TY  - BOOK
AU  - Merkelbach,Rebecca
TI  - Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland 
T2  - The Northern Medieval World : On the Margins of Europe
SN  - 9781501518362
U1  - 398.4094912/01 23/eng/20240417
PY  - 2019///]
CY  - Kalamazoo, MI
PB  - Medieval Institute Publications
KW  - Isländersagas
KW  - Mittelalterliches Island
KW  - Monsterstudien
KW  - Monstrum
KW  - Sagen
KW  - LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Scandinavian
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Medieval Iceland
KW  - Monster Studies
KW  - Monstrosity
KW  - Sagas
KW  - Íslendingasögur
N1  - 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; restricted access; Issued also in print
N2  - 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
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501514227
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501514227
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501514227/original
ER  -