This thesis argues that the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature which pertains to Iceland contains an intertextual narrative of the formation of Icelandic identity. An analysis of this narrative provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between literature and identity, as well as the potency of the artistic use of the idea of the past. The thesis identifies three salient narratives of communal action which inform the development of a discrete Icelandic identity, and which are examined in turn in the first three chapters of the thesis. The first is the landnám, the process of settlement itself; the second, the origin and evolution of the law; and the third, the assimilation and adaptation of Christianity. Although the roots of these narratives are doubtless historical, the thesis argues that their primary roles in the literature are as social myths, narratives whose literal truth- value is immaterial, but whose cultural symbolism is of overriding importance. The fourth chapter examines the depiction of the Icelander abroad, and uses the idiom of the relationship between þáttr (‘tale’) and surrounding text in the compilation of sagas of Norwegian kings Morkinskinna to consider the wider implications of the relationship between Icelandic and Norwegian identities. Finally, the thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of Sturlunga saga within this intertextual narrative, and its function as a set of narratives mediating between an identity grounded in social autonomy and one grounded in literature. The Íslendingasögur or ‘family sagas’ constitute the core of the thesis’s primary sources, for their subject-matter is focussed on the literary depiction of the Icelandic society under scrutiny. In order to demonstrate a continuity of engagement with ideas of identity across genres, a sample of other Icelandic texts are examined which depict Iceland or Icelanders, especially when in interaction with non-Icelandic characters or polities.

La Maríu saga est une saga hagiographique anonyme d’origine monastique faisant le récit de la vie de Marie, de sa conception à son Assomption, rédigée en langue vernaculaire et composée entre le dernier tiers du XIIIe siècle et la seconde moitié du XIVe siècle en Islande. Assortie d’une traduction inédite du texte, la présente étude se propose comme une nouvelle approche de la Maríu saga que nous inscrivons dans la longue tradition littéraire et théologique des Vies de la Vierge, des biographies homilétiques mariales tributaires des évangiles apocryphes composées par des moines et théologiens du VIIe au Xe siècle dans l’Empire Byzantin, et que nous situons dans le contexte littéraire et culturel européen médiéval afin de mettre en lumière les enjeux poétiques et doctrinaux que soulève l’acte d’écrire et de réécrire la vie de la Vierge en Islande au Moyen Âge. Pour ce faire, nous envisageons l’œuvre de différents points de vue, d’abord de l’histoire de la réception des textes bibliques et parabibliques, ensuite contextuel et philologique, puis littéraire et enfin théologique. Nous nous employons à montrer à travers son étude poétique et doctrinale que, à l’exemple des vies de Marie médiévales ecclésiastiques, la Maríu saga manifeste des spécificités propres au foyer culturel de son époque : medium entre la littérature et la théologie, l’œuvre est un texte hagiographique narratif qui présente le double intérêt d’être à la fois un témoin de la pratique de la réécriture hagiographique en langue vernaculaire et le reflet du développement dogmatique et de l’évolution de la réflexion théologique sur Marie, et de fait sur le Christ, en Islande médiévale. / Maríu saga is an anonymous hagiographic saga relating the story of Mary’s life, from her Conception to her Assumption, written in the vernacular and composed in the monastic milieu between the last third of the thirteenth century and the second half of the fourteenth century in Iceland. Coupled with an unprecedented translation of the text, this dissertation offers a new approach to Maríu saga that I situate within the long literary and theological tradition of the Lives of the Virgin – these Marian biographic homilies which draw on apocryphal gospels were composed by monks and theologians from the seventh to the tenth century in the Byzantine Empire –, and that I put into the European medieval literary and cultural context in order to examine the literary and doctrinal issues raised by the act of writing and rewriting the life of the Virgin in Iceland in the Middle Ages. I successively consider Maríu saga from different perspectives: in a first part, from the history of the reception of biblical and parabiblical texts; in a second part, from an historical and a philological aspect; in a third part, from a literary point of view; and in a fourth part, from a theological angle. My aim is to demonstrate through the study of its poetics and its doctrine that, like the medieval ecclesiastical lives of Mary, Maríu saga bears specific features of its cultural area of its time: medium between literature and theology, this work is a narrative hagiographic text that presents the double interest of being the witness both to the practice of hagiographic rewriting in the vernacular and to the doctrinal development and the evolution of the theological reflection on Mary, and in fact on Christ, in medieval Iceland.

Narratives of Nordic pre-history are common in textbooks of the Swedish 'folk school'. This thesis discusses them from an ideological critical perspective and analyses them as textbook myths. This analytic concept of myth is constructed and used as a tool for studying ideological expressions in pedagogical texts. It is compatible with a historical materialist, social constructivist and Gramsci inspired perspective towards folk schooling and can handle questions of selection and re-organisation of ancient narrative material. The study shows how a paternalistic ethnic ideology which showed the pupils how their ancestors immigrated and set up society and order is replaced by nationalistic myths where the Swedes are projected on the totality of the past. Idealisation of farmers and expressions that neutralise poverty and legitimates subordination are used continuously throughout the study period. After 1868 a national folk concept is established. Textbook myths with a euhemeristic portrayal of civilisation are replaced by other scientific ways of handling pre-historic religions including elements from nature mythology and evolutionary theory. The myths handle religions both through Christian polemics and theological projections. The results of the analyses are interpreted in the light of the contemporary socio-economic changes where a feudal agrarian society's principles for classifications and hierarchies are challenged and broken by the principles of a class society with a nationalistic ideology. In the concluding chapters the myths are discussed and interpreted in relation to curriculum codes and in a Gramsci inspired perspective as expressions of a passive bourgeois revolution, where intellectuals of the middle class conquered the school and the textbook myths by making alliances with the farming class and trying to neutralise the poor and the working class. The thesis contributes to research in the use of history, representation in pedagogical texts and to research in nationalism.

This dissertation examines the relationship between wisdom and identity in Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. At present, the study of medieval wisdom is largely tangential to the study of proverbs and maxims. This dissertation makes wisdom its primary object of study; it sees wisdom not just as a literary category, but also as a cultural discourse found in texts not usually included in the wisdom canon. I therefore examine both wisdom literature and wisdom in literature. The central characteristic of wisdom, I argue, is its liminality. The biblical question “Where is wisdom to be found?” is difficult to answer because of wisdom’s in-between-ness: it is ever between individuals, communities, and times (Job 28:12 Douay-Rheims). As a liminal discourse, wisdom both grounds and problematizes identity in Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. After a preliminary chapter that defines key terms such as “wisdom” and “wisdom literature,” I examine heroic wisdom in three characters who are defined by their wise traits and skills and yet who are ultimately betrayed by wisdom to death or exile. The implications of this problematic relation to wisdom are then examined in the next chapter, which analyzes the composition of wisdom in proverb poems. Like the wise hero, the poets represented in these poems blend their own voices with the voice of community, demonstrating that identity is open and therefore in need of constant revision. Next I examine how the liminality of wisdom is embodied in the figure of the wise monster, who negatively marks the boundaries of society and its desires. This then leads to a study of the reception of wisdom in chapter six, which focuses on instruction poems. Like narratives of wise monsters, these texts present lore as the nostalgic remnant of a tradition that defines identity, in this case the identity of a community. However, nostalgia assumes loss, and these texts also reveal an underlying fear that wisdom, the basis of the community’s identity, will be forgotten. Whether communal or individual, identity in this literature is both formed and threatened by liminal wisdom. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-08 15:35:46.885

My Interdisciplinary dissertation examines illustrations in manuscripts and early print sources and reveals their participation in the transmission and reception of Old Norse mythology. My approach encompasses Material Philology and Media Specific Analysis. The reception history of illustrations of Old Norse Mythology affects our understanding of related Interdisciplinary fields such as Book History, Visual Studies, Literary Studies and Cultural Studies. Part One of my dissertation begins with a discussion of the tradition of Old Norse oral poetry in pagan Scandinavia and the highly visual nature of the poems. The oral tradition died out in Scandinavia but survived in Iceland and was preserved in vernacular manuscripts in the thirteenth century. The discovery of these manuscripts in the seventeenth century initiated a cycle of illustration that largely occurred outside of Iceland. Part One concludes with an analytical survey of illustrations of Old Norse mythology in print sources from 1554 to 1915 revealing important patterns of transmission. Part Two traces the technological history of production of digital editions and manuscript facsimiles back to the seventeenth century when manuscripts were hand-copied and published by means of copperplate engravings. Part Two also discusses the scholarly and cultural prejudices towards images that are only now slowly fading. Part Two concludes with a description of my prototype for a digital image repository named MyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository). MyNDIR will facilitate the emergence of images of Old Norse Studies from the current informal crowd sourcing of material on the web to a digital image repository supporting the dissemination of accurate scholarly knowledge in a widely accessible form. Part Three presents two thematic case studies that demonstrate the value of applying the skills of visual literacy to illustrations of Old Norse mythology. The first study examines Jakob Sigurðsson’s illustrations of Norse gods in hand-copied paper manuscripts from eighteenth-century Iceland. The second study examines illustrations by prominent Norwegian artists in the editions of Snorre Sturlason: Kongesagaer published in 1899 and 1900 respectively. What emerged from these studies is an understanding that illustrations offer insights for the study of Old Norse texts that the words of the texts alone cannot provide. / Graduate / 0362 / 0377 / 0279 / pabaer@uvic.ca

A travers deux champs d'étude, nous nous intéressons au couplage mécanique entre le magma et l'encaissant, utilisant des méthodes numériques. Tout d'abord, nous étudions l'influence de perturbations de contraintes sur les réservoirs magmatiques, avec comme exemple deux volcans sous-glaciaires (Islande). Au volcan Grímsvötn, notre modèle montre que les vidanges, du lac sous-glaciaire (jökulhlaup) présent dans la caldera, peuvent déclencher une éruption comme ce fut le cas en 2004, en favorisant la rupture du réservoir magmatique. L'effet est cependant faible, ce qui implique que le système magmatique doit déjà être proche des conditions de rupture avant que le jökulhlaup se produise. Au volcan Katla, notre modèle indique que les conditions de rupture sont favorisées en été durant la fonte du glacier Mýrdalsjökull. Les changements de contrainte de Coulomb montrent aussi une plus forte probabilité de séismes durant la même période, résultats en accord avec la sismicité enregistrée sous le Mýrdalsjökull. Il existe une modulation à la fois de l'activité volcanique et sismique au Katla, en relation avec la variation saisonnière de la charge glaciaire. Dans un second temps, nous travaillons sur les écoulements de magma dans les conduits andésitiques. Améliorer nos connaissances sur la dynamique du magma durant son ascension est nécessaire, car les processus dans le conduit volcanique semblent gouverner l'évolution de l'activité éruptive de ces volcans. Des précédents modèles ont montré que la viscosité du magma augmente dans la partie supérieure du conduit lors de l'écoulement, ce qui cause la formation d'un plug visqueux. Mais la relation entre la mise en place du plug et les signaux précurseurs, telles que la déformation ou la sismicité, n'est pas totalement établie. A partir de nos modèles de plug, nous trouvons que les déplacements de surface sont contrôlés par la géométrie du conduit et du plug ainsi que le contraste de viscosité entre le plug et la colonne de magma. Nous montrons que l'évolution de la taille du plug est une hypothèse possible pour expliquer les rapides transitions inflation/subsidence observées à la surface des volcans andésitiques. / Through two different applications, we focus on the mechanical coupling between magma and host rocks, using numerical method. First, we study the influence of stress perturbations on shallow magma chambers, with the exemple of two subglacial volcanoes (Iceland). A variation in the stress field acts to modify the magma pressure within the reservoir as well as the failure conditions to initiate an intrusion at the reservoir wall. At Grímsvötn volcano, subglacial lake discharges (so-called "jökulhlaup") often occur in relation to eruptions. Our models show that jökulhlaup promote the failure of the magma reservoir and thus trigger eruptions, as observed for 2004 eruption. The triggering effect is small, so magmatic system must be already pressurized and close to failure before the discharge of the lake occurs. At Katla volcano, our models indicate that reservoir failure is highest in summer period when the ice load at Mýrdalsjökull icecap is reduced. Coulomb stress calculation predicts also an increase of earthquake occurrence at the caldera rim at the same time. A seasonal modulation of volcanic and seismic activity at Katla related to the loading/unloading of the icecap can exist. Secondly, we focus on magma conduit flow for andesitic volcanoes. Improving our knowledge of magma dynamic during ascent is a challenge, because processes occurring in the conduit seem to govern the temporal evolution of eruptive activity. Previous models showed that magma viscosity increases during flow in the upper part of the conduit, which causes the emplacement of a viscous plug. But the relationship between the plug emplacement and precursors signals, such as ground deformation or seismicity, is not yet fully described. From our plug flow model, we find that surface deformation is mainly controlled by the geometry of the conduit, the ratio between the plug length and the total conduit length and the viscosity contrast between the plug and the magma column. We show that the evolution of the plug size is a possible explanation for rapid transition between ground inflation and ground subsidence observed on andesitic volcanoes before extrusion.

Cette thèse porte sur la lexicographie bilingue, plus précisément entre l’islandais et le français, avec comme objectif de jeter les bases d’un nouveau dictionnaire islandais-français qui serait accessible en ligne. Pour cela, nous avons rédigé des articles de dictionnaire en nous appuyant sur une nouvelle base de données lexicographiques développée pour des dictionnaires bilingues en ligne avec l’islandais comme langue source (ISLEX). Nous nous concentrons sur les besoins des utilisateurs islandais voulant s’exprimer en français mais nous partons du principe que le dictionnaire devrait également servir aux francophones. À travers notre traitement lexicographique, nous portons une attention spéciale à la syntagmatique et au traitement des locutions plus ou moins figées dans un dictionnaire bilingue. En effet, nous estimons qu’un bon dictionnaire bilingue devrait accorder une importance particulière aux unités phraséologiques telles que les collocations et les locutions figées de sens figuré. Après avoir étudié le rôle et la structuration idéale des dictionnaires bilingues selon les différentes fonctions qu’ils peuvent avoir, celle de l’encodage et celle du décodage, nous passons ensuite à une discussion sur la phraséologie et l’importance des locutions figées et semi-figées dans les dictionnaires bilingues. Nous présentons, par la suite, la microstructure de nos articles ainsi que les outils et les ressources informatiques sur lesquels nous nous appuyons. Les résultats de notre réflexion sur l’élaboration d’un nouveau dictionnaire islandais-français sont présentés sous la forme d’articles, suivis de remarques et d’explications sur nos choix lexicographiques. / This doctoral thesis on bilingual lexicography, and more precisely on lexicography between Icelandic and French, aims to lay the foundations for a new Icelandic-French dictionary that will be available on-line. To that purpose, we write entries for an Icelandic-French dictionary based on a new lexicographical database for Icelandic (ISLEX). The focus is on the needs of Icelandic users who wish to express themselves in French. However, it is clear that an Icelandic-French dictionary will also be useful for French speakers. Through our lexicographical treatment, we pay special attention to the syntagmatic analysis and to the presentation of more or less fixed phraseological units in a bilingual dictionary such as collocations and set phrases, since we consider that a good bilingual dictionary should take phraseological units into account. Having studied the role and the ideal structure of bilingual dictionaries according to the various functions that they can have, the encoding one and the decoding one, we then discuss phraseology and the importance of set phrases in bilingual dictionaries. The microstructure of our articles is then presented as well as the tools and resources on which we base our work. The outcome of our reflection on the writing of a new Icelandic-French dictionary is shown in the form of dictionary entries followed by remarks where an account is given of the way in which some lexicographical problems are tackled and our lexicographical choices are explained.

No description available.