dr Łukasz Neubauer
(Koszalin University of Technology)
“The Drink of Odin” and Other Poetic Riddles of the Norse Skalds and English Scops
The aim of the workshop is to provide an introduction to the rich world of kennings, the figurative compound phrases which abound in the poetic compositions of Old Germanic provenance, in particular the works of the Norse skalds and the English scops. The presentation will cover the following: the general character of oral poetry, basic terminology, form and function of kennings, thematic areas, examples of early medieval kennings, examples of kenning-like expressions in modern literature and, at the very end, an interactive game for the students.
Łukasz Neubauer received his PhD in English philology from the University of Łódź. He is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Koszalin, Poland, where he teaches courses on Tolkien and Lewis, Old English literature and the Arthurian romances. Apart from his publications dealing with various medieval as well as Christian influences and resonances in The Lord of the Rings, he has written papers on The Battle of Maldon, Beowulf, Hêliand, Icelandic sagas and the so-called “beasts of battle” trope in, particularly but not exclusively, Old Germanic poetry. He is also a member of the British branch of the International Arthurian Society and a conceptual coordinator of the annual Medieval Fantasy Symposium in Mielno-Unieście, Poland.