Kate Heslop, "Skaldic Mediologies: A New History of Skaldic Poetics"

Sammendrag

The aim of Skaldic Mediologies: A New History of Skaldic Poetics is to inaugurate the study of mediality in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia by applying notions developed for the analysis of modern media to the study of Old Norse skaldic verse. The intention is to situate skaldic poetry “in the broader media landscape of the Viking Age” by “seek[ing] to describe how different media interacted in this particular historical setting” (p. 4). Given the many unanswered questions about the relationship between various Viking Age ‘media’, such as poetry and runic monuments, or myths as told in verse and the few, often later, iconographic sources, this is a promising venture. Here, I will discuss the book mainly from an Old Norse philologist’s perspective, focusing on what concerns the treatment of skaldic verse and related subjects.