‎Marie Novotná‎
‎Between Body and Soul in Old Norse Literature. Emotions and the Mutability of Form‎

‎, Brepols, 2024 Hardback, 224 pages, Size:156 x 234 mm, Language: English. ISBN 9782503605883.‎

Reference : 63286

‎Summary What did the body mean for inhabitants of the medieval Norse-speaking world? How was the physical body viewed? Where did the boundary lie between corporality and the psychological or spiritual aspects of humanity? And how did such an understanding tie in with popular literary motifs such as shape-shifting? This monograph seeks to engage with these questions by offering the first focused work to delineate a space for ideas about the body within the Old Norse world. The connections between emotions and bodily changes are examined through discussion of the physical manifestations of emotion (tiredness, changes in facial colour, swelling), while the author offers a detailed analysis of the Old Norse term hamr, a word that could variously mean shape, form, and appearance, but also character. Attention is also paid to changes of physical form linked to flight and battle ecstasy, as well as to magical shapeshifting. Through this approach, diametrically different ways of thinking about the connection between body and soul can be found, and the argument made that within the Old Norse world, concepts of change within the body rested along a spectrum that ranged from the purely physical through to the psychological. In doing so, this volume offers a broader understanding of what physicality and spirituality might have meant in the Middle Ages. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction. Searching for the Body Methodological Limitations Influence of Continental Writings Chapter 1. Somatic Aspects of Emotion The Study of Emotions Genre Specifics and Saga Style The Emotional Content of Physical Displays Exhaustion and Fatigue Change of Facial Colour Swelling Eye Pain Death The Concept of the Body in Light of the Semantic Field of Emotions as Physical Experiences Chapter 2. Change of Form The Concept of hamr The Etymology of the Root ham- and its Compound Words The Compound Words hamingja and líkamr Interpretive Dilemmas Changes Associated with Flight Changes Linked with Strong Animals Transformations in the Context of Battle Ecstasy Hybrid Forms The Transformations of Magic Practitioners Witches Journeying of hamr The Disappearance of hamr The Surface of the Body The Post-medieval Development Scandinavian Ballads Modern Icelandic The Concept of the Body in Light of the Semantic Field of hamr Conclusion. The Period of Transition Appendix. Occurrences of the ham- Root in Old Norse Literature The Poetic Edda Skaldic Poetry Snorra Edda (Prose Edda) Landnámabók (Book of Settlements) The Sagas Kings' Sagas (konungas?gur) Tales (þættir) Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingas?gur) Legendary Sagas (fornaldars?gur) Indigenous Romances (lygis?gur) The Chivalric Sagas (riddaras?gur) Christian Sagas Contemporary Sagas (samtíðars?gur) Scholarly Literature Works Cited Index ‎