What Am I? Riddles, Riddling Language and World View in Old Norse Poetry

描述世界和理解我们在其中的位置一直是人类关注的主要问题之一。谜语在今天看来可能只不过是一种有趣的消遣，但它们是早期社会与世界及其在其中的位置达成协议的重要方式。在科学发达的今天，人们很容易低估早期社会解决重大本体论问题的方法的重要性，并忘记他们对我们自己的文化遗产所留下的遗产。该项目通过对古挪威诗歌，特别是其谜语和谜语语言的研究，为中世纪斯堪的纳维亚的多重世界观提供了新的理解。谜语可以带来深刻的惊奇和顽皮的快乐。他们提供不熟悉和认可。在创造和解决悖论的过程中，它们是一种特别合适的媒介，可以用来概括我们对环境的复杂和潜在冲突的体验、情感和想法的多样性。谜语和谜语语言是古挪威诗歌的基础，它利用悖论、幽默、神秘和不协调的潜力来描述世界。这不仅适用于传奇传奇《Hervarar saga ok Heidreks》（Hervör and Heidrekr的传奇）中包含的谜语语料库，也适用于《诗社Edda》中的神话和英雄诗歌，以及描述斯堪的纳维亚传奇过去的散文文本中的eddic诗歌，以及大量宫廷skaldic诗歌语料库。这些材料是中世纪斯堪的纳维亚人如何看待自然世界以及思考他们与自然的关系的丰富信息来源。它沉浸在本土传统中，但也向外开放，接受欧洲的影响，因为诗人和他们的听众在世界上协商存在的方式。这个项目有五个主要目标。首先，它将提供对古斯堪的纳维亚语谜语语料库的第一次详细研究。其次，它将调查古挪威诗歌中无处不在的谜语策略，无论是eddic还是skaldic，旨在提供对古挪威诗歌文化的更全面的理解，而不是在这两种“流派”之间保持尖锐的分歧。第三，它将有助于理解中世纪斯堪的纳维亚人复杂的世界观，特别是考虑他们对自然环境和物质对象的反应和相互作用。第四，它将发展诗歌使用变化的知识，特别是谜语诗和文字游戏，在前现代世界。最后，它将吸引学生、创意作家、环保机构、第三部门和其他人通过“维京”和当代的眼光探索自然世界。古挪威文学、文化和神话仍然是我们文化遗产的重要组成部分。我们着迷于历史频道的《维京人》、漫威漫画的《雷神》和托尔金的《霍比特人》（其中的谜语场景，在彼得·杰克逊最近的电影三部曲的第一部中很突出，灵感来自古挪威神话Hervör和Heidrekr中的一个谜语比赛）。这个项目将使中世纪冰岛和斯堪的纳维亚的艺术和文学努力更接近我们对维京人和中世纪世界的思考的最前沿。

Describing the world and understanding our place in it has always been one of the major preoccupations of humanity. Riddles may seem little more than an amusing distraction today, but they were a crucial way in which earlier societies came to terms with the world and their place in it. In today's scientifically advanced world it is easy to underestimate the importance of earlier societies' means of grappling with big ontological questions, and to forget the legacy they have had on our own cultural heritage. This project offers a new understanding of the multivalent medieval Scandinavian world view, achieved through a study of Old Norse poetry, in particular its riddles and riddling language.Riddles allow for profound wonder and for mischievous delight. They offer unfamiliarity and recognition. In creating and resolving paradoxes, they are a particularly suitable medium with which to encapsulate the multiplicity of complex and potentially conflicting experiences, emotions, and thoughts we have about our environments. Riddles and riddling language are fundamental to Old Norse poetry, which capitalises on the potential of paradox, humour, mystery, and incongruity to describe the world. This is true not only of the corpus of riddles proper contained in the legendary saga Hervarar saga ok Heidreks ('The saga of Hervör and Heidrekr'), but of the mythological and heroic poems of the Poetic Edda, eddic poetry found in prose texts describing Scandinavia's legendary past, and the huge corpus of court skaldic poetry. This material is a rich source of information on how medieval Scandinavians saw the natural world and thought about their relation to it. It is steeped in native tradition, but is also outward-looking and open to European influence as poets and their audiences negotiated ways of being in the world.This project has five major objectives. First, it will provide the first detailed study of the Old Norse riddle-corpus. Second, it will investigate the riddling strategies to be found everywhere in Old Norse poetry, both eddic and skaldic, aiming to provide a more holistic understanding of Old Norse poetic culture that does not maintain a sharp divide between these two 'genres'. Third, it will contribute to understanding the complex world views of medieval Scandinavians, considering especially their responses to and interactions with the natural environment and material objects. Fourth, it will develop knowledge of the changing uses of poetry, particularly riddling poetry and wordplay, in the pre-modern world. Finally, it will engage schoolchildren, creative writers, environmental bodies, the third sector, and others in exploring the natural world through 'Viking' and through contemporary eyes. Old Norse literature, culture and myth is still a prominent part of our cultural heritage. We are fascinated by the History Channel's Vikings, Marvel Comics' Thor, and Tolkien's The Hobbit (the riddle-scene of which, prominent in the first of Peter Jackson's recent film trilogy, was inspired by a riddle-match in the Old Norse saga of Hervör and Heidrekr). This project will bring the artistic and literary endeavours of medieval Iceland and Scandinavia closer to the forefront of our thinking about the Viking and medieval world.