Norse Myth Research Articles

Мировоззренческий статус фэнтези: историко-философский аспект

The author examines the influence of the phenomenon of fantasy on individuals and society through the lens of its historical emergence and development. The author argues for the necessity and importance of analysing this phenomenon, as it has deep historical roots and context, and has a profound impact on contemporary individuals and society as a whole. The structure of mythology's influence on people and the transmission of culture is, according to the author, closely linked to the nature of creativity and social adaptation, as demonstrated by examples from both ancient and Norse myths. The author shows that the development and formation of fantasy as a part of culture takes place within, but is not limited to, these historical events and processes. Fantasy absorbs the rediscovered romance of the Middle Ages and the influence of the preceding genre of science fiction. The spirit of the age demands a revision of the axiological foundations of modern humanity, based on the creative functionality of past meanings. This allows for a discussion of the close connection between fantasy and the processes of individual development and solidarity, as well as the formation of the individual as a subject. The author concludes that fantasy is a new response, a consolation and a benefit rooted in myth, fairy tales and medieval romance.

“Vituð ér enn—eða hvat?” Do you want to know, or what? Understanding medieval Scandinavian relationships with the divine

The peoples who inhabited the worlds discussed in these two books, either in reality or within our imaginations, are at once slippery and certain. We may believe we have a grip on what the Norse/Viking worlds were about, only to have new evidence or a new approach to existing data challenge our views. These two books, The Norse myths that shape the way we think and The Norse sorceress: mind and materiality in the Viking world, explore the ways in which medieval northerners understood and interacted with the sublime, the divine, the non-human within their worlds and, in turn, how these interactions shape our own imaginations.

Tools of Different Trades? Merging Skill Sets in Metalworking at Viking Age Kaupang

In Old Norse poetic literature, the smiðr was a master of the arts, able to control and shape multiple materials into various kinds of objects. While the mythological smiðr has been regarded as separate from the real-world blacksmiths and metalworkers of gold, silver, and copper alloys, the archaeological evidence recovered in towns and workshops of the Viking Age, as well as medieval written sources, provide a different perspective. In 2015, a hitherto unknown, well-preserved workshop was excavated in the Viking town of Kaupang in Norway, containing evidence of complex metalworking requiring the skills of blacksmiths and workers of soft metals. In this article, the authors venture beyond the Old Norse myths, into the world of the proficient smiths as multi-crafters and their tools of the trade.

<어쌔신 크리드 발할라>에서 북유럽 신화로 재생된 아포칼립스와 플레이어 경험

This paper aims to analyze how Norse mythology is represented in the game Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and examine how the destruction of the Isu civilization, represented by the Norse myth Ragnarok, is experienced by the player. For this, we analyze the episodes within the game's mythological framework, compare them to Norse mythology, examine the end of the Isu civilization, and consider how the apocalypse is experienced through the player's actions on behalf of the character. In the game, Ragnarok functions as a narrative to explain the destruction of the Isu civilization, representing themes addressed in the apocalyptic worldview of science fiction: the creation and destruction of civilizations, human nature and population composition, the development of life sciences, and ethical issues. Furthermore, players can observe that they are experiencing the repetition of the post-apocalypse of the Isu civilization after Ragnarok and the pre-apocalypse of the human world by playing from the perspective of each character’s civilizations: Layla as a modern human being, Eivor in the 9th century, and Odin as the Isu in myth.

Eschatology and Fatalism in Norse Myth: The Impact of Pessimism on Nordic Culture

Eschatology and Fatalism in Norse Myth: The Impact of Pessimism on Nordic Culture

The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think by Carolyne Larrington (review)

The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think by Carolyne Larrington (review)

The Irish myth of Balar’s killing by Lug, the Norse myth of Baldr’s killing by Loki, and the Indic myth of the Wounded Sun

The Irish myth of Balar’s killing by Lug, the Norse myth of Baldr’s killing by Loki, and the Indic myth of the Wounded Sun

Old Norse Myths as Political Ideologies: Critical Studies in the Appropriation of Medieval Narratives

Old Norse Myths as Political Ideologies: Critical Studies in the Appropriation of Medieval Narratives

Revisiting Norse Mythology: the Case of A.S. Byatt’s Ragnarök

"Revisiting Norse Mythology: The Case of A.S. Byatt’s Ragnarök. In 2011, British author and Booker-prize winner A. S. Byatt publishes Ragnarök, her rewriting of the Norse myth about the death of the gods. Seen through the eyes of a thin child who is forced to witness the terrors of World War II, the story and characters of the Norse myth are reinterpreted and retold in accordance with the child’s vision, imagination and feelings. The paper here focuses on the association of the Scandinavian imaginary with specific moments in A. S. Byatt’s personal history, and highlights the use of certain patterns and ideas that are present in both, trying to pinpoint the elements that make possible the transformation of the mythical into the actual. The aim of this study is to explore the evolution of the mythological events as they are rewritten in Byatt’s 21st century book, in close connection with the main character’s personal development. To that end, the paper will also dwell upon the comparison drawn by Byatt herself between the Norse and the Christian mythological imaginary – a vision filtered through the eyes and thoughts of the focalizer of the text, the thin child. Keywords: Ragnarök, A. S. Byatt, reinterpretation, Norse myths, death of the gods"

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Analogical Perspectives on the Comparison between Vǫlundr and Daedalus

Analogical Perspectives on the Comparison between Vǫlundr and Daedalus

Subverting Looming Disasters: Weaving as Power Motif Across Classical, Old English, and Norse Myth

The mythic motif of weaving often depicts women exerting control over their surroundings through cunning and skill. Contrary to perceptions of weaving as constrained action in classical myth, however, weaving in Old English and Norse myth connotes a metaphor of oral storytelling, embedded in the Icelandic term “Þáttr,” meaning both “short story” and “thread.” As a result, weaving in Old English and Norse myth often provides a space for women to influence wars from the loom. By examining classical, Old English, and Old Norse myth, we can better understand how weaving, speaking, and power intertwine within ancient power dynamics.

J. R. R. Tolkien and the Ethnography of the Elves

The influence of Old Norse myth and legend on J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional works is well known. Less attention has been given to material from later Icelandic folklore as a source for Tolkien’s world-building. The case of the elves, however, is worth considering. Here, the medieval sources are quite sparse. While there are many mentions of elves in the Eddic poems, they offer next to no concrete information on what sort of beings the elves might be. The Prose Edda is only slightly more helpful in that it mentions that there are two types of elves—the ljósálfar (‘light elves’) and the døkkálfar (‘dark elves’). Later Icelandic folklore offers a far richer account of elves (‘álfar’). A key publication that Tolkien would have had access to is Jón Árnason’s Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri (‘Icelandic folklore and fairy-tales’), printed in Leipzig in 1862. The book contains a large collection of elf stories collected in the 19th century (pages 5–130) but of no less interest is the introductory material, which reviews Icelandic information on elves and their characteristics, using 18th and 17th century sources as well as contemporary tales.

Volcanoes in Old Norse Mythology: Myth and Environment in Early Iceland

Volcanoes in Old Norse Mythology: Myth and Environment in Early Iceland

Classical or Old Norse myth? German and Danish approaches to the use of myth in the modern literature at the turn of the 19th century

Abstract In the study, I provide a comparative overview of the aesthetical debate that took place at the turn of the 18th and 19th century in Germany and Denmark concerning the use of the Old Norse versus the classical mythology in literature. I discuss Johann Gottfried Herder’s ideas on this topic, expressed in his work Vom neuern Gebrauch der Mythologie (1767) and especially in his dialogue Iduna oder der Apfel der Verjüngung (1796), with focus on the following question: Does the rejuvenating potential of the Norse myth as suggested by Herder in Iduna, allow any room for the classical inspirations in modern literature? Herder’s view will provide a starting point of the comparison for the cultural situation in Denmark where the University of Copenhagen announced in 1800 a prize question on aesthetics “Would it benefit Northern polite literature if ancient Northern mythology were introduced and generally accepted by our poets in place of its Greek counterpart?”. The entries in this contest represented the view of the younger generation, namely Adam Oehlenschläger, Jens Møller and Ludvig Stoud Platou. I summarize their views and examine Herder’s influence on the debate.

Megalodon

Megalodon

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Co-Presence and Consumption: Eating Kin(ship) In Old Norse Myth And Legend

The article explores kinship in Old Norse myth and legend in the light of anthropologist Marshall Sahlins’ definition of kinship as “mutuality of being”, according to which kinsmen are those who are co-present in one another. While co-presence is usually taken figuratively to mean a process of identification and empathy between a group of individuals, the interplay between shared substance and kinship means it can also be extended in some cases to include narratives of literal consumption or cannibalism. The article interrogates how kinship and consumption collide in Old Norse myth and legend when Atli eats his children in the Atli poems of the Poetic Edda, when Bera is forced to eat the transfigured flesh of her dead husband Bjǫrn in Hrolfs saga kraka, and when Sigurðr eats the roasted heart of his foster-father's brother Fafnir in Fafnismal. The analysis demonstrates that kin-consumption is the result rather than the cause of broken kinship relations and is used in these narratives to comment on the devastating and dehumanising effects of exploitative as opposed to symbiotic kinship relationships. The article culminates in a new reading of the binding of Fenrir, characterising his biting off of Týr’s hand as an act of kin-consumption which symbolises the dissolution of the kinship between him and the AEsir with inevitable dehumanising consequences.

Evergreen Ash: Ecology and Catastrophe in Old Norse Myth and Literature

Evergreen Ash: Ecology and Catastrophe in Old Norse Myth and Literature

Progression and Return in Västanå Theatre’s Retelling of the Edda (2019)

In 2019, Västanå Theatre staged Jon Fosse’s Edda, a theatrical adaptation of myths from the Poetic Edda. This essay focuses on a number of formal devices used to adapt the Norse myths at Västanå, the dumb show convention perhaps offering the most stylized form of expression of these. The essay shows how the production helped the audience negotiate between a linear and a circular understanding of time, through formal and structural means: staging, selection and ordering of episodes signalled a strong initial focus on the inevitability of Ragnarök, while circularity and return were highlighted through the ending in which the world was reborn, but also through other features that stressed repetition and retelling. The essay argues that the dumb show convention could be taken as emblematic of the production’s negotiation between the two timelines, but it also shows how the device helped adapt female characters into more powerful agents, how it added hope in the form of young love, and how it functioned to draw attention to narration, words, and poetry.