English Professors Teach a Range of Medieval Literature Courses This Spring

Classes on Old Norse and Middle English lyrics aren't offered on campus every day, but two professors — both experts in Medieval literature — are making that unique combination of courses available at the U of A this spring.

Matthew Coker, visiting assistant professor with the Department of English, is teaching a course on Old Norse II, while William Quinn, Distinguished Professor with the department, is teaching a course on the Middle English Lyric.

Both professors were recently asked about their respective paths to pursuing Medieval literature scholarship.

A number of factors piqued Coker's initial interest in Old Norse, even before he went to college.

The Viking Age

"I've always thought the material culture of the Viking Age was fascinating, and I saw representations of Vikings and Viking Age artifacts with relative frequency growing up," Coker said.

He studied Old English as an undergraduate, but it was as a master's student that Coker had the opportunity to specialize in Medieval English language and literature. "I could see how intertwined the story of Britain and the English language were with Scandinavia and the Old Norse language. That was exciting, because it gave me good reason to explore my interest in Old Norse and early medieval Scandinavian culture in a scholarly capacity."

However, unable to take Old Norse during his master's program, Coker had to learn the language on his own, heading to his university's library and checking out a copy of E. V. Gordon's Introduction to Old Norse.

It wasn't, in fact, until Coker was a doctoral student at Oxford University that he finally had the chance to study Old Norse formally—in an eight-week crash course. Luckily, with the independent study he had already completed, the course "was more of a refresher at that point," Coker said.

Coker's current research focus includes "the intersections of early medieval poetics, culture and religion." He is studying poems like The Poetic Edda, described by Coker as "an assemblage of anonymous mythological and heroic poems."

Coker's own favorite Old Norse text is "a 13th-century manual of Old Norse poetics" written by Snorri Sturluson and titled Prose Edda.

"In it are two mythological stories, Gylfaginning ('The Tricking of Gylfi') and Skáldskaparmál ('The Language of Poetry'), which Snorri uses to teach aspects of Norse myth and poetic diction, the sort of stuff you need to know to understand some of the more complex Old Norse poetry," Coker explained.

"I love how Snorri uses dialogues couched in narrative to teach the subject, which keeps the lessons interesting and clearly situates the poetic tradition within the thought-world it makes such extensive use of. Overall, my favorite part of the book is just the rare and interesting view it offers into how an early medieval poetic art-form was conceptualized and practiced."

The Old Norse text he has most enjoyed teaching is Hrólfs saga kraka "because of how much the students enjoyed it. There's more than a few unexpected goings-on in that story, which can be strange, funny and serious, too. It also has interesting ties to Beowulf, so it gave us plenty to talk about."

Norse Vocabulary Similar to English

When asked about how hard it is to learn Old Norse, Coker said it depends: "A lot of the vocabulary can be easier for English speakers to learn than, say, Spanish, because both English and Old Norse are Germanic languages, and there's some close similarities between English and Norse words (e.g., hafa = have, taka = take) and how both languages express tense, for example. But Old Norse is a very inflected language (there can be great variation in the forms of words depending on their function in a sentence—think I, me, my) with a much more flexible word order than Spanish, and so that aspect presents English speakers with more difficulties than Spanish does."

Coker further noted that one's difficulty in learning Old Norse can also be related to the materials that are available.

"Learning from a grammar is more difficult than a more modern textbook with good practice exercises. In general, I'd say Old Norse is difficult to learn, but not as difficult as Latin, especially not for an English speaker. Moreover, since we learn Old Norse to read texts rather than to speak, the learning process requires a little bit less of us in some ways than learning to speak a modern language does."

Coker said he is uncertain whether he has a favorite word or phrase in Old Norse but that he enjoys "words that have to do with the mind or that unlock a little bit of the past and bring it to life."

He continued, "An example of a word that does both for me is munr, which can mean 'mind,' 'longing,' 'delight' and 'love,' among other things. I like it because its semantic range gets at that connection between thought and feeling—how the things you meditate on make you feel, and how your feelings influence what you meditate on. I think it's cool that the word brings together those distinct but connected aspects of our inner experience."

His students, however, might choose differently. Their favorite word, he said, "may be skjald-borg, 'shield-fortification': in Hrólfs saga, poor Hǫttr builds himself a skjald-borg out of bones which some bullies have been throwing at him, and the strange pathos of this scene just makes it all very memorable."

When asked if there has ever been a film made about Vikings in which the actors actually spoke in Old Norse, Coker said he did not know but that "there definitely should be if there isn't! I love as much realism as possible in details like that when it comes to historically oriented films."

There has, of course, been a lot of films made about Vikings, though Coker has been inclined to focus on the original literary stories rather than the cinematic adaptations . . . with one exception: How to Train Your Dragon.

"I enjoyed [it] thoroughly!" Coker said. "It was fun and funny, and I think it does a good job of capturing the youthful sense of wonder and exploration many people feel about the Viking Age and its stories."

Inspired in 1960s to Learn About the 1460s

For Quinn, on the other hand, when asked what first encouraged his interest in Middle English lyrics, he said it was neither a written text nor a movie that inspired him but, rather, "a Joan Baez concert in 1968 in which she sang medieval ballads and lyrics."

English professor William Quinn; cover of Quinn’s latest book, An Introduction to Middle English Lyrics, published by the University Press of Florida in October.

That interest has never waned, apparently: in addition to teaching a course on the "Middle English Lyric" this spring, Quinn's latest book, An Introduction to Middle English Lyrics, was just released, in October, by the University Press of Florida.

A Middle English lyric that is one of Quinn's personal favorites to read comes from the 15th century. "I sing a maiden who is makeles" is about the Virgin Mary. Quinn admires how the lyric's "apparent simplicity masks a profound and complex devotion."

When teaching, on the other hand, Quinn especially enjoys introducing students to the 14th-century lyric "Betwene Merch and Aprille" (also known as "Allison") because it is "formally brilliant and fun, both hopeful and anxious."

Regarding the level of difficulty students may face when learning Middle English, Quinn feels that it really depends on the particular era when the text was written.

"Fourteenth- and 15th-century Middle English is easy," Quinn explained. "Earlier and alliterative verse is more of a challenge."

Want to learn more about graduate courses being taught by Department of English faculty? Go here.