edited by Kirsten Wolf and Johanna Denzin

Islandica 54, xii, 342 p. ISBN 978-0-935995-15-2 (Cloth). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2008

Purchase print edition from Cornell University Press

Marianne Kalinke, who retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2006, made profound contributions in Old Norse-Icelandic literature over her distinguished career of teaching and writing. She is perhaps best known for her Bridal-Quest Romance in Medieval Iceland, Volume 46in the Islandica series. This volume in her honor features new essays by fourteen authors on the theme of Old Norse-Icelandic romance and love.

Several chapters examine love between a man and a woman with special focus on the ways in which the Sagas of Icelanders differ from courtly romances; tragic and comic elements of Icelandic tales of love; and the differing societal roles of women and men. Other chapters explore the intersection of folklore, mythology, and romance; the role of dwarfs in fourteenth-century Icelandic romances; and the characteristics that distinguish heroic epics from romances. Aspects of love as expressed through religion are highlighted in chapters on sacred and hagiographic texts.