|
Þorbjörg Lítilvölva
('Thorbjörg little-''völva;'' CE) was a renowned seeress (''völva'') in Norse colonial Greenland during the late Viking Age. She is featured in the ''Saga of Erik the Red'' and her description is the most detailed presentation of seeress behavior, associated customs, and material culture – such as her distinctive clothing and use of a wand – found in the sagas of Icelanders. ''Saga of Erik the Red'' According to the saga, times were tough in Greenland; hunters caught few animals, and some simply didn't return at all. In the Norse settlement lived a seeress by the name of Þorbjörg, called the ''lítilvölva'' (meaning 'little (or lesser) seeress'). She had nine sisters, all of whom held the gift of prophecy, but Þorbjörg had outlived them all.Kunz (2000: 658). Every winter, Þorbjörg visited each farm to which she was invited in the district. She regularly received invitations from those who wanted to know their future, or the future of their farms. One winter, Þor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seeress (Germanic)
In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to Divination, foretell future events and Magic (supernatural), perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently called ''witches'' both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as ''völva'' or ''vala''. Seeresses were an expression of the pre-Christian Shamanism, shamanic traditions of Europe, and they held an authoritative position in Early Germanic culture, Germanic society. Mentions of Germanic seeresses occur as early as the Roman era, when, for example, they at times led armed resistance against Roman rule and acted as envoys to Rome. After the Roman Era, seeresses occur in records among the North Germanic people, where they form a reoccurring motif in Norse mythology. Both the classical and the Norse accounts imply that they used wands, and describe them as si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norse Colonization Of Greenland
Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Norse mythology * Norse paganism * Norse art * Norse activity in the British Isles * Vikings Language * Proto-Norse language, the Germanic language predecessor of Old Norse * Old Norse, a North Germanic language spoken in Scandinavia and areas under Scandinavian influence from c. 800 AD to c. 1300 AD ** Old West Norse, the western dialect of Old Norse, spoken in Norway and areas under Norwegian influence *** Greenlandic Norse *** Norn language, an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness ** Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse, spoken in Denmark, Sweden and areas under their influence Location * Norse, Texas, a ghost town founded by N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking Age
The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia but also to any place significantly settled by North Germanic peoples, Scandinavians during the period. Although few of the Scandinavians of the Viking Age were Vikings in the sense of being engaged in piracy, they are often referred to as ''Vikings'' as well as ''Norsemen''. Voyaging by sea from their homelands in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Norse people settled in the Viking activity in the British Isles, British Isles, History of Ireland (800–1169), Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Settlement of Iceland, Iceland, Norse settlements in Greenland, Greenland, History of Normandy, Normandy, and the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and along the Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, Dnieper and Volga trade rout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saga Of Erik The Red
The ''Saga of Erik the Red'', in (), is an Icelandic saga on the Norse exploration of North America. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century. It is preserved in somewhat different versions in two manuscripts: ''Hauksbók'' (14th century) and ''Skálholtsbók'' (15th century). Despite its title, the saga mainly chronicles the life and expedition of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid, also recounted in the '' Saga of the Greenlanders''. For this reason it was formerly also called ;Halldór Hermannsson"Eiríks saga rauða ''or'' Þorfinns saga karlsefnis ok Snorra Þorbrandssonar" ''Bibliography of the Icelandic Sagas and Minor Tales'', Islandica 1, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Libraries, 1908, , p. 16. Árni Magnússon wrote that title in the blank space at the top of the saga in . It also details the events that led to the banishment of Erik the Red to Greenland and the preaching of Christianity by his son Leif Erikson as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Custom
A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyers' wigs or military officers' spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms and behaviors such as greetings, etc. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years— the word ''tradition'' itself derives from the Latin word ''tradere'' literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is reportedly assumed that traditions have an ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether it be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways. The phrase "according to tradition" or "by tradition" usually means that what follows i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Material Culture
Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The field considers artifacts in relation to their specific cultural and historic contexts, communities and belief systems. It includes the usage, consumption, creation and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms and rituals that the objects create or take part in. Material culture is contrasted with symbolic culture or non-material culture, which include non-material symbols, beliefs and social constructs. However, some scholars include in material culture other intangible phenomena like sound, smell and events, while some even consider it to include language and media. Material culture can be described as any object that humans use to survive, define social relationships, represent facets of identity, or benefit peoples' state of mind, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wand
A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal, bone or stone. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which could have large ornamentation on the top. In modern times, wands are usually associated with stage magic or supernatural magic, but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge. A stick that is used for reaching, pointing, drawing in the dirt, and directing other people, is one of the earliest and simplest of tools. History It is possible that wands were used by pre-historic peoples. It is mentioned that 'rods' (as well as rings) were found with Red Lady of Paviland in Britain. It is mentioned in ''Gower – A Guide to Ancient and Historic Monuments on the Gower Peninsula'' that these might have been wands and are depicted as such in a reconstruction drawing of the burial of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sagas Of Icelanders
The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries, during the Saga Age. They were written in Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse, primarily on calfskin. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. The Icelandic sagas are valuable and unique historical sources about medieval Scandinavian societies and kingdoms, in particular regarding pre-Christian religion and culture and the heroic age. Eventually, many of these Icelandic sagas were recorded, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries. The 'authors', or rather recorders, of these sagas are largely unknown. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society For The Advancement Of Scandinavian Study
The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) is a scholarly society that aims to advance the study, teaching and research in America of the languages, literature, history, culture and society of the Scandinavian or Nordic countries and to foster closer relationships between people interested in the field of Scandinavian studies. History The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) was founded in 1911. Julius E. Olson from the University of Wisconsin–Madison served as the first President. In the same year, the first SASS conference was held at the University of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois. No annual meeting was held in 1933 or between 1943 and 1945."SASS 2011 - A Century of Scholarship: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, Conference Program", 28–30 April 2011. In 2003, the society was admitted as a member of the American Council of Learned Societies. Publications The society publishes the quarterly journal ''Scandinavian Studie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stoat
The stoat (''Mustela erminea''), also known as the Eurasian ermine or ermine, is a species of mustelid native to Eurasia and the northern regions of North America. Because of its wide circumpolar distribution, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The name ermine () is used especially in its pure white winter coat of the stoat or its fur. Ermine fur was used in the 15th century by Catholic monarchs, who sometimes used it as the mozzetta cape. It has long been used on the ceremonial robes of members of the United Kingdom House of Lords. It was also used in capes on images such as the Infant Jesus of Prague. The stoat was introduced into New Zealand in the late 19th century to control rabbits. However, they have had a devastating effect on native bird populations; as such, the species was nominated as one of the world's top 100 "worst invaders". Etymology The root word for "stoat" is likely either the Dutch word ("bold") or the Gothic word (, "to push"). Accor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir
Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir (born possibly around 980–1019) was an Icelandic explorer, born at Laugarbrekka in Snæfellsnes, Iceland. She appears in the ''Saga of Erik the Red'' and the ''Saga of the Greenlanders'', known collectively as the '' Vinland sagas''. She and her husband Thorfinn Karlsefni led an expedition to Vinland where their son Snorri Thorfinnsson was born, the first known European birth in the Americas (outside of Greenland). In Iceland, Gudrid is known by her byname ''víðförla'' (lit. ''wide-fared'' or ''far-travelled''). Biography As recorded in ''The Saga of Erik the Red'', Gudrid was the daughter of a chieftain by the name of Thorbjorn of Laugarbrekka, who himself was the son of a freed slave named Vífill. As the story goes, a young man by the name of Einar asked for her hand in marriage, but because his father had been a slave, Gudrid's father refused to give her hand in marriage. Gudrid and her father promptly left Iceland and voyaged to Green ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolf Simek
Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author of several notable works on Germanic religion and mythology (including Old Norse religion and mythology), Germanic peoples, Vikings, Old Norse literature, and the culture of Medieval Europe. Biography Since 1995, Simek has been Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek was appointed Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Tromsø in 1999, and Professor of Old Nordic Studies at the University of Sydney in 2000. Simek has held a number of visiting professorships, having had long research stays at the universities of Reykjavik, Copenhagen, London, Oxford and Sydney. From 2000 to 2003, Simek was Chairman of the International Saga Society (German: Internationalen-Saga-Gesellscha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
