Last week, I spoke about the Icelandic sagas at Melbourne's Sophia Club, which is a live philosophy series that also holds events in London and New York, and that is part of the philosophy magazine Aeon. The club's events take a multimodal approach to the topics covered, and on this occasion included saga readings by actor Eloïse Mignon and original musical performances by Erkki Veltheim and Aviva Endean (details here).
The format consisted of interview questions about medieval Iceland and its literature and society that were put to me by the director of the club, Brigid Hains, with our discussion then interspersed with Eloïse's readings from Njáls saga (Gunnar's decision to refuse exile and stay in Iceland), Laxdæla saga (Guðrún's dreams), and Grettis saga (Grettir's fight with Glámr). The musicians Erkki and Aviva played while the readings were going, improvising responses to the text and the emphasis in the story. At the end of the night, I gave a performance of the first two verses of the hymn 'Heyr himna smiður', in part because the sagas as we have them are the products of a medieval Christian society (as are the words of the hymn, which were composed by the chieftain Kolbeinn Tumason, who lived from 1171-1208), but also because I find it's a fitting way to end the night.
Rather like those endeavours, the Sophia Club event last week was given an extra dimension by place and setting, which was the large but also intimate-feeling Brunswick Ballroom, recently renovated, and which with its wooden floors and small table settings created the atmosphere of a discussion that was being shared with everyone in the room.
