Animals played a large role in Early Medieval Northern and Central Europe animating all from art to religious thinking. Upcoming book tells about burial customs, gravegoods, ornamental art styles and shapeshifting
Author: Wilder Europe
Beowolf and other Wolves in Old English Texts
In the Middle Ages, two views of the wolf – as the emblem of the heroic warrior or the embodiment of the devil – fought over people’s minds. A new book explores this complex set of narratives as it unfolds in Early Medieval Literature in England.
Werewolves – a Key to understand the Old Norse World of Wilderness?
The Old Norse idea of wilderness, landscapes and human beings differed radically from that of Latin and Christian Europe. A new study of ten narratives about wolves in the Old Norse-Icelandic poems, sagas and other texts offers valuable insights into this half-forgotten and complex world
Climate Changes in Pre-Viking Societies had Profound Consequences
Did climate changes in pre-Viking societies really matter? Did people adapt their agricultural strategies? Or were such changes just registered as temporarily “whacky weather” by the people of the past?