Discourse in Old Norse Literature

An examination of what dialogues and direct speech in Old Norse literature can convey and mean, beyond their immediate face-value. The vast and diverse corpus of Old Norse literature preserves the language spoken not only by the Vikings, kings, and heroes of medieval Scandinavia but also by outlaws, missionaries, and farmers. Scholars have long recognized that the wealth of verbal exchanges in Old Norse sagas presents the modern reader with the opportunity to speak face-to-face, as it were, with