The Library of Congress and Cornell University Library are organizing a
scholarly symposium on Old Norse sagas for 24 and 25 May 2000 at the Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. This symposium, Saga Literature and the Shaping of Icelandic Culture,
will take place in the Mumford Room of the Madison Building. (For directions to the
Library of Congress, please visit the Library's web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov.)
Saga Literature and the Shaping of Icelandic Culture will coincide with the
Washington venue of a traveling exhibition, Living and Reliving the Icelandic Sagas.
The exhibition is a collaborative effort of the National and University Library of
Iceland, the Library of Congress, the University of Manitoba Library and Cornell
University Library. (More information on the exhibition and participating institutions is
available through a link on the home page of the Fiske Icelandic Collection at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/fiske.)
Saga Literature and the Shaping of Icelandic Culture will comprise five thematic
sessions. The schedule for these sessions, with names of our presenters and approximate
times, appears below. This schedule is subject to modifications, additions and
clarifications.
24 May (Wednesday):
12:50 p.m.-1:20 p.m.: Registration at the entrance to the Mumford Room (venue for all symposium sessions) in the Madison Building.
Symposium commences at 1:20 p.m. with opening remarks by John Van Oudenaren, Chief of the European Division, Library of Congress, to be followed at 1:30 p.m. with procedural reminders from the moderators.
1:40 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: 1st session
Sagas and the Icelandic
manuscript tradition
"The Manuscript Tradition of the Icelandic Sagas"
Stefán Karlsson, Past Director, Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland
"Sagas, Manuscripts and the Liberal Arts"
Rudolf Simek, University of Bonn
"The Long and Winding Road: Manuscript Transmission in Post-Medieval Iceland"
Matthew James Driscoll, Arnamagnaean Institute, University of Copenhagen
3:00 p.m.-3:20 p.m.: break
3:20 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: 2nd session
Sagas and daily life in
the Icelandic Commonwealth
"Guđríđr Ţorbjarnardóttir: Transmitter of Pagan Culture and Christian Religion"
Jenny Jochens, Professor Emeritus, Towson State University
"Söguligr atburđr: an Event Worthy of a Tale"
Vésteinn Ólason, Director, Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland
"Social Memory and the Sagas: The Case of Egils saga"
Jesse Byock, University of California, Los Angeles
"A Note on the Prehistory of Saga Criticism"
Theodore M. Andersson, Stanford University
25 May (Thursday):
9:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m.: tea/coffee
10:00 a.m.-11:20 a.m.: 3rd session
Voyages and travel in
Medieval Europe as depicted in saga literature
"Home and Away: the Semantics of Travel in Icelandic Saga Literature"
Margaret Clunies Ross, University of Sydney
"Travel and the Mapping of Icelandic Identity in Saga Narrative"
Geraldine Barnes, University of Sydney
"Where Microspace Meets Macrospace: The Travels of Norna-Gest and Abbot Nikolas"
Lars Lönnroth, University of Göteborg
11:20 a.m.-11:40 a.m.: break
11:40 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: 4th session
Influence of the sagas on
modern Nordic literature
"A Modern Biography of Hallgerđur: Icelandic Sagas, Henry James and Dorothy James Roberts"
Jón Karl Helgason, Independent Scholar
"The Narrative Genius of the North"
Régis Boyer, Professor Emeritus, University of Paris—Sorbonne
"Grettir and Bjartur: Realism and the Supernatural in Medieval and Modern Icelandic Literature"
Torfi H. Tulinius, University of Iceland
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: break for lunch
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: 5th session
Saga literature and its
relation to modern visual arts
"Picturing the Sagas: Some Victorian Perspectives"
Andrew Wawn, University of Leeds
"Icelandic Modern Art and the Sagas: Constructing and Deconstructing a Heritage"
Ađalsteinn Ingólfsson, Independent Scholar
3:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.: Plenary discussion and closing of symposium.
Kristín Bragadóttir of the National and University Library of Iceland and Patrick J. Stevens of Cornell University Library will share moderation of the symposium sessions.
For further information, please contact the Fiske Icelandic Collection at fiskeref@cornell.edu.