Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga [Hardcover]

Lois Bragg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004 | ISBN-10: 0838640281 | ISBN-13: 978-0838640289

Oedipus borealis is a discussion of aberrance in the mythic and legendary hero as he appears in thirteenth-century Icelandic narratives, and in the quasihistorical figures in the saga literature who are modeled on him.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Pr (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0838640281
• ISBN-13: 978-0838640289
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,252,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly and studious study of the symbolism within myths, August 11, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga (Hardcover)

Written by a Professor of English at Gallaudet University and an expert on Germanic languages, literatures, and mythologies, Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body In Old Icelandic Myth And Saga poses the argument that many well known figures in the Icelandic saga are based on mythic prototypes. Drawing commonalities between saga heroes and mythic figures such as a physical deformity linked with sexual deviance and supernatural powers, and noting that modern narratives sharply contrast with the myth and saga by establishing aberrance as the sign of a villain or victim, Oedipus Borealis offers a scholarly and studious study of the symbolism within myths including that Oedipus, tales of gods and giants, Egil Bald-Grim's son, and other characters as well as the saga skalds themselves. A heavily researched and evenly weighed study that succinctly retells myths as needed to espy core similarities within the ancient tales, recommended for academic library mythology study and reference shelves.

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes a foot is just a foot., April 26, 2011

By 

Caleb Hanson (Wilmington, MA, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga (Hardcover)

A search through the Old Icelandic corpus for instances of the marked-foot/clever-inventor/sexual-deviant/sea-connected/dynasty-founder archetype. I had never heard of such an archetype before, and the first chapter (on Oedipus as an example from classical mythology) was not enough to convince me there was one, but apparently Joseph Campbell has established it as a valid type in the field.

Does Bragg succeed? It depends on what you're looking for: yes, she finds plenty of examples; yes, she gives a complacent old student of the corpus like me several "Huh, never thought about it like that" moments. On the other hand, by blatantly cherry-picking her data (when it's convenient to ignore Snorri's interpretation, she reminds us that he was a Christian writing 250 years after the conversion; other times, much weight is based on his precise turns of phrase), ignoring counter-examples a-plenty, and riding her own pet hobby-horses a bit too hard, she rather fails to convince me there's actually any there there.

Is "sea-connected" really such a special trait among *Viking* myths and legends? Or "dynasty-founder," seeing as every saga ends with a catalogue of famous descendants? Considering that I can think (without getting up to look at a book) of one and a half Eddic poems that are *all about* the Aesir going to the Jotuns for esoteric wisdom, she's awfully proud of having figured that out on her own from other sources. And sometimes, y'know, a foot is just a foot.

For serious students of comparative mythological archetypes, it may be worth more, I can't tell. Seriously discouraged for anyone's first introduction to saga/edda material, as it's way too unbalanced