Hilkea Blomeyer

• B5: Kaleidoscopic Narration in the Icelandic Sagas

Scholarships:

• Mobilitetsstipend for norsk språk, litteratur og kultur (Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse, HK-dir) – Stipendium des norwegischen Bildungsministerium für die Feldarbeit der Masterarbeit vor Ort in Norwegen (2023)

Kaleidoscopic Narration as an Intergeneric Phenomenon. The Case of the Legendary Sagas

This research project investigates the narrative structure of the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur) and their grouping as a genre. It explores how new texts are created kaleidoscopically out of the interaction between the narrative repertoire, e.g. motifs, character types or plot structures (autological dimension), and the changing expectations of the audience (heterological dimension). This process is seen as a figure of aesthetic reflection in the praxeological model of the CRC. Modern readers have considered these stories to be heterogenous and researchers have grouped them into different sub-categories (adventure sagas, heroic sagas), which have generally been marginalised as a genre. This research project wants to highlight the connections and differences in the texts within the genre. For this, examples from the different subgroups are selected and examined in their use of kaleidoscopic narration. This study aims to initiate a re-evaluation of the legendary sagas as well as to question their grouping as a genre. To do so, the narrative flexibility of the individual sagas as well as their connections, e.g. through repeatedly appearing kaleidoscopes, are highlighted.

• Erzählstimme in der altnordischen Literatur, v.a. in den þættir
• Erzählverfahren in den Vorzeitsagas (fornaldarsögur)
• Kanonisierungsfragen in der altnordischen Literatur