 Rhinegold |
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Articles
Shapeshifting
and Berserkergang
Excerpt:
Shapeshifting, in its various forms, is one of the more common minor
literary motifs in Old Icelandic literature. The identification of
a human with an animal provided a rich symbological vocabulary for
the poets and saga-writers: knowledge out of the ordinary, most usually
prophetic knowledge, could be quickly and artistically expressed by,
for instance, the representation of hostile persons as wolves, bears,
or eagles. This identification, however, was clearly, in its origins,
more than a literary device.
Mimir's Well
Author's note:
This is a very early story, but it was really the seed-point for my later
writings in Germanic legend, particularly Rhinegold, in which so much
of the imagery was structured around the images and names associated with
particular runestaves in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse mnemonic poems.
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 Eagle & Falcon |