187
from the Viking Age is supplemented by an
analysis of similar ritual
tools from other early
medieval societies, such as those of the Slavs,
the
Anglo-Saxons, and the Baltic peoples.
In addition to an extensive bibliography, the
book features a catalogue which thoroughly
discusses almost all known examples of staffs
from the Viking world, including precise
details of their measurements, context, and
state of preservation. Each staff is presented on
a
separate
black-and-white
plate
with
photographs taken from multiple angles. One
innovative feature of this catalogue is the use
of QR codes which link each of the plates with
the Pre-Christian Religions of the North
Database. By scanning a code with an iPad or
Smartphone, one can obtain more information
about a particular find and download full-
colour photographs.
The book can be purchased directly from
the
publisher,
Verlag
Fassbaender
(www.fassbaender.com), or on Amazon.de.
Works Cited
Heide, Eldar. 2006.
Seid, gand og åndevind. Bergen:
Universitetet i Bergen.
Holck, Per. 2006. “The Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway:
New Thoughts on the Skeletons from the Grave
Mound”. In:
European Journal of Archaeology 9(2–
3): 185–210.
Kaland, Sigrid Hillern Hanssen 2006. “Kvinnegraven
fra Trå i Granvin – en gydjes grav?”. In
Samfunn,
symboler og identitet – Festskrift til Gro Mandt på
70-årsdagen. UBAS. Universitetet i Bergen
Arkeologiske Skrifter. Nordisk 3. Ed. Randi
Barndon & Gro Mandt. Bergen: Universitetet i
Bergen. Pp. 351–362.
Ohlmarks, Åke. 1939. “Arktischer Schamanismus und
altnordischer seiðr”. In
Arkiv für Religions-
wissenschaft 36: 171–180.
Pentz, Peter, Maria Panum Baastrup, Sabine Karg, &
Ulla Mannering. 2009. “Kong Haralds vølve”. In
Nationalmuseets Arbeidsmark 2009: 215–232.
Price, Neil S. 2002.
The Viking Way: Religion and War
in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. AUN 31. Uppsala:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.
Solli, Brit. 2002.
Seid. Myter, sjamanisme og kjønn i
vikingenes tid. Oslo: Pax Forlag A/S.
Strömbäck, Dag. 1935.
Sejd. Textstudier i nordisk
religionshistoria. Stockholm: Gebers.
Sørheim, Helge. 2011. “Three Prominent Ladies with
British Connections”. In
Acta Archaeologica 82: 17–
54.
Tolley, Clive. 2009:
Shamanism in Norse Myth and
Magic I–II. Folklore Fellows Communications 297.
Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia / Academia
Scientiarum Fennica.
de Waele, Ferdinand Joseph Maria. 1927.
The Magic
Staff or Rod in Graeco-Italian Antiquity. The Hague:
Erasmus.
188
Mediaeval Transfer, Transmission, and Reception of the Latin / andiceoitoii
Culture in the Saga of the Romans (Rómverja saga, AM 595 a–b 4o and AM 226
fol.)
Grzegorz Bartusik, University of
Silesia in Katowice
Dissertation project undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Institute of History, University of Silesia,
Poland, scheduled for submission in September 2019.
Supervisor: Jakub Morawiec (University of Silesia in Katowice).
Since the beginning of 2014, I have carried out
a project on
Antikensagas, the Sagas of
Antiquity, both in Iceland as a visiting
researcher at the University of Iceland, the
University of Oslo, and at the University
College of Southeast Norway. What was at
first a research reconnaissance on the reception
of Antiquity in mediaeval Iceland – with time
and much sound counsel from my friends and
mentors in the North – developed into a project
for my PhD dissertation on
The Saga of the
Romans (
Rómverja saga) in the context of
mediaeval
cultural
transfer
between
continental Europe and Scandinavia.
This project has been implemented with
support from Iceland and Norway, through a
grant from the Financial Mechanism of the
European Economic Area and the Norwegian
Financial Mechanism under the Scholarship
and Training Fund (The EEA & Norway
Grants). In the following brief project
description, I will introduce this work, which
will continue until September 2019.
Since this is an ongoing PhD project, the
following conclusions are bound to be
preliminary. However, I hope they will be
helpful to any reader interested in Latin-
Ancient Roman influences on Old Norse-
Icelandic culture and in Old Norse-Icelandic
and Latin-Old Norse interferences.
My doctoral thesis focuses on Icelandic
literature and society from around 1200–1400
in the context of the reception and
reinterpretation of Latin/Ancient Roman
culture in mediaeval Icelandic texts after the
late introduction of non-runic written culture in
Scandinavia. The purpose of the thesis is to
discuss the possible Latin/Ancient Roman
influences on Old Norse-Icelandic literature
and culture. It employs
Rómverja saga as an
example, along with related Latin and Old
Norse-Icelandic literature.
The chronological framework I set up for
my thesis extends from as early as the second
half of the 12
th
century (the composition of
Rómverja saga has often been dated to around
1180), to as late as the half of 14
th
century,
when the preserved manuscripts were
produced (AM 595 a-b 4o and AM 226 fol.).
The mediaeval manuscript known as AM 595
a–b 4o contains an earlier, fragmented version
of
Rómverja saga, the history of the Romans.
Rómverja saga is a collection of Old Norse
translations of selected ancient Latin works:
Sallust’s
Bellum
Iugurthinum
and
De
coniuratione Catilinae, and Lucan’s
De Bello
Civili. The younger version is preserved in the
manuscript AM 226 fol.
Until recently,
Rómverja saga was little
studied. Over the years,
Rómverja saga
manuscripts have been edited by Konráð
Gíslason (1860), Meißner (1910), and, most
recently, Þorbjörg Helgadóttir (2010). The
research on
Rómverja saga manuscripts,
including, the questions of dating them (and
the text itself), manuscript authorship,
ownership and provenance, and the narrative’s
connections to
Sverris saga and
Veraldar saga
has been conducted by Meißner (1903),
Hofmann (1986), Þorbjörg Helgadóttir (1987–
1988; 1996), Hermann Pálsson (1988; 1991),
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