Marburg Journal of Religion

Mendel, Daniela. 2022. Die Geographie des Himmels, Eine Untersuchung zu den Deckendekorationen in ägyptischen Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit und zeitgleichen Darstellungen auf Särgen und in Gräbern

2023-01-06T16:49:07+01:00

Bearing Dead Seals and Good Luck

2023-04-11T13:30:18+02:00

This paper offers an analysis of the development, transmission and reception of selected Icelandic folk legends about bears which share features in common with legends of elves (Icel. álfar) and hidden people (Icel. huldufólk). We explore the ideas, attitudes and motifs underpinning representations of bears in this sub-set of legends in a historical and narrative context and offer a close analysis of six selected tales. We address how narrators develop on
pre-existing narrative conventions to portray the bear in a new light and touch upon the responses that these portrayals may evoke among a domestic and international audience.

Ghost Stories

2022-12-14T16:50:44+01:00

This article presents a postcolonial-ecocritical reading of the Icelandic novel Lifandilífslækur (2018) by Bergsveinn Birgisson, arguing that this work can be interpreted as a call for a revision of Iceland’s position and role in the colonial system and its legacy which we are still grappling with, especially in terms of climate change and other ecological crises. The novel places an emphasis on the effects of colonialism for Icelanders, and Iceland being a part of a power system based on the notion of man’s dominance over nature. Focusing on the role of ghosts in the novel—figures that have obvious roots in Icelandic folklore — a change in focus is noted. Ghosts that once were depicted as relics of a heathen past coexisting with medieval Christianity, and later assigned a nationalist-romantic value, are today considered as potentially important in contemporary environmental debate with its focus on social power structures and toxic hierarchies.