Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter 1
2. Contents 5
3. Preface 9
4. Introduction 11
5. Celtic Tradition
6. 1 The Nature of the Fomoiri: The Dark Other in the Medieval Irish Imagination 25
7. 2 Tuatha Dé and Fomoiri in Cath Maige Tuired 49
8. 3 Exploring Cath Maige Tuired through the Concept of Hybridity 71
9. 4 How Time Flies in the Cath Maige Tuired 95
10. 5 The Idols of the Pagan Irish in the Medieval Literary Imagination 117
11. 6 Myth as a Historical Resource : The Case of Orgain Denna Ríg (The Destruction of Dinn Ríg) 135
12. 7 Hagiography as Political Documentation : The Case of Betha Beraigh (The Life of St Berach) 151
13. Scandinavian Tradition
14. 8 Baldr’s Achilles’ Heel? About the Scandinavian Three-God B-Bracteates 173
15. 9 The Cult of Óðinn in the Early Scandinavian Warrior Aristocracy 197
16. 10 Myth to History in Saxo 219
17. 11 The Scylding Dynasty in Saxo and Beowulf as Disguised Theogony 235
18. 12 Loki the Slandered God? Selective Omission of Skaldic Citations in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda 251
19. 13 Ymir, Baldr, and the Grand Narrative Arc of Mythological History 271
20. Index 295