Över tröskeln där mötet sker : Liminalitet i yngre järnålderns trosföreställning bland nordbor och samer

• Main Author: Lekberg, Torbjörn
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) 2023
• Subjects: Doorway; iron age; ancient Scandinavia; Norse; Sami; shapeshifting; necromancy; queer; Archaeology; Arkeologi; sami
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-118320

During late Nordic iron age there were two main cultures in Scandinavia; the Norse and the Sami. This essay seeks to do two things. Firstly, to determine differences and similarities in how said cultures viewed liminality, that is the border line, or threshold, between two 'areas'. Secondly, to in one text gather and discuss all these areas where liminality played an important role. If not exactly the same a clear similarity is found in how liminality in the landscape was viewed, but the Norse seems to have found more meaning in the liminality of architecture. Both cultures also found one sex preferable before the other concerning magic, but while the Sami favored men, the Norse thought it women's work. Men taking on a woman's role was, among the Norse, found to be both shameful and dangerous, while the Sami of the age seems to have had no such view. The Norse and Sami saw power in liminality, in various ways, making use of it in burial, religious ritual and magic.