Manifestations of psychiatric illness in texts from the medieval and Viking era
By Jon Geir Høyersten
Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Vol.2 (2015)
King Harald Fairhair depicted in the 14th century Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók,
Abstract: The medicine of medieval Europe was influenced above all by the Hippocratic and Galenic legacies, conveyed through the medical School of Salerno, albeit also to an extent embedded in demonological and supernatural beliefs and folklore customs. More concrete or extensive clinical descriptions of mental illness are hardly found beyond the anecdotic realm. Between the Viking period (800-1030) and the high Middle Ages (1100-1300) the most vivid and universally available writings and descriptions of mental illness come from fictional literature, more precisely the sagas, written predominantly in Iceland in the native Old Icelandic language during the 13th century. This period was also called the Old Norse renaissance, hallmarked by intense intellectual and literary activity and achievements. The literature of the period has given us a wealth of reports concerning the everyday and social life and mentality, with an eye for peculiarities and abnormalities.
Introduction: The alleged “material” are the dramatis personae of the saga period (the 9th and 10th centuries). They were historical individuals who had lived in the collective memory for centuries. Thus their psychological portraying obviously projects a later culture and psychology.
Above all, the kings’ sagas of Snorri Sturlusson (1177-1241) and the Icelandic family sagas (Islendingasögur) offer not only short remarks and anecdotes but also more extensive narratives. They represent the oldest prose literature in Europe (alongside the French Grail romance). On the whole, these “reports” reveal an almost “clinical” level of description.
Some vague notions on the aetiology of psychiatric illness are reflected in these texts, for example the role of heredity. Some kind of basic understanding of the importance of psychological loss/bereavement prevails in the frequent descriptions of depressive reactions. Overall, the accounts seem largely non-theoretical, uninfluenced by mainland European medical theories. Some conditions appear as just strange and unexplained. A considerable amount of psychiatric material will also be found in the old laws of Iceland and Norway. Philological studies prove that there existed concrete views of madness/ psychosis as a social and individual reality. For example, mental disease or psychosis was often named vitvirring; the afflicted person ended up as vitlauss, vitstolinn or hamstollinn. Acute mental confusion was called ærr. The juridical sources, that is the provincial laws, date back to the 11th century and the Icelandic Grágás (Grey Goose Laws) without doubt contained views that madness/psychosis was a reality, most likely from a common-sense understanding.
Manifestations of psychiatric illness in texts from the medieval and Viking era
By Jon Geir Høyersten
Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Vol.2 (2015)
Abstract: The medicine of medieval Europe was influenced above all by the Hippocratic and Galenic legacies, conveyed through the medical School of Salerno, albeit also to an extent embedded in demonological and supernatural beliefs and folklore customs. More concrete or extensive clinical descriptions of mental illness are hardly found beyond the anecdotic realm. Between the Viking period (800-1030) and the high Middle Ages (1100-1300) the most vivid and universally available writings and descriptions of mental illness come from fictional literature, more precisely the sagas, written predominantly in Iceland in the native Old Icelandic language during the 13th century. This period was also called the Old Norse renaissance, hallmarked by intense intellectual and literary activity and achievements. The literature of the period has given us a wealth of reports concerning the everyday and social life and mentality, with an eye for peculiarities and abnormalities.
Introduction: The alleged “material” are the dramatis personae of the saga period (the 9th and 10th centuries). They were historical individuals who had lived in the collective memory for centuries. Thus their psychological portraying obviously projects a later culture and psychology.
Above all, the kings’ sagas of Snorri Sturlusson (1177-1241) and the Icelandic family sagas (Islendingasögur) offer not only short remarks and anecdotes but also more extensive narratives. They represent the oldest prose literature in Europe (alongside the French Grail romance). On the whole, these “reports” reveal an almost “clinical” level of description.
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