Folklore and Old Norse Mythology (ed. Frog & Joonas Ahola) (original) (raw)
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Frog & Joonas Ahola (eds.): Folklore and Old Norse Mythology
FF Communications 323, 2021
The present volume responds to the rising boom of interest in folklore and folklore research in the study of Old Norse mythology. The twenty-two authors of this volume reveal the dynamism of this lively dialogue, which is characterized by a diversity of perspectives linking to different fields and national scholarships. The chapters open with a general overview of how the concepts of “folklore” and “mythology” have been understood and related across the history of Old Norse studies, which is followed by a group of chapters that discuss and present different approaches and types of source materials, with methodological and theoretical concerns. The interest in folklore is bound up with interests in practice and lived religion, which are brought into focus in a series of chapters relating to magic and ritual. Attention then turns to images that link to mythology and different mythic agents in studies that explore a variety of usage in meaning-making in different forms of cultural expression. The next group of studies spotlights motifs, with perspectives on synchronic usage across genres and different media, cross-cultural exchange, and long-term continuities. The volume culminates in discussions of complex stories, variously in oral traditions behind medieval sources and relationships between accounts found in medieval sources and those recorded from more recent traditions. Individually, the chapters variously offer reflexive and historical research criticism, new research frameworks, illustrative studies, and exploratory investigations. Collectively, they illustrate the rapidly evolving multidisciplinary discussion at the intersections of folklore and Old Norse mythology, where the transformative impacts were recently described as a paradigm shift. They open new paths for scholarly discussion with the potential to inspire future research.
Folklore in Old Norse - Old Norse in Folklore. An Introduction
Folklore in Old Norse - Old Norse in Folklore (Nordistica Tartuensia 20), 2014
During the 20th century, Old Norse philology has been strongly textually oriented. This is evident in saga scholarship, where the book-prose ideology turned the issue of the origin of individual sagas into an issue of direct influences from other written works. This focus has methodological advantages, but it has also meant that valuable folkloristic knowledge has been neglected. The present volume targets the advantages, the problems and the methods of using folklore material and theory in Old Norse scholarship. An important theme in folklore is the encounter with the Supernatural and such stories are indeed common in saga literature. Generally, however, scholars have tended to focus on feuds and the social structure of the sagas, and less on encounters with Otherworld beings. In this volume, the supernatural themes in the sagas are discussed by means of several approaches, some folkloristic, some traditionally philological.
Folklore in Old Norse - Old Norse in Folklore, ed. Daniel Sävborg & Karen Bek-Pedersen
Nordistica Tartuensia 20, 2014
During the 20th century, Old Norse philology has been strongly textually oriented. This is evident in saga scholarship, where the book-prose ideology turned the issue of the origin of individual sagas into an issue of direct influences from other written works. This focus has methodological advantages, but it has also meant that valuable folkloristic knowledge has been neglected. The present volume targets the advantages, the problems and the methods of using folklore material and theory in Old Norse scholarship. An important theme in folklore is the encounter with the Supernatural and such stories are indeed common in saga literature. Generally, however, scholars have tended to focus on feuds and the social structure of the sagas, and less on encounters with Otherworld beings. In this volume, the supernatural themes in the sagas are discussed by means of several approaches, some folkloristic, some traditionally philological.
Norse myth. A cultural history of reception
Nordic references abound in contemporary popular culture, they are so common in fantasy literature, role-playing games, comics or cinematography that the time of their anonymity outside of Scandinavia has long gone by. Whether or not merely anthropological curiosities that serve for a good story or attempts to reconnect with the ancient past in the form of Neopagan revivals, the world of Asgard and Valhalla proves to be very potent in its adaption to different discourses.
The present thesis involves a study of the various ways in which the Northernmost regions of Fenno-Scandinavia and their inhabitants were depicted as being associated with the supernatural in pre-Modern literature. Its findings are based on an exhaustive study of the numerous texts engaging with this subject, ranging from the Roman era to the publication of the Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus of Olaus Magnus in 1555. The thesis presents and analyses the most common supernatural motifs associated with this Far- Northern area, which include animal transformation, sorcery and pagan worship, as well as speculating about their origins, and analyzes the ways in which such ideas and images evolved, both over time and depending on the nature of the written sources in which they appear. The author argues that Northern Fenno-Scandinavia was thought of as a wild, supernatural and pagan land because of the differences in languages, ways of living and magical practices of its inhabitants, an image partially mirrored in literary texts, some of which are of considerable antiquity. The thesis also notes the way in which the supernatural images associated with the Sámi and Finnic peoples seem to have also become attached to the other Germanic-related people living in the north of Norway, who are also often depicted as supernatural “others” equipped with supernatural or magical skills in the literature.
Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives
2017
Hermann, Pernille, Stephen A. Mitchell, Jens Peter Schjødt, and Amber J. Rose, eds. 2017. Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives. Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, 3. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
The Materiality of Myth: Divine Objects in Norse Mythology
Temenos, 2019
The vivid presence of material objects in Scandinavian cosmology, as preserved in the Old Norse myths, carries underexplored traces of belief systems and the material experience of Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1000 CE). This paper proposes an archaeological reading of Norse mythology to help explain how ancient Scandinavians understood the presence and role of deities, magic, and the supernatural in everyday life. The Norse myths retain records of material objects that reinforced Scandinavian oral traditions and gave their stories power, memory, and influence. From Thor’s hammer and Freyja’s feathered cloak to Sigyn’s bowl and Ran’s net, such materials and the stories they colour are informed by everyday objects of Iron Age life – spun with the magic, belief, and narrative traditions that made them icons. The mythic objects promoted a belief system that expected and embraced the imperfections of objects, much like deities. These imperfections in the divine Norse objects and the ways in which the gods interact with their materials are part and parcel of the Scandinavian religious mentality and collective social reality. This work ultimately questions the relationship between materiality and myth, and seeks to nuance our current understandings of the ancient Scandinavian worldview based on the available textual evidence.