Minni and Muninn

Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture

Edited by Pernille Hermann Edited by Stephen A Mitchell Edited by Agnes S Arnorsdottir

Book cover: Minni and Muninn

Extent: 254 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Acta Scandinavica

Series volume number: 4

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2014)

ISBN: 9782503549101

Price: $113.00

In stock

This volume consists of articles about terms for, concepts of and functions of memory. The articles deal with medieval Norse texts, such as sagas, myths, skaldic poems, laws and historiographical writings, and they refer to theoretical insights from international memory studies that have developed recently.


In recent years, various branches of memory studies have provided useful tools of analysis that offer new ways of understanding medieval cultures. The articles in this collection draw on these new theoretical tools for studying – and conceptualizing – memory, in order to reassess the function of memory in medieval Nordic culture. Despite its interdisciplinary and comparative basis, the volume remains very much an empirical study of memory and memory-dependent issues as these took form in the Nordic world. In addition, the articles deal with a variety of theoretical concepts and areas of investigation which are of relevance when dealing with memory studies in general, such as transmission and media, preservation and storage, forgetting and erasure, and authenticity and falsity. The articles cover a wide range of medieval texts, such as saga, myth, poetry, law, historiography, learned literature, and other forms of verbal expression, such as runic inscriptions.

  • Edited by Pernille Hermann
  • Edited by Stephen A Mitchell
  • Edited by Agnes S Arnorsdottir