Rebecca Merkelbach

@beccamerkelbach.bsky.social

838 Followers 609 Following

Doctor of trollology. Saga fangirl. Assistant Prof of Old Norse at Uni Tü. Lefty nerd💚 Powerlifting yoga teaching harpist. She/sie🏳️‍🌈 #SkandiRetten

A picture of the thermometer in my office; it’s 29.5C
Pics of two budgies with lines from Wulf&Eadwacer: Ungelic is us. Otto is on iege, ic on oþere
Proofs of my latest article: Betra er slíkt með gamni at heyra: Kanonisierung und die isländische Sagaliteratur Abstract Icelanders produced one of the largest corpora of medieval vernacular literature, but not all texts belonging to this corpus were valued in the same way, both by contemporary and later recipients. Particularly late medieval sagas characterised by paranormal and fictitious elements and schematic narrative structures were considered problematic by medieval clerics, inauthentic by early modern antiquarians, and un-Icelandic by nationalist scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The aim of this article is to trace these patterns of selection, evaluation and ultimately canon formation that impacted the reception of saga literature and in many ways still impact the field of Old Norse-Icelandic studies today. By focusing on the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Icelanders), and particularly on the group of late medieval sagas commonly demeaned as ‘post-classical’, the consequences of these centuries-long processes of canonisation will become apparent. Finally, ways of decentring of the canon and approaches to a more inclusive study of the sagas will be suggested
From the Project Hail Mary Wikipedia entry: Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail shared a similar opinion, writing, "At almost every turn, Project Hail Mary attempts to convince you that it is groundbreaking, innovative filmmaking. But in actuality, the movie lands as a grand act of cinematic recycling – the fusing together of familiar, comforting bits and pieces into something determined to please crowds and warm hearts."
Reviewers must not enter unpublished manuscript or project proposals, images or information into databases or tools that do not guarantee confidentiality, are accessible by the public and/or may store or use this information for their own purposes (for example, generative AI tools like ChatGPT). You have been chosen as an expert in your fields and should not be using generative AI for analysis or summarization of the submitted proposal or portions thereof in the creation of your review. We expect you to provide a constructive, comprehensive, evidenced, and appropriately substantial peer review report. You are responsible for ensuring any references included within your report are accurate and verifiable
Picture of me wearing a black shirt with white skeletons playing musical instruments on it
Screenshot of the first page of an article entitled “Revenants in Medieval Iceland and Their Afterlives”.
It had started with The Goode Childe’s Booke of Faerie Tales. Actually, it had probably started with a lot of things, but the stories most of all. Her mother had read them to her when she was little, and then she’d read them to herself. And all the stories had, somewhere, the witch. The wicked old witch. And Tiffany had thought: Where’s the evidence? The stories never said why she was wicked. It was enough to be an old woman, enough to be all alone, enough to look strange because you had no teeth. It was enough to be called a witch. If it came to that, the book never gave you the evidence of anything. It talked about ‘a handsome prince’ … was he really, or was it just because he was a prince that people called him handsome? As for ‘a girl who was as beautiful as the day was long’ … well, which day? In midwinter it hardly ever got light! The stories didn’t want you to think, they just wanted you to believe what you were told …
‘One, kings go round killing each other because it’s all part of destiny and such and doesn’t count as murder, and two, they killed for the kingdom. That’s the important bit. But this new man just wants the power. He hates the kingdom.’ A quote from Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters
An image of Halsin from Baldur's Gate 3, with subtitles. He says, “That is where true leadership lies - not in winning a single vast battle, but in fighting a thousand smaller ones. Making ten thousand difficult decisions. Finding balance, where none seems possible, day after day..."
A Christmas tree, decorated with all kinds of baubles and ornaments, standing before a bookshelf.
Image of a free tampon dispenser
Leitfaden Uni Tübingen zum Studieren mit Behinderungen und chronischen Erkrankungen
An image of people demonstrating against the far right
A picture of a Christmas tree