| Summary: | My doctoral dissertation focuses on Icelandic literature and society from around 1150–1550 in the context of the reception and reinterpretation of Latin/Ancient Roman culture in mediæval Icelandic texts after the late introduction of non-runic written culture in Scandinavia. The purpose of the thesis is to discuss the possible Latin/Ancient Roman influences on Old Norse-Icelandic literature, language, mentality, and identity. It employs Rómverja saga as an example, along with the related Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Rómverja saga is a collection of Old Norse translations of selected ancient Latin works: Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum and De coniuratione Catilinae, and Lucan’s De Bello Civili. The chronological framework I set up for my thesis extends from as early as the second half of the 12th century (the composition of Rómverja saga has often been dated to around 1180), to as late as the half of 14th century, when the preserved manuscripts were produced (ÁM 595 a-b 4o , ÁM 225 fol. and ÁM 226 fol.). The mediæval manuscript ÁM 595 a–b 4o contains an earlier, fragmented version of Rómverja saga, (“The history of the Romans”). The younger and complete, although abridged version, is preserved in the manuscripts ÁM 225 fol. and ÁM 226 fol. When the research is necessitated by the problems of reception, I venture beyond these chronological boundaries to the time of transition from the medieval to the early modern period in Iceland (ca. 1550). Until recently, Rómverja saga was little studied. Over the years, Rómverja saga manuscripts have been edited by Konráð Gíslason (1860), Meißner (1910), and, most recently, Þorbjörg Helgadóttir (2010). The research on Rómverja saga manuscripts, including, the questions of dating (and the text itself), manuscript authorship, ownership and provenance, and the narrative’s connections to Sverris saga and Veraldar saga has been conducted by Meißner (1903), Hofmann (1986), Þorbjörg Helgadóttir (1987–1988; 1996), Hermann Pálsson (1988; 1991), Gropper (Würth) (1998; 2009), ...
|
|---|