“Ok flýgr þat jafnan”: Icelandic Figurations of Böðvarr bjarki’s Monster

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Contents V
3. Introduction: The Paranormal Encounter 1
4. Part I: Experiencing the Paranormal
5. “I See Dead People”: The Externalization of Paranormal Experience in Medieval Iceland 9
6. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Haunted Saga Homesteads, Climate Fluctuations, and the Vulnerable Self 21
7. Happy Endings: The (Para)Normality of Miracles 39
8. Þórgunna’s Dinner and Other Medieval Liminal Meals: Food as Mediator between this World and the Hereafter 49
9. A Troll Did It?: Trauma as a Paranormal State in the Íslendingasögur 71
10. Traversing the Uncanny Valley: Glámr in Narratological Space 89
11. On the Threshold: The Liminality of Doorways 109
12. The Burial of Body Parts in Old Icelandic Grágás 131
13. Paranormal Prose: “Para-Narrative” and Ice in the Icelandic Sagas 151
14. Part II: Figures of the Paranormal
15. Encounters with Hliðskjálf in Old Norse Mythology 175
16. “Ok flýgr þat jafnan”: Icelandic Figurations of Böðvarr bjarki’s Monster 193
17. Demons, Muslims, Wrestling Champions: The Semantic History of Blámenn from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century 203
18. The New Faith vs. The Undead: Christmas Showdowns 227
19. Following up on Female fylgjur: A Re-Examination of the Concept of Female fylgjur in Old Icelandic Literature 245
20. Dólgr í byggðinni: Meeting the Social Monster in the Sagas of Icelanders 263
21. Part III: Literature and the Paranormal
22. Even a Henchman Can Dream: Dreaming at the Margins in Brennu-Njáls saga 279
23. A Normal Relationship?: Jarl Hákon and Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr in Icelandic Literary Context 295
24. Priest Ketill’s Journey to Rome 311
25. “Darraðarljóð” and Its Context within Njáls saga: Sorcery, Vision, Leizla? 327
26. Paranormal Tendencies in the Sagas: A Discussion about Genre 347
27. Reading the Landscape in Grettis saga: Þórhallur, the meinvættur, and Glámur 367
28. Trolling Guðmundr: Paranormal Defamation in Ljósvetninga saga 395
29. “Meir af viel en karlmennsku”: Monstrous Masculinity in Viktors saga ok Blávus 421
30. Index 433