Meeting The Other In Norse Myth And Legend

John McKinnell

DS Brewer, Jan 1, 2005 - Literary Criticism - 291 pages

A particular, recurring feature of Old Norse myths and legends is an encounter between creatures of This World (gods and human beings) and those of the Other (giants, giantesses, dwarves, prophetesses, monsters and the dead). Concentrating on cross-gendered encounters, this book analyses these meetings, and the different motifs and situations they encompass, from the consultation of a prophetess by a king or god, to sexual liaisons and return from the dead. It considers the evidence for their pre-Christian origins, discusses how far individual poets and prose writers were free to modify them, and suggests that they survived in medieval Christian society because (like folk-tale) they provide a non-dogmatic way of resolving social and psychological problems connected with growing up, succession from one generation to the next, sexual relationships and bereavement.

Contents

• The Vanir: 50
• The Esir: 109
• Odinn 147: 167
• The Helpful Giantess: 181
• Encounters with the Dead: 197
• The Dead Lovers Return: 218
• Afterword: 232
• Bibliography: 248
• Index: 267

Popular passages

Page 248 - The Early cultures of North- West Europe. (HM Chadwick memorial studies.) Ed.‎

Page 249 - Art and Tradition in Skirnismdl," in English and Medieval Studies, Presented to JRR Tolkien on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, ed.‎

About the author

John McKinnell is Reader in Medieval Literature at the University of Durham, UK.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Meeting The Other In Norse Myth And Legend
• Author: John McKinnell
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: DS Brewer, 2005
• ISBN: 1843840421, 9781843840428
• Length: 291 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Medieval; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology