Economy, Magic and the Politics of Religious Change in Pre-Modern
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Olof Sundqvist. Scripta Islandica 66/2015
SCRIPTA ISLANDICA ISLÄNDSKA SÄLLSKAPETS ÅRSBOK 66/2015 REDIGERAD AV LASSE MÅRTENSSON OCH VETURLIÐI ÓSKARSSON under medverkan av Pernille Hermann (Århus) Else Mundal (Bergen) Guðrún Nordal (Reykjavík) Heimir Pálsson (Uppsala) Henrik Williams (Uppsala) UPPSALA, SWEDEN Publicerad med stöd från Vetenskapsrådet. © Författarna och Scripta Islandica 2015 ISSN 0582-3234 Sättning: Ord och sats Marco Bianchi urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-260648 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-260648 Innehåll LISE GJEDSSØ BERTELSEN, Sigurd Fafnersbane sagnet som fortalt på Ramsundsristningen . 5 ANNE-SOFIE GRÄSLUND, Kvinnorepresentationen på de sen vikinga- tida runstenarna med utgångspunkt i Sigurdsristningarna ....... 33 TERRY GUNNELL, Pantheon? What Pantheon? Concepts of a Family of Gods in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions ............. 55 TOMMY KUUSELA, ”Den som rider på Freyfaxi ska dö”. Freyfaxis död och rituell nedstörtning av hästar för stup ................ 77 LARS LÖNNROTH, Sigurður Nordals brev till Nanna .............. 101 JAN ALEXANDER VAN NAHL, The Skilled Narrator. Myth and Scholar- ship in the Prose Edda .................................. 123 WILLIAM SAYERS, Generational Models for the Friendship of Egill and Arinbjǫrn (Egils saga Skallagrímssonar) ................ 143 OLOF SUNDQVIST, The Pre-Christian Cult of Dead Royalty in Old Norse Sources: Medieval Speculations or Ancient Traditions? ... 177 Recensioner LARS LÖNNROTH, rec. av Minni and Muninn: Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture, red. Pernille Herrmann, Stephen A. Mitchell & Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir . 213 OLOF SUNDQVIST, rec. av Mikael Males: Mytologi i skaldedikt, skaldedikt i prosa. En synkron analys av mytologiska referenser i medeltida norröna handskrifter .......................... 219 PER-AXEL WIKTORSSON, rec. av The Power of the Book. Medial Approaches to Medieval Nordic Legal Manuscripts, red. Lena Rohrbach ............................................ 225 KIRSTEN WOLF, rev. -
ABSTRACT Savannah Dehart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF
ABSTRACT Savannah DeHart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF NORTHERN PAGAN RELIGIOSITY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. (Under the direction of Michael J. Enright) Department of History, May 2012. This thesis investigates the religiosity of some Germanic peoples of the Migration period (approximately AD 300-800) and seeks to overcome some difficulties in the related source material. The written sources which describe pagan elements of this period - such as Tacitus’ Germania, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards - are problematic because they were composed by Roman or Christian authors whose primary goals were not to preserve the traditions of pagans. Literary sources of the High Middle Ages (approximately AD 1000-1400) - such as The Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda , and Icelandic Family Sagas - can only offer a clearer picture of Old Norse religiosity alone. The problem is that the beliefs described by these late sources cannot accurately reflect religious conditions of the Early Middle Ages. Too much time has elapsed and too many changes have occurred. If literary sources are unavailing, however, archaeology can offer a way out of the dilemma. Rightly interpreted, archaeological evidence can be used in conjunction with literary sources to demonstrate considerable continuity in precisely this area of religiosity. Some of the most relevant material objects (often overlooked by scholars) are bracteates. These coin-like amulets are stamped with designs that appear to reflect motifs from Old Norse myths, yet their find contexts, including the inhumation graves of women and hoards, demonstrate that they were used during the Migration period of half a millennium earlier. -
Number Symbolism in Old Norse Literature
Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Medieval Icelandic Studies Number Symbolism in Old Norse Literature A Brief Study Ritgerð til MA-prófs í íslenskum miðaldafræðum Li Tang Kt.: 270988-5049 Leiðbeinandi: Torfi H. Tulinius September 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to thank firstly my supervisor, Torfi H. Tulinius for his confidence and counsels which have greatly encouraged my writing of this paper. Because of this confidence, I have been able to explore a domain almost unstudied which attracts me the most. Thanks to his counsels (such as his advice on the “Blóð-Egill” Episode in Knýtlinga saga and the reading of important references), my work has been able to find its way through the different numbers. My thanks also go to Haraldur Bernharðsson whose courses on Old Icelandic have been helpful to the translations in this paper and have become an unforgettable memory for me. I‟m indebted to Moritz as well for our interesting discussion about the translation of some paragraphs, and to Capucine and Luis for their meticulous reading. Any fault, however, is my own. Abstract It is generally agreed that some numbers such as three and nine which appear frequently in the two Eddas hold special significances in Norse mythology. Furthermore, numbers appearing in sagas not only denote factual quantity, but also stand for specific symbolic meanings. This tradition of number symbolism could be traced to Pythagorean thought and to St. Augustine‟s writings. But the result in Old Norse literature is its own system influenced both by Nordic beliefs and Christianity. This double influence complicates the intertextuality in the light of which the symbolic meanings of numbers should be interpreted. -
Humans and Animals in the Norse North Atlantic
Humans and Animals in the Norse North Atlantic Lara M. Hogg This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. School of History, Archaeology and Religion. Cardiff University. 2015 SUMMARY It is a well-established fact that all human societies have coexisted with and are dependent upon animals and it is increasingly recognized that the study of human-animal relationships provides vital insights into past human societies. Still this is yet to be widely embraced in archaeology. This thesis has examined human-animal interdependencies to explore the social identities and structure of society in the Norse North Atlantic. Benefitting from recent research advances in animal studies and the ever increasing volume of archaeological reports from Norse period archaeological excavations the North Atlantic this thesis was able to develop previous scholarship and define directions for future research. The thesis explored the role of animals in human society in the North Atlantic to reveal the complex Norse societies that existed. It revealed through human interdependencies with animals that these societies were far from homogeneous and had their own distinct identities with the individual islands as well as across the North Atlantic. The thesis achieved this by examining several important discrete but interlinked themes. These themes were divided into four chapters that focused on the individual aspects. This included an examination of previous North Atlantic Viking Age scholarship, consideration of human construction and perception of landscape through archaeological excavations, investigation of the role of domestic animals in human social activities, and an exploration of the role of domesticated animals in beliefs. -
Tooth-Tool Use and Yarn Production in Norse Greenland
TOOTH -TOOL USE AND YARN PRODUCTION IN NORSE GREENLAND G. Richard Scott University of Nevada Reno, Department of Anthropology/MS 096, Reno, NV 89557; [email protected] Ruth Burgett Jolie Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico ABSTRACT During a dental study of medieval Norse skeletons from Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, a distinct pattern of wear was observed on twenty-two anterior teeth of twelve Greenlanders. Further examina- tion revealed that cultural notches were limited almost exclusively to settlement-period Greenlandic females interred at Thjodhild’s church ad( 1000–1150). The most likely explanation for this patterned wear revolves around the manner in which females manipulated woolen thread on their maxillary in- cisors and canines during the production of a coarse woolen cloth (frieze) that was generated in large amounts during the early medieval period for local consumption and export to Europe. keywords: teeth, abrasion, wool INTRODUCTION Anthropologists have long studied normal crown wear to As the most directly visible aspect of the skeletal sys- evaluate the diet and dietary behavior of earlier human tem, teeth are also subject to the vagaries of human cultur- populations (Hinton 1981, 1982; Kieser et al. 2001; Molnar al behavior (cf. Milner and Larsen 1991). For that reason, 1971, 1972; Molnar et al. 1983; Walker 1978; Walker and they are useful in bioarchaeological research for making Erlandson 1986). Several methods have been developed inferences on the behavior of past human populations. to score such wear (Brothwell 1963; Dreier 1994; Murphy Behaviorally induced alterations fall under four general 1959; Scott 1979; Smith 1984) with the primary empha- categories: (1) intentional mutilation; (2) unintentional sis on pattern of dentine exposure. -
How Uniform Was the Old Norse Religion?
II. Old Norse Myth and Society HOW UNIFORM WAS THE OLD NORSE RELIGION? Stefan Brink ne often gets the impression from handbooks on Old Norse culture and religion that the pagan religion that was supposed to have been in Oexistence all over pre-Christian Scandinavia and Iceland was rather homogeneous. Due to the lack of written sources, it becomes difficult to say whether the ‘religion’ — or rather mythology, eschatology, and cult practice, which medieval sources refer to as forn siðr (‘ancient custom’) — changed over time. For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to identify a ‘pure’ Old Norse religion, uncorroded by Christianity since Scandinavia did not exist in a cultural vacuum.1 What we read in the handbooks is based almost entirely on Snorri Sturluson’s representation and interpretation in his Edda of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland, together with the ambiguous mythical and eschatological world we find represented in the Poetic Edda and in the filtered form Saxo Grammaticus presents in his Gesta Danorum. This stance is more or less presented without reflection in early scholarship, but the bias of the foundation is more readily acknowledged in more recent works.2 In the textual sources we find a considerable pantheon of gods and goddesses — Þórr, Óðinn, Freyr, Baldr, Loki, Njo3rðr, Týr, Heimdallr, Ullr, Bragi, Freyja, Frigg, Gefjon, Iðunn, et cetera — and euhemerized stories of how the gods acted and were characterized as individuals and as a collective. Since the sources are Old Icelandic (Saxo’s work appears to have been built on the same sources) one might assume that this religious world was purely Old 1 See the discussion in Gro Steinsland, Norrøn religion: Myter, riter, samfunn (Oslo: Pax, 2005). -
The Centrality of Small Islands in Arctic Norway from the Viking Age to Recent Historic Period
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology ISSN: 1556-4894 (Print) 1556-1828 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20 The Centrality of Small Islands in Arctic Norway From the Viking Age to Recent Historic Period Stephen Wickler To cite this article: Stephen Wickler (2016) The Centrality of Small Islands in Arctic Norway From the Viking Age to Recent Historic Period, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 11:2, 171-194, DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2015.1134728 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2015.1134728 Published online: 26 Jan 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 99 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uica20 Download by: [UiT Norges arktiske universitet] Date: 04 November 2016, At: 07:25 The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 11:171–194, 2016 Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1556-4894 print / 1556-1828 online DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2015.1134728 The Centrality of Small Islands in Arctic Norway From the Viking Age to Recent Historic Period Stephen Wickler Department of Cultural Sciences, Tromsø University Museum, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway ABSTRACT The definition of island marginality in northern Norway was radically altered by the advent of motorized fishing vessels in the early twenti- eth century. Prior to this development, small offshore islands were of central importance for marine related activity due to their proximity to fishing grounds. This article presents four settlements on small and “marginal” islands in Arctic Norway from 68◦19’ to 71◦05’Nlatitude as cases that illustrate the centrality of such locations in a maritime context since the Viking Age (AD 800–1050). -
Post-Abolition in the Atlantic World
Revista Brasileira de História ISSN 1806-9347 Post-Abolition in the Atlantic World The Revista Brasileira de História integrates the portals SciELO, Redalyc and Periódicos Capes, accessible through the following URLs: http://www.scielo.br/rbh • http://redalyc.uaemex.mx • HTTP://www.periodicos.capes.gov.br Indexing data bases: Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, ABC-CLIO, Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) Revista Brasileira de História – Official Organ of the National Association of History. São Paulo, AN PUH, vol. 35, no 69, Jan.-June 2015. Semiannual ISSN: 1806-9347 CO DEN: 0151/RBHIEL Correspondence: ANPUH – Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 338 Cidade Universitária. CEP 05508-000 – São Paulo – SP Phone/Fax: (11) 3091-3047 – e-mail: [email protected] Revision (Portuguese): Armando Olivetti Desktop publishing: Flavio Peralta (Estúdio O.L.M.) Revista Brasileira de História Post-Abolition in the Atlantic World ANPUH Revista Brasileira de História no 69 Founder: Alice P. Canabrava August 2013 – July 2015 Editor in charge Alexandre Fortes, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Nova Iguaçu, RJ – Brasil. E-mail: [email protected] Editorial committee (RBH) Alexandre Fortes, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Nova Iguaçu, RJ – Brasil Ana Teresa Marques Gonçalves, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO – Brasil Carla Simone Rodeghero, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS – Brasil Cláudia Maria Ribeiro Viscardi, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG – Brasil Fátima Martins Lopes, Universidade -
The Neural Basis of Social Cognition and Its Relationship to Social Functioning in Young People at Risk for Schizophrenia
The Neural Basis of Social Cognition and Its Relationship to Social Functioning in Young People at Risk for Schizophrenia The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Lincoln, Sarah Hope. 2015. The Neural Basis of Social Cognition and Its Relationship to Social Functioning in Young People at Risk for Schizophrenia. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845421 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The neural basis of social cognition and its relationship to social functioning in young people at risk for schizophrenia A dissertation presented by Sarah Hope Lincoln to The Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Psychology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Sarah Hope Lincoln All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Christine I. Hooker Sarah Hope Lincoln The neural basis of social cognition and its relationship to social functioning in young people at risk for schizophrenia Abstract These three studies seek to contribute to the neurological characterization of the development of schizophrenia as well as begin to branch into understanding how neuroanatomical structure and function may relate to specific deficits in social cognition and social functioning within in this population. -
Danes in Montana, 1906-10. Part II: Salvation
The Bridge Volume 40 Number 2 Article 7 2017 Soil and Salvation: Danes in Montana, 1906-10. Part II: Salvation Jakob Jakobsen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge Part of the European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Regional Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Jakobsen, Jakob (2017) "Soil and Salvation: Danes in Montana, 1906-10. Part II: Salvation," The Bridge: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol40/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Bridge by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Soil and Salvation: Danes in Montana, 1906-10. Part II: Salvation by Jakob Jakobsen A Bodtker Grant-funded Article Author’s Note: When I discovered that my great-grandfather and his wife had partici- pated in the founding of the Dagmar sett lement in Montana in 1906, I did not expect my initial interest in this to lead to a research grant from the DAHS, enabling me to dive even deeper into their adventure, for which I am very grateful. My fascination with their story derives from its connection to the collective history of Danish America. In this sense, my ancestors acted as individuals, but their identity navigation took place in a cultural landscape that changed due to larger developments. As a result, they can teach us some- thing about their time – and vice versa. While making choices along their way, two objectives seem to have guid- ed them in their navigation: a search for soil and a striving for salvation. -
Binary Tree — up to 3 Related Nodes (List Is Special-Case)
trees 1 are lists enough? for correctness — sure want to efficiently access items better than linear time to find something want to represent relationships more naturally 2 inter-item relationships in lists 1 2 3 4 5 List: nodes related to predecessor/successor 3 trees trees: allow representing more relationships (but not arbitrary relationships — see graphs later in semester) restriction: single path from root to every node implies single path from every node to every other node (possibly through root) 4 natural trees: phylogenetic tree image: Ivicia Letunic and Mariana Ruiz Villarreal, via the tool iTOL (Interative Tree of Life), via Wikipedia 5 natural trees: phylogenetic tree (zoom) image: Ivicia Letunic and Mariana Ruiz Villarreal, via the tool iTOL (Interative Tree of Life), via Wikipedia 6 natural trees: Indo-European languages INDO-EUROPEAN ANATOLIAN Luwian Hittite Carian Lydian Lycian Palaic Pisidian HELLENIC INDO-IRANIAN DORIAN Mycenaean AEOLIC INDO-ARYAN Doric Attic ACHAEAN Aegean Northwest Greek Ionic Beotian Vedic Sanskrit Classical Greek Arcado Thessalian Tsakonian Koine Greek Epic Greek Cypriot Sanskrit Prakrit Greek Maharashtri Gandhari Shauraseni Magadhi Niya ITALIC INSULAR INDIC Konkani Paisaci Oriya Assamese BIHARI CELTIC Pali Bengali LATINO-FALISCAN SABELLIC Dhivehi Marathi Halbi Chittagonian Bhojpuri CONTINENTAL Sinhalese CENTRAL INDIC Magahi Faliscan Oscan Vedda Maithili Latin Umbrian Celtiberian WESTERN INDIC HINDUSTANI PAHARI INSULAR Galatian Classical Latin Aequian Gaulish NORTH Bhil DARDIC Hindi Urdu CENTRAL EASTERN -
THOR and the GIANT's BRIDE by Riti Kroesen
THOR AND THE GIANT'S BRIDE by Riti Kroesen - Leiden When the first Scandinavian settlers arrived in Iceland, there was one god, whom they loved and worshipped above all others: Thor. The testimony of the Islendinga Spgur is abundantly clear on this point. Though we cannöt deal extensively with it here, these texts are amply supported by other evidence, both direct and indirect, Icelandic as weIl as non-Icelandic. It seems that in the beginning Thor was revered more than the other gods in at least large parts of Scandinavia.1 On the other hand, we have the stories of the two Eddas2, in which Thor generally plays a subordinate part and even cuts a sorry figure; sometimes he seems to be present only as a source of fun for both gods and men due to his silliness and lack of brains. His rashness is apt to cause hirn continual trouble, and his enormous appetite makes everybody shudder. But true - he is still the best fighter of all the gods - and he is the most htmest of them all, one might like to add. In the Eddas, Odin is the most important and in some in- stances the omnipotent god, the father and king of all gods and men. The explanation of this, which has often been given before, is that Odin must have pushed Thor to the background, at least in court-circles. Odin, the old god of war and death, was the protector of both the Danish and Norwegian kings - the latter from the southern part of Norway and like their Danish colleagues 1.