24 research outputs found
A 150-year debate over surnames vs. patronymics in Iceland
Iceland stands out in today’s Europe due to the fact that most Icelanders use patronymics rather than surnames. However, a small percentage of Icelanders do have surnames inherited in a fixed form. The first surnames were adopted in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, increasing numbers of Icelanders were taking up surnames, often Danicized or Latinized versions of Icelandic patronymics or place names. The practice became controversial with the rise of the independence movement, which was closely connected to linguistic purism. The use of surnames in Iceland has been debated since the 19th century. Whereas the other Nordic countries introduced legislation requiring citizens to have surnames, Iceland went in the opposite direction, forbidding new surnames starting in 1925. However, the surnames that were already in use were allowed to remain in circulation. This created an inequality which has haunted Icelandic name law discourse since. Having a surname in Iceland has often been linked with social prestige, and surnames have been perceived as a limited good. Since the 1990s, the fraction of Icelanders with surnames has increased through immigration and some liberalizations in the rules regarding the inheritance of existing Icelandic surnames. In the name of gender equity, surnames can be inherited along any line, not only patrilineal. Since 1996, immigrants seeking Icelandic citizenship are no longer required to change their names, and their children can inherit their surnames. The category of millinöfn (middle name), surname-like names that are not inflected for gender, was introduced in the 1996 law; some Icelanders with millinöfn use them as surnames in daily life even if they officially have patronymics. Despite the expansion in eligibility to take surnames, the basic principle that no new Icelandic surnames are allowed remains in the law and remains a point of contention. Many of the same themes—individual freedom vs. the preservation of cultural heritage, national vs. international orientation, gender equity—have recurred in the discourse over more than a century, reframed in the context of contemporary cultural values at any given time
Austmarr network updates: genius loci and European connections
Report on the Austmarr network's activities since 2019, including conferences and book projects.</p
Ari Þorgilsson: Islantilaisten kirja
Johdannolla ja selityksillä varustettu suomennos Ari 'Viisas' Thorgilsinpojan teoksesta Íslendingabók 'Islantilaisten kirja', joka on Islannin varhaisen historian tiivistelmä, kirjoitettu vuosien 1122-1133 välillä. Käännös on toteutunut Turun yliopiston opiskelijoiden toimesta Kendra Willsonin johdolla.</p
Etymology and the European Lexicon: Proceedings of the 14th Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 17-22 September 2012, Copenhagen
Kirja-arvio: Heikki Oja, Riimut. Viestejä viikingeiltä, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura: Helsinki 2015. 240 s. ISBN: 978-952-222-591-7.
Book review: Ahola, Joonas, and Frog, Clive Tolley: Fibula, Fabula, Fact: The Viking Age in Finland. Finnish Literature Society, 2014. ISBN: 978-952-222-603-7.
Finland in the margins of the Viking world: Ahola, Joonas and Frog with Clive Tolley (eds.) 2014: Fibula, fabula, fact. The Viking Age in Finland. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 519 pp. AND Ahola, Joonas, Frog, and Jenni Lucenius (eds.) 2014: The Viking Age in Åland. Insights into identity and remnants of culture. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Arts and Letters. 427 pp.
Agneta Ney, Bland ormar och drakar. Hjältemyt och manligt ideal i berättartraditioner om Sigurd Fafnesbane
Northern myths, modern identities: the nationalisation of northern mythologies since 1800
Stories from Finnish mythology (most often mediated through Elias Lonnröth's Kalevala)
have been adapted for the stage in myriad ways which synthesize them
different international traditions. Aleksis Kivi's Kullervo
(1860) drew strongly on the tradition of Greek tragedy. Some modern
productions synthesize Kalevala stories with formal dramatic traditions from other parts of the world. Two recent examples are Kalevala dell'arte (2010) (directors and dramaturgs Soile
Mäkelä and Davide Giovanzana) and Aki Suzuki's Aino - Kalevala - Planet Earth No. 3 (2013). Aino presents the story of Joukahainen and Aino in the tradition of Japanese Noh theater. Kalevala dell'arte uses the language of the 16th c. Italian
commedia dell'arte
tradition (as revived in the 20th c. by Jacques LeCoq). The archetypes
and formal techniques of these international traditions lend additional
dimensions to the Kalevala stories and characters. The martial language of Aino brings
out the nature of the poetic duel between Väinämöinen and Jokahainen as a stylized battle. The commedia dell'arte techniques used in Kalevala dell'arte emphasize physicality and provide means of exploring status, gender and transformation. The
dynamism of both the Kalevala myths and the traditional theatrical forms is seen in these contemporary, international fusions.</p