TY - BOOK AU - Andrén,Anders TI - Tracing old Norse cosmology: the world tree, middle earth, and the sun from archaeological perspectives T2 - Vägar till Midgård SN - 9187675013 AV - BL860 .A53 2014 U1 - 293 23 PY - 2014///] CY - Lund PB - Nordic Academic Press KW - Cosmology, Norse KW - Mythology, Norse KW - Northmen KW - Religion KW - Archaeology and religion KW - Scandinavia KW - HISTORY KW - Europe KW - bisacsh KW - fast KW - RELIGION / Comparative Religion KW - Electronic books N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-230) and index; Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; 1. Old Norse cosmology as an archaeological challenge; Cosmological aspects of Old Norse religion; The chronological and spatial horizons of Old Norse cosmology; Archaeology and Old Norse cosmology; Three archaeological studies; 2. In the shadow of Yggdrasill; Mythological trees; Real trees; Representations of trees; The archaeology of 'tree settings'; The semiotics of the 'tree settings'; The world from the view-point of 'tree settings'; The tree in Old Norse religion; 3. A world of stone; A biography of Ismantorp; Ölandic comparisons; Scandinavian fortsOutlines of an early Scandinavian martial culture; War as ritualized action; War and cosmology; Models and parallels; Back to Ismantorp; Ismantorp and Old Norse cosmology; 4. Whirls, horses, and ships; Early picture stones on Gotland; New contexts; An initial pictorial analysis; A return trip to Bronze Age iconography; Bridging the gap between Eskelhem and Sanda; Bronze Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones; Metalwork in the Iron Age; A special case: the gold bracteates; Iron Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones; The sun in later mythological contextsTracing sun rituals; The disappearance of solar symbols and sun rituals in the sixth century; Solar traditions through time; 5. Placing Old Norse cosmology in time and space; Different trajectories; The Migration Period as a cluster of changes; The Huns; The dust veil; The disappearance of the sun-oriented traditions in the sixth century; A golden age; Outlines of a new context; References; Primary Old Norse sources; Other primary sources and secondary literature N2 - The study of Old Norse religion is a truly multidisciplinary and international field of research. The rituals, myths, and narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia have been studied and interpreted in detail relying mainly on Christian Icelandic literature from the Middle Ages. Here, Anders Andrén offers a long-term perspective on Old Norse cosmology and argues that the fundamental ideas of an ordered universe, time, and space in Old Norse religion can be studied in a dialogue between archaeology and the Icelandic narrative tradition. Ideas about the world tree, middle earth, and the sun can be UR - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1868393 ER -