The Manuscripts of Iceland
The Manuscripts of Iceland

Author: Gisli Sigur©ʻsson

Publisher: University of Iceland Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789979819882

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A comprehensive and profusely illustrated accompaniment to the exhibition The Manuscripts of Iceland which was organised by the Arni Magnusson Institute and opened in the Culture House in Reykjavik on October 5, 2002. In this collection of articles scholars present the story of Icelandic manuscripts, their medieval origins, the literature they contain and its influence up to the present day. The meeting of written Christian and classical culture with the rich oral traditions in Iceland brought forth a remarkable literary flowering, an eloquent source of information about pagan Scandinavian culture and thought. In time this literature came to inspire the sense of national character in the Nordic countries and exerted notable influence in the German- and English- speaking worlds. This book is a tribute to the central role that medieval Icelandic literature played in forging national identities in Northern Europe.

The Book of Reykjahólar
The Book of Reykjahólar

Author: Marianne E. Kalinke

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780802078148

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The legends belong to the vast corpus of German hagiography, yet the currency of these particular versions is documented today only by virtue of their inclusion in this Icelandic legendary.

Civilizations of the Supernatural
Civilizations of the Supernatural

Author: Fabrizio Conti

Publisher: Trivent Publishing

Published: 2020-12-31

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 615816898X

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Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti's visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.