Old Norse folklore : tradition, innovation, and performance in medieval Scandinavia / Stephen A. Mitchell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mitchell, Stephen A. (Stephen Arthur), 1951- author.

Series:

Myth and poetics II.

Myth and poetics II

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Folklore--Scandinavia--History--To 1500.

Folklore.

Mythology, Norse--History.

Mythology, Norse.

Old Norse literature--History and criticism.

Old Norse literature.

Old Norse philology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, [2023]

Summary:

The medieval northern world consisted of a vast and culturally diverse region both geographically, from roughly Greenland to Novgorod and culturally, as one of the last areas of Europe to be converted to Christianity. Old Norse Folklore explores the complexities of this fascinating world in case studies and theoretical essays that connect orality and performance theory to memory studies, and myths relating to pre-Christian Nordic religion to innovations within late medieval pilgrimage song culture.Old Norse Folklore provides critical new perspectives on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the first time in English. Stephen A. Mitchell presents emerging methodologies by analyzing Old Norse materials to offer a better understandings ofunderstanding of Old Norse materials. He examines, interprets, and re-interprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by posterity-myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture, conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes-targeting largely overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.

Contents:

OLD NORSE FOLKLORE

Contents

List of Illustrations

Series Editors' Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Old Norse Folklore: An Orientation

PART I: ORALITY AND PERFORMANCE

1. Orality, Oral Theory, and Memory Studies

2. Continuity: Folklore's Problem Child?

3. Performance and Norse Poetry: The Hydromel of Praise and the Effluvia of Scorn

4. Old Norse Riddles and Other Verbal Contests in Performance

PART II: MYTHS AND MEMORY

5. Skírnir's Other Journey: The Riddle of Gleipnir

6. The Goddess Gná

7. Óðinn, Charms, and Necromancy: Hávamál 157 in Its Nordic and European Contexts

8. Memory, Mediality, and the "Performative Turn": Recontextualizing Remembering in Medieval Scandinavia

9. Memory and Places That Matter: The Case of Samsø

10. The Mythologized Past: Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Gotland

PART III: TRADITIONS AND INNOVATIONS

11. Heroic Legend and Onomastics: Hálfs saga, Das Hildebrandslied and the Listerby Stones

12. Courts, Consorts, and the Transformation of Medieval Scandinavian Literature

13. On the Old Swedish Trollmöte or Mik mötte en gamul kerling

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-5017-7348-8

OCLC:

1382276526