University of Oslo

NFI4100— Runology – general introduction (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
Runology is concerned with some 1300 years of history of writing. Runes constituted the script used by many Germanic peoples from the second century A.D. Their use died out in Norway around 1400. This course spans the entire history of runes and gives an overview of both the secondary literature and the inscriptions themselves. There will be a special focus on how to deal with the inteplay between data (the runes) and theory (about the development of writing).

NFI4112 — Old Norse Rhetoric and Poetics in a European Context  (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
An  introduction to Old Norse rhetorics and poetics – grammatica – in Iceland between c. 1150 to 1400. The course will also provide a European background for the medieval study of grammatica as well as rhetorical and poetical praxis. The European tradition will be studied in translations from the Latin sources. A major focus will be on the relation between the introduction of European traditions and the Old Norse poetical traditions.

KUN4305E — Inside the medieval church: the church room and its decoration in medieval Scandinavia (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
The course will deal with various aspects of church interiors in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages. Issues that will be covered are: the spatial organization of the church room as a setting for the liturgy, as exemplified in the various types of churches that were raised during the Middle Ages; the history of decoration of the church interior – materials and motives from the 12th to the 15th century; iconographical case studies, focusing on the multiple dimensions of meaning of medieval church art. An underlying perspective will consist of a historiographical survey of the development of art historical scholarship on the art of the Scandinavian Middle Ages and a consideration of its theoretical and methodological foundations.

HIS4133 — The Cult of Saints in Norway and Iceland, c. 950-1250  (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
The cult of saints was a central part of the Christian faith in the Middle Ages. It became an important part of conversion and arguably the single most important aspect of Christianity for common people, with saints able to intercede and protect people through miracles in a way that the Norse gods could not. By dying the saints were thought to reach a place of vicinity to God and were therefore in a favorable position for interceding with God on behalf of the living. Thus one thought that the saints were functioning as intermediary links between God and the humans, and that they especially could be turned to in suffering and need.

The saints and their relics were to be treated in a respectful manner. If one failed to do so the wrath of the saints could be cast upon you. On the other hand, the saints had to prove to be worthy of being invoked. If some saints seemed to be less powerful than others, one would stop praying to the former. The saints therefore had to constantly prove their powerfulness or risking that their cult disappeared. As a result the cult of saints was constantly changing.

These are amongst the aspects of the cult of saints in Norway and Iceland that this course will address. In addition we will also compare the development of the cult of saints in Norway and Iceland to other parts of Western Europe.

ENG4154 — Old English, Introduction (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
Ann introduction to English as it was before the Norman Conquest (1066), that is, to one of the early Germanic languages. For the first half of the semester, students will work through Duncan Macrae-Gibson's "Learning Old English" (an interactive audio course, with written exercises to be discussed in class). This provides a step-by-step guide through the grammar set out in Sweet's "Anglo-Saxon Primer". The second half of the semester will be devoted to a study of texts in Sweet's "Primer", nos. I, IV, V, VI, and VIIb. These will afford some insight into the literature and history of England at a time with variously close links with Scandinavia. You will gain insight into the contents mentioned above in a manner to ensure your ability to perform simple analyses of Old English texts. Further, the course will lay the ground for studies of Old English on MA-level.

FIL4560 — History of philosophy from 600 BC until the 17th century (10 ECTS; Autumn 2015)
The topics of the course are works/epochs/schools/ideas in the history of philosophy from around 600 BC until the Renaissance. Texts and focus may vary, but important names will be Heraklit, Parmenides, Sokrates, Platon, Aristoteles, hellenistic philosophers, neo-platonists, Augustin, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Ockham, Montaigne and Galieo. The aim is to give the participants an in depth understanding of philosophical problems from this period and to show their relevance for later discussions.

KUN4306E — Art and visual culture of the later Middle Ages (10 ECTS; Autumn 2014)
In the course, the art of the later Middle Ages from c. 1300 to the 1530s will be studied from a perspective where the art works are seen as manifestations of the visual culture of the period. Rather than approaching them as works of art in the conventional sense, the course will focus on the manner in which the objects have made sense to their original beholders by virtue of the visual and material qualities that constitute their essential characteristics. Medieval theories of vision, visuality and materiality will be reviewed, and the perception, reception and use of images in various cultic settings as well as in secular contexts, will be studied.