Málstofa: Lena Rohrbach
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Föstudagur 7. október kl. 15.30
Málstofunni, ​Árnagarði við Suðurgötu.
 

Lena Rohrbach, prófessor í norrænum miðaldafræðum við Humboldt-háskólann í Berlín, flytur erindi í málstofuröð Stofnunar Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum föstudaginn 7. október kl. 15.30. 

Í haust hefur Lena notið styrks Snorra Sturlusonar og vinnur við Árnastofnun að nýstárlegum rannsóknum á textum íslenskra lagahandrita frá miðöldum. Hún lauk doktorsprófi frá Erlangen og var ritgerð hennar gefin út 2009: Der tierische Blick. Mensch-Tier-Relationen in der Sagaliteratur.

Erindið verður flutt á ensku í málstofu stofnunarinnar í Árnagarði og nefnist: 

Architectures of Heterotopia. Spatial Conceptualizations of the Althing in Old Norse Tradition.

Ágrip erindis:

When we think of the premodern institution of Althing, most of us will visualize it in its stunning setting in landscape in Þingvellir, in the steadily growing ravage resulting from the drifting apart of the two continental plates, next to the river Öxará. We will also see in our minds’ eyes the lögsögumaðr, standing on Lögberg, to announce the applicable laws to the thing assembly; and probably the institutions of the lögrétta, the quarter courts and the Fifth court situated next to the river will also pop up in our minds. But how is this central secular social institution of medieval Iceland set in space in the medieval tradition itself? Is it actually set in space at all? What is transmitted, narrated and remembered of this social space, how is it defined, and how is it set in relation to the social space around it?

Vésteinn Ólason identified the Home and the Thing as “the two major locations or scenes for positive social interaction (within [medieval] Iceland)”. If we take into account how events in the Home and at the Thing are narrativized in Old Norse tradition, a complex, multilayered spatial relationship between these two spaces become obvious. In this paper, I will approach this intricate relationship that is highly insightful both as to modes of narration in the Old Norse tradition and as to the conceptualization of the Althing as space in Icelandic cultural memory. The case of the Althing allows unique insights into the interplay between a real-life space and its conceptualization and medialization over time and into interdependencies between narrative and memory.