What is Love? Exploring Emotion in Old Norse Culture

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

" (you shall love her greatly). This sentence from Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungu fortells the parental love of a father for his unborn daughter. Egils saga, states that [_____] var elskr at Agli ([Thord] was loved by Egil), referring to brotherly love between boys. The verbs elska and unna are both translated as 'to love' but not differentiating between types of love in medieval Icelandic sagas leaves the meanings and value of love unnuanced.My project seeks to explore the medieval Icelandic understanding and cultural value of love via its related words and expressions in Old Norse sagas. Many Old Norse words translate as love. It is presumptuous to group them as the same 'love'. Through a rigorous study of words and contexts, I wish to unveil the Icelanders' cultural appreciation of love through their lexical perceptions. Indeed, Ancient Greek has four love-words: agape, godly love; philia, platonic love; eros, romantic love; storge, familial love. This will be a pioneering thesis, as it will be the first full-scale scholarly project, to date, on a single emotion in Old Norse.The project's importance stems from the overall need for emotion studies in Old Norse - studies have increased but there remains a lack of thorough inquiries into single emotions. Thus, I chose love for it has not been studied on a foundational level. It is important that scholars do not apply modern 'love', without having first explored the Old Norse terms. This project will provide a basis from which further studies can proceed, grounding the research in Old Norse concepts. To this end, my project asks the following key questions: How did the Old Norse peoples understand love? In what contexts are Old Norse words for love used and how do they differ? Are physical gestures repeatedly linked to these words? Is there a hierarchy of the forms of love? Where does love place with other emotions? How is love valued by medieval Icelanders?Although limited, previous studies on saga love include Marianne Kalinke's work on romances, and David Clark's research on homosexuality. The primary focus in previous studies is courtly love, marriage, or homosexuality - each of which is intrinsically eros. There is also a shortage of original language use in many emotion studies of sagas. In her recent book, Sif Rikhardsdottir calls for emotions to be viewed via language. This project responds to this in focusing on the original language and historical context of medieval Icelandic love.The sagas act as a lens into medieval Iceland; although saga events may be ahistorical, the emotions likely mirrored the society creating the sagas. Without such reflections, the texts would be unrelatable and incomprehensible to audiences. They are also not elitist products, for the homestead was a communal space and so saga reading was likely communal. To discern the nuances of love in the sagas, I will use a word-studies approach, taking inspiration from William Ian Miller, to draw out societal nuances to elucidate love-terms. Through clarifying the words and their contexts, I will observe their cultural value.My primary sources will be the sagas themselves, with a focus on prose. I will explore all saga sub-genres, from biskupasögur (bishop tales) to fornaldarsögur (mythologised history), to discover whether there is correlation between the love and the genre. One such possible correlation could be of a love for God in the biskupasögur. Only through analysing both contexts and words can such links be discovered.This research hopes to inspire greater interest in the History of Emotions and Old Norse studies, and highlight the importance of relating key concepts to their philological roots, as merely substituting a modern meaning can lead to anachronisms and poor understandings. Also, with a greater appreciation of Old Norse emotions, this thesis can enrich modern perceptions of Old Norse peoples and open new dialogues with the continent."