Isolated Islands in Medieval Nature, Culture and Mind

Description

Focuses specifically on the concept and role of islands in the medieval world. The main characteristic of an island is, of course, that of being isolated from the rest of the world; in geography by waters, in more abstract and symbolic meanings by other kinds of separating borders. Islands were the place 'on the other side', of difference, otherness and remoteness. As one of the articles in this volume puts it, islands are often depicted as sites for extraordinary events and happenings. The contributions cluster around the concept of islands under the following perspectives: - search for undiscovered and paradise islands in literature and cartography - idea of fictional islands in Old Norse texts - quality of islands in literary texts - monasteries as islands and monasteries on islands - human body as an island of religious achievements - seasonal islandisation of certain lands. List of Illustrations vi Preface 1 Felicitas Schmieder / Paradise Islands in the East and West – Tradition and Meaning in Some Cartographical Places on the Medieval Rim of the World 3 Kristel Zilmer / The Powers and Purposes of an Insular Setting – on Some Motifs in Old-Norse Literature 23 Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jacobsen / Monastic "Islands" in Medieval Denmark: Insular Isolation in Ideal and Practice 36 Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen / Religious Athletes – on the Perception of the Body in Medieval Asceticism 45 Eldar Heide / Holy Islands and the Otherworld: Places beyond Water 57 Else Mundal / Hvítramannaland and Other Fictional Islands in the Sea 81 Margaret Elphinstone / The Unknown Island 88 Bernt Øyvind Thorvaldsen / Will the Son of Nine Sisters Rule the Sea-Kidney? 97 Gerhard Jaritz / The Quality of Islands in Middle High German Literature 111 Juhan Kreem / Seasonal Isolation in the Communication in Livonia 120 Torstein Jørgensen / Utstein Monastery: An Island on an Island – or not? 128 List of Contributors 139 Index 140