Title: What is north? : imagining and representing the north from ancient times to the present day /
Authors: Plumb, Oisín; Sanmark, Alexandra; Heddle, Donna
Year: 2020
Subjects: Travel; Europe, Northern Description and travel; Europe, Northern History.; Northern Europe
Abstract: The North Atlantic World: Cold, tough, dark; or tranquil, pure, untamed and magical,  as visualised from ancient times until today. The British Isles, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Eastern Canada, alongside many small islands, form a broken bridge across the northern extremities of the Atlantic Ocean. This 'North Atlantic World' is a heterogeneous but culturally intertwined area, ideally suited to the fostering of an interest in all things northern by its people. For the storytellers and writers of the past, each more northerly land was far enough away that it could seem fabulous and even otherworldly, while still being just close enough for myths and travellers' tales to accrue. This book charts attitudes to the North in the North Atlantic World from the time of the earliest extant sources until the present day. The varied papers within consider a number of key questions which have arisen repeatedly over the centuries: ' where is the North located?', 'what are its characteristics?', and 'who, or what lives there?'. They do so from many angles, considering numerous locations and an immense span of time. All are united by their engagement with the North Atlantic World's relationship with the North.
Contents: Introduction -- OISÍN PLUMB, ALEXANDRA SANMARK, AND DONNA HEDDLE 'Upon the Utmost Corners of the World'. Orkney in Early Maps and Literature -- DONNA HEDDLE 'Beyond the Range of Human Exploration'. Cormac and the 'North' in the Seventh Century -- OISÍN PLUMB The Old North in Medieval Wales -- MARGED HAYCOCK The Future Is East. Ideological Mapping in the Vínland Sagas -- JOHN MOFFATT Moulding One Another. Grettir and the Landscape -- EDUARDO RAMOS The Worlds in Grímnismál. Norse and Medieval Christian Understandings of Space -- VITTORIO MATTIOLI The Literary Landscape of Old Norse Poetry -- AGNETA NEY Sámi Magic and Rituals from Historia Norwegie to Johannes Schefferus, c. 1150-1680 -- ELLEN ALM AND RUNE BLIX HAGEN On Solid Ground. Learning from the Lore of Imagined Lands -- KARIN MURRAY-BERGQUIST Maeshowe, Orkahaugr. The Names of Orkney's Great Burial Mound as Nodes in a Heteroglossic Web of Meaning-Making-- RAGNHILD LJOSLAND Rites, Runes, and Maeshowe. Northern Landscapes and Lived Belief -- JAY JOHNSTON Ballantyne 'on the Rocks'. The Arctic as Adventure-Arena -- JOCHEN PETZOLD Self-Images of Icelanders and their Attitude towards Greenland in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries -- SUMARLIÐI R. ÍSLEIFSSON Literary Encounters with the Arctic Landscape. Among Nordic Explorers and Trappers -- HENNING HOWLID WÆRP Jessie Saxby and Viking Boys. Concepts of the North in Boys' Own Fiction -- LYNN POWELL 'Neath the Midnight Sun'. Imagining the Canadian North through School Readers -- CLAIRE SMERDON The Image of the North as the Home of Evil in English Children's Books -- ANNA HEIÐA PÁLSDÓTTIR Northernity. Inventing the North in Fantasy Literature -- JIM CLARKE Narrating Norden. Legacies, Links, and Landscape and their Symbolic Significance for Nordic Identity and Community Read through Nordic Noir Crime Fiction-- JOHN W. DYCE Reinventing Agnes. The Role of Icelandic Landscape, Nature, and Seasons in Hannah Kent's Speculative Biography Burial Rites -- INGIBJÖRG ÁGÚSTSDÓTTIR