Epithets · Epithets of Gods and Heroes in Old Germanic and beyond – A Comparative Study on their Conceptualization, Memorization and Tradition
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-07-01 → 2024-09-30
- EU contribution
- €328,968
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Epithets of Gods and Heroes in Old Germanic and beyond – A Comparative Study on their Conceptualization, Memorization and Tradition
The project "Epithets" examined the epithets of heroic and divine figures in Old-Germanic poetry, aiming for comparison with those in Indo-European traditions like Vedic Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. By analyzing texts in Old English, Old High German, Middle High German, Old Saxon, and Old Norse, the project created a searchable database with over 8,000 entries, including original epithets, translations, references, and semantic categories such as social relations, age, appearance, and heroic traits. The database represents a key achievement, offering valuable insights into naming practices and their cultural significance in ancient Germanic societies. The work highlights the values and worldviews embedded in epithets, enhancing our understanding of shared linguistic and cultural features across Indo-European traditions. The semantic categories also open avenues for interdisciplinary research in comparative mythology, semantics, and poetics. Four objectives guided the project: 1. Identifying and collecting epithets in Old-Germanic texts. 2. Developing a typology for categorizing epithets by semantic fields. 3. Comparing Old-Germanic epithets with Indo-European traditions, though only partially realized due to the absence of comparable databases. 4. Exploring Proto-Indo-European heritage in epithet usage, with significant groundwork laid for future research. All work packages were completed, with minor adjustments in research focus. Key milestones included a conference on Early Germanic Poetics and Religion (Copenhagen, 2023), which exceeded expectations in impact. Dissemination continues through forthcoming publications and the open-access database. This project provides a comprehensive resource for studying Old-Germanic epithets, fostering new insights into the cultural and linguistic history of Germanic and Indo-European societies.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
With my research project I intend to close a long-standing research gap on heroic and divine epithets in Old Germanic (OGmc.) poetic texts. Due to its interdisciplinary orientation, the project aims at a better integration of Germanic (Gmc.) studies, Indo-European (IE) comparative poetics, classical philology and comparative literature. The project combines two fields of research: a) the comparative study of epithets in OGmc. poetic literature and b) the investigation of the semantics and functions of epithets in a cross-lingual and cross-cultural perspective. It comprises four research objectives: 1) Through the systematic collection of heroic and divine epithets in OGmc. poetic texts and 2) through the creation of a typology of epithets valid for the ancient Gmc. culture, I hope to gain new insights into the naming and epithetization practices and into the metonymical use of epithets. In a further step 3), the comparison of the Gmc. data with the well-studied Vedic, Greek, and Latin epic texts and their epithets will pave the way for the overall aim of the project, which is 4) to determine whether the epithets in the Gmc. heroic poetry continue traits inherited from the Proto-IE age or even reveal more universal naming conventions. My project will take into account historical gender, culture and religion-specific observations and address research questions such as: What are the socio-pragmatic factors and cognitive foundations in the conceptualization, memorization and transmission of heroes and gods through their epithets? Are gods and heroes addressed similarly or rather differently in their epithets? How are their crucial characteristics and background stories conveyed by epithets and how do these relate to the cultural collective memory? I expect this study to provide us with an insight into the nature and characteristics of the heroic or divine figures of OGmc. literature and to give us an idea of the worldview, beliefs and cultural concepts of that era.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union