What is Love? Exploring Emotion in Old Norse Culture

（你会非常爱她）。这句话来自Gunnlaugs的《Ormstungu》，讲述了一位父亲对未出生女儿的爱。伊吉尔的传奇中，说[_____]var elskr at Agli（[索德]被伊吉尔所爱），指的是男孩之间的兄弟之爱。动词elska和unna都被翻译为“爱”，但在中世纪冰岛传说中，没有区分不同类型的爱，使得爱的意义和价值没有微妙的差别。我的项目旨在通过古挪威传奇中的相关词汇和表达来探索中世纪冰岛人对爱的理解和文化价值。许多古斯堪的纳维亚语被翻译成“爱”。把它们归为同一种“爱”是很冒昧的。通过对词汇和语境的严谨研究，我希望通过冰岛人的词汇感知来揭示他们对爱的文化欣赏。事实上，古希腊有四个爱的词：agape，神圣的爱；菲利亚，柏拉图式的爱情；厄洛斯，浪漫的爱情；储存，亲情。这将是一篇开创性的论文，因为它将是迄今为止第一个全面的学术项目，研究古斯堪的纳维亚语中的一种情感。该项目的重要性源于对古斯堪的纳维亚语情感研究的总体需求——研究有所增加，但仍然缺乏对单一情感的彻底调查。因此，我选择了爱，因为它还没有在基础层面上得到研究。重要的是，学者们在没有首先探索古斯堪的纳维亚语的情况下，不要使用现代的“爱”。该项目将为进一步的研究提供基础，使古斯堪的纳维亚语概念的研究成为基础。为此，我的项目提出了以下关键问题：古挪威人是如何理解爱的？古挪威语中表示爱的词语在什么语境中使用？它们有何不同？肢体动作是否反复与这些单词联系在一起？爱的形式有等级吗？爱与其他情感的位置在哪里？中世纪的冰岛人是如何看待爱情的？虽然有限，但之前对传奇爱情的研究包括玛丽安·卡林克对浪漫的研究和大卫·克拉克对同性恋的研究。先前研究的主要焦点是宫廷爱情、婚姻或同性恋——每一种本质上都是爱欲。许多传奇人物的情感研究也缺乏对原始语言的运用。在她最近的书中，Sif Rikhardsdottir呼吁通过语言来看待情感。这个项目通过关注中世纪冰岛爱情的原始语言和历史背景来回应这一点。这些传奇故事是观察中世纪冰岛的镜头；虽然传奇事件可能是非历史的，但这种情绪可能反映了创造传奇的社会。如果没有这样的反思，文本对观众来说将是不相关和不可理解的。它们也不是精英产品，因为宅基地是一个公共空间，所以传奇读物可能是公共的。为了辨别这些传奇故事中爱情的细微差别，我将采用词汇研究的方法，从威廉·伊恩·米勒（William Ian Miller）那里获得灵感，找出社会的细微差别来阐明爱情术语。通过厘清词语及其语境，观察它们的文化价值。我的主要资料来源将是传奇故事本身，重点是散文。我将探索所有的传奇子类型，从biskupasögur（主教故事）到fornaldarsögur（神话历史），以发现爱情和类型之间是否存在相关性。其中一个可能的关联就是biskupasögur中对上帝的爱。只有通过分析上下文和单词才能发现这种联系。这项研究希望激发人们对情感史和古挪威语研究的更大兴趣，并强调将关键概念与其语言学根源联系起来的重要性，因为仅仅取代现代意义可能导致时代错误和理解不清。此外，通过对古挪威人情感的更大理解，这篇论文可以丰富现代人对古挪威人的看法，并开启与欧洲大陆的新对话。”

" (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."