UID:
edocfu_9960943601502883
Format:
1 online resource (xv, 216 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
1-80010-609-2
,
1-80010-610-6
Content:
The "Viking Age" of medieval Scandinavia, with its heathen religion and heroic literature, continues to fascinate readers, writers, students, scholars, poets, artists, and creators of all kinds around the world. This cultural legacy is preserved in Old Norse literature, much of it composed and produced in Iceland, an island with a unique position in relation to the ebb and flow of religions, institutions, and empires. The chapters in this book examine many topics in Old Norse literature: the mysterious personas of the god Odin, the strange origins of poetry and scholarship, the cryptic lore of the elusive dwarfs, the fame of the dragon-slayer Sigurd and the defiant "Sworn Brothers", the early settlement of Iceland, trade in the medieval north, and the history of literary production. Several contributors upend traditional interpretations of their topics, while others offer new insights into the rich modern artistic reception of Norse myth. These studies reveal the striking resilience and adaptability of Old Norse narrative traditions, which retain their timeless appeal through a startling variety of contexts and changes in form.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Oct 2022).
,
Front cover -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Contributors -- Foreword: Old Norse and the Porous Boundaries of Medievalism -- Acknowledgements -- Note on the Text -- Introduction -- 1. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Medieval Iceland -- 2. Íslendingabók as Narrative History -- 3. Women's Work and Material Culture in Medieval Iceland -- 4. Vafþrúðnismál, from Parchment to Print -- 5. The Odinic Motif: The Wanderer in the Mist -- 6. Shapeshifting, God, and Nature in the 'Great Story of the North' -- 7. Günter Grass's Transformation of Old Norse Myth in The Tin Drum -- 8. Transforming Myth in Gerður Kristný's Blóðhófnir and the Eddic Poem Skírnismál -- Afterword: Ethnographic Medievalisms -- Bibliography -- Index.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 1-84384-638-1
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1515/9781800106093
Bookmarklink