A Land of Ice and Fire: An Ecocritical Reading of the Landscapes of the Islendingasogur

这项研究将首次全面、深入地分析岛上的各种景观、海景和环境，并为现代环境保护和保护观念做出重要贡献。2011年，Emily Lethbridge开始了一个个人项目，在当地的背景下阅读每一个islendingasogr，创建一个反映文本事件发生的景观的Saga地图。尽管如此，在这个项目的帮助下，新的批判性阅读的承诺，很少有奖学金沿着这些探索的路线继续下去。莫雷蒂写道：“将一种文学现象置于其特定的位置——绘制它的地图——并不是地理工作的结论；这是开始。在这之后，实际上开始了整个项目中最具挑战性的部分：人们看着地图，思考”（1998:7）。这篇论文将试图弥合莱斯布里奇提供的学术工具与由此产生的缺乏新的批判性思维之间的差距，研究中世纪冰岛文学中交织在一起的各种景观、海景和地方，并提供关于冰岛景观与居住在那里的人们的传奇叙事之间独特关系的新读物。在景观研究方面仍然存在明显的空白，特别是在古斯堪的纳维亚文学方面。虽然有一些有价值的基于环境的研究文章（Barraclough, 2010; Kinniburgh, 2018）和一项非常有影响力的研究，通过《诸神黄昏》（Abram, 2019），对我们当前生态危机的预兆进行了研究，但亚伯兰主要关注古挪威人的诗歌和神话，而Barraclough和Kinniburgh只关注非法徒的传奇故事。与之前的工作不同，这项研究将涵盖冰岛人的所有传奇故事，而不仅仅是最受欢迎的故事。它将建立在这些先前的古挪威文本生态分析作品的基础上，并在此基础上进行扩展，以产生第一本关于islendingasogr景观的长篇生态批评研究。本文将探讨以下关键问题，以理解景观在家族传奇中的重要性：如何描述移民和定居反映景观的重要性？冰岛独特的地理位置是否使移民与当地的联系更加紧密？通过与景观的互动，可以观察到什么样的权力动态和社会等级？我们如何处理超出我们所有权的空间？在现代文化中，地域与民族之间的联系是什么？最后，什么是生态批评，为什么它对我们很重要？这些问题对于探索过去与自然景观的互动和解释至关重要，目的是反思我们自己的现代参与和行动。这篇论文将有利于古挪威和中世纪的研究，也有利于文本地理学、移民研究、气候参与和集体人类身份的社会政治理解等更广泛的领域。通过跨学科的研究和理解不同的观点和自然世界的表现，希望在未来能够再次获得对自然世界更尊重或更稳定的态度。

This research will result in the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the various landscapes, seascapes, and settings of the Islendingasogur, and provide a vital contribution towards modern perceptions of environmental preservation and conservation.In 2011, Emily Lethbridge set out on a solo project to read each of the Islendingasogur in its local settings, creating a Saga Map which reflects the landscape in which the events of the texts take place. Despite this, and the promise of new critical readings aided by the project, very little scholarship has continued along these lines of enquiry. Moretti writes: "Placing a literary phenomenon in its specific place- mapping it - is not the conclusion of geographical work; it's the beginning. After which begins in fact the most challenging part of the whole enterprise: one looks at the map, and thinks" (1998: 7). This thesis will seek to bridge this gap between the scholarly apparatus supplied by Lethbridge and the lack new critical thought stemming from it, examining the various landscapes, seascapes, and placesintertwined in medieval Icelandic literature, and offering new readings regarding the uniqueness of the relationship between the Icelandic landscape and the saga narratives of those people who inhabited it.There are still noticeable gaps in the study of landscape, especially regarding Old Norse literature. Although there have been some valuable environmentally-based research articles (Barraclough, 2010; Kinniburgh, 2018) and a highly influential study on the foreshadowing of our current ecological crisis through Ragnarok (Abram, 2019), Abram largely focuses on the poetry and mythology of Old Norse, while Barraclough and Kinniburgh focus the outlaw sagas alone. Unlike these previous works, this research will cover the full range of sagas of Icelanders, rather than just the most popular ones. It will build on these previous works of ecological analysis in Old Norse texts, but also expand upon them toproduce the first book-length ecocritical study of the landscapes of the Islendingasogur.This thesis will examine the following key questions to understanding the importance of landscape in the family sagas: How do the depictions of migrations and settlements reflect the importance of landscape? Does Iceland's unique position create a closer link between settlers and place? What power dynamics and social hierarchies can be observed through interactions with the landscape? How do we deal with spaces beyond our ownership? What is the link between place and nationality in modern culture? And finally, what is ecocriticism and why does it matter to us?These questions are vital to exploring past interactions with and interpretations of the natural landscape with the aim of reflecting on and contextualising our own modern engagement and actions. This thesis will benefit Old Norse and Medieval studies, but also the wider fields of textual geography, migration studies, climate engagement, and socio-political understanding of collective human identities. Through interdisciplinary study and understanding of different views and representations of the natural world there is hope that a more respectful or simply stable attitude towards the natural world can be attained again in the future.