This dissertation considers the literary treatment of revenge in medieval England and Iceland. Vengeance and feud were an essential part of these cultures; far from the reckless, impulsive action that the word conjures up in modern minds, revenge was considered both a right and a duty and was legislated and regulated by social norms. It was an important tool for obtaining justice and protecting property, family, and reputation. Accordingly, many medieval literary works seem to accept revenge without question. Many, however, evince a great sensitivity to the ambiguities and paradoxes inherent in an act of revenge. In my study, I consider three works that are emblematic of this responsiveness to and indeed, anxiety about revenge. Chapter one focuses on the Old English poem Beowulf; chapter two moves on to discuss Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale and Tale of Melibee from the Canterbury Tales; and chapter three examines the Old Icelandic family saga, Ljósvetninga saga. I focus in particular on the treatment of the avenger in each work. The poet or author of each work acknowledges the perspective of the avenger by allowing him to express his motivations, desires, and justifications for revenge in direct speech. Alongside this acknowledgement, however, is the author’s own reflection on the risks, rewards, and repercussions of the avenger’s intentions and actions. The resulting parallel but divergent narratives highlight the multiplicity of viewpoints found in any act of revenge or feud and reveal a fundamental ambivalence about the value, morality, and necessity of revenge. Each of the works I consider resists easy conclusions about revenge in its own context and remains incredibly current in the way it poses challenging questions about what constitutes injury, punishment, justice, and revenge in our own time.

Uppsatsen presenterar en diplomatarisk utgåva av ett stycke text ur handskriften R 683, från senare hälften av 1600-talet. Texten är en avskrift av delen Gylfaginning ur Snorri Sturlusons Edda enligt versionen nedskriven i handskriften DG 11, från tidigt 1300-tal. Uppsatsens syfte är att presentera en hittils relativt ostuderad text som en självständig skriftprodukt, samt försöka att spåra dess specifika drag som skiljer den från dess ursprungstext samt övriga versioner av Snorris Edda. Undersökningen har genomförts utifrån ett nyfilologiskt perspektiv, inte med tanke på dess relation till övriga versioner utan med fokus på vad som egentligen står i handskriften. Resultatet visar att texten i R 683 skiljer sig något från DG 11, och jämförelseundersökningen med övriga Edda-versioner visar att skrivaren, Jón Rúgmann, använt sig av andra källor för sin avskrift, i synnerhet de i handskrifterna Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus samt Peder Resens (Resenius) utgåva av Laufás Edda. Samtidigt visar skrivarens arbete tecken på en personlig kunskap i den medeltida isländska textproduktionen, vilket förklarar de tillägg och kommentarer som inte är direkt tagna ur texter utan tyder på vidare forskning eller förkunskaper. Slutligen lyfter uppsatsen fram Jón Rúgmanns vetenskapliga förtjänster i den nordiska filologins tidiga etablering i Sverige samt presenterar den stora potential i förbisedda handskrifterna som R 683.

The Notion of "Scened Communication" in a Process of Second Language Acquisition The master thesis compares communication, which is based on an unwriten script, with communication, which is authentic and results from natural communication situation. The goal of this thesis is to define the concept of scened communication and describe differences between these two kinds of communication. Methodological base for this work is comparison of scened communication with authentic communication, using conversation analysis of interviews from places connected to the programme Icelandic Village and outside of Icelandic Village, in authentic situations. Then it's describing the factors which are changing the communication into scened. Theoretically is this work based on studies about second language acquisition (Theodórsdóttir, Wagner). As sources of methodology it uses literature about discourse analysis (Fairclough, Kraus, Schneiderová) and then specifically about conversation analysis (Ten Have, Sidnell, Jefferson). Key words: authentic communication, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, Icelandic language, scened communication, second language acquisition, transcription.

This thesis is situated in the academic sphere of human geography. The overall aim is to identify the current challenges and possibilities Icelandic farmers face in terms of changes in importation laws. This research is exemplary in its field as it uses the narratives of the stakeholders, farmers in this case, as the main data source. The research questions were as following: Is there an agricultural cluster in the region and if so, how does it work; what challenges and possibilities do farmers in the municipality of Hrunamannahreppur face in terms of the recent import law and lastly; according to the farmers, how do policies and laws in Icelandic agriculture ensure long-term farming practices in Iceland. The thesis uses theories of agricultural localization theory, cluster theory and the concepts of competitive and comparative advantages along with the concept of food self-sufficiency. The methods used are semi-structured qualitative interviews during a field study in southern Iceland. Data sources include seven qualitative interviews with farmers in the selected area, a review of agricultural policies and frameworks, and other sources such as articles and media. The main findings are that there is an unexplained disconnect within agriculture and its actors, indicating that policies give preferentiality to economic gain rather than preserving long-term farming in Iceland.

“Jarðnæði; Tranquil Terra” is a meditation on the relationship between the dwelling and the dramatic ever-changing landscapes of the rural Icelandic countryside. The project is anchored in a place with a long and complex history and with a profound relationship with its landscapes - a place of wandering churches, lifesaving shipwrecks, growing houses, teeth in the ground, paths lined with crosses to protect against the ghosts and other dark creatures. It is a place where everything is vibrant, alive and has a story to tell. In the journey to the Tranquil Terra I navigated by means of cartography and critical fiction in search of ways to rethink the Icelandic architectural heritage beyond the nature-culture divide. / "Jarðnæði; Tranquil Terra " är en meditation över förhållandet mellan bostaden och det ständigt föränderliga  landskapet på den isländska landsbygden. Projektet är förankrat i en plats med en lång och komplicerad historia och med en djup relation med sitt landskap - en plats för vandrande kyrkor, skeppsvrak, växande hus, vägar kantade med kors för att skydda mot spöken och andra skrämmande varelser. Det är en plats där allt är levande och har en historia att berätta. I resan till Tranquil Terra navigerade jag med hjälp av kartografi och kritisk fiction på jakt efter ett nytt sätt att tänka kring det isländska arkitektoniska arvet utöver klyftan mellan natur-kultur.

The background of the study is that humans’ relationship to the nature and animals is not universal and is based on critical archeology and reflexive thinking. Previous researchers have interpreted the animals in graves as food offerings or a communication meal, where the horse is highlighted as a prominent symbol of power, prosperity, alliances, and aristocracy. Researchers have also compared animal style ornaments with Icelandic Sagas, and they connect humans and animals to transformation, metamorphoses, and hybridity. The interpretations in this context are based on the animals´ contemporary function and modern views. By studying the materials more closely, it turned out that the bones of humans and animals have been mixed in the graves. In the animal style ornamentation, there are often mixtures between humans and animals, and so also in the Icelandic Sagas. This indicates that the ancient humans intended to recreate mixtures between humans and animals in the materials. The study also links to the anthropological terms totenism and animism, to show that humans’ relationship to animals differs, and that it is not always the same as the modern view.

No description available.

This paper is a morphological structure-analysis of icelandic tales to determine their common and distinguishable components in relation to one another and to the russian folktale with Vladimir Propp’s book Morphology of the Folktale (1968) as theoretical basis. The paper looks at the Poetic Edda and Njals saga and the functions of the actions for each other and for the story as a whole. Although the icelandic tales shows great similarities with the russian folktale in general, it also shows deviations. The functions have sometimes appeared on inverted positions, and in a full third of the stories the evil has won over the good in a crucial struggle, but has in 90 % of these stories still been punished before the end. In seven of the thirty tales the story has ended with a foreboding of misfortune or lack. My conclusion is therefore that the icelandic tales indeed shows a common morphological structure, but also deviations in relation to Propps conclusions which could function as a basis of critique against his theory as well as a foundation for future research to improve his theory.

No description available.

No description available.