IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 623: Hungrvaka: Stirring Up an Appetite for Old Norse Literature, II

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:	Rebecca Merkelbach, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Andrew McGillivray, Department of Rhetoric, Writing, & Communications, University of Winnipeg
Paper 623-a	'Stropinn strýkur um bringuna': Klári Saga and Its Possible Continental Analogues (Language: English) Védís Ragnheiðardóttir, Faculty of Icelandic & Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - Italian, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 623-b	Too Many Trolls Spoil the Broth: Food Preparation and the Representation of Menial Tasks in Romantic and Legendary Sagas and rímur (Language: English) Philip Lavender, Nordisk Forskningsinstitut, Københavns Universitet Index terms: Daily Life, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 623-c	Savage Maneater or Knight in Shining Armour?: The Lion in Old Norse Romance (Language: English) Florian Schreck, Institutt for lingvistiske, litterære og estetiske studier, Universitetet i Bergen Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Science
Abstract	As part of a series of sessions, these papers trace and explore a variety of issues surrounding food and drink, feasting and nurturing in Old Norse-Icelandic and continental Scandinavian literature and law. They build upon the fruitful collaboration among young academics in the field that was established at the IMC in 2013 and 2014, and are intended to complement the proposed sessions entitled 'Scandinavian History in the Viking and Middle Ages'. This series of sessions will investigate the relationship medieval Icelanders had with food in the way it was played out in the literary and legal texts they produced. What motifs are associated with the consumption of certain types of food and drink? What are the legal implications of food production and distribution? In what ways do nature and nurture play into the construction of characters in saga literature? This second session will focus on motifs of food preparation and consumption in the legendary and chivalric sagas, exploring the way nutrition-related tales - from spilling eggs to consuming humans - assist us both in tracing continental motifs in Scandinavian literature as well as in uncovering the societal issues underlying these stories.