From

inland

to

alinor

The Westward Journeys

of Old Norse Mythology

Considering both the facts and fictions of medieval Iceland’s unique cultural legacy, this web site seeks to provide a useful resource for students and enthusiasts alike. The subject matter is defined as a “Mythography” (i.e. a survey of many versions of a core set of myths) of some of the most famous narratives that Norse settlers took with them as they sailed west, from Norway to Iceland and eventually to Vinland (now Newfoundland in eastern Canada). The links section lists major online resources, dictionaries, and archives related to medieval Icelandic culture, while the online bibliographies list scholarship on Icelandic myths, sagas, and folktales, and their remarkable journeys around the world. From William Morris in the nineteenth century, to J. R. R. Tolkien in the twentieth and Neil Gaiman in the twenty-first, prominent writers have reinterpreted these works in many different contexts. The first bibliography is annotated to list some of the major sources which these new works draw on, although it makes no claim to be comprehensive.

We are pleased to announce that we are hosting our first student web based project, "Costumes of the Northman" by Emilia Nowaczewski.

We are also pleased to now offer a mirror of Loki: A Paean in Progress, a site only available today through the archive.org web time portal, the Wayback Machine. The site has largely been left intact with minor corrections to internal links. It is hoped that this allows the site to function in a way that it was originally intended. However, this is therefore a reconstruction of the original, thus it has been dubbed Loki: A Paean Reconstructed. If you or anyone you know has contributed to the site in the past, please contact one of the sessional instructors at the Department of Icelandic Language and Literature. We are interested in any information, updates, or changes you wish made.