De Looze, Laurence. The Concept of the Self in Egil’s Saga

• Author: De Looze, Laurence
• Title: The Concept of the Self in Egil's Saga: A Ricoeurean Approach
• Published in: Egil, The Viking Poet: New Approaches to 'Egil's Saga'
• Editors: De Looze, Laurence. Jón Karl Helgason. Poole, Russell. Torfi H. Tulinius
• Place, Publisher: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
• Year: 2015
• Pages: 57-74
• E-text:
• Reference: De Looze, Laurence. "The Concept of the Self in Egil's Saga: A Ricoeurean Approach." Egil, The Viking Poet: New Approaches to 'Egil's Saga' , pp. 57-74. Eds. Laurence De Looze, Jón Karl Helgason, Russell Poole, Torfi H. Tulinius. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015.

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Annotation

De Looze uses Jean-Pierre Vernant's definition of the individual in heroic cultures and epics and Paul Ricœur's theory on the self in narratives in order to show how Egill's identity is articulated within the saga, and more generally in the context of the skald-sagas corpus. Ricœur's defines the self as ipse (the core-being, what one is) and idem (the reiteration, what one acts like): within the overall concordance of the narrative, discordant events challenge the characters' core definition. Because of the heroic ethos that they embody, the characters of the íslendingasögur are at first glance immutable, and rigidly re-affirm their initial definition in front of discordant events that are seen as trials and potential perturbations to their value and their unity as selves. However, as a poet, Egill uses enunciation to have an agency on his idemité. His poetry has the function of a speech-act by which he shapes his own identity. Thus, altough he may be more ambiguous and unpredictable than the majority of íslendingasögur characters, he autonomously displays and enacts a consistent and particularly enduring personality.

See also

• Poole, Russell. Introduction
• Torfi H. Tulinius. The Construction of Egil’s Saga
• Guðrún Nordal. Ars metrica and the composition of Egils saga
• Clunies Ross, Margaret. Self-description in Egil’s Poetry
• Ármann Jakobsson. Thorolf's Choice
• Finlay, Alison. Elegy and Old Age in Egil’s Saga
• Falk, Oren. *Konutorrek: A Husband’s Lament
• Tangherlini, Timothy R.. Facebook for Vikings
• Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir. Egil Strikes Again
• Jón Karl Helgason. Bloody Runes

Links

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