Old English and Old Norse poetry are by far the largest and most varied corpora of early Germanic poetry. As such, they offer unique points of entry to the earliest preserved stages of Germanic literature, but they also pose a range of analytical challenges. Most notably, perhaps, manuscript witnesses to early poetry are often 300–400 years younger than the likely time of composition of the poems contained within them, and errors are likely to have multiplied in the process of transmission. Reconstruction is therefore necessary in order to study these poems as witnesses to their time of composition, but also to understand the dynamics of transmission.
This course aims to equip the student to meet relevant challenges. On completion of the course, the student will be better placed to distinguish scribal from authorial (or archetypal) forms. We work under the assumption that no method is universally applicable, but that every problem begs an appropriate method. Taking this assumption as our starting point, teachers and students will work in unison on selected problems.
The course will open with an overview of Germanic metre, given by Klaus Johan Myrvoll, and an introduction to textual criticism by Mikael Males. It will then be evenly shared between Old English and Old Norse, taught by Rafael Pascual, Nelson Goering, Klaus Johan Myrvoll and Mikael Males.
Relevant readings will be distributed to participants in advance of the course.
The course gives 3 ECTS for participation, and 5 ECTS with an additional paper. The course is free of charge, but participants pays for travel and accomodation themselves.