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Trolls, Druids and the Walking Dead:Imagining the pagan past

CU5514

CREDIT POINTS 20

Course Co-ordinator: Dr Ralph O'Connor

Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in programme year 5

Co-requisite(s): None

Note(s): Available in the second half session of 2009/10.

The written literatures of mediaeval Iceland and Ireland represent the richest body of textual evidence we have for the beliefs and customs of pre-Christian Europe. This course will explore how mediaeval Irish and Icelandic saga-authors presented and imagined the pagan past from a Christian perspective, looking back several centuries into a world which was both familiar and alien, terrible and admirable. Particular attention will be paid to tales of Otherworld voyages, heathen magic and the conversion to Christianity. The historical functions of these narratives in their authors’ own times will be considered, and the question of cultural exchange between these two bodies of narrative will be addressed.

8 x 2-hour classes

Continuous assessment 100% (one 3000-word essay 90%; seminar participation 10%)

 

 

Arts and Humanities Research Council

The AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies >>

 

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