ISSN:
0015-587X
Language:
English
Titel der Quelle:
Folklore : a fully peer-reviewed international journal of folklore and folkloristics published four times a year
Publ. der Quelle:
Abingdon : Routledge
Angaben zur Quelle:
Vol. 126, No. 3 (2015), p. 317
DDC:
390
Abstract:
For millennia, fossilized remains have been adduced as proof of various myths and legends, including those featuring giants. This article presents a possible instance of this phenomenon, recorded in the Liber Monstrorum de Diversus Generibus (Book of monsters of various sorts). The article argues that a medieval discovery of what were probably the bones of a woolly mammoth could have inspired the legend set forth in the Liber that King Hygelac was a giant. It also explores how this misidentification possibly influenced the composition of Beowulf, and how the methods of geomythology, which originated in folkloristics, may enrich ecocritical analyses of medieval literature and culture.
Note:
Copyright: © 2015 The Folklore Society 2015
DOI:
10.1080/0015587X.2015.1082817
URL:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.2015.1082817
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