Research Catalog

The Viking way : magic and mind in late Iron Age Scandinavia

Title
The Viking way : magic and mind in late Iron Age Scandinavia / Neil Price.
Author
Price, Neil S.
Publication
  • Oxford ; Philadelpia : Oxbow Books, 2019.
  • ©2019

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFF 19-1878Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xxx, 398 pages : illustrations (some color), maps; 29 cm
Summary
Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. --
Subjects
Note
  • Previous edition: Uppsala : Uppsala University, 2002.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-386) and index.
Call Number
JFF 19-1878
ISBN
  • 9781842172605
  • 1842172603
LCCN
2019931263
OCLC
1085227419
Author
Price, Neil S., author.
Title
The Viking way : magic and mind in late Iron Age Scandinavia / Neil Price.
Publisher
Oxford ; Philadelpia : Oxbow Books, 2019.
Copyright Date
©2019
Edition
Second edition, fully revised and expanded.
Type of Content
text
still image
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-386) and index.
Research Call Number
JFF 19-1878
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