Loading...
Deal Detail
Tree of Salvation
Winner of the 2014 Mythopoeic Myth & Fantasy Studies Award At the heart of the mythology of the Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life believed to hold up the skies and unite and separate three worlds: Asgard, high in the tree, where the gods dwelled in their great halls; Middlegard, where human beings lived; and the dark underground world of Hel, home to the monstrous goddess of death. With the advent of Christianity in the North around the year 1000, Yggdrasil was recast as the cross on which Christ sacrificed himself. G. Ronald Murphy offers an insightful examination of the lasting significance of Yggdrasil in northern Europe, showing that the tree\'s image persisted not simply through its absorption into descriptions of Christ\'s crucifix, but through recognition by the newly converted Christians of the truth of their new religion in the images and narratives of their older faith. Rather than dwelling on theological and cultural differences between Christianity and older Anglo-Scandinavian beliefs, Murphy makes an argument internal to the culture, showing how the new dispensation was a realization of the old. He shows how architectural and literary works, including the Jelling stone in Denmark, the stave churches in Norway, The Dream of the Rood, the runes of the futhark, the round churches on Bornholm, the Viking crosses at Middleton in Yorkshire and even the Christmas tree, are all indebted to the cultural interweaving of cross and tree in the North. Tree of Salvation demonstrates that both Christian and older Northern symbols can be read as a single story of salvation.

£34.99 £34.98

Share this deal

Similar Deals

Save 25%
Product

The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook

£18.99

£14.39

From Wordery

Save 15%
Product

The Urban Sketching Handbook Architecture and Cityscapes: Volume 1

£14.99

£12.86

From Wordery

Save 25%
Product

The Way of Tarot

£26.00

£19.74

From Wordery

Save 11%
Product

Do Hard Things

£13.99

£12.57

From Wordery

Save 20%
Product

Circular Knitting Workshop

£16.99

£13.69

From Wordery

Save 7%
Product

Antiquities in Motion - From Excavation Sites to Renaissance Collections

£60.84

£57.05

From Wordery

Save 7%
Product

Tapestry Garden: The Art of Weaving Plants and Place

£25.00

£23.33

From Wordery

Save 8%
Product

Neuroscience

£49.99

£46.15

From Wordery