TY - BOOK AU - Faulkner,Robert TI - Icelandic men and me: sagas of singing, self and everyday life T2 - SOAS musicology series SN - 9781409449768 U1 - 782.421623961 23/swe PY - 2013/// CY - Farnham, Burlington, VT PB - Ashgate KW - Isländska sagor KW - sao KW - Musik KW - Sång KW - Island KW - Folkvisor KW - Könsidentitet KW - Nationell identitet KW - Manlighet KW - sociala aspekter KW - Masculinity in music KW - Folk literature, Icelandic KW - Folk songs, Icelandic KW - National characteristics, Icelandic KW - Male singers KW - Iceland KW - Music KW - Social aspects KW - Music and literature KW - Gender identity KW - Folk music KW - History and criticism KW - Folk poetry, Icelandic KW - Musical settings N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Telling tales and setting the scene -- Baldur's saga -- Icelandic sagas and songs -- Singing social connections -- Songworlds -- Songs, spirituality, and self therapy -- Singing himself -- My saga -- Vocal events and singing's agency in change -- Conclusions, closure, and the vocal celebration of self N2 - A sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic recently made world-wide headlines in the Global Financial Crisis and for volcanic eruptions that caused unprecedented chaos to international air travel. Large contemporary audiences have formed very different images of Iceland through the vocal music and music videos of Bjork and Sigur Ros. Just below the Arctic Circle, Icelandic men engage in more everyday vocal practices, where singing, literally for one's Self, is an everyday life skill set against a backdrop of unique natural, historical, economic and social phenomena. Their sagas of song and singing are the subject of this book. The original Icelandic Sagas - among the most important collections of medieval European literature - are valued for richly detailed portrayals of individual lives. This book's principle protagonists and collaborators share a heritage where Sagas remain central to national and local identity, while the oral traditions associated with them were largely overwhelmed by European romanticism just over a hundred years ago. Ironically, this new vocal music became a key technology for national renewal. Written by an 'immigrant' musician who lived in a remote Icelandic community for over twenty years, this volume focuses upon individual and collective stories about singing as personal and social work. Drawing upon everyday ethnographic and sociological studies of music and emerging discourse about musical identity, the study uses anthropological, historical and musicological evidence in thinking about songs, singing and Self and the genderedness of this particular singing practice - the vocal and local performance of masculinities ER -