Anti-Heroes

Dr. Gustavs Strenga; Prof. Dr. Cordelia Heß

doi:10.5771/9783988580900

Summary

What makes a hero, and how do societies shape and reshape their heroic figures over time? This book challenges static typologies of what is heroic by exploring the historical processes behind the emergence, transformation and contestation of medieval heroes. Focusing on Sweden, Finland, Prussia and the Baltic regions, the book’s contributions examine the earliest moments in which historical figures became enshrined—or condemned—in chronicles, hagiographies and administrative records. This study offers a longue durée perspective on the fluid nature of what is heroic, demonstrating that neither the hero nor their negation is ever absolute—but always historically contingent.With contributions byChristine Ekholst | Tuomas Heikkilä | Cordelia Heß | Philipp Höhn | Georg Jostkleigrewe | Gregory Leighton | Gustavs Strenga

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2025
ISBN-Print: 978-3-98858-089-4
ISBN-Online: 978-3-98858-090-0
Publisher: Rombach Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden
Series: Studies of the Baltic Sea Region
Volume: 2
Language: English
Pages: 213
Product type: Edited Book

Titelei/InhaltsverzeichnisPages 1 - 8 Download chapter (PDF)
Cordelia Heß, Gustavs Strenga Download chapter (PDF)
1. Negations of the Heroic
2. Medieval heroic research
3. Heroes as the harbingers of crisis
4. Medieval text production
5. Medieval Crisis, Modern Re-Evaluations
6. Heroic contradictions
7. Bibliography
Cordelia Heß Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Vínland – a place for heroes?
3. Vínland in the written sources
4. Indigenous people in the Vínland sagas
5. Indigenous heroes
6. The heroization of Leif Erikson
7. Leif vs Columbus
8. Conclusion: Structures of narrative resistance
9. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
Tuomas Heikkilä Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Historical Background and the Sources
3. Depicting the Embodiment of Evil and a National Hero
4. Lalli on the Pages of Fiction
5. Scholars and a Hero in the Making
6. National Murderer and the Body Politic
7. Evolution from Villain to Counter-Hero to Anti-Hero
8. Does Lalli have a Future?
9. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
Philipp Höhn, Georg Jostkleigrewe Download chapter (PDF)
1. The Plot
2. 1. Sources from the 1420s
  2. Sources from the 1440s and 1450s
  3. Sources from the 16th Century
3. Texts from the Enlightenment and National Romantic
4. Texts around 1800
5. Texts from the aftermath of 1871
6. The Age of Extremes (1918–1945)
7. Heinrich von Plauen and the New Right
8. Conclusion
9. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
Christine Ekholst Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Heroes and Chaos – Sweden in the Early Fifteenth Century
3. Creating Heroes and Villains – Two Chronicles
4. Depictions of Karl Knutsson and Erik Puke
5. The Heroic King
6. The Traitor and the Merciful Hero
7. The King and the Peasants
8. Conclusion
9. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
Gregory Leighton Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Narrating heroes, counterheroes, and antiheroes: Methodology
3. Source Overview
4. Vytautas as Hero, Counterhero, and Antihero in the Correspondence of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order
5. Conclusion: Vytautas the Hero, Counterhero, and Antihero
6. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
Gustavs Strenga Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Russians as enemies: from the 1490s to 1502
3. After Smolino: Creating the Image of Wolter von Plettenberg and Russians
4. Before the Apocalypse: Russians in the Background of a Charismatic Ruler and Hero
5. Wolter von Plettenberg Against the Russians – New Perspectives During the Livonian War (1558–1583)
6. New Context, New Russians: Peter the Great and Wolter von Plettenberg as a Global Hero
7. Conclusions
8. 1. Sources
  2. Literature
List of IllustrationsPages 207 - 208 Download chapter (PDF)
ContributorsPages 209 - 210 Download chapter (PDF)
IndexPages 211 - 213 Download chapter (PDF)