A01=Alaric Hall
Anglo-Saxon elves
Author_Alaric Hall
Belief
Category=JBGB
Category=NHDJ
Category=NHTB
Cultural significance
Danish invasion
Early medieval Europe
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Folklore Award
Gender
Health
Identity
Linguistic and textual approaches
Medieval Culture
Non-Christian beliefs
Sex and gender
Supernatural
Product details
- ISBN 9781843835097
- Weight: 362g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 15 Oct 2009
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Elves and elf-belief during the Anglo-Saxon period are reassessed in this lively and provocative study.
Anglo-Saxon elves [Old English ælfe] are one of the best attested non-Christian beliefs in early medieval Europe, but current interpretations of the evidence derive directly from outdated nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship. Integrating linguistic and textual approaches into an anthropologically-inspired framework, this book reassesses the full range of evidence. It traces continuities and changes in medieval non-Christian beliefs with a new degree of reliability, from pre-conversion times to the eleventh century and beyond, and uses comparative material from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia to argue for a dynamic relationship between beliefs and society. Inparticular, it interprets the cultural significance of elves as a cause of illness in medical texts, and provides new insights into the much-discussed Scandinavian magic of seidr. Elf-beliefs, moreover, were connected with Anglo-Saxon constructions of sex and gender; their changing nature provides a rare insight into a fascinating area of early medieval European culture.
Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2007
