Møter mellom mytologier: Iscenesettelser av konflikt mellom hedendom og kristendom i irske og norrøne middelalderstekster.

Abstract

In this thesis I consider the staging of conflict between Pagan and Christian elements in Norse and Irish medieval texts. I give narratological and contextual readings of selections from four texts: the Norse, eddic poem Grímnismál; selections from the norse sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson as found in Flateyjarbók; and the two Middle Irish texts Cath Maige Tuired and Acallam na Senórach. I argue that these texts, in different ways, depict staged conflicts, projected into a literary and fictional past. In the norse texts, I focus on depictions of meetings between mortal kings and the Norse god Óðinn, to show how the connection between Óðinn and the ideology of kingship is treated in various contexts. In the Irish texts, I look more generally at the depictions of life and society in Pre-Christian Ireland, to show how the mythological past is contrasted to the coming age of Christianity, and how various contemporary concerns seem to affect the way in which the past is depicted. Certain elements are staged in opposition against each other in these texts, to create ideological conflicts. These conflicts indicate an active use, rather than mere preservation, of the Pre-Christian past, and motifs realted to it, in Norse and Irish medieval literature. They can be used to legitimize contemporary authority, or create continuity between the past and the present. The relationship that seems to exist in each of these texts between the depiction of the past, and the text s contemporary concerns and circumstances, is not easily traced. Without a careful study of both the text and its history, there is a risks of drawing faulty conclusions. However, the form and function of these stagings in the texts provide a fruitful starting point for comparison.

In this thesis I consider the staging of conflict between Pagan and Christian elements in Norse and Irish medieval texts. I give narratological and contextual readings of selections from four texts: the Norse, eddic poem Grímnismál; selections from the norse sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson as found in Flateyjarbók; and the two Middle Irish texts Cath Maige Tuired and Acallam na Senórach. I argue that these texts, in different ways, depict staged conflicts, projected into a literary and fictional past. In the norse texts, I focus on depictions of meetings between mortal kings and the Norse god Óðinn, to show how the connection between Óðinn and the ideology of kingship is treated in various contexts. In the Irish texts, I look more generally at the depictions of life and society in Pre-Christian Ireland, to show how the mythological past is contrasted to the coming age of Christianity, and how various contemporary concerns seem to affect the way in which the past is depicted. Certain elements are staged in opposition against each other in these texts, to create ideological conflicts. These conflicts indicate an active use, rather than mere preservation, of the Pre-Christian past, and motifs realted to it, in Norse and Irish medieval literature. They can be used to legitimize contemporary authority, or create continuity between the past and the present. The relationship that seems to exist in each of these texts between the depiction of the past, and the text s contemporary concerns and circumstances, is not easily traced. Without a careful study of both the text and its history, there is a risks of drawing faulty conclusions. However, the form and function of these stagings in the texts provide a fruitful starting point for comparison.