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A fresh look at early dramatic activity in Scandinavia, using archaeological, historical and literary evidence.
The result of my research was turned into a book published in Swedish in 2012. This present book is a revised translation and extensively extended version of that book.
The twenty-four studies in this volume propose a new approach to framing the debate around the history of medieval art and architecture to highlight the multiple roles played by women, moving beyond today's standard division of artist from patron.
Twelve literary scholars and historians investigate the ways in which space and place are politically, religiously, and culturally inflected. Exploring medieval texts as diverse as Icelandic sagas, Ptolemy's Geography, and Mandeville's Travels, the contributors illustrate the intimate connection between geographical conceptions and the mastery of land, the assertion of doctrine, and the performance of sexuality.
Stephen A. Mitchell here offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia. He focuses on those people believed to be able—and who in some instances thought themselves able—to manipulate the world around them through magical practices, and on the responses to these beliefs in the legal, literary, and popular cultures of the Nordic Middle Ages. His sources range from the Icelandic sagas to cultural monuments much less familiar to the nonspecialist, including legal cases, church art, law codes, ecclesiastical records, and runic spells. Mitchell's starting point is the year 1100, by which time Christianity was well established in elite circles throughout Sc...
Vol. for 1971 contains papers presented at the 1st International Symposium for Ethnological Food Research in Lund, 1970.
The Vlva, sometimes referred to as the little bones women, were herbal healing seers who were feared and respected by all. Young and fit, a Vlvas maintained their professional knowledge, protected their skills from outsiders, and safeguarded their practice through illusionary arts. Unfortunately, the church eliminated most of them around the fourteenth century. In a comprehensive history of these important figures to the Proto-Germanic tribes, Rig Svenson attempts to clear many of the misunderstandings that have been developed through modern interpretations of the Vlva’s original purpose. Within his unique presentation, he shares fascinating details about the Vlva’s wisdom and herbal knowledge, the iron age Nordic female magic, rites of passage, healing magic, magical staffs of old, Heimðallr and other supernatural beings, rune stick divination, hexes and killing arts, the nine main elements of a Vlva, and the chicanery of Seiðr. The Little Bones Women offers a thought-provoking historical account of the life and times of healing women whose practices during elder times became the forerunners of modern medicinal drugs and holistic therapies.
When describing the transition from Old Norse religion to Christianity in recent studies, the concept of "Christianization" is often applied. To a large extent this historiography focuses on the outcome of the encounter, namely the description of early Medieval Christianity and the new Christian society. The purpose of the present study is to concentrate more exclusively on the Old Norse religion during this period of change and to analyze the processes behind its disappearance on an official level of the society. More specifically this study concentrates on the role of Viking kings and indigenous agency in the winding up of the old religion. An actor-oriented perspective will thus be established, which focuses on the actions, methods and strategies applied by the early Christian Viking kings when dismantling the religious tradition that had previously formed their lives. In addition, the resistance that some pagan chieftains offered against these Christian kings is discussed as well as the question why they defended the old religious tradition.
Saints’ legends form a substantial portion of Old Norse–Icelandic literature, and can be found in more than four hundred manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts dating from shortly before the twelfth century to the 1700s. With The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse–Icelandic Prose, Kirsten Wolf has undertaken a complete revision of the fifty-year-old handlist The Lives of the Saints in Old Norse Prose. This updated handlist organizes saints’ names, manuscripts, and editions of individual lives with references to the approximate dates of the manuscripts, as well as modern Icelandic editions and translations. Each entry concludes with secondary literature about the legend in question. These features combine to make The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse–Icelandic Prose an invaluable resource for scholars and students in the field.