Memory and landscape in the sagas

Chapter 3 from my dissertation is I think my favorite, perhaps because I think it is the idea most likely to generate further research in my career. In this chapter, I argue that the landscape itself served as a mnemonic for the story of Þórðar saga hreðu, and that the plot is best explained vis a vis the actual geography of the area. The chapter as is has been approved by my committee, but I want to add a reference to a recent book that dovetails so nicely with my dissertation thesis. The book is called Being Alive: Essays on movement, knowledge, and description by Tim Ingold. 

What Tim means to suggest is that there is a fundamental way in which human beings do not learn anything, unless they go somewhere. 

Tomorrow, I am going to vote. 

P.S. I thought I could attach the chapter here, but Blogger doesn't seem to allow for that. 


Comments

Skúli Páls said…
Spennandi. Áður en sögurnar voru skrifaðar voru þær örugglega sagðar í tengslum við ákveðna staði. Þegar farið er um Vestfirði rifjast upp atburðir úr Gísla sögu: Hér var það sem Vésteinn sagði "Nú falla öll vötn til Dýrafjarðar" og svo þarf að segja frá af hverju hann sagði það.

Ferðir um Njáluslóðir eru vinsælar. Þá er farið á staðina sem koma fyrir í sögunni og rifjað upp hvað þar gerðist.
November 6, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Lissy said…
Exactly! What I am specifically arguing is that Thordar saga hredu shows evidence of this kind of memory practice in the textual version we have, which indicates that memory tied to place is not just something that happened before the saga was written down, but was actually part of the composition process.
November 6, 2012 at 3:38 PM
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