Compared to other medieval philologies, the particular nature of the literature of the North, and in particular of Iceland, has always meant that the study of Old Norse languages must be interdisciplinary and rely on methodical variety. This volume, published on the occasion of the 80th birthday of the Munich old Norse scholar, Kurt Schier, contains some three dozen studies on the mythology, history of religion, literature and poetry of the North, as well as runic and onomastic studies, and so reflects the broad thematic spectrum of modern old Nordic studies.

The Icelandic historian, poet, and politician Snorri Sturluson was an exceptional figureof the Nordic Middle Ages. The essays by renowned scholars gathered in this volume present the current state of research on Sturluson while also suggesting new approaches. In addition to examining questions related to the history of religion, they consider issuesregarding the nature of biography, the history of science, and historical text transmission.

With their rich iconography and runic inscriptions, the gold bracteates are one of the most important sources for research into Germanic religion. This volume combines contributions on the history of scholarship, iconography, chronology, the inscriptions and the names mentioned, as well as on the cultural and religious background to the bracteates. Together with a catalogue of new finds made since the completion of the Ikonographischer Katalog in 1989, this volume thus presents a work of fundamental importance for research on the subject.