1. "Pur sarripu pursa trutin": monster-fighting and medicine in early medieval Scandinavia.
- Author
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Hall A
- Subjects
- Anthropology, Cultural education, Anthropology, Cultural history, Faith Healing education, Faith Healing history, Faith Healing psychology, History of Medicine, History, Medieval, Illness Behavior physiology, Language, Morals, Scandinavian and Nordic Countries ethnology, Abnormalities, Severe Teratoid ethnology, Abnormalities, Severe Teratoid history, Abnormalities, Severe Teratoid psychology, Literature, Medieval history, Medicine, Traditional history, Mythology psychology, Religion history, Social Conditions history
- Abstract
This paper seeks evidence among our extensive Scandinavian mythological texts for an area which they seldom discuss explicitly: the conceptualisation and handling of illness and healing. Its core evidence is two runic texts (the Canterbury Rune-Charm and the Sigtuna Amulet) which conceptualise illness as a "purs" ("ogre, monster"). The article discusses the semantics of "purs," arguing that illness and supernatural beings could be conceptualised as identical in medieval Scandinavia. This provides a basis for arguing that myths in which gods and heroes fight monsters provided a paradigm for the struggle with illness.
- Published
- 2009
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