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GH3527: THE HEROIC AGE IN GAELIC SAGAS (2022-2023)

Last modified: 31 Jul 2023 11:19


Course Overview

Are heroes always a good thing? Medieval Gaelic legendary narrative offers no simple answers. Its rich and hugely entertaining body of heroic sagas dramatizes the feuds, loves and fatal flaws of great men and women of medieval Ireland and Scotland, to reflect on urgent questions about royal and aristocratic conduct. Storylines studied will include cattle-raids, fights with saints, beheading competitions, family breakdowns, love-triangles, and people uprooting trees for no apparent reason.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 3
Term Second Term Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Professor Ralph J. O'connor

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • One of Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4 or Programme Level 5
  • Any Undergraduate Programme

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

Are heroes always a good thing? Medieval Gaelic legendary narrative offers no simple answers. Its rich and hugely entertaining body of heroic sagas dramatizes the feuds, loves and fatal flaws of great men and women of medieval Ireland and Scotland, to reflect on urgent questions about royal and aristocratic conduct. In so doing they invited audiences to reflect on their own place in history, and on urgent contemporary questions about royal and aristocratic conduct. Storylines studied will include cattle-raids, fights with saints, beheading competitions, family breakdowns, love-triangles, and people uprooting trees for no apparent reason. Subsidiary topics explored will include the place of Gaelic heroic narrative in the early medieval North Atlantic Gaelic diaspora, the transformation and transmission of sagas over time (including in Scottish manuscript anthologies), and the blend of history and imagination at work in these narratives. Texts will be studied in English translation and there will be numerous content warnings.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Tutorial/Seminar Participation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

Feedback - Orally if requested, as per current SLLMVC practice.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualAnalyseUnderstanding and negotiating the different levels on which a complex text may be understood and interpreted.
ConceptualUnderstandUnderstanding complex literary works in their historical, cultural and ethical contexts.
ProceduralApplyAbility to compare literary forms within a variety of narrative frameworks.

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 60
Assessment Weeks 37 Feedback Weeks 40

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Feedback

 

Written feedback will be given as well as the opportunity for one-to-one discussion of that feedback.

Word Count 3000
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualAnalyseUnderstanding and negotiating the different levels on which a complex text may be understood and interpreted.
ConceptualUnderstandUnderstanding complex literary works in their historical, cultural and ethical contexts.
ProceduralApplyTo plan and execute critical essays displaying a clear command of this material.
ProceduralApplyAbility to compare literary forms within a variety of narrative frameworks.

Text commentary

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 30
Assessment Weeks 32 Feedback Weeks 35

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Feedback

 

Written feedback will be given in time to inform work on the final essay.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualAnalyseUnderstanding and negotiating the different levels on which a complex text may be understood and interpreted.
ConceptualUnderstandUnderstanding complex literary works in their historical, cultural and ethical contexts.
ProceduralApplyTo plan and execute critical essays displaying a clear command of this material.
ProceduralApplyAbility to compare literary forms within a variety of narrative frameworks.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 100
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

To be submitted and marked online

Word Count 3000
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandUnderstanding complex literary works in their historical, cultural and ethical contexts.
ConceptualAnalyseUnderstanding and negotiating the different levels on which a complex text may be understood and interpreted.
ProceduralApplyAbility to compare literary forms within a variety of narrative frameworks.
ProceduralApplyTo plan and execute critical essays displaying a clear command of this material.

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