Old Norse Poetic Mediology

Abstract

This work is a review of the recently published Russian translation of the book by the American Scandinavian scholar Kate Heslop (Heslop K. Viking Mediologies: A New History of Skaldic Poetics. New York, Fordham University Press, 2022, XIV, 296 p.): Heslop K. Mediasfera poezii vikingov. Transl. by Ol’ga Ermakova. Saint Petersburg, Bibliorossica, 2025. 372 p. (Sovremennaia Evropeistika). The translation, made only 2.5 years after the publication of the first edition of the book, speaks, first of all, of the demand in the Russian-language scientific community for works containing the latest approaches to the study of medieval sources. The mediological method, which came to medieval studies from sociology, certainly belongs to them. Heslop applies it to skaldic poetry, examining the themes, vocabulary, objects and subjects of the medieval Scandinavian poetic tradition through its prism, thereby offering new readings of canonical works (the work analyzes the Ynglingatal, the Snorra Edda and skald vísur). Exploring the possibilities and limits of poetic mediation, Kate Heslop focuses on the ability of skaldic poetry to embody visuality and sound and preserve historical memory, as well as on the transformation of the functions of skaldic poetry with the adoption of Christianity. The translator approached both the transfer of scientific terminology and the citation of ancient texts with the utmost care.