Abstracts
Abstract
This paper explores representations of dvergar (sing. dvergr) in medieval Icelandic narrative sources to ascertain to what extent dvergar were associated with dwarfism and how these links developed over time. The first section of the study focuses on mythological representations of dvergar. In the second section, the analysis turns to Sneglu-Halla þáttr’s Túta, an early example of a human character whose physical description references dvergar. The final section examines the dvergar characters of the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur) and romance sagas (riddarasögur), which would influence later portrayals of dvergar in Icelandic folklore. The aim of this research is to contribute to further clarification of the historical relationship between dvergar and dwarfism in Icelandic narratives.
Keywords:
- medieval studies,
- reception of Old Norse mythology,
- folklore,
- disability
Résumé
Cet article explore les représentations des dvergar (sing. dvergr) dans les sources narratives islandaises médiévales afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure les dvergar étaient associés au nanisme et comment ces liens se sont développés au fil du temps. La première partie de l’étude se concentre sur les représentations mythologiques des dvergar. Dans la deuxième partie, l’analyse se tourne vers Túta de Sneglu-Halla þáttr, un exemple précoce de personnage humain dont la description physique fait référence aux dvergar. La dernière partie examine les personnages dvergar des sagas légendaires (fornaldarsögur) et des sagas romantiques (riddarasögur), qui influenceront les représentations ultérieures des dvergar dans le folklore islandais. L’objectif de cette recherche est de contribuer à clarifier davantage la relation historique entre les dvergar et le nanisme dans les récits islandais.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Abram, Christopher. 2011. Myths of the Pagan North. London: Continuum.
- Adelson, Betty. 2005. The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity toward Social Liberation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
- Ashman Rowe, Elizabeth. 1998. “Cultural Paternity in the Flateyjarbók Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar.” Alvíssmál 8: 3—28.
- Árnason, Jón. 1954–1961. Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og ævintýri. Vols. I-VI. Edited by Árni Böðvarsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík: Þjóðsaga.
- Battles, Paul. 2005. “Dwarfs in Germanic Literature: Deutsche Mythologie or Grimm’s Myths?.” In The Shadow Walkers: Jacob Grimm‘s Mythology of the Monstrous. Edited by Tom Shippey, 29–82. Tempe, Arizona: Brepols. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.5.143628.
- Bjarnason, Arngrímur and Oddur Gíslason. 1954–1959. Vestfirzkar þjóðsögur. Vols. I–III. Reykjavík: Ísafold.
- Bolt, David. 2019. “The Metanarrative of Disability: Social Encounters, Cultural Representation and Critical Avoidance.” In Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies. Edited by Nick Watson, Alan Roulstone and Carol Thomas, 337–347. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429430817
- Bolt, David. 2021. “Prologue.” In Metanarratives of Disability: Culture, Assumed Authority, and the Normative Social Order. Edited by David Bolt, xvi–xix. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Bornholdt, Claudia. 2011. “The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission of Chrétien de Troyes’s Romances: Ívens saga, Erex saga, Parcevals saga with Valvens þáttr.” In The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus Realms. Edited by Marianne Kalinke, 98–122. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Bower, Alice. 2022. “Guðmundur Bergþórsson as Creator and Creation: A Folk Narrative Study of a 17th Century Disabled Poet.” In Understanding Disability Throughout History: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Iceland from Settlement to 1936. Edited by Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir and James Rice, 146–162. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003180180
- Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandur Vigfússon. 1874. An Icelandic-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Davíðsson, Ólafur. 1945. Íslenzkar þjóðsögur. Vols. I–III. Edited by Jónas Rafnar and Þorsteinn M. Jónsson. Akureyri: Þorsteinn M. Jónsson.
- Davis, Lennard. 2002. Bending Over Backwards: Disability, Dismodernism & Other Difficult Positions. New York: New York University Press. DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479820108.001.0001
- Du Bois, Thomas. 1999. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Eddukvæði I–II. 2014. Edited by Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólason. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.
- Egeler, Matthias. 2016–2017. “Icelandic Folklore, Landscape Theory, and Levity: The Seyðisfjörður Dwarf-Stone.” RMN Newsletter: 8–18.
- Erex saga. 1999. In Norse Romance II. Knights of the Round Table. Edited by Marianne Kalinke, 217–266. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
- Espólín, Jón. 1829. Íslands árbækur í sögu-formi. Vol. VIII. Copenhagen: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag.
- Flateyjarbók. 1868. Edited by Guðbrandur Vigfússon and C.R. Unger. Christiania: P. T. Malling.
- Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda. 1943–1944. Vols. I-III. Edited by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík: Forni.
- Garland Thomson, Rosemarie. 1997. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Gibbons saga. 1960. Edited by R.I. Page. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Gíslason, Tryggvi. 1984. ““Hverr skyldi dverga dróttir skepia.”” In Festskrift til Ludvig Holm-Olsen på hans 70-årsdag den 9. juni 1984, 84–88. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
- Goffman, Erving. 2022. Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity. First published 1963. UK: Penguin.
- Gould, Chester. 1929. “Dwarf Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 44(4): 939 –967.
- Gunnell, Terry. 2001. “Hof, Halls, Goðar and Dwarves: An Examination of the Ritual Space in the Pagan Icelandic Hall.” Cosmos 17: 3–36.
- Gunnell, Terry. 2007. “How Elvish Were the Álfar?” In Constructing Nations, Reconstructing Myth. Edited by Andrew Wawn, Graham Johnson and John Walter, 111–130. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MMAGES-EB.3.3608
- Gunnell, Terry. 2020. “Dvergar (Dwarfs).” In The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures, Volume III. Edited by Jens Peter Schjødt, John Lindow and Anders Andrén, 1559–1570. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI: 10.1484/M.PCRN-EB.5.112891
- Grimm, Jacob. 1878. Deutsche Mythologie. Vols. I-III. Edited by Elard Hugo Meyer. Berlin: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlagsbuchhandlung.
- Grønvik, Ottar. 1999. “Runeinnskriften fra Ribe.” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 114: 103–127.
- Historia Norwegie. 2003. Edited by Inger Ekrem and Lars Boje Mortensen. Translated by Peter Fisher. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
- Ívens saga. 1979. Edited by Foster Blaisdell. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Jakobsson, Ármann. 2005. “The Hole: Problems in Medieval Dwarfology.” Arv 61: 53–76.
- Jakobsson, Ármann. 2006. “Where Do the Giants Live?” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 121: 101–112.
- Jakobsson, Ármann. 2008. “Enabling Love: Dwarfs in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances.” In Romance and Love in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland. Essays in Honor of Marianne Kalinke. Edited by Kirsten Wolf and Johanna Denzin, 183–206. Islandica 54. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library.
- Jakobsson, Ármann. 2009. “Food and the North-Icelandic Identity in 13th Century Iceland and Norway.” In Images of the North. Edited by Sverrir Jakobsson, 69–79. Studia Imagologica 14. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi B.V.
- Johansson, Karl. 2010. “Snorri, Saxo och medeltidens berättelser om kungarnas historia.” In Saxo & Snorre. Edited by Jon Gunnar Jørgensen, Karsten Friis-Jensen, and Else Mundal, 131-66. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums Forlag.
- Kalinke, Marianne. 2005. “Norse Romance (Riddarasögur).” In Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. Edited by Carol J. Clover and John Lindow, 316–364. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Kalinke, Marianne. 2011. “Translations, Redactions, Manuscript Transmission.” In The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus Realms. Edited by Marianne Kalinke, 22–47. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Krag, Claus. 1991. Ynglingatal og Ynglingesaga: en studie i historiske kilder. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
- Late Medieval Icelandic Romances. 1962–1965. Vols. I–V. Edited by Agnete Loth. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Liberman, Anatoly. 2016. In Prayer and Laughter: Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature, and Culture. Moscow: Paleograph Press.
- ““Litli og stóri--“”. 1938. Vikan. December 15. 1938: 5.
- Lummer, Felix. 2021a. ““Ek hræðumz ekki þik” – The dvergar in translated riddarasǫgur.” European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 51(2): 335–355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2020-2022
- Lummer, Felix. 2021b. “Solitary Colossi and Not-So-Small Men: A Study of the Effect of Translation on the Old Norse Supernatural Concept of the jǫtnar in the Translated riddarasǫgur.” Arv 77: 57–86.
- McKinnell, John. 2009. “Ynglingatal- A Minimalist Interpretation.” Scripta Islandica 60: 23–48.
- Metzler, Irina. 2013. A Social History of Disability in the Middle Ages: Cultural Considerations of Physical Impairment. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203371169
- Mikučionis, Ugnius. 2017. “Recognizing a dvergr: Physical Status and External Appearance of Dvergar in Medieval Nordic Sources (8th–13th Century).” Roda da Fortuna 6(1): 55–98.
- Mikučionis, Ugnius. 2020. “Dwarfs’ Family Relations and Female Dwarfs in Some Medieval Nordic Sources.” Scandia: Journal of Medieval Norse Studies 3: 139–169.
- Mitchell, David and Snyder, Sharon. 2013 . “Narrative Prosthesis.” In The Disability Studies Reader. Edited by Lennard Davis, 222–235. Fourth edition. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203077887
- Motz, Lotte. 1973. “New Thoughts on Dwarf-Names in Old Icelandic.” Frühmittelalterliche Studien 7(1): 100–117.
- Motz, Lotte. 1973–1974. “Of Elves and Dwarfs.” Arv 29–30: 93–127.
- Motz, Lotte. 1983. The Wise One of the Mountain: Form, Function, and Significance of the Subterranean Smith: A Study in Folklore. Göppingen: Kümmerle.
- Morkinskinna. 2011. Vols. I-II. Edited by Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson. Íslenzk fornrit XXIII. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.
- Mundal, Else. 2014. “Introduction.” In Riddarasogur: The Translation of European Court Culture in Medieval Scandinavia. Edited by Karl G. Johansson and Else Mundal, 9–16. Oslo: Novus.
- Ólafsson, Ólafur. 1965. “Völuspá konungsbókar.” Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands 22: 86–124.
- Pritchard, Erin. 2017. “Cultural Representations of Dwarfs and their Disabling Affects on Dwarfs in Society.” Considering Disability 1: 1–31.
- Pritchard, Erin. 2021. “The Metanarrative of Dwarfism: Heightism and Its Social Implications.” In Metanarratives of Disability: Culture, Assumed Authority, and the Normative Social Order. Edited by David Bolt, 123–137. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003057437
- Pritchard, Erin. 2023. Midgetism: The Exploitation and Discrimination of People With Dwarfism. London & New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003382461
- Quinn, Judy. 1992. “Verseform and Voice in Eddic Poems: The Discourses of Fáfnismál.” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 107: 100–130.
- Riddarasögur. 1982. Edited by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan: Haukadalsútgáfan.
- Richards, Kit. 2022. “‘[V]ar hann svartr ok ljótr eftir skapan sinni’: Disabled and Racialised Bodies in the Fourteenth-Century Göngu-Hrólfs Saga.” Quaestio Insularis 23: 42–63.
- Samúelsson, Sigurður. 1998. “Risavöxtur – Dvergvöxtur: Tvær sjúkralýsingar úr íslenskum fornritum.” Lesbók Morgunblaðsins. May 30. 1998: 4–5.
- Schäfke, Werner. 2012. “The Extorted Dwarf: Cognitive Motif analysis and literary knowledge.” In Skemmtiligastar Lygisögur: Studies in Honour of Galina Glazyrina. Edited by Tatjana N. Jackson and Elena A. Melnikova, 165–188. Moscow: Dimitri Pozharskiy University.
- Schäfke, Werner. 2015. “Dwarves, Trolls, Ogres, and Giants.” In Handbook of Medieval Culture: Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages. Volume 1. Edited by Albrecht Classen, 347–383. De Gruyter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110267303
- Shakespeare, Tom. 1999. “Joking a Part.” Body and Society 5(4): 47–52.
- Shakespeare, Tom. 2014. Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315887456
- Shakespeare, Tom, Thompson, Sue and Wright, Michael. 2010. “No Laughing Matter: Medical and Social Experiences of Restricted Growth.” Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 12(1): 19–31.
- Sigfússon, Sigfúss. 1931. Íslenzkar þjóð-sögur og -sagnir. Vol IV. Hafnarfjörður: Þorvaldur Bjarnason.
- “Síðasti bærinn í dalnum.” 1996. Morgunblaðið. November 24. 1996: 34–35.
- Sturluson, Snorri. 1941. Heimskringla. Vol I. Edited by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. Íslenzk fornrit 26. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.
- Sturluson, Snorri. 1987. Edda. Translated by Anthony Faulkes. London: Everyman.
- Sturluson, Snorri. 1998. Skáldskaparmál I. Edited by Anthony Faulkes. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Sturluson, Snorri. 2005. Gylfaginning. Edited by Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edition. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- The Poetic Edda. 1996. Edited and translated by Carolyne Larrington. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Tirosh, Yoav. 2017. “Scolding the Skald: The Construction of Cultural Memory in Morkinskinna’s Sneglu-Halla þáttr.” European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 47(1): 1–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2017-0001
- Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1984. Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
- Wohlgemuth, Fritz. 1906. Riesen und Zwerge in der altfranzösischen erzählenden Dichtung. Stuttgart: Druck von A. Bonz Erben.