Alumni Travel Reading: Norwegian Splendor

This guide offers an inside look on Danish society, culture, and history, with details on Denmark's substantial contributions to science, engineering, exploration, seafaring, literature, philosophy, music, architecture, and many other fields. Brief portraits depict such Danes as Clown Prince Victor Borge, Hans Christian Andersen, Kierkegaard, and Out of Africa author Karen Blixen. Throughout, there is a focus upon Denmark's human rights record, democratic institutions, and humanistic traditions. By examining Danish culture, this work fosters a greater understanding of Denmark, its people, and their way of life. From the publisher.

Featuring chapters on novelists, actresses, and feminist writers, Women of the Golden Age examines the perceived proper role of women in Danish society at the time and offers opinions from male Golden Age writers and thinkers. These chapters bring to light the often overlooked contributions of women to history.

Danish Modern discusses the history and theory behind the development of mid-century modernist design in Denmark. Mark Mussari writes about how Danish designers responded to early Modernist currents. He discusses the writings and works many well-known architects and designers from Denmark.

This study provides an analysis of the origins and nuances of Danish modernism and Danish national identity--issues that continue to be significant in today's multi-ethnic Denmark.

Volume II of Made in Norway presents over 40 examples of contemporary Norwegian architecture. Ingerid Helsing Almaas discusses how modern Scandinavian society is reflected in its buildings.

Danish Folktales, Legends, and Other Stories is a collection representing the repertoires of five storytellers along with extensive archival material.

As the Vikings began to migrate overseas as raiders or settlers in the late eighth century, there is evidence that this new way of life, centred on warfare, commerce and exploration, brought with it a warrior ethos that gradually became codified in the Viking myths, notably in the cult of Odin, the god of war, magic and poetry, and chief god in the Norse pantheon. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when most of Scandinavia had long since been converted to Christianity, form perhaps the most important era in the history of Norse mythology: only at this point were the myths of Thor, Freyr and Odin first recorded in written form. Using archaeological sources to take us further back in time than any written document, the accounts of foreign writers like the Roman historian Tacitus, and the most important repository of stories of the gods, old Norse poetry and the Edda, Christopher Abram leads the reader into the lost world of the Norse gods. From the publisher.

Vikings traveled far and wide throughout the Middle Ages, where they raided, traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades. They recorded their adventures through sagas, mixing realism and fantasy; including historical facts of traders, kings, and explorers, alongside trolls, dragons, and other fantastic beasts. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presents these sagas alongside archeological finds, rune-stones, medieval maps, and more.

Looking at matters of religion, literature, media, and ethnicity, Olson explores how Norwegian Americans' myths about themselves changed over time in relation to a broader Anglo-American culture, while at the same time influencing and being influenced by the burgeoning national culture of their homeland. From the publisher.

Overview of medieval castles and fortifications from Denmark. Inside readers will find out about who built the castles, when they did it, and why the castles were made. This book also discusses everyday life in Medieval Danish castles and the importance of the castles in the turbulent Danish Medieval history.

Explore images and meanings of engraved rock panels, boulders, and stones found at over 1100 different sites throughout Norway from the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Various images of people, animals, objects, and abstract patterns occur regularly while others are unique to specific sites.