Welcome to GN 250 Germanic Mythology

Dr. Rasma Lazda GN 250: Germanic Mythology Last update: 1/12/11

Spring 2011 TR 12:30 - 1:45, 256 B.B.Comer Office hours: T 11:00 - 12:00; W 1:00 - 2:00 and by appointment. Office: 220 B.B. Comer Hall; Phone: 348-6954 e-mail:rlazda@bama.ua.edu

Prerequisite: None Course webpage: http://www.lazda.net/gn_250.html  Course wiki: http://gn250.pbworks.com

Required Texts:
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Jesse L. Byock. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-140-44755-2 
The Saga of the Volsungs. Translated with an Introduction, Notes and Glossary by Jesse L. Byock. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-140-44738-5

Course Description
Germanic mythology has an immense influence on popular culture. From Wagner to Tolkien's Lord of The Rings to Dungeons and Dragons, the references are abundant. The Nazis glorifyed a "Germanic past" with archetypes they idealized and strived to follow. They envisioned themselves as heroic warriors, a modern version of ancient gods. Again we can find numerous references from runic symbols to the naming of military strategies, or the assassination attempt of Hitler - just remember the film Valkyrie (2008) is based on historical facts.
What is Germanic? What is Germanic Mythology? What is a myth? What is the function of a myth? The course will address a variety of aspects of Germanic mythology: From theories of myth to stories about Northern gods to modern reception and interpretations in history and popular culture - together we will explore aspects in a collaborative way. As a point of departure we will read the The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson and the Völsunga Saga. Student interests will guide further readings and explorations. Everything we learn in this course will be presented in this course wiki on Germanic mythology. We will be learning for and from each other. We will come to realize and understand the ongoing influence of Germanic mythology in our contemporary culture.

Learning Outcomes
The course will first focus on the stories about the Norse / Germanic gods and
heroes, their attributes, their accomplishments, and how they were perceived and worshipped. By analyzing the fascination with Germanic mythology today we will examine the function of myth and how it relates to human thought.

Students will

• learn about the world of the Germanic gods. • realize the influence Germanic mythology had in more recent history and continues to have in popular culture. • gain an understanding of how myths may be transformed from generation to generation. • gain an understanding of how myths may be reappropriated for political purposes. • recognize the presence of motifs and imagery from Germanic mythology in contemporary culture. • realize this influence on politics, warfare, literature, art, music, videogames, but also on belief systems such as neopaganism. • recognize and identify the importance of myth and mythmaking in everyday life. • on a more practical level learn to discern critically between reliable and less reliable information for their collaborative projects. • develop skills in collaborating with other students for a meaningful project for the here and now1 • strengthen effective written and oral communication skills.

 

Grading

Participation/Preparation	10%
Test, Quizzes	20%
PowerPoint Presentation	15%
Overall Course wiki Contributions	20%
Midterm	15%
Final	20%

 

Attendance / Make-Ups / Participation-Preparation:
Participation and preparation count as 10 % of your grade. Be prepared when you come to class. I will check from time to time your reading comprehension with small mini-quizzes.
You will have an initial 28 points in your participation/preparation account. For every session you come prepared you receive participation/ preparation credit for that class session. For every session you miss, I will deduct one point. You cannot earn preparation/participation credit if you have not prepared your homework or if you are absent.

If you miss more than 20 % of class time, you will receive an automatic "F", regardless of the quality of your work. Regular attendance is essential. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UPS for missed quizzes and other assignments. On rare occasions when absence is unavoidable due to serious illness or family emergency, I may require proof of your reason of absence before we discuss the possibility of make-up work.

Test / Midterm / Final
There will be one test, a midterm exam (two parts) and a take home final. The tests and the final will consist of two parts: a first section will questions requiring short answers; the second section will be an essay question. The two tests will be based on the two main readings for the course.

PowerPoint Presentation
You will prepare a Power Point presentation of about 20 minutes in length. For your presentation you will choose a topic of interest that you will discuss with me and that has to be approved. We will discuss possible topics in class. Be ready to talk for about 20 minutes. You will be evaluated on content, delivery, and the presentation overall.
Here are some hints:

-You must cover the major content points.
-Follow a clear and logical outline.
-The information has to be researched, reliable, and correct.
-You may not simply read from the slides or slide notes.
-Slides should be a backdrop for your presentation.
-Make use of photos, illustrations, maps etc. in your slides.
-Make sure that your presentation does not contain any spelling or grammar errors.
-Rehearse your presentation.
I will provide you with a rubric so that you can see my criteria for grading your PowerPoint presentation.

Course wiki 
We will work on a collaborative course wiki on pbwiki. The course wiki will provide us with a variety of background information relating to Germanic mythology, such as languages, Old Norse, literary forms, characters, places etc.

Guidelines for wiki entries  

	Follow the formatting of the sample article for the cow Audhumla.
	All information has to come from a reliable source (museum web page, university web page, etc.).
	You have to provide your references; web references alone are not acceptable, unless from a reliable source (museum web page, university web page, etc.)
	You may not simply cut and paste from an existing webpage; if doing so, you commit plagiarism.
	When using sources and references, rephrase in your own words.
	Exact quotes have to be indicated by quotation marks.
	Your references have to follow MLA style, but instead of underlining use italics.
	Make use of the primary sources (Prose Edda, Saga of the Volsungs and/or others). You should provide at least one representative and appropriate quote from a primary source if applicable.
	Add an appropriate pictures if available. You have to provide the source of the picture.
	Make sure your entries are accurate. You have to verify your information.

Length of wiki entries - Categories

Very short entry. Example: Ratatosk.
Short entry. Example: Audhumla;
Medium size entry. Example: Baldr
Long entry. Example: Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (?)

GRADING YOURSELF:

Criteria	Description	Possible Pts	Pts
A	Contribution (number and/or extent of edits)	0-10
B	Content (research, analysis and evaluation)	0-10
C	Writing and Resources (convention and MLA style)	0-10
D	Presentation (organization and appearance)	0-10
E	Collaboration (discussing and working together)	0-10
	TOTAL	0-50

You will be evaluated based on the above guidelines. You have to reference these sources. You may not simply copy and paste from other web pages. This constitutes plagiarism.

Evaluation of course wiki
Since this is a collaborative project, your grade will be based on your contribution to the completed project. In a first step you will assign yourself a grade (from a total of 50 points) by following a rubric. It is crucial that you are honest in grading yourself and others. I will then combine your grade with my grade according to the rubric. Your final grade will be most likely an average of the grades.  

The Grading Scale is the standard +/- scale used by the university.

A+ 97-100	A 93-96	A- 90-92	B+ 87-89	B 83-86	B- 80-82
C+ 77-79	C 73-76	C- 70-72	D+ 67-69	D 63-66	D- 60-62
F 59 below

 

HONOR CODE
Please keep the Code of Academic Conduct as stated in the undergraduate catalogue in mind for all the work for this class. Please follow the link to read the entire Code of Academic Conduct addressing cheating, plagiarism, fabrication and misrepresentation.
 

DISABILITY SERVICES
It is university policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact me in the beginning of the semester to discuss their individual needs for accommodations. It is standard university procedure that instructors require from students with learning disabilities a letter requesting accommodations in compliance with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). If you have a disability, register with ODS. Instructors are not obligated to provide academic adjustments until they have received an RFA letter ("Request for Accommodations" letter). To request disability accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services at 348-4285. After initial arrangements are made with that office, contact your professor. This information refers to all courses at the university.

Assignments listed on the syllabus are to be prepared for the day they are listed.

DATE	ASSIGNMENTS
Thursday January 13	1. Introduction What is myth? What is Germanic? What is Norse?
Tuesday January 18	2. What is myth? What is Germanic? What is Norse? Read: Tacitus, Germania
Thursday January 20	3. Read: John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, 1-30.
Tuesday January 25	4. Read: John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, 30-45.
Thursday January 27	5. Read: Edda, Introduction, p. IX-XXX.
Tuesday February 1	6. Read: Edda, Introduction, p. 3-45. Add entry on course wiki
Thursday February 3	7. Read: Edda, p. 45-69 (with notes in back). Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki. Check out the MLA Overview and Workshop how to paraphrase and avoid plagiarism and how to cite correctly.
Tuesday February 8	8. GERMAN DAY - NO CLASS Read:Edda, p. 69-86 (with notes in back) Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki.
Thursday February 10	9. Read:Edda, p. 86-94 (with notes in back).
Tuesday February 15	10. Read:Edda, p. 95-118 (with notes in back).
Thursday February 17	11. Read:Edda, p. 119-134.
Tuesday February 22	12. Test Prose Edda. Read: Poetic Edda, Völuspá ("The Wise Woman's Prophecy")
Thursday February 24	13. Read: from the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies: Culture; The Origins of the Icelanders; Old Norse Religion; Norse Discoveries.
Tuesday March 1	14. Submit Midterm Part 1: Either six very short, three short, two medium size or one long entry to the course wiki. Examples: Very short entry – Ratatosk Short entry – Audhumla, Asgard Medium size entry – Baldr Long entry – probably twice the size of the 'Baldr' entry
Thursday March 3	15. Midterm Part 2
Tuesday March 8	16. Read: Saga of the Volsungs, Introduction, p. 1-32.
Thursday March 10	17. Read: Saga of the Volsungs, p. 35-50 (with notes in back).
March 15-19	SPRING HOLIDAY
Tuesday March 22	18. Read: Saga of the Volsungs, p. 50-71 (with notes in back).
Thursday March 24	19. Read: Saga of the Volsungs, p. 71-96 (with notes in back).
Tuesday March 29	20. Movie Die Nibelungen - Dark Kingdom Read: Saga of the Volsungs, p. 96-109 (with notes in back).
Thursday March 31	21. Movie Die Nibelungen - Dark Kingdom; read review from the NY Times Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki.
Tuesday April 5	22. Movie Die Nibelungen - Dark Kingdom Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki.
Thursday April 7	23. Read:Campbell, Power of Myth
Tuesday April 12	24. Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki.
Thursday April 14	25. Read: Csapo, Theories of Mythology
Tuesday April 19	26. Submit to the course wiki either three very short, two short, one medium size or work on one long entry to the course wiki.
Thursday April 21	27. Present your entries to class
Tuesday April 26	28. Present your entries to class
Thursday April 28	29. SUBMIT 10 questions (with answers) from your contributions (all entries should be represented); submit via email.
FINAL	FINAL - SUBMIT BY Monday, May 2

USEFUL LINKS:

Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas by Professor Ashliman, with several links.

Varusschlacht from the Museum und Park Kalkriese in Germany, but information also in English. Excellent resource for the history of the Varus battle, Germanic tribes associated with the battle, and the myth Arminius - Hermann.

Museum of National Antiquities’ Vikings exhibition -Historiska Museet in Stockholm, with basic information and artefacts from the Viking period.

Runestones in Sweden Click on geographic location and find photos of Swedish runestones.

North Mythology with a genealogical chart of the principal gods and short articles, but lacking sources.

Iceland and Icelanders from the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík; follow links and you will find excellent information on Iceland and its cultural history.

Runes and Pronunciation brief guide

Tacitus, Germania from the Medieval Sourcebook, Engl. translation.

Poetic Edda Engl. translation by Henry Adams Bellows (also Old Norse).

Beowulf entire text (English).

Old Norse Online from the Linguistics Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, for the serious student of Old Norse

The Mosfell Archeological Project International research project to construct a comprehensive picture of human adaptation and environmental change in the Mosfell region of southwestern Iceland beginning in the Viking Age

Jesse Byock's Viking Site from Professor Byock from the Department of Germanic Languages at UCLA

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