This volume explores the intersection of landscape and myth in the context of north-western Atlantic Europe. From the landscapes of literature to the landscape as a lived environment, and from myths about supernatural beings to tales about the mythical roots of kingship, the contributions gathered here each develop their own take on the meanings behind 'landscape' and 'myth', and thus provide a broad cross-section of how these widely discussed concepts might be understood.
Arising from papers delivered at the conference 'Landscape and Myth in North-Western Europe', held in Munich in April 2016, the volume draws together a wide selection of material ranging from texts and toponyms to maps and archaeological data, and it uses this diversity in method and material to explore the meaning of these terms in medieval Ireland, Wales, and Iceland. In doing so, it provides a broadly inclusive and yet carefully focused discussion of the inescapable and productive intertwining of landscape and myth.
Author(s): Matthias Egeler (ed.)
Series: Borders, Boundaries, Landscapes, 2
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 272
List of Illustrations vii
Introduction: 'Landscape', 'Myth', and the North-Western European Perspective / Matthias Egeler 1
Myth and Real-World Landscapes
Spaces, Places, and Liminality: Marking Out and Meeting the Dead and the Supernatural in Old Nordic Landscapes / Terry Gunnell 25
Aesthetic Appreciation of Landscape in the Sagas of Icelanders / Reinhard Hennig 45
Landscape Meditations on Death: The Place-Lore of the Hvanndalur Valley in Northern Iceland / Matthias Egeler 63
Myth and the Creation of Landscape in Early Medieval Ireland / Gregory Toner 79
Codal and Ériu: Feeding the Land of Ireland / Grigory Bondarenko 99
Finn's Wilderness and Boundary Landforms in Medieval Ireland / Elizabeth FitzPatrick 113
'Here, Finn... Take This and Give him a Lick of it': Two Place-Lore Stories about Fi(o)nn Mac Cum(h)aill in Medieval Irish Literature and Modern Oral Tradition / Tiziana Soverino 147
The Mélusine Legend Type and the Landscape in Insular and Continental Tradition / Gregory R. Darwin 163
Myth and the Landscapes of Literature
King Sverrir's Mythic Landscapes / Nicolas Meylan 183
Mythologizing the Conceptual Landscape: Religion and History in 'Imago mundi', 'Image du monde', and 'Delw y byd' / Natalia I. Petrovskaia 195
The Road Less Travelled: Cú Chulainn's Journey to Matrimony and the 'Dindshenchas' of 'Tochmarc Emire' / Marie-Luise Theuerkauf 213
'If we settled in the forest...': Tracing the Function of Wooded Spaces from Old Irish Literature to Contemporary Poetry / Edyta Lehmann 239
Index 257
