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Sanctity in the North features English translations of texts from Latin or vernacular Nordic languages, in many cases for the first time. The accompanying essays complement the translations and reflect the contributors' own disciplinary groundings in folklore, philology, medieval, and religious studies.
This volume examines the role and contributions of art, music and film in peace-building and reconciliation, offering a distinctive approach in various forms of art in peace-building in a wide range of conflict situations, particularly in religiously plural contexts. As such, it provides readers with a comprehensive perspective on the subject. The contributors are composed of prominent scholars and artists who examine theoretical, professional and practical perspectives and debates, and address three central research questions, which form the theoretical basis of this project: namely, ‘In what way have particular forms of art enhanced peace-building in conflict situations?’, ‘How do artistic forms become a public demonstration and expression of a particular socio-political context?’, and ‘In what way have the arts played the role of catalyst for peace-building, and, if not, why not?’ This volume demonstrates that art contributes in conflict and post-conflict situations in three main ways: transformation at an individual level; peace-building between communities; and bridging justice and peace for sustainable reconciliation.
The Anglo-Saxons placed a great deal of importance on wisdom and learning, something Beowulf makes dramatically clear when he uses his 'wordhord' to command respect and admiration from his friends and foes alike. Modern day scholars no longer have recourse to the living language and culture of the Anglo-Saxons, and as a result must turn to their 'wordhords' - the literary, historical, and cultural artefacts that have survived in various degrees of intactness - to learn about life in Anglo-Saxon England. This collection of essays, gathered to honour the memory of the noted Anglo-Saxonist Edward B. Irving, Jr., brings together an international group of leading scholars who take the measure of ...
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.
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The idea for this book began to form in my mind when, in a rather rare moment of solitude, I stood on a high bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean contemplating a lovely Southern California sunset. As I gazed to the horizon at the vivid red and orange hues of the setting sun, a gentle sea breeze carried to my ears the faint whispers of my ancestors, imploring me from across the ages to pen the words that would chronicle their struggles. It seemed to me significant that their efforts, which most certainly influenced and shaped my life, would now provide me the inspiration to write this book. Thus, I made the decision to embark upon this story, which I hope will serve not only as an enduring tes...
Stories are not enough, even though they are essential. And books about history, books of psychology--the best of them take us closer, but still not close enough. Maria Tumarkin's Axiomatic is a boundary-shifting fusion of thinking, storytelling, reportage and meditation. It takes as its starting point five axioms: 'Time Heals All Wounds'; 'History Repeats Itself'; 'Those Who Forget the Past are Condemned to Repeat It'; 'Give Me a Child Before the Age of Seven and I Will Show You the Woman'; and 'You Can't Enter The Same River Twice.' These beliefs--or intuitions--about the role the past plays in our present are often evoked as if they are timeless and self-evident truths. It is precisely because they are neither, yet still we are persuaded by them, that they tell us a great deal about the forces that shape our culture and the way we live.
In Identity Formation and Diversity in the Early Medieval Baltic and Beyond, the Viking World in the East is made more heterogeneous. Baltic Finnic groups, Balts and Sami are integrated into the history dominated by Scandinavians and Slavs. Interaction in the region between Eastern Middle Sweden, Finland, Estonia and North Western Russia is set against varied cultural expressions of identities. Ten scholars approach the topic from different angles, with case studies on the roots of diversity, burials with horses, Staraya Ladoga as a nodal point of long-distance routes, Rus’ warrior identities, early Eastern Christianity, interaction between the Baltic Finns and the Svear, the first phases of ar-Rus dominion, the distribution of Carolingian swords, and Dirhams in the Baltic region. Contributors are Johan Callmer, Ingrid Gustin, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Valter Lang, John Howard Lind, Marika Mägi, Mats Roslund, Søren Sindbaek, Anne Stalsberg, and Tuukka Talvio.
Ideology and power are central elements in the political, social, religious and cultural development of the North during the transition from the Viking to the Middle Ages. While the medieval European Christian ideology of rulership has been widely discussed, an analysis of the Nordic pre-Christian ideology, and of its confrontation with the new European ideals has so far been lacking. This book examines the concepts and practices associated with chieftains, earls and kings from the ninth to the thirteenth century: the myths and rituals surrounding their position in a northern European warrior culture. The analysis seems to indicate that important elements of the pre-Christian ideology of rulership survived into the Christian Middle Ages, either transformed or even simply transferred. Contributors are Ian Beuermann, Anders Hultgård, Jan Erik Rekdal, Jens Peter Schjødt, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Joanna Skórzewska, Gro Steinsland and Olof Sundqvist.