Heathenry and the Use and Abuse of „roots“ in a Reconstructionist Religious Movement
The symbol of roots plays an important role in the new religious movement Heathenry, whose main defining points are the veneration of Germanic deities and a focus on Old Norse literature. In this blog post, I want to show how the narrative of „reconstructing“ pre-Christian religions is combined with the idea of „roots“ and how this ties into nationalism and claims of „indigenousness.“
Review: The Invention of Tradition
The Invention of Tradition is a collection of papers edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger. It deals with the ways in which many traditions that are commonly considered to be old have been invented in the recent past and introduces the term “invented tradition.”
Review: William Albert Wilson’s Folklore and Nationalism in Modern Finland
The American scholar William Wilson discusses the relationship between the study of folklore and the rise of nationalistic movements in Finland.
Literary Otherness in Nordic National Epics – The Case of the Sámi
How are the Sámi depicted in Nordic national epics? Their role in the story, as well as their descriptions, can tell us much about how growing nationalistic feeling saw minorities and how these were classified as others.
Review: Time to Get Back Home: The Icelandic-Danish Fight for Manuscripts in the 20th Century
For some, a medieval manuscript is not very exciting: simply an old book with on the damaged pages a handwriting barely readable. But for others, “manuscripts are like a part of them like flesh of their flesh and blood of their blood”.
A review on Guðmundur Hálfdánarson’s chapter „Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern nation“.