| The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia Contributor(s): Price, Neil (Author) |
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ISBN: 1842172603 ISBN-13: 9781842172605 Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited OUR PRICE: $47.49 Product Type: Hardcover Published: June 2019 Annotation: Magic, rutual and sorcery are prevalent themes in medieval Icelandic sagas, but do they reflect reality or are they a literary and poetic construct? Neil Price's thesis examines the literary and archaeological evidence for Old Norse sorcery and especially the important link between religion and war. He traces evidence for Viking mytholgy and cosmology, for the function, practice and practitioners of sorcery and war rituals. What he reveals is that violence played a crucial role in early medieval power systems in Scandinavia and in particular where there existed a gender-encoded control of organised violence'. The evidence is placed within the context, and in comparison with, Germanic and circumpolar societues, and the archaeological evidence is accompanied by many excellent illustrations. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Scandinavia - History | Europe - Medieval - Religion | History |
| Dewey: 936.3 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 8.4" W x 11.2" (3.95 lbs) 432 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Scandinavian - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the S mi with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before. |
Contributor Bio(s): Price, Neil: - Neil Price is Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and formerly held the Sixth Century Chair in Archaeology at Aberdeen. A leading specialist in the Viking Age and the pre-Christian religions of the North, with additional interests in the historical archaeology of the Asia-Pacific region, his researches have taken him to more than 40 countries. From 2016-2025, Neil is directing a major Swedish Research Council project on The Viking Phenomenon, leading an international team to explore the origins of this critical period in world history. |