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: Sirpa Aalto’s Categorizing ‚Otherness‘ in Heimskringla
How do we discuss the concept of otherness in Snorri’s famous Heimskringla? Sirpa Aalto’s study offers a good overlook of the topic.
Tell Me Where You Come From and I Will Tell You Who You Are – Ibsen, the Modern Sami and the Medieval Finnar
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson argued that people exposed to the nature of the North could experience the same adventures as the characters in the sagas. Strange as this assumption may appear to us, Ibsen seemed to agree with it. In one quarter of his plays the main characters have strong connections to the North, and their portrayal was undoubtedly to a certain degree influenced by Ibsen’s contemporaries, but mainly by the Finnar’s depiction in the sagas he had read.