Description
Book SynopsisThis anthology of essays, Northern Myths, Modern Identities, explores the various ways in which ancient mythologies have been cultivated in the cultural construction of ethnic, national and supra-national identities from 1800 to the present. How were Old Norse, Finno-Ugric and Frisian myths employed as rhetorical devices in national narratives? And how did (and do) these new interpretations convey a sense of ‘northernness’? This volume approaches these issues from an interdisciplinary and international perspective, and brings together case studies from Scandinavia, the Baltic region, Friesland, Britain, the United States and even Japan. Thus, it provides a unique insight into the reception history and uses of northern myths in the present, and their role in the creation of modern identities. Contributors are: Tim van Gerven, Gylfi Gunnlaugsson, Simon Halink, Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson, Otto S. Knottnerus, Joep Leerssen, Daisy Neijmann, Han Nijdam, Robert A. Saunders, Katja Schulz, Tom Shippey, Carline Tromp, and Kendra Willson.
Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables About the Authors Northern Myths, Modern Identities: An Introduction Simon Halink Part 1: Imagining the North 1The North: A Cultural Stereotype between Metaphor and Racial Essentialism Joep Leerssen 2Within or Outside Europe? Modernists and Anti-modernists Visiting Iceland in the Mid-nineteenth Century Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson 3Is Nordic Mythology Nordic or National, or Both? Competing National Appropriations of Nordic Mythology in Early Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia Tim van Gerven Ancient Heritage, New Meaning 4Norse Myths, Nordic Identities: The Divergent Case of Icelandic Romanticism Gylfi Gunnlaugsson 5Redbad, the Once and Future King of the Frisians Han Nijdam and Otto S. Knottnerus 6Norse Mythology in Icelandic Fiction about the Second World War Daisy L. Neijmann 7Of Gods and Men: Uses and Abuses of Neo-Paganism by Nationalist Movements in the “North” Robert A. Saunders Part 3: Travelling Ideas and Artistic Expressions 8Heirs of Lönnrot: From Longfellow to Tolkien Tom Shippey 9Kalevala in International Masks: A JapaneseAino and Kalevala dell’arte Kendra Willson 10The Quest of Gangleri: Theosophy and Old Norse Mythology in Iceland Simon Halink Part 4: Beyond the Nation? 11Crossing the Borders: Loki and the Decline of the Nation State Katja Schulz 12Apocalypse Now: Norse Gods and the End of the Nation Carline Tromp Index of Names and Subjects
