“Praise and Censure in the Heroic Poems of the Poetic Edda”

Abstract

This dissertation offers a systemic, comparative view of the main characters within the Heroic Poems of the Poetic Edda. First, I will analyse the surface, textual evidence about judgement, directly expressed by characters and narrators, assuming the meaning of either censure or praise, about behaviours, actions and traits. Subsequently, by contextualisation, generalisation and analogy, I will proceed with a synthetic view of the characters, as they could have been conceived by the generic Norse audience through the Viking and Medieval Ages. This, in turn, can shed new light for further research about Old Norse Heroism, and its role in society and culture.