Nordic Roots of Tolkienx

Stephen Mark Carey
stephen.carey@lle.uib.no
_____________________________
GERMAN 8865/4414
ENGLISH 8900
Literature in Translation:
The Nordic Roots of Tolkien's Works
Spring 2007
Time:
Wed.: 4:30pm to 7:00pm
Room: General Classroom Building 429
Instructor: Stephen Mark Carey, Ph. D.
Office: General Classroom Building 858
Office
Hours:
Mondays 10:00-11-00am, Wednesdays 3-
4pm
(and any time by appointment)
Telephone: Office (404) 651 2265
E-mail:
WWW
smcarey@gsu.edu
http://www2.gsu.edu/~mclsmc
Course Requirements
You will need to attend all class sessions and submit all assigned work in order to fully benefit from this course.
Reading assignments will be due each class. Prepare the reading for the date on which it appears. Since this course is
intended to improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills, as well as to introduce you to German and Old
Icelandic Literature, you are to write 5 reaction papers of three to five pages in length, on aspects of each work
throughout the semester. Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the date that they appear in the syllabus.
Late papers will not be accepted for any reason. Each missing paper means a deduction of 6 points from your number
grade. Each student will also give one 10 - 15 minute in class presentation on one of the authors, books, or themes
treated in the seminar. Even one unexcused absence will jeopardize your grade. You automatically lose points every
time that you are absent. You are bound by Georgia State policies on Academic Honesty. Students with disabilities
will be accommodated to the full extent of the University policy and are encouraged to let me know if I can do
anything to be of further assistance. There will be a 15 page final paper due on May 4th.
Grading Policy
14 Class/Reading Assignments @ 14pts = 196pts
4 3- 5 Page Reaction Papers @ 100pts = 400pts
1 Class Presentation @ 104pts = 104pts
1 Final Paper @ 300pts = 200pts
TOTAL =
1000pts

Course Books
Primary Texts
The Poetic Edda, Trans. Lee M. Hollander. Austin:University of Texas Press,
1986.
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Trans. Jesse L. Byock. New
York: Penguin, 2006.
The Saga of the Volsungs. Trans. Jesse L. Byock. New York: Penguin, 2000.
Das Nibelungenlied: Song of the Nibelungs. Trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven CT:
Yale University Press, 2008.
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Trans. Lee M.
Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991
Egil's Saga. Trans. Bernard Scudder. New York: Penguin, 2005.
Njal's Saga. Trans. Robert Cook. New York: Penguin, 2002
The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale. Trans. Keneva Kunz.
New York: Penguin, 2008.
J.R.R. Tolkien, Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). New York: Del
Rey, 1986.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Legend Of Sigurd And Gudrún. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2009.
Critical Essays
Paul Acker, ed., The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology. New York:
Routledge, 2002.
Manuel Aguirre, "Narrative Composition in The Saga of the Volsungs." Saga-
Book 26 (2002): 5-37.
Carolyn Anderson, "No Fixed Point: Gender and Blood Feuds in Njal's Saga,"
Philological Quarterly 81 4 (2002): 421-440.
Håkan Arvidsson,"The Ring: An Essay on Tolkien's Mythology, " Mallorn: The
Journal of the Tolkien Society, 40 (2002):45-52.
Sverre Bagge, "From Sagas to Society: The Case of Heimskringla," From Sagas
to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland. Gísli Pálsson, ed.. Enfield
Lock: Hisarlik (1992): 61-75.
Heinrich Beck, "Laxdaela Saga: A Structural Approach," Saga-Book 19 (1977):
383-402.
Mitzi M. Brunsdale, "Norse Mythological Elements in The Hobbit," Mythlore
(1983): 49-50.
Lynn Bryce, "The Influence of Scandinavian Mythology on the Works of J. R. R.
Tolkien," Edda: Nordisk Tidsskrift for Litteraturforskning/Scandinavian Journal
of Literary Research. 2 (1983): 113-119.
Marjorie Burns, Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth.
Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 2005.

Jesse Byock, "The Skull and Bones in Egil's Saga: A Viking, a Grave, and Paget's
Disease," Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 24 (1993): 23-50.
Patrick J. Callahan, "Tolkien's Dwarfs and the Eddas," Mythlore (1972): 15-20.
Ursula Dronke, "Narrative Insight in Laxdæla Saga," J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and
Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Mary Salu & Robert T. Farrell, eds.. Ithaca:
Cornell UP (1979): 120-137.
Tom DuBois, "The Nordic Roots of Tolkien's Middle Earth," Scandinavian
Review, 90.1 (2002): 35-40.
Jonathan Evans, "The Dragon-Lore of Middle-Earth: Tolkien and Old English and
Old Norse Tradition" George Clark, and Daniel Timmons, eds.. J. R. R. Tolkien
and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-Earth. Westport, CT: Greenwood,
(2000): 21-38.
Edward Haymes "The Germanic Heldenlied and the Poetic Edda: Speculations on
Preliterary History," Oral Tradition 19.1 (2004): 43-62.
Joseph Harris, "Myth and Literary History: Two Germanic Examples," Oral
Tradition 19.1 (2004): 3-19.
Fredrik J. Heinemann, "Tolkien and Old Icelandic Literature," Scholarship &
Fantasy. K. J. Battarbee, ed.. Turku, Finland: University of Turku (1992): 99-109.
Pernille Hermann, "Concepts of Memory and Approaches to the Past in Medieval
Icelandic Literature," Scandinavian Studies 81.3 (2009): 287-308.
William Pencak, "Njal's House: Law and Justice in Medieval Icelandic Sagas,"
Spaces and Significations. Roberta Kevelson, ed.. New York: Peter Lang,
(1996):67-80.
Gloriana St. Clair, "An Overview of the Northern Influences on Tolkien's Works,"
Mythlore (1995): 63-67.
C. W. Sullivan, "Tolkien the Bard: His Tale Grew in the Telling," George Clark,
and Daniel Timmons, eds.. J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views
of Middle-Earth. Westport, CT: Greenwood, (2000):11 – 20.
Kevin Wanner, Snorri Sturluson and the Edda: The Conversion of Cultural
Capital in Medieval Scandinavia. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2008.
Syllabus
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
to detect its presence."
J. R. R. Tolkien, Introduction to the American Edition of Lord of the Rings
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 of the ox out of which it has
been boiled.” Though, oddly enough, Dasent by “the soup” meant a mishmash of bogus pre-history founded on the early surmises of Comparative
Philology; and by “desire to see the bones” he meant a demand to see the workings and the proofs that led to these theories. By “the soup” I mean
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
discovered. But I do not, of course, forbid criticism of the soup as soup.
J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories
For it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tumtum
tree to another
J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics
I wish life was not so short, Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lost Road
Wednesday January 10
1 st Session
Introduction of the Class, raison d'etre, Theme and Organization

Monday January 15
REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY:
"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When
evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men
would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
THE NIBELUNG
MATERIAL
THE POETIC EDDA
Wednesday January 17
2 nd Session
Read: the Poetic Edda and Gylfaginning from Prose Edda for this session.
THE SONG OF THE VOLSUNGS
Wednesday January 24
3 rd Session Read: The Song of the Volsungs:
1 st Reaction Paper Due (Edda)
THE SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS
Wednesday January 31
4 th Session Read: The Song of the Nibelungs
sign up for presentations
2 nd Reaction Paper Due (Volsungs)
TOLKIEN’S SIGURD and GUDRUN
Wednesday February 7
5 th Session Read: Tolkien’s The Legend Of Sigurd And Gudrún
3 rd Reaction Paper Due (Nibelungs)

THE SAGAS OF
THE
ICELANDERS
Wednesday February 14
6 th Session
HEIMSKRINGLA
Read: Ynglinga Saga, Halfdan the Black Saga, Harald Harfager's Saga
4th Reaction Paper Due (Sigurd and Gudrun)
EGIL'S SAGA
Wednesday February 21
7 th Session Read: Egil's Saga
( 5 th Reaction Paper Due (Heimskringla)
NJAL'S SAGA
Wednesday February 28
8 th Session
Read: Njal's Saga
( 6 th Reaction Paper Due (Egil's Saga)
Wednesday March 7
No Session
SPRING BREAK
LAXDAELA SAGA
Wednesday March 14
8 th Session
Read: Laxdæla Saga
( 7 th Reaction Paper Due (Njal’s Saga)

Germanic
Roots in
The Hobbit
And the
Lord of the Rings
THE HOBBIT
Wednesday March 21
9 th Session Read: The Hobbit
( 8 th Reaction Paper Due (Laxdæla)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Wednesday March 28
10 th Session Read: Up to the "Flight to the Ford" (in Fellowship of the Ring)
Wednesday April 4
11 th Session Finish Fellowship of the Ring
Wednesday April 11
12 th Session Read: Up to "The Taming of Sméagel"" (in The Two Towers)
Wednesday April 18
13 th Session Read: Up to "The Siege of Gondor" (finish The Two Towers and read
on in The Return of the King)
Wednesday April 25
14 th Session
Finish the Return of the King
FINAL DUE ON MAY 4