Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Looking across the Baltic Sea and over Linguistic Fences
- Section 1 Mental Maps
- 1 The Northern Part of the Ocean in the Eyes of Ancient Geographers
- 2 Austmarr on the Mental Map of Medieval Scandinavians
- 3 The Connection Between Geographical Space and Collective Memory in Jómsvíkinga saga
- Section 2 Mobility
- 4 Rune Carvers Traversing Austmarr?
- 5 Polish Noble Families and Noblemen of Scandinavian Origin in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The Case of the Awdańcy Family: By Which Route did they come to Poland and why?
- 6 A Medieval Trade in Female Slaves from the North along the Volga
- Section 3 Language
- 7 Ahti on the Nydam Strap-ring: On the Possibility of Finnic Elements in Runic Inscriptions
- 8 Low German and Finnish Revisited
- Section 4 Myth and Religion Formation
- 9 Mythic Logic and Meta-discursive Practices in the Scandinavian and Baltic Regions
- 10 The Artificial Bride on Both Sides of the Gulf of Finland: The Golden Maiden in Finno-Karelian and Estonian Folk Poetry
- 11 Local Sámi Bear Ceremonialism in a Circum-Baltic Perspective
- 12 Mythologies in Transformation: Symbolic Transfer, Hybridisation, and Creolisation in the Circum-Baltic Arena (Illustrated Through the Changing Roles of *Tīwaz, *Ilma, and Óðinn, the Fishing Adventure of the Thunder God, and a Finno-Karelian Creolisation of North Germanic Religion)
- Contributors
- Indices
3 - The Connection Between Geographical Space and Collective Memory in Jómsvíkinga saga
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Looking across the Baltic Sea and over Linguistic Fences
- Section 1 Mental Maps
- 1 The Northern Part of the Ocean in the Eyes of Ancient Geographers
- 2 Austmarr on the Mental Map of Medieval Scandinavians
- 3 The Connection Between Geographical Space and Collective Memory in Jómsvíkinga saga
- Section 2 Mobility
- 4 Rune Carvers Traversing Austmarr?
- 5 Polish Noble Families and Noblemen of Scandinavian Origin in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The Case of the Awdańcy Family: By Which Route did they come to Poland and why?
- 6 A Medieval Trade in Female Slaves from the North along the Volga
- Section 3 Language
- 7 Ahti on the Nydam Strap-ring: On the Possibility of Finnic Elements in Runic Inscriptions
- 8 Low German and Finnish Revisited
- Section 4 Myth and Religion Formation
- 9 Mythic Logic and Meta-discursive Practices in the Scandinavian and Baltic Regions
- 10 The Artificial Bride on Both Sides of the Gulf of Finland: The Golden Maiden in Finno-Karelian and Estonian Folk Poetry
- 11 Local Sámi Bear Ceremonialism in a Circum-Baltic Perspective
- 12 Mythologies in Transformation: Symbolic Transfer, Hybridisation, and Creolisation in the Circum-Baltic Arena (Illustrated Through the Changing Roles of *Tīwaz, *Ilma, and Óðinn, the Fishing Adventure of the Thunder God, and a Finno-Karelian Creolisation of North Germanic Religion)
- Contributors
- Indices
Summary
Abstract
The article discusses how toponyms are related to concepts of collective memory, using toponyms in one particular saga, Jómsvíkinga saga, to show that toponyms gave reliability to the saga and that they functioned as memory places which helped in memorising the saga. The saga's action concentrates on Denmark and Norway, so toponyms in these respective realms are analyzed. The analysis is based on comparison between different versions of the saga, which shows that some toponyms are common to all versions of the saga. This could be evidence that they were indispensable for learning and remembering the saga plot. Methodologically the discussion and analysis are connected to memory studies and Francis Yates’ ideas about toponyms as ‘furniture of mind’ and aide-mémoires.
Keywords: saga literature, Jómsvíkinga saga, memory studies, cultural memory
Introduction
Geographical space and toponyms in saga literature have interested historians and archaeologists mainly as a way to connect the sagas to the physical world. Toponyms in sagas that depict past events have functioned for scholars as evidence that the sources are historical and have some kind of reliability. (See for instance the discussion in Rory McTurk 1994-1997: 164-172.) The main objective of research has thus been to identify toponyms and place them on the map. In fact, most of the toponyms in the sagas can be identified without problems, but not all sagas provide accurate information about geographical conditions. For instance, legendary sagas are often set in distant and imagined places, but these are usually designated by ‘real’ place-names. In these cases, the imagined environment is part of the story that conveys the fantastic and does not aim to be credible but enhances the supernatural and fantastic in the saga (Marold 1996).
In addition to this very concrete function that the toponyms have in the sagas – namely, to give a setting for the story – I argue that the toponyms functioned also as a way to remember stories. Ancient authors of spoke of different techniques for memorisation and these texts were known to medieval authors. For instance, Thomas of Aquinas wrote that a place could be used as a source for reminiscence. Frances Yates, who has written about mnemotechnical details that were used and developed by medieval authors as well as artists, speaks of different ways to remember things.
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- Information
- Contacts and Networks in the Baltic Sea RegionAustmarr as a Northern Mare Nostrum, ca. 500–1500 AD, pp. 67 - 88Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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