"Medieval Scandinavian Studies has lacked a publication to keep people in touch with what's going in the field. But no longer! Old Norse News aims to do for Old Norse what the OEN does for Anglo-Saxon Studies. There's no paper version, and our scope may be somewhat narrower than OEN's, but the aims are the same. It will be regularly updated, and will gradually build up into a comprehensive repository of information for the subject."
http://oldnorsenews.org/
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Ways Of Interpreting Myth
In a recent article on flood myths, Alan Dundes wrote: "Theories of myth interpretation may be roughly divided into two major groupings: literal and symbolic. Literalists tend to seek factual or historical bases for a given mythological narrative while advocates of one the many symbolic approaches prefer to regard the narrative as a code requiring some mode of decipher-ment. It is important to realize that the literal and symbolic exegeses [interpretations] of myths are not necessarily mutually exclusive" (167). As you read through what follows, you might want to classify each "way" of looking at myth as literal or symbolic. You will also want to remember what Dundes says about interpretations not being mutually exclusive: myths can be looked at in many ways, which often can be employed at the same time without contradiction. For example, in the story of Ra, Isis, and the snakebite, the possible political interpretation (Isis being advanced by her priests to position of top god) doesn't rule out a consideration of Ra as sun-god, or possibly seeing some ritual significance to his sickness and subsequent cure. As G. S. Kirk puts it, "a myth may have different emphases or levels of meaning." Since it often serves more than one purpose, "a tale about human actions [can] contain more than a single aspect and implication" (39).
To Read More Go Here:http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/ways.htm
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fansoffolklore
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That this is becoming rather a bit of a news group with me posting articles and so forth that I find interesting directly off the Heathen News Yahoo Group, I would like to have some input as to what you think(I know we have at least one person watching/who is a member...) Most everything I post is very much Scandinavian/Anglo-Saxon in it's intent/flavor to be sure, but still... There is no discussion going on at all. I would like to see some kind of discourse happen here. Let me know your thoughts. I don't want to be carrying this just as happened the last time on LJ... Obviously the material I am carrying it with is quite different this time around... But still...
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valkyrieofodin)
good
curious