Northern Myths, Modern Identities

The Nationalisation of Northern Mythologies Since 1800
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-36747-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 19, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 540 g

Reihe: National Cultivation of Culture

This anthology of essays, Northern Myths, Modern Identities, explores the various ways in which ancient mythologies have been cultivated in the cultural construction of ethnic, national and supra-national identities from 1800 to the present. How were Old Norse, Finno-Ugric and Frisian myths employed as rhetorical devices in national narratives? And how did (and do) these new interpretations convey a sense of ‘northernness’? This volume approaches these issues from an interdisciplinary and international perspective, and brings together case studies from Scandinavia, the Baltic region, Friesland, Britain, the United States and even Japan. Thus, it provides a unique insight into the reception history and uses of northern myths in the present, and their role in the creation of modern identities.

Contributors are: Tim van Gerven, Gylfi Gunnlaugsson, Simon Halink, Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson, Otto S. Knottnerus, Joep Leerssen, Daisy Neijmann, Han Nijdam, Robert A. Saunders, Katja Schulz, Tom Shippey, Carline Tromp, and Kendra Willson.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Halink, Simon

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

About the Authors

Northern Myths, Modern Identities: An Introduction

Simon Halink

Part 1: Imagining the North

1The North: A Cultural Stereotype between Metaphor and Racial Essentialism

Joep Leerssen

2Within or Outside Europe? Modernists and Anti-modernists Visiting Iceland in the Mid-nineteenth Century

Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson

3Is Nordic Mythology Nordic or National, or Both? Competing National Appropriations of Nordic Mythology in Early Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia

Tim van Gerven

Ancient Heritage, New Meaning

4Norse Myths, Nordic Identities: The Divergent Case of Icelandic Romanticism

Gylfi Gunnlaugsson

5Redbad, the Once and Future King of the Frisians

Han Nijdam and Otto S. Knottnerus

6Norse Mythology in Icelandic Fiction about the Second World War

Daisy L. Neijmann

7Of Gods and Men: Uses and Abuses of Neo-Paganism by Nationalist Movements in the “North”

Robert A. Saunders

Part 3: Travelling Ideas and Artistic Expressions

8Heirs of Lönnrot: From Longfellow to Tolkien

Tom Shippey

9Kalevala in International Masks: A JapaneseAino and Kalevala dell’arte

Kendra Willson

10The Quest of Gangleri: Theosophy and Old Norse Mythology in Iceland

Simon Halink

Part 4: Beyond the Nation?

11Crossing the Borders: Loki and the Decline of the Nation State

Katja Schulz

12Apocalypse Now: Norse Gods and the End of the Nation

Carline Tromp

Index of Names and Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Simon Halink, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland. He has published on the role of Norse mythology and philology in nationalism and on images of Iceland in Nazi Germany.