Papers by Viðar Hreinsson
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Icelandic literary culture was one of the richest and most important in the medieval world. Texts... more Icelandic literary culture was one of the richest and most important in the medieval world. Texts that were written in Iceland during this period include "Njal's Saga", "Egil's Saga", "The Vinland Sagas", as well as the "Comic Sagas and Tales" collected in this volume. "Comic Sagas and Tales" brings together the finest comic stories from medieval Iceland. With feuding families and moments of grotesque violence, the sagas see such classic mythological figures as murdered fathers, disguised beggars, corrupt chieftains and avenging sons do battle with axes, words and cunning. The tales, meanwhile, follow heroes and comical fools through dreams, voyages and religious conversions in Iceland and beyond. Shaped by Iceland's oral culture and their conversion to Christianity, these stories are works of ironic humour and stylistic innovation. In the introduction to these new translations, Vidar Hreinsson examines how the stories sa...
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De Gruyter eBooks, Apr 12, 2023
Environmental humanities and ecocriticism have been prominent over the last few decades and latel... more Environmental humanities and ecocriticism have been prominent over the last few decades and lately it has been influenced by new materialism and scholars like quantum physicist Karen Barad and philosopher David Abram. Manuscript culture can also be linked to ideas of biodiversity and biosemiotics, based on Jakob von Uexküll. It can be regarded as organic growth, natural in the sense that it is a complex, diversified process of reproduction, re-creation and eventual decay rather than exponential accumulation of written material. The paper touches upon these material aspects of the manuscript culture by extracting examples of neglected poetry on nature and environment with a brief analysis of one distinct branch of poetry, hrakningsrímur (rímur of perils) that are particularly interesting as first hand testimonies of often difficult struggles with forces of nature. This brief analysis will emphasise the organic flow or becoming of poetry and this distinctive genre in particular.
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Paper Stories – Paper and Book History in Early Modern Europe, 2023
Environmental humanities and ecocriticism have been prominent over the last few decades and latel... more Environmental humanities and ecocriticism have been prominent over the last few decades and lately it has been influenced by new materialism and scholars like quantum physicist Karen Barad and philosopher David Abram. Manuscript culture can also be linked to ideas of biodiversity and biosemiotics, based on Jakob von Uexküll. It can be regarded as organic growth, natural in the sense that it is a complex, diversified process of reproduction, re-creation and eventual decay rather than exponential accumulation of written material. The paper touches upon these material aspects of the manuscript culture by extracting examples of neglected poetry on nature and environment with a brief analysis of one distinct branch of poetry, hrakningsrímur (rímur of perils) that are particularly interesting as first hand testimonies of often difficult struggles with forces of nature. This brief analysis will emphasise the organic flow or becoming of poetry and this distinctive genre in particular.
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Going Forward by Looking Back, Dec 31, 2022
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Routledge Handbook of the Digital Environmental Humanities, Jul 26, 2022
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Biography of Stephan G. Stephansson (1853-1927), and Icelandic-Canadian poet. Benson Ranch Inc. C... more Biography of Stephan G. Stephansson (1853-1927), and Icelandic-Canadian poet. Benson Ranch Inc. Calgary, 2012.
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This presentation will focus on climate impacts of hay and grass harvesting in the Mývatn area in... more This presentation will focus on climate impacts of hay and grass harvesting in the Mývatn area in the northeastern highlands of Iceland. Mývatn means “Midge Lake” and refers to the flies or midges, of vital importance for the local ecosystem, providing food for fish and waterbirds. Until the early part of the twentieth century, the inhabitants of the area lived almost entirely on the proceeds of the land by farming, fishing for trout, and collecting the eggs of wild birds. With its North Atlantic location, marginal for agriculture, grass was the only viable crop in Iceland, and the economy focused primarily on animal husbandry until comparatively recent times. Thus, the success or failure of the all-important grass crop, coupled with winter rangeland grazing, was the one aspect of the economy on which all else rested. The successful harvesting of hay was thus the farmers’ most important annual task. If there was not enough hay in the winter to feed the livestock they could die, and ...
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Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, 2019
The Mývatn area in northeast Iceland has been occupied by farming communities since the arrival o... more The Mývatn area in northeast Iceland has been occupied by farming communities since the arrival of Viking Age settlers in the late ninth century. Despite its inland location and relatively high elevation, this lake basin was affected by continuous human occupation through periods of harsh climate, volcanic eruptions, epidemics, and world system impacts. Mývatn’s residents have practised farming, fishing, egg-collecting, and hunting activities for over a millennium. They managed the landscape and its resources with the use of traditional knowledge, which included the story of the troll woman, Kraka, who lived in a cave in the mountain Blafjall (“Blue Mountain”). The story of Kraka and the river Kraka that bears her name provides a striking metaphor for the landscape history including water resources and environmental changes the agricultural community sustained over time.
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Developments in Earth Surface Processes, 2016
Abstract Because of its outstanding natural beauty and interesting geological features, the Mývat... more Abstract Because of its outstanding natural beauty and interesting geological features, the Mývatn area of Iceland, named for the lake which literally means “Midge Lake,” is regarded as one of Iceland's most valued natural treasures, and is an extremely popular tourist destination. Mývatn and its tributary river, the Laxa (meaning “salmon river”) were protected by law in 1974, and in 1978 placed on the RAMSAR list of wetlands of international importance ( http://www.ramsar.org/ ). The region is the only high-altitude community in Iceland that has persisted continually from settlement over 1100 years ago to modern times. What made the Mývatn region different from other early settled mountainous regions of Iceland was undoubtedly its water, and the sustainable management of the water-related resources which included fish and the eggs of waterbirds. These resources were sustainably harvested for c.1100 years until the instability of the ecosystem and the degradation of the lake set in around 1970. Currently, in spite of the status of the Mývatn area as an area of scientific interest and extremely attractive natural features, the region is undergoing an environmental crisis and serious steps to alleviate this situation have not yet been taken.
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The Holocene, 2015
The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, w... more The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have presented this story of island colonization as yet another social–ecological disaster, recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research combined with environmental history, environmental humanities, and bioscience is providing a more complex understanding of long-term human ecodynamics in these northern islands. An ongoing interdisciplinary investigation of the management of domestic pigs and wild bird populations in Faroes and Iceland is presented as an example of sustained resource management using local and traditional knowledge to create structures for successful wild fowl management on the millennial scale.
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Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, 2021
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Classics, Comic Sagas and Tales from Iceland, Mar 7, 2013
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Framing the Environmental Humanities, 2018
The meaning and usage of the word nature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was qualitative r... more The meaning and usage of the word nature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was qualitative rather than quantitative and objectifying. The qualitative meaning of the word is reflected in the ideas and works of the 17th century Icelander Jón Guðmundsson the learned (1574–1658). He was a self-educated farmer and fisherman as well as a poet, scholar and artist who led a rough life due to his critical writings and occult activities. A pioneer in Icelandic literary history, he was the first to write a critical account of contemporary events and the first to write a description of Icelandic nature in Icelandic. In some of his poetry and especially in his later writings, he articulates a conception of nature which is fascinated by organic diversity and stands in sharp contrast to the then-ascendant tendency to frame nature as object.
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Papers by Viðar Hreinsson
The regard in which scholars with no formal education such as Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá and Jón the Learned are held is one of the features which distinguishes the world of Icelandic scholarship from its counterparts elsewhere. The works of Jón the Wise separate themselves even further in that they bear witness to his tendency to stand apart from the mainstream scholarship of his time. His critical faculties, and even Utopian view, appeal- in works I such as Fjölmóður and Íslands náttúrur.
As a work, Samantektir is extremely diverse, containing a considerable part of Snorra Edda, accompanied by a large variety of comments on that work by Jón himself. At the same time, it also alludes to the existence of differing copies of Snorri's work.
From the outset (Prologus) it is clear that Jón's standpoint is highly moral when discussing the subject matter of Snorra Edda, even although it is difficult to tell whether Jón considered the work to have any allegorical value. It is clear, however, that he saw certain similarities between his own society and the Eddic world, and placed a strong moral slant on both. '
At the same time, a considerable amount of the subject matter of Samantektir has nothing to do with Snorra Edda. Most striking in this respect is the cosmological lore dealing with the inner structure of the earth and the ideas on morality which also feature strongly in some of his other works. Chief among these are his concepts of orðhelgi and alfrí which he connects with the general moral laxity he perceived as prevalent in the wake of the Reformation. Implicit in his concept of orðhelgi was the idea that words had become of more importance than deeds, in other words, hypocrisy, while alfrí describes a kind of liberalism, unbridled freedom unchained by any moral impediment.
Samantektir summarizes in a nutshell the kind of paradoxes which predominated in Icelandic literature and scholarship in the past. In itself, the work is the legitimate offspring of the fertile literary culture which existed among Icelanders in general, although Jón himself shattered this tradition.
Indeed, it could even be thought he was using his scholarly debate on Snorra Edda as a pretext for promoting his ideas on matters of a very different nature in order to criticize the society in which he himself lived.
However, the work is marked by the prevailing station in 17th-century Iceland. Its distribution was very limited, and it is unlikely that Jon's ideas reached a very wide audience or influenced the general perception of Snorra Edda. In this respect, the fate of Samantektir was the same as that which befell other outstanding works of the 17th and 18th centuries — they were not printed until the 20th century.
Landsbókasafn Íslands-Háskólabókasafn á og rekur Tímarit.is. Safnið áskilur sér engan rétt á því myndefni sem birtist á vefnum. Öll endurnot á stafraenum myndum af efni sem fallið er úr höfundarrétti eru heimil án endurgjalds eða leyfis frá safninu. Birting á Tímarit.is á efni í höfundarrétti er skv. samningi við rétthafa. Safnið á því ekki höfundarrétt að efni sem birt er á vefnum. Öll endurnot, baeði á texta og stafraenum myndum, á efni sem enn er í höfundarrétti eru því óheimil án leyfis viðkomandi rétthafa.
Landsbókasafn Íslands-Háskólabókasafn á og rekur Tímarit.is. Safnið áskilur sér engan rétt á því myndefni sem birtist á vefnum. Öll endurnot á stafraenum myndum af efni sem fallið er úr höfundarrétti eru heimil án endurgjalds eða leyfis frá safninu. Birting á Tímarit.is á efni í höfundarrétti er skv. samningi við rétthafa. Safnið á því ekki höfundarrétt að efni sem birt er á vefnum. Öll endurnot, baeði á texta og stafraenum myndum, á efni sem enn er í höfundarrétti eru því óheimil án leyfis viðkomandi rétthafa.
About Þórbergur Þórðarson's views on nature in his books on Suðursveit (where he grew up)
In: „að skilja undraljós“ Greinar um Þórberg Þórðarson, verk hans og hugðarefni
Editors: Bergljót Soffía Kristjánsdóttir and Hjalti Snær Ægisson.
Bókmennta- og listfræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands og Háskólaútgáfan
Reykjavík 2010: 35-60
Turku 2002, pp. 179-194.
The Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Text Series 17.
Reykjavík 2001, pp. 74-83
Benson Ranch Inc. Calgary, 2012.
Reykjavík, Lesstofan 2016.