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Monsters in Society : Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland / Rebecca Merkelbach.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Northern Medieval World : On the Margins of EuropePublisher: Kalamazoo, MI : Medieval Institute Publications, [2019]Copyright date: ©2020Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 245 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501518362
  • 9781501514098
  • 9781501514227
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 398.4094912/01 23/eng/20240417
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1. Monsters in Context -- 2. Revenants Reconsidered -- 3. Between Hero and Monster – Outlaws -- 4. Nature and Nurture – Berserkir -- 5. Walkers Between Worlds – Practitioners of Magic -- 6. The Social Perception of Monstrosity -- 7. Reading Monstrosity -- Conclusion: Writing a Monstrous Past -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Dragons, giants, and the monsters of learned discourse are rarely encountered in the Sagas of Icelanders, and therefore, the general teratological focus on physical monstrosity yields only limited results when applied to them. This, however, does not equal an absence of monstrosity – it only means that monstrosity is conceived of differently. This book shifts the view of monstrosity from the physical to the social, accounting for the unique social circumstances presented in the Íslendingasögur and demonstrating how closely interwoven the social and the monstrous are in this genre. Employing literary and cultural theory as well as anthropological and historical approaches, it reads the monsters of the Íslendingasögur in their literary and socio-cultural context, demonstrating that they are not distractions from feud and conflict, but that they are in fact an intrinsic part of the genre’s re-imagining of the past for the needs of the present.

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1. Monsters in Context -- 2. Revenants Reconsidered -- 3. Between Hero and Monster – Outlaws -- 4. Nature and Nurture – Berserkir -- 5. Walkers Between Worlds – Practitioners of Magic -- 6. The Social Perception of Monstrosity -- 7. Reading Monstrosity -- Conclusion: Writing a Monstrous Past -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index

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Dragons, giants, and the monsters of learned discourse are rarely encountered in the Sagas of Icelanders, and therefore, the general teratological focus on physical monstrosity yields only limited results when applied to them. This, however, does not equal an absence of monstrosity – it only means that monstrosity is conceived of differently. This book shifts the view of monstrosity from the physical to the social, accounting for the unique social circumstances presented in the Íslendingasögur and demonstrating how closely interwoven the social and the monstrous are in this genre. Employing literary and cultural theory as well as anthropological and historical approaches, it reads the monsters of the Íslendingasögur in their literary and socio-cultural context, demonstrating that they are not distractions from feud and conflict, but that they are in fact an intrinsic part of the genre’s re-imagining of the past for the needs of the present.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 25. Jun 2024)