Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

@Engelbrecht, Hi, I was just trolling through this thread (to see what I said I was going to read in July) and saw that I missed your long post from July 6. I look a Viking Literature class in college and try to teach a saga or two whenever I can. During the Viking Lit class we read the Elder Edda, which I enjoyed very much, but I love Norse mythology and have since I was a kid.

 The class I'm teaching in the fall is a special topics course: Gender and Sexuality in the Medieval Lit. I'm teaching the Laxdaela Saga and the Saga of Ref the Sly. There's lots there about constructions of masculinity and femininity and men and women who challenge their prescribed gender roles, plus a lot of old-fashioned homophobia and misogyny--all in all, lots to work with

I've only read the first section of Hrolf Kraki's Saga, but so far, I think Anderson is doing a great job working with the source saga. His premise is to put the tale in the mouth of a Scandinavian wife of an English soldier living in England around the year 1000 (I know it is pre-Norman invasion). This allows him to fill out the gaps that are in the saga and explain a bit more about how the characters lived, how the religion worked, etc.

 I've never heard of the IAFA, but I just looked it up. It looks like an interesting organization that I need to explore more.

 Thanks.

 By the way, your review of Kiln People was spot on. it had oo much potential in the beginning--a great noir voice and then Pfft!

@Rhonda!  No worries!  I've always loved the Norse myths the best as well - sounds like it was a fun class.  Sounds like this fall will be good times as well! 

Glad you liked the review!  I have, I think, eight more books read to report on - I seem to read them faster than I can comment on them!  Ah well, maybe next week when I return from a weekend in the Sierra mountains.

Scott,

Thanks for this. I read Walton’s Mabinogion long before I knew anything about Welsh social history. Now it seems like I need to reread Walton!

Be warned: I wrote my dissertation on English portrayals of the Irish and the Welsh in the Middle Ages. What you are referring to about gender sounds very plausible in Welsh culture. The Normans tried very hard to bring their brand of Catholicism to the Welsh, whose Catholicism was much more reflective their pagan roots. Therefore, issues of consanguinity and primogeniture were foremost in the Normans’ minds—not so much the Welshs’. They did not care so much if uncles married nieces, especially if it were her second marriage. Also, a man often married his brother’s widow as a matter of course. The Normans were against this practice. The Welsh had trial marriages, meaning that a man and woman could go through an informal ceremony and then live together for one year. If the wife was not pregnant by the end of the year (or had not had a child), then either party could leave the relationship and seek another one. Finally, inheritance did go through the sister (from the mother’s side if multiple marriages) in both Welsh and Irish cultures. The reasoning was this: a man and his sister might have different fathers, but they are pretty sure they are from the same womb. Likewise, the sister might not be faithful to her husband, but the brother is sure that her son is kin to him no matter who the father is. All of this points to a culture in which women held some power and sexual freedom. Of course, Marion Zimmer Bradley is famous for doing the same in The Mists of Avalon. These women are so different than the women you see in Anglo-Norman and French works.

If you are interested reading another modernization of The Mabinogion, you should read a trilogy by Tom Dietz: Soulsmith, Dreambuilder and Wordwright. (They are in the database.) These stories take place in Welch County, Georgia and incorporate Welsh and Irish myths into stories of a modern family dynasty. They are lots of fun.

@Dusty, I'm sorry to hear about your eye troubles, but the operation sounds like good news.  Hopefully you'll be down to a single whiskey or less in a few days!

Back to Raymond Chandler, didn't he write some science fiction?