Imagery and Ritual in the Liminal Zone. (original) (raw)

This Ph.D dissertation from the University of Copenhagen/Danmarks Grundforskningsfond's Center of Excellence examines the use of church portals in the middle ages, and the symbolism ascribed to them through ritual prescriptions and performances. It moreover examined their legal functions. The main objet of study is the Nidaros Cathedral, and the main liturgical sources are the Ordo Nidrosiense and the Manuale Norwegicum. The dissertation examines the spatial choreography prescribed here, and how this express notions of scared space, and communicates the Church's ideas of sacred zones (as expressed in rituals such as church dedication, baptism, churching, marriage, or in the communal cyclical liturgy). The thesis also examines legal prescription in relation to the use of cemeteries, and the notion of sacred zones that these express. Legal texts, sagas and diplomas are brought into the discussion to shed light upon religious notions of purity and impurity in general in the North in the period (1100-1300). The dissertation then presents some case studies of medieval architectural sculpture, and examines this from the perspective of liminal space.