Bridget Leary has successfully completed her Master thesis “The Anachronistic Skald: The Emotionality in Sonatorrek“. A summary of the thesis can be found below:
This thesis deals with the Old Norse poem Sonatorrek, today typically read in the saga Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, where it is attributed to the tenth-century skald Egill Skallagrímsson. Considered an exemplar of linguistic skill and interiority, Sonatorrek is a highly emotive poem which stands in marked contrast to the typical conventions of saga emotionality.
This thesis uses emotive scripting and cultural memory theory to examine the emotionality of Sonatorrek in order to reconsider the context of its composition. It draws comparisons between the behavioural codes used to perform literary emotion in the sagas, in the poem, and in continental romances, their translations and indigenous imitations, to show that Sonatorrek utilises literary conventions that did not become standard until much later – until closer to the twelfth or thirteenth century than the tenth.
Due to issues with the manuscript evidence for the poem’s transmission, there has been some debate around the date of Sonatorrek’s composition – albeit heavily weighted towards scholars who favour a tenth-century composition date. Despite the poem’s emphasis on emotive force however, there has been as yet no attempt to use emotionality to question its literary context and detach it from the saga. This thesis will introduce this new facet to the argument, and will consider the implications that viewing the poem as arising from a later context has for understandings of self and identity in the medieval period.