Mythical-Heroic Sagas

From the Preface: "In the modern world artistic creativity necessarily implies originality; as a rule, we have great difficulty assessing the works of an age in which such notions were for the most part still quite distant. The heroic sagas taken up in the present volume, the so-called fornaldarsögur (literally, 'sagas of antiquity'; singular fornaldarsaga), reflect a different kind of literary artifice, a kind of creativity practiced in medieval Iceland which drew heavily on commonly known and widely used narrative traditions. It should not be assumed, however, that genius and artistic excellence do not enter into a discussion of the legendary fiction of thirteenth-, fourteenth-, and fifteenth-century Iceland -- they do, but the value modern readers place on the originality and uniqueness of a character or an episode makes a very poor standard for evaluating the literary merits of such texts as those taken up in the chapters that follow. One consequence has been that these tales are often relegated to the status of "poor cousins" within the family of Icelandic literature; another is that they are more likely to yield results to extraliterary consideration than to conventional literary criticism."

From the Introduction: "Almost all scholarly treatments of the sagas can be characterized as gravitating toward one of two poles, namely, belief in either oral or written sagas. Of course, such terms as the 'oral saga' or the 'written saga' connote much more than the simple equation of the medieval texts with the acts of speaking or writing. The question might be phrased as follows: is the background to the sagas' art to be conceived of as native and essentially spoken (or verbal, or performed, or recited), or is the background based on foreign models in which the key aspects of composition have been shaped by literacy? Neither of these positions is absolute: proponents of the oral saga readily concede that the available works have come down to us in a written medium that cannot have failed to impart something to the text, and even the most strident advocates of the written saga will agree that the texts are frequently informed by oral traditions. In general, these orientations reflect preoccupations with "the folk" and "the court." In the history of the field, these two views have been called many things, but while the labels change, the positions shift, and the interpretations their adherents place on the evidence vary, the divisions (if not their centers of gravity) are not much different now from what they were at the turn of the century…"

A través de siete apartados se analiza la cronología de Star Wars, el contexto histórico-social que la determina y cómo se evidencia en la saga. También por qué se puede considerar Star Wars como un mito moderno y cómo refleja el viaje del héroe. Son estudiados aspectos religiosos que gira alrededor del concepto de la Fuerza, los aprendizajes biopedagógicos, la interculturalidad manifiesta en la saga y los elementos que ésta posee para que se desarrolle un nuevo camino espiritual llamado jedismo.
Abstract Through seven sections the chronology of Star Wars, the historical and social context that determines it and how is evident in the saga are analyzed. Also in which way Star Wars is a modern myth and how the hero's journey is reflected. Eeligious aspects that revolves around the concept of the Force, the biopedagogy learning, interculturalism manifested in the saga and the elements that this series of films has to develop a new spiritual path called jedism are studied.

In recent scholarship, the Icelandic fornaldarsögur – legendary, “mythic-heroic” sagas – have typically been regarded as a locus for literary fiction in medieval Iceland, owing in part to their genetic and generic relation to romance literature. This thesis aims to redirect the debate and argues for the historiographical function of these sagas.  Following a discursive introductory chapter, each of the three main chapters analyses the various narrative and rhetorical strategies of individual fornaldarsögur in comparison with contemporaneous historiography, with particular emphasis of their prosimetrical form.

In Chapter 2 I analyse how the comic and folktale elements of Gautreks saga serve to historicise its moral exempla, and, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Mikhail Bakhtin, argue that the saga’s representation of geography and space serves to compartmentalise its fictionality in discrete “chronotopes.” I also demonstrate how the quotation of poetry in Gautreks saga, modelled on the konungasögur (‘kings’ sagas’), serves to authenticate the prose narrative. In Chapter 3 I analyse how the author of Vǫlsunga saga drew on genealogical and biographical models of historiography to expand the Poetic Edda’s account of the early Vǫlsung dynasty and Sigurðr Fáfnisbani’s early life. Numerous verses in Vǫlsunga saga are quoted to corroborate the prose, but, I argue, they appeal to the anonymity and continuity of the oral eddic tradition for their authority, in contrast to the skaldic tradition of the konungasögur. In Chapter 4 I analyse how many of the verse quotations of Ragnars saga loðbrókar authenticate the prose narrative, despite their presentation as direct speech. I go on to analyse the significance of the Ragnarr legend in skaldic poetics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries – in particular, the remembrance of Ragnarr as a poet himself – and argue that this lent weight to the verse quotations in the saga as direct testimonials.

I conclude by analysing the geography and spatial representation, genealogical structures, and the prosimetrum of other fornaldarsögur, demonstrating that studying these texts in relation to medieval historiographical discourse furthers our understanding of the both the genre and thirteenth-century Icelandic literary culture more widely.

Eine Hausarbeit, die im Rahmen des Seminars "Wikinger, Seekönige, Berserker: Die Fornaldarsögur" (Leitung: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Simek) verfasst wurde.

(Bewertung: 1,0)

----------
Die Arbeit befasst sich mit der Darstellungsweise der wikingerzeitlichen
Lebenswirklichkeit in den Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda.

Gegenstände der Analyse bilden Völsunga saga, Ragnars saga loðbrókar und Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana.

(Alle Übersetzungen wurden - sofern nicht anders angegeben - von mir selbst angefertigt.)

Some recent studies concerning early medieval Europe have suggested that Scandinavia and Francia represented two ideological poles with which other populations within the Germanic world might have intended to align themselves. While such a view sometimes may be useful, it may also over-simplify a more complex situation. Scandinavians must have recognised cultural distinctions between themselves and Christian Europeans, but may not have viewed these distinctions necessarily as emblems of opposition unless faced by a direct political or military threat. Indeed, ideological contrasts concerning the way society was structured and power was wielded may have cut across apparent ethnic boundaries.

Roman influences on early Germanic society may have assisted in the creation of a ‘Germanic’ identity. Roman pressure also may have affected the development of Germanic governmental structures, encouraging king-centred governmental ideologies that contrasted with possibly older, assembly-centred systems. Scandinavia, never threatened by Roman domination, may have retained assembly-centred structures longer than other Germanic societies. Southern Scandinavia’s ‘central places’ of the Early Germanic Iron Age, such as Gudme, may have had functions comparable with those of the later Old Saxon Assembly and Icelandic Alþingi. Such sites may have provided a focus for an emergent Scandinavian identity. This assembly-centred system may have been disrupted as chieftains struggled to attain the kind of power enjoyed by their counterparts in king-centred societies (much as happened in medieval Iceland), perhaps explaining the poverty of archaeological finds in the region from the Late Germanic Iron Age.
The growing Frankish threat to Scandinavia in the eighth century may have both spurred further consolidation of power in the hands of the élite and, initially, provoked an ideological reaction against Christian Europe. Yet while wary of domination by Christian European kingdoms, the Viking-Age Scandinavian élite may have envied their powerful model of lordship and had an interest in accessing elements of their culture. Such a situation may be reflected in historical legends, particularly the Scylding-Skjöldung cycle, which perhaps developed during the Viking Age. These legends might represent not source material for historical glimpses of early northern Europe (as is often assumed) but rather Scandinavian attempts at self-definition in relation to the burgeoning and powerful cultures of Christian Europe. Scandinavia’s eventual adoption of Christianity and Christian lordship in the course of the Viking Age largely resolved the ideological contrasts that had existed both within Scandinavian society and between Scandinavia and Christian Europe.

This article argues that both This World and the Other World are presented as real places in the fornaldarsögur and examines how landscape is used to facilitate the narrative construction of different worlds and to indicate how, when and why borders between worlds are created, maintained or closed. By analysing the landscape in the adventures to the Other World in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns I show that matrices of worlds operate. Other Worlds can be set inside Other Worlds, and characters must always traverse the borders of these worlds marked by the physical landscape. I then examine the converging worlds of Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana and conclude that once a character of This World has been sufficiently marked as Other the distinction between This World and the Other World collapses and there are no longer any typical landscape border motifs, such as mist, forest, darkness, cliffs and streams. The world-view of the fornaldarsögur is built up by a fusion of This World and the Other World, worlds which are separated but equally real and whose borders must be
negotiated.

RESUMEN: El Cantar de mio Cid, una de las principales obras del canon literario español, es también una de las más importantes en el ámbito de la poesía épica medieval por sus valores estéticos, su influencia histórica y su fundamental papel en la conversión del Cid en un héroe del imaginario universal de la literatura. Aunque la bibliografía sobre esta obra resulta casi incontable, una obra de tal riqueza no se agota jamás a ojos de la crítica. En particular, los estudios comparativos relativos a la misma no han adquirido un desarrollo proporcional a la importancia y la influencia de este cantar de gesta. El objetivo de este libro es, entonces, tratar de nuevo algunos de los temas clave del poema y de su descendencia ibérica en las crónicas de la Edad Media (algunos de ellos bastante descuidados por la crítica precedente, como la dimensión simbólica del poema o sus aspectos hagiográficos), pero sobre todo profundizar en la comparación de su voz épica con la de otras literaturas heroicas, desde la épica románica hasta los gunki monogatari japoneses.
RÉSUMÉ: La Chanson de mon Cid est l’un des principaux ouvrages du canon littéraire espagnol est aussi une des pièces les plus importantes dans le cadre de la poésie épique médiévale, par ses valeurs esthétiques, par son influence historique et par son rôle capital pour faire du Cid un héros de l’imaginaire littéraire universel. Bien que la bibliographie sur cette œuvre soit presque innombrable, un ouvrage d’une telle richesse ne s’épuise jamais du point de vue de la critique. Spécialement, les études comparatistes à son égard n’ont jamais acquis un développement proportionnel à l’importance et à l’influence de cette chanson de geste. L’objectif du livre dont on propose l’édition est, alors, de revenir sur quelques-uns des thèmes clés du poème et de sa postérité hispanique dans les chroniques du Bas Moyen Âge (certains négligés en grande partie par la critique précédente, comme la dimension merveilleuse de la chanson ou ses aspects hagiographiques), mais surtout d’approfondir dans la comparaison de sa voix épique avec celle d’autres littératures héroïques, depuis l’épopée romane jusqu’aux gunki monogatari japonais.

An article about Ketils saga hængs, Gríms saga loðinkinna, Örvar-Odds saga and Áns saga bogsveigis and their connections to one another in light of oral theory. It also argues that Áns saga bogsveigis is a genuine member of the group of sagas about the men of Hrafnista, and has not merely been superficially pulled in via intertextual references, as some have argued.

Hrolfs saga kraka owes its popularity to its status as an analog of Beowulf. This article attempts first to consider the saga for itself, noting its flaws and loose ends; and also to list its connections with Scandinavian legend, making as little reference to Beowulf as possible.

In my reading of sections of this book, Chaim (Hayyim) Vital’s superior soul-type, (which he refers to as the neshomah hadasha or neshoma elyonah)  seems similar to the tragic hero of the Hellenic and Elizabethan theater. Both the tragic hero and Vital’s master soul are larger-than life daring personalities, who are beset by a major flaw that sometimes brings about their downfall.... Vital’s conviction that the Kabbalist is responsible to redeem God, the cosmos, the Jewish people, and his own soul through bold, strenuous, dangerous acts of contemplative activity imbues his writing with a tone of epic heroism.

There are certain invariants of heroic poetry, elements that define it essentially: the theme – a narrative about “extraordinary deeds”, famous, adventurous topics, in the style of “traditional heroic mythology” (Marino) – and the idealized typology so that the epic hero usually occurs like
a sum of the virtues appreciated by the community which assumes him. Very likely influenced by the Mesopotamian one from the beginning of the second millennia B.C., the Homeric epic exerts its influence further in time and cultural geography, over the Latin one from the end of the 1st century B.C. and, via the Aeneid, over the Germanic epic from the Middle Ages. Through Virgil, Homer’s  self -confessed  competitor,  there  could  be  clarified  an  issue  of  the  European  literary history: how did the transition from the “heroic song” of the Germanic tribes –“lost, as long as it was not recorded in writing” (Curtius) –, to the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic or the Medieval German one (mittelhochdeutsch) occur? The Aeneid
appears to be, according to Heusler and Curtius, the missing link between the epic tradition of Mediterranean Antiquity and the Germanic Medieval
heroic epic. (The latter, the product of a culture that, by its “barbarian” roots, had the inspiration of  and  ability  to  assimilate,  from  the  defeated  Rome,  the  classic  inheritance  of  Greek -Latin humanism).  The  literary  heredity  that  unites  Homer,  Virgil  and  the  Germanic  epic  on  the background  of  Mesopotamian  loans,  provides  yet  another  very  interesting  example  of (inter)cultural intermediation and continuity in the Eurasian space, within a historical interval of almost four millennia –from Gilgamesh’s legendary rule in Uruk and its literary echoes to the
Germanic heroic epic from the Middle Ages.

The subject of the study is the transformation of humans into wolves in medieval chivalric romances, rhymed tales (lais), educational works, Norse sagas, Russian literature and Serbian folk songs. The medieval idea of a werewolf was anatomically an ordinary wolf, but it retained human memory, mind, habits and upbringing. People, almost always men, became wolves either voluntarily with help from magic, wolf skin or enchanted objects such as rings, or involuntarily when somebody cursed or betrayed them. In medieval chivalrous literature, the traitor was always a woman, either a malicious wife or jealous step-mother. One of the conditions for a werewolf’s return to human form was clothes, a motif already found in the antiquity. Werewolves with cyclical transformations hid their clothes, because without them they would remain wolves until the end of their lives. the details of transformation into wolves in the Primary Chronicle, Russian heroic poems (byliny) or Serbian folklore are not known, but the circumstances indicate that this ability was attributed to wizards and heroes.

"Vipasank" was the first preserved Armenian epic which’s some poetic fragments were recorded as early as the 5th century, in the "Armenian History" by Movsēs Xorenac‛i. In most cases, Khorenatsi extracted these fragments from various written sources. Along with the names of  some of these sources he transmitted a unique information about the Armenian medieval bardes who performed until his days various mythical and historical songs from "Vipasank". They did it to the accompaniment of p‛andiṙ, a musical instrument, a variety of harp or viola. In this paper we try to analyze all the classical Armenian passages from Khorenatsi concerning the oral and written sources of "Vipasank", as well as we discuss the mythological image of the musician-reciter of the ancient epic.

Welcome to my tiny shady spot of a realm
http://serbanvcenache.blogspot.fr/

I'm a 27 year old fiction writer interested in economics, history, metaphysics, science, technology, comedy, and politics. My medieval fantasy series Of Hate And Laughter has come at last. This universe of mine is one of infernal majesty.

Born on March 25, 1989, in Bucharest/Romania. Single parent child. I blame my mother for the long-ass name. Licensed in journalism. Creator of the Of Hate And Laughter series. This universe is one of infernal majesty; it's my heart and soul. If it matters to anyone, my sun sign is Aries, moon sign is Scorpio, mars sign is Gemini. I don't believe in astrology, by the way ^_^. My interests are: MMT (modern monetary theory), politics, history, literature, tv-shows, movies, games, music (from epic soundtracks to gothic metal), and I enjoy walking the green and concrete. I'm a deficit owl and social progressive. I'm also pretty good at drawing. My favorite author is Garth Marenghi (look him up). My favorite comedian is George Carlin. My favorite sitcom is NewsRadio. My favorite actor is Phil Hartman. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016QAHT60/

This paper discusses the relationships between dwarfs and humans in the sagas, focusing on Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana, Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns and Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar. It is argued that dwarfs’ family life is important to the relationships between dwarfs and humans and that human heroes are able to manipulate dwarfs by playing on their emotions, namely their love for their birth children and foster-children (emotional or psychological manipulation); however the human hero may also create a ‘gift contract’ with the dwarf by giving a present or doing a service to the dwarf’s child (moral manipulation). Presents are given to the dwarf’s child rather than directly to the adult dwarf because the human hero cannot risk having his present rejected. The two types of manipulation are not mutually exclusive; one can often talk of psychological and a moral aspect of an action. The source texts show that the emotional life of the dwarfs is much richer, and the relationships between dwarfs and humans are far more complex, than many previous scholars have recognised.

Artikkelen handlar om tilhøve mellom dvergar og menneske i sagalitteraturen med fokus på Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana, Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns og Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar. Forfattaren argumenterer for at familielivet til dvergane er viktig for tilhøvet mellom dvergar og menneske. Menneske kan manipulere vaksne dvergar ved å spele på kjærleiken dvergane har til borna og fosterborna sine. Dette vert omtalt som psykologisk manipulasjon. Mennesket kan òg opprette ein kontrakt med dvergen ved å gje ei gåve til eit dvergebarn eller gjere barnet ei tenest. Ein gjev gåver til dvergeborn heller enn til vaksne dvergar for å ikkje risikere at gåvene vert avslegne. Når dvergebarnet har teke imot gåva, vert det oppretta ein kontrakt mellom mennesket og dvergefaren, som vert forplikta til å gjere gjengjeld. Dette vert omtalt som moralsk manipulasjon.
Dei to manipulasjonstypane utgjer ikkje nokon dikotomi; ein kan oftast sjå eit psykologisk og eit moralsk aspekt ved ei og same handling. Kjeldene viser at kjenslelivet til dvergane er mykje rikare og tilhøvet mellom dvergar og menneske langt meir samansett enn mange tidlegare forskarar har registrert.

Indoeuropean poetic formulae "Unfading Glory" in the Ossetian Nartiada (Nart Sagas).
In this article I try to identify traces of the archaic Indoeuropean poetic formulae "Unfading Glory" in the Ossetic epic poetry. These relicts are reflected in the final chapter of the epic. The cult of the heroic glory is also reflected in the funeral rituals (kurgans and stelae) of the Northern Iranians, being the physical embodyment of the poetic concept of glory. As a clear example of these believes surviving among the ethnographic Ossetians yet in the early 20th C., in the last chapter of the article are pressented three versions of the "heroic song" and a complete description of the traditional momorial stelae, dedicated to one of the Ossetian heroes, died during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

Carl Christian Rafn is generally stated to be the founder of the generic designation “fornaldarsögur” (legendary sagas, sagas of ancient times), having collected together the known corpus in his 1829–30 edition “Fornaldar sögur Nordrlanda”. In this article I argue that scholars have generally overlooked the influence of Peter Erasmus Müller on Rafn's edition: a decade earlier Müller had published “Sagabibliothek” (3 vols), the second volume of which presents summaries of all the sagas which Rafn included in his edition and, for the most part, in the same order. Thus Rafn's corpus was laid out in advance by Müller, who in turn was influenced by Erik Julius Biörner's collected edition of sagas from 1737.

The paper seeks to propose the adoption of an alternative metaphor to that of the “journey”, currently the most pervasive characterisation for the student’s experience of doctoral
education. The paper adopts a conceptual and rhetorical approach.
and offers a critique of the journey metaphor as a characterisation of the student’s doctoral experience and proposes instead the metaphor of the Quest, a cultural and literary form found
in most societies. It argues that the six elements of the Quest identified by W.H. Auden resonate with the contemporary doctoral experience and emphasise the uncertainty involved in research rather than the linearity implied by the journey metaphor.
The paper argues that the quest metaphor offers a cross-cultural basis for both staff and student development activities through which sense can be made of the research experience, student concerns can be surfaced, and potentially difficult issues raised for discussion in an unthreatening way. The paper is the first to apply the quest as a metaphor for the student’s doctoral experience and offers a new way of interrogating that experience which will be of use to those involved in supporting research students.

Conference paper offering a series of complementary theoretical perspectives on the motif of breaking into a burial mound known from the Old Norse literature. This motif is surprisingly common and it usually follows a specific structure. Both the popularity and the relative constancy of the form invite an explanation or interpretation.

The paper applies series of concepts from the Religious Studies classics like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Arnold van Gennep, Mircea Eliade, Victor Turner,  Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Otto, Émile Durkheim and C.G. Jung to show how they are all useful to certain extent as interpretive paradigms. The paper is thus a kind of exercise in theoretical flexibility and interdisciplinarity (combining psychology, anthropology, phenomenology of religion, sociology and structuralism). The burial mound pattern is linked repeatedly to initiatory structure and to the monomyth structure of hero's "there and back again" quest.

The contemporary "Dungeons and Dragons"-type games (hero exploring a dangerous Otherworld, typically underground, killing monster guardians and discovering magic treasures) are suggested as a modern counterpart to the discussed pattern, fitting the same form and function.

This work focuses on the character of Hector, son of the king of Troy Priam, and his iconographical traduction in Athenian figurated pottery. Even if the Trojan warrior is a marginal figure in 6 th and 5 th centuries BC in Greece, his presence in the representation of all the various stages of a warrior's life makes him an useful tool in the costruction of the idea of hero and soldier. Probably for this reason many vases show duels between Hector and the argives heroes like Ajax and Achilles. Unlike the superficial interpretation of these images, the authors try to propose new iconological keys. In fact, reading the scenes of the duel between Hector and Ajax, is explained the link with the future death of both. Otherwise in the images in which the Trojan prince faces Achilles the key is put on the iconographical figure of Hector as a defeated hero.

in OTIVM, numero 1, articolo 3, 2016.

pdf link: http://www.otium.unipg.it/otium/article/view/5

O curso abordará questões teórico-metodológicas na compreensão do fenômeno mágico e na relação entre mito e literatura, tendo como fontes primárias algumas obras do corpus literário medieval. Tendo como principal referencial teórico a perspectiva francesa do mito literário e estudos de crítica literária, visando também debater a utilização de múltiplos olhares acadêmicos para se entender o campo da Literatura e Sagrado. A disciplina conterá aulas com debates teóricos e aulas com análise de textos literários.

S. Lebouteiller, « Les "boucliers de paix" et les "boucliers de guerre" dans la littérature norroise : invention littéraire ou réalité matérielle ? », Tabularia « Études », nº 16, 2016, p. 279-304.
http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/craham/revue/tabularia/print.php?dossier=dossier14&file=05lebouteiller.xml

Résumé :
Les sagas légendaires et les sagas des chevaliers mentionnent régulièrement l’emploi dans les armées scandinaves du « bouclier de guerre » (herskjöldr) et du « bouclier de paix » (friðskjöldr), le premier symbolisant leurs intentions belliqueuses, le second étant à l’inverse un indicateur de leur volonté d’interrompre les affrontements. Ces objets peuvent ainsi être rapprochés des boucliers rouges et blancs mentionnés dans ces mêmes sources. Il est toutefois difficile de déterminer s’il s’agit de pratiques réelles, car ces œuvres de fiction tardives mettent en scène des représentations fantaisistes de l’antiquité nordique. Cependant, nous verrons que des témoignages similaires dans les sources russes et franques confirmeraient l’existence d’une utilisation des boucliers comme outils de communication.

Mots-clés : Scandinavie, Vikings, littérature norroise, sagas légendaires, sagas des chevaliers, boucliers, herskjöldr, friðskjöldr, outils de communication

Abstract:
The legendary sagas and the chivalric sagas often mention the use by Scandinavian armies of a “war shield” (herskjöldr) and a “peace shield” (friðskjöldr), the first one symbolizing their warlike intentions and the second one being on the contrary a sign of their wish to stop fighting. These objects may be connected to the red and white shields mentioned in theses sources. It seems difficult to determine if this technic is real considering that these fiction texts describe fantasist representations about Nordic prehistory. However, we will see that similar stories in Russian and Frankish sources might suggest that shields had really been used as communication tools.

Keywords: Scandinavia, Vikings, Norse literature, legendary sagas, chivalric sagas, shields, herskjöldr, friðskjöldr, communication tools

Riassunto : I fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda e i riddarasögur menzionano regolarmente l’impiego negli eserciti scandinavi dello « scudo di guerra » (herskjöldr) e dello « scudo di pace » (friðskjöldr) : il primo simbolizzerebbe le loro intenzioni bellicose, mentre il secondo sarebbe il segno della loro volontà di cessare gli scontri. Questi oggetti possono perciò essere collegati agli scudi rossi e bianchi menzionati all’interno di queste stesse fonti. È tuttavia difficile determinare se si tratti di pratiche reali dal momento che queste opere di fantasia tardive forniscono delle rappresentazioni favolose dell’antichità nordica. Ad ogni modo, vedremo che testimonianze simili nelle fonti russe e franche confermerebbero l’esistenza di un utilizzo degli scudi come di strumenti di comunicazione.

Parole chiave : Scandinavia, Vichinghi, letteratura norrena, saghe leggendarie, saghe dei cavalieri, scudi, herskjöldr, friðskjöldr, strumenti di comunicazione

Celem artykułu jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie o przyczyny popularności postaci Wiedźmina. Argumentuję, że interpretacja, wedle której Wiedźmin jest ułomnym supermanem, jest niewystarczająca. Wskazuję, że Wiedźmin posiada cechy Herosa, Ofiarnika, Mesjasza, Króla, Kata, które zbiegają się w postaci Szamana. Dowodzę, że Wiedźmin jest wariacją tego archetypu, przy czym jego sakralność została poddana materializacji.