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Ancestor Worship and the Elite in Late Iron Age Scandinavia: A Grave Matter book cover

1st Edition

Ancestor Worship and the Elite in Late Iron Age Scandinavia A Grave Matter

By Triin Laidoner Copyright 2020
196 Pages
by Routledge

194 Pages
by Routledge

194 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Ancestor worship is often assumed by contemporary European audiences to be an outdated and primitive tradition with little relevance to our societies, past and present. This book questions that assumption and seeks to determine whether ancestor ideology was an integral part of religion in Viking Age and early medieval Scandinavia. The concept is examined from a broad socio-anthropological... Read more

Introduction

Part 1. Theoretical Considerations

1. Old Norse Religion – Approach, Sources and Method

1. 1. Old Norse Religion

1. 1. 1. What is ‘Religion’?

1. 1. 2. What is ‘Old Norse’?

1. 1. 3. The Non-Static and Heterogenous Nature of Old Norse Religion

1. 1. 4. Hetergenous Conceptions of the Afterlife in Old Norse Religion

1. 1. 5. Gravemounds and Ancestors in Old Norse Religion

1. 1. 6. Folk vs. World Religion

1. 1. 7. Paganism and Christianity

1. 2. Primary Sources

1. 3. Method

2. Research on Ancestor Worship

2. 1. The Development of ‘Ancestor Worship’ as an Academic Term

2. 2. Ancestor Worship in Old Norse Research

3. Ancestors in Social Anthropology: Definition and Social Use

3. 1. ‘Ancestor Worship’ – the Problem with Terminology

3. 2. The Role of Ancestors in Folk Religions

3. 3. Family, Kinship and ‘Superior Ancestors’

3. 4. ‘Superior Ancestor Worship’

4. Kings and Gods in Old Norse Religion

4. 1. The Myth of ‘Sacral Kingship’

4. 2. Euhemerism – Medieval Propaganda or Just History?

Part 2. The Case Studies

5. Introduction to the Case Studies

6. Erik of Birka

7. The Ynglingar

7. 1. Background on the Ynglingar

7. 1. 1. Sources

7. 1. 2. The Ynglingar and Sacral Kingship

7. 1. 3. Ynglingatal: Authorial Purpose

7. 2. Freyr

7. 2. 1. Adam’s Templum

7. 2. 2. Adam’s Account of Human Sacrifice

7. 2. 3. Icons and Processions

7. 3. Hálfdanr svarti

7. 4. Óláfr Geirstaðaálfr

8. The Háleygjar

8. 1. The Háleygjar and Sacral Kingship

8. 2. Þorgerðr helgabrúðr

9. The Settlers of Breiðafjerðr

9. 1. Þórólfr Mostrarskegg

9. 2. Auðr djúp(a)úðga

General Conclusion

Biography

Triin Laidoner received an MA in Old Nordic Religion from the University of Iceland and a PhD in History from the University of Aberdeen, UK. Prior to that, she studied Icelandic and Swedish philology, and literary translation. Her work focuses on pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices in northern Europe, Old Norse-Icelandic literature, mythology and folklore, social anthropology, kinship and social structures, and ancestor beliefs and rituals. She has published on connections between Sámi and Old Norse beliefs.

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