Extraordinary Dogs and their Function in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature

自从狗第一次被驯化以来，世界各地的狗和人类之间就存在着一种独特的亲密关系。奇怪的是，无论这种关系存在于哪里，在大众的想象中，狗和死亡之间也总是存在着某种联系。随着狗陪伴的好处越来越受到关注，这个项目探索了狗和死亡在维京时代和中世纪斯堪的纳维亚半岛的文学、历史、艺术和考古学中交织在一起的不同方式，以及它们是如何产生的。该项目还寻求将其研究问题置于更广泛的欧洲和全球背景下。因此，该项目有三个核心目标：首先，通过解释狗与死亡的联系方式，以及这揭示了人与狗之间的关系，来解决古挪威人和维京人研究中的空白；第二，确定对这些关联的解释，并以此证明中世纪所谓的“迷信”往往植根于理性思维；第三，通过将它们与其他中世纪文化以及今天的人狗关系进行比较，来证明这些联系的普遍性。该项目处于人类-动物研究的新兴领域。在整个人类思想史上，“动物”的问题一直是一个至关重要的问题，随着环境问题日益受到关注，这个问题也变得更加紧迫。从麦克休关于狗的专著到哈拉威的《伴侣物种宣言》，在理解人与狗的关系方面，人文科学和科学领域都做了很多工作。尽管生态批评和人类-动物研究在古挪威语和维京研究中的重要性不断上升，然而，维京狗在文学奖学金中仍然是一个代表性不足的主题。为了解决这种不平衡，该项目借鉴并补充了中世纪死亡和来世概念的大量学术研究，以及考古学中对维京狗的研究。该项目依次考虑了维京时代（中世纪斯堪的纳维亚半岛）狗与死亡之间关系的几个方面——狗在战斗中死亡，被牺牲，作为精神向导引导人类来世，出现在天堂和地狱的版本中，哀悼他们死去的主人，并被视为预兆。每个方面都被认为是在一系列来源中代表的，以文学研究、考古学、人类-动物研究、文化人类学和医学人文学科的理论为基础。主要的焦点将是文学，考虑到对狗和死亡的描述跨越了古挪威文学的体裁，包括史诗和斯卡尔迪诗，传奇和圣徒传。与其他中世纪欧洲文献的比较和影响也进行了研究，突出了狗死亡协会的普遍性和中世纪世界的相互联系。这些将与考古记录、历史记载（包括不莱梅的亚当、默瑟堡的蒂特马尔和伊本·法德兰的记载）以及圣像学资料（包括哥特兰画像石上对Valhöll的描述）一起进行研究。在整个项目中，对这些比喻的潜在解释进行了评估，包括狗与人的情感纽带、狗在战场上的角色、前基督教和基督教的宗教和政治影响，以及基于狂犬病和狗非凡的疾病检测能力的“科学”依据。最后一项研究将结合正在进行的医学、行为和心理学研究，在最近关于家养狗嗅觉的研究及其在检测癌症和COVID-19等疾病中的应用的背景下进行。因此，该项目关于维京时代和中世纪斯堪的纳维亚半岛人狗关系的结论可以增加我们对历史和今天这些关系的理解。

Since the dog was first domesticated, a uniquely close relationship has existed between dogs and humans around the world. Curiously, wherever this relationship has been present, so too has there been some association in the popular imagination between dogs and death. As benefits of canine companionship are coming into great focus, this project explores the different ways in which dogs and death became intertwined in the literature, history, art, and archaeology of Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia, and how they might have arisen. This project also seeks to place its research questions within a broader European and global context.The project thus has three core objectives: first, to address a gap in Old Norse and Viking studies by explicating the ways in which dogs and death became associated, and what this reveals about human-dog relationships; second, to determine explanations for these associations and, in doing so, demonstrate that so-called 'superstition' in the Middle Ages was often rooted in rational thinking; third, to demonstrate the universality of these associations by comparing them to other medieval cultures as well as to human-dog relationships today.The project situates itself in the burgeoning field of human-animal studies. The question of the 'animal' has been of central importance throughout the history of human thought, attaining a greater sense of urgency as environmental issues become a growing concern. From McHugh's monograph on the Dog to Haraway's Companion Species Manifesto, much work has been done across both the humanities and sciences on understanding human-dog relationships. Despite the rising significance of ecocriticism and human-animal studies in Old Norse and Viking studies, however, the Viking dog remains an underrepresented subject in literary scholarship. To address this imbalance, this project draws upon and adds to a larger body of scholarship around medieval conceptions of death and the afterlife, as well as research on Viking dogs in archaeology.The project considers in turn several aspects of the association between dogs and death in Viking Age-medieval Scandinavia - dogs dying in battle, being sacrificed, acting as psychopomps to guide humans to the afterlife, being present in versions of heaven and hell, mourning their departed owners, and being perceived as portents. Each aspect is considered as it is represented in a range of sources, underpinned by theory from literary studies, archaeology, human-animal studies, cultural anthropology, and the medical humanities.The primary focus will be literary, considering depictions of dogs and death across the genres of Old Norse literature, including eddic and skaldic poetry, sagas, and hagiographies. Comparisons with and influences from other medieval European literatures are also examined, highlighting both the pervasiveness of the dog-death association and the interconnectedness of the medieval world. These will be examined alongside the archaeological record, historical accounts, including those by Adam of Bremen, Thietmar of Merseburg, and Ibn Fadlan, and iconographical sources, including depictions of Valhöll on the Gotland Picture Stones.Throughout the project, potential explanations for these tropes are assessed, including the dog-human sentimental bond, dogs' roles on the battlefield, pre-Christian and Christian religious and political influences, and 'scientific' rationales based on rabies and dogs' extraordinary disease-detecting abilities. The last especially will be examined in the context of recent studies on domestic dog olfaction and its use in detecting diseases like cancer and COVID-19, in conjunction with ongoing medical, behavioural and psychological research. The project's conclusions about human-dog relations in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia can therefore add to our understanding of those relations throughout history and today.