Bøger af Lars Boje Mortensen

Middelalderen, renæssancen og oplysningstiden. - tre store epoker fra år 1100 til 1800. Fremstillingen tager sin begyndelse omk. år 1100, da danske tekster første gang skrives i bøger.De tidligste danske storværker - som bl.a. Saxos Danmarkshistorie (ca. 1200) - blev skrevet på latin, og det blev de til langt op i 1600-tallet. Den dansksprogede litteratur vokser ud af bønnebøger, love, krøniker, folkebøger og folkeviser - først efter Reformationen udkommer den første dansksprogede Bibeludgave i 1550.1600-tallets barokdigtere tæller blandt andre Anders Bording og Thomas Kingo, mens det er kongedatteren Leonora Christina, der med sin Jammers Minde, bliver den første selvbiografist i den danske litteratur.I 1700-tallet opstår nye genrer og litteraturens betydning i samfundet vokser. Ludvig Holberg skriver satirer og komedier, og han grundlægger essay-genren i Danmark. Charlotta Dorothea Biehl skriver følsomme komedier, mens Johan Herman Wessel parodierer tragedien og de store følelser. Ved 1700-tallets slutning står det enkelte, selvberoende individ i centrum hos lyrikeren Johannes Ewald og prosaisten Jens Baggesen.

Omkring år 1208 satte Saxo det sidste punktum i sin kolossale krønike om det danske riges historie. 20 år tidligere havde ærkebiskop Absalon bedt ham skrive et værk, der kunne forherlige riget, bevise dets ælde og storhed og gøre landet berømt og beundret i al evighed. Da historien endelig var fortalt, fik værket ikke megen opmærksomhed. Kun med nød og næppe overlevede Saxos prægtige danmarkshistorie. Så bragede den til gengæld igennem. Først blev Saxo kongens og landets ejendom. Så blev han folkets store helt. Og i dag, 800 år efter at han lod pennen flyde, er Saxo på vej mod global berømmelse. Lars Boje Mortensen, professor og leder af Centre for Medieval Literature ved Syddansk Universitet, åbner den litterære og historiske bog for os og fortæller, hvordan så formfuldendt et monument kunne blive til så højt mod nord.

The fragmentary medieval chronicle, Historia Norwegie, is the oldest piece of historical writing from Norway, and probably our first specimen of Norwegian literature. It was composed in Latin in the second half of the twelfth century, perhaps in the Oslo area. Only the beginning of the work exists today, but it offers, among other things, a detailed report of a shamanic séance among the Sami as well as a unique early geographical description of Norway and the North Sea realm. Furthermore, we are presented with an early version of the Norwegian kings´ genealogy, beginning with the mythical Yngling kings and ending, abruptly, with Olav Haraldsson´s claim to the throne in 1015.This is the first critical edition of the Latin text since 1880, accompanied by a modern English translation by Peter Fisher. The introduction and full commentary in English take stock of previous scholarships and are new contributions to the interpretation of the text.

The rise of literary fiction in medieval Europe has been a hotly debated topic among scholars for at least two decades, but until now that debate has come with severe limitations, focusing on ‘modern’ French and German romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Attempting to find common ground among scholars from various disciplines and regions, Medieval Narratives between History and Fiction seeks to clarify and broaden the subject by including a wide range of medieval narratives irrespective of their modern label and affiliation to certain disciplines. The chapters collected here broaden the discussion by moving beyond the canonical French and German romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, focusing mainly on texts in Greek, Latin and Old Norse (and also some in Serbian), and by opting for a ’peripheral’ and a long-term view of the subject. The chapters take us from Graeco-Roman antiquity to medieval France, then to the Scandinavian lands and from there to south-eastern Europe and Byzantium as the link back to the Graeco-Roman world. This disposition also follows a spiral motion in time, leading us from antiquity to late antiquity and from the eleventh to the fifteenth century. By expanding the linguistic as well as the geographical and chronological scope of the debate, the book shows that we should not think of a ‘rise of fiction’ per se, but rather we should think of a potential always imbued in and related to historical narratives and that a modern understanding of medieval fiction cannot afford to disregard non-fictional or non-vernacular writing. Panagiotis A. Agapitos is Professor of Byzantine literature at the University of Cyprus. Lars Boje Mortensen is Professor of Ancient and Medieval Cultural History and Head of the Centre for Medieval Literature at the University of Southern Denmark and was Prof II of Medieval Latin at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen until 2011.