Presentation
A Test Case in Comparing Textual Evidence with Evidence from Material Culture: Conceptions of Valhǫll
Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)
(2011)
Abstract
Medieval Icelandic manuscripts preserve poems that speak of a hall presided over by the warrior-god Óðinn (Odin) and populated by élite Viking warriors who have died gloriously in battle.
Viking-Age picture-stones (bildstenar) erected in memory of the dead on Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, contain depictions of warriors being welcomed to a great hall.
How was this hall envisaged in the Viking Age? Would it have been conceived of as a typical Viking-Age building or as something more exotic?
This poster explores these questions.
Disciplines
Publication Date
March 23, 2011
Citation Information
Russell Poole. "A Test Case in Comparing Textual Evidence with Evidence from Material Culture: Conceptions of Valhǫll" Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education) (2011) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/russellpoole/54/