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Journal articles on the topic 'Norse poetry'
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1
Abram, Christopher. "Hel in Early Norse Poetry." Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 2 (January 2006): 1–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1484/j.vms.2.302018.
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Goering, Nelson. "The Fall of Arthur and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún : A Metrical Review of Three Modern English Alliterative Poems." Journal of Inklings Studies 5, no. 2 (October 2015): 3–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ink.2015.5.2.2.
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J.R.R. Tolkien produced a considerable body of poetry in which he used the traditional alliterative metre of Old Norse and Old English to write modern English verse. This paper reviews three of his longer narrative poems, published in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún and The Fall of Arthur, examining Tolkien’s alliterative technique in comparison to medieval poetry and to the metrical theories of Eduard Sievers. In particular, the two poems in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, which are adapted from Old Norse material, show a number of metrical and poetic features reminiscent of Tolkien’s sources in the Poetic Edda. The Fall of Arthur, on the other hand, is in a style that is, in detail and in general, strongly reminiscent of Old English poetry. Throughout all these compositions, Tolkien employs a distinctive alliterative style, closely based on medieval and philological models, but adjusted according to the linguistic needs of modern English and to his own preferences.
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Sullivan, Karen. "Genre-dependent metonymy in Norse skaldic poetry." Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 17, no. 1 (February 2008): 21–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947007085051.
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This article describes a metonymic process which is common in skaldic verse, but rare in everyday language. This process allows one member of a category to stand for another (for example, SEA is referred to by the name of another member of BODIES OF WATER, such as `river' or `fjord'). This process has previously been called `metaphor' (cf. Fidjestøl, 1997). However, I show that the process lacks several characteristics of metaphor as defined in cognitive linguistics, including multiple mappings and the creation of target-domain inferences. I suggest that the process is more similar to metonymies such as Category for Member (cf. Radden and Kövecses, 1999), and should be called `Member for Member' metonymy. I argue that Member for Member metonymy is rare in conversational language because it fails to generate the inferences and cognitive benefits provided by most metaphors and metonymies. However, Member for Member is abundant in skaldic verse, because the aesthetic and sociolinguistic goals of this genre outweigh the considerations of clarity and efficiency imposed on conversation by the Gricean Maxims. I furthermore propose that Member for Member metonymy is a defining feature of classical skaldic poetry, and one that distinguishes this genre from later, more naturalistic styles such as hrynhent. The observation that Member for Member occurs in a specific literary genre like skaldic poetry — even though it is normally barred from conversational language — indicates that cognitive linguists must study the full range of linguistic genres in order to document the cognitive processes that underlie language use.
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Þorgeirsson, Haukur. "Late Placement of the Finite Verb in Old Norse Fornyrðislag Meter." Journal of Germanic Linguistics 24, no. 3 (August 20, 2012): 233–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000037.
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In Old Norse poetry, there is a syntactic difference between bound clauses (subordinate clauses and main clauses introduced by a con-junction) and unbound clauses (main clauses not introduced by a conjunction). In bound clauses, the finite verb is often placed late in the sentence, violating the V2 requirement upheld in prose. In unbound clauses, the V2 requirement is normally adhered to, but in fornyrðislag poetry, late placement of the finite verb is occasionally found. Hans Kuhn explained these instances as a result of influence from West Germanic poetry. The present article argues that these instances can be explained as a remnant of the Proto-Norse word order, and that this explanation is better supported by the data.*
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Árnason, Kristján. "Prototypes and structures in eddic poetry." Studia Metrica et Poetica 4, no. 1 (August 7, 2017): 104–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2017.4.1.05.
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Seiichi Suzuki, The Meters of Old Norse Eddic Poetry: Common Germanic Inheritance and North Germanic Innovation (Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Band 86). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2014. XLV+1096 pp.
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Otterberg, H. "A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics." Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 13, no. 2 (July 1, 2006): 287–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isle/13.2.287.
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Krakow, Annett. "The Polish interest in the Eddas — Joachim Lelewel’s Edda of 1828." European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 50, no. 1 (April 28, 2020): 111–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2020-0006.
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AbstractIn the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century, a rising interest in Old Norse literature outside the Nordic countries could be noted that, to a great deal, focused on the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda as sources for Norse mythology. This interest is also reflected in the works of the Polish historian Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861) who, in 1807 and 1828, published translations and retellings of the Poetic and the Prose Edda. These were based on French, German and Latin translations. The second edition of 1828 is characterised by a more comprehensive section with eddic poetry, the selection of which is also explained by Lelewel, as well as an essay on pre-Christian religion that also includes a research overview and a list of editions/translations of the Eddas.
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Kennedy, John. "A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics (review)." Parergon 24, no. 1 (2007): 188–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2007.0045.
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Frog. "Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae I: When is a Valkyrie Like a Spear?" Studia Metrica et Poetica 1, no. 1 (April 22, 2014): 100–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2013.1.1.06.
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This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realized. Metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry provide material for a series of case studies focusing on variation in realizing formulae of this type. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. Focus will be on variation between two broad semantic categories in expressing the formula’s consistent unit of meaning that are otherwise unambiguously distinct: proper names for mythological beings and poetic terms for weapons and armour. This article introduces an approach to kennings as semantic formulae and includes an illustrative case study on kennings meaning ‘battle’ in the last three metrical positions of a dróttkvætt line. The case study is simultaneously used to demonstrate the degree of integration of mythological proper names in the poetic register. This article contains only the first case study of a series. It provides foundations for examining variation in the associative links exhibited by names of mythic beings as a category according to the metrical positions in which a battle-kenning is realized.
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Ruseckienė, Rasa. "That Rune Will Unlock Time’s Labyrinth…: Old Norse Themes and Motifs in George Mackay Brown’s Poetry." Scandinavistica Vilnensis, no. 14 (May 27, 2019): 113–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/scandinavisticavilnensis.2019.6.
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George Mackay Brown (1921–1996), an Orcadian poet, author and dramatist, was undoubtedly one of the finest Scottish creative voices of the twentieth century. He was greatly influenced by Old Norse literature, and this is reflected in his writings in many ways. The present article aims to trace and discuss Old Norse themes and motifs in Brown’s poetry. His rune poems, translations of the twelfthcentury skaldic verse, experimentation with skaldic kennings, as well as choosing saga personalities, such as Saint Magnus, Earl Rognvald of Orkney and others, as protagonists of the poems show the poet’s in-depth interest in the historical and literary legacy of his native Orkney and Old Norse culture in general.
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Phelpstead, C. "HEATHER O'DONOGHUE. English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History." Review of English Studies 66, no. 275 (January 20, 2015): 563–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/res/hgu119.
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Sigurđsson, Gísli, and Nicholas Jones. "A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics. Margaret Clunies Ross." Speculum 83, no. 3 (July 2008): 680–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0038713400014792.
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Oberlin, Adam. "Brittany Erin Schorn, Speaker and Authority in Old Norse Wisdom Poetry. Trends in Medieval Philology, 34. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017, viii, 198 pp." Mediaevistik 31, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 387–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/med012018_387.
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This slim volume, 155 pages apart from the introduction and back matter, is the revised version of a recent dissertation on the dialogic and discursive exchange of wisdom in the Gnomic genre of Old Norse-Icelandic Eddic poetry. As the author notes in the introduction (Ch. 1), this genre is well attended in the scholarly literature and many studies have addressed similar or adjacent topics. Five chapters after the introduction describe and investigate narrative and discursive aspects of wisdom poetry informed by a pre-Christian past but located firmly within a post-conversion manuscript context.
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Wanner, Kevin J. "Skapan í Skáldskap ok Skáldskaparskapan: Creation In And Creation Of Norse Poetry." Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 13, no. 1 (March 1, 2012): 127–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/afgs.2012.127.
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Jochens, Jenny. "Old Norse Women's Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds (review)." Scandinavian Studies 83, no. 3 (2011): 465–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/scd.2011.0039.
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Hallen, Cynthia L. "Old Norse Women's Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds (review)." Rocky Mountain Review 66, no. 1 (2012): 93–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/rmr.2012.0013.
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Lundgreen-Nielsen, Flemming. "Grundtvigs nordisk-mytologiske billedsprog - et mislykket eksperiment?" Grundtvig-Studier 45, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 142–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v45i1.16146.
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Grundtvig ’s Norse Mythological Imagery - An Experiment that Failed?By Flemming Lundgreen-NielsenSince his early youth, Grundtvig worked frequently and diligently with Norse mythology. From 1805 to 1810 he tried in a scholarly way to sort out its original sources and accordingly its ancient meanings, though Grundtvig even as a philologist preferred to give spontaneous enthusiasm aroused by a synthetic vision a priority above linguistic proofs (Norse Mythology, 1808). After a pause of some years, Grundtvig in 1815 returned to Norse mythology, allowing himself a more free and subjective interpretation in lieu of an all-encompassing conception. From now on aiming to turn the Norse myths into an accessible store of modeme national imagery, he adapted a favourable evaluation of Snorri’s Edda, which until then he had been regarding as late, distorted information.Drawing mainly upon previously unprinted material the paper demonstrates, how Grundtvig around 1820, 1832, in the 1840’s and during the Schleswig-Holstein war 1848-50 tried to revive Snorri’s Edda for actual commonday use. To put Grundtvig’s opinions in a historical perspective, other contemporary statements are included, such as a Copenhagen press and pamphlet feud on the potential usefulness of Norse mythology to sculptors and painters (1820-21) and a public lecture in favour of Greek mythology and Christian civilization given by professor Madvig (1844).Grundtvig’s own attempts to mobilize the Norse gods in current affairs are illustrated in selected examples from his poetical works. The conclusion indicates that his project was a failure: none of his ballads and poems popular then and today deal with Norse mythology, and although his Norse Mythology, 1832, became a handbook for teachers of the Folk Highschools, neither later poets nor philosophers employed the Norse mythological imagery he recommended. In the war 1848-50 Grundtvig wanted to take advantage of situations from myths and legends such as Thor battling the giant Hrungnir and prince Uffe the Meek killing two Saxons, but the majority of the Danes cherished heroes of the people such as the brave unknown army soldier celebrated in a 1858-statue and the little homblower from a bestselling verse epic. At the end of his life, Grundtvig continued to write poetry in Norse mythological terms, but apparently made no efforts to get his manuscripts printed - why is not known.Among the reasons to be suggested for the failure of Grundtvig’s Norse mythological imagery, the victorious ideas in Romantic 19. century poetry and arts pertaining to originality and individualism, the prominent place of traditional classical mythology in the minds of the cultured public, and the political emphasis in the mid century period on democratization are probably most decisive.Finally attention is given to the fact that the proverbial phrase about ’freedom to Loki as well as to Thor’, the only surviving popular dictum from Grundtvig’s Norse mythological writings, almost invariably is misunderstood to be a token of boundless tolerance to both parties in the struggle between good and evil. However, several instances can be mentioned to prove that Loki, mythologically half god, half giant, in Grundtvig’s understanding does not represent evil as much as a gifted intellectualism without religious faith, possessing potential to acquire it.An English version of the paper with less regard to quotes from unprinted Grundtvig manuscripts and more attention to introductory paragraphs on Danish literary history is published in Andrew Wawn (ed.): Northern Antiquity. The Post-Medieval Reception of Edda and Saga, Hisarlik Press, 1994, p. 41-67.
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Frog. "Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae III: From Metric-Structural Type to Compositional System." Studia Metrica et Poetica 2, no. 1 (July 7, 2015): 7–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2015.2.1.01.
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This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realised. This is the third part of a four-part series based on metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry as primary material. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. The study concentrates on two-element kennings meaning ‘battle’. The first part in this series introduced the approach to kennings as semantic formulae and illustrated their formulaicity through evidence of the preferred lexical choices with which they were realised. The second part presented a case study illustrating that preferred word choices could extend beyond the kenning to additional elements in the line like rhyme words. The third case study presented here concentrates on the potential for a formula of this type to develop a general preference for elements of the kenning to come from one semantic category rather than another without such choices being metrically motivated per se.
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Matyushina, Inna G. "ELEAZAR MELETINSKY'S RESEARCH OF OLD NORSE POETRY AND ITS RECEPTION IN MODERN SCHOLARSHIP." Folklore: structure, typology, semiotics 1, no. 1-2 (2018): 80–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2018-1-1-2-80-105.
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Price, Neil. "Passing into Poetry: Viking-Age Mortuary Drama and the Origins of Norse Mythology." Medieval Archaeology 54, no. 1 (November 2010): 123–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/174581710x12790370815779.
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عبدالله, علاء سید محمود, and Osama Abd EI-Fattah Madany. "Old Norse Influence in the Poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid and George Mackay Brown." مجلة بحوث کلیة الآداب . جامعة المنوفیة 13, no. 49 (April 1, 2002): 27–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.21608/sjam.2002.140602.
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Sayers, William. "Poetry in Fornaldarsögur, Margaret Clunies Ross, ed., 2 parts. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 8. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, 1076 pp." Mediaevistik 31, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 382. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/med012018_382.
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The Skaldic Editing Project, as it was familiarly called until print production began in 2007, is the most comprehensive editorial undertaking in medieval Scandinavian studies in many decades. Volume 8, here under review, is the fifth to see publication in the planned series of nine, and is devoted to skaldic verse (broadly understood) incorporated in various ways in the Old Norse-Icelandic tales of olden times (Fornaldarsögur). The general editor of the series, Margaret Clunies Ross (who has also edited this volume as well as the stanzas from several such sagas) has assembled an international team of 12 scholars, responsible for the editing and translation of 23 sets of stanzas and, as an addendum, the somewhat anomalous Skaufhala bálkr, a satirical poem about an old fox. An online version of the project, with the many enhancement available through current technology, is also in progress.
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Wills, Tarrin. "The Skaldic Project and Lexicon Poeticum." Revista de Poética Medieval 33 (December 31, 2019): 121–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.37536/rpm.2019.33.0.72461.
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This paper describes a digital project to edit the Old Norse poetic corpus known as skaldic poetry, composed between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. The Skaldic Project started in 1997 with the first editions published in 2007, and 75% of the corpus is now published in print and online. The long-term nature of the project, together with the complexities of the corpus and its manuscript and textual preservation, have meant that the digital resource has had a number of challenges to address. This article focuses on three of these challenges: the need to provide a large amount of material about the context of the poetry to contributors, including manuscript images; the need to provide an integrated editing and publication system capable of simultaneous updates by multiple editors and assistants; and instant digital access, online publication and a streamlined process for export for print publication. This article describes these processes and solutions, which encompass both human workflows as well as technical solutions. It demonstrates how the method adopted and data created has provided a foundation for further research projects based on the digital resource, including a lexicographic resource (Lexicon Poeticum) and an index of the complex diction of the corpus (Kenning Lexicon).
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Suzuki, Seiichi. "On the Emergent Trochaic Cadence / × in Old Norse Fornyrðislag Meter: Statistical and Comparative Perspectives." Journal of Germanic Linguistics 20, no. 1 (March 2008): 53–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542708000020.
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Through statistical and comparative investigations of eddic poetry, I show that Old Norse fornyrðislag meter is sharply distinguished from its West Germanic cognates by its strong preference for the trochaic cadence lift + drop in the b-verse. This unique feature is claimed to have induced the radical redistribution and reorganization of the major metrical types, types A, B, and C in fornyrðislag. Furthermore, I suggest that this favored cadence served as a basis for the fixed cadence of dróttkvætt meter by generalization and reanalysis.*
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Frog. "Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae II: Base-Word-Determinant Indexing." Studia Metrica et Poetica 1, no. 2 (December 31, 2014): 39–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2014.1.2.03.
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This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realised. This is the second part of a four-part series based on metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry as primary material. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. The first part in this series introduced the approach to kennings as semantic formulae and included an illustrative case study on kennings meaning ‘battle’ realising the last three metrical positions of a dróttkvætt line. This demonstrated that lexical variation in realising these formulae varied according to functional equivalence across semantic categories. The present case study advances this discussion through the examination of the metrical entanglement of the lexicon in realising the semantic formula. On the one hand, it presents evidence of the associative indexing of lexical items realising a battle-kenning of this particular metric-structural type: certain kenning base-words exhibit a preferred semantic category of determinant. On the other hand, it also presents evidence of the associative indexing of lexical items that are used for realising the metrically required rhyme in a position in the line that is outside of the semantic formula: certain kenning base-words exhibit co-occurrence with a particular rhyme-word.
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Lyby, Thorkild C. "Odin og Hvide Krist: Om Sune Aukens bog Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, København, 2005." Grundtvig-Studier 56, no. 1 (January 1, 2005): 144–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v56i1.16474.
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Odin og Hvide Krist: Om Sune Aukens bog Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, København, 2005[Odin and the White Christ: On Sune Auken ’s book Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, Copenhagen, 2005]By Thorkild C. LybyThe article gives a short account of Sune Auken’s published doctoral thesis, Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig [Saga’s mirror. Mythology, history and Christianity in N. F. S. Grundtvig] in which he investigates Gr’s preoccupation with Norse mythology and its relationship to history and Christianity. In Auken’s view Norse mythology during the years 1806-10 became something like an actual religion for Gr, a basis for an entire concept of life. As he could not give up traditional Christianity, he was forced to try to harmonise it with Christianity. In this attempt he failed, which was the main reason of his mental breakdown in 1810. After 1815 he did not work theoretically with the myths, but in his poetry they still played an important role. Not until 1832 was a sort of harmony established between his theoretical and his poetic relationship to the myths.Furthermore, the article gives a short account of the public examination on 3 June 2005, when Auken defended his thesis. The contributions of the different opponents at this occasion are mentioned.Finally, the author elaborates his own contribution as the third opponent. Two points are discussed: (a) What did Gr mean by the expression “the image of God”? (b) Is Auken’s view of Norse mythology as an alternative religion justified? Would it not be better to characterize it as “quasi-religious” than to label it “a religion”?
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Pentikäinen, Juha. "Child abandonment as an indicator of Christianization in the Nordic countries." Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 13 (January 1, 1990): 72–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67174.
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In the Nordic countries, child abandonment seems to have been a commonly accepted social tradition until the acceptance of Christianity. When Christian influences reached the Far North, this old practice was gradually criminalized. When the old practice was criminalized by Christian sanctions and norms, the abandoned, murdered or aborted unbaptized children were experienced supernaturally. Their supranormal manifestations are described in Nordic folk beliefs and narratives concerning dead children; in Old Norse sagas, Swedish and Norwegian provincial and ecclesiastical laws and in Finnish runic poetry, all stemming from the Middle Ages.
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Townend, Matthew. "Contextualizing the Knútsdrápur: skaldic praise-poetry at the court of Cnut." Anglo-Saxon England 30 (December 2001): 145–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263675101000072.
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It is generally recognized that during the reign of Cnut the Danish king's court came to represent the focal point for skaldic composition and patronage in the Norse-speaking world. According to the later Icelandic Skáldatal or ‘List of Poets’, no fewer than eight skalds were remembered as having composed for Cnut: Sigvatr Þórðarson, Óttarr svarti, Þórarinn loftunga, Hallvarðr háreksblesi, Bersi Torfuson, Steinn Skaptason, Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld, and Óðarkeptr. Comparing this list with the extant poetic remains, one arrives at the following collection of skaldic praise-poems (some fragmentary) in honour of Cnut: Sigvatr Þórðarson's Knútsdrápa; Óttarr svarti's Knútsdrápa; Hallvarðr háreksblesi's Knútsdrápa; Þórarinn loftunga's Ho˛fuðlausn and Tøgdrápa; and (probably) a fragment by Arnórr jarlaskáld. Of the other poets cited in Skáldatal, no verse in honour of Cnut is extant by Bersi Torfuson, and none at all by Steinn Skaptason and Óðarkeptr.
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Frank, Roberta. "A taste for knottiness: skaldic art at Cnut’s court." Anglo-Saxon England 47 (December 2018): 197–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263675119000048.
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AbstractDuring Cnut’s two decades on the throne, his English court was the most vibrant centre in the North for the production and performance of skaldic praise poetry. Icelandic poets composing for earlier Anglo-Saxon kings had focused on the predictive power of royal ‘speaking’ names: for example, Æthelstan (‘Noble-Rock’) and Æthelred (‘Noble-Counsel’). The name Cnut presented problems, vulnerable as it was to cross-linguistic gaffes and embarrassing associations. This article reviews the difficulties faced by Cnut’s skalds when referring in verse to their patron and the solutions they devised. Similar techniques were used when naming other figures in the king’s vicinity. The article concludes with a look at two cruces in an anonymous praise poem celebrating Cnut’s victory in battle in 1016/17 against the English. Both onomastic allusions — to a famed local hero and a female onlooker — seem to poke fun at the ‘colonial’ pronunciation of Danish names in Anglo-Scandinavian England. Norse court poetry was nothing if not a combative game.
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Ross, Margaret Clunies. "The Anglo-Saxon and NorseRune Poems: a comparative study." Anglo-Saxon England 19 (December 1990): 23–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263675100001587.
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It has been customary, since comparative scholarship in the field of Germanic literatures began, to explain perceived similarities between Old English and Old Norse poetry in terms of their derivation from common cultural roots and closely cognate languages. Similarities in the two poetic systems have been regarded as evidence of the conservation of ideas, figures of speech and poetic forms. Such similarities have then been used to reveal what the ‘original’ Germanic customs, ideas and literary expressions might have been before the various tribal groups dispersed to their historical medieval locations. This way of thinking assumes the persistence into early medieval times of archaic modes of thought and expression wherever cultural similarities are perceived. The Old English, Old Norwegian and IcelandicRune Poemshave usually been considered in this light. It is widely accepted that they reflect a shared cultural prototype. Moreover, their texts span a considerable period of time and yet show significant similarities. The Old EnglishRune Poemhas often been compared with its Scandinavian counterparts to reveal older forms of thought. Andreas Heusler offered a fairly typical assessment: ‘Die wenigen Anklänge an die nordischen Reihen … erklären sich unbedenklich aus einer alten Grundform der Wanderungszeit, als Angeln und Nordleute Nachbarn waren.’
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Neidorf, Leonard. "Speaker and authority in Old Norse wisdom poetry, Brittany ErinSchorn, BerlinDe Gruyter, 2017, x + 198 pp." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews 32, no. 1 (March 20, 2018): 67–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0895769x.2018.1436432.
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Jackson Williams, K. "Thomas Gray and the Goths: Philology, Poetry, and the Uses of the Norse Past in Eighteenth-Century England." Review of English Studies 65, no. 271 (March 28, 2014): 694–710. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/res/hgu024.
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Þorgeirsdóttir, Brynja. "The Head, the Heart, and the Breast: Bodily Conceptions of Emotion and Cognition in Old Norse Skaldic Poetry." Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 15 (January 2019): 29–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1484/j.vms.5.118630.
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Steponavičiūtė - Aleksiejūnienė, Ieva. "Dreaming the Hammer Back: On Teodoras Bieliackinas’s Translation of Þrymskviða." Scandinavistica Vilnensis, no. 14 (May 27, 2019): 61–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/scandinavisticavilnensis.2019.4.
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The paper deals with the legacy of Teodoras Bieliackinas (1907–1947), a Lithuanian exile in Iceland, the first Lithuanian professional Scandinavianist and the first translator of Eddic poetry into Lithuanian. With its background of the “biographical turn” in translation studies and with the help of the concept of “differential margin” proposed by Theo Hermans, the paper focuses on Bieliackinas’s rendition of Þrymskviða into Lithuanian. The aim is to trace the translator’s own ideological agenda, which appears to have been inscribed by him into the Old Norse song. It is claimed that the song about the loss and recovery of Thor’s hammer has been invested by Bieliackinas with a new – allegorical – meaning and can be read as a message of hope that Bieliackinas was sending to his countrymen who, like himself, were scattered around the world and mourned the loss of their state.
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Suzuki, Seiichi. "Metrical Positions and their Linguistic Realisations in Old Germanic Metres: A Typological Overview." Studia Metrica et Poetica 1, no. 2 (December 31, 2014): 9–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2014.1.2.02.
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This paper provides a typological account of Old Germanic metre by investigating its parametric variations that largely determine the metrical identities of the Old English Beowulf, the Old Saxon Heliand, and Old Norse eddic poetry (composed in fornyrðislag, málaháttr, or ljóðaháttr). The primary parameters to be explored here are the principle of four metrical positions per verse and the differing ways in which these constituent positions are aligned to linguistic material. On the one hand, the four-position principle works with a maximal strictness in Beowulf, and to a slightly lesser extent in fornyrðislag, whereas it allows for a wider range of deviations in verse size in the Heliand and ljóðaháttr. In málaháttr, however, the principle in itself gives way to the five-position counterpart. On the other hand, the variation in the metrical– linguistic alignment in the three close cognate metres may be generalised by positing the common scale, Heliand > Beowulf > fornyrðislag, for the decreasing likelihood of resolution, the increasing likelihood of suspending resolution, and the decreasing size of the drop.
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Fossat, Sissel Bjerrum, Lone Kølle Martinsen, and Jesper Lundsby Skov. "Kampen om kvinden. Begrebshistoriske perspektiver." Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, no. 4 (December 21, 2018): 18–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v27i4.111698.
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Contesting the concept of Woman: Perspectives from conceptual history.The main argument of this article is that the concept of kvinde (woman) was redefined in the 19th century in Denmark, and that it can be studied alongside other central concepts. Kvinde re-entered the Danish vocabulary as a universal term for woman not bound to social or marital status. Early romanticists such as Adam Oehlenschläger (1779-1850) and N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) used and disseminated sagas and myths from Old Norse mythology to re-conceptualize the concept of kvinde in romantic poetry. Gradually the concept of kvinde entered other spheres of society. The article seeks to present a framework for further studies, not only in the debates and themes proposed here, but also in relation to other gendered discussions of the 19th century. The article is a preliminary attempt to establish the concept of kvinde in a conceptual framework, arguing that the concept needs to be studied in more depth as central to the discussions of the 19th century
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Sayers, William. "Karin E. Olsen, Conceptualizing the Enemy in Early Northwest Europe: Metaphors of Conflict and Alterity in Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Early Irish Poetry. Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, 6. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2016, 260 pp." Mediaevistik 31, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 380–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/med012018_380.
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In this ambitious study Karin E. Olsen ranges far and wide in the early poetry of medieval Northwest Europe, far in the sense of incorporating the literary evidence from three adjacent but distinct cultures, wide in the sense of greatly expanding on the common notions of the enemy and conflict, often by making alterity one side of a conflictual situation. A uniform methodology seeks to encompass this sprawling investigative field, where ‘conceptual metaphor’ is a key heuristic term.
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Haarder, Andreas. "Det umuliges kunst." Grundtvig-Studier 37, no. 1 (January 1, 1985): 87–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v37i1.15945.
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The Art of the ImpossibleA Grundtvig Anthology. Selections from the writings of N. F. S. Grundtvig.Translated by Edward Broadbridge and Niels Lyhne Jensen.General Editor: Niels Lyhne Jensen. James Clarke, Cambridge & Centrum, Viby 1984.Reviewed by Professor Andreas Haarder, Odense UniversityHow can Grundtvig ever be translated? Professor Haarder considers it well-nigh impossible, which does not mean, however, that the attempt is not worth making. But he has some criticism of various things which need correcting for a later edition. In particular the translation of the words folkeh.jskole and Norden and the use of different terms for the same concept. He would prefer “folk high school” and “the North”, “Nordic” or “Norse”, and he thinks that the word “Scandinavia” should be avoided. The reason is that it is difficult to understand what a folk high school actually is, and that the Nordic past for Grundtvig included the English. The term “folk high school” is used elsewhere, for example in the Danish Institute’s book on Grundtvig. Professor Haarder praises the idea and the planning of the book, but he also notes too many printing errors and deficiencies in the notes.In Haarder’s opinion the most successful translations are of the sermons and the simplest songs. The selection from Norse Mythology reads well in English, which surprises him somewhat because of Grundtvig’s very intricate style. Some of that inspiration is missing from The School for Life, in both the original and the translation, but the text is pioneer work and worth including. As “a particular type of prose” he finds the extracts from Elementary Christian Teachings also readable in English. With regard to the poetry, he agrees with the editor that “It has not been Grundtvig’s good fortune to find a translator who combines a grasp of his vision with a gift of imagery matching his.” Andreas Haarder ends with a word of thanks for the step that has been taken with this anthology of Grundtvig in English.
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McDonald, Roderick. "Conceptualizing the Enemy in Early Northwest Europe: Metaphors of Conflict and Alterity in Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Early Irish Poetry by Karin E. Olsen." Parergon 34, no. 2 (2017): 244–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2017.0077.
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Egilsdóttir, Ásdís. "Kirsten Wolf and Natalie M. Van Deusen, The Saints in Old Norse and Early Modern Icelandic Poetry. (Toronto Old Norse-Icelandic Series.) Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 2017. Pp. xi, 363. $95. ISBN: 978-1-4875-0074-0." Speculum 95, no. 2 (April 1, 2020): 632–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/708039.
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Heslop, Kate. "Sandra Baliff Straubhaar, Old Norse Women's Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds. (The Library of Medieval Women.) Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2011. Pp. xi, 145. $99. ISBN: 9781843842712." Speculum 88, no. 2 (April 2013): 589–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0038713413001395.
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Classen, Albrecht. "A Handbook to Eddic Poetry: Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia, ed. Carolyne Larrington, Judy Quinn, and Brittany Schorn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, xii, 413 pp., 12 b/w ill." Mediaevistik 31, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 366. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/med012018_366.
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Eddic poetry constitutes one of the most important genres in Old Norse or Scandinavian literature and has been studied since the earliest time of modern-day philology. The progress we have made in that field is impressive, considering the many excellent editions and translations, not to mention the countless critical studies in monographs and articles. Nevertheless, there is always a great need to revisit, to summarize, to review, and to digest the knowledge gained so far. The present handbook intends to address all those goals and does so, to spell it out right away, exceedingly well. But in contrast to traditional concepts, the individual contributions constitute fully developed critical article, each with a specialized topic elucidating it as comprehensively as possible, and concluding with a section of notes. Those are kept very brief, but the volume rounds it all off with an inclusive, comprehensive bibliography. And there is also a very useful index at the end. At the beginning, we find, following the table of contents, a list of the contributors, unfortunately without emails, a list of translations and abbreviations of the titles of Eddic poems in the Codex Regius and then elsewhere, and a very insightful and pleasant introduction by Carolyne Larrington. She briefly introduces the genre and then summarizes the essential points made by the individual authors. The entire volume is based on the Eddic Network established by the three editors in 2012, and on two workshops held at St. John’s College, Oxford in 2013 and 2014.
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Kamitova, A. V. "“I SPEAK A NOISE OF A DEEP TAIGA”: THE BACKGROUND OF KUZEBAY GERD'S POETRY TRANSLATIONS." Bulletin of Udmurt University. Series History and Philology 29, no. 5 (October 25, 2019): 859–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.35634/2412-9534-2019-29-5-859-865.
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For the first time ever, the history of poetry translations of the Udmurt literature classics of Kuzebay Gerd into other languages has been classified and arranged in chronological order. After collection and classification of the materials, the facts have been established that allow us to speak about both the earliest and most recent translations of his poetry. The names of those who appealed to the translations and the languages into which they translated the poems have been revealed. The examples of how other cultures perceive Gerd’s lyric poetry could be a helpful basis for further analysis of poetry translation. The performed study may facilitate understanding which poetic texts of Kuzebay Gerd were translated into other languages and specifying main sources of translators’ interest in his poetry etc.
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Nielsen, Vilhelm. "Myter og mundtlighed." Grundtvig-Studier 37, no. 1 (January 1, 1985): 79–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v37i1.15943.
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Myths and Word of MouthJens Peter Ægidius: Braga Talks, Norse Myths and Narrative Myths in the Danish Tradition (to 1910). Odense 1985.Reviewed by Vilhelm NielsenThe title Braga Talks is taken from Grundtvig, who in 1843-44 gave 25 lectures under this heading; these are treated in detail by Ægidius. The phrase has since been misunderstood, however, and misused to mean words without content or basis in reality. Braga, the god of poetry, has been forgotten and the emphasis has been transferred to the word talk. The title of this book expresses a slipping from the mythology itself into its narrative reproduction. While working on the preface and the introduction to Norse Mythology (1832) Grundtvig made the discovery (as Thaning has proved) that myths are oral. This was one of the slow discoveries he made, and could have been made the main theme of this book, which says little that is new about Grundtvig’s use of his sources. It does, however, offer a great deal on the narrative tradition in use at the grundtvigian folk high schools, which has been revived in this century by Aage Møller, a clergyman and high school teacher. Unfortunately this phase has not been treated, as the book stops at 1910. Ægidius has, however, included Ludvig Christian Møller, the narrative historian, who was Grundtvig’s disciple and who even before him gave historical talks for both men and women at Borch’s hostel in the 1830s. His narration of myths and legends was only his introduction to narratives from medieval history. The other major characters in Ægidius’ book are Christian Flor and Ludvig Schrøder. Flor was originally Professor of Danish at Kiel but became principal of the first Danish folk high school at Rødding in 1844. Schr.der became principal of Askov folk high school, which from 1864 onwards carried the stamp of his personality. Ægidius claims, and the reviewer underlines this new information, that Schrøder did not give up teaching the myths, even though from 1884 onwards he went on to talk about Denmark’s natural resources. Unfortunately we have only comprehensive notes to the lectures but no myth narratives in written form from his side. His lectures on myth were apparently not the same from year to year, but they were wellprepared and reformulated every time, a necessary precondition for their being both “animated” and mythically “sound”, not in fact lectures but “proper stories”, as Grundtvig says in 1838. The reviewer looks forward to a continuation of the book to include an assessment of Aage Møller’s attempt to revive the tradition — and possibly as a guideline for the most recent trends.
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Gorelov, Oleg S. "SURREALISATION OF SOUND: MUSICALITY, AUDIAL CULTURE AND SOUND IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN POETRY (VADIM BANNIKOV, VASILIY BORODIN, NIKITA SAFONOV)." Vestnik of Kostroma State University, no. 3 (2020): 187–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2020-26-3-187-193.
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The article discusses modern poetic practices that actualize the surrealistic code through a sound medium. Vadim Bannikov with the help of spontaneous sampling of material (figurative and verbal) brings sound and auditory constants to surrealistic editing and metamorphosis. His “asemantic poetry” reveals the collaged polyphony of the Sprechgesang, forcing to reconsider the non-musicality of classical surrealism. Vasiliy Borodin’s auditory asemic letter becomes a solution to the poetry task of “moving away from words” formulated by the poet himself, but in a surrealist context; this turns out to be a new stage in objectification of the code. If Vadim Bannikov’s automatism frees the subject, the surrealisation of Vasiliy Borodin frees the very musicality and audial culture (possibly “to the detriment” of poetry). The third alternative way to work with sound is offered by Nikita Safonov’s poetic practice. A general deterritorialisation of sound takes place in it, the sounding is freed through the objectification of sound, freed from the human as well. The sound landscape on equal terms includes silence (zero state of sound), the sounds themselves in their materiality and noise. The noise, understood as an empty sign, actualises the mathematical in sound. In the surrealist code, therefore, mathematics and abstraction become an important condition for further private implementations of surrealistic thought and aesthetics.
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Meylan, Nicolas. "Andrew McGillivray, Influences of Pre-Christian Mythology and Christianity on Old Norse Poetry: A Narrative Study of “Vafþrúðnismál.” (Northern Medieval World.) Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018. Pp. x, 217. $89.99. ISBN: 978-1-5804-4336-4." Speculum 96, no. 4 (October 1, 2021): 1205–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/716444.
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김진희. "The Temporal Structure of Yeoldudal-norae [Song of Twelve Months] Compared to Dongdong." Korean Classical Poetry Studies 40, no. ll (May 2016): 33–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.32428/poetry.40..201605.33.
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Michelsen, William. "Om Grundtvigdebatten med svar til mine kritikere." Grundtvig-Studier 43, no. 1 (January 1, 1992): 97–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/grs.v43i1.16078.
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About the Grundtvig Debate, with Answers to my CriticsBy William MichelsenThis article has been written from the general principle that a distinction must be made between ascertaining what Grundtvig wrote in poetry or prose, and the individual scholars’ personal (existential) attitudes to it, even though such attitudes will inevitably colour their mode of expression. The essential thing is to maintain the fundamentally objective attitude as crucial to research. Kim Arne Pedersen's »Hermeneutic Reflections« in »Grundtvig Studier«, 1991, on the articles in Grundtvig’s »Danne-Virke«, 1816-19, consist by and large in an excellent summary of my introductions to these articles. The English summary, however, claims that it was his intention to give »a new interpretation« of these articles. As a matter of fact, the main view in his interpretation is the same as that taken by Henning Høirup in his thesis »Grundtvig’s view of faith and cognition« from 1949, viz. that Grundtvig’s thinking is influenced by the philosophy which he had learned at the University of Copenhagen, and which mainly reflected Leibniz and Wolff, while not including Kant’s philosophy. - However, Kim Arne Pedersen claims himself that he is »fascinated« by the post-Kantian idealistic philosophy, thus siding with Grundtvig’s contemporaries.He is right, of course, that this is an existential question. I can only answer that as far as I myself am concerned. I do not consider it possible to combine pre-Kantian thinking with a post-Kantian philosophy of idealism. In fact, I do not believe it is at all possible to combine the Christian faith or a Christian view of life with an idealistic philosophy.I think I have learned this from Grundtvig whom I regard as the best guide I know, if - that is true - the development that he underwent through his lifetime is carefully followed. A religion which builds its truth on a philosophy of one kind or the other, is no genuine religion. It will collapse the moment this philosophy is contradicted by reality. In his »Prospect of the World Chronicle« 1817, Grundtvig writes about Leibniz referring to his Theodic.: »..Pillars may collapse, and what rests on them totters, when they are shaken; thus also a disciple of Leibniz nearly tore them down before they had been erected, and this disciple, who meant to surpass his master by tearing down the Church and building a world on the remains, was, as is well-known, nobody else but Christian Wolff from Breslau« (p.409).With these words in mind, it seems impossible to me to regard Grundtvig as only a pupil of Leibniz and Wolff, though his teacher in philosophy undeniably was. The only contemporary thinker that absorbed Grundtvig for a short time, was Schelling. Grundtvig’s relationship to him has been discussed in C.I. Scharling’s book »Grundtvig and Romanticism« (1947), which was reviewed by me in Grundtvig Studier 1948. The book is important because it definitely refutes the view claimed by Edvard Lehmann in 1931, viz. that Grundtvig was actually a pupil of Schelling, and thus a philosophical idealist. But, as does Grundtvig himself, Scharling points out that even after 1810 Grundtvig could give credit to Schelling where he found he was right.As a literary historian with the methodology of the history of ideas as the foundation for my work, I must of course record these essential prerequisites for Grundtvig’s thinking and writings. My overall approach is this: What was the peculiar character of Grundtvig’s work and thought? From such an approach it seems to me quite reasonable that in my discussion of the manuscript »Grenzen der Menschheit« I distinguish between what Grundtvig accepts in Schelling, and what as a Christian he must reject.Grundtvig’s relationship to Kant depends on what he has read from him, and when he read it. He does not enter into a philosophical critique of Kant, of whom he had shown unreserved recognition in »Brief View of the World Chronicle« 1812. He confines himself to proposing an alternative to Kant’s philosophy, which, it is true, is founded on pre-Kantian philosophy, but at the same time - and this is crucial - in the faith in the Almighty Trinity who allows of no selfcontradiction, and whose power Grundtvig thought, as late as 1817, could be demonstrated through the course of world history.As long as Grundtvig only knew Kant’s philosophy of religion, i.e., in 1812, he thought that the reservation implied in the title, »Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blo.en Vernunft« was enough to ensure that faith did not succumb to reason. When, in 1815, he read »Die Kritik der reinen Vernunft« he understood that faith had succumbed to reason, that man’s limitation had been exceeded, and that the maxim of contradiction had been reduced to a rule of formal logic. That is why his evaluation of Kant, in the World Chronicle of 1817, turns out to be very different.The intention of my article in Grundtvig Studier 1991 about .The Way from Force to Freedom in Grundtvig’s Life and Writings. was not to contradict Kaj Thanings thesis »Man first... « (1963), as it is claimed in the »Reply«, preceeding the present article. My approach in that article was a different one from Thaning’s; hence the difference in the treatment of the same texts which anyone can see, and which it would be absurd of me to deny. We see the texts from different points of view, and that is why they look different.In the view of both Thaning and myself, the watershed in Grundtvig’s body of work is .Norse Mythology., 1832. What I have added is the essential explanation of why this is so, viz. that after becoming a clergyman in 1811, Grundtvig found himself compelled to dissociate himself from the view that had taken him back to a religious view of life in the first place, namely Norse mythology. Thaning is right in claiming that it was internal causes that led to the ruptures that occurred in Grundtvig’s development. But they were provoked by external circumstances. I am not just referring to his parents’ demands on him in 1810, but also to the demands of the State Church on anyone who is a clergyman.I agree with Thaning that the relation between human life and Christianity was the main problem in Grundtvig’s life. When one is a clergyman, this relation becomes a theological problem, which it does not necessarily have to be if one is not a clergyman. I would describe what happened in Grundtvig’s life in 1832 like this: »The scales fell from Grundtvig’s eyes when he decided to write his new Norse Mythology«. He now dared to write that book without being afraid of losing his Christianity in doing so. He was free and could freely accept becoming a vicar to a congregation that wanted him. He was free to describe Norse mythology as a language of symbols which lent itself to historical explanation and to poetical consideration, without, in so doing, making it into his religion. The essential thing, in my view, is that he had given up wanting to demonstrate the truth of Christianity by means of history. Christianity remains a faith which is inextricably bound up with the Mosaic-Christian view, which is therefore the »only divine, true, and eternal one«. This new attitude depends on his discovery that faith must be a free matter if it is to be honest and true at all.In my opinion, it is no weakness to admit the justification of other views than one’s own. It is a prerequisite for cooperation and team-work.
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Hesk, Jon. "Homeric Flyting and How to Read It: Performance and Intratext in Iliad 20.83-109 and 20.178-258." Ramus 35, no. 1 (2006): 4–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0048671x00000904.
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TheIliadandOdysseyare replete with single speeches or exchanges of speech which are described by the noun νεῖκος (‘quarrel’, ‘strife’) or its derived verb νεικέω. Some time ago, A.W.H. Adkins showed that νεῖκος and νεικείω are used in Homer to designate various kinds of agonistic discourse: threats, rebukes, insults, quarrels and judicial disputes. Critics often now describe νεῖκος-speeches and νεῖκος-exchanges in theIliadas examples of ‘flyting’. This term, shared by the languages of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse and the dialect of Old Scots, is transferred to the combination of boasting, invective and threats which Homeric heroes hurl at each other. This is because Iliadic νεῖκος has affinities with the traditional and highly stylised verbal exchanges which take place in the feasting halls and battles depicted in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Germanic heroic poetry.In his bookThe Language of HeroesRichard Martin has argued persuasively that the flyting νεῖκος is a significant speech-act genre performed by Homeric characters and that its competitive mode is analogous to the Homeric poet's poetic projecttout court. Just as Homer produces a monumental epic whose focus on Achilles may well be competitive with other renderings of epic tradition and is certainly derived through the manipulation of memory, Homeric heroes and gods flyte by manipulating and contesting the resources of memory. The best Homeric flyting is creatively poetic within existing conventions or strategies and is thereby rhetorically devastating. And Martin sees Achilles as the best flyter because he rhetorically manipulates memory better than any other hero. Thus, the hero is like his poet and the poet is like his hero. Achilles' competitive way with words is unique in (and to) theIliadand is emblematic of Homer's overpowering competitive poetic achievement.
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Šuplinska, Ilga. "FUNCTIONS OF PERSONAL NAMES IN LATEST LATVIAN POETRY." Via Latgalica, no. 1 (December 31, 2008): 130. http://dx.doi.org/10.17770/latg2008.1.1596.
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In the period of postmodern culture, a lot of importance is attributed to mythological thinking and to the decoding of myths and current cultural signs. Therefore, the use of „talking” personal names which are perceived symbolically becomes relevant. As semiotic research points out: „For the mythological conscience it is common to see the world as a book, where cognition equals reading, which is based on the mechanisms of decoding and identification”. (Lotmans, Uspenskis 1993: 35) That means that for a better comprehension of prose, also in postmodern texts one has to pay attention to the choice of personal names, their frequency, and the presence and characteristics of cultural connotations. Bearing in mind that features of postmodern texts are the disregard of genre borders and marginalism, it can hypothetically be assumed that similar attitudes towards the use of personal names can be found in poetry. However, considering both recent studies of personal names and of poetry, it is possible to conclude that poetry pays little attention to the studies of personal names. Personal names are not very common in poetic texts, and poets use them quite precautiously (unless they link it to the tendencies within postmodernism as mentioned above). The objective of this article is to describe the functionality of personal names in latest Latvian poetry. The methodological basis of the work was obtained by studying the works of semioticians (R. Jakobson, Y. Lotman, B. Uspenskiy, Y. Levin, etc,), using the practical experience of philological text analysis (O. Nikolina, J. Kazarin), as well as by studying the attitudes of particular authors towards personal names (V. Rudnev, P. Florensky, A. Losev, G. Frege). The sources for the research for this article were anthologies of four young poetesses who were born in the 1970s and made their debut at the turn of the century, from which anthroponyms where taken for description: Inga Gaile’s „Laiks bija iemīlējies” (Time was in love, 1999) and „Kūku Marija” (Pastry Maria, 2007), Andra Menfelde’s „tranšejas dievi rok” (Gods dig trenches, 2005), Liga Rundane’s „Leluos atlaidys” (Great absolution, 2004), and Agita Draguna’s „prāts” (Mind, 2004). When analyzing the expressions of personal name in these anthologies, and thereby looking for mutual interconnections both within one anthology and from a comparative angle, a cultural sight of the generation born in the 70s (or at least of the „reading” intellectual part of that generation) could be identified. It turns out that the frequency and the uniformity/diversity of the usage of personal names can reveal tendencies of a particular trend. Clear spatial and associative semantic borders are revealed in the poetry of Agita Draguna and Liga Rundane, although it should be mentioned that personal names are very rarely used in the poetry. In contrast, the poetry of Inga Gaile and Andra Manfelde features a diversity of personal names, a tendency of appellativization, and a variety of interpretations of personal names. In the poetry of L. Rundane and A. Draguna it is possible to distinguish groups of personal names which unequivocally reveal the existence of their worlds, and mark the values of the lyrics. In the poetry of these authors two groups of personal names can be distinguished: 1) Poets: Andryvs Yurdzhs, Rainis, Oskars Seiksts (in the poetry of L. Rundane), Anthony McCann, Fjodor Tjutchev, Omar Hayam, Arseny Tarkovsky (in the poetry of A. Draguna) 2) Mythical characters: Shiva, Isida, Zuhra, Djemshid (in the poetry of A. Draguna), Virgin Mary (Jumprova Marija, in the poetry of L. Rundane). In the poetry of L. Rundane, one’s world has a Latgalian identity. In contrast, in the poetry of A. Draguna the world is more sought for, whereas one’s values seem to come from Eastern concepts of the mind and the meaning of a human life. In the poetry of I. Gaile and A. Manfelde the use of a personal name is aimed at: - marking one’s space, but unlike in the poetry of the authors mentioned above, it is full of doubts and controversies not only on the emotional level, but also regarding the values that one is looking for. Therefore personal names serve to reveal these controversies, not just to acknowledge one’s space; - a self-extinguishment of personal names and their change into simulacra, - or the process of mythologization of everyday life. It can be concluded that the limited use of personal names, of separate names, and of phrases which start with a capital letter, such as the lack of persistence in changing pronouns and generic names into the status of personal names (Miracle, You, Father of Noise, etc), proves the intensity of the perception of the mythical world, an expression paradigm common for postmodernism. (L. Rundane, A. Draguna). The relatively free and manifold use of personal names, their changes into generic names (contextual appellativization), the quest for general notions (lexical meanings), and the desire to create them (Barbie, harlequin, Aivazovsky, Lennon, Tanya, etc.) on the one hand create sumulacra, and on the other hand emphasize a mythologization of everyday life and the possibilities of its use in literary texts (through the use of figures or palimpsests).