Myth, Magic, and Memory in Early Scandinavian Narrative Culture: Studies in Honour of Stephen A. Mitchell

Description

In this volume, several neighbouring disciplines, such as memory studies, literature, folklore studies, history of religion, medieval history, archaeology, oral history, and Old Norse studies intersect. The articles deal with similar questions and present illustrative case studies. Old Norse poems are analysed with regard to their mythological content; folktales, folklore, and other cultural phenomena are discussed with special foci on remembrance of the supernatural, witches, trolls, and others. One of the recurring questions is how we remember the past and how the past is created in memory. Myth, magic, and memory have together formed important, and often intertwined, elements to recent studies in the narrative culture of Viking-Age and Medieval Scandinavica. Analytical approaches to myth (prominent in the fields of history of religion, archaeology, language, and literature, and central to studies of visual cultures up to modern times), magic (drawing on a wealth of Norse folkloric and supernatural material that derives from pre-modern times and continues to impact on recent practices of performance and ritual), and memory (the concept of how we remember and actively construe the past) together combine to shed light on how people perceived the world around them. Taking the intersection between these diverse fields as its starting point, this volume draws together contributions from across a variety of disciplines to offer new insights into the importance of myth, magic, and memory in pre-modern Scandinavia. Covering a range of related topics, from supernatural beings to the importance of mythology in later national historiographies, the chapters gathered here are written to honour the work of Stephen A. Mitchell, professor of Scandinavian Studies and Folklore at Harvard University, whose research has heavily influenced this multi-faceted field. Table of Contents List of Illustrations Foreword Part I: Myth and Legend John Lindow. Same Place, Different Time: Temporal Aspects of Imagined Landscapes in Some Northern Contexts Jens Peter Schjødt. Jarl, Konr, and Óðinn in Rígsþula Carolyne Larrington and Judy Quinn. ‘I remember giants’: Mythological Remembering through Vǫluspá Joseph Harris. On Rereading Oddrúnargrátr Lukas Rösli. The Agency in Fǫr Scírnis — Subjects, Objects, and Différance: A Subversive Reading Richard Cole. The Threat of Induced Desire in Skírnismál Part II: Magic and Folklore Maria Tatar. Enchantments, Spells, and Curses: The Sorcery of Stories and the Magic in Them Merrill Kaplan. Trolls in the Mill: The Supernatural Stakes of Waterpower Joseph Falaky Nagy. A Prophylactic Pig, a Long-Lost Hunter, and the Recording of Oral Tradition Sarah Künzler. A Male Cinderella and a Sea Serpent’s Teeth: Scandinavian Echoes in an Orkney Folk-Tale Terry Gunnell. Axe on the Water: A Unique Magical Ritual in Ljósvetninga saga Ane Ohrvik. ‘In the Name of the 7 fatherless devils…’: Pain, Fear, Anger, and Revenge in Magical Practice Thomas A. DuBois. Lessons in Magic: Making Use of Early Twentieth-Century Accounts of Magical Procedures in the Folklore Classroom Timothy R. Tangherlini. A Conspiracy of Witches Part III: Memory and Reception Kate Heslop. Metaphors for Forgetting and Forgetting as Metaphor in Old Norse Poetics Lena Rohrbach. Olavifications: Spatial and Temporal Formations of Trondheim as a Memory Place Arne Bugge Amundsen. The Middle Ages in the Construction of Nineteenth-Century Norway Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir. History and Cultural Memory in the Icelandic Annals 1400–1800 Shaun F. D. Hughes. Assembling Memory: The Questionnaire of 1817 from Den kongelige Commission til Oldsagers Opbevaring and the Origins of Icelandic Romantic Nationalism Kimberley C. Patton. The ‘Asgard’ Superphylum and Lokiarchaeota: Mythic Relapse in Evolutionary Biology Part IV: Influence and Interaction Stefan Brink. OGu vergildi and Välde in Etelhem, Gotland Anders Andrén. The Judensau in Uppsala Louise Nyholm Kallestrup. The Devil Is Awake: Pre-Reformation Church Murals in Post-Reformation Danish Churches Pernille Hermann. A Female Job and a Witch: High and Low in Leonora Christina Ulfeldt’s Jammers minde Jürg Glauser. O’Brazile: The Short Textual Life of a Floating Island in Seventeenth-Century Scandinavian Book History Geijer och Eddornas ‘sinnebildsspråk’ List of Stephen A. Mitchell’s Selected Publications Tabula Gratulatoria Acta Scandinavica: Cambridge Studies in the Early Scandinavian World Пустая страница