AUC PHILOLOGICA
AUC PHILOLOGICA

AUC Philologica (Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philologica) is an academic journal published by Charles University. It publishes scholarly articles in a large number of disciplines (English, German, Greek and Latin, Oriental, Romance and Slavonic studies, as well as in phonetics and translation studies), both on linguistic and on literary and cultural topics. Apart from articles it publishes reviews of new academic books or special issues of academic journals.

The journal is indexed in CEEOL, DOAJ, EBSCO, and ERIH PLUS.

AUC PHILOLOGICA, Vol 2020 No 1 (2020), 9–22

Revenants in Old Norse literature as embodied memory

[Revenants in Old Norse literature as embodied memory]

Marie Novotná

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/24646830.2020.17
published online: 02. 11. 2020

abstract

Beings that come from the past into the present could be an example par excellence for memory studies. Revenants are an outstanding phenomenon of Old Norse literature that has been researched from many points of view: e.g. those of literary science, historical sociology, anthropology and history of religion. Their results are completely different as they ask different questions. In the first part of the article, statements about Old Norse revenants are ordered according to which of four Aristotle’s causes they relate. Then, revenants are framed in the context of memory studies. It might offer a modest perspective, concentrating on memory, i.e. the context the story is set into. From that point of view, we can see a dialogue with a past version of a person, with what he brought to the world and what he left there, i.e. with memory. As it is mostly a disturbing past that revenants represent, they can be seen as literally embodying a problem that lies in (individual or cultural) memory. Within the saga genres, an important difference consists in whether the past (revenants) haunts a man or a hero actively seeks the past.

keywords: Old Norse sagas; revenants; memory studies

references (37)

1. Assmann, Jan. "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity." New German Critique 65 (1988): 125-133. CrossRef

2. Bayerschmid, Carl F. "The Element of the Supernatural in the Sagas of Icelanders." Scandinavian Studies: Essays Presented to Henry Goddard Leach. Ed. Carl F. Bayerschmid, and Erik J. Friis. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1965. 39-53.

3. Březinová, Helena. "A Community Incommunicado. On Troubled Communication in Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales." Hans Christian Andersen and Community. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2019. 35-57.

4. Chadwick, Nora K. "Norse Ghosts." Folklore 57/2 (1946): 50-65. CrossRef

5. Cichá, Martina et al. "Nábožensko-mytologické představy obyvatel ukrajinského Polesí a Zakarpatí na příkladu víry v revenanty." Česká antropologie 65/1 (2015). 11-18.

6. Clunies Ross, Margaret. "Realism and the Fantastic in the Old Icelandic Sagas." Scandinavian Studies 74 (2002). 443-54.

7. Eddukvæði II. Eds. Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólasón. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2014.

8. EYR: Eyrbyggja saga. Eds. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson. Íslenzk Fornrit 4. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1935.

9. FLÓAM: Flóamanna saga. Eds. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Íslenzk Fornrit 8. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1991.

10. Glauser, Jürg, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen Mitchell. "Pre-Modern Memory Studies: An Introduction." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 1-31. CrossRef

11. Gould, Chester N. "They Who await the Second Death. A Study in Icelandic Romantic Sagas." Scandinavian Studies 9 (1926-27): 167-201.

12. Gottschling, Bernhard. Die Todesdarstellungen in den Íslendingasǫgur. Frankfurt, Bern, New York: Peter Lang, 1986.

13. Hasenfratz, Hans-Peter. Die Toten Lebenden. Leiden: Brill, 1982.

14. Jakobsson, Ármann. "Vampires and Watchmen: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 110 (2011): 281-300. CrossRef

15. Kanerva, Kirsi. "The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja saga." Collegium Medievale 24 (2011). 23-49.

16. Kanerva, Kirsi. "Ógæfa (misfortune) as an Emotion in Thirteenth-Century Iceland."

17. Scandinavian Studies 84/1 (2012). 1-26. CrossRef

18. Kanerva, Kirsi. "Messages from the Otherworld: The Roles of the Dead in Medieval Iceland." Deconstructing Death: Changing Cultures of Death, Dying, Bereavement and Care in the Nordic Countries. Ed. Michael Hviid Jacobsen. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2013. 111-130.

19. Kanerva, Kirsi. "Disturbances of the Mind and Body: The Effects of the Living Dead in Medieval Iceland." Mental (dis)Order in the Later Middle Ages. Ed. Sari Katajala-Peltomaa and Susanna Niiranen. Later Medieval Europe 12. Brill: Leiden 2014. 219-242. CrossRef

20. Kanerva, Kirsi. Porous Bodies, Porous Minds: Emotions and the Supernatural in the Íslendingasǫgur, disertační práce, University of Turku, 2015.

21. Korecká, Lucie. "Narrative modes, narrative space, and narrative play in the post-classical sagas and þættir of Icelanders." Acta Universitatis Carolinae - Philologica 2019/3 (2019). 9-26. CrossRef

22. Kozák, Jan, and Kateřina Ratajová. "Funkce mohyl podle staroseverských ság." Archeologické rozhledy 60/1 (2008). 3-35.

23. Klare, Hans-Joachim. "Die Toten in der altnordischen Literatur." Acta Philologica Scandinavica 8 (1933-34). 1-56.

24. Larrington, Carolyne. "Emotions." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 514-518.

25. LAX: Laxdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson. Íslenzk Fornrit 5. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1934.

26. LaxEN: The Saga of the People of Laxardal. Trans. Keneva Kunz. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders V. Reykjavik: Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, 1997.

27. Lindow, John. "Folk Belief." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 508-513.

28. Lockett, Leslie. Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. CrossRef

29. Merkelbach, Rebecca. Monsters in Society. Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2019. CrossRef

30. McKinnel, John. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend. Cambridge: Brewer, 2005.

31. Neckel, Gustav. Walhall. Studien über germanischen Jenseitsglauben. Dortmund: Ruhfus, 1913.

32. Novotná, Marie. "Role of the Body - Scandinavian Ballads vs. Old Norse Literature." Ballads. New approaches. Ed. Malan Marnersdóttir et al. Tórshavn: Faroe University Press, 2018a. 293-305.

33. Novotná, Marie. "Psychosomatické jevy v staroseverské literatuře." Revue pro psychoanalytickou psychoterapii a psychoanalýzu 20 (2018b). 48-64.

34. Novotná, Marie. Pojetí těla v staroseverské literatuře. Praha: Herrmann a synové, 2019.

35. Ólason, Vésteinn. "Dialogues with the Past." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 489-494. CrossRef

36. Ranković, Slavica. "Remembering the Future." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 526-535.

37. Tulinius, Torfi. "Trauma." Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Ed. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 495-501.

Creative Commons License
Revenants in Old Norse literature as embodied memory is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

230 x 157 mm
periodicity: 3 x per year
print price: 150 czk
ISSN: 0567-8269
E-ISSN: 2464-6830

Download