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Translated by
Terry Gunnell and Joan Turville-Petre
A collection of eight lectures, now translated into English, which clearly reappraise Old Norse religion and Old Icelandic folk beliefs. Topics include a reinterpretation of the gods and giants of Old Norse, including their genealogy, their conflicts and relationships with all nature. Adelsteinsson also considers efforts by saga writers to unite elements of Christianity and earlier beliefs. He examines sagas to find evidence for animal and human sacrifice, such as the night-time murder of a young couple in bed at the end of an autumn sacrifice recounted in Gísla saga Súrssonar . This appealing book concludes with discussions of giants and elves and the art of wrestling with ghosts: a phenomenon that is still recorded in Iceland today. Extracts are presented in Old Icelandic with English translations.
info
PDF:
Back cover:
Gods, giants, ghosts and elves, sacrifice and slaughter ...
This volume contains English translations of a number of articles that have
been published over the years by Professor Jón Hnefiil Aðalsteinsson, who
has been in charge of Folkloristics at the University of Iceland. The articles,
which are now accompanied by additional notes and information, cover a
wide range of material to do with the Old Norse religion and Icelandic folk
beliefs. Here one finds discussion of the nature of the mythological wind
giant, Hræsvelgr; the role of sacrifice at legal gatherings; the presentation of
pagan myths and religious customs in the medieval sagas recorded by
Christians; the way that the images of giants and elves have altered over time
in the popular accounts in Iceland; and the way in which the oral tradition
has transformed accounts of actual events into traditional ghost stories.
The title of the book is drawn.from a key article about how a Christian
Norwegian king avoided a critical confrontation with some
of his more powerful pagan subjects by agreeing to
swallow a piece of sacrificial horse liver: in other , words, through this rite
the pagan lived on in the Christian. When this
article was first published in a collection of conference papers entitled
Snorrastefaa it received the following plaudits from critics:
" .. .lucid and methodical... As the memorable title suggests, stress is laid on
the link, seemingly still understood
by the Fagrskinna author though
obscured by Snorri, between religious practice and the maintenance of laws
in tenth-century Norway."
(Diana Whaley, in Collegium Medievale)
Terry Gunnell and Joan Turville-Petre
A collection of eight lectures, now translated into English, which clearly reappraise Old Norse religion and Old Icelandic folk beliefs. Topics include a reinterpretation of the gods and giants of Old Norse, including their genealogy, their conflicts and relationships with all nature. Adelsteinsson also considers efforts by saga writers to unite elements of Christianity and earlier beliefs. He examines sagas to find evidence for animal and human sacrifice, such as the night-time murder of a young couple in bed at the end of an autumn sacrifice recounted in Gísla saga Súrssonar . This appealing book concludes with discussions of giants and elves and the art of wrestling with ghosts: a phenomenon that is still recorded in Iceland today. Extracts are presented in Old Icelandic with English translations.
info
PDF:
Back cover:
Gods, giants, ghosts and elves, sacrifice and slaughter ...
This volume contains English translations of a number of articles that have
been published over the years by Professor Jón Hnefiil Aðalsteinsson, who
has been in charge of Folkloristics at the University of Iceland. The articles,
which are now accompanied by additional notes and information, cover a
wide range of material to do with the Old Norse religion and Icelandic folk
beliefs. Here one finds discussion of the nature of the mythological wind
giant, Hræsvelgr; the role of sacrifice at legal gatherings; the presentation of
pagan myths and religious customs in the medieval sagas recorded by
Christians; the way that the images of giants and elves have altered over time
in the popular accounts in Iceland; and the way in which the oral tradition
has transformed accounts of actual events into traditional ghost stories.
The title of the book is drawn.from a key article about how a Christian
Norwegian king avoided a critical confrontation with some
of his more powerful pagan subjects by agreeing to
swallow a piece of sacrificial horse liver: in other , words, through this rite
the pagan lived on in the Christian. When this
article was first published in a collection of conference papers entitled
Snorrastefaa it received the following plaudits from critics:
" .. .lucid and methodical... As the memorable title suggests, stress is laid on
the link, seemingly still understood
by the Fagrskinna author though
obscured by Snorri, between religious practice and the maintenance of laws
in tenth-century Norway."
(Diana Whaley, in Collegium Medievale)