It seems Bethesda’s Skyrim has proved so popular that Rice University in Houston, Texas, has launched a one-time course based on it. Dubbed the “Scandanavian Fantasy World: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim”, this is a one-time course that will run for one semester and is offered by the Department of English with enrollment being limited. We guess given the popularity of Skyrim, we expect that the class should be filled pretty quickly. So what exactly will students learn in this course? According to the course description:
This course has two goals. First, it introduces students to fantasy as both psychological concept and driving force in gamer culture; and second, using these paradigms, it considers how and why medieval Scandinavia serves as a locus of modern Anglo-American fantasy. To these ends, students will read selections from Old Norse and Old Icelandic sagas (in translation) as they play different quests within Skyrim. While the course begins by identifying moments of intersection between the worlds of the sagas and of Skyrim (inclement environments, supernatural figures, mythologies), the course is not in any means meant to map the former onto the latter. The purpose of establishing these connections is to then consider how elements of medieval Scandinavian culture have been taken out of historical milieu and literary context, morphed into unfamiliar shape, and appropriated towards other fantastic pursuits. We’ll consider the political saga of Skyrim, with its emphasis on Empire and rebellion, as pursuits made possible by way of Scandinavia in order to think through what Scandinavian fantasy worlds are really about and why they resonate with contemporary Anglo-American culture.
So basically a class where you get to play video games and talk about it – sign me up! It will be interesting to see what the exam will be like.
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