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Carol
J. Clover and John Lindow, eds.
Old
Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide.
University
of Toronto Press, 2005.
MART:
The Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching.
ISBN
0802038239.
Paperback.
390pp.
Publisher's
recommended price $35.00/£22.50
In the past few decades,
interest in the rich and varied literature of early Scandinavia has
prompted a great deal of interest in its background: its origins,
social and historical context, and relationship to other medieval
literatures. Until the 1980s, however, there was a distinct lack of
scholarship in the area, so in 1985, Carol J. Clover and John Lindow
brought together some of the most ambitious and distinguished Old Norse
scholars to contribute essays for a collection that would finally fill
the void of a comprehensive guide to the field.
The contributors summarize and comment on scholarly work in the major
branches of the field: eddic and skaldic poetry, family and kings’
sagas, courtly writing, and mythology. Taken together, their judicious
and well-written essays, each with a full bibliography, make up this
vital survey of Old Norse literature in English – a basic reference
work that has stimulated much research and helped to open up the field
to a wider academic readership.
This volume has become an essential text for instructors, and twenty
years later, is now being republished as part of the Medieval Academy
Reprints for Teaching (MART) series with a new preface that discusses
more recent contributions to the field.
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