Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Werewolf Histories pp 61–81Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Into the Wild — Old Norse Stories of Animal Men

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic ((PHSWM))

Abstract

The fascination with animal metamorphosis is reflected in stories and tales all over the world. The connotation of the shape-shifting ability is viewed ambivalently, often ‘negatively and those with such powers are often sorcerers or witches’, as Aðalheiður Guðmundsdottir correctly observed.1 For this strand of medieval stories many scholars claim Celtic origin that combines metamorphosis with an evil spell. The idea behind the tales of the animal body as curse, burden and punishment provided a perfect foil for the ancient motif in the Christian context.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ‘The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature’, Journal of Englisch and Germanic Philology 106 (2007), 277–303, here 277.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gustav Neckel, Walhall. Studien über germanischen Jenseitsglauben (Dortmund, 1913), 111.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Claude Lecouteux, Geschichte der Gespenster und Wiedergänger im Mittelalter (Köln, 1987), passim.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Peter Buchholz, Schamanistische Züge in der altisländischen Überlieferung (Münster, 1968), 51f.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Klaus Böldl, Eigi einhamr: Beiträge zum Weltbild der Eyrbyggja und andere Isländersagas (Berlin, 2005), 113.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Melissa A. Berman, Fiction in ‘Egils saga’. Ph.D. (Stanford, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Wolfgang Golther, Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie (Leipzig, 1895), 60ff.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Walter Baetke considered these motifs borrowed from Christianity, Baetke, Die Isländersaga (Darmstadt, 1973), 347;

    Google Scholar 

  9. Röhn and Simek both draw attention to the difficulty of reconstructing heathen beliefs on the basis of concepts of the soul alone, Hartmut Röhn, Untersuchungen zur Zeitgestaltung und Kompositionder Íslendingasögur (Basel and Stuttgart 1976), 290;

    Google Scholar 

  10. Rudolf Simek, Lexikon derGermanischen Mythologie (Stuttgart, 1995), 202.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hugo Gering, Über Weissagung und Zauber im nordischen Altertum (Kiel, 1902), 13.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Eugen Mogk, Germanische Mythologie (Straßburg, 1898). 273. Cf.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Michael Jacoby, Wargus, vargr. ‘Verbrecher’, ‘Wolf’. Eine sprach- und rechtsgeschichtliche Untersuchung (Uppsala 1974), passim.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Eugen Mogk, ‘Berserker’, in: Johannes Hoops (ed), Reallexikon der germanischenAltertumskunde, I (Straßburg, 1911–1913), 260–261.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Oddr Snorrason, The saga of Olaf Tryggvason, Theodore M. Anderson (transl.) (Ithaca and London, 2009), 173.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Vilhelm Grönbech, Kultur und Religion der Germanen (Hamburg, 1937), 273. English translation: The Culture of the Teutons (London, 1931).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Erling Monsen and A.H. Smith (ed. and transl.) (Cambridge, 1932), 64.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ludwig Rübekeil, Diachrone Studien zur Kontaktzone zwischen Kelten und Germanen (Wien, 2002), 111.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Benjamin Blaney, The ‘Berserkr’: His Origin and Development in Old Norse Literature. Ph.D. (Boulder 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Baldur Hafstað, Di e Egils Saga un d ih r Verhältni s z u andere n Werken de s nordische n Mittelalters (Reykjavik, 1995), Chapter 1, considers Egil as person with extra society origin.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Michael P. McGlynn, ‘Bears, Boars and Other Socially Constructed Bodies in Hrófs sag a kraka’, Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft 4 (2009), 152–175, 160f.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Dag Strömbäck, Sejd: textstudier i nordis k religionshistoria (Stockholm, 1935).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Cf. A.G. van Hamel, ‘The Saga of Sörli the Strong’, Act a Philologic a Scandinavica 10 (1936), 265–295.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Richard Perkins, An Edition o f Flóamanna Saga With a Study of its Sources and Analogues (Oxford, 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Konrad Maurer, D e Bekehrung de s norwegische n Stamme s zu m Christenthume, I (München, 1855), 101–119.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Kongasøgur (Tórshavn, 1961), 11.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Christa Agnes Tuczay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Willem de Blécourt (Historical anthropologist and an independent scholar) (Historical anthropologist and an independent scholar)

Copyright information

© 2015 Christa Agnes Tuczay

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Tuczay, C.A. (2015). Into the Wild — Old Norse Stories of Animal Men. In: de Blécourt, W. (eds) Werewolf Histories. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-52634-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-52634-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-58049-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52634-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation