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Legendary Saga
A legendary saga or ''fornaldarsaga'' (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.The article ''Fornaldarsagor'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1991) There are some exceptions, such as '' Yngvars saga víðförla'', which takes place in the 11th century. The sagas were probably all written in Iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date,Einar Ól. Sveinsson, "Fornaldarsögur", in ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingtid til reformasjonstid, bd. 4'' (Copenhagen, 1959) such as ''Hrólfs saga kraka''. Description of the sagas In terms of form, ''fornaldarsögur'' are similar to various other saga-genres, but tend towards fairly linear, episodic narratives. Like sagas in other genres, many quote verse, but in the ''fornaldarsögur'' that verse is almost invariably in the metre of Eddaic v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the ''Gesta Danorum'', the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of ''Hamlet'' by Shakespeare. Life The '' Jutland Chronicle'' gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand. It is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a common name in medieval Denmark. The name ''Grammaticus'' ("the learned") was first given to him in the ''Jutland Chronicle'' and the ''Sjælland Chronicle'' makes reference to Saxo ''cognomine Longus'' ("with the byname 'the tall'"). He lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kvæði
Kvæði (Kvaedi; ''at kvøða'': "to sing a tune or ''kvæði''"; ''kvæði'' also means ''verse'' in Icelandic, also sometimes used to mean stanza) are the old ballads of the Faroe Islands, accompanied by the Faroese dance. Kvæði can have hundreds of stanzas plus a chorus sung between every verse. History It is generally thought that Faroese ballads, as elsewhere in Europe, began to be composed in the Middle Ages, but very little medieval Faroese writing survives, so the ballads' medieval history is obscure. The subject matter of Faroese ballads varies widely, including heroic narratives set in the distant past, contemporary politics, and comic tales. The most archaic-looking layer, however, is the heroic narratives. It was once thought that these derive independently from Viking-Age oral narratives, and this may be true of a few, but it has since been shown that most derive directly from written Icelandic sagas or occasionally ''rímur''. The traceable origins of Faroese bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motif (literature)
In narrative, a motif ( ) is a distinctive repeating feature or idea; often, it helps develop other narrative (or literary) aspects such as theme or mood.James H. Grayson. ''Myths and Legends from Korea: An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials'' (p. 9). New York and Abingdon: Routledge Curzon, 2000. . Alain Silver and James Ursini, (2004Some Visual Motifs of ''Film Noir'' A narrative motif can be created through the use of imagery, structural components, language, and other elements throughout literature. The flute in Arthur Miller's play ''Death of a Salesman'' is a recurrent sound motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions. Another example from modern American literature is the green light found in the novel ''The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Narratives may include multiple motifs of varying types. In Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'', he uses a variety of narrative elements to create many different motifs. Imagistic references to blood a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hjalmar Friar Till Ingeborg By Hugo Hamilton
Hjalmar () and Ingeborg () were a legendary Swedish duo. The male protagonist Hjalmar and his duel for Ingeborg figures in the ''Hervarar saga'' and in ''Orvar-Odd's saga'', as well as in ''Gesta Danorum'', ''Lay of Hyndla'' and a number of Kvæði, Faroese ballads. Hjalmar never lost a battle until meeting a berserker wielding the cursed sword Tyrfing. A tale of two heroes Hjalmar was one of the mythical Mythological kings of Sweden, Swedish king Yngvi and Alf, Yngvi's housecarls at Gamla Uppsala, Uppsala. He and princess Ingeborg were in love, but the king said no to his requests for marriage, since he hoped for a suitor with a better pedigree. Hjalmar's reputation as a courageous and valiant warrior was great and it reached the most remote parts of Norway, where the Norwegian hero Orvar-Odd felt a desire to test his fighting skills with Hjalmar. Thus Orvar-Odd sailed to Sweden with five ships and met Hjalmar who had fifteen ships. Hjalmar could not accept such an uneven balance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kings' Sagas
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, primarily in Iceland, but with some written in Norway. Kings' sagas frequently contain episodic stories known in scholarship as '' þættir'', such as the '' Íslendingaþættir'' (about Icelanders), ''Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa'', '' Hróa þáttr heimska'', and '' Eymundar þáttr hrings'' (about people from elsewhere). List of Kings' sagas Including works in Latin, and in approximate order of composition (though many dates could be off by decades) *A Latin work by Sæmundr fróði, c. 1120, lost. *The older version of ''Íslendingabók'' by Ari fróði, c. 1125, lost. *''Hryggjarstykki'' by Eiríkr Oddsson, c. 1150, lost. *''Historia Norvegiæ Historia may refer to: * His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Lacuna
The Great Lacuna is a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse poetry in the ''Codex Regius''. The gap would have contained the last part of ''Sigrdrífumál'' and most of ''Sigurðarkviða''. What remains of the last poem consists of 22 stanzas called ''Brot af Sigurðarkviðu'', but according to Henry Adams Bellows, the original size of ''Sigurðarkviða'' should have been more than 250 stanzas. The missing original narrative is preserved in the ''Völsunga saga'' in prose form with four stanzas of poetry. The first two stanzas that are preserved through the saga deal with how Sigurd returns to Brynhildr leaping through the flames on Grani after Gunnar had failed: Sigurd had, however, been given a potion of forgetfulness and so he had forgotten all about Brynhildr before returning to her. Moreover, he arrived to her disguised as Gunnar, and so Brynhildr was married to Gunnar instead. After the wedding, Brynhildr argues with her sister-in-law Gudrun, who is Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigurd
Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, with Sigebert I being the most popular contender. Older scholarship sometimes connected him with Arminius, victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He may also have a purely mythological origin. Sigurd's story is first attested on a series of carvings, including runestones from Sweden and stone crosses from the British Isles, dating from the eleventh century. In both the Norse and continental Germanic tradition, Sigurd is portrayed as dying as the result of a quarrel between his wife ( Gudrun/Kriemhild) and another woman, Brunhild, whom he has tricked into marrying the Burgundian king Gunnar/Gunther. His slaying of a dragon and possession of the hoard of the Nibelungen is also common to both traditions. In other respect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Völsunga Saga
The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and the destruction of the Burgundians). It is one of the most famous legendary sagas and an example of a "heroic saga" that deals with Germanic heroic legend. The saga covers topics including the quarrel between Sigi and Skaði, a huge family tree of great kings and powerful conquerors, the quest led by Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli to save princess Signý from the evil king Siggeir, and, most famously, Sigurd killing the serpent/dragon Fáfnir and obtaining the cursed ring Andvaranaut that Fáfnir guarded. Context and overview The saga is largely based on the epic poetry of the historic ''Elder Edda''. The earliest known pictorial representation of this tradition is the Ramsund carving in Sweden, which was created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
