Photo: Sigurður Stefán Jónsson
Eyes and blindness are a consistent feature in myth cycles and literary traditions from around the world, not least here in Scandinavia. Annette Lassen, associate professor in the department of Nordic studies and literature at the University of Copenhagen and author of the book Øjet og blindheden i norrøn litteratur og mytologi (Eyes and Blindness in Old Norse Literature and Mythology), has a specialism in these stories from history.
On the occasion of the ongoing exhibition Kinship with the American artist Emilie Louise Gossiaux, who lost her sight following a traffic accident, Kunsthall Trondheim and Litteraturhuset in Trondheim are happy to present a conversation thinking through the way blindness has been considered in the traditional tales of the region, what we can take from those impressions today and how we can learn from them in understanding visual impairment as a society.
Annette Lassen, is a saga researcher, author and translator. She is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen at the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection and was formerly employed at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík. She has published a complete translation of the Sagas of Icelanders (2014, 2017-18) and the Sagas of Ancient time (2016-19) (about Norwegian, Danish and Swedish Vikings) and is the author of several award-winning works on Old Norse/Icelandic literature and mythology, most recently Oldtidssagaernes verden (2021). Annette Lassen's first book was Øjet og blindheden, a pioneering study in disability in Old Norse literature. Here she examined the symbolic meaning of eyes and blindness in sagas and eddic poems, as well as in the three gods: Odin, Hother and Thor.
Where: Kunsthall Trondheim
When: 20 October at 1 pm
Free entry