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This article examines the symbolism of Galadriel's hair in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and its relationship to Victorian culture. The author argues that Galadriel's hair represents the Victorian fascination with memory and preservation, similar to the preservation of relics during that time period. The article also discusses the influence of Norse mythology and the Romantic movement on Tolkien's portrayal of objects and characters. Overall, the analysis suggests that Tolkien's exploration of cultural and historical themes reflects wider concerns and a desire for continuity in the aftermath of World War II. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines the myth of the death of the Norse god Baldr in a comparative framework. Scholars working in the fields of comparative mythology and religion have long argued that a myth concerning the sacrificial killing of the first man is represented in the ancient and medieval literatures of several languages in the Indo-European family. In the reconstruction of this myth, the first priest sacrifices his brother, whose corpse is integrated into the structure of the cosmos, and who rules the realm of the dead. It has long been argued that Ymir's death and dismemberment and the use of his body to construct the world in Old Norse sources is a reflex of this myth; this study argues that the myth of the death of Baldr is also a cognate version of this myth. This article is the second part of a two-part study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on examining the cosmic and mythological influences behind Cormac McCarthy's portrayal of Judge Holden in "Blood Meridian." Topics include the judge's connections to Norse mythology and Finnish creation myths, comparisons to other mythic figures like Odin and Väinämöinen, and the thematic use of cosmic imagery such as the "ultimate atavistic egg" to explore Holden's mythic and infantile aspects.

Figure skating's origin story relates the sport to Norse mythology, but this claim does not stand up to a careful analysis. Its roots can be traced to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiquaries interested in the old north. The popularity of skating and early scholars' imperfect understanding of Old Norse led to skating appearing in translations and adaptations of medieval Scandinavian literature despite being absent from the original. The origin story's development can be traced through manuals and popular histories of figure skating from the eighteenth century to the present. This paper exposes figure skating's origin story as the invention of a privileged class to elevate a popular leisure activity and explains its enduring function in supporting the upper-class image of figure skating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

William Wordsworth’s “A Fragment,” later renamed as “The Danish Boy. A Fragment,” was first published inLyrical Ballads(1800). It is a vignette of a ghost – a Danish boy – singing in the landscape. It is the aim of the article to examine the poem in a number of contexts that have not previously been discussed. It is argued that the singing and harp-playing ghost is a trope for the poetic vigour that had dissipated under the demands for classical styles of poetry. More than any other piece inLyrical Ballads, “A Fragment” points to the ancient Germanic origin of the new models for poetic composition that were put forward. The poem participates in the “bardic revival,” which is closely linked to Romantic-era fiction and antiquarianism. But, it is specifically the idea of the skalds, the ancient Scandinavian bards, which is significant here. Wordsworth’s interest in Norse poetry will be assessed, and so will concurrent antiquarian claims that skaldic poetry was the direct progenitor of imaginative poetry in England. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Burials of pre-Christian Scandinavia in the Viking Age can be broadly divided into a number of basic categories, yet within these the range of individual expression in mortuary behaviour is immense. This paper proposes a model to explain such variation, focusing on the evident deliberation shown in the precise selection and placement of objects, and in the treatment of animals (and sometimes humans) killed as part of the funeral process. It is suggested that Viking-Age burials may have involved complex elements of mortuary theatre, ritual narratives literally enacted at the graveside, providing a poetic passage for the individual dead into a world of ancestral stories. A number of archaeological and literary case studies are discussed, including ship burials, emphasising the central importance of tales in the Norse world-view. The question is posed as to whether the material narratives of funerary rites could form one of the creative strands behind what we know today as Norse mythology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore ideas about the human-animal relationship prevailing in Scandinavian, pre-Christian society from the perspective of representations in Nordic animal art. After an introduction on art, meaning and context, it focuses on expressions of hybridity. Hybrid motifs are represented in the animal art in complex and dense expressions argued to reveal a basic transformative logic which challenges and transcends settled categories. The investment of creativity in these motifs, an investment which is argued also to be present in the periphrastic style of Old Norse poetry, is taken as an indication of their essentiality in respect of ideas of a transgressive relationship between animals and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]