Subject Area: Iceland

Analyzing Ten Poems from the Poetic Edda: Oral Formula and Mythic Patterns

Mellor, Scott A.
2008 0-7734-4856-X 348 pages
This work investigates the syntax of ten poems from the Poetic Edda, a medieval Icelandic text, offering data that reveals some of the composition processes and the remnants of the oral tradition from which poetry came. This work demonstrates that the Icelandic poet not only employed verbatim and variable formulae when composing, but also that the structure of the half-lines are formulaic and that their semantic function aids a poet in composition.

Iceland and Its Alliances: Security for a Small State

Corgan, Michael T.
2003 0-7734-6992-3 300 pages
This study provides a long overdue examination of a critical sector of the international politics of one of the world’s most politically and economically advanced states. It also provides a model or basis of comparison for other small states on how they might shape their own security policies in the larger world. Among the distinctive features of this work is a discussion of the development of an indigenous vocabulary, with words based on Icelandic saga literature, by which the most complex issues of superpower security affairs could be discussed in a national debate. A key point examined is the growth of an indigenous security expertise. The creation of a parliamentary commission and its output led to a dialectic with the Foreign Ministry that produced an informed debate on security issues in a country of about only a quarter million people. This dialectic suggests a model for development of policy making expertise by other small states.