Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

John McKinnell

Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Home
Books
Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

- Get access
  
  Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
  
  Log in Register

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

Publisher:: Boydell & Brewer
Online publication date:: October 2017
Print publication year:: 2005
Online ISBN:: 9781846154140

Subjects:: Literature, Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature

Export citation

Information

Contents

Metrics

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.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-v

Figures
pp vi-vi

Abbreviations
pp vii-viii

Foreword
pp ix-x

Part One - Aims, Methods and Sources

1 - Introduction
pp 1-10

2 - Methods
pp 11-36

3 - Sources
pp 37-49

Part Two - The Vanir

4 - The Vanir Patterns: Ritual Origins
pp 50-61

5 - Misalliance and the Summer King
pp 62-80

6 - The Goddess and Her Lover
pp 81-94

7 - The Vǫlva
pp 95-108

Part Three - The Æsir

8 - Fighting the Giantess: Þórr
pp 109-125

9 - Þórr and the Bear's Son
pp 126-146

10 - Seducing the Giantess: Óðinn
pp 147-171

11 - Seduced by the Giantess: the Odinic Hero
pp 172-180

12 - The Helpful Giantess
pp 181-196

Part Four - Encounters with the Dead

13 - Consulting the Dead
pp 197-217

14 - The Dead Lover's Return
pp 218-231

Afterword
pp 232-234

Appendix: Summaries and Translations of Sources
pp 235-247

Bibliography
pp 248-266

Index
pp 267-291

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views