Witchcraft and magic in the Nordic middle ages

• Autores: Cory Hutcheson
• Localización: The Journal of American Folklore, ISSN-e 1535-1882, Vol. 127, Nº. 505, 2014, págs. 339-340
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Pp. 206, notes, bibliography, index, acknowledgments.) in his chapter exploring the daily life of the medieval nordic world, Professor Stephen A. mitchell sharply dissects a major tension sur- rounding the role of magic in that society: "re- lief through magic," he says, "and relief from magic were both important means of address- ing the stresses of everyday life in the middle Ages" (p. 51). mitchell's clear, direct prose-re- flected in the above quote-applies techniques from folkloristics and comparative literature to understand the spiritual conflicts that shaped the cosmological worldview of medieval nordic peoples. mitchell views magic as a type of arti- fact, a potsherd of culture, infiltrating many layers of the society in which it is found. he breaks the book into six rough parts, which oc- casionally overlap with one another, to reveal the character of nordic sorcery and folk magic. beginning with a look at materials and sources, the author continues with a grounded examina- tion of vernacular practices. he then explores performance and narrative, theological inter- pretations, and the presence of magic in legal documents, before finishing with a brief but insightful perspective on the sometimes mis- represented role of gender in discussions of medieval witchcraft.