Icelandic Folklore and the Cultural Memory of Religious Change

Eric Shane Bryan

book: Icelandic Folklore and the Cultural Memory of Religious Change

Open Access Published by ARC Humanities Press 2021

Icelandic Folklore and the Cultural Memory of Religious Change

Eric Shane Bryan

In the series Borderlines

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781641893763

Overview
Contents

About this book

Iceland’s uncommon proclivity towards storytelling, its robust tradition of medieval manuscripts, and the “re-oralization” of those narratives after the medieval period, create a body of folktales and legends that have encoded a hidden account of how orthodox and heterodox beliefs (sometimes pagan in origin) intermingled as Christianity, and later Reformation, spread through the North. This volume unlocks that secret story by placing Icelandic folktales in a context of religious doctrine, social history, and Old Norse sagas and poetry. The analysis herein reveals a cultural memory of belief.

Author / Editor information

Eric Bryan is Assoc. Prof. of English at Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology. He has received grants from the Fulbright Program and American Scandinavian Foundation.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Open Access Download PDF	v
Preface Open Access Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Stories, Memories, and Mechanisms of Belief Open Access Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. The Dead Bridegroom Carries Off His Bride: Pejoration and Adjacency Pairs in ATU 365 Open Access Download PDF	23
Chapter 2. The Elf Woman’s Conversion: Memories of Gender and Gender Spheres Open Access Download PDF	45
Chapter 3. The Fylgjur of Iceland: Attendant Spirits and a Distorted Sense of Guardianship Open Access Download PDF	67
Chapter 4. The Elf Church: Memories of Contested Sacred Spaces Open Access Download PDF	89
Chapter 5. The Stupid Boy and the Devil: Sæmundur Fróði Sigfússon, Magic, and Redemption Open Access Download PDF	117
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	141
Select Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	149
Index Open Access Download PDF	155

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: ARC Humanities Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 172
Keywords: Icelandic folktales; Scandinavian folklore; Old Norse Christianization; Icelandic Reformation; cultural memory

eBook

Published: February 1, 2021
ISBN: 9781641893763