Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature

Representations of shapeshifters are prominent in medieval culture and they are particularly abundant in the vernacular literatures of the societies around the North Sea. Some of the figures in these stories remain well known in later folklore and often even in modern media, such as werewolves, dragons, berserkir and bird-maidens. Incorporating studies about Old English, Norse, Latin, Irish, and Welsh literature, this collection of essays marks an important new contribution to the study of medieval shapeshifters. Each essay highlights how shapeshifting cannot be studied in isolation, but intersects with many other topics, such as the supernatural, monstrosity, animality, gender and identity. Contributors to Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature come from different intellectual traditions, embracing a multidisciplinary approach combining influences from literary criticism, history, philology, and anthropology.

Dr Santiago Barreiro works as an assistant researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Buenos Aires. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Buenos Aires and an MA in Medieval Icelandic Studies from the University of Iceland. He has recently published a first translation of Hoensa-ióris saga into Spanish and co-edited (with Dr. Renan Birro) an introductory handbook on Norse studies aimed for Iberoamerican readers, plus numerous articles on medieval Icelandic literature and society. Dr Luciana Cordo Russo (PhD in Literature — University of Buenos Aires) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scientific and Technical Research Council-Argentina and teaches at the University of San Martín. She has published articles on medieval Welsh translations, co-edited a volume on medieval literary genres for the University of Buenos Aires Press (Eudeba) and translated for the first time into Spanish the traditional Middle Welsh tales conventionally known as ‘Mabinogion’.

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