Northern Lights in Icelandic Literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir (University of Iceland)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

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Literature Topic

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Date of occurrence c.1400

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Iceland (Location)

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The northern lights (

aurora borealis

) are widely mentioned in Icelandic sources, even if most of them date from the modern age. Such sources were recently treated in comparative research, which showed that stories about the northern lights and conceptions of belief related to them must be considered traditional in Iceland. Various kinds of superstition are directly associated with the northern lights, and it may be that they inspired myths and were aligned with the gods and other supernatural powers (Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, “Of Wavering Flames and Fires: Northern Lights in Icelandic Sources”).

Usually it is thought that Íslandslýsing (Lat. Qualiscunque descriptio Islandiae) [Description of Iceland], which has long been attributed to Bishop Oddur Einarsson (1589–1630) in

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1799 words

Citation: Guðmundsdóttir, Aðalheiður. "Northern Lights in Icelandic Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 December 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19648, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Northern Lights in Icelandic Literature

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