Edda

Prehistoric images constitute a special source material. Rather than being random products, they were produced to convey a message. This observation applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. Having said that, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments, but mostly in the shape of Animal Art. Animal Art has certain mnemonic qualities that have been widely overlooked. Yet, like many other contemporary cultural expressions, Animal Art is governed by a metaphorical principle. Therefore, we ought to consider the possibility that Animal Art worked as a material anchor within Viking Age culture.

Ez egy tanulmány és nem regény… habár sok történet szerepel benne, de elsődlegesen ezek elemzésével foglalkozom. Itt Odiné a főszerep, de nem csak az Eddákból ismert történeteivel, hanem a későbbi korok irodalmi alkotásait is szemügyre veszem.

Így kerülhet egymás mellé Odin (az Eddákból) Wotan (a Ring tetralógiából) és a Vad Falka vezetője (Herne vadász, Mikuás és egyéb zivatatdémon) egymás mellé.

Be akartam mutatni, hogy észak istenei nem haltak meg a vikingek távozásával, hanem megragadtak a népi folklórban és irodalmi művekben, hogy átadják nekünk azt, amit eddig is tanítani akartak.

Az hogy ez mennyire sikerült mindenki döntse el maga.

Az MTA SZAB 2011. évi pályázatán ennek a műnek egy rövidebb változata II. helyezést ért el…

This paper describes the a new methodology for the identification of puzzle pictures, demonstrated with a newly discovered Viking baroque shaped brooch from Vestervang, Denmark. The discussion begins with the mechanisms of image perception and ends in an interpretative perspective on the possible link between the pictorial language of the silver caster and the figurative language of contemporary skalds.

In Fornvännen 2012:1, we responded to criticism that Carrie Roy had directed towards us [http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:540982/FULLTEXT01]. The matter appeared especially urgent as Roy's account contained errors of fact and misquotations that did injury to fellow researchers. Thus, the main focus of our reply was on academic craftsmanship. Reading Roy's reply in Fornvännen 2012:2, we note with regret that she remains set in her ways, rather than admitting human error. Therefore, the following is intended to be our final reply.

The paper deals with five motifs of the heroic world of the Balkans: the first two («The test of the sword» and «The warriors turn up to the banquet in arms») -from the cycle of folk songs about the Serbian hero Marko Kraljević- present close affinities with an eddic narrative and an episode of the Nibelungenlied; the third («The Serbian “Roland” cleaves the Turkish “Chernuble”») -found in a Serbian song from the Ottoman domination- is similar to a well-known episode of the Song of Roland. The fourth («The hero falls asleep in the arms of the girl a little before the enemy arrives») -appearing in two Serbian tales and a Vlach one from Thessaly- resembles to the excerpt from the Waltharius, where Walther falls asleep in Hiltgund’s bosom after having asked her to be on the watch and wake him up on seeing the enemies. As for the last («The Excalibur sword in Serbia and Thessaly») -appearing in many tales of these regions-, it is almost identical to the Arthurian relation of the Excalibur sword, as well as to the Nibelungen legend as reconstructed by A. Ehrhard.

PEER REVIEWED[?] Following the suggestions of Sophus Müller in his essay "Dyreornamentiken i Norden" (1880), scholars in Late Iron Age artefact studies long avoided interpretations of Germanic animal art which differed from the traditional idea of a meaningless ornament. Accordingly, research in Germanic animal art has been dominated by an interest in the establishment of stylistic groups, as indicators of chronological and regional variations. In recent years, however, a paradigm shift has come to pass, influenced by new theoretical schools and motivated by the results of iconographers led by Karl Hauck. This paper presents new iconographic methodology, explores the fate of two animal types through the successive animal art styles of the Vendel Period, and suggests an iconological interpretation connected to the cult of Odin.

The article starts from ideas of current neoliberal Sweden as a break with the welfare society of the 1960s – a peak of Swedish social development, according to a frequent opinion. This invites scrutinizing how the now mythical welfare state of the 1960s was depicted in the literature of the day. Quite surprisingly many critical accounts then seem to question that version of welfare, thereby also actualizing issues on society and aesthetics in the 1960s. Theoretical reflexions on the relations between literature and society and the possibility of a social critical literature after Adorno present a addressive social rhetorical perspective as a possibility (Lloyd Bitzer, Carolyn Miller). After an outline of the literary situation of the 1960s some examples of the experimental prose of those days is discussed, thereby illuminating the issue of a special aesthetics of the welfare state (Sven Delblanc, P.O. Enquist, Margareta Ekström, Lars Gustafsson, P.C. Jersild, P.-O. Sundman).

PEER REVIEWED Prehistoric images constitute a special source material. Rather than being random products, they were produced to convey a message. This observation applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. Having said that, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments, but mostly in the shape of Animal Art. Animal Art has certain mnemonic qualities that have been widely overlooked. Yet, like many other contemporary cultural expressions, Animal Art is governed by a metaphorical principle. Therefore, we ought to consider the possibility that Animal Art worked as a material anchor within Viking Age culture.

At the 14th Saga Conference, Carrie Roy presented a paper on the meaning of the gripping- beast motif in Viking Period culture. Roy levels serious criticism against her peers, including the co-authors of this note, declaring them victims of their own subjectivity. The three of us have contributed equally to the following reply.

PEER REVIEWED Prehistoric images constitute a special source material. Rather than being random products, they were produced to convey a message. This observation applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. Having said that, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments, but mostly in the shape of Animal Art. Animal Art has certain mnemonic qualities that have been widely overlooked. Yet, like many other contemporary cultural expressions, Animal Art is governed by a metaphorical principle. Therefore, we ought to consider the possibility that Animal Art worked as a material anchor within Viking Age culture.

PEER REVIEWED The purpose of this article is to map the treatment process of imagery within a specific workshop tradition. In an oral culture, it would have been wasteful not to take advantage of the iconographic potential of high-quality brooches. Therefore, it must be allowed to propose that Viking Age ornament has a deeper meaning. The tendency to let studies of Animal Art deal with shape rather than content has weakened considerably since the days of Sophus Müller. Nowadays there is a greater openness toward iconographic interpretations of Animal Art. The investigation is iconographic in the sense that it aims to determine how motifs are used and what they might represent. However, the question about the meaning of abstract shapes is not raised. According to an eternally current hypothesis within research history, the Animal Art shows analogies with skaldic poetry. Furthermore, a survey of the production conditions shows that poetry and Animal Art both were commissioned by the leading class. Hence, the investigation is focused on the stately objects of the upper class, and their specific ornament. A suitable group of artefacts are the so-called “baroque” silver brooches from mid Viking Age. By linking them as puzzle pictures, the silver caster has managed to combine several motifs on a limited image surface. Here, six brooches are examined thoroughly: After having shown that they originate from the same workshop, the brooches are organized typologically. This is done based on the production technique, technology, and ornaments. To make this easier to grasp, the descriptions of the history of the finding, utilization and restoration of the artefacts are reviewed in a catalogue. Once established, this typological order forms the backbone of a puzzle picture typology. In the examination process, a number of interesting analogies between poetry and imagery emerge: The composition conditions for puzzle pictures and poetic metaphors (kenningar) show some parallels. Within both arts, the hallmark of a true proficient is the ability to fit several motifs (= kenningar/puzzle pictures) within a narrow frame (= metre/artefact structure) without breaking it. Just like a poet, a silver caster understood the art of borrowing motifs from other fields of the contemporary art and bringing them together into a new composition. Just like the poet’s audience, the beholders of ornamentry must sharpen their senses to solve the riddles. The intellectual challenge lays in puzzling together figures of increasing complexity. Another hint of a connection between imagery and poetry is given by a couple of ekphraseis, composed by various skalds. The production conditions of poetry and silver brooches were similar: Skalds as well as silver casters depended on a patron. The material value of the silver brooches, as well as the names of some of the finding sites, indicate that the commissions may have come from an Óðinn-worshipping upper class, which also supported poetry. Due to these similarities, an attempt is made to interpret the puzzle-picture motifs on the baroque brooches using skaldic metaphors for Óðinn (óðinsheiti). For the time being, any further interpretation is obstructed by the question of semiotics. One the one hand, semioticians seem to offer a variety of hypotheses that could explain the analogies between poetry and silver casting. On the other hand, a wider consensus regarding the teachings and fundamental theories of semiotics has not yet been established. Therefore, I will be cautious in forming overly liberal analogies between different cultural spheres. It remains to be seen, whether the kenning-analogy works as a master key to Viking Age culture. The goal of the paper is to map the image treatment within a specific workshop tradition. Therefore, the results of this case study should only be seen as one among many possible scenarios within the complex reality of the Viking Age. The iconographic interpretations of this paper are also mere suggestions, intended to stimulate further discussion.