Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age
Essays in Honour of Stefan Brink
Edited by I. Garcia Losquino Edited by O. Sundqvist Edited by D. Taggart
The contributions in this volume by world-leading scholars of archaeology, history, history of religion, literature and onomastics provide new insights into the construction of the sacred in Old Norse culture and society. The term ‘sacred’ is often used in relation to the pre-Christian religions of Iron Age and medieval Scandinavia. But what did sacred really mean? What made something sacred for people? Why was one particular person, place, act, or text perceived to hold a sacral quality, while others remained profane? And what impact did such sacrality have on wider society, culture, politics, and economics, both for contemporaries and for future generations? This volume seeks to engage with such questions by drawing together essays from many of the pre-eminent scholars of Old Norse in order to reinterpret the concept of the sacred in the Viking Age North and to challenge pre-existing frameworks for understanding the sacred in this space and time. Including essays from Margaret Clunies Ross, Stephen Mitchell, John Lindow, and Judy Quinn, it is a treasury of commentary and information that ranges widely across theories and sources of evidence to present significant primary research and reconsiderations of existing scholarship. This edited collection is dedicated to Stefan Brink, an outstanding figure in the study of early Scandinavian language, society, and culture, and it takes as its inspiration the diversity, interdisciplinarity and vitality of his own research in order to make a major new contribution to the field of Old Norse studies.
- Edited by I. Garcia Losquino
- Edited by O. Sundqvist
- Edited by D. Taggart
Other Titles in this Series
The Playful Middle Ages
Meanings of Play and Plays of Meaning: Essays in Memory of Elaine C. Block
Volume 23
Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World
Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross
Volume 18
Survival and Success on Medieval Borders
Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania from the Twelfth to the Late Fourteenth Century
Volume 24
Parisian Confraternity Drama of the Fourteenth Century
The 'Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages'
Volume 22
Essays in Manuscript Geography
Vernacular Manuscripts of the English West Midlands from the Conquest to the Sixteenth Century
Volume 10
Celts, Gaels, and Britons
Studies in Language and Literature from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Honour of Patrick Sims-Williams
Volume 35
Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Medieval Brittany, 450-1200
Connections and Disconnections
Volume 36
The Social Life of Illumination
Manuscripts, Images, and Communities in the Late Middle Ages
Volume 21
Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture
The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts
Volume 25
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