Theorizing Old Norse Myth ed. by Stefan Brink and Lisa Collinson (review)

This volume brings together ten chapters derived from the ‘Myth and Theory in the Old Norse World’ conference held at the University of Aberdeen in October 2009: a conference that sought to examine theoretical and methodological foundations of, and medieval sources for, Old Norse myth. The chapters are book-ended with summary introduction and commentary by, respectively, Stefan Brink and John McKinnell, and in both of these contributions divergent approaches to defining and understanding the role and social relevance of Nordic myth are embraced, expressing a clear effort to encompass a plurality of views and ideas. McKinnell’s contribution in particular is noteworthy.

Robert E. Segal’s opening chapter maps both the history of, and shortfalls in, scholarship over recent centuries, exposing an array of divergent inflections and approaches to the study of myth and ritual, which involved such approaches as religious, myth-ritualist, performative, anthropological, literary, structuralist, and cognitive. Segal’s chapter frames the volume as a whole, and many of the subsequent contributions can be seen to take their place in this wider theoretical scheme.

The contributions by Karen Bek-Petersen, Margaret Clunies Ross, Jens Peter Schjødt, and Pernille Hermann each place particular emphasis on the importance of understanding theoretical orientation: Bek-Petersen advocates for inclusivity, cooperation, and comparison between different disciplines and theories, and in a similar vein Schjødt argues (perhaps unfashionably) for the re-introduction of the comparative method, although with greater sophistication in dealing with source criticism. Hermann explores the literary embedding and transmission of myth as cultural memory, while Clunies Ross’s contribution investigates the importance of recognizing the cognitive role of Norse myth: the gods, rather than being omnipotent, served to ‘encode fundamental human activities and interests’ (p. 50), with literary reflexes of myth thereby considered as indicative of systemic cognitive meanings.

There are also a number of contributions that apply themselves to more specific topics. Sebastian Cöllen looks closely at the role and function of the god Heimdallr, revealed through his philological analysis of the poem Hyndluljóð, and Terry Gunnell considers the relative importance of Oðinn and Þórr in pre-Christian Iceland, warning against accepting Snorri’s idea of a unified Old Nordic religion, and pointing out that beliefs and practices doubtless varied by area, class, society, and time. John Lindow also undertakes a philological analysis, in this case of Snorri’s Eddic listing of the ranks of male and female gods, noting compelling parallels between the roles and numbers of ‘subsidiary’ gods and the ranks of Christian apostles and saints, possibly as a means for grafting a pre-Christian natural religion onto the ancestry of Christian Iceland.

Stefan Brink’s contribution deals in the sensitive ‘hot potato’ of Swedish nationalism and the role of Old Uppsala in both myth and reality, using place-name philology in the reconstruction of pre-Christian Swedish mythology, and along the way rehabilitating the texts of both Snorri and Adam of Bremen. In the penultimate chapter of the volume Rudolf Simek provides an extensive survey of references to álfar (elves) in Old Norse literature, noting their distribution, identifying their varying roles and functions in literature, and comparing them with the álfar of contemporaneous Danish and Saxon folk religion. He concludes that they cannot be considered a consistent type of mythic character: their attributes and roles vary considerably, from supernatural and invisible to sinister spirits to explicitly negative demonic creatures, and their different manifestations perhaps indicate local variation in folk belief and myth.

John McKinnell’s summing up is a more important part of the volume than at first might have been expected, and it is worth noting the part it plays in the overall scheme of the book. As well as reiterating the diverse contents of the volume, McKinnell takes the opportunity to reflect on each contribution and in places he poses views counter to those of the author, thereby inviting readers to...