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Material study of the Old Norse mythological corpus has emphasized the role objects play in illuminating the ideologies, beliefs, and cultures of medieval Scandinavians. In interrogating the agency of physical matter in myth, material study attempts to bridge temporal distances between text and audience by establishing a thick description of material. While such studies have tended to focus upon fabricated material, this article makes the case for further study of the body as physical object. It argues that foregrounding the material body demonstrates the permeable boundaries between what medieval Scandinavians understood as human and non-human. To demonstrate the fluidity of this boundary, this article addresses three myths concerned with biological material: the dismemberment of Ymir, the binding of Fenrir, and the pledge of Óðinn. Among the topics discussed are the relationship of the body to the physical world, the impression of uncanniness that surrounds the broken body, and the material agency encountered in instances of corporeal disruption.
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