1,720,976 research outputs found
The term leizla in Old Norse vision literature – contrasting imported and indigenous genres?
No full textThis article attempts to explain why the Latin genre designation visio, which literally means ‘sight, something seen, vision’, is translated into Old Norse predominantly as leizla, which literally means ‘leading, guiding’ (leið-sla). At thetime, visio, when used as a generic term, most often referred to Christian morally instructive narratives about people who journey to Heaven, Purgatory and Helland about what they see and experience there. Such journeys are undertaken involuntarily by the soul (anima, spiritus) of the person who is experiencing the vision while the body remains behind, lying still and usually lifeless because the person is close to death, dreaming or in some sort of trance. The author suggests that the term leizla was chosen in order to provide a contrast to the pre-existing Norse tradition of similar journeys. This included narratives similar tosuch visions, namely narratives about journeys to the realm of the dead and back again and about journeys undertaken during a trance with only the soul going abroad while the body remains behind. Yet while the Christian visio narratives at the time of the earliest Old Norse translations usually feature a guide, often an angel or a saint, leading the visionary through the otherworld, there is no guide featured in the indigenous Norse narratives; in these, people always travel alone. This difference may be exactly what is indicated by the term leið-sla. The author evaluates this theory in relation to the translation of vision narratives from Latin into other Northern, Eastern and Western European languages during the Middle Ages and concludes that, within the (West) Norse area, visionary narratives of this kind were translated during a period of time when the need for a precisedesignation – leizla, ‘guiding’ – was greater there than in other geographical-linguistic areas
Áns saga bogsveigis – A Counterfactual Egils saga and yet another Twist on the Myth of Þórr’s Visit to Útgarða-Loki
No full textThis article argues that the Icelandic legendary saga Áns saga bogsveigis was written as a complementary Egils saga with an alternative outcome, one in which it is not the aggressive tyrant who wins, but the farmers. To achieve this, the author uses an option that Egill’s family did not have, because it was humiliating: The hero plays the wretched fool; consequently, he is not taken seriously, and therefore he can build up power in secret until he is able to defeat the king. At the same time, Áns saga seems to be a twist on Þorsteins þáttr bǿjarmagns, which seems to be a twist on the myth of Þórr’s visit to Útgarða-Loki. In the myth, the superhumanly strong hero is unexpectedly humiliated, because his opponent controls what he sees. In Þorsteins þáttr, the hero turns the tables, because he controls what his opponent sees. In Áns saga, the herculean hero chooses to be humiliated, and this is why he unexpectedly wins.publishedVersio
Retrospection of medieval landscape change in mid-Sweden: historical maps analysed using a retrogressive approach
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Contradictory cosmology in Old Norse myth and religion â but still a system?
Full text linkThis paper presents a new understanding of the cosmology of pre-Christian Scandinavian myth. The sources appear to give contradictory information; for example, the Ãsir are located in different places: at the centre of the world, in the west, in the east, under the sea, and in the sky; Hel is placed both in the underground and beyond the sea. In recent studies, this has led to the conclusion that there is no system. The author argues that there is, and that we misunderstand the passages to other worlds. The otherworld can be defined as ââ¬Ëthe world beyond what we can access by natural meansââ¬â¢. The starting-point is the realm that is physically accessible to humans, forming a compressed, wide ââ¬Ëbubbleââ¬â¢ around him/her and the local community, since our natural range is very wide in the horizontal plane in all directions, but very short downwards and upwards. Still, people have always imagined that it is possible supernaturally to transcend this ââ¬Ëbubbleââ¬â¢ through certain passages. These passages point in many directions from the middle of the ââ¬Ëbubbleââ¬â¢, but the locations of the passages are not identical to the location(s) of the other world(s), the passages being interchangeable with each other and often lead to the same (kind of) land/place. The other worlds have interfaces with this world and with each other, but have no geographical location in relation to this world or to the others â they are simply ââ¬Ëbeyond the passagesââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ëon the other sideââ¬â¢. Accordingly, the fundamental model may be construed as an opposition between ââ¬Ëusââ¬â¢ and ââ¬Ëthe othersââ¬â¢, with an ever-changing border. This system becomes clear when we examine not only the limited Old Norse sources, but consider them in the light of the abundant folktales and legends recorded in post-medieval times throughout Northern Europe
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
