The Barbarian North in the medieval imagination: ethnicity, legend, and literature
This book examines the sustained interest in legends of the pagan and peripheral North, tracing and analyzing the use of an ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ legend (Scandinavia as an ancestral homeland) in a wide range of medieval texts from all over Europe, with a focus on the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The pagan...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| WorldCat: | WorldCat |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
New York, NY [u.a.]
Routledge
2015
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| In: |
Routledge studies in medieval religion and culture (11)
Year: 2015 |
| Series/Journal: | Routledge studies in medieval religion and culture
11 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Scandinavia (motif) (Motif)
/ Paganism (Motif)
/ Legend (motif)
/ Literature
/ History 500-1500
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| Further subjects: | B
Europe, Northern
In literature
B Scandinavia In literature B Literature, Medieval History and criticism B Legends (Europe, Northern) History and criticism B Literature, Medieval / History and criticism Literature Literature, Medieval In literature / Scandinavia Europe, Northern / In literature / Scandinavia / Criticism, interpretation, etc |
| Online Access: |
Table of Contents |
| Summary: | This book examines the sustained interest in legends of the pagan and peripheral North, tracing and analyzing the use of an ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ legend (Scandinavia as an ancestral homeland) in a wide range of medieval texts from all over Europe, with a focus on the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The pagan North was an imaginative region, which attracted a number of conflicting interpretations. To Christian Europe, the pagan North was an abject Other, but it also symbolized a place from which ancestral strength and energy derived. Rix maps how these discourses informed ‘national’ legends of ancestral origins, showing how an ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ legend can be found in works by several familiar writers including Jordanes, Bede, ‘Fredegar’, Paul the Deacon, Freculph, and Æthelweard. The book investigates how legends of northern warriors were first created in classical texts and since re-calibrated to fit different medieval understandings of identity and ethnicity. Among other things, the ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ tale was exploited to promote a legacy of ‘barbarian’ vigor that could withstand the negative cultural effects of Roman civilization. This volume employs a variety of perspectives cutting across the disciplines of poetry, history, rhetoric, linguistics, and archaeology. After years of intense critical interest in medieval attitudes towards the classical world, Africa, and the East, this first book-length study of ‘the North’ will inspire new debates and repositionings in medieval studies. |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Physical Description: | 214 S, 24 cm |
| ISBN: | 978-1-138-82086-9 |
