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Course Description:
The Vikings: horned barbarians or intrepid and adventurous free-spirits? You be the judge! In this course we will explore the genesis, development, and dissemination of medieval Scandinavian culture, focusing on the Viking Age of the eighth through the tenth centuries, but surveying an overview of the entire breadth and depth of early Scandinavian Europe. The bulk of the material we read will be in Modern English, but we will learn the rudiments of the Viking tongue. To do so we will study elements of the language of medieval Iceland, specifically the West Norse of the "classical" literary period (ca. 1150-1350 AD), but many of the texts from this period deal with much earlier events, the gods of the north, and legendary figures of heroic proportions. We will also learn to read the runes the Vikings left behind; this medieval graffiti can still be found carved on bits of stone, bone, wood and metal, in a wide swath from Constantinople to Maritime Canada. This course is truly interdisciplinary: we will be interested in the history, literature, religion, and social structures of these traders, scholars, raiders, farmers, explorers, and mercenaries who first paralyzed, then conquered, then assimilated into much of Britain and Europe. This course will take a seminar format, with extra language tutorials during the first few weeks of the term.
Course Requirements:
Participation in this course will revolve around an independent research project chosen by each participant and shared with the class through informal discussion, a formal presentation, and eventual amalgamation into a larger group project. Our research will be based both upon traditional print materials and upon the growing volume of multimedia information pertaining to Vikings that is available via the world wide web. The research project might be one of the following: the age of Viking raids, the Vikings in Britain, the Vikings in Eastern Europe, the Vikings in North America, Viking ships, Viking trade, Viking homelife, the family sagas, Norse mythology, Viking runes, modern and popular media conceptions of Vikings, etc.
This course is interactive and will incorporate multimedia technology. This means that each student, utilizing a software template designed and developed for this purpose, will combine her or his traditional research essay text with pictures, sounds, maps, diagrams, etc., and will build in links between pertinent references in that research project and those of the rest of the class members. There will be ample hands-on instruction in the technology involved early in the term, so no previous computer-wizardry is supposed or necessary. I myself am a technological under-achiever. At the end of the term, each sub-module on some aspect of Viking culture will be merged with those of all of the class into a master module. The resulting collaborative learning project will be permanently preserved on the College Web pages; later, revised versions may be published in CD-ROM format.
Required Texts:
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. New York: Pantheon, 1981.
Gordon, E.V. An Introduction to Old Norse. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990.
Fee, Christopher. A Guide to Internet Resources on the Vikings. [Html document under construction].
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.
Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. King Harald's Saga. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. Laxdaela Saga. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. Njal's Saga. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. The Vinland Sagas. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Page, R.I. Norse Myths. The Legendary Past Series. London: The British Museum Press, 1990.
Page, R.I. Runes. Reading the Past Series. London: The British Museum Press, 1987.
Palsson, Hermann, trans. Hrafnkel's Saga and other Icelandic Stories. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards, trans. Egil's Saga. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards, trans. Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Penguin Classics ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987.
Instructor Information:
Instructor: C. Fee
Meeting Time: W 6:30-9:00
Meeting Place: G 311 & G 307
Office: G-313A
Office Hours: MWF 1:00-2:00, MW 3:30-4:30, and by appointment
Office Phone: x6762
Home Phone: 337-3482
E-mail: cfee@gettysburg.edu
Class E-mail: ENG-401-A-f98@gettysburg.edu
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