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Stephen Mark Carey<br />
stephen.carey@lle.uib.no<br />
_____________________________<br />
GERMAN 8865/4414<br />
ENGLISH 8900<br />
Literature in Translation:<br />
The <strong>Nordic</strong> <strong>Roots</strong> <strong>of</strong> Tolkien's Works<br />
Spring 2007<br />
Time:<br />
Wed.: 4:30pm to 7:00pm<br />
Room: General Classroom Building 429<br />
Instructor: Stephen Mark Carey, Ph. D.<br />
Office: General Classroom Building 858<br />
Office<br />
Hours:<br />
Mondays 10:00-11-00am, Wednesdays 3-<br />
4pm<br />
(and any time by appointment)<br />
Telephone: Office (404) 651 2265<br />
E-mail:<br />
WWW<br />
smcarey@gsu.edu<br />
http://www2.gsu.edu/~mclsmc<br />
Course Requirements<br />
You will need to attend all class sessions and submit all assigned work in order to fully benefit from this course.<br />
Reading assignments will be due each class. Prepare the reading for the date on which it appears. Since this course is<br />
intended to improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills, as well as to introduce you to German and Old<br />
Icelandic Literature, you are to write 5 reaction papers <strong>of</strong> three to five pages in length, on aspects <strong>of</strong> each work<br />
throughout the semester. Assignments are due at the beginning <strong>of</strong> class on the date that they appear in the syllabus.<br />
Late papers will not be accepted for any reason. Each missing paper means a deduction <strong>of</strong> 6 points from your number<br />
grade. Each student will also give one 10 - 15 minute in class presentation on one <strong>of</strong> the authors, books, or themes<br />
treated in the seminar. Even one unexcused absence will jeopardize your grade. You automatically lose points every<br />
time that you are absent. You are bound by Georgia State policies on Academic Honesty. Students with disabilities<br />
will be accommodated to the full extent <strong>of</strong> the University policy and are encouraged to let me know if I can do<br />
anything to be <strong>of</strong> further assistance. There will be a 15 page final paper due on May 4th.<br />
Grading Policy<br />
14 Class/Reading Assignments @ 14pts = 196pts<br />
4 3- 5 Page Reaction Papers @ 100pts = 400pts<br />
1 Class Presentation @ 104pts = 104pts<br />
1 Final Paper @ 300pts = 200pts<br />
TOTAL =<br />
1000pts
Course Books<br />
Primary Texts<br />
The Poetic Edda, Trans. Lee M. Hollander. Austin:University <strong>of</strong> Texas Press,<br />
1986.<br />
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Trans. Jesse L. Byock. New<br />
York: Penguin, 2006.<br />
The Saga <strong>of</strong> the Volsungs. Trans. Jesse L. Byock. New York: Penguin, 2000.<br />
Das Nibelungenlied: Song <strong>of</strong> the Nibelungs. Trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven CT:<br />
Yale University Press, 2008.<br />
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History <strong>of</strong> the Kings <strong>of</strong> Norway. Trans. Lee M.<br />
Hollander. Austin: University <strong>of</strong> Texas Press, 1991<br />
Egil's Saga. Trans. Bernard Scudder. New York: Penguin, 2005.<br />
Njal's Saga. Trans. Robert Cook. New York: Penguin, 2002<br />
The Saga <strong>of</strong> the People <strong>of</strong> Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale. Trans. Keneva Kunz.<br />
New York: Penguin, 2008.<br />
J.R.R. Tolkien, Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord <strong>of</strong> the Rings). New York: Del<br />
Rey, 1986.<br />
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Legend Of Sigurd And Gudrún. Boston: Houghton Mifflin<br />
Harcourt, 2009.<br />
Critical Essays<br />
Paul Acker, ed., The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology. New York:<br />
Routledge, 2002.<br />
Manuel Aguirre, "Narrative Composition in The Saga <strong>of</strong> the Volsungs." Saga-<br />
Book 26 (2002): 5-37.<br />
Carolyn Anderson, "No Fixed Point: Gender and Blood Feuds in Njal's Saga,"<br />
Philological Quarterly 81 4 (2002): 421-440.<br />
Håkan Arvidsson,"The Ring: An Essay on Tolkien's Mythology, " Mallorn: The<br />
Journal <strong>of</strong> the Tolkien Society, 40 (2002):45-52.<br />
Sverre Bagge, "From Sagas to Society: The Case <strong>of</strong> Heimskringla," From Sagas<br />
to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland. Gísli Pálsson, ed.. Enfield<br />
Lock: Hisarlik (1992): 61-75.<br />
Heinrich Beck, "Laxdaela Saga: A Structural Approach," Saga-Book 19 (1977):<br />
383-402.<br />
Mitzi M. Brunsdale, "Norse Mythological Elements in The Hobbit," Mythlore<br />
(1983): 49-50.<br />
Lynn Bryce, "The Influence <strong>of</strong> Scandinavian Mythology on the Works <strong>of</strong> J. R. R.<br />
Tolkien," Edda: Nordisk Tidsskrift for Litteraturforskning/Scandinavian Journal<br />
<strong>of</strong> Literary Research. 2 (1983): 113-119.<br />
Marjorie Burns, Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth.<br />
Toronto: U <strong>of</strong> Toronto Press, 2005.
Jesse Byock, "The Skull and Bones in Egil's Saga: A Viking, a Grave, and Paget's<br />
Disease," Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 24 (1993): 23-50.<br />
Patrick J. Callahan, "Tolkien's Dwarfs and the Eddas," Mythlore (1972): 15-20.<br />
Ursula Dronke, "Narrative Insight in Laxdæla Saga," J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and<br />
Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Mary Salu & Robert T. Farrell, eds.. Ithaca:<br />
Cornell UP (1979): 120-137.<br />
Tom DuBois, "The <strong>Nordic</strong> <strong>Roots</strong> <strong>of</strong> Tolkien's Middle Earth," Scandinavian<br />
Review, 90.1 (2002): 35-40.<br />
Jonathan Evans, "The Dragon-Lore <strong>of</strong> Middle-Earth: Tolkien and Old English and<br />
Old Norse Tradition" George Clark, and Daniel Timmons, eds.. J. R. R. Tolkien<br />
and His Literary Resonances: Views <strong>of</strong> Middle-Earth. Westport, CT: Greenwood,<br />
(2000): 21-38.<br />
Edward Haymes "The Germanic Heldenlied and the Poetic Edda: Speculations on<br />
Preliterary History," Oral Tradition 19.1 (2004): 43-62.<br />
Joseph Harris, "Myth and Literary History: Two Germanic Examples," Oral<br />
Tradition 19.1 (2004): 3-19.<br />
Fredrik J. Heinemann, "Tolkien and Old Icelandic Literature," Scholarship &<br />
Fantasy. K. J. Battarbee, ed.. Turku, Finland: University <strong>of</strong> Turku (1992): 99-109.<br />
Pernille Hermann, "Concepts <strong>of</strong> Memory and Approaches to the Past in Medieval<br />
Icelandic Literature," Scandinavian Studies 81.3 (2009): 287-308.<br />
William Pencak, "Njal's House: Law and Justice in Medieval Icelandic Sagas,"<br />
Spaces and Significations. Roberta Kevelson, ed.. New York: Peter Lang,<br />
(1996):67-80.<br />
Gloriana St. Clair, "An Overview <strong>of</strong> the Northern Influences on Tolkien's Works,"<br />
Mythlore (1995): 63-67.<br />
C. W. Sullivan, "Tolkien the Bard: His Tale Grew in the Telling," George Clark,<br />
and Daniel Timmons, eds.. J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views<br />
<strong>of</strong> Middle-Earth. Westport, CT: Greenwood, (2000):11 – 20.<br />
Kevin Wanner, Snorri Sturluson and the Edda: The Conversion <strong>of</strong> Cultural<br />
Capital in Medieval Scandinavia. Toronto: U <strong>of</strong> Toronto P, 2008.<br />
Syllabus<br />
It is neither allegorical nor topical....I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough<br />
to detect its presence."<br />
J. R. R. Tolkien, Introduction to the American Edition <strong>of</strong> Lord <strong>of</strong> the Rings<br />
In Dasent's words I would say: “We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones <strong>of</strong> the ox out <strong>of</strong> which it has<br />
been boiled.” Though, oddly enough, Dasent by “the soup” meant a mishmash <strong>of</strong> bogus pre-history founded on the early surmises <strong>of</strong> Comparative<br />
Philology; and by “desire to see the bones” he meant a demand to see the workings and the pro<strong>of</strong>s that led to these theories. By “the soup” I mean<br />
the story as it is served up by its author or teller, and by “the bones” its sources or material—even when (by rare luck) those can be with certainty<br />
discovered. But I do not, <strong>of</strong> course, forbid criticism <strong>of</strong> the soup as soup.<br />
J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories<br />
For it is <strong>of</strong> their nature that the jabberwocks <strong>of</strong> historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood <strong>of</strong> conjecture, flitting from one tumtum<br />
tree to another<br />
J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics<br />
I wish life was not so short, Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.<br />
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lost Road<br />
Wednesday January 10<br />
1 st Session<br />
Introduction <strong>of</strong> the Class, raison d'etre, Theme and Organization
Monday January 15<br />
REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY:<br />
"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When<br />
evil men shout ugly words <strong>of</strong> hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories <strong>of</strong> love. Where evil men<br />
would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order <strong>of</strong> justice.<br />
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<br />
THE NIBELUNG<br />
MATERIAL<br />
THE POETIC EDDA<br />
Wednesday January 17<br />
2 nd Session<br />
Read: the Poetic Edda and Gylfaginning from Prose Edda for this session.<br />
THE SONG OF THE VOLSUNGS<br />
Wednesday January 24<br />
3 rd Session Read: The Song <strong>of</strong> the Volsungs:<br />
1 st Reaction Paper Due (Edda)<br />
THE SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS<br />
Wednesday January 31<br />
4 th Session Read: The Song <strong>of</strong> the Nibelungs<br />
sign up for presentations<br />
2 nd Reaction Paper Due (Volsungs)<br />
TOLKIEN’S SIGURD and GUDRUN<br />
Wednesday February 7<br />
5 th Session Read: Tolkien’s The Legend Of Sigurd And Gudrún<br />
3 rd Reaction Paper Due (Nibelungs)
THE SAGAS OF<br />
THE<br />
ICELANDERS<br />
Wednesday February 14<br />
6 th Session<br />
HEIMSKRINGLA<br />
Read: Ynglinga Saga, Halfdan the Black Saga, Harald Harfager's Saga<br />
4th Reaction Paper Due (Sigurd and Gudrun)<br />
EGIL'S SAGA<br />
Wednesday February 21<br />
7 th Session Read: Egil's Saga<br />
( 5 th Reaction Paper Due (Heimskringla)<br />
NJAL'S SAGA<br />
Wednesday February 28<br />
8 th Session<br />
Read: Njal's Saga<br />
( 6 th Reaction Paper Due (Egil's Saga)<br />
Wednesday March 7<br />
No Session<br />
SPRING BREAK<br />
LAXDAELA SAGA<br />
Wednesday March 14<br />
8 th Session<br />
Read: Laxdæla Saga<br />
( 7 th Reaction Paper Due (Njal’s Saga)
Germanic<br />
<strong>Roots</strong> in<br />
The Hobbit<br />
And the<br />
Lord <strong>of</strong> the Rings<br />
THE HOBBIT<br />
Wednesday March 21<br />
9 th Session Read: The Hobbit<br />
( 8 th Reaction Paper Due (Laxdæla)<br />
THE LORD OF THE RINGS<br />
Wednesday March 28<br />
10 th Session Read: Up to the "Flight to the Ford" (in Fellowship <strong>of</strong> the Ring)<br />
Wednesday April 4<br />
11 th Session Finish Fellowship <strong>of</strong> the Ring<br />
Wednesday April 11<br />
12 th Session Read: Up to "The Taming <strong>of</strong> Sméagel"" (in The Two Towers)<br />
Wednesday April 18<br />
13 th Session Read: Up to "The Siege <strong>of</strong> Gondor" (finish The Two Towers and read<br />
on in The Return <strong>of</strong> the King)<br />
Wednesday April 25<br />
14 th Session<br />
Finish the Return <strong>of</strong> the King<br />
FINAL DUE ON MAY 4