Winter Session: Olaus Magnus travels to the North

This study circle has visited texts dealing with the Mongol empire, Asia, Africa and Central America. We now turn our gaze towards the Indigenous homelands of the North. The text of this Winter Symposium was selected as it was written by a theologically schooled clergyman who later served as archdeacon and archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden: Olaus Magnus (1490-1553). He travelled in the Nordic region, and once he was exiled to Rome due to the Reformation by the Swedish King Gustav Wasa, he decided to write a book about his “home”. The Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555) is a compilation of 22 books dealing with everything from brewing beer and making cheese and descriptions of flora and fauna to reports of local culture. For this particular Symposium, we will be focusing on the sections on the Sami Indigenous people, their customs and cultural practices. Together with the artistic project Spirit Land created by Emma Göransson Almroth and Frank Berger. In addition, our focus in the reading sessions will be on sections dealing with music, games, play and ritual customs. Thus our invitation to participation goes out to anyone doing research or artistic practice within these themes and topics, but also practitioners in transdisciplinary research more generally.