Download or read book Iceland Imagined written by Karen Oslund and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iceland, Greenland, Northern Norway, and the Faroe Islands lie on the edges of Western Europe, in an area long portrayed by travelers as remote and exotic - its nature harsh, its people reclusive. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, however, this marginalized region has gradually become part of modern Europe, a transformation that is narrated in Karen Oslund’s Iceland Imagined. This cultural and environmental history sweeps across the dramatic North Atlantic landscape, exploring its unusual geography, saga narratives, language, culture, and politics, and analyzing its emergence as a distinctive and symbolic part of Europe. The earliest visions of a wild frontier, filled with dangerous and unpredictable inhabitants, eventually gave way to images of beautiful, well-managed lands, inhabited by simple but virtuous people living close to nature. This transformation was accomplished by state-sponsored natural histories of Iceland which explained that the monsters described in medieval and Renaissance travel accounts did not really exist, and by artists who painted the Icelandic landscapes to reflect their fertile and regulated qualities. Literary scholars and linguists who came to Iceland and Greenland in the nineteenth century related the stories and the languages of the “wild North” to those of their home countries.

Download or read book Iceland Imagined written by Karen Oslund and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This cultural and environmental history sweeps across the dramatic North Atlantic landscape, exploring its unusual geology, saga narratives, language, culture, and politics and analyzing its emergence as a distinctive and symbolic part of Europe. The book closes with a discussion of Iceland's modern whaling practices and its recent financial collapse.

Download or read book From Iceland to the Americas written by Tim William Machan and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates the reception of a small historical fact with wide-ranging social, cultural and imaginative consequences. Inspired by Leif Eiriksson’s visit to Vinland in about the year 1000, novels, poetry, history, politics, arts and crafts, comics, films and video games have all come to reflect rising interest in the medieval Norse and their North American presence. Uniquely in reception studies, From Iceland to the Americas approaches this dynamic between Nordic history and its reception by bringing together international authorities on mythology, language, film and cultural studies, as well as on the literature that has dominated critical reception. Collectively, the chapters not only explore the connections among medieval Iceland and the modern Americas, but also probe why medieval contact has become a modern cultural touchstone.

Download or read book Iceland written by Marcel Krueger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to Iceland's rich literary heritage - from Norse witches to contemporary crime fiction. Iceland is an island of multiple identities in constant flux, just like its unruly, volcanic ground. Shaped as much by storytelling as it is by tectonic activity, Iceland's literary heritage is one of Europe's richest – and most ancient. Iceland: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey. It follows Iceland's many stories that have been passed down through the generations: told and retold by sheep farmers, psalm-writers, travelling reverends, independence fighters, scholars and hedonists. From the captivating Norse myths, which continue to inspire contemporary authors such as A. S. Byatt, to gripping Scandinavian crime fiction and Game of Thrones, via Jules Verne and J. R. R. Tolkien, W. H. Auden and Seamus Heaney, Iceland's influence has spread far beyond its frozen shores. Peopled by Norse maidens and witches, elves and outlaws, and taking the reader and traveller from Reykjavik and the Bay of Smokes to the remote Westfjords and desolate highlands, this is an enthralling portrait of the Land of Ice and Fire.

Download or read book Iceland Summer written by Kurt Caswell and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An island is a world out of time and place, separated by literal and figurative oceans, where the confines of reality are tenuous and magic may be possible. Iceland—with its relative isolation, enchanting mythologies, creative people, and the otherworldly wild beauty of its glaciers, geysers, volcanos, and fjords—encompases this special magic in the minds of many, including writer Kurt Caswell. Vividly illustrated by Julia Oldham, Iceland Summer recounts Caswell’s journey traversing the country by foot and bus accompanied by his lifelong friend Scott. The pair set out from Reykjavík and travel clockwise along the Ring Road, stopping along the way for backcountry walking trips. Caswell immerses himself in the natural beauty and charming eccentricities of the tiny island nation. With his drinking and hiking buddy by his side, and fueled by a steady diet of Brennivín (fermented grain mash) and pylsur (Icelandic hot dogs), he explores the Hornstrandir peninsula, walks to the famed Dettifoss waterfall, waits for a glimpse of the lake monster Lagarfljótsormurinn at Egilsstaðir, visits the world’s only penis museum, and pays homage to centuries of Icelandic literary tradition at the Árni Magnússon Institute. Writing in the tradition of other pairs who have traveled in Iceland, like W. G. Collingwood and Jón Stefánsson, and W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, Caswell meditates on the value of wild places in the modern world, travel as both pastime and occupation, the nature of friendship, and walking, food, and literature. Scott is the Sancho Panza to Caswell’s Don Quixote, offering a ribald humor that grounds Caswell’s flights into the romantic. The two travel well together and together arrive at the understanding that what anchors them both is their lifelong friendship.

Download or read book Under Osman s Tree written by Alan Mikhail and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-03-08 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, had a dream in which a tree sprouted from his navel. As the tree grew, its shade covered the earth; as Osman’s empire grew, it, too, covered the earth. This is the most widely accepted foundation myth of the longest-lasting empire in the history of Islam, and offers a telling clue to its unique legacy. Underlying every aspect of the Ottoman Empire’s epic history—from its founding around 1300 to its end in the twentieth century—is its successful management of natural resources. Under Osman’s Tree analyzes this rich environmental history to understand the most remarkable qualities of the Ottoman Empire—its longevity, politics, economy, and society. The early modern Middle East was the world’s most crucial zone of connection and interaction. Accordingly, the Ottoman Empire’s many varied environments affected and were affected by global trade, climate, and disease. From down in the mud of Egypt’s canals to up in the treetops of Anatolia, Alan Mikhail tackles major aspects of the Middle East’s environmental history: natural resource management, climate, human and animal labor, energy, water control, disease, and politics. He also points to some of the ways in which the region’s dominant religious tradition, Islam, has understood and related to the natural world. Marrying environmental and Ottoman history, Under Osman’s Tree offers a bold new interpretation of the past five hundred years of Middle Eastern history.

Download or read book Iceland and Images of the North written by Sumarlidi Isleifsson and published by PUQ. This book was released on 2011-05-20T00:00:00-04:00 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a radically changing world, cultural identity and images have emerged as one of the most challenging issues in the social and cultural sciences. These changes provide an occasion for a thorough reexamination of cultural, historical, political, and economic aspects of society. The INOR (Iceland and Images of the North) group is an interdisciplinary group of Icelandic and non-Icelandic scholars whose recent research on contemporary and historical images of Iceland and the North seeks to analyze the forms these images assume, as well as their function and dynamics. The 21 articles in this book allow readers to seize the variety and complexity of the issues related to images of Iceland.

Download or read book International Medievalisms written by Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Mary Boyle and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies and investigates international medievalism through three distinct strands: "Internationally Nationalist", "Someone Else's Past?", and "Activist Medievalism". Medievalism - the reception of the Middle Ages - often invokes a set of tropes generally considered 'medieval', rather than consciously engaging with medieval cultures and societies. International medievalism offers an additional interpretative layer by juxtaposing two or more national cultures, at least one of which is medieval. 'National' can be aspirational: it might refer to the area within agreed borders, or to the people who live there, but it might also describe the people who understand, or imagine, themselves to constitute a nation. And once 'medieval' becomes simply a collection of ideas, it can be re-formed as desired, cast as more geographically than historically specific, or function as a gateway to an even more nebulous past. This collection identifies and investigates international medievalism through three distinct strands, 'Internationally Nationalist', 'Someone Else's Past?', and 'Activist Medievalism', exploring medievalist media from the textual to the architectural. Subjects range from The Green Children of Woolpit to Refugee Tales, and from Viking metal to Joan of Arc. As the contributors to each section make clear, for centuries the medieval has provided material for countless competing causes and cannot be contained within historical, political, or national borders. The essays show how the medieval is repeatedly co-opted and recreated, formed as much as formative: inviting us to ask why, and in service of what.

Download or read book Postcolonial Perspectives on the European High North written by Graham Huggan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book approaches the Arctic from a postcolonial perspective, taking into account both its historical status as a colonised region and new, economically driven forms of colonialism. One catchphrase currently being used to describe these new colonialisms is 'the scramble for the Arctic'. This cross-disciplinary study, featuring contributions from an international team of experts in the field, offers a set of broadly postcolonial perspectives on the European Arctic, which is taken here as ranging from Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic to the upper regions of Norway and Sweden in the European High North. While the contributors acknowledge the renewed scramble for resources that characterises the region, it also argues the need to 'unscramble' the Arctic, wresting it away from its persistent status as a fixed object of western control and knowledge. Instead, the book encourages a reassertion of micro-histories of Arctic space and territory that complicate western grand narratives of technological progress, politico-economic development, and ecological 'state change'. It will be of interest to scholars of Arctic Studies across all disciplines.

Download or read book Images of Contemporary Iceland written by Gisli Palsson and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anthropology of Iceland presents the first perspectives on Icelandic anthropology from both Icelandic and foreign anthropologists. The thirteen essays in this volume are divided into four themes: ideology and action; kinship and gender; culture, class, and ethnicity; and the Commonwealth period of circa 930 to 1220, which saw the flowering of sagas. Insider and outsider viewpoints on such topics as the Icelandic women's movement, the transformation of the fishing industry, the idea of mystical power in modern Iceland, and archaeological research in Iceland merge to form an international, comparative discourse. Individually and collectively, by bringing the insights of anthropology to bear on Iceland, the native and foreign authors of this volume carry Iceland into the realm of modern anthropology, advancing our understanding of the island's people and the practice of anthropology.

Download or read book Imagining the Supernatural North written by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Turning to face north, face the north, we enter our own unconscious. Always, in retrospect, the journey north has the quality of dream.” Margaret Atwood, “True North” In this interdisciplinary collection, sixteen scholars from twelve countries explore the notion of the North as a realm of the supernatural. This region has long been associated with sorcerous inhabitants, mythical tribes, metaphysical forces of good and evil, and a range of supernatural qualities. It was both the sacred abode of the gods and a feared source of menacing invaders and otherworldly beings. Whether from the perspective of traditional Jewish lore or of contemporary black metal music, few motifs in European cultural history show such longevity and broad appeal. Contributors: Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, Angela Byrne, Danielle Marie Cudmore, Stefan Donecker, Brenda S. Gardenour Walter, Silvije Habulinec, Erica Hill, Jay Johnston, Maria Kasyanova, Jan Leichsenring, Shane McCorristine, Jennifer E. Michaels, Ya’acov Sarig, Rudolf Simek, Athanasios Votsis, Brian Walter

Download or read book Minor Knowledge and Microhistory written by Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies everyday writing practices among ordinary people in a poor rural society in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using the abundance of handwritten material produced, disseminated and consumed some centuries after the advent of print as its research material, the book's focus is on its day-to-day usage and on "minor knowledge," i.e., text matter originating and rooted primarily in the everyday life of the peasantry. The focus is on the history of education and communication in a global perspective. Rather than engaging in comparing different countries or regions, the authors seek to view and study early modern and modern manuscript culture as a transnational (or transregional) practice, giving agency to its ordinary participants and attention to hitherto overlooked source material. Through a microhistorical lens, the authors examine the strength of this aspect of popular culture and try to show it in a wider perspective, as well as asking questions about the importance of this development for the continuity of the literary tradition. The book is an attempt to explain “the nature of the literary culture” in general – how new ideas were transported from one person to another, from community to community, and between regions; essentially, the role of minor knowledge in the development of modern men.

Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 1698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity written by Magdalena Naum and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ​ ​In Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena, archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians present case studies that focus on the scope and impact of Scandinavian colonial expansion in the North, Africa, Asia and America as well as within Scandinavia itsself. They discuss early modern thinking and theories made valid and developed in early modern Scandinavia that justified and propagated participation in colonial expansion. The volume demonstrates a broad and comprehensive spectrum of archaeological, anthropological and historical research, which engages with a variation of themes relevant for the understanding of Danish and Swedish colonial history from the early 17th century until today. The aim is to add to the on-going global debates on the context of the rise of the modern society and to revitalize the field of early modern studies in Scandinavia, where methodological nationalism still determines many archaeological and historical studies. Through their theoretical commitment, critical outlook and application of postcolonial theories the contributors to this book shed a new light on the processes of establishing and maintaining colonial rule, hybridization and creolization in the sphere of material culture, politics of resistance, and responses to the colonial claims. This volume is a fantastic resource for graduate students and researchers in historical archaeology, Scandinavia, early modern history and anthropology of colonialism

Download or read book Burial Rites written by Hannah Kent and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tv=ti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

Download or read book Denmark and the New North Atlantic written by Kirsten Thisted and published by Aarhus Universitetsforlag. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates how the emergence of the Arctic as a new geopolitical arena affects and reshapes the area known as the North Atlantic: Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and coastal Norway. The relationship between the center of the former Danish empire and its subordinates have rested on (varying degrees of) asymmetric power relations, that are intertwined with political as well as emotional bonds. With climate change a whole new reality is emerging in the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas. Power is moving north, and new connections and partnerships are being developed. As the North Atlantic countries share a history as being part of a Danish empire, some of the hierarchies and mindsets inherited from the past still affect the present. This calls for an in-depth understanding of the cultural history of the North Atlantic as well as current relations. What narratives make up the foundation for contemporary cooperation? How are historical relations and narratives being reinterpreted today? How do postcolonial relations affect decision-making concerning natural resources? How do North Atlantic communities envision the future? A team of historians, literary theorists, art historians, ethno - graphers and culture and communication scholars with profound insight into the histories, languages and cultures of the North Atlantic have collaborated on this study of the North Atlantic countries as an emerging new center in the North. Foundations that made this publication possible: Carlsberg Foundation

Download or read book Coastal Environments in Popular Song written by Glenn Fosbraey and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how popular music is able to approach subjects of bio-politics, climate change, solastalgia, and anthropomorphisation, alongside its more common diet of songs about love, dancing, and break-ups – all while satisfying its primary remit of being entertaining and listenable. Nearly a thousand books have been published on bioethics since Van Rensselaer Potter’s Bioethics Bridge to the Future (1971), with a marked increase in the past 20 years. However, not one of these books has focused itself on popular music, something Christopher Partridge describes as ‘central to the construction of [our] identities, central to [our] sense of self, central to [our] well-being and, therefore, central to [our] social relations’. This edited collection examines popular music through a range of topics, from romance to climate change. Coastal Environments in Popular Song is perfect for students, scholars, and researchers alike interested in bioethics, social history, and the history of music.