Search

Yōkai is an elusive category in Japanese history, folklore, and popular culture. It consists of mysterious phenomena that can exercise extraordinary agency in their interactions with humans. Attempting to grapple with this amorphous category, Japanese folklore studies has defined yōkai as malevolent supernatural beings. However, a survey of these studies reveals that most instances of yōkai do not fit this definition. This article discusses the supernaturalization of yōkai and their relegation to the "otherworld" as a process that primarily occurred in three stages: developments in kokugaku cosmology during the early nineteenth century, the import of the concept of the supernatural at the turn of the twentieth century, and the yōkai boom of the late 1960s. In particular, this article emphasizes the importance of the yōkai boom that straddled a premodern folk community and a modernized popular society, leading to a conflation of the concepts of the supernatural, the otherworld, and yōkai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the fairy king in Sir Orfeo abducts Heurodis from the royal garden, he takes her from beneath a particular "ympe tre" or grafted tree. By examining the horticultural tradition of grafting, this paper will show that the grafted aspect of the tree is there to foreshadow the splitting and reunification both of the human body, but also of Orfeo's kingdom. By reading episodes of both dismemberment and unity, I will argue that the presence of the grafted tree in both kingdoms suggests that the center of royal competition between Orfeo and the fairy king lies in their ability to control the natural ecology of their kingdoms. While Orfeo initially loses control of his orchard and thus his wife, his ten-year exile in the wilderness teaches him vital survival skills so that he can return a changed and improved ruler. In the same way that grafting requires knowledge of ecology as well as the ability to both dismember and recombine, both Orfeo and the fairy king engage in transformative gardening within the space of their respective kingdoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1400) refers to foes of Camelot using a Germanic term for giant: the Middle English etayn, from the Old English eoten and cognate with the Old Norse jötunn. Reading Sir Gawain in light of key sources on Norse giants such as Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220), reveals suggestive parallels. In the Edda and other sources the god Thor (Þórr) journeys to the castle Utgard (Útgarðr), where giants exploit his expectations to demonstrate the limitations of his understanding. Perhaps Gawain's similar attempt to live up to his reputation at Hautdesert, baffled by the guileful hunter Lord Bertilak, echoes Germanic myth; at least, such a view would fit with the poem's use of Norse-cognate vocabulary. Both Snorri and the poet of Sir Gawain complicate their interpretations of mythological traditions through irony, glamour, euhemerism, and metafiction; yet this very framing also presents parallels, most notably in the concept of ancestral wisdom. While giants can seem monstrous, they also preserve supernatural knowledge antedating that of gods. Although J. R. R. Tolkien preferred to interpret Sir Gawain theologically, his work still hints at the possibility of a Germanicmythological reading of the poem. Taking Tolkien as a kind of philological guide to the "Land of Giants," this article refers not only to his scholarly work (including translations), but also occasionally to his creative work. Tracking Gawain's journey and synthesizing evidence from the subsequent tradition of "romantic philology," the following interpretation considers to what extent Germanic mythology may inform the representation of magic, nature, and wisdom in Sir Gawain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like Stephen Daedalus, John McGahern's protagonists live in rural and urban backgrounds marked by dogmatism and inflexibility, as well as reverie and memory. Their existence is distanced or mirrored by close family members, linking complex events to personal discourses that often place characters on the edge of a dreaming state. This essay aims at exploring the Freudian uncanny in relation with the relatively quiet existence of characters in stories presenting their life journey and personal growth as a new reading of local Irish communities. How is the concept illustrated in novels and short stories? Does it entail ambivalence, splitting of ego, mainly in son-father relationships, the animate-inanimate opposition, or the phenomenon of the “double" which leads to both division as well as interchanging of the self? Looking at examples extracted from The Dark, The Barracks and various short stories, it appears that the narrative often appeals to silence, premonition and hope as means to trigger certain suggestions, inflict uneasiness, and connect characters to the otherworld in an ongoing attempt to (re)configure and decode one's identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parallel hunting and bedroom scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have been much discussed by scholars, though the argument usually centers on Lady Bertilak's role as a hunter. Exploring the poem through the lens of game theory demonstrates that not only is Gawain a hunter, but also that the central Exchanges Game is not a game, but rather an illusion of a game. This revelation opens up a means of investigating the Anglo-Norman and Welsh roles of the landscape and characters that both facilitate such an illusion but also cause a political tension in the poem. This article contends through close readings and historiographic analysis that the reader's identification with Gawain sets up an unease by the end of the poem when the figures of Bertilak, Lady Bertilak, and Morgan La Fay are revealed as both Otherworldly and decidedly Welsh. This discomfort is a means of reacting to and interrogating Anglo-Norman appropriation of Arthuriana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Oracula is the property of Oracula Research Group and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper is about symbolic meanings of spinning, the material (fibres - un-spun wool) for spinning and the results of this activity (thread, yarn). On the basis of comparison of the records of beliefs from different sources - ancient poetry and treatises, European folklore and ethnological data, and iconographic material - the author argues that in European traditional folk conceptions, spinning and the material and products associated with it refer to basic aspects of human existence, birth, fate and death. While un-spun wool is related to the otherworld, spinning and thread refer to the world of the living, link this world and the otherworld, and allow the transition between the world of the living and that of the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ancient names which have been associated with Lundy Island. They all describe traditions which belong to the magical realm of the "Otherworld." The objective has been to bring together for the first time the many disparate and, at times, perhaps tenuous links with Lundy in literature. Consideration is also given to aspects of the island's past which may have contributed toward this mythological status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatian Journal of Ethnology & Folklore Research / Narodna Umjetnost is the property of Institute of Ethnology & Folklore Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)