More than Mythology

Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions

Catharina Raudvere & Jens Peter Schødt (red.)

The religion of the Viking Age is conventionally identified through its mythology: the ambiguous character Odin, the forceful Thor, and the end of the world approaching in Ragnarök. But pre-Christian religion consisted of so much more than mythic imagery and legends, and lingered for long in folk tradition.

Studying religion of the North with an interdisciplinary approach is exceptionally fruitful, in both empirical and theoretical terms, and in More than Mythology a group of distinguished scholars aim at widen the interpretative scope on religious life among the pre-Christian Scandinavian traditions.

The authors shed new light on topics such as rituals, gender relations, social hierarchies, and inter-regional contacts between the ‘Nordic’ tradition and the Sami and Finnish regions. The contributions add to a more complex view of the pre-Christian religion of Scandinavia, with relevant new questions about the material and a broad analysis of religion as a cultural expression.