CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Csákváry, Orsolya Borbála |
|---|---|
| Title | Old Age in the Sagas |
| Summary | The sagas, medieval Icelandic prose works, are rich sources for researching old age. Old age is not an extensively examined field in cultural history studies; however, there are numerous references, both positive and negative, to this life stage in the sagas. Six sagas were selected as material for close reading (the Bandamanna saga, the Brennu-Njáls saga, the Droplaugarsona saga, the Egil saga Skalla-Grímssonar, the Hrafnkel saga freysgoða and the Laxdæla saga). I concentrate on three main questions: physical descriptions of elderly people, old people’s personal attitude to their age and status, and the attitude of the surrounding society to them. I show, in accordance with previous research, that old age, when a person was losing physical strength and mental acuity, was not a desired state. Ability, however, was important. An old woman (Unnr) shows that dying with dignity was something to be admired. The example of Ófeigr, from the Bandamanna saga, shows how a person can make use of society’s prejudices towards old age for his own purposes. |
| Supervisor | Szende, Katalin |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/csakvari_orsolya.pdf |
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