Remembering Auðr/Unnr djúp(a)uðga Ketilsdóttir: construction of cultural memory and female religious identity

Medieval Icelandic literature recounts stories of both pagans and Christians settling in Iceland. Most of these stories focus on a male protagonist. However one of these tales centres around a female settler, namely Auðr/Unnr djúp(a)úðga Ketilsdóttir. Her story is unique in two senses: firstly, she is one of the few female protagonists among the many male ones in these accounts; secondly, the question of Auðr’s religion is an interesting one and a puzzle at that as two religious traditions exist parallel to one another. According to the first, she converts to Christianity. In the other, she remains true to the pagan faith of her Norwegian ancestors. These alternative traditions form a good example of how cultural memory and representations of a ninth century female Viking and her religious identity are transmitted in literary form. This article will investigate how these religious identities were created focusing on religious and funerary practices. I will briefly mention what effect these changes have on the depiction of Auðr/Unnr djúp(a)úðga Ketilsdóttir and how she is remembered from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century

Forgotten Laxdæla poetry : a study and an edition of Tyrfingur Finnsson's Vísur uppá Laxdæla sögu

The paper discusses the metre and the diction of a previously unpublished small poem about characters of Laxdæla saga, composed in 18th century. The stanzas are ostensibly in skaldic dróttkvætt; the analysis shows it to be an imitation of the classical metre, yet a remarkably successful one, implying an extraordinarily good grasp of dróttkvætt poetics on the part of a poet composing several hundred years after the end of the classical dróttkvætt period