Gerðr galdrs (the Gerdr of incantation)

Analogy and creativity in Skaldic poetry from the Coserian perspective on creativity

Lecture by Flavia Teoc (Aarhus).

Abstract

Gerðr gollhrings (Gerdr of the golden enclosure) - Analogy and Creativity in Skaldic Poetry from the Coserian Perspective on Creativity

My research examines Eugenio Coseriu’s theory of text linguistics as applied in skaldic poetry. By approaching the kenning metaphors as repeated speech from a semantic perspective, I want to explore the creative potential of these units, as well as the procedures and functions based on which these units contribute to the creation of meaning. Due to the reinsertion and reconfiguration processes which can be applied to it, the kenning metaphor Gerðr gollhrings, analyzed as units of repeated speech, make possible the creation of meaning materialized through the gain of new semantic relations despite their repeated nature.

Bio

Flavia Teoc is a writer and a scholar, member of the Scandinavian Association for Language and Cognition (SALC), and affiliated scholar of C-SAC, Center for the Study of Antiquity and Christianity, University of Aarhus, Denmark. She is the author of the following articles: “The Undocumented Conversion – the role of runic inscription and skaldic poetry in revealing the conversion of the Viking population between the 8 th and 10th century” (2022); “The Ember of the Hands – Memory and transmission through kennings in Haraldsrápa” (2019), “Métaphores kenning qui désignent Jésus Crist dans la poétique des scaldes scandinaves” (2014); “The Kenning as a Unit of Repeated Speech” (2013); “Martin Opitz – a Pioneer of the Baroque” (2007). She is also author of the books: Si quis voluerit, scribat - a linguistic approach to Perpetua’s Passion, Limbajul poeziei scaldice (The language of skaldic poetry), Perspectiva sofianică în Saga regelui Harald (The Sophianic perspective in King Harald’s Saga), etc.