Imagining the Supernatural North.

Imagining the Supernatural North

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, et al.

University of Alberta Press

Ring House 2, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E1

www.uap.ualberta.ca

9781772122671, $29.95, PB, 296pp, www.amazon.com

Synopsis: As polar regions become the focus of political and ecological controversies, scholars in the humanities and social sciences are turning their attention to the cultural meanings of Northernness. Collaborative collected and co-edited by the team of Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough (a lecturer in medieval literature at Durham University in the UK), Danielle Marie Cudmore (a lecturer at Halmstad University in Sweden), and Stefan Donecker (a research fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna), "Imagining the Supernatural North" is an interdisciplinary collection of articles by sixteen scholars from twelve countries exploring the notion of the North as a realm of the supernatural. The North has long been associated with sorcerous inhabitants, mythical tribes, metaphysical forces of good and evil, and a range of supernatural qualities. It was both the sacred abode of the gods and a feared source of menacing invaders and otherworldly beings. Whether from the perspective of traditional Jewish lore or of contemporary black metal music, few motifs in European cultural history show such longevity. With their broad appeal, the themes of North and the supernatural will ensure Imagining the Supernatural North attracts a wide audience.

Critique: A seminal body of original scholarship, "Imagining the Supernatural North" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library Folklore & Mythology collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Imagining the Supernatural North" is also available in a Kindle format ($23.99).

Mary Cowper

Reviewer