Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts
Cambridge, 2017
Authors throughout history have relied on the emotional make-up of their readers and audiences to make sense of the behaviours and actions of fictive characters. But how can a narrative voice contained in a text evoke feelings that are ultimately never real or actual, but a figment of a text, a fictive reality created out of words? How does one reconcile interiority – a presumed modern conceptualisation – with medieval emotionality? The volume seeks to address these questions. It positions itself within the larger context of the history of emotion, offering a novel approach to the study of literary representations of emotionality and its staging through voice, performativity and narrative manipulation, probing how emotions are encoded in texts. The author argues that the deceptively laconic portrayal of emotion in the Icelandic sagas and other literature reveals an emotive script that favours reticence over expressivity and exposes a narrative convention of emotional subterfuge through narrative silences and the masking of emotion. Focusing on the ambivalent borders between prose and poetic language, she suggests that poetic vocalisation may provide a literary space within which emotive interiority can be expressed. The volume considers a wide range of Old Norse materials – from translated romances through Eddic poetry and Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders) to indigenous romance.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2012
Á miðöldum bárust textar ritaðir á frönsku – til að mynda hetjuljóð, riddarasögur, verk Chrétien de Troyes og Marie de France – viðs vegar um Norðvestur-Evrópu. Þessi útbreiðsla franskrar riddarahefðar ber vitni um stórtæka menningarlega yfirfærslu sem hafði áhrif á bókmenntahefðir og hugmyndafræði víðs vegar um Evrópu. Í þýðingaferlinu var þessum textum oft umbylt til að endurspegla hugmyndafræði eða hefðir þess menningarheims sem tók við þeim.
Í bókinni Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse er því haldið fram að líta megi á slíkar þýðingar sem átakasvæði menningarstrauma eða sem vettvang slíkra menningarmarka og að þær geti því veitt okkur einstaka innsýn í mótun og þróun menningarlegrar sjálfsmyndar og hlutverk móðurtungunnar í því ferli. Með rannsóknum á þýðingaferli og þeim menningarfræðilegu, pólitísku og jafnvel kynjafræðilegu ástæðum sem liggja að baki innflutningi og endursköpun texta á þjóðtungum má greina ákveðin mynstur í þeim flókna vef sem einkennir menningarleg samskipti og ágreining. Slík nálgun beinir athyglinni að krosstengslum mála- og menningarsvæða Evrópu á miðöldum og afhjúpar þau djúpstæðu menningarlegu átök og umbreytingar sem felast í bókmenntasköpun jafnt nú sem áður.
Medieval Translation and Cultural Discourse: The Movement of Texts in England, France and Scandinavia (Cambridge, 2012)
Throughout the middle ages, many Francophone texts – chansons de geste, medieval romance, works by Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France – were widely translated in north-western Europe. In the process, these texts were frequently transformed to reflect the new cultures in which they appeared. This book argues that such translations, prime sites for cultural movement and encounters, provide a rich opportunity to study linguistic and cultural identity both in and through time. Via a close comparison of a number of these texts, examining the various modifications made, and drawing on a number of critical discourses ranging from post-colonial criticism to translation theory, the author explores the complexities of cultural dialogue and dissent. This approach both recognises and foregrounds the complex matrix of influence, resistance and transformations within the languages and cultural traditions of medieval Europe, revealing the undercurrents of cultural conflict apparent in medieval textuality.
Read the introduction here: rikhardsdottir-introduction!
Medieval Translations on Boydell & Brewer
Medieval Translations on Amazon
A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre, edited by Massimiliano Bampi, Carolyne Larrington and Sif Rikhardsdottir, Studies in Old Norse Literature, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer (forthcoming July 2020)
Charlemagne in the Norse and Celtic Worlds, edited by Helen Fulton and Sif Rikhardsdottir, Boydell & Brewer (forthcoming) (link to project description)
Partonope of Blois, edited by David Lawton and Sif Rikhardsdottir, TEAMS Middle English Text Series, Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications (in progress)
Arthur of the North: Histories, Emotions and Imaginations, Special Issue of Scandinavian Studies 87.1 (2015), edited by Bjørn Bandlien, Stefka G. Eriksen and Sif Rikhardsdottir (See excerpt on Project Muse)
Fræðinæmi, edited by Ármann Jakobsson, Gunnvör S. Karlsdóttir, Sif Rikhardsdottir and Torfi H. Tulinius, Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2016
Articles and Book Chapters
‘Oceanic Networks: Literary Production, Transmission and Mediation Across the North’, in The Meaning of Media: Medieval Scandinavian Text Culture from Epigraphy to Typography, edited by Anna Catherina Horn and Karl G. Johansson, Modes of Modification I (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, forthcoming 2020)
‘Hybridity’, in A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre, edited by Massimiliano Bampi, Carolyne Larrington and Sif Rikhardsdottir, Studies in Old Norse Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, forthcoming 2020)
‘The Norse Roland in Context’, in Charlemagne in the Norse and Celtic Realms, edited by Helen Fulton and Sif Rikhardsdottir (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, forthcoming)
‘Menningarstraumar og menningararfur frá Vǫluspá til Partalopa sögu‘ [Cultural Influences and Cultural Heritage from Vǫluspá to Partalopa sögu], in Vǫluspá: Norrænn Dómsdagur, edited by Pétur Pétursson and Þórhallur Eyþórsson, Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag (under contract, forthcoming)
‘The Margins of Literary History: Sagas, Eddic Poetry and World Literature’, in A Companion to World Literature, gen. ed. Ken Seigneurie, vol. II: 601 CE-1450 CE, edited by Christine Chism (Blackwell-Wiley, 2020)
‘Empire of Emotion: The Formation of Emotive Literary Identities and Mentalities in the North’, in Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages, edited by Aisling Byrne and Victoria Flood, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe 30, Turnhaut: Brepols, 2019, 189-210
‘The Phantom of Romance: Traces of Romance Transmission and the Question of Originality’, in Medieval Romance Across European Borders, edited by Miriam Muth, Medieval Narratives in Transmission 1, Turnhaut: Brepols, 2018, 133-51
‘Chronology, Anachronism and Translatio Imperii’, in Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur’s Court in Medieval European Literature, edited by Johnny McFadyen and Leah Tether, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017, 135-49
‘Medieval Emotionality: The Feeling Subject in Medieval Literature’, Comparative Literature 69.1 (2017), 74-90
‘Translating Emotion: Vocalisation and Embodiment in Yvain and Ívens saga’, Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature: Body, Mind, Voice, edited by Frank Brandsma, Carolyne Larrington and Corinne Saunders, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2015, 161-79 (Rikhardsdottir-Translating Emotion 2015)
Sif Rikhardsdottir, Bjørn Bandlien and Stefka G. Eriksen, ‘Arthur of the North: Histories, Emotions, and Imaginations,’ Scandinavian Studies 87.1 (2015), 1-7 (Arthur of the North-Histories Emotions and Imaginations)
‘The Gawain Poet’, in Oxford Handbooks Online, ed. James Simpson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, October 2014, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.94 (Rikhardsdottir-The Gawain Poet 2014)
Sif Rikhardsdottir and Stefka G. Eriksen, ‘État présent: Arthurian Literature in the North’, Journal of the International Arthurian Society 1.1 (2013), 3-28 (Rikhardsdottir and Eriksen-État présent Arthur of the North)
‘Hugræn fræði, tilfinningar og miðaldir’ [Cognitive Studies, Emotions and the Middle Ages] Ritið 3 (2012), 67-89. Special Issue on Cognitive Studies, edited by Þórhallur Eyþórsson and Bergljót Kristjánsdóttir (Rikhardsdottir-Hugræn fræði tilfinningar og miðaldir)
‘Meykóngahefðin í riddarasögum. Hugmyndafræðileg átök um kynhlutverk og þjóðfélagsstöð’ [The Maiden King Tradition in Icelandic Romance. Ideological Conflict regarding Gender Roles and Social Positioning] Skírnir 184 (haust 2010), 410-33 (Rikhardsdottir-Meykóngahefðin í riddarasögum)
‘The Imperial Implications of Medieval Translations. A Comparative Analysis of the Old Norse and Middle English Versions of Marie de France´s Lais’, Studies in Philology 105.2 (2008), 144-64 (Rikhardsdottir-Imperial Implications of Medieval Translations)
‘Fragments of Danish History. A Translation of Danasaga Arngríms lærða’, American Notes and Queries 20.1 (2007), 1-33. Translation project in collaboration with Clarence Miller and Paul Acker
‘Bound by Culture. A Comparative Study of the Old French and Old Norse Versions of La Chanson de Roland’, Mediaevalia 26.2 (2005), 243-64. Special Issue: Translation in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: The Survival of Culture, edited by Marilyn Gaddis Rose (Rikhardsdottir-Bound by Culture)
Reviews
Review of Middle English Marvels: Magic, Spectacle, and Morality in the Fourteenth Century, by Tara Williams, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer 41 (2018), 516-20
Review of The Bookish Riddarasögur: Writing Romancer in Late Medieval Iceland, by Geraldine Barnes, in Saga-Book XXXIX (2015), 115-18
Review of Francia et Germania: Studies in Strengleikar and Þiðreks saga af Bern, edited by Karl G. Johansson and Rune Flaten, in Saga-Book XXXVIII (2014), 147-9
Review of Chaucer in Denmark: A Study of the Translation and Reception History 1782-2012, by Ebbe Klitgård, in Medieval Review (2014)
Review of Affective Literacies: Writing and Multilingualism in the Late Middle Ages, by Mark Amsler, in JEGP 113.2 (2014), 234-7
Review of The Arthur of the North. The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus’ Realms, edited by Marianne E. Kalinke, in Medieval Review (2012)
Review of Tiodielis saga, edited by Tove Hovn Ohlsson, in European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 42.1 (2012), 90-2
Reviews of Emotion in Old Norse Literature in The Medieval Review (2018) by Melissa Elmes; Comitatus 49 (2018) by Anne Le; JEGP 118.2 (2019) by Kirsten Wolf; Parergon 36.1 (2019) by Matthew Firth; Speculum 94.4 (2019) by Gareth Lloyd Evans.
Reviews of Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse in Translation and Literature 24.1 (2015) by Jane Griffiths, Saga-Book 38 (2014) by Erin Goeres, French Studies 67.2 (2013) by Keith Busby, Medium Aevum 82.1 (2013) by Carolyne Larrington, SAC 35 (2013) by Geraldine Barnes, Arthuriana 23.4 (2013) by Matthieu Boyd, Zeitschrift für deutsches Althertum 142.3 (2013) by Erich Poppe, Comparative Critical Studies 10.3 (2013) by Elizabeth Boyle, Speculum 88.1 (2013) by Suzanne Marti, Scripta Islandica 64 (2013) by Lars Wollin, JEGP 111.4 (2012) by Marianne Kalinke, The Medieval Review (2012) by Torfi Tulinius, BiblioBuffet (2012) by Gillian Polack.
