Imagining the Supernatural North

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, Danielle Marie Cudmore, Stefan Donecker, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, Danielle Marie Cudmore, Stefan Donecker

• Publisher: Polynya Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781772122930
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Folklore & Mythology
• Index: Social Sciences

"Turning to face north, face the north, we enter our own unconscious. Always, in retrospect, the journey north has the quality of dream." Margaret Atwood, "True North"In this interdisciplinary collection, sixteen scholars from twelve countries explore the notion of the North as a realm of the supernatural. This region has long been associated with sorcerous inhabitants, mythical tribes, metaphysical forces of good and evil, and a range of supernatural qualities. It was both the sacred abode of the gods and a feared source of menacing invaders and otherworldly beings. Whether from the perspective of traditional Jewish lore or of contemporary black metal music, few motifs in European cultural history show such longevity and broad appeal.Contributors: Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, Angela Byrne, Danielle Marie Cudmore, Stefan Donecker, Brenda S. Gardenour Walter, Silvije Habulinec, Erica Hill, Jay Johnston, Maria Kasyanova, Jan Leichsenring, Shane McCorristine, Jennifer E. Michaels, Ya'acov Sarig, Rudolf Simek, Athanasios Votsis, Brian Walter

Index

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations; page numbers with t refer to tables.

Abaris, 44, 46t

The Acharnians (Aristophanes), 30

Adam of Bremen. See Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Adam of Bremen)

Aeschylus, 30, 34

Aesop’s fable of North wind, 31

Africa and medieval manuscripts, 64–5

Aggarwal, Ravina, 171

Airs, Waters and Places (Hippocrates), 99, 104n7

Alaska. See Eskimo

Albani, 60, 62, 64, 67–8

Amazons/Amazones, 58–64, 66, 67–8, 71

Ambrones, 58, 60

Amon Amarth (metal band), 261

Amorphis (metal band), 261

The Ancient Fires of Midgard (Haugen), 263

Andersen, Hans Christian, x, xix, 223–4, 229n20, 230n21, 230n24

Andrews, Ted, 239

angels and Otherkin, 241

Animal Messenger (King), 239

Animal Speak (Andrews), 239

animal–human identity, contemporary. See Otherkin (animal–human identity)

anime and Otherkin, 241

Anthropophagi (cannibals), 58–9, 61, 64, 67, 68, 71

Antrim, Ireland, 140

Apollo, 33–4, 39, 41–5, 46t

Apollodorus, 40

Apollonius Rhodius, 40, 42, 45

Aqra ̀ , Mount, 4

Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Eliade), 277

Arctic

about, x–xi, 228n4

as Other, 244–5, 247–8

See also indigenous peoples; the North; shamanism, indigenous cultures

Arctic, 19th c.

about, xvii–xviii, 149–50

exploration and The Golden Compass, 218–19

masculine heroic action, xvii, 149–50, 162, 224

nonhuman agency, 149–50

See also Franklin expedition and mesmerist clairvoyants

Arctic, contemporary

gendering of landscape, 224–5

Lovecraft’s “Polaris,” x

Otherkin, 239

The Arctic in British Imagination (David), 244–5

Argonautica (Apollonius Rhodius), 40, 42, 45

Argonauts, 45

Aristophanes, 30, 33, 36n9

Aristotle

cosmology, 96–8, 103n1, 105nn9–10

Meteorologica, 28

north winds and proverbs, 29, 31, 32, 34

wind systems, 28, 96, 104nn3–4

Arngrímur Jónsson, 179

Aron of Kangeq, 187

Ars amator...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents Page
• Introduction
• I Ancient Roots
• II From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
• III The Nineteenth Century
• IV Contemporary Perspectives
• Contributors
• Notes
• Index