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IMC 2004: Sessions

Session 623: Islands of the World and the Seven Seas in Medieval Myth and History

Tuesday 13 July 2004, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Organiser:Sieglinde Hartmann, Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main
Moderator/Chair:Richard Byrn, Department of German, University of Leeds
Paper 623-aIslands and Western Myths of Creation from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Paola Schulze-Belli, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo, Università degli studi di Trieste
Index terms: Art History - General, Economics - Trade, Language and Literature - Comparative, Mentalities
Paper 623-bCrete, its Ancient Myths, and its Importance for Medieval Traders and Travelers
(Language: English)
Sieglinde Hartmann, Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - German, Mentalities
Abstract

This session is conceived as the starting point for a new investigation into the possible impact that myths and other fictitious stories about insular wonderlands had on the reasons why medieval men and women undertook their various missions, searches and explorations that finally led to the discovery of the New World.
The first speaker will shed new light on hitherto hidden mythical sources of Western development and imagination, whereas the two other speakers will try to track down possible links between myth and history of the islands of Crete and Japan, thus demonstrating the geographical as well as mythological extent of the project.