An examination of what dialogues and direct speech in Old Norse literature can convey and mean, beyond their immediate face-value.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Note on the Text
Introduction: Discourse in Old Norse Literature
1. When Questions Are Not Questions
2. The Quarrel of the Queens and Indirect Aggression
3. Sneglu-Halli and the Conflictive Principle
4. Felicity Conditions and Conversion Confrontations
5. Icelanders and Their Language Abroad
6. Proverbs and Poetry as Pragmatic Weapons
7. Speech Situations and the Pragmatics of Gender
8. Manuscript Genealogy and the Diachrony of Pragmatic Usage in Icelandic Sagas
Conclusion: Close Context and the Proximity of Pragmatics
Afterword
Bibliography
Index

ERIC SHANE BRYAN is Associate Professor of English at Missouri University of Science and Technology.