The Icelandic family sagas are replete with heroes, fighting men and strong women who stood with their teeth to the wind and carved a life for themselves out of an inhospitable world
Advice from a Norse God: Wisdom from the Hávamál
August 24, 2014 By
The Hávamál (Sayings of the High One) is part of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems that survive in a 13th century manuscript.
The Colors of the Rainbow in Snorri’s Edda
February 4, 2014 By
In the second part of his Edda, the Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson gives a systematic account of Norse mythology from the creation of the world to its end.
The Extreme Emotional Life of Völundr the Elf
February 1, 2014 By
In this article, my aim is to determine the function of elves in Old Norse narratives from the thirteenth century by concentrating on the figure of Völundr, the protagonist of Völundarkviða, who to my mind is the most important Old Norse elf.
Viking Age Queens: The example of Oseberg
September 30, 2013 By
The Oseberg ship burial is a Viking Age burial mound containing a double female inhumation, which is located in the Oslofjord area in Norway.
Dead and famous, or unknown but alive? Heroism and common sense in medieval Scandinavian and African tradition
July 9, 2013 By
Although some scholars see heroism as a characteristic of the whole Germanic tradition, a careful study of Scandinavian literature reveals that this is not the case
What did Dragons look like for the Vikings?
June 16, 2013 By
While the modern image of the dragons often depicts a beast that has four legs, leathery wings and breathes fire, the medieval image of the creature could be very different. In the article, ‘Dragons in the Eddas and in Early Nordic Art,’ Paul Ackey shows that the Vikings and Norse society had their own ideas of what dragons looked like.
The Elder Edda Revisited: Past and Present Performances of the Icelandic Eddic Poems
January 18, 2013 By
What first struck me when I started my research on the Elder Edda is that, during the past four decades, several theatre practitioners have experimented with presentations of some of the poems and demonstrated that they can be highly effective in dramatic performance.
Re-forging the smith: an interdisciplinary study of smithing motifs in Völuspá and Völundarkviða
August 29, 2012 By
In this dissertation I examine key smithing motifs in the eddic poems Võluspá and Võlundarkviña in relation to the socio-cultural role of smithing techniques and sites in early medieval Scandinavia.
Odin and his Brothers: Common Threads of the Odinic Tradition
March 21, 2011 By
Within the Poetic Edda Odin, Lodur (Loki) and Haenir are responsible for the creation of humanity in Nordic mythology.
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