Cancel Culture in the Middle Ages: Projecting and Negating Minds in Old Norse Literature

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore how non-Christian deities are described, in comparison to the Christian God, in three Old Norse texts, belonging to different genres: Heimskringla, Barlaams saga og Jósafats, Elíss saga ok Rosamundu. These texts describe the pantheons of the Nordic cultures, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Saracens. The main question that I discuss is whether these texts may be seen as transmitting useful knowledge and information about these religions and pantheons to their Nordic audiences or whether they are meant to mainly serve the mandate of their Christian authors. I interpret my results by deploying cognitive literary theory and the concept of mentalization. To conclude, I discuss whether the way non-Christian deities are described may be seen as a mental guide for Old Norse readers to practise mentalization according to the Christian empathetic scripts, in order to reach a deeper cognitive and religious conviction and thus strengthen their Christian identities and communities during the times of the Crusades.