Poets, Priests and Politics in Medieval Iceland: More Sagas

Instructor: Ben Blaney

Location: Maine Sea Coast Mission, 127 West Street, Bar Harbor.

Course Meets: Thursdays, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Course Size: 5-15 students

Starts: April 5, 2012

Ends: May 17, 2012

Description:

We will read (in English translation) and discuss the following sagas of Icelanders: Gisli Sursson’s Saga, The Saga of Hallfred the Troublesome-poet, The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, Kormak’s Saga, The Saga of the Confederates, The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal, and Eyrbyggja Saga. The main characters in the first four are all poets (as well as warriors and farmers). The Saga of the Confederates is a satire of power politics in Iceland. The last two deal with different regions in Iceland. The main character in Eyrbyggja Saga is Snorri the Priest, who plays an important role in many other sagas.

Instructor: Ben Blaney is Professor Emeritus of Germanic Philology, Mississippi State University. Ben has taught five other courses on medieval Norse topics for ASC as well as one on Historical Linguistics and one on the medieval German romances of Tristan and Parzival.