Read more
Bridges between Worlds explores Icelandic spirit work, known as andleg mál, which features trance and healing practices that span earth and spirit realms, historical eras, scientific and supernatural worldviews, and cross-Atlantic cultures. Based on years of fieldwork conducted in the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri, Corinne G. Dempsey excavates andleg mál's roots within Icelandic history, and examines how this practice steeped in ancient folklore functions in the modern world.
Weaving personal stories and anecdotes with engaging accounts of Icelandic religious and cultural traditions, Dempsey humanizes spirit practices that are so often demonized or romanticized. While recent years have seen an unprecedented boom in tourist travel to Iceland, Dempsey sheds light on a profoundly important, but thus far poorly understood element of the country's culture. Her aim is not to explain away andleg mál but to build bridges of comprehensibility through empathy for the participants who are, after all, not so different from the reader.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Icelandic Language Notes
- Keeping Track: A Glossary of Characters.
- Introduction: Bridging Worlds with Andleg Mal
- Chapter 1: Roots and Layers of Andleg Mal
- Chapter 2: Science and Skepticism, Belief and Blasphemy
- Chapter 3: Skyggnigafa: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
- Chapter 4: Trance Work
- Chapter 5: Healers and Healing
- Chapter 6: Leaps of Geography and Faith
- Glossary of Icelandic Terms
- Notes
- Work Cited
- Index
About the author
Corinne G. Dempsey is Professor of Religious Studies, Director of International and Global Studies, and Rose Marie Beston Chair for International Studies at Nazareth College. She is author of Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion (OUP 2011), The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple (OUP 2005), and Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India (OUP 2001).
Summary
This book explores the tradition of Icelandic spirit work, known as andleg mal, as practiced in the northern town of Akureyri. Based on firsthand accounts of these spirit encounters, Corinne Dempsey describes how andleg mal's beliefs and practices span not only earth and spirit but Icelandic histories and cross-Atlantic cultures.
