Honey and Poison: Reframing the Pagan Past at Ogvaldsnes and Elsewhere
The Ogvaldsnes episode from Oddr munkr's Óláfs saga Tryggavasonar and Acallam na Senórach, two roughly contemporary and somewhat similar texts, show how different strategies have been employed to reframe the pagan past and neutralise the poison of this material that worried early doctors of the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
[publisher not identified]
[2019]
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| In: |
Temenos
Year: 2019, Volume: 55, Issue: 1, Pages: 55-74 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar
/ Norway
/ Acallam na Senórach
/ Ireland
/ Christianization
/ Paganism
/ Cult
/ Integration
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| IxTheo Classification: | AA Study of religion AG Religious life; material religion KBE Northern Europe; Scandinavia KBF British Isles |
| Further subjects: | B
post-conversion handling of pre-Christian tradition
B Oddr munkr B Acallam na Senórach B Óláfr Tryggvason B St Patrick |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The Ogvaldsnes episode from Oddr munkr's Óláfs saga Tryggavasonar and Acallam na Senórach, two roughly contemporary and somewhat similar texts, show how different strategies have been employed to reframe the pagan past and neutralise the poison of this material that worried early doctors of the church such as St Basil. The two texts propose different answers to Alcuin's oft-cited question about the relationship between Christianity and pagan traditions. Both solutions entail depriving the former divinities of their numinous powers, but each strategy also comes at a price. The Old Norse text opts for demonisation and exclusion while the Irish text strives for domestication and subordination. It is not claimed that these two texts are representative of the ways in which the Old Norse and Irish traditions at large handled this question. Rather, the choices of these strategies are probably dictated by the particular historical circumstances of each author, their respective aims, and the literary circuit to which they belonged. Some parallels with the two main texts and alternative ways of reframing the pagan past are also briefly discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 2342-7256 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Temenos
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