| Abstract [eng] |
This master thesis examines the principle of reciprocity and its expression in ten mythical poems recorded in the old Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius. The study is based on Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strauss’ anthropological definition of reciprocity and builds on the assumption that reciprocal exchange of positive sort can create, consolidate, and maintain relationships, while the negative transformation of the exchange has an opposite effect — it erodes, destroys, and annihilates the possibility and continuity of the relationships. Using the method of structural analysis, we grasp how reciprocity manifests itself in the analysed material and what kind of variations, transformations it receives. The question arises as to what significance this principle acquires in the mythical Scandinavian worldview. The study shows that if the negative reciprocal exchange ends with a retribution, it acquires the characteristics of maintaining and restoring order. In other cases, negative reciprocal exchanges lead the world to its end. |
