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Hybrid
Mixed Lecture/Discussion
•
Low intensity
While medieval literary texts offer a weath of information about Norse mythology, pre-Christian religious behaviour is very difficult to trace back from these sources alone. We generally associate the religion of the Viking age with its gods and stories about them, but it consisted of so much more.
This module attempts to offer a nuanced overview of potential beliefs in the Northern Viking age by drawing not only on literature but also archaeology, anthropology, or iconography. We'll be exploring how people in Scandinavia made sense of the world by focusing on rituals, because in the pagan world practices would have been a much greater part of religion - what you did, where you did it, how you did it and what that says about your spiritual inclinations.
Week 1 - Ritual space and time (types of ritual sites, ritual objects, festivities)
Week 2 - Religious specialists (cultic leaders, performers and their functions)
Week 3 - Public and private rituals (cyclical, passage, crisis rituals)
Week 4 - Death and mortuary behaviour
This module attempts to offer a nuanced overview of potential beliefs in the Northern Viking age by drawing not only on literature but also archaeology, anthropology, or iconography. We'll be exploring how people in Scandinavia made sense of the world by focusing on rituals, because in the pagan world practices would have been a much greater part of religion - what you did, where you did it, how you did it and what that says about your spiritual inclinations.
Week 1 - Ritual space and time (types of ritual sites, ritual objects, festivities)
Week 2 - Religious specialists (cultic leaders, performers and their functions)
Week 3 - Public and private rituals (cyclical, passage, crisis rituals)
Week 4 - Death and mortuary behaviour
Required Texts
Further reading recommendations:
Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1993). The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. London and New York: Routledge
Andrén, A. (2011). "Old Norse and Germanic Religion". In Insoll, Timothy (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion.
Turville-Petre, E. (1975). Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Raudvere, C., Schjodt, J. eds. (2012). More Than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religion.
Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1993). The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. London and New York: Routledge
Andrén, A. (2011). "Old Norse and Germanic Religion". In Insoll, Timothy (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion.
Turville-Petre, E. (1975). Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Raudvere, C., Schjodt, J. eds. (2012). More Than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religion.
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