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The main aim of this book is to discuss various modes of studying and defining the medieval self, based on a wide span of sources from medieval Western Scandinavia, c. 800-1500, such as archeological evidence, architecture and art, documents, literature, and runic inscriptions. The book engages with major theoretical discussions within the humanities and social sciences, such as cultural theory, practice theory, and cognitive theory. The authors investigate how the various approaches to the self influence our own scholarly mindsets and horizons, and how they condition what aspects of the medieval self are 'visible' to us. Utilizing this insight, we aim to propose a more syncretic approach towards the medieval self, not in order to substitute excellent models already in existence, but in order to foreground the flexibility and the complementarity of the current theories, when these are seen in relationship to each other. The self and how it relates to its surrounding world and history is a main concern of humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the theoretical and methodological flexibility when approaching the medieval self has the potential to raise our awareness of our own position and agency in various social spaces today.

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Scandinavian. --- Medieval Scandinavia. --- interdisciplinarity. --- the self.

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While there is a long tradition of research into eddic poetry, including the poems classed as wisdom literature, much of this has approached the subject either as a primarily philological commentary or has addressed literary and thematic topics of individual or small groups of poems. This book offers a wide-ranging enquiry into the defining features of Old Norse wisdom, including the representation of wisdom in texts which cross traditional generic boundaries. It builds on recent advances in understanding of pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia, and calls on comparative and supporting work from several different disciplinary backgrounds (including literary theory, other medieval literatures and anthropology). Speaker and Authority interrogates important questions about the concept of knowledge, as well as its role in medieval Scandinavian society and its broader European cultural context.

Old Norse poetry --- Eddas --- Wisdom in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Old Norse. --- Scandinavian mythology. --- Viking and medieval Scandinavia. --- eddic poetry. --- wisdom literature.

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The "Viking Age" of medieval Scandinavia, with its heathen religion and heroic literature, continues to fascinate readers, writers, students, scholars, poets, artists, and creators of all kinds around the world. This cultural legacy is preserved in Old Norse literature, much of it composed and produced in Iceland, an island with a unique position in relation to the ebb and flow of religions, institutions, and empires. The chapters in this book examine many topics in Old Norse literature: the mysterious personas of the god Odin, the strange origins of poetry and scholarship, the cryptic lore of the elusive dwarfs, the fame of the dragon-slayer Sigurd and the defiant "Sworn Brothers", the early settlement of Iceland, trade in the medieval north, and the history of literary production. Several contributors upend traditional interpretations of their topics, while others offer new insights into the rich modern artistic reception of Norse myth. These studies reveal the striking resilience and adaptability of Old Norse narrative traditions, which retain their timeless appeal through a startling variety of contexts and changes in form.

Old Norse literature --- History and criticism. --- Iceland. --- Norse myth. --- Odin. --- Old Norse literature. --- Old Norse texts. --- Sworn Brothers. --- Viking Age. --- artistic reception. --- cultural legacy. --- dragon-slayer Sigurd. --- dwarfs. --- heathen religion. --- heroic literature. --- literary production. --- medieval Scandinavia. --- narrative traditions. --- poetry. --- settlement of Iceland. --- trade in the medieval north. --- Mythology, Norse, in literature. --- Mythology, Norse --- Influence. --- Themes, motives.

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This collaborative collection provides fresh perspectives on Christianity and the conduct of war in medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia, investigating the intersection between religion, culture, and warfare in territories that were only integrated into Christendom in the Central Middle Ages. The contributors analyze cultures that lay outside Charlemagne's limes and the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, to consider a region stretching from the Balkans to the Baltic and Scandinavia. The volume considers clerics as military leaders and propagandists, the role of Christian ritual and doctrine in warfare, and the adaptation and transformation of indigenous military cultures. It uncovers new information on perceptions of war and analyzes how local practices were incorporated into clerical narratives, enabling the reader to achieve a complete understanding of the period.

Church history --- Church and state --- Christianity and politics --- Military history, Medieval. --- History --- Scandinavia --- Europe, Eastern --- History, Military. --- Medieval military history --- Christianity --- Church and politics --- Politics and Christianity --- Politics and the church --- Political science --- Christianity and state --- Separation of church and state --- State and church --- State, The --- Political aspects --- Middle Ages, 600-1500 --- East Europe --- Eastern Europe --- Fennoscandia --- Norden --- Nordic countries --- Baltic region. --- Christianity and War. --- East Central Europe. --- Ecclesiastical History. --- Holy War. --- Medieval Scandinavia. --- Military History. --- Northern and Eastern Europe. --- Warrior-Bishops. --- medieval clergy. --- medieval warfare.

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While the Christian monastic tradition and its development on the mainland of Europe has been extensively studied by scholars, medieval monasticism in Northern Europe has gained considerably less attention. However, interest in the topic has grown steadily, as can be observed from the varied research that has taken place during the last decades. This growing interest can partly be explained by the current multidisciplinary approaches in academic research as well as the emergence of studies on material culture and its entwinement with archival material during the last decades of the twentieth century. It may also be further explained by an increased awareness of how North-European historiography, including medieval monastic studies, has since the nineteenth century been shaped by Protestant views, albeit in combination with longstanding nationalistic political perspectives. Therefore, the topic needs to be revisited, as is done here, not least due to the growing multinational and religious tolerance apparent in present academic studies of humanities. By highlighting Northern Europe specifically, the issue aims also to place medieval monasticism in a broader geographical and cultural context as being one of the active agents that formed the Christian worldview of the Middle Ages. The overall ambition of this Special Issue is, at the same time, to emphasize and introduce novel approaches to the reciprocal formation of the pan-European monasticism through its shifting localities and temporality.

Religion & beliefs --- medieval gardening --- horticulture --- monastery garden --- herb --- relict plants --- medicinal plants --- Iceland --- Norse Greenland --- monasticism --- Benedictine Order --- Augustine Order --- liturgical music --- monastic institutions --- St Olav --- Sweden --- Middle Ages --- Latin literature --- Icelandic and Old Norse literature --- Þingeyrar Abbey --- cultural heritage --- Reformation --- devotional objects --- iconoclasm --- church history --- Icelandic history --- architecture --- bridgettine order --- Finland --- monastic archaeology --- Naantali --- plan --- spatial organisation --- middle ages --- Denmark --- medieval Latin monasticism --- medieval religious history --- historiography --- medieval northern Europe --- interdisciplinarity --- monastic heritage --- monasteries --- medieval scandinavia --- Augustinians --- Benedictines --- Cistercians --- Premonstratensians --- manuscript fragments --- aristocracy --- medieval Sweden --- nunneries --- nuns --- monks --- donations --- gifts --- diplomas --- charters --- gender --- masculinity --- religious orders --- Ireland --- Wales --- England --- Scotland --- conquest