Volume 16

A systematic re-evaluation of the sources of Old Norse astronomy

Christian Etheridge

Abstract

The field of Old Norse astronomy is in a very fragmented state. There is no primary source that describes all the heavenly bodies and constellations known to the Old Norse culture. Instead the researcher must go to a wide variety of sources, which sometimes only convey snippets of information. These sources range from Eddic poems to tales of early Icelandic astronomers and through to linguistic evidence, archaeology and folklore. The secondary material on these sources is also fragmented, since from the early twentieth century there have only been a few attempts at an overall grand narrative. In this paper a new approach is proposed to collecting and assessing this data. By using multi-disciplinary scholarship and a tripartite model, this paper will show how a new assessment of Old Norse astronomy can be put into practice for the twenty-first century.