Studia Germanica Volume I

Despite their diversity, there is a common thread running among these fascinating essays. There is an interest in the human soul as reflected in the archaic tales and myths of our ancestors, in the ways in which that soul might be developed or unfolded, and in what it is possible for that soul to do or accomplish spiritually. The study of heroic models of human, or praeter-human, behavior is essential to the understanding of a traditional people because such myths provide a bridge This collection is divided into four sections: Runic Studies, Old Norse Studies, Old English Studies and Middle High German Studies. between the archetypal realm of gods and goddesses and ordinary human beings. The contents include "A Semiotic Theory of Rune-Magic," "Some Socio-Cultic Aspects of the Runes during the Migration Age," "Is Sigurdr Sigmundr aptrborinn?: Norse Rebirth Ideology and Rites of Transformation in the *Sigurdar saga," and several other articles.