Bästsäljare är böcker som säljer i stora upplagor, som får ett stort antal läsare och är omtalade i medier och bland läsare. Trots att bästsäljare kan anses vara den mest synliga litteraturen på bokmarknaden har forskning om hur de skapas, framställs och mottas varit begränsad, likaså forskning kring bästsäljares kulturella och sociala betydelse. I forskningsantologin Hype är bästsäljaren som fenomen i fokus, inte minst utifrån perspektivet att populära berättelser bevisligen spel...

This volume investigates the reception of a small historical fact with wide-ranging social, cultural and imaginative consequences. Inspired by Leif Eiriksson’s visit to Vinland in about the year 1000, novels, poetry, history, politics, arts and crafts, comics, films and video games have all come to reflect rising interest in the medieval Norse and their North American presence. Uniquely in reception studies, From Iceland to the Americas approaches this dynamic between Nordic histo...

In the world of books and literature, “hype” is associated with bestsellerism - the books that sell the most, are read by vast numbers, and constantly talked about in media and staff rooms. Often, it is the success in itself that generates an interest because popularity begets popularity. Quite often though, a hyped bestseller is met with a skeptic criticism of poor language, a badly constructed plot, a predictable story line, or all three. The bestseller phenomenon is sometimes conceived ...

Egil, the Viking Poet focuses on one of the best-known Icelandic sagas, that of the extraordinary hero Egil Skallagrimsson. Descended from a lineage of trolls, shape-shifters, and warriors, Egil’s transformation from a precocious and murderous child into a raider, mercenary, litigant, landholder, and poet epitomizes the many facets of Viking legend.The contributors to this collection of essays approach Egil’s story from a variety of perspectives, including psychology, phil...

”Overall, the book summarises an ambitious project that draws on corpora and stylistics to investigate the empirical validity of a theoretical cornerstone in feminist literary criticism. The transparency of the analyses is impressive, with detailed appendices illustrating the main findings, the corpora contents, and the methods of statistical test”Journal of Literary SemanticsFör svensk text, se längre ner på sidan.Is there ...

By linguistic close-reading of more than a thousand letters from the 12th through the 18th centuries - written in Latin, Swedish, French, German, and English - this compilation analyzes the differences in language and communication between women and men. Armed with an exhaustive stylistic analysis, this volume attempts to answer the question Is there a special niche reserved for women's language? As it pinpoints the variations in how women expressed themselves when addressing men ...

Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf, Wagner’s Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Marvel’s superhero the Mighty Thor and the Vikings heading for Valhalla in Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’: these are just a few examples of how Icelandic medievalliterature has shaped the human imagination during the past 150 years.Echoes of Valhalla is a unique account of modern adaptations of the Icelandic eddas (poems of Norse mythology) and sagas (ancient prose accounts of Viking history, voyages and battl...

Freedom of the printed word is a defining feature of the modern world. Yet censorship and the suppression of literature never cease, and remain topical issues even in the most liberal of democracies. Today, just as in the past, advances in media technology are followed by new regulatory mechanisms. Similarly, any attempt to control cultural expression inevitably spurs fresh discussions about freedom of speech.In Forbidden Literature scholars from a variety of disciplines a...

Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland and outlines the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world. The book begins with an Introduction that helps put Scandinavian mythology in place in history, followed by a chapter that explains the meaning of mythic time, and a third section that presents in-depth explanations of each mythologic...

'I adored this book - a wondrous compendium of Iceland's best sagas' - Hannah KentA new friendship. An unforgettable journey. A beautiful and bloody history.This is Iceland as you've never read it before ...Broadcaster Richard Fidler and author Kári Gíslason are good friends. They share a deep attachment to the sagas of Iceland - the true stories of the first Viking families who settled on that remote island in the M...

The epic Viking Age stories that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien and Wagner's Ring cycleWritten in thirteenth-century Iceland but based on ancient Norse poetry cycles, The Saga of the Volsungs combines mythology, legend and sheer human drama. It tells of the cursed treasure of the Rhine, a sword reforged and a magic ring of power, and at its heart are the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer, who acquires magical knowledge from one of Odin's Valkyries. One of the great books...

This popular history of the Norwegian Viking period features lively accounts of the Kings and their families along with illustrations.