{"id":24251,"date":"2025-02-28T15:57:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T14:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fhse-en\/?post_type=events&p=24251"},"modified":"2025-02-28T16:18:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T15:18:03","slug":"lets-talk-about-history-odinn-thorr-loki-and-his-children-old-norse-myth-in-anglophone-popular-culture","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fhse-en\/events\/lets-talk-about-history-odinn-thorr-loki-and-his-children-old-norse-myth-in-anglophone-popular-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk About History!: \u00d3\u00f0inn, \u00de\u00f3rr, Loki and His Children: Old Norse Myth in Anglophone Popular Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\nAbstract<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This lecture will examine the ways in which three principal figures of Old Norse myth have been made to signify in recent Anglo-American culture. Exploring the figures of \u00d3\u00f0inn, \u00de\u00f3rr and Loki (and his monstrous children) in novels, films, TV shows and operas, I will argue that these figures are indeed, as journalists like to say, \u2018having a moment\u2019 in the present-day popular imagination, in ways that differ considerably from their roles in previous nineteenth- and early twentieth-century works. The cultural functions they fulfil are closely related to their depictions in medieval sources \u2013 indeed, their \u2018authenticity\u2019 in relation to medieval source material for example is a subject of lively debate in fan communities \u2013 but these characters have also fundamentally re-tooled and re-imagined in order to reflect on key contemporary concepts such as patriarchy, masculinity, queerness, adolescence and alterity in popular discourse.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\nSpeaker<\/h3>\n\n
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\nProf. Carolyne Larrington<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Emerita Professor at the University of Oxford<\/p>\n\n

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Carolyne Larrington is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford, and Emerita Research Fellow of St John\u2019s College, Oxford. Her research spans such fields as Old Norse literature, Arthurian studies, folklore, emotions in medieval literature and medievalism. Her most recent academic book is Approaches to Emotion in Middle English Literature (2024). She also writes books for the general reader, including The Old Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think (2023) and two books on Game of Thrones. Her next trade book, The
Little Book of Trolls, for the British Library, is published on 15 May 2025.

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\nProgramm<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

17.15: Inscription
17.30: Presentation
18.30: Questions and discussion
19.00: Reception<\/p>\n\n\n\n