Spielen wie die Götter
Playing like Gods

An Icelandic Fairy Tale and Its Cultural Roots

Author(s): Angelika B. Hirsch
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, German Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: fairy tales preserve cultural peculiarities; playing characters; Tacitus and playing Germans; unholy gambling; gambling as a picture of an ideal world
Summary/Abstract: Gambling protagonists are characteristic of Icelandic fairy tales, while the act of playing itself is irrelevant to the plot. A closer look at the playing characters surprisingly reveals a deep understanding of ancient Germanic culture: gambling with each other is much more than pure leisure. Humans and Gods are building a communion and performing an ideal world.

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