I examine those linguistic features of Old English and Old Norse which serve as the basic elements for the metrical systems of those languages. I begin with a critical survey of recent work on Old English metrical theory in chapter 1, which suggests that the four-position and word-foot theories of metre are the most viable current frameworks. A further conclusion of this chapter is that stress is not, as is often claimed, a core element of the metre. In chapter 2, I reassess the phonological-metrical phenomenon of Kaluza's law, which I find to be much more regular and widely applicable within Bēowulf than has previously been recognized. I further argue that the law provides evidence that Old English phonological foot structure is based on a preference for precise bimoraism. In chapter 3, I examine the role of syllables in the Norse Eddic metre fornyrðislag, which supports a view of resolution and phonological feet similar to that found in Old English, though Norse prosody is much more tolerant of degenerate, light feet. I reconsider the other major Eddic metre, ljóðaháttr, in chapter 4, integrating the insights of Andreas Heusler and Geoffrey Russom to propose a new system of scansion for this notoriously recalcitrant verse form. This scansion provides important support for the word-foot theory, and suggests that linguistic elements larger than syllables or phonological feet play a crucial role in early Germanic verse. In the final chapter, I give a diachronic account of Germanic metre and relevant linguistic structures, arguing that the word-foot theory provides the best metrical framework for understanding the development of Germanic alliterative verse. This metrical system is linguistically supported by Germanic word structures and compounding rules, and interacts with bimoraic phonological feet, all of which have a long history in Proto- and pre-Germanic.

This dissertation focuses on the eddic poetry in the Codex Upsaliensis DG 11 4to, the Uppsala Edda. The manuscript has long been considered too far removed from the assumed original of the text to be of much use to editors, with the result that it was largely neglected by philologists during the last century. The eddic poetry in DG 11 differs in many instances from the other main manuscripts, and this study aims to examine these variants from the point of view of the 14th century scribe and reader of the manuscript. The dissertation’s framework comes close to what is known as New or Material Philology, but since the focus is more on the abstract than the material sides of the manuscript, the study’s theoretical framework is tentatively called descriptive reception philology. In all, 57 stanzas of eddic poetry are examined. The study does not include variation in names or metrics other than alliteration, which means that 10 stanzas consisting almost entirely of names have been excluded. The remaining 57 stanzas contain 137 variants that DG 11 shares with half or fewer of the other manuscripts. These variants are analysed with the aim of deciding whether they were consciously written by the scribe and to what extent the reader could have understood them. Consciously produced variants are said to belong to the sender witness, and if they were probably understood, they are also placed in the receiver witness. Variants not immediately understood by the readers are called incongruities and need to be reinterpreted in order to become part of the receiver witness. If they cannot be interpreted, they are categorised as actual errors. The analysis shows that the vast majority of deviating variants belong to both the sender and receiver witnesses. There are also indications that the eddic poetry was in part quoted from a different exemplar than the prose, an exemplar containing versions of the poems not otherwise known today. Rather than being regarded as confused and incomprehensible, DG 11’s eddic poetry was accepted as the version known by the manuscript’s contemporary users. / <p>Disputationsspråk är både danska och svenska.</p>

The contrast between the familiar social space and the world beyond has been widely recognised as an organising principle in medieval literature, in which the natural and the supernatural alike are set off against human society as alien and hostile. However, the study of this antithesis has typically been restricted to the spatial aspect whereas the literature often exhibits seasonal patterns as well. This dissertation modifies the existing paradigm to accommodate the temporal dimension, demonstrating that winter stands out as a season in which the autonomy of the human domain is drawn into question in both Anglo-Saxon and early Scandinavian literature. In Old English poetry, winter is invoked as a landscape category connoting personal affliction and hostility, but it is rarely used to evoke a cyclical chronology. Old Icelandic literature likewise employs winter as a spatial category, here closely associated with the dangerous supernatural. However, Old Icelandic prose furthermore give winter a place in the annual progression of the seasons, which structures all but the most legendary of the sagas. Accordingly, the winter halfyear stands out as the near-exclusive domain of revenant hauntings and prophecy. These findings stand in stark contrast to the state of affairs in Middle English poetry, which associates diverse kinds of adventure and supernatural interaction with florid landscapes of spring and summer, and Maytime forests in particular. Even so, the seasonal imagery in <em>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</em> makes clear that Middle English poets could use the contrastive functions of winter to no less effect than authors in neighbouring corpora. In partial explanation of authorial choices in this regard, it is proposed that winter settings are employed especially where a strong empathic response is desired of the audience.

The contrast between the familiar social space and the world beyond has been widely recognised as an organising principle in medieval literature, in which the natural and the supernatural alike are set off against human society as alien and hostile. However, the study of this antithesis has typically been restricted to the spatial aspect whereas the literature often exhibits seasonal patterns as well. This dissertation modifies the existing paradigm to accommodate the temporal dimension, demonstrating that winter stands out as a season in which the autonomy of the human domain is drawn into question in both Anglo-Saxon and early Scandinavian literature. In Old English poetry, winter is invoked as a landscape category connoting personal affliction and hostility, but it is rarely used to evoke a cyclical chronology. Old Icelandic literature likewise employs winter as a spatial category, here closely associated with the dangerous supernatural. However, Old Icelandic prose furthermore give winter a place in the annual progression of the seasons, which structures all but the most legendary of the sagas. Accordingly, the winter halfyear stands out as the near-exclusive domain of revenant hauntings and prophecy. These findings stand in stark contrast to the state of affairs in Middle English poetry, which associates diverse kinds of adventure and supernatural interaction with florid landscapes of spring and summer, and Maytime forests in particular. Even so, the seasonal imagery in <em>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</em> makes clear that Middle English poets could use the contrastive functions of winter to no less effect than authors in neighbouring corpora. In partial explanation of authorial choices in this regard, it is proposed that winter settings are employed especially where a strong empathic response is desired of the audience.

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Domarringarna (Stone circles) are mysterious monuments preserved from Prehistory. With this study, I will discuss them and their meaning from different angles. I have mainly used a qualitative method of working through of previous research on Stone circles, but I also worked with a quantitative approach by compiling statistics. A clear result was difficult to achieve. Several of the new sources are based on the older research. More research and archaeological studies are required to obtain more evidence that can support new interpretations.

This is a small quantitative study with focus on colloquial English words with an Old Norse origin. The essay aims to study the history of the Viking invasion and its impact on the English language and to answer the question to what extent Old Norse has influenced modern English vocabulary. Also, the quantitative study aims to answer how well elderly British people are familiar with colloquial English words with Old Norse origins and their denotative meaning and also whether there is a difference in knowledge depending on where in Britain one lives. A quantitative questionnaire was designed to research elderly British people’s knowledge of fifteen different colloquial words with Old Norse origins and to see whether the respondents recognized the words and if they knew the words. This questionnaire was then sent to managers working for AgeUK. The managers in their turn distributed the questionnaire to elderly people in their municipality. The results indicate that the elderly people living in parts of Britain that were part of the Danelaw have a better understanding of the words researched. The research has also shown that different spellings of the words exist and that the denotative meaning of the words might differ depending on from where in Britain one originates.

This thesis takes a fresh, character-based approach to the Íslendingasögur. It is inspired by a narratological study that unites the functional and structural role of characters with their human, individualistic portrayal. My major objective is to demonstrate the important connection between characterisation and structure in the sagas. By drawing attention to characters that I term narrative triggers, I offer a way of reading the sagas that relies both on the narrative conventions of tradition and on the less predictable, personal interactions between the cast of any given saga. In the case of both major and minor figures in the Íslendingasögur a certain type of character is often present to perform necessary motivational functions, allowing the plot to develop. In Part I I emphasise the functional aspect of these characters, before exploring unusual examples that emphasise their individuality in Part II.The motivation of the plot is linked throughout to the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr. A secondary objective is to provide a clearer understanding of the nature and function of this commonly occurring character type. The ójafnaðarmaðr is frequently alluded to in scholarship,but this thesis provides the first in-depth study of the portrayal of these characters. The quality that informs them (ójafnaðr,‘inequity’, lit. ‘unevenness’) is a threat to one of the core values of saga society and hints at an ‘unbalancing’ of social interactions and of the narrative equilibrium itself. That this unbalance leads to changes in the social structure of the setting is a key factor in driving the plots of the sagas along. For this reason, a detailed examination of the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr is long overdue: they can be observed to perform a specific narrative function but are always fitted to suit their particular context. Focussing on the structural conventions of character introduction, Part I establishes my methodology and catalogues the examples of characters introduced as ójafnaðarmenn. The scope is limited to those introduced as such because it allows me to establish for the first time the full corpus and conventions of these characters and their introductions. Following developments in our understanding of the oral background to the sagas, my approach to these narratives is built upon the evidence of their shared origins in pre-literate storytelling [...]. The intersection between functionality and individuality in character brings certain aspects of the Íslendingasögur to the fore. Part II of this thesis shows that in combination with the structural markers explored in Part I, the sagas employ the collective perspective of the general public, other characters and ‘irrational’ motivators such as fate to contribute to their techniques of characterisation. Because disruptive qualities speak inherently of a difference in the way an individual sees themselves and in the way the public sees them, or we as an audience are meant to see them, figures termed ójafnaðarmaðr are an ideal focal point for the development of this study.

This work presents an interpretation of icelandic narrative about the Seal Skin with regard to the Old Norse symbolic frame, so the possible paralel motifs and motivic "cores" could arise, even in spite of the temporal period between the origin of our primary text and the origin of Old Norse myths and sagas. The approach of this work is based in structural theories and tools used by Claude Lévi-Strauss, where these tools help us identify the basic narrative units called mythemes: primarily they include characters, objects and settings. The basic principle of founding these mythemes in different genres and cultural contexts is the method of amplification, which is used in psychological and clinical practice of Carl Gustav Jung. The aim of this work is to grasp and comprehend the narrative and its meaning and connect the Old North mythical tradition with modern folklore of Iceland. The result is in-depth analysis of the symbolical net, in which the narrative and its mythemes are embedded. Furthemore this analysis displays the contribution and benefits of the particular interpretation levels and its usefulness for future research. Key words: seal skin, seal woman, seal, icelandic folklore, Old Norse myths

The aim of my master’s thesis is to study how of nationalism was expressed in Swedish and Danish paintings c. 1850 to 1865. In both Sweden and Denmark there were strong feelings of nationalism in the 19th century. The development towards a modern nation state meant that people began to feel like citizens of a nation rather than subjects to a king. In the words of the Irish-American anthropologist and political scientist Benedict Anderson they had the feeling of being in an imagined community.  I examine how nationalism was expressed, what factors influenced the portrayal of national feelings and the purpose of choices of subject. The final question is if there are differences between the countries and, if any, possible reasons. The time period I have chosen is the time between the two Slesvig wars in Denmark, which is now often seen as the latter part of the Danish Golden Age. It is also the period when many Swedish painters chose to travel to Düsseldorf to study painting and the Düsseldorf school became especially important in genre and landscape painting, often with nationalistic subjects. My study is divided into four themes, Mythology, Monarchs, People and Nature, covering different aspects of life and also of different categories of painting. For each theme I examine one painting by a Swedish artist and one by a Danish artist using Panofsky’s iconological method.  I include other paintings and texts for reference.  The expression of nationalism shows similarities between the countries, such as use of old Norse mythology and genre paintings of rural people in traditional costumes. Landscape paintings reflected the geographical differences between the countries. Current events, in particular the Slesvig wars for Denmark, also left their mark on nationalism and found their way into art.