Terry Gunnell - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Terry Gunnell
Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies
On December 19, Dr Emily Lyle, Honorary Fellow at the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, ... more On December 19, Dr Emily Lyle, Honorary Fellow at the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh, celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Emily is a prominent folklorist, a researcher of ritual calendars, myths, astronomy, and cosmology, a semiotician and a typologist, a connoisseur of Scottish folklore and culture, just to mention a few of her fields of interest. To honour this outstanding scholar, who founded the SIEF (Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore) Ritual Year Working Group in 2004, the members of this academic community would like to share their reminiscences of Emily, along with a few words of homage and gratitude.
The Carrying Stream Flows On: Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the School of Scottish Studies
Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift
ABSTRACT: This article considers the potential connections between the three nornir mentioned in ... more ABSTRACT: This article considers the potential connections between the three nornir mentioned in Vǫluspá and the three roots of Yggdrasill mentioned in Grímnismál st. 31 and Gylfaginning which, like the nornir themselves, may have been seen (by some) as being connected with time. This raises the possibility that, at some point and for some people, the jǫtnar were closely connected with the world of death and the underworld (which, for some, may have been associated with the east from whence the sun rises). It also raises questions about whether Urðr should be seen as referring to the past, rather than the future, and reconsiders the earlier posited idea that life, death and time were seen as being a circular process much like the natural year. RESUME: Denne artikel omhandler den potentielle forbindelse mellem de tre nornir, der nævnes i Vǫluspá, og Yggdrasills tre rødder, der nævnes i Grímnismál st. 31 samt Gylfaginning. Ligesom nornerne selv kan de tre rødder være blevet set (af no...
Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 2020
The Pre-Christian Religions of the North, 2018
The Pre-Christian Religions of the North, 2020
Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies, 2018
John Miles Foley's World of Oralities, 2020
A Handbook to Eddic Poetry
What exactly was an eddic poem? The first thing that can be stated with any certainty is that it ... more What exactly was an eddic poem? The first thing that can be stated with any certainty is that it was not what it has become – in other words, a poem written in ink on parchment or paper, gathered together in a book with other poems in a format designed essentially for silent, private reading, in which all the stanzas can be quickly viewed side by side and reread at will. Prior to the early thirteenth century (when Grimnismal, Vafþruðnismal , and Vǫluspa were transcribed in the small collection probably used by Snorri Sturluson for the Prose Edda ), there is little doubt that most of the eddic poems lived in the oral tradition. Indeed, this would seem to be underlined by Snorri's statements with regard to eddic quotations that words were said ( sagt ) and figures named ( nefndar ) in Vǫluspa and Grimnismal ; and that stanzas could be heard ( mattu heyra ) in Grimnismal , or were uttered by Vafþruðnir ( her segir Vafþruðnir jǫtunn ). That the poems lived in this form for some time before they came to be recorded would also appear to be stressed by the fact that, unlike with many of the skaldic poems, Snorri does not appear to know the identities of the authors of these works, referring to Vǫluspa simply as – or alongside – what he calls forn visindi (‘ancient wisdom’) ( Gylfaginning : 12). The poems’ potentially ‘ancient’ nature and origin are supported still further by the use of the expression fornyrðislag (literally ‘old story metre’) for one of the main eddic metres, and the regular mention in the poems of trees, animals, objects, societies, attitudes, and beliefs that seem to have been unknown in Iceland (where the poems were transcribed). All this suggests that many of the poems must have originated in one form or another in a different environment (see below with regard to Grimnismal , for example; see also Einar Olafur Sveinsson 1962: 202–66). This chapter will not be concerned with suggesting any precise ‘original’ date for any of the eddic poems. The environmental features of the poems and the suggestions of ‘age’ are mentioned above first and foremost to remind us of the fact that (not least in Snorri's mind) these were works that originated, travelled, and had lived for some time in the medium of sound rather than in writing.
Approaches to Vǫluspá and Nordic Days of Judgement, 2013
Folklore, 2010
It is well known that the first collections of folktales played a key role in the creation of n... more It is well known that the first collections of folktales played a key role in the creation of national identity in many nations in the mid-nineteenth century. This wider political role is often most apparent in the introductions written to accompany these early volumes, which give readers ...
Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies
On December 19, Dr Emily Lyle, Honorary Fellow at the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, ... more On December 19, Dr Emily Lyle, Honorary Fellow at the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh, celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Emily is a prominent folklorist, a researcher of ritual calendars, myths, astronomy, and cosmology, a semiotician and a typologist, a connoisseur of Scottish folklore and culture, just to mention a few of her fields of interest. To honour this outstanding scholar, who founded the SIEF (Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore) Ritual Year Working Group in 2004, the members of this academic community would like to share their reminiscences of Emily, along with a few words of homage and gratitude.
The Carrying Stream Flows On: Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the School of Scottish Studies
Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift
ABSTRACT: This article considers the potential connections between the three nornir mentioned in ... more ABSTRACT: This article considers the potential connections between the three nornir mentioned in Vǫluspá and the three roots of Yggdrasill mentioned in Grímnismál st. 31 and Gylfaginning which, like the nornir themselves, may have been seen (by some) as being connected with time. This raises the possibility that, at some point and for some people, the jǫtnar were closely connected with the world of death and the underworld (which, for some, may have been associated with the east from whence the sun rises). It also raises questions about whether Urðr should be seen as referring to the past, rather than the future, and reconsiders the earlier posited idea that life, death and time were seen as being a circular process much like the natural year. RESUME: Denne artikel omhandler den potentielle forbindelse mellem de tre nornir, der nævnes i Vǫluspá, og Yggdrasills tre rødder, der nævnes i Grímnismál st. 31 samt Gylfaginning. Ligesom nornerne selv kan de tre rødder være blevet set (af no...
Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 2020
The Pre-Christian Religions of the North, 2018
The Pre-Christian Religions of the North, 2020
Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies, 2018
John Miles Foley's World of Oralities, 2020
A Handbook to Eddic Poetry
What exactly was an eddic poem? The first thing that can be stated with any certainty is that it ... more What exactly was an eddic poem? The first thing that can be stated with any certainty is that it was not what it has become – in other words, a poem written in ink on parchment or paper, gathered together in a book with other poems in a format designed essentially for silent, private reading, in which all the stanzas can be quickly viewed side by side and reread at will. Prior to the early thirteenth century (when Grimnismal, Vafþruðnismal , and Vǫluspa were transcribed in the small collection probably used by Snorri Sturluson for the Prose Edda ), there is little doubt that most of the eddic poems lived in the oral tradition. Indeed, this would seem to be underlined by Snorri's statements with regard to eddic quotations that words were said ( sagt ) and figures named ( nefndar ) in Vǫluspa and Grimnismal ; and that stanzas could be heard ( mattu heyra ) in Grimnismal , or were uttered by Vafþruðnir ( her segir Vafþruðnir jǫtunn ). That the poems lived in this form for some time before they came to be recorded would also appear to be stressed by the fact that, unlike with many of the skaldic poems, Snorri does not appear to know the identities of the authors of these works, referring to Vǫluspa simply as – or alongside – what he calls forn visindi (‘ancient wisdom’) ( Gylfaginning : 12). The poems’ potentially ‘ancient’ nature and origin are supported still further by the use of the expression fornyrðislag (literally ‘old story metre’) for one of the main eddic metres, and the regular mention in the poems of trees, animals, objects, societies, attitudes, and beliefs that seem to have been unknown in Iceland (where the poems were transcribed). All this suggests that many of the poems must have originated in one form or another in a different environment (see below with regard to Grimnismal , for example; see also Einar Olafur Sveinsson 1962: 202–66). This chapter will not be concerned with suggesting any precise ‘original’ date for any of the eddic poems. The environmental features of the poems and the suggestions of ‘age’ are mentioned above first and foremost to remind us of the fact that (not least in Snorri's mind) these were works that originated, travelled, and had lived for some time in the medium of sound rather than in writing.
Approaches to Vǫluspá and Nordic Days of Judgement, 2013
Folklore, 2010
It is well known that the first collections of folktales played a key role in the creation of n... more It is well known that the first collections of folktales played a key role in the creation of national identity in many nations in the mid-nineteenth century. This wider political role is often most apparent in the introductions written to accompany these early volumes, which give readers ...