Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies

In recent years, the field of Memory Studies has emerged as a key approach in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and has increasingly shown its ability to open new windows on Nordic Studies as well. The entries in this book document the work-to-date of this approach on the pre-modern Nordic world (mainly the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, but including as well both earlier and later periods). Given that Memory Studies is an ever expanding critical strategy, the approximately eighty contributors in this volume also discuss the potential for future research in this area. Topics covered range from texts to performance to visual and other aspects of material culture, all approached from within an interdisciplinary framework. International specialists, coming from such relevant fields as archaeology, mythology, history of religion, folklore, history, law, art, literature, philology, language, and mediality, offer assessments on the relevance of Memory Studies to their disciplines and show it at work in case studies. Finally, this handbook demonstrates the various levels of culture where memory had a critical impact in the pre-modern North and how deeply embedded the role of memory is in the material itself.

J. Glauser, University of Zurich, Switzerland, P. Hermann, Aarhus University, Denmark and S. Mitchell, Harvard University, USA.

"Insgesamt gesehen, bietet dieser monumentale Band vielfach einen neuen Blick (etwa "Gendered memories", 144) auf die vormoderne Gedächtniskultur Skandinaviens einschließlich einiger Runen- und Gotländischer Bildsteine." Klaus Düwel in: Germanistik 59.3-4 (2019), 755-756

"This handbook represents an enormous undertaking for the editors and an extremely useful reference work on memory studies in pre-modern Scandinavian Studies. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and those new to memory studies should find it helpful. Part III, with its beautiful color plates and cross-referenced selections from primary texts, may also prove perhaps particularly useful for teaching." Lesley Jacobs in: The Medieval Review 20.09.13

"The editors must be commended for conceiving of this enormous project and
bringing it to fruition. It is sure to prove an important reference text for not only
scholars of the pre-modern Nordic past, but to medievalists and memory studies
researchers more widely. Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies masterfully
demonstrates the breadth of memory studies being undertaken in our field, opening
new avenues for enquiry and collaboration." Matthew Firth in: Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2019, Vol. 15, 139-141

„The Handbook reviewed here is itself a monumental work: a landmark, if not as yet a lieu de mémoire, in the study of ancient Scandinavia.” Rory McTurk in: Scandinavica 2/2020, https://www.scandinavica.net/article/24307-review-handbook-of-pre-modern-nordic-memory-studies-interdisciplinary-approaches