Storied and Supernatural Places: Studies in Spatial and Social Dimensions of Folklore and Sagas

This collection of articles addresses the narrative construction of places, landscapes and their supernatural dimensions, the relationship between tradition communities and their environments, and the spatial conditions for encounters with the supernatural as they are manifested in European folklore and in early literary sources, such as the Old Norse sagas. Articles in the book discuss places cursed and sacred, churches, graveyards, haunted houses, cemeteries, grave mounds, hill forts, and other tradition dominants in the micro-geography of the Nordic, Baltic and Baltic-Finnic peoples. It emerges that places accumulate meanings as they are layered by stories and memories about personal experiences. In addition to the local dimension of place-lore, the book scrutinizes the history of folklore studies, its geopolitical dimensions and its connection with nation building. It also sheds light on the social base of folklore and examines vernacular views of legendry and the supernatural.

Ülo Valk is Professor of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu. His publications include the monograph The Black Gentleman: Manifestations of the Devil in Estonian Folk Religion (2001), and Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life: Expressions of Belief (co-edited with Marion Bowman, 2012). His current research is focused on belief narratives, folklore in social context, and the history of folkloristics.