What Is North? Imagining and Representing the North from Ancient Times to the Present Day ed. by Oisĺn Plumb et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: What Is North? Imagining and Representing the North from Ancient Times to the Present Day ed. by Oisĺn Plumb et al. John Kennedy Plumb, Oisĺn, Alexandra Sanmark, Donna Heddle, eds, What Is North? Imagining and Representing the North from Ancient Times to the Present Day (The North Atlantic World: Land and Sea as Cultural Space, ad 400–1900, 1), Brepols, Turnhout, 2020; hardback; pp. 408; 18 b/w illustrations, 11 b/w tables; RRP €110.00; ISBN 9782503585024. Though how Australians and New Zealanders historically have perceived 'the North' is certainly something worth studying, the focus of this book, as its series title indicates, is on northern Europe and the higher latitudes of North America. It contains a brief introduction and twenty very diverse essays, covering a time span from classical antiquity (and arguably prehistory, in the case of two essays focusing on perceptions of Maeshowe, Orkney—one by Jay Johnston of The University of Sydney) to the twenty-first century. The institutional affiliations of the authors extend to ten countries, with British and Scandinavian institutions predominating. Essay lengths vary considerably: those by Anna Heiða Pálsdóttir and Henning Howlid Wærp have approximately ten pages of text, while those by Jim Clarke and John W. Dyce extend to about twenty-five pages, excluding the 'Works Cited'. The use of a small (though fully legible) font size means, however, that all essays are relatively substantial studies. A major theme of the book, fully reflected in its varied essays, is that what 'North' means can, and does, vary enormously. It can be geographically quite specific or be a more or less amorphous concept used to express remoteness, hostility, danger, opportunities for adventure, and so on. In a very readable essay that considers the idealized presentation of the Viking Age in the books for boys written by Shetland author Jessie Saxby (1842–1940), who set her novels in her own times, Lynn Powell observes: 'In fiction, the North is far more than a specific geographical place; it is also an imagined or emotional space, a direction rather than a location, a reflection of identity' (p. 276). Her fellow contributors would probably all be in broad agreement. [End Page 248] It seems appropriate here to focus on the essays most likely to relate to the scholarly interests of Parergon readers. Two have medieval Celtic subjects. In a somewhat densely written piece Oisĺn Plumb considers the significance of the voyages of Cormac Uĺ Liatháin in Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae. In the following essay Marged Haycock explores in some detail the 'Old North' as it appears in medieval Welsh literature, considering geographical location and political aspects. At least five essays are likely to interest students of Old Norse. John Moffatt examines the Vĺnland sagas not from the usual historical or anthropological perspectives, but using modern rhetorical theory to argue, interestingly but somewhat tendentiously, that 'while Karlsefni and Guðrĺðr were unquestionably brave in venturing first to Greenland and later to Vinland, the wisdom they displayed in ultimately returning to Iceland is the greatest virtue' (p. 77). Eduardo Ramos perceptively explores the relationship between the eponymous central figure and the Icelandic landscape in Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar. Vittorio Mattioli examines Grímnismál in arguing for a modification to what has become the standard view of the Old Norse cosmos, and Agneta Ney looks at landscape terms and their use in Old Norse poetry. The runic inscriptions in Maeshowe and the mound's mentioned as 'Orkahaugr' in Orkneyinga saga are one of the major concerns of Ragnhild Ljosland's article. There is not a great deal particularly relevant to the early modern period. Donna Heddle's study of maps and early literature relating to Orkney surveys both the medieval and the early modern periods. In discussing Sámi magic and rituals, Ellen Alm and Rune Blix Hagen consider the twelfth-century Latin Historia Norwegie as well as the early modern writers Olaus Magnus and Johannes Schefferus. The essays in the second half of the book, broadly arranged in chronological order of the periods and works discussed, are, as an examination of the table of contents...