Old Norse Mythology

Author : John Lindow
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190852259
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Old Norse Mythology written by John Lindow and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book treats from the perspective of the series "World mythologies in theory and in everyday life" the body of texts from medieval Scandinavia, mostly Iceland, usually known as "Norse mythology" or "Scandinavian mythology." Specifically, it constitutes a case study of a "literary or textual mythology," that is, a mythology from the past that we know only through written texts that have been left to us, augmented in a few cases by artifacts and images. This case is particularly interesting because the texts (with a tiny handful of enigmatic exceptions) were recorded centuries after the Nordic peoples had abandoned the religion associated with the mythology and converted to Christianity. The mythology lived on without direct connection to ritual activity or religious conviction. Drawing both on sources from before the conversion and on comparative analysis, it is certainly possible to reach informed inferences about the mythology before the conversion to Christianity-that is, when it existed as part of the pre-Christian religion of the Nordic peoples and their successors. From the perspective of the mythologies of the world, what is perhaps most important about these inferences is that this pre-Christian mythology was not a canonical mythology, since it almost certainly lacked a canon of sacred texts such as one finds in the great world religions of today. The focus of the book is not the mythology in and of itself, as would be true of a handbook, but rather how particular historical and intellectual circumstances formed conceptions about it."--

Author : Stefan Brink
Publisher : Brepols Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9782503553030
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Theorizing Old Norse Myth written by Stefan Brink and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection explores the theoretical and methodological foundations through which we understand Old Norse myths and the mythological world, and the medieval sources in which we find expressions of these. Some contributions take a broad, comparative perspective; some address specific details of Old Norse myths and mythology; and some devote their attention to questions concerning either individual gods and deities, or more topographical and spatial matters (such as conceptions of pagan cult sites). The elements discussed provide an introductory and general overview of scholarly enquiry into myth and ritual, as well as an attempt to define myth and theory for Old Norse scholarship. The articles also offer a rehabilitation of the comparative method alongside a discussion of the concept of 'cultural memory' and of the cognitive functions that myths may have performed in early Scandinavian society. Particular subjects of interest include analyses of the enigmatic god Heimdallr, the more well-known Oðinn, the deities, the female asynjur, and the 'elves' or alfar. Text-based discussions are set alongside recent archaeological discoveries of cult buildings and cult sites in Scandinavia, together with a discussion of the most enigmatic site of all: Uppsala in Sweden. The key themes discussed throughout this volume are brought together in the concluding chapter, in a comprehensive summary that sheds new light on current scholarly perspectives.

Author : Pernille Hermann
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674975699
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Old Norse Mythology--comparative Perspectives written by Pernille Hermann and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existing manuscripts of Old Norse mythology were written mainly by Christians, obscuring the pre-Christian oral histories. This book assembles comparisons from a range of analytical perspectives--examining the similarities and differences of the Old Norse mythologies with the myths of other cultures and within the Old Norse corpus itself.

Author : John Lindow
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0195153820
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Norse Mythology written by John Lindow and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2002-09-19 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides information on the gods, heroes, rituals, beliefs, symbols, and stories of Norse mythology.

Author : Anders Andrén
Publisher : Nordic Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 918911681X
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Old Norse Religion in Long-term Perspectives written by Anders Andrén and published by Nordic Academic Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of Old Norse Religion is a truly multidisciplinary and international field of research. The rituals, myths and narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia are investigated and interpreted by archaeologists, historians, art historians, historians of religion as well as scholars of literature, onomastics and Scandinavian studies. For obvious reasons, these studies belong to the main curricula in Scandinavia but are also carried out at many other universities in Europe, the United States and Australia a fact that is evident to any reader of this book. In order to bring this broad and varied field of research together, an international conference on Old Norse religion was held in Lund in June 2004. About two hundred delegates from more than fifteen countries took part. The intention was to gather researchers to encourage and improve scholarly exchange and dialogue, and Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives presents a selection of the proceedings from that conference. The 75 contributions elucidate topics such as worldview and cosmology, ritual and religious practice, myth and memory as well as the reception and present-day use of Old Norse religion. The main editors of this volume have directed the multidisciplinary research project Roads to Midgard since 2000. The project is based at Lund University and funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.

Author : Neil Gaiman
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393609103
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Norse Mythology written by Neil Gaiman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Remarkable.… Gaiman has provided an enchanting contemporary interpretation of the Viking ethos.”—Lisa L. Hannett, Atlantic Neil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction, presents a bravura rendition of the Norse gods and their world from their origin though their upheaval in Ragnarok. In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty prose, these gods emerge with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.

Author :
Publisher : Hackett Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1624666353
Total Pages : 183 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Saga of the Volsungs written by and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the translator of the bestselling Poetic Edda (Hackett, 2015) comes a gripping new rendering of two of the greatest sagas of Old Norse literature. Together the two sagas recount the story of seven generations of a single legendary heroic family and comprise our best source of traditional lore about its members—including, among others, the dragon-slayer Sigurd, Brynhild the Valkyrie, and the Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok.

Author : Nicolas Meylan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9782503588216
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Old Norse Myths as Political Ideologies written by Nicolas Meylan and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mythology of the Norse world has long been a source of fascination, from the first written texts of thirteenth-century Iceland up to the modern period. Most studies, however, have focused on the content of the narratives themselves, rather than the broader political contexts in which these myths have been explored. This volume offers a timely corrective to this broader trend by offering one of the first in-depth examinations of the political uses of Norse mythology within specific historical contexts. Tracing the changing interests and usages of Norse myths from the medieval period, via the nineteenth century and the importance of ancient Norse beliefs to both the Romantic and volkisch movements, up to the co-option of mythology and symbolism by political groups across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the papers gathered here offer new and critical insights into the changing nature of historiography and the political agendas that Old Norse myths are made to serve, as well as shedding new light on the way in which 'myths' are conceptualized.

Author : Karen Bek-Pedersen
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1903544270
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Norns in Old Norse Mythology written by Karen Bek-Pedersen and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The norns were a group of female supernatural beings closely related to ideas about fate in Old Norse tradition. Although the norns are well known, even to people who have only a superficial knowledge of Old Norse mythology, this is the first detailed discussion of them to be published amongst the literature dealing with Old Norse beliefs.

Author : Paul Acker
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113660135X
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Poetic Edda written by Paul Acker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-02-08 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique collection of essays applies significant critical approaches to the mythological poetry of the Poetic Edda, a principal source for Old Norse cosmography and the legends of Odin, Loki, and Thor. The volume also provides very useful introductions that sketch the critical history of the Eddas. By applying new theoretical approaches (feminist, structuralist, post-structuralist) to each of the major poems, this book yields a variety of powerful and convincing readings. Contributors to the collection are both young scholars and senior figures in the discipline, and are of varying nationalities (American, British, Australian, Scandinavian, and Icelandic), thus ensuring a range of interpretations from different corners of the scholarly community. The new translations included here make available for the first time to English speaking students the intriguing methodologies that are currently developing in Scandinavia. An essential collection of scholarship for any Old Norse course, The Poetic Edda will also be of interest to scholars of Indo-European myth, as well as those who study the theory of myth.