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

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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.