Northern Myths and Legends
Final Exam Study Sheet: terms, texts, topics & themes

The Volsunga Saga
Old Norse
Characters:
Odin and Sigi
Volsung
Sigmund and Signy
Sinfjotli
Helgi
Sigurd
Regin and Fafnir
Brynhild
Gudrun
Gunnar, Hogni and Guttorm
Atli
Svanhild
King Jonakr
Hamdir, Sorli and Erp
Scenes:
Otter’s ransom
Sigurd killing Fafnir
Sigurd tastes dragon’s blood
Dispute of the Queens
Betrayal of Sigurd
Hogni’s heart
Gunnar in the Snake Pit
Gudrun killing Atli’s sons
Failed vengeance for Svanhild
Themes and Symbols:
The Doomed Hero
Mythological ancestry
Werewolves & Transformations
Valkyries / shield-maidens
Ale of Forgetfulness
Jealousy, Pride and Status
Magical Sword
Vengeance and Honor
Legendary Sagas and History
Historical References

Lay of the Nibelungs
Middle High German
Germanic epic elements
Medieval courtly elements
Minstrels and courtly verse
Historical elements
Burgundians and Huns
Adventures:
The "courting" of Brunhilde
Gunther’s wedding night
The Quarrel of the Queens
The Death of Siegfried
The Death of Rüdiger
Deaths of Gunther & Hagen
The Death of Kriemhild

Characters:
Siegfried
Gunther, Gernot and Giselher
Hagen von Tronje
Kriemhild and Brunhild
Volker "the Minstrel"
King Etzel
Rüdiger
Dietrich of Verona
Hildebrand
Important Themes:
Revenge and Honor
Images of the Knight
Duty and Obligation
Gifts and Alliances
Pageantry and Celebration
Treachery and Murder
Epic Tragedy
Love
Gold (the Nibelungen hoard)
The Cursed Ring

Doctor Faustus
Early Modern Period
Early New High German
Folk Culture / Low Culture
Johan Spies
P. F., gent.
Christopher Marlowe
Blank Verse
Elizabethan Theater
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The historical Faust
Volksbuch– folk book/ chapbook
Protestantism and Age of Discovery
Important Topics:
Theology and Modernity
The Rejection of Academics
The Pact with the Devil
The Pranks pulled on the Pope
The Summoning of Alexander
The Affair with Helen of Troy
Faust’s Damnation and Death
Characters:
Faustus
Mephistophilis
Sweet Helen
Emperor Charles V.
Benvolio
Important Themes:
quest for forbidden knowledge
magic and sorcery
good and bad angels
temptation or divine devotion
sin and salvation
desire and gratification
Till Eulenspiegel
author Herman Bote
"Schwank"
scatological humor

Richard Wagner
das Rheingold
die Walküre
Siegfried
die Götterdämmerung
das Gesamtkunstwerk
Leitmotif

Fairy Tales
Charles Perrault
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
Kinder- und Hausmärchen
Grimms’ other Scholarly Works
Romanticism
German Nationalism
German Cultural Identity & Unity
Fairy tales and folk tales
Oral tales and written literature
Aarne-Thompson Classifications
'The Frog King’
‘Boy who left to find fear...’
‘Little Red Cap’
‘Rapunzel’
‘The Maiden Without Hands’
‘Brier Rose’
‘Snow White’
'Little Farmer'
‘The Juniper Tree’
‘The Three Spinners’
‘Rumpelstiltskin’
‘The Bremen Town Musicians’
'King Thrushbeard'
'Fitzer's Bird' and 'Bluebeard'
Important Themes:
Childhood oppression complex
Neglect, abuse and abandonment
Sexual Jealousy
Oedipus and Electra complex
Family Romance fantasy
Work, Diligence and Obedience
Female Virtues – desirability
Male Virtues – luck and wealth
Stupidity and Laziness
(Step)mothers and Stepsisters
Children’s Literature
Walt Disney
Snow White, 1937.
Adaptations of Fairy Tales.
Folkeeventyr
Asbjörnsen and Moe
'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'

Fantasy Literature
Entertainment and escapism
industrialization, individualism, democracy
utopian literature
William Morris, The Wood beyond the World
Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the  Dragon
Conan the Barbarian

J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Modern Adaptations of Myth
Peter Jackson, LOTR 2001-03
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter