
Storyworlds and Worldbuilding in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
Rebecca Merkelbach (ed)
- Pages: approx. 348 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:5 b/w, 1 col., 1 tables b/w.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2025
- € 115,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61164-8
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Jun/25)
- € 115,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61165-5
- E-book
- Forthcoming
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Rebecca Merkelbach is assistant professor of Old Norse-Icelandic studies at the University of Tübingen.
The storyworlds of Old Norse-Icelandic literature are multifaceted and variable, ranging from the worlds of heroic poetry and popular romance to the recognizable narrative universe built by the Sagas of Icelanders. Despite this, they have rarely been explored, and narratological theories of storyworlds or fantasy scholarship have had little impact on the field. Yet given that every story creates its own storyworld, it can be assumed that Old Norse-Icelandic literary texts, too, build worlds — and these worlds are diverse and complex, as shown by the contributors in this volume: they constantly engage with one another, exploring, shaping, and expanding, while also entering into a dialogue with the primary world from which they draw.
This volume brings together scholars from different areas of Old Norse-Icelandic studies to explore questions related to not only the storyworlds of medieval Icelandic literature, but also those of legal and learned texts, and to the way that they are built. Together they inquire into the nature of these worlds, into their preservation and transmission in manuscripts, their transmediality, transnarrativity, and reception. In doing so, these inquiries showcase the breadth of new perspectives on medieval Icelandic literature made possible by the application of narratological theory in its study.
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction. Approaching Storyworlds and Worldbuilding in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
Rebecca Merkelbach
Section 1: Building Worlds
2. Intrusive Dreams and Converging Worlds in the Íslendingasögur
Alexander Wilson
3. Navigating Through the Storyworld(s): The Narrative Voice in the Íslendingasögur
Stefanie Gropper
4. Truth and Lies in the Worldbuilding of the Íslendingasögur: Public, Individual, and Narratorial Voices in Eyrbyggja saga
Andreas Schmidt
Section 2: Placing Worlds
5. Centrality and Peripherality in the Storyworlds of the Old Norse Sagas
Lucie Korecká
6. Narrated Space: The East and Its Inhabitants in Yngvars saga víðfǫrla
Annett Krakow
7. Becoming a Knight in a Polarised World: Modes of Spatial Representation in Sigurðar saga þögla
Michael Micci
Section 3: Transnarrative Worlds
8. The Two Storyworlds of Ectors saga ok kappa hans
Sabine Heidi Walther
9. The Storyworld/s of AM 162 c fol.
Yoav Tirosh
10. Evil Customs and Manifold Injuries: Imagined Realms in Old Norse Laws
Sean Lawing
Section 4: Paranormal Worlds
11. Hobbled Shieldmaidens and Shapeshifting Kings: The Transfiguration of the Storyworld in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs
Thomas Morcom
12. Fates, Faiths and Fauna: The Ins and Outs of Worldbuilding in Harðar saga ok Hólmverja
Ármann Jakobsson and Yoav Tirosh
13. The Storyworld and its Parasites: Unearthing Horror Modes in the ‘Post-Classical’ Icelandic Sagas
Thomas Spray