Scandinavian Traditions Research Articles

Myth and history in Celtic and Scandinavian traditions ed. by Emily Lyle (review)

Myth and history in Celtic and Scandinavian traditions ed. by Emily Lyle (review)

Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions

Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions

Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions

Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions

Mutual Influences of Norman and Slavic Military Traditions. “Wolf Warriors” in the Kyivan Rus’ Army during the Great Wars of the 960s—970s AD

The article analyzes the tradition of “beast warriors”, specific military ritual associations, in the army of Kyivan Rus during the campaigns of the Kyivan Prince, Sviatoslav I the Brave in the 960s–970s AD. The article states that in the 10th century, the peoples of Northern and Central Europe had factions of “wolf warriors”, which stood out as a specific type of infantry and were involved in the most important combats. Legends about werewolves in the Slavic epics and descriptions of berserkers in the Scandinavian sources are analyzed. The intrusion of Normans into the territory of Kyivan Rus, and their participation in the Russo-Khazar and Russo-Byzantine wars of 964–972 is studied. The interactions between Slavic and Scandinavian military traditions, which are reflected in the archaeological findings of the ancient warriors’ equipment, are considered. Thus, scabbards of swords with specific images of birds (falcons) and predatory animals, as well as ritual rhyton horns form an example of the interaction of military totem cults and customs between the Slavic and Scandinavian traditions in the 10th century. The “beast-warrior” customs of Kyivan Rus troops’ combat style and the actions of separate assault detachments during the Balkan War of 971 (972) AD, mentioned in the Byzantine chronicles, are described in detail. The “beast-warrior” customs of Rus’ units and the actions of “wolf warrior” detachments in Prince Sviatoslav’s army were based on the totem fighting customs of the Slavic and Scandinavian tribes, as well as their mutual influence due to the involvement of Norman military contingents into the Rus’ army during the Great Wars of the 960s and 970s.

On Artificial Intelligence’s Razor’s Edge: On the Future of Democracy and Society in the Artificial Age

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our contemporary society imposes historically unique challenges for humankind. The emerging autonomy of AI holds unique potentials of eternal life of robots, AI and algorithms alongside unprecedented economic superiority, data storage and computational advantages. However, the introduction of AI to society also raises ethical questions. What is the social impact of robots, algorithms, blockchain and AI entering the workforce and our daily lives on the economy and human society? Should AI become eternal or is there a virtue in switching off AI at a certain point? If so, we may have to define a ‘virtue of killing’ and a ‘right to destroy’ that may draw from legal but also philosophical sources to answer the question how to handle the abyss of killing with ethical grace and fair style. In light of robots already having gained citizenship and being attributed as quasi-human under Common Law jurisdiction, should AI and robots be granted full citizen rights – such as voting rights? Or should we simply reap the benefits of AI and consider to define a democracy with different classes having diversified access to public choice and voting – as practiced in the ancient Athenian city state, which became the cradle of Western civilization and democratic traditions spread around the globe. Or should we legally justify AI slaves to economically reap their benefits, as was common in ancient Rome, which became the Roman Law legal foundation for Continental and some of Scandinavian Law traditions and which inspired very many different codifications around the world. Finally, we may also draw from the Code Napoleon, the French Code Civil established under Napoleon in 1804, which defined male and female into two classes of human with substantial right and power differences, and – to this day – accounts for one of the few documents that have influenced the whole world in legal and societal ways. In asking critical questions and unraveling the ethical boundary conditions of our future artificial world, the paper thereby takes a descriptive – afar from normative – theoretical angle targeted at aiding a successful introduction of AI into our contemporary workforce, democracy and society.

Discussion of "Psychodynamic therapies with infants and parents: a critical review of treatment methods".

Bjorn Salomonsson does an excellent job critically reviewing a variety of psychodynamic therapies with infants and parents (PTIP), including methods which are less well known to American audiences, particularly those from the French and Scandinavian traditions. Thus, this review article is both a gift and a challenge to American readers and an obvious challenge to an American discussant immersed in (1) conflict and compromise formation theory (or as is better known as American Ego Psychology) and in (2) systematic empirical approaches to psychodynamic concepts and treatment. Can one objectively evaluate theories and methods which rely on assumptions unlike those to which one has been accustomed? These difficulties must be borne in mind and overcome because, perhaps unintentionally, Salomonsson’s contribution is valuable for all psychodynamic clinicians and researchers. This article raises ideas which may help us in our most important task of refining methods to evaluate the nature of the mutative agents in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapies. Salomonsson notes that the psychoanalytic study of the mother–infant dyad, one of the last patient categories to be studied psychoanalytically, began with the work of Selma Fraiberg and Francoise Dolto. Contrasting the American and the European literature, Salomonsson

Psychodynamic therapies with infants and parents: a critical review of treatment methods.

The theory of psychoanalysis has always relied on speculations about the infant's mind, but its clinical practice was slow in taking an interest in babies and their parents. The therapy methods that nevertheless have evolved during the last 50 years differ in their emphasis on support or insight, which roles they attribute to mother and baby in therapy, and to what extent they focus on the unconscious influences in mother and baby, respectively. They also differ to what extent their theories rely on classical psychoanalysis, attachment psychology, developmental psychology, and infant research. Each method also contains assumptions, most often tacit, about which kinds of samples for which they are most suited. The article describes the most well-known modes of psychodynamic therapy with infants and parents (PTIP). There is a certain emphasis on methods that are less known to the U.S. readership, such as the French and Scandinavian traditions. It submits them and the other methods to a critical review.

Gods and Settlers: The Iconography of Norse Mythology in Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture by Lilla Kopár (review)

Reviewed by: Gods and Settlers: The Iconography of Norse Mythology in Anglo-Scandinavian Sculptureby Lilla Kopár Shane McLeod Kopár, Lilla, Gods and Settlers: The Iconography of Norse Mythology in Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture( Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 25), Turnhout, Brepols, 2012; hardback; pp. xl, 242; 55 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €75.00; ISBN 9782503528540. Gods and Settlers: The Iconography of Norse Mythology in Anglo-Scandinavian Sculptureis an important new addition to recent studies on the acculturation process of Scandinavians in England during the ninth and tenth centuries. In particular, it provides a detailed assessment of all known Anglo-Scandinavian sculptures that may include Norse mythological or heroic imagery. The work is divided into two parts, ‘Images’ and ‘Encounters’. The first focuses on the images on the stones, and examines whether any of them relate to Norse mythology. All figurative Anglo-Scandinavian stonework is considered, including those examples which were once thought to depict mythological scenes but have since been rejected by scholars such as Richard Bailey and James Lang. As may be expected, the Gosforth Cross receives the most attention and the discussion of the Cross is most impressive, including seven pages on the significance of the female attending the crucifixion, variously interpreted by scholars as Ecclesia, Mary Magdalene, or a valkyrie; Lilla Kopár suggests, however, that it may be the Norse goddess Hel. Indeed, she suggests that some of the other cup-bearing female figures may also represent Hel in her role of hostess rather than a valkyrie as is commonly supposed. To help the reader understand the scenes (possibly) being depicted in the corpus, Kopár provides background information on such figures as Sigurd the dragonslayer and Wayland the smith, drawing on pre- and post-Viking [End Page 231]Age sources as well as Viking Age Scandinavian images, especially those on picture stones on Gotland, plus skaldic poetry. Black-and-white photographs, of almost all the sculptures discussed are included, taken primarily from the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, which makes the detailed descriptions of the possible scenes being depicted easier to follow. This section includes a number of interesting ideas, including that the bound Christ figure known in post-conversion Scandinavia may have been influenced by the popularity of bound figures in the pre-Christian tradition. ‘Encounters’ provides necessary background information on the debate over the number of Scandinavian settlers, the state of the church during the settlement period, and the likely relationship between patron(s) and sculptor(s). Kopár offers important new insights into the intellectual framework of the sculptures, arguing that figurative thinking – a recurrence of patterns that are ‘not a conscious interpretive method directed to scripture, but rather a mindset or mental furniture’ (p. 172) – is a more useful tool for considering the works than typology. The ‘table of possible correspondences’ provided on p. 174 is helpful for understanding this system. Kopár also stresses that the sculptures under discussion are Christian monuments at Christian sites so they represent an integration of pagan gods and heroes into the Christian system. Therefore, the sculptures occurred during the middle phase of Christianisation, where traditional beliefs and lore were still recognised but were being accommodated within a new cultural tradition. Consequently, Kopár argues that the sculptures should not be viewed as products of Scandinavian communities but of mixed Anglo-Scandinavian ones, where both traditions were familiar. It is suggested that some of the sculptures required the intellectual engagement of the audience and that they acted as visual riddles inviting cross-referencing between different narratives. Indeed, ‘every single attempt to interpret the iconography of these monuments was a step on the path of religious and cultural integration’ (p. 207). The Gosforth Cross features heavily in this section, where it is argued that it may have served as a preaching cross, and that the otherwise out of place ‘Hel’ figure standing below and to the right of Christ in the crucifixion scene on the Cross helps to link the Christian and Scandinavian traditions. For this reviewer, ‘Encounters’ was the really interesting part of Kopár’s work, so it is unfortunate that ‘Images’ occupies approximately two-thirds of...

Discursive turns from 'Bildung' to managerialism

The article focuses on the struggles over ethos in academic adult education tradition that grows from the frameworks of student generations in Finnish adult education. It brings together elements of present-day analysis and historically sensitizing memory data on generations of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. My interest here lies in how the rhetoric of lifelong learning and education has revised the basic assumptions of adult education. The data suggest that the dominant narrative of adult education is increasingly the discourse of marketization. Finnish present-day student generations seem to have lost their intrinsic connections with the Scandinavian traditions of popular enlightenment and the values of equality and basic logics enabling 'second chances' for all adult citizens within the Nordic welfare state. One of the results of the analysis was the following question: Should we reinvent adult education again from the standpoint of sustainable development of 'ordinary people'?

Prevalence and aetiology of congenitally deafblind people in Denmark

A study of prevalence and aetiology was performed on 63 children and 127 adults in Denmark with congenital deafblindness. Using a Scandinavian definition of deafblindness, the prevalence of congenital deafblindness was found to be 1:29 000. Thirty-five different aetiological causes of deafblindness were found. Causes of congenital deafblindness were different among adults compared to causes among children. Rubella syndrome (28%, n = 36) and Down syndrome (8%. n = 10) were the largest groups among people above 18 years of age. Among children CHARGE syndrome (16%, n = 13) was the largest group. Ethnicity was also evaluated. Among children 72% were Danish, but among the adults 98% were Danish. Implications of difference in aetiology and ethnicity are discussed in relation to the Scandinavian traditions of clinical practice and identification of congenital deafblindness.SumarioSe llevó a cabo un estudio de prevalencia y etiología en 63 niños y 127 adultos con sordoceguera congénita en Dinamarca. Utilizando la definición escandinava de sordo-ceguera, se encontró que la prevalencia de sordo-ceguera congénita es de 1:29,000. Se encontraron 135 causas de sordo-ceguera. Las causas de sordo-ceguera congénita fueron diferentes entre los adultos comparadas con las de los niños. El síndrome de Rubeola (28% n=36) y el síndrome de Down (8% n=10) fueron los grupos más numerosos entre las personas mayores de 18 años. Entre los niños el síndrome CHARGE (16% n=13) fue el grupo más numeroso. También se evaluó la etnicidad. Del grupo de niños el 72% era daneses, mientras que el 92% de los adultos eran daneses. Se discuten las implicaciones sobre las diferencias etiológicas y étnicas en relación con las tradiciones escandinavas en la práctica clínica y la identificación de la sordo-ceguera congénita.

Forest management after the economic transition—at the crossroads between German and Scandinavian traditions

Germany and Scandinavia represent two paradigmatic forest management traditions, based on management for volume and management for profit, respectively. This study examines the prevailing silvicultural regimes and resulting economic outcomes in Germany and Sweden as benchmarks, and then corresponding analyses are performed for post-transition EU countries, represented by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The analyses reveal a regional gradient where Poland stands closest to the German tradition, Latvia goes through a “scandinavisation”, and Lithuania takes an intermediate position. Poland adheres to longer rotations and follows the principle of self-sufficiency, while economic efficiency has gained increased importance in Latvia. The observed gradient is likely to be sustained in the coming decades as the survey of key forest sector stakeholders reveals ideological patterns that correlate with the pace of reform of State forestry in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Transforming Images: Exploring Powerful Children

The perception of children as vulnerable, instead of powerful, beings is the opposite of what is found to be the case in the historic evidence. The paper investigates the relationship between ideology and material culture by examining some attitudes towards children found in Scandinavian traditions, which have been connected with archaeological finds. This concerns the area of the Norse Sagas and the comparative studies of religion, folk medicine and folklore in relationship to the tradition of burial alive in the Nordic regions. In relation to children's access to origin of a cosmological order it looks into the Norwegian Odal law of the firstborn and pre-Christian practices concerning the treatment of children.

Action research through a European perspective?based on Scandinavian and Italian traditions

Historically, the Italian and Scandinavian institutionalisation of action research has developed along different tracks. The question is, if there are any promising prospects to combine different action research experiences and methodologies across European regions? Alternatively, should we conclude that action research is mainly a local activity firmly rooted in a special culture in the different European countries?

WHAT HAS BALDR TO DO WITH LAMECH? THE LETHAL SHOT OF A BLIND MAN IN OLD NORSE MYTH AND JEWISH EXEGETICAL TRADITIONS

Beowulf is, an Anglo-Saxon poem set in pre-Christian Scandinavia. No one now doubts that it was composed by a poet thoroughly versed in Christian and biblical traditions, but whether its author had the same degree of knowledge of the background to his chosen subject matter - specifically, Scandinavian paganism - has been fiercely debated.1 And even if one is inclined to believe that the Beowulf-poet did have special knowledge of Scandinavian paganism,2 the thorny problem remains of whether this material represented part of the poet's cultural heritage - that is, that Beowulf is a relatively early poem steeped in traditions from the pre-Viking Age period, traditions perhaps shared by the ancestors of both the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse raiders - or whether the poet eagerly composed his ambitious epic under the influence of a wealth of new material brought to his notice by Scandinavian settlers later rather than earlier in the Anglo-Saxon period.3Since many of the characters and events in the poem feature in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, comparing the poem with these Scandinavian analogues, to see whether the poet's recreation of the pagan past matches what we find in these sources, might seem an obvious strategy. But relating Beowulf to Old Norse sources can only be done with the utmost caution, chiefly because most of the latter, at least in their written form, belong to a period centuries later than even the latest possible date for the composition of Beowulf. We cannot assume that late Old Norse-Icelandic texts themselves conserve without distortion or addition the traditions of an ancient Germanic past. In this article, I will begin by comparing the account in Beowulf of the accidental killing of Herebeald by his brother Hae[eth]cyn with Snorri Sturluson's celebrated thirteenth-century account of the killing of the god Baldr by his brother Ho[eth]r. This is an episode in Beowulf which might suggest that the poet did indeed have special knowledge of Old Norse mythology. There are, however, significant differences between the two stories. I shall argue that the differences between the two call into question not the Beowulf-poet's knowledge of Scandinavian traditions, but rather, Snorri's representation of them. As it happens, I do think it possible that the story in Beowulf oi how Hae[eth]cyn killed his brother is a reworking of the myth about the death of Baldr. But the main purpose of this article is not to establish this connection. It is rather to suggest that Snorri's account of the death of Baldr is not a straightforward rendition of earlier Norse traditions, but instead a careful patchwork of narrative elements from different sources. In other words, I shall argue that certain of the elements in Snorri's narrative, far from reflecting earlier native mythological material, may be later additions to the myth, and may themselves depend on Christian-Latin (and, ultimately, Jewish) traditions.4 And the details which cause Snorri's narrative to differ most strikingly from the Beowulfian version of events - thus constituting the case against a relationship between the poem and Scandinavian tradition - are precisely those which, I shall suggest, are non-native accretions to the myth.Towards the end of the poem, as he faces the final challenge of his career, the fight with the dragon, Beowulf casts his mind back to his childhood, reminiscing about his adoption, at the age of 7, by his grandfather Hrepel, king of the Geats. Beowulf recalls how Hrepel loved him no less than he loved his own sons - Herebeald, Hae[eth]cyn, and Hygelac - but moves at once to a much less happy memory:(There was for the eldest, unfittingly, a murderous deathbed made by the actions of a kinsman, when Hae[eth]cyn killed him, his lord and friend, with an arrow from a horn bow; he missed the target and shot dead his kinsman, one brother the other, with a bloody spear.)Beowulf goes on to explain the terrible position Hrepel now finds himself in: although he grieves for Hcrcbcald, he cannot possibly relieve his gtief by taking vengeance on his other son, even though he now has no love for Hae[eth]cyn. …

The international total quality management concept and Scandinavian traditions of industrial democracy: Conflicting or mutually reinforcing development strategies

The international total quality management concept and Scandinavian traditions of industrial democracy: Conflicting or mutually reinforcing development strategies

The Diary Novel

Although the diary novel is often regarded as a twentieth-century genre due to its particular popularity in this century, the form actually has a long history that originates in the eighteenth century. The Diary Novel is the first book to trace that history, concentrating on French, German, and English works with some attention given to Russian and Scandinavian traditions as well. Beginning with a discussion of the definition of the diary novel and some observations about genre study and criticism, Lorna Martens proceeds with interpretations of major diary novels by writers such as Defoe, Gide, Rilke, Frisch, Butor, and Lessing. The Diary Novel includes sections on the influence of Richardson and the letter journal novel, the publication of the 'journaux intimes', psychological fiction, reliability of the narrator, and the contemporary diary novel.

Vengeful Music in Traditional Narrative

IN this paper I will be examining a cluster of story motifs and ideas relating to music and poetry that appears in several European narrative traditions of both the preChristian past and recent times. This cluster-which I call the Singing Bone Pattern-is to be found in stories that have to do with the invention of a special musical instrument. In these narratives, the instrument-or music in general-functions as a means of taking revenge and gaining retribution for the instrument itself or the performer who plays upon it. Music serves to protect fundamental cultural realities (such as marriage and the family) or even to uphold the cosmogonic structure. Although music clearly has a cultural purpose in these stories (which include myths-stories about gods-as well as stories with more mundane characters), this powerful expression of human creativity also reveals a 'natural' side. Music, as it is represented in tales that feature the Singing Bone Pattern, proves to be an unclassifiable phenomenon, a sine qua non of human society that paradoxically transcends the distinctions between culture and nature, living and dead, animate and inanimate. The performance of music in these tales is in effect a shamanic journey undertaken by the musical performer and the musical instrument. In the course of examining these stories from various European traditions, we detect a fascinatirng ideology of music and musical performance which probably is not limited to one cultural area and may well be found, with further research, in traditions of ritual, story, and belief worldwide. The outstanding example of our narrative pattern is the mdrchen catalogued as Type 780, 'The Singing Bone,' in the Aarne-Thompson Folktale Index. But, while this mdrchen provides an excellent introduction to the pattern (as well as the name by which I designate it), in fact any of the narratives that I will be discussing could be used as a starting point for this analysis of a story pattern which appears in many different narrative traditions and genres. The numerous versions of the mdrchen that have been collected in Europe and elsewhere were studied by Lutz Mackensen, who published his findings in 1923.' Mackensen's study of 'The Singing Bone' was very much a product of the Finnish method of folktale scholarship. So, even though the monograph remains an invaluable bibliographical resource, it does not shed much light on the possible meanings and dynamics of the mdrchen's themes, or on the story pattern underlying it. In British and Scandinavian oral traditions there exists a ballad known as 'The Two Sisters,' which is a localized variant of Tale Type 780. Paul Brewster published a monograph on this ballad in 1953;2 like the Mackensen work, Brewster's is dominated by historical-geographical concerns and thus does not offer much insight into the thematic structure of the ballad. As we shall see later, the miirchen and the ballad not only are generated by the same story pattern but also present virtually identical stories. In the majority of collected versions, the marchen begins with two or three siblings