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This collection explores the theoretical and methodological foundations through which we understand Old Norse myths and the mythological world, and the medieval sources in which we find expressions of these. Some contributions take a broad, comparative perspective; some address specific details of Old Norse myths and mythology; and some devote their attention to questions concerning either individual gods and deities, or more topographical and spatial matters (such as conceptions of pagan cult sites). The elements discussed provide an introductory and general overview of scholarly enquiry into myth and ritual, as well as an attempt to define myth and theory for Old Norse scholarship. The articles also offer a rehabilitation of the comparative method alongside a discussion of the concept of ‘cultural memory’ and of the cognitive functions that myths may have performed in early Scandinavian society. Particular subjects of interest include analyses of the enigmatic god Heimdallr, as well as the more well-known Óðinn, the deities, the female ásynjur, and the ‘elves’ or álfar. Text-based discussions are set alongside recent archaeological discoveries of cult buildings and cult sites in Scandinavia, together with a discussion of the most enigmatic site of all: Uppsala in Sweden. The key themes discussed throughout this volume are brought together in the concluding chapter, in a comprehensive summary that sheds new light on current scholarly perspectives.

Over the span of his career, Gernot R. Wieland has been actively engaged in the contribution and promotion of the study of medieval literature, particularly in Anglo-Latin and Old English. From his early work on glosses in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, to his later editorial work for The Journal of Medieval Latin, Wieland has provided the field with diverse, diligent, and creative scholarship. The contributors of this volume pay tribute to the significance of Wieland’s teaching and learning in the literature of medieval Europe by presenting him with twelve essays on varied aspects of the subject.

The first section of the volume aims to honour Wieland’s contributions to the study of medieval glossing. It deals with the history of glossing from early medieval Latin literature to late Middle English grammatical texts, as well as the early interpretative history of Walter of Châtillon’s Alexandreis and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie. The following section corresponds with Wieland’s interest in Anglo-Saxon literature, with essays on the bilingual letters of Ælfric of Eynsham, the poetry of Alcuin of York, and the Old English Hexateuch. The second half of the volume, which examines elements of Latin literature from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, is divided into two sections containing essays that well represent Wieland’s diverse philological and literary interests in medieval Latin. The third section of the volume on the texts and contexts of Latin literature presents essays on the books of Abbot Maiolus of Cluny, on scholastic virtues of good teaching, and on Walter Map’s Dissuasio Valerii. The final section on the texts and manuscripts of Latin literature provides editions of and commentaries on a Latin-Greek phrase-book, a treatise on the firmament of Genesis 1:6.

With these contributions, this volume honours the research interests of a great teacher and learner of the Middle Ages: Gernot Weiland.

The question about the relation between medieval translation practices and authority is a complex and multifaceted one. Depending on one’s decision to focus on the authority of the source-text or of the translated text itself, on the author of the original text, on the translator, or on the user of the translation, it falls apart in several topics to be tackled, such as, just to name a few: To what extent does the authority of the text to be translated affect translational choices? How do translators impose authority on their text? By lending their name to a translation, do they contribute to its authoritative status?

After two introductory essays that set the scene for the volume, addressing the above questions from the perspective of translations of authoritative texts into Dutch and French, the focus of the volume shifts to the translators themselves as authorities. A next section deals with the choices of texts to be translated, and the impact these choices have on the translation method. A third part is dedicated to papers that examine the role of the users of the translations.

The selection of papers in the present volume gives a good indication of the issues mentioned above, embedded in a field of tension between translations made from a learned language to a vernacular language, translations from one vernacular to another, or even from a vernacular to the Latin language.