Old Norse-Icelandic Studies: A Select Bibliography

98 Pages·1967·3.63 MB·English

by  Hans Bekker-Nielsen

Old Norse - Icelandic Studies
A Select Bibliography
CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES
University of Toronto
TORONTO MEDIEVAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Editor: John Leyerle
Director, Centre for Medieval Studies
i. OLD NORSE-ICELANDIC STUDIES, by Hans Bekker-Nielsen,
Co-editor of Bibliography of Old Norse-Icelandic Studies
and of Den Arnamagnceanske Kommissions Ordbog.
In Preparation
MEDIEVAL RHETORIC, by J. J. Murphy, Chairman of the
Department of Rhetoric, University of California (Davis).
OLD ENGLISH, by Fred C. Robinson, Stanford University.
MEDIEVAL LATIN LITERATURE, by Peter Dronke, Cambridge
University.
OLD NORSE - ICELANDIC
STUDIES
A Select Bibliography
Compiled by
HANS BEKKER-NIELSEN
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
© University of Toronto Press 1967
This Bibliography was prepared during the
author's term as Visiting Professor to the
Centre for Medieval Studies in the Uni-
versity of Toronto^ 1965-66. The inception
of this visit as well as continuing support
came from the Pontifical Institute of Medi-
aeval Studies in Toronto.
PRINTED IN DENMARK
VALD. PEDERSENS BOGTRYKKERI
COPENHAGEN
EDITOR'S PREFACE
The study of the Middle Ages has been developed chiefly
within university departments such as English or History.
This pattern is increasingly being supplemented by an inter-
disciplinary approach in which the plan of work is shaped to
fit the subject studied. The difference of approach is be-
tween Chaucer the English poet and Chaucer the civil ser-
vant of London attached to the court of Richard II, a man
interested in the Ptolemaic Universe and widely read in La-
tin, French and Italian. Such interdisciplinary programmes
tend to lead readers into areas relatively unfamiliar to them
where critical bibliographies prepared with careful selec-
tivity by an expert are essential. The Centre for Medieval
Studies at the University of Toronto takes such an inter-
disciplinary approach to the Middle Ages and the need for
such bibliographies has become apparent in our work. The
Centre has undertaken to meet this need by sponsoring the
Toronto Medieval Bibliographies.
Each title presents a list of works selected with three spe-
cific aims. One is to aid students relatively new to the area
covered by the title, for example Old Norse and Icelandic.
Another is to guide more advanced readers in a subject
where they have had little formal training, for example,
Medieval Rhetoric or Latin Literature; and the third is to
assist new libraries in forming a basic collection in the sub-
ject presented. These aims of the series indicate that volumes
should be selective and reasonably brief; they are not meant
to be inclusive listings for readers already expert in the sub-
jects. Individual compilers are given scope to organize a
6
presentation that they judge will best suit their subject and
also to make brief critical comments as they think fit. Clarity
and usefulness of a volume are preferred over any demand
for exact uniformity from one volume to another.
J.L.
PREFACE
This bibliography was compiled to serve as an intelligent
student's guide to Old Norse-Icelandic studies, an area of
scholarship that is well defined both geographically and
chronologically by the most commonly used definition of Old
Norse as the language(s) of Norway until c. 1370 and of
Iceland until 1540. It is by nature selective, but offers a
fairly wide range of different kinds of material relevant
for the study of the language, literature, and other aspects of
civilization in Norway and Iceland in the Middle Ages.
The references to standard handbooks and bibliographies
will furnish the student with sufficient additional biblio-
graphical information, if his studies take him outside the
ground covered here. An effort has been made to include
sufficient books and articles in English and German so that
the student with little knowledge of modern Scandinavian
languages will have adequate secondary material for Old
Norse-Icelandic studies. For the advanced student a reading
knowledge of other Northern tongues and a sound knowledge
of Old Norse are desirable. I have had the English-speaking
students' interests in mind and have listed a large number
of translations into English; apart from a general reference
to Thule, the many, and often excellent, translations of Old
Norse texts into German or one of the modern Scandinavian
languages have not been included.
The plans for this bibliography were made during my stay
as Visiting Professor of Old Norse in the Centre for Medieval
Studies at the University of Toronto during the academic
year 1965-66. I had collected and classified the material by
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the end of March 1966., which is the cut-off date. My original
files contained more than twice the amount of material pre-
sented here; although it was sometimes hard to cut out old
favourites among books of Old Norse lore and learning, I
stopped at the present size and scope of the bibliography. For
the student or scholar interested in Old Norse-Icelandic
studies living in or near Toronto, this bibliography will have
an extra attraction, since the Centre for Medieval Studies, in
collaboration with the University Library, has made most,
and will eventually make all, titles in this book available
through the libraries on the campus.
Almost every period of the literary history is represented
among the recommended readings in Section IV: remnants
of pre-Christian literature or tradition, various types of med-
ieval epic, romance, and works from the last centuries of
the Middle Ages. From the earliest specimens of literary
creativity in Norway and Iceland down to the late medieval
examples of Icelandic writing, more than half a millennium
passed. The Norwegian and the much more numerous Ice-
landic manuscripts are the foundation of the modern study of
the literature of this period. References to facsimile editions
are found throughout this book, an admonition to pay atten-
tion to the Old Norse manuscripts from the earliest frag-
ments from c. 1150, through the beautiful examples of Ice-
landic manuscript production in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, to some valuable post-medieval manuscripts. Sec-
tion IV is divided into various groups reflecting the tra-
ditional division of Old Norse-Icelandic literature into
Skaldic poetry, Eddie poetry, Islendinga sogur, Konunga
sogur and so on, although it is sometimes difficult to see the
virtues of this system. Since some sort of order was called for,
I followed tradition and made use of the old categories in