Translating the Medieval Icelandic Romance-Sagas

This short note surveys recent work done on translating romances composed in medieval Iceland into English, focusing on translations produced at the University of Leeds. It describes the ongoing project of the author and his collaborators to produce further translations for free-access publication

How did the world come into being?

A fleeting and light-hearted Festschrift contribution on Leeds students' work collecting oral accounts of how the world came into being

Elleborus in Anglo-Saxon England, 900–1100: Tunsingwyrt and Wodewistle

This article examines the meanings of the Latin word elleborus in later Anglo-Saxon England. They prove to have varied, from Ælfric’s implicit assertion around 1000 that elleborus had no vernacular Old English counterpart, to the association by the translator of the Old English Herbarium, perhaps around 900, of elleborus albus with tunsingwyrt, which seems to have denoted an allium such as wild garlic, to the use of the gloss wodewistle, denoting hemlock or some similar plant, by the Antwerp-London glossator in the earlier eleventh century. The study offers minor insights on a range of subjects: Ælfric’s use of Latin words in his Old English texts; the prospect that the Old English Herbarium marks an influential watershed in Anglo-Saxon scholarship on Latin plant-names; that with careful use of glossaries derived from the Herbarium we can discern a lost early version of this text which is subtly different from our surviving manuscripts, and closer to its Latin original. However, the main focus of this article has been the problematic word tunsingwyrt. The most likely interpretation suggested by the evidence is that tunsingwyrt denoted an allium — and if so, probably wild garlic

Jón the Fleming: Low German in Thirteenth-Century Norway and Fourteenth-Century Iceland

Low German influence is one of the most prominent characteristics of Old Norse in the later medieval period, but the processes whereby this took place are little evidenced. However, Laurentius saga, Einarr Hafliðason’s fourteenth-century Icelandic biography of Bishop Laurentius Kálfsson, provides anecdotal evidence for this that has been overlooked by researchers. The anecdotes concern the linguistic (mis)adventures of a Low German-speaker in thirteenth-century Norway—the otherwise unknown Jón flæmingi (Johannes the Fleming)—and, perhaps uniquely in medieval Scandinavian texts, they also provide a representation of L2 Norse. Problematic and brief though this source is, it affords us valuable perspectives both on fourteenth-century Icelandic metalinguistic discourses and on the processes whereby Low German influence took place in thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Norse. Contrary to some recent assumptions, Laurentius saga suggests that Low German and Old Norse were not seen as mutually intelligible; it provides some support for the idea that Low German influence was responsible not only for loan words into Old Norse, but also for morphological levelling; and emphasises that in seeking vectors of Low German influence on Old Norse we should look not only to Hanseatic traders, but also to the Church

Madness, Medication--and Self-Induced Hallucination? Elleborus (and Woody Nightshade) in Anglo-Saxon England, 700-900

This article studies what Anglo-Saxons in around 700--900 understood by the Latin plant-name elleborus, looking particularly at Aldhelm's Latin riddle Elleborus, which suggests that the word was understood to denote woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). It examines the semantics of Old English words that gloss elleborus in earlier Anglo-Saxon sources: wedeberge, ceasteræsc, ceasterwyrte, and ælfþone. The article finds evidence for the presence of a copy of Dioscorides’ De materia medica in seventh-century Canterbury. It also argues for a culturally significant connection between ingesting woody nightshade, the production of an altered state of mind attested in Latin as dementia cordis and in Old English as wedenheortnes, and elves. Ælfþone might originally have meant something along the lines of ‘vine which causes the symptoms which elves cause’. It seems likely that there was a custom of ingesting it deliberately to achieve mind-altering effects

Turning your coursework into articles

'Turning your Coursework into Articles' discusses how undergraduate and master's-level coursework can be developed into academic articles. The piece begins by addressing some practical questions about publishing coursework--about whether and where students should try to publish. It then focuses on the writing itself--at how writer-centred coursework differs from reader-centred articles, and how professional-level writing is formatted, with a couple of hints about content

Interpersonal Skills in a Sociotechnical System: A Training Gap in Flight Decks

This research analyzed the perceptions of interpersonal skills on established aviation safety models, Crew Resource Management (CRM), and Threat and Error Management (TEM) using feedback from industry pilots. The flight deck is a sociotechnical system where much research has focused on the technical aspect, whereas we spotlight its socio aspect. The aviation industry must invest in training pilots on interpersonal skills to enhance safety through increased efficacy of safety models integrated throughout existing training programs. A 34-question survey was disseminated across both commercial and business aviation pilots (N=822). We explored three research questions regarding pilots’ perceived training on interpersonal skills and Federal Aviation Administration-recommended training content as well as the impact of psychological safety on the efficacy of CRM. Safety models lost efficacy when an individual felt a reduction in team psychological safety. Pilots experiencing reduced psychological safety within the flight deck were less likely to admit mistakes, share safety concerns, or ask for help. While regulatory authorities recommend interpersonal skills training, feedback from industry pilots revealed a perceived training gap. The results of this research demonstrate that interpersonal skills training (e.g., bias literacy, psychological safety, and interpersonal communication) is correlated with overall safety in the flight deck as it enhances the ability to activate safety voice, a necessary, albeit lacking, aspect of current industry safety models. Our findings apply both within flight decks, and other safety-sensitive, time-critical, dyadic environments in high-reliability industries, such as nuclear power plants, and healthcare

Sigrgarðs saga frækna: a normalised text, translation, and introduction

This article provides the first complete translation into English of the fifteenth-century Icelandic romance Sigrgarðs saga frækna [the saga of Sigrgarðr the Valiant], along with a normalised edition of the earliest manuscripts based on that of Agnete Loth. The introduction shows that the saga artfully combines material from both the learned tradition of romances and exempla, and from traditional wonder-tales, showing an unusual warmth towards low-status genres and characters. It argues that the setting of the story articulates Icelandic identity by associating it with the otherworldly setting of the heroes’ climactic quest, and studies the constructions of gender implicit in the saga. While clearly heteronormative and potentially patriarchal in its ideological commitments, the saga probes and arguably destabilises the patriarchal culture of late medieval Iceland. RÉSUMÉ: Cet article constitue la première traduction complète en anglais de Sigrgarðs saga frækna [la saga de Sigrgarðr le vaillant], un roman islandais du XVe siècle, avec une édition normalisée sur la base de l’édition par Agnete Loth des plus anciens manuscrits. Notre introduction indique que la saga combine adroitement la matière de la tradition savante des romans et celle des exempla, ainsi que des contes traditionnels; elle fait montre d’une chaleur inhabituelle envers les genres et les personnages de statut inférieur. L’introduction suggère aussi que le cadre de la quête finale des héros, qui se dérole dans un autre monde évoquant l’Islande, permet d’articuler une identité islandaise périphérique. Enfin, nous étudions dans cet article les constructions de genre implicites dans le texte : si l’idéologie de la saga est hétéronormative et potentiellement patriarcale, la saga examine néanmoins, et déstabilise sans doute, la culture patriarcale en Islande à la fin du Moyen Âge

Sigurðar saga fóts (The Saga of Sigurðr Foot): A Translation

This is the first English translation of the short Icelandic romance Sigurðar saga fóts, with an introduction presenting the evidence for its dating and immediate literary context. Like most Icelandic romances, Sigurðar saga is a bridal-quest story; the support of a foster-brother is key to the hero winning the bride; and the foster-brothers start out as opponents before recognising their mutual excellence and swearing foster-brotherhood. Uniquely, however, the men who become foster-brothers begin by competing for the same bride (Signý): the eponymous Sigurðr fótr wins Signý only because Ásmundr gives her to him in exchange for foster-brotherhood. Ásmundr’s decision can be read as demonstrating with unusual starkness the superior importance in much Icelandic romance of homosocial relationships over heterosexual ones, giving the saga a certain paradigmatic status. Translating the saga in an open-access forum and reconstructing its literary context will, we hope, encourage further analyses