild realm Rögnvald royal Saga of Olaf segir sér Shaggy Harald sidan skyldi skyllde Snorri Sturluson sons sources story svá synoptic table Tale of Hálfdan Tale of Harald Theodricus Monachus Thorleif væri variants váru Vestfold við Völuspá Ynglingasaga Ynglingatal þann þat þeir þó því