Exploring the religion of the North through an interdisciplinary approach, the book sheds new light on a number of topics, including rituals, gender relations, social hierarchies, and interregional contacts between the Nordic tradition and the Sami and Finnish regions.

1. The Study of Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions 7Trends and Perspectives Catharina Raudvere & Jens Peter Schjødt2. Mythic Acts 13Material Narratives of the Dead in Viking Age ScandinaviaNeil Price3. The Merits and Limits of Comparative Philology 47Old Norse Religious Vocabulary in a Long-Term PerspectivePeter Jackson4. Diet and Deities 65Contrastive Livelihoods and Animal Symbolism in Nordic Pre-Christian ReligionsThomas A. DuBois5. Fictive Rituals in Völuspá 97Mythological Narration between Agency and Structure in the Representation of RealityCatharina Raudvere6. Continuity, Change and Regional Variation in Old Norse Religion 119Andreas Nordberg7. Gender, Sexuality and the Supranormal 153Finnish Oral-Traditional SourcesLaura Stark 8. Literary Representation of Oral Religion 185Organizing Principles in Mikael Agricolas List of Mythological Agents in Late Medieval FinlandVeikko Anttonen9. Religious Ruler Ideology in Pre-Christian Scandinavia 225A Contextual ApproachOlof Sundqvist10. Reflections on Aims and Methods in the Study of OldNorse Religion 263Jens Peter Schjødt