Between the Worlds

Contexts, Sources, and Analogues of Scandinavian Otherworld Journeys

Matthias Egeler, Wilhelm Heizmann, Matthias Egeler, Wilhelm Heizmann

• Verlag: De Gruyter
• Jahr: 2020
• eBook-ISBN:
  9783110625103
• Thema: Literatur
• Thema: Altertum

The rich corpus of literary otherworld journeys that has survived from the Scandinavian - and especially the Icelandic - Middle Ages is in many respects tied to a space 'Between the Worlds'. Every otherworld journey quite literally engages with a space 'between the worlds' in the sense that it plays itself out between this world and a world beyond, an otherworld. Yet this is not all. Also in terms of its cultural context this branch of the literature of the medieval North takes up a position situated midway between a broad range of poles. Texts from the Christian period treat pre-Christian mythology; allegedly pre-Christian material is studded with Christian motifs; Scandinavian texts adapt the learning and literature of the European continent, Ireland, and the classical Mediterranean; and Finnish narratives in turn appear to adapt Scandinavian narrative patterns. The volume presents a rich panorama of a broad range of very different - Scandinavian, Finno-Ugric, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Ancient Near Eastern, and archaeological - perspectives on the topic of the 'otherworld journey', which contextualises the motif of the otherworld journey in Old Norse-Icelandic literature in an unprecedented breadth.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Zwischen den Welten: Kontexte, Quellen und Analogien zu skandinavischen Jenseits- und Andersweltreisen
• 1 Die altnordische und ­altsächsisch-altenglische literarische Überlieferung
• 2 Archäologie
• 3 Mittellateinische und keltische Überlieferungen
• 4 Die antike Mittelmeerwelt und der Alte Orient
• 5 Finno-ugrische Perspektiven
• Namen und Begriffe
• Wissenschaftliche Autoren
• Orte
• Texte
• Bilddenkmäler