Adducing comparative material from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia, the book argues for a dynamic relationship between beliefs and society.
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. Integrating linguistic and textual approaches into an anthropologically-inspired framework, Elves in Anglo-Saxon England reassesses the full range of evidence. "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non-Christian beliefs in early medieval Europe, but current interpretations of the evidence derive directly from outdated nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship. By highlighting texts as a source we thereby give attention to how we use texts in our investigating process and thus explore and explain our methodological apparatus and the potential ideological and material properties in texts. This diversity of textual sources represents official, “private”, academic, and artistic texts written by individuals and groups from different social and cultural backgrounds. In this volume, Fredrik Skott studies magic by making use of juridical laws and trials documents, Stephen Mitchell and Ane Ohrvik investigate individual manuscript writings, Catharina Raudvere uses ethnographic fieldwork notes and Laura Stark reads personal memoirs, while Clive Tolley and Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir study Old Norse literature. Another intention of this volume is to explore and problematize texts as a source: How do we read texts? Whose voices do we interpret? What is the relationship between the magical beliefs and practices we are studying - and the texts? In the study of magical beliefs and practices in Nordic cultural history, a great variety of textual sources are available. What was the everyday context of magic and witchcraft in the medieval, early modern and modern period in the Nordic countries? How did people pass on their magical knowledge? What was the dialectics between magical knowledge as beneficial on one hand and dangerous on the other within the different communities? In what way and by whom were traditional methods of folk healing practices considered to be a crime? And how does this relate to general ideas on magicin the communities? By asking these questions the intention of this volume is to provide studies communicating and discussing with as well as challenging the long line of research on magic.
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