Focuses specifically on the concept and role of islands in the medieval world. The main characteristic of an island is, of course, that of being isolated from the rest of the world; in geography by waters, in more abstract and symbolic meanings by other kinds of separating borders. Islands were the place 'on the other side', of difference, otherness and remoteness. As one of the articles in this volume puts it, islands are often depicted as sites for extraordinary events and happenings.
The contributions cluster around the concept of islands under the following perspectives:
- search for undiscovered and paradise islands in literature and cartography
- idea of fictional islands in Old Norse texts
- quality of islands in literary texts
- monasteries as islands and monasteries on islands
- human body as an island of religious achievements
- seasonal islandisation of certain lands.
Author(s): Torstein Jørgensen, Gerhard Jaritz (eds.)
Series: CEU Medievalia, 14. The Muhu Proceedings, 2
Publisher: Central European University Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: VI+146
City: Budapest
List of Illustrations vi
Preface 1
Felicitas Schmieder / Paradise Islands in the East and West – Tradition and Meaning in Some Cartographical Places on the Medieval Rim of the World 3
Kristel Zilmer / The Powers and Purposes of an Insular Setting – on Some Motifs in Old-Norse Literature 23
Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jacobsen / Monastic "Islands" in Medieval Denmark: Insular Isolation in Ideal and Practice 36
Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen / Religious Athletes – on the Perception of the Body in Medieval Asceticism 45
Eldar Heide / Holy Islands and the Otherworld: Places beyond Water 57
Else Mundal / Hvítramannaland and Other Fictional Islands in the Sea 81
Margaret Elphinstone / The Unknown Island 88
Bernt Øyvind Thorvaldsen / Will the Son of Nine Sisters Rule the Sea-Kidney? 97
Gerhard Jaritz / The Quality of Islands in Middle High German Literature 111
Juhan Kreem / Seasonal Isolation in the Communication in Livonia 120
Torstein Jørgensen / Utstein Monastery: An Island on an Island – or not? 128
List of Contributors 139
Index 140
