Old Norse Studies in the New World. A Collection of Essays to Celebrate the Jubilee of the Teaching of Old Norse at the University of Sydney 1943-1993 (review)

Reviews 147 one might well expect from them today, in a valiant effort to excite their interest and enthusiasm for this wrongfully neglected area of study. Maxwell J. Walkley Department of French Studies University of Sydney Barnes, Geraldine, Margaret Clunies Ross and Judy Quinn, Old Norse Studies in the New World A Collection of Essays to Celebrate the Jubilee of the Teaching of Old Norse at the University of Sydney 19431993 , Sydney, Department of English, University of Sydney, 1994; paper; pp. 155; R.R.P. AUS$15.00. As the year 2000 approaches, it is perhaps in the nature of things that we should begin to take stock of the past and, depending upon our outlook on such matters, celebrate what there is to celebrate while there is still time. Perhaps in keeping with such millenarian preoccupations, the University of Sydney has published a record of papers read at a conference held on 3-4 September 1993 to commemorate fifty years of continuous study of Old Norse/Old Icelandic language and literature in the English Department there. The present volume bears comparison with a similar commemorative collection produced for the centenary symposium of the Viking Society, held at University College, London in May, 1992 (A. Faulkes and R. Perkins, Viking Revaluations, 1993). The latter conference brought together scholars from Iceland, continental Scandinavia, and the British Isles, and presented a sampling of new European work in Old Norse studies as well as a reappraisal, by Christine Fell, of the past, present, and future direction of Norse research carried out in Iceland and northwestern Europe, the traditional centres of work in thefield.The present volume focuses instead on Norse studies in the Antipodes, and reminds us of the fascinating history of Nordic research in Australia and N e w Zealand, and the valuable contribution to the subject which scholars in those countries have made during the past half century. The collection is characterised by a tone of refreshing collegiality, which leaves one with an impression of the event commemorated as something of a family affair. With the exception of a lone American contributor, all of the authors are from the Antipodes, all Australians except for Russell Poole of Massey University, N e w Zealand. It is not surprising that, considering the local focus of the gathering, many of the papers concentrate on, or at least refer to, peculiarly Antipodean concerns; but it is 14g Reviews by no means the case that the contents offer nothing of interest to a much broader audience. Several of the papers offer a retrospective survey of Norse studies in Australia. Margaret Clunies Ross, who also provides a general introduction to the volume, opens with a brief history of teaching and research in Old Norse in Sydney. She presents a lively account of the beginnings of the fledgling program in Old Icelandic in the English department, punctuated by enough memorable quotations to afford a clear impression of local enthusiasm for the subject, although perhaps some members of Sydney's English Department will be more charmed than others by Ian Maxwell's characterisation of Old English as 'mud' and Old Norse as 'electricity' (p. 9). Clunies Ross continues with a brief survey of Australian and N e w Zealand contributions to Nordic research, in which she tries to give some account of the distinctive nature of the Antipodean approach which, in her opinion, distinguishes itself at least from traditional English scholarship by 'its literary strengths and its willingness to understand Icelandic literature in a broad cultural context' (p. 12). Recollection of the beginnings of Norse studies in Sydney is taken up again in an elegant little contribution by Leath Davey, 'Memories of the first Old Norse class taught at Sydney University by George Pelham Shipp'. One may compare thefirstfiftyyears of Old Norse instruction in Melbourne, both inside and outside the university, in John Stanley Martin's detailed, and often highly amusing essay, 'People, milestones and memories: some reflections on the teaching of Old Norse in Melbourne 1944-1993'. And Graham Barwell and John Kennedy round out the picture of the early days of Norse scholarship in Sydney with their account of the Icelandic translations of Charles Venn Pilcher, Bishop...