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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 747: Borderless Sainthood, I: Female Saints in the Nordic Region

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Norse Hagiography Network
Organiser:Tiffany White, Department of Scandinavian, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator/Chair:Tiffany White, Department of Scandinavian, University of California, Berkeley
Paper 747-aCrozier and Crown: St Gertrude of Nivelle across Borders
(Language: English)
Ragnhild Marthine Bø, Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie, Universitetet i Oslo
Index terms: Art History - General, Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 747-bThe Saints of Heilagra meyja drápa and Their Cults in Medieval Iceland
(Language: English)
Ermenegilda Rachel Müller, Faculty of Icelandic & Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Monasticism, Women's Studies
Paper 747-cGuðrún Ósvífrsdóttir and the Penitent Woman Saints: Overlap, Influence, and Function
(Language: English)
Natalie van Deusen, Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies University of Alberta
Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Women's Studies
Abstract

Saints known and venerated in the medieval North Atlantic were often not local. Many saints from Europe had flourishing cults within Scandinavia and the North Atlantic. Hagiographic texts that were translated into Old Norse were often adaptations, giving us a unique picture of the reception and development of the cults of the saints. This first stream of two will highlight the importance of female non-Nordic saints in Scandinavia and Iceland. Our first presenter will discuss images and material culture, our second presenter will discuss manuscript culture and the development of the cult of the saints in Iceland, and our third presenter will discuss how the image of foreign female saints were used as models for characters in the Icelandic sagas.