Declan Taggart
Biographic Data
| ID | 4166545 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Declan Taggart |
| GIVEN NAMES | Declan |
| FAMILY NAME | Taggart |
| SIGNATURE | TAGGART D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Iceland |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5668-5908 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Human Morality and Old Norse Gods
While many Old Norse myths and legends reflect their audiences’ values, it is more in doubt whether Old Norse gods were perceived as interested in human morality. Some past scholars have rejected connections between Old Norse religion and morality, and most modern handbooks ignore the topic entirely. I survey Old Norse poetry for instances in which the gods or other supernatural beings reward or punish human acts like altruism, violence, oath-bre…
Warrior institutions and martial networks in Viking-Age Scandinavia
The figure of the warrior occupies a key position in both scholarly and popular representations of the Viking Age. Despite this, many aspects of martial culture and lifeways during the period remain obscure. In order to address this issue, this article offers an exploration of the identities, roles, and social position of warrior groups in Viking-Age Scandinavia. We adopt a recently developed institutional approach for the study of the archaeolog…
The Early Icelandic Moral Economy According to the Major Poems of Egill Skallagrímsson
A major issue with studies of morality in Iceland that concentrate on the period before the land's official conversion to Christianity is that they are almost entirely based on the analysis of sagas, in particular the Íslendingasögur.1 As valuable as that group of texts is for modern researchers’ knowledge of the Viking Age and medieval North, the Íslendingasögur were recorded by Christians many hundreds of years after the histories they relate, …
Bonding over a death
Many of the rites described by Ibn Faḍlān in his account of a Rūs funeral remain obscure. Rather than attempting to further puzzle out the symbolic content of these funerary practices, this article uses signalling theory to examine their role in group dynamics. Signalling theory examines the honesty of communications between individuals, focusing especially on how costly acts can represent the fitness and cooperative qualities of the communicator…
Religion in the Viking Age Moral Economy
On those rare occasions when Old Norse religion and morality are set alongside one another, the notion of a non-Christian morality is typically dismissed or Old Norse religion is viewed as actively holding back moral progress. I seek to challenge that rough consensus by examining lausavísa 19 by Egill Skallagrímsson, a short poem that seems to directly link gods with punishing certain forms of conduct. I approach the text with three research ques…
Did a Little Birdie Really Tell Odin? Applying Theory of Mind to Old Norse Religion
Theory of mind, the theory that humans attribute mental states to others, has become increasingly influential in the Cognitive Science of Religion in recent years, due to several papers which posit that supernatural agents, like gods, demons, and the dead, are accredited greater than normal knowledge and awareness. Using Old Norse mythology and literary accounts of Old Norse religion, supported by archaeological evidence, I examine the extent to …
Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age
Do Thor and Odin Have Bodies? Superperception and Divine Intervention among the Old Norse Gods
In Old Norse mythology, gods like Freyja, Odin, and Thor are usually characterized as human-like creatures: they walk and ride animals, eat, grow old, and even die. Was there more to conceptions of Old Norse gods than those anthropomorphic representations? This article presents evidence that the gods of early Scandinavia were sometimes thought of as superperceiving and able to act in ways that defied the limitations of a physical body. It engages…
How Thor Lost His Thunder
How Thor Lost his Thunder is the first major English-language study of early medieval evidence for the Old Norse god, Thor. In this book, the most common modern representations of Thor are examined, such as images of him wreathed in lightning, and battling against monsters and giants. The origins of these images within Iron Age and early medieval evidence are then uncovered and investigated. In doing so, the common cultural history of Thor’s cult…
Religion in the Viking Age Moral Economy
On those rare occasions when Old Norse religion and morality are set alongside one another, the notion of a non-Christian morality is typically dismissed or Old Norse religion is viewed as actively holding back moral progress. I seek to challenge that rough consensus by examining lausavísa 19 by Egill Skallagrímsson, a short poem that seems to directly link gods with punishing certain forms of conduct. I approach the text with three research ques…
Warrior institutions and martial networks in Viking-Age Scandinavia
The figure of the warrior occupies a key position in both scholarly and popular representations of the Viking Age. Despite this, many aspects of martial culture and lifeways during the period remain obscure. In order to address this issue, this article offers an exploration of the identities, roles, and social position of warrior groups in Viking-Age Scandinavia. We adopt a recently developed institutional approach for the study of the archaeolog…
Do Thor and Odin Have Bodies? Superperception and Divine Intervention among the Old Norse Gods
In Old Norse mythology, gods like Freyja, Odin, and Thor are usually characterized as human-like creatures: they walk and ride animals, eat, grow old, and even die. Was there more to conceptions of Old Norse gods than those anthropomorphic representations? This article presents evidence that the gods of early Scandinavia were sometimes thought of as superperceiving and able to act in ways that defied the limitations of a physical body. It engages…
How Thor Lost His Thunder
How Thor Lost his Thunder is the first major English-language study of early medieval evidence for the Old Norse god, Thor. In this book, the most common modern representations of Thor are examined, such as images of him wreathed in lightning, and battling against monsters and giants. The origins of these images within Iron Age and early medieval evidence are then uncovered and investigated. In doing so, the common cultural history of Thor’s cult…
Do Thor and Odin Have Bodies? Superperception and Divine Intervention among the Old Norse Gods
In Old Norse mythology, gods like Freyja, Odin, and Thor are usually characterized as human-like creatures: they walk and ride animals, eat, grow old, and even die. Was there more to conceptions of Old Norse gods than those anthropomorphic representations? This article presents evidence that the gods of early Scandinavia were sometimes thought of as superperceiving and able to act in ways that defied the limitations of a physical body. It engages…
Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age
Did a Little Birdie Really Tell Odin? Applying Theory of Mind to Old Norse Religion
Theory of mind, the theory that humans attribute mental states to others, has become increasingly influential in the Cognitive Science of Religion in recent years, due to several papers which posit that supernatural agents, like gods, demons, and the dead, are accredited greater than normal knowledge and awareness. Using Old Norse mythology and literary accounts of Old Norse religion, supported by archaeological evidence, I examine the extent to …
The Early Icelandic Moral Economy According to the Major Poems of Egill Skallagrímsson
A major issue with studies of morality in Iceland that concentrate on the period before the land's official conversion to Christianity is that they are almost entirely based on the analysis of sagas, in particular the Íslendingasögur.1 As valuable as that group of texts is for modern researchers’ knowledge of the Viking Age and medieval North, the Íslendingasögur were recorded by Christians many hundreds of years after the histories they relate, …
Bonding over a death
Many of the rites described by Ibn Faḍlān in his account of a Rūs funeral remain obscure. Rather than attempting to further puzzle out the symbolic content of these funerary practices, this article uses signalling theory to examine their role in group dynamics. Signalling theory examines the honesty of communications between individuals, focusing especially on how costly acts can represent the fitness and cooperative qualities of the communicator…
Religion in the Viking Age Moral Economy
On those rare occasions when Old Norse religion and morality are set alongside one another, the notion of a non-Christian morality is typically dismissed or Old Norse religion is viewed as actively holding back moral progress. I seek to challenge that rough consensus by examining lausavísa 19 by Egill Skallagrímsson, a short poem that seems to directly link gods with punishing certain forms of conduct. I approach the text with three research ques…
Human Morality and Old Norse Gods
While many Old Norse myths and legends reflect their audiences’ values, it is more in doubt whether Old Norse gods were perceived as interested in human morality. Some past scholars have rejected connections between Old Norse religion and morality, and most modern handbooks ignore the topic entirely. I survey Old Norse poetry for instances in which the gods or other supernatural beings reward or punish human acts like altruism, violence, oath-bre…
Warrior institutions and martial networks in Viking-Age Scandinavia
The figure of the warrior occupies a key position in both scholarly and popular representations of the Viking Age. Despite this, many aspects of martial culture and lifeways during the period remain obscure. In order to address this issue, this article offers an exploration of the identities, roles, and social position of warrior groups in Viking-Age Scandinavia. We adopt a recently developed institutional approach for the study of the archaeolog…
Historical and Archaeological Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Medieval Literature and History (5 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Ancient history (3 works) · Archaeology (3 works) · Geography (3 works) · Literature (3 works) · Mythology (3 works)