This book brings together Old Norse-Icelandic literature and critical strategies of memory, and argues that some of the particularities of this vernacular textual tradition are explained by the fact that this literature derives from, represents, and incorporates into its designs mnemonic devices of different kinds. Even if Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript culture is relatively silent about the mnemonic context of the literature, the texts themselves exhibit multiple reminiscences of memory. By showing that this literature reveals glimpses of mnemonic technologies at the same time as it testifies to a cultural memory, this study demonstrates how 'the past', and narrative traditions about the past, were constructed in a dynamic relationship with ideas that existed at the time the texts were written. Moreover, the book deals with the function of memory in early book-culture, with metaphors of memory, and with mnemonic cues such as spatiality and visuality. With its new readings of canonical texts like the Islendingasogur, the Prose Edda and selected eddic poems, as well as of less widely studied branches of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, such as the sagas of bishops and religious texts, this book will be of interest to Old Norse scholars and to scholars interested in medieval Scandinavia and memory studies.

Old Norse mythology is elusive: it is the label used to describe the religious stories of the pre-Christian North, featuring such well-known gods as Odin and Thor, yet most of the narratives have come down to us in manuscripts from the Middle Ages mainly written by Christians. Our view of the stories as they were transmitted in oral form in the pre-Christian era is obscured. To overcome these limitations, this book assembles comparisons from a range of theoretical and analytical perspectives-across media, cultures, and disciplines. Fifteen scholars from a wide range of fields examine the similarities of and differences of the Old Norse mythologies with the myths of other cultures. The differences and similarities within the Old Norse corpus itself are examined to tease out the hidden clues to the original stories.

Skrift og historie hos Orderik Vitalis (Writing and History in Orderik Vitalis) elucidates the transition to written proceedings in the early Norman and Nordic cultures and places the process within the larger picture of the historical evolution. The point of departure is the Renaissance and particularly the historiography of the 12th century, which is seen as the best expression of the new thinking of that century. An analysis of parts of the Norman historian work, Historia Ecclesiastica, 1121-41, emphasises firstly the notion of history as partly detached from the history of salvation and secondly the dual meaning of the writing as both secular and the way to salvation, bound to the bible.

Over recent decades the concept of literacy has been an important field of discussion in Medieval and Early Modern studies, and questions concerning the uses of literacy, the number of literates, differing writing systems, modes of communication and the interaction between orality and literacy have occupied researchers from various disciplines. The aim of this volume is to introduce Scandinavian literacy to the international field of research. On the one hand, to provide a basis that can contribute to a better general understanding of literacy. Because of the volume's interdisciplinary approach, a relatively wide range of material is invoked to illuminate the subject matter.