A Farewell Gift
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A Farewell Gift
Annotation
PII
S032103910012255-3-
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Tatjana Jackson 
Affiliation: Institute of World History RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Pages
1007-1014
Abstract

This paper, written for this collection of articles in memory of Sergei Tokhta-syev and being my “farewell gift” to him, is devoted to the motif of gift-giving that is widespread in the Old Icelandic sagas, and more specifically, to the farewell gift. It is based on the evidence of the Knýtlinga saga composed in the middle of the thirteenth century. A systematic review of the five incidents described in the saga allows us to conclude that the spectrum of ideas about the farewell gift in Iceland at that time was very wide. The language of gifts was, no doubt, well known to medieval Icelanders, listeners and readers of the sagas. As a result, the use of gift-giving situations by the saga author gave him an opportunity, while preserving the imaginary “objectivity” of the saga, to express what, according to the canons of the genre, he “could not know”, namely, to describe the thoughts, feelings and intentions of his heroes.

Keywords
gift-giving motif, farewell gift, Icelandic sagas, “objectivity” of the sagas, Knýtlinga saga, mid-thirteenth century
Received
28.12.2020
Date of publication
28.12.2020
Number of purchasers
4
Views
135
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0.0 (0 votes)
Previous versions
S032103910012255-3-1 Дата внесения правок в статью - 16.10.2020
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References

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2. Andersson, Th.M. 2012: The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200–1250). Ithaca.

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4. Glazyrina, G.V., Jackson, T.N. 2013: [Friendly gift]. Stratum plus 5, 247–254.

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7. Jackson, T.N. 2019: [Foreign policy contacts interpreted by Icelandic sagamen (marriage of Ingibjörg Haraldsdóttir and Knútr Lávarðr according to “Knýtlinga Saga”)]. Elektronniy nauchno-obrazovatel’niy zhurnal “Istori-ya” [The E-Journal of Education and Science “History”] 10/9 (83). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840006963-8-1/; accessed on: 05.10.2020.

8. Jackson, T.N. 2020: Saga o Knyutlingakh: Perevod i kommentariy. Issledovaniya [Knýtlinga Saga: Translation and Comments. Studies]. Saint-Petersburg

9. Mauss, M. 2011: [Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques]. In: M. Mauss, Obshchestva. Obmen. Lichnost’. Trudy po sotsial’noy antropologii [Society. Exchange. Personality. Proceedings of Social Anthropology]. Ed., transl. and commentary by A.B. Gofman. 2nd ed. Moscow, 134–285.

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