{"title":"The Fimbulvetr Myth as Medicine against Cultural Amnesia and Hybris","authors":"Andrea Maraschi","doi":"10.29173/scancan202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan202","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: An increasing number of scholars has associated the Fimbulvetr myth with\u0000 the dust veil event of 536 CE, due to several apparent consistencies between its representations\u0000 in eddic tradition, contemporary historical accounts, and modern scientific evidence.\u0000 In this article such consistencies are first summarized, with the aim of enhancing\u0000 the debate and explaining why recording the dust veil event could have been important\u0000 to its witnesses and to the creation of their cultural memory. Dendrochronological\u0000 and archaeological evidence suggests that the 536 CE event was probably catastrophic,\u0000 and this article argues that its memory may have been preserved and recorded in myth.\u0000 The related myth may have had the purpose of handing down important teachings to future\u0000 generations: the awareness that life is cyclically threatened by natural disasters,\u0000 the value of humbleness before nature, and the hope that, no matter what happens,\u0000 humankind is going to survive.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129174824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Memory of Iron: Object Rhetoric and Collective Memory in Laxdæla saga","authors":"W. Biel","doi":"10.29173/scancan206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan206","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: This article proposes the term “object rhetoric” to describe the extralinguistic capacity of material things to create meaning in\u0000 the human mind. This kind of rhetoric also challenges the concepts of subject and\u0000 object, or more specifically personhood and objecthood. The article explores the social\u0000 utility of object rhetoric for structuring collective memory in medieval Iceland by\u0000 studying the named weapons of Laxdæla saga. The first section examines several texts’ depiction of the sword Skǫfnungr to illustrate\u0000 how it possesses both personhood and objecthood simultaneously. The second section\u0000 situates Skǫfnungr as one of five named weapons in Laxdæla saga. The saga makes coherent rhetorical use of these objects to reshape Icelandic collective\u0000 memory and thus sense of self in the face of the Norwegian annexation and other social\u0000 changes in the thirteenth century.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"37 23","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132881158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Remembering Heathen Women in Medieval Icelandic Literature","authors":"Anneliese Sheffield","doi":"10.29173/scancan204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan204","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: Several Icelandic texts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries depict\u0000 female characters from the pre-Christian past. In both poetry and prose, these heathen\u0000 women are often portrayed as recalling the old, pre-Christian religion or the magical\u0000 practices associated with it. Within this literature, different genres correlate with\u0000 strata of cultural memory that are associated with different periods in Norse history\u0000 and pre-history. This link between genre and era is largely independent of the actual\u0000 dates of composition of the texts or the historicity of the events they describe.\u0000 An analysis of illustrative examples from this corpus reveals how the evaluation and\u0000 representation of heathen women depend on how deeply in the past they are situated\u0000 by the narratives that describe them.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130117498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Old Norse Studies and Collective Memory: An Introduction","authors":"S. Nygaard, Yoav Tirosh","doi":"10.29173/scancan200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan200","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: This special issue of Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études scandinaves au Canada is the result of a number of sessions organized by guest editors Yoav Tirosh and\u0000 Simon Nygaard for the 2018 International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds and supported\u0000 by the Memory and the Pre-Modern North network. This introduction serves to contextualize\u0000 the study of collective memory within the field of Old Norse as well as introduce\u0000 some of the key theoretical concepts discussed in the issue. The formation and transmission\u0000 of collective memory in pre-literate and literate societies are explained, with an\u0000 eye towards the cognitive elements at play. Finally, the issueʼs articles are discussed,\u0000 as is the logic of the compilation. This special issue hopes to expand the already\u0000 thriving field of collective memory studies in Old Norse, building upon the work already\u0000 done and offering new directions forward.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"482 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123402094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Forgotten King of Denmark – Haraldr II","authors":"Deniz Cem Gülen","doi":"10.29173/scancan203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan203","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: King Haraldr II ruled the Kingdom of Denmark from 1014 to 1018; however,\u0000 his reign is challenging to study due to a lack of source material. A detailed analysis\u0000 of the written primary sources from Denmark and Iceland—such as Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, Chronicon Roskilde, and Knýtlinga saga—gives the impression that the Danes wanted to forget Haraldr II by deliberately omitting\u0000 his brief reign from these narratives. This article investigates the possible reasons\u0000 why Danish historians of the eleventh and twelfth centuries may have wanted to collectively\u0000 forget Haraldr. To demonstrate how Haraldr has been omitted from historical narratives,\u0000 this study compares a variety of different primary sources from Scandinavia and England,\u0000 in order to gather as much information as possible on the topic. The article subsequently\u0000 explores three possible explanations as to why Haraldr has been omitted: (1) the possibility\u0000 that Haraldr reverted to pre-Christian religious beliefs, contradicting medieval historians’\u0000 perspectives of a true king, (2) transmission of the sources in the medieval ages\u0000 and (3) a lack of worthwhile events during the height of medieval Danish success.\u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115650127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Foreword: Looking Back – and Ahead”","authors":"Emily Lethbridge","doi":"10.29173/scancan198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan198","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123627070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Memory, Trauma, and Cultural Semiotics - An Extensive Review","authors":"Lukas Rösli","doi":"10.29173/scancan210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan210","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: The following review-article deals with three publications that have been\u0000 released in recent years, all of which can be read in the context of memory studies\u0000 through the mention of memory in their titles. It is evident that memory studies has\u0000 become a field of research that ranges from the humanities to the social sciences\u0000 to the natural sciences, with the only common denominator being the object of study\u0000 of memory. But what memory is, how memory is constituted, or how it can be analyzed\u0000 or even made measurable is where the publications discussed differ strikingly. The\u0000 aim of this review is therefore not to place the three publications in a singular\u0000 context but rather, by discussing their differences, to show how diverse memory studies\u0000 is as a field and to present what the breadth of different approaches that look beyond\u0000 oneʼs own disciplinary boundaries can offer regarding the future engagement with memory\u0000 in Scandinavian studies and especially in Scandinavian medieval studies.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117110542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Saga-Sites of Memory: Jónas Hallgrímsson, Icelandic Nationalism, and the Íslendingasögur","authors":"Vanessa K. Iacocca","doi":"10.29173/scancan209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan209","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: This article examines the cultivation of saga-sites as lieux de mémoire by Icelandic national poet Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–1845) and its ideological impact\u0000 on the Icelandic nationalist movement. Fusing saga and landscape, cultural memory\u0000 and place, in his poetry, Hallgrímsson reimagines sites from the Íslendingasögur as encapsulations of an Icelandic national spirit, access points to a past golden\u0000 age, and catalysts of revitalization and political change. In doing so, Hallgrímsson\u0000 contributed to the nationalist ideology that garnered widespread support for Icelandic\u0000 nationalism and furnished Icelandic politicians with justifications for increased\u0000 autonomy. Danish nationalists felt that the cultural past embedded within Iceland\u0000 crossed national boundaries. The Danish state’s indebtedness to distinctly Icelandic\u0000 contributions for their own nation-building arguably made Danish politicians amenable\u0000 to arguments for greater Icelandic sovereignty.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129492623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Afterlives of an Icelandic “Foremother of Us All”: Auðr djúpauðga and the Making of Cultural Memory","authors":"S. Vanherpen","doi":"10.29173/scancan208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/scancan208","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: During the last few decades an increasing number of Old Norse scholars have\u0000 drawn from memory studies in their analyses of texts. Yet, so far, these studies have\u0000 not sufficiently considered other genres of literature besides the Íslendingasögur,\u0000 such as post-medieval poetry and folk literature, in the discussion of memory. This\u0000 article looks at the relation between genre and the ways in which the foremother figure\u0000 Auðr djúpauðga is remembered in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century forms\u0000 of popular culture as diverse as rímur, popular poetry, such as kappakvæði, vikivakakvæði, and other types of folk poetry, prayers, and þjóðsögur. The article demonstrates how various authors have created and recreated the foremother\u0000 figure Auðr djúpauðga in accordance with their chosen genres.\u0000","PeriodicalId":111474,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian-Canadian Studies","volume":"173 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124224160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}