Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (ASMAR), Vol. 21

Myth in Early Northwest Europe

By Stephen O. Glosecki
2007 | 338 + xlii pp. | 8 ills. | Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 978-0-86698-365-5 | MRTS 320
$47 | €55

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This collection of fifteen essays by distinguished scholars addresses a formative era in Northwest Europe, in the period around 500-1000 AD. Myth in Early Northwest Europe examines the confrontation of classical, biblical, Celtic, and Germanic cultures and how they interplay during the Carolingian and Viking periods. It shows how Christian and native religions engaged with each other. The studies deal with current myth theory and analyze myths embedded within Old Norse, Old English, and other Germanic literatures from, or set in, this era. Myths and mythology from early-medieval Northwest Europe remain influential through the works of Tolkein and contemporary self-realization movements; this volume offers readers the latest research by many of the world’s leading scholars in this field.

Table of Contents

  • John D. Niles: True Stories and Other Lies

  • Craig R. Davis: Theories of History in Traditional Plots

  • Stephen O. Glosecki: Stranded Narrative: Myth, Metaphor, and the Metrical Charm

  • Geoffrey Koziol: Truth and Its Consequences: Why Carolingianists Don’t Speak of Myth

  • Michael J. Enright: Ritual and Technology in the Iron Age: An Initiation Scene on the Gundestrup Cauldron

  • Joseph Falaky Nagy: Hearing and Hunting in Medieval Celtic Tradition

  • Joseph Harris: Homo necans borealis: Fatherhood and Sacrifice in Sonatorrek

  • Roberta Frank: The Lay of the Land in Skaldic Praise Poetry

  • Marijane Osborn: Manipulating Waterfalls: Mythic Places in Beowulf and Grettissaga, Lawrence and Purnell

  • Geoffrey Russom: At the Center of Beowulf

  • John M. Hill: Gods at the Borders: Northern Myth and Anglo-Saxon Heroic Story

  • Gale R. Owen-Crocker: Beast Men: Eofor and Wulf and the Mythic Significance of Names in Beowulf

  • Christina Lee: Children of Darkness: Arminius/Siegfried in Germany

  • Tom Shippey: Imagined Cathedrals: Retelling Myth in the Twentieth Century