Transmission – transformation – memory: Reflections on modern recreating pre-modern Nordic myths

Abstrakt

This article treats various general aspects of transformations in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavian mythology as they appear in written narratives and visual pictures. In the first paragraph, some basic questions of the phenomenon of variation in the pre-modern manuscript transmission are discussed. The second paragraph analyses different versions of the Old Norse-Icelandic myths about the precious mead in modern literature. In the final paragraph, transmission and myth are integrated into a combined look at transformations with regard to cultural memory.