Minni and Muninn: Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture

This volume consists of articles about terms for, concepts of and functions of memory. The articles deal with medieval Norse texts, such as sagas, myths, skaldic poems, laws and historiographical writings, and they refer to theoretical insights from international memory studies that have developed recently.

In recent years, various branches of memory studies have provided useful tools of analysis that offer new ways of understanding medieval cultures. The articles in this collection draw on these new theoretical tools for studying - and conceptualizing - memory, in order to reassess the function of memory in medieval Nordic culture. Despite its interdisciplinary and comparative basis, the volume remains very much an empirical study of memory and memory-dependent issues as these took form in the Nordic world.

In addition, the articles deal with a variety of theoretical concepts and areas of investigation which are of relevance when dealing with memory studies in general, such as transmission and media, preservation and storage, forgetting and erasure, and authenticity and falsity. The articles cover a wide range of medieval texts, such as saga, myth, poetry, law, historiography, learned literature, and other forms of verbal expression, such as runic inscriptions.

JÜRG GLAUSER, "Foreword" vii; PERNILLE HERMANN, STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, and AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, "Introduction: Minni and Muninn - Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture" 1; Part I. Memory and Narration --PERNILLE HERMANN, "Key Aspects of Memory and Remembering in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature" 13; JOHN LINDOW, "Memory and Old Norse Mythology"
 41; MARGARET CLUNIES ROSS, "Authentication of Poetic Memory in Old Norse Skaldic Verse" 59; KATE HESLOP, "Minni and the Rhetoric of Memory in Eddic, Skaldic, and Runic Texts"
 75; RUSSELL POOLE, "Autobiographical Memory in Medieval Scandinavia and amongst the Kievan Rus'" 109 Part II. Memory and History -- RUDOLF SIMEK, "Memoria Normannica"
 133; STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, "The Mythologized Past: Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Gotland" 155; GÍSLI SIGURÐSSON, "Constructing a Past to Suit the Present: Sturla Þórðarson on Conflicts and Alliances with King Haraldr hárfagri" 175; STEFAN BRINK, "Minnunga mæn: The Usage of Old Knowledgeable Men in Legal Cases" 197; AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, "Legal Culture and Historical Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Iceland" 211; Index 231