Folklore in Old Norse – Old Norse in Folklore

edited by Daniel Savborg and Karen Bek-Pedersen

Book cover: Folklore in Old Norse – Old Norse in Folklore

Extent: 187 pages

Publisher: University of Tartu Press

Subjects: Literary Studies

Series: Nordistica Tartuensia

Series volume number: 20

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(December 2014)

ISBN: 9789949327041

Price: $23.00

In stock

During the 20th century, Old Norse philology has been strongly textually oriented. This is evident in saga scholarship, where the book-prose ideology turned the issue of the origin of individual sagas into an issue of direct influences from other written works. This focus has methodological advantages, but it has also meant that valuable folkloristic knowledge has been neglected. The present volume targets the advantages, the problems and the methods of using folklore material and theory in Old Norse scholarship. An important theme in folklore is the encounter with the Supernatural, and such stories are indeed common in saga literature. Generally, however, scholars have tended to focus on feuds and the social structure of the sagas, and less on encounters with Otherworld beings. In this volume, the supernatural themes in the sagas are discussed by means of several approaches, some folkloristic, some traditionally philological.


During the 20th century, Old Norse philology has been strongly textually oriented. This is evident in saga scholarship, where the book-prose ideology turned the issue of the origin of individual sagas into an issue of direct influences from other written works. This focus has methodological advantages, but it has also meant that valuable folkloristic knowledge has been neglected. The present volume targets the advantages, the problems and the methods of using folklore material and theory in Old Norse scholarship. An important theme in folklore is the encounter with the Supernatural, and such stories are indeed common in saga literature. Generally, however, scholars have tended to focus on feuds and the social structure of the sagas, and less on encounters with Otherworld beings. In this volume, the supernatural themes in the sagas are discussed by means of several approaches, some folkloristic, some traditionally philological.

Daniel Savborg, Karen Bek-Pedersen Folklore in Old Norse--Old Norse in Folklore. Introduction Aoalheidur Guomundsdottir The Other World in the Fornaldarsogur and in Folklore Stephen A. Mitchell Continuity: Folklore's Problem Child? Thomas A. DuBois Anatomy of the Elite: "Learned" vs. "Folk" in the Analysis of Avowedly Pre-Christian Religious Elements in the Sagas Karen Bek-Pedersen Reconstruction: On Crabs, Folklore and the History of Religion Annette Lassen The Old Norse Contextuality of Baroar saga SnAefellsass: A Synoptic Reading with Olafs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta Camilla Asplund Ingemark The Trolls in Baroar saga--Playing with the Conventions of Oral Texts? Ralph O'Connor Baroar saga Between Orality and Literacy Eldar Heide Baroar saga as a Source for Reconstruction of Pre-Christian Religion? Author presentations

  • Edited by Karen Bek-Pedersen
  • Edited by Daniel Savborg