TY  - BOOK
AU  - Mitchell,Stephen A.
AU  - Nagy,Gregory
TI  - Heroic Sagas and Ballads
T2  - Myth and Poetics
SN  - 9781501735974
AV  - PT7181 .M5 1991
U1  - 839/.609 20
PY  - 2018///]
CY  - Ithaca, NY
PB  - Cornell University Press
KW  - Civilization, Medieval, in literature
KW  - Old Norse literature
KW  - History and criticism
KW  - Oral tradition
KW  - Poetics
KW  - History
KW  - To 1500
KW  - Sagas
KW  - Literary Studies
KW  - Medieval & Renaissance Studies
KW  - LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval
KW  - bisacsh
N1  - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Foreword --; Preface --; Introduction --; CHAPTER 1. Definitions and Assessments --; CHAPTER 2. Origins and Influences --; CHAPTER 3. Uses and Functions --; CHAPTER 4. The Legacy Renewed --; Epilogue --; Appendix --; Abbreviations --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access
N2  - In Heroic Sagas and Ballads, Stephen A. Mitchell examines the world of the medieval Icelandic legendary sagas and their legacy in Scandinavia. Central to his argument is the view that these heroic texts should be studied in the light of the later Icelandic Middle Ages rather than that of the Viking age, although the stories, the tellers, and the audiences are clearly concerned with exactly this period of Scandinavian history.Viewing these sagas as the products of highly diverse forms of inspiration and creation—some oral, some written—Mitchell explores their aesthetic and social dimensions, demonstrating their function both as entertainment and as a literature with a more serious purpose, one with deep roots in Nordic literary consciousness. The traditions that these sagas relate possessed an importance beyond the temporal and geographical confines of medieval Iceland, and Heroic Sagas and Ballads considers the process by which these heroic materials were subsequently recast as metrical romances in Iceland and as ballads throughout the rest of Scandinavia. It is ultimately concerned with much more than just those stories that inspired such modern writers as Richard Wagner and H. Rider Haggard; its anthropological and folkloric approach to the legendary sagas shows how the extraliterary dimensions of medieval texts can be explored.Heroic Sagas and Ballads addresses issues of central importance to medievalists, folklorists, comparatists, Scandinavianists, and students of the ballad
UR  - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735974
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501735974
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501735974/original
ER  -