Remembering Heathen Women in Medieval Icelandic Literature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21570742 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ann Sheffield (Allegheny College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Pages | 122-143 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scandinavian-Canadian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0823-1796 • E-ISSN: 2816-5187 |
| Publisher | University of Alberta Libraries (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.29173/scancan204 |
| OpenAlex | W4285326197 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
Several Icelandic texts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries depict female characters from the pre-Christian past. In both poetry and prose, these heathen women are often portrayed as recalling the old, pre-Christian religion or the magical practices associated with it. Within this literature, different genres correlate with strata of cultural memory that are associated with different periods in Norse history and pre-history. This link between genre and era is largely independent of the actual dates of composition of the texts or the historicity of the events they describe. An analysis of illustrative examples from this corpus reveals how the evaluation and representation of heathen women depend on how deeply in the past they are situated by the narratives that describe them
Ancient history · Art · Icelandic · Linguistics · Literature · Middle Ages · Narrative · Old Norse · Poetry · Situated · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy
The Saint and the Saga Hero
Eddic poetry and the religion of pre-Christian Scandinavia
A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics
Speaker and Authority in Old Norse Wisdom Poetry
The transmission and preservation of eddic poetry
Medieval Scandinavia
Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages
The Viking Way
Communicative and Cultural Memory
| Highly cited | No |
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