La (re)conversion des « esprits de la terre » dans l’Islande médiévale
This article offers an analysis of Medieval Iceland’s “spirits of the land” (landvættir) not with the aim of reconstructing a pre-Christian Scandinavian belief but rather to show that, more than two centuries after the conversion, these mythological beings could be used within a political discourse...
| Published in: | Revue de l'histoire des religions |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | French |
| Published: |
Armand Colin
2013
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4000/rhr.8121 http://journals.openedition.org/rhr/8121 |
| Summary: | This article offers an analysis of Medieval Iceland’s “spirits of the land” (landvættir) not with the aim of reconstructing a pre-Christian Scandinavian belief but rather to show that, more than two centuries after the conversion, these mythological beings could be used within a political discourse in order to establish the island’s contemporary capacity to defend itself at a time when Iceland was threatened with Norwegian annexation. Cet article se propose d’analyser les « esprits de la terre » (landvættir) de l’Islande médiévale non pas en vue de reconstituer une croyance scandinave préchrétienne mais afin de montrer que plus de deux siècles après la conversion, ces êtres mythologiques pouvaient être utilisés dans un discours politique établissant la capacité contemporaine de la communauté insulaire à se défendre alors que pesait sur l’île la menace d’une annexion norvégienne. |
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