–– Frog (University of Helsinki)
Recent shifts in perspectives on the history of Folklore Studies look beyond nation-building projects to the construction of modernity and relations to colonialism. This paper takes up a case that cross-cuts these discussions, highlighting how these phenomena took different shapes in different geopolitical contexts. It examines the case of a collection of medieval ‘eddic’ poetry acquired in 1643 within the context of the Danish Crown’s state-centralized heritage-construction project. Danes could not read these and Icelanders were hired to work with the poems. Focus is on Icelandic copyists and the variations, transformations, and new compositions of eddic poems.
Part of 06-02 Decolonizing Cultural Heritage, Friday, November 03, 2:30 pm–4:30 pm