Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend

A particular recurring feature of Old Norse myths and legends is an encounter between creatures of This World [gods and human beings] and those of the Other [giants giantesses dwarves prophetesses monsters and the dead]. Concentrating on cross-gendered encounters this book analyses these meetings and the different motifs and situations they encompass from the consultation of a prophetess by a king or god to sexual liaisons and return from the dead. It considers the evidence for their pre-Christian origins discusses how far individual poets and prose writers were free to modify them and suggests that they survived in medieval Christian society because [like folk-tale] they provide a non-dogmatic way of resolving social and psychological problems connected with growing up succession from one generation to the next sexual relationships and bereavement.