This is a comprehensive study on modality in one of the largest Turkic languages, Kazakh, as it is spoken in China. Kazakh is the official language of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is furthermore spoken by about one and a half million people in China in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in Gansu Province.The method employed is empirical, i.e. data-oriented. The modal expressions in Kazakh are analyzed in a theoretical framework essentially based on the works of Lars Johanson. The framework defines semantic notions of modality from a functional and typological perspective. The modal volition, deontic evaluation, and epistemic evaluation express attitudes towards the propositional content and are conveyed in Kazakh by grammaticalized moods, particles and lexical devices. All these categories are treated in detail, and ample examples of their different usages are provided with interlinear annotation. The Kazakh expressions are compared with corresponding ones used in other Turkic languages. Contact influences of Uyghur and Chinese are also dealt with.The data used in this study include texts recorded by the author in 20102012, mostly in the northern regions of Xinjiang, as well as written texts published in Kazakhstan and China. The written texts represent different genres: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and texts published on the Internet. Moreover, examples have been elicited from native speakers of Kazakh and Uyghur. The Appendix contains nine texts recorded by the author in the Kazakh-speaking regions of Xinjiang, China. These texts illustrate the use of many of the items treated in the study.

This is a comprehensive study on expressions of modality in one of the largest Turkic languages, Kazakh, as it is spoken in China. Kazakh is the official language of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is furthermore spoken by about one and a half million people in China in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in Gansu Province.The method employed is empirical, i.e. data-oriented. The modal expressions in Kazakh are analyzed in a theoretical framework essentially based on the works of Lars Johanson. The framework defines semantic notions of modality from a functional and typological perspective. The modal volition, deontic evaluation, and epistemic evaluation express attitudes towards the propositional content and are conveyed in Kazakh by grammaticalized moods, particles and lexical devices. All these categories are treated in detail, and ample examples of their different usages are provided with interlinear annotation. The Kazakh expressions are compared with corresponding ones used in other Turkic languages. Contact influences of Uyghur and Chinese are also dealt with.The data used in this study include texts recorded by the author in 20102012, mostly in the northern regions of Xinjiang, as well as written texts published in Kazakhstan and China. The written texts represent different genres: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and texts published on the Internet. Moreover, examples have been elicited from native speakers of Kazakh and Uyghur.

The Appendix contains nine texts recorded by the author in the Kazakh-speaking regions of Xinjiang, China. These texts illustrate the use of many of the items treated in the study.

The article comprises an introduction to and an edition and translation of an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This previously unpublished paper fragment is one of the missing parts of the Old Swedish Homily Book (known as Svensk järteckens postilla), dating from the second half of the fifteenth century and now housed at the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (Cod. Holm. A 111). The text in Hannaas 66 comprises a sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity based on Matthew 7. 15–16 and includes a miracle exemplum that illustrates the importance of acting justly and following the will of God.

The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta’s Revelations (Liber Caelestis) and of St Bernard’s A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem), known in Old Swedish as Ett gudhelikt lifwærne. The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and appear to predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library, A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint’s writings in Sweden.

The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta’s Revelations (Liber Caelestis and Revelationes Extravagantes) and of St Bernard’s A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem). The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and may predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library, A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint’s writings in Sweden.

De fleste studier om jøder, muslimer og kristne i middelalderens Europa fokuserer på de områder, hvor de levede sammen. Behandlingen af de ikke-kristne i de komplekse spændinger mellem kirken og de sekulære myndigheder danner kernen i disse studier, som fx sigter på at undersøge de spontane udbrud af antijødisk vold i dele af Central- og Vesteuropa eller virkeligheden bag den fredelige sameksistens, ”convivencia”, i Spanien. Følgerne af bl.a. korstogene, pesten, økonomisk nedtur samt politisk og social uro i disse områder regnes som de vigtigste faktorer i de skiftende forhold mellem de tre grupper naboer. Forholdene påvirkede også de skriftlige fremstillinger, da litteratur i middelalderen ligesom nu var et af de vigtigste midler, hvorved man udtrykte sin verdensopfattelse og skabte mening og struktur i det omkringliggende samfund. Disse tekster giver en et vigtigt indblik i, hvordan kristne europæere tænkte og hvad der optog dem.

The article examines the portrayal of Jews in medieval texts written in Danish before 1515. It begins by describing the theological basis for and creation of a ‘fantasy Jew’. The perception of Jews was fundamentally shaped by the idea that they had tortured and killed the Christian messiah. Devotional texts, sermons and Passion stories which describe the Jews as Christ killers are therefore discussed in detail, and the image of the deicide Jew in vernacular texts is shown to be malleable and changing. The image of the violent Jew who tortured and killed Jesus was used to arouse empathy among readers and to chastise them for being too like the Jews by behaving sinfully. Other Jewish ‘types’ that occur in the material are also investigated: effeminate, Satanic and usurious Jews as well as comparisons with animals. The preliminary results of an investigation into the type of language that was used to shape the image of Jews show that certain ‘negative’ words were used disproportionately more frequently in descriptions of Jews than of non-Jews. This suggests a powerful association between such words and the perception of Jews — a connection that was supported and further enhanced through religious art and theatre. The article concludes by noting what is missing in the extant material and what this might tell us about medieval Danish attitudes towards Jews.

Between the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was a noticeable change in relations between Scandinavia and the Islamic world – the sources point to a shift from travel and trade to hostility and war. Muslims did not settle in the North until the eighteenth century, and during the Middle Ages there was little contact between Scandinavians and ‘real’ Muslims. So how did Danes and Swedes imagine and describe this Other? Is there anything unusual or unexpected about the portrayal of Muslims? How does this image compare to that of the other great religious opponent, the Jew? By investigating East Norse devotional texts, travel literature, saints’ lives, romances and accounts of Ottoman warfare, this paper aims to draw out some of the major themes in medieval Scandinavian descriptions of Muslims and Islam.

Jews were not permitted to settle in Scandinavia until the modern era (Denmark 1622, Sweden 1718) and Muslims did not arrive in significant numbers until the late twentieth century. Yet despite the fact that there was no resident population, Muslims and, in particular, Jews can be found in many different literary genres (including sermons) and works of art (including wall-paintings, altar pieces and sculptures). These two non-Christian groups in medieval Scandinavia are thus an example of what Gloria Cigman with regard to England has called “absent-presence”, although in Denmark and Sweden they were not a memory or continuation from a pre-expulsion era but rather manifestations of the imagination that drew upon pre-existing classical and foreign traditions.

This paper surveys the extant vernacular sermon material from medieval Denmark and Sweden that mentions Muslims and Jews and attempts to categorise the different types and uses of the representations. As the extant corpus of sermon material from medieval Denmark and Sweden is rather small, I shall look briefly at the saints’ lives and legends that were often used to fashion exempla in sermons. The paper will also consider the rich treasury of wall paintings and how these pictures reinforced the ideas about Jews propagated in sermons. (There are no unequivocal images of Muslims, Saracens or Turks in medieval Danish and Swedish wall paintings.)

Finally, the paper will attempt to trace the Scandinavian imagery and influences back to ‘continental’ Europe and uncover what sorts of ideas about Muslims and Jews were useful enough to Scandinavians to survive the long journey north.

The image of the Jews as the killers of Jesus has its origins in the Gospels where Jews are portrayed as responsible – directly or indirectly – for the Crucifixion. The enduring myth of the Christ-killer has evolved over nearly two millennia to find a variety of expressions in religion, politics, philosophy, literature and drama. In this article, I examine how Jews are portrayed as murderers in late medieval descriptions of the Passion found in Old Danish sermons and devotional literature. The influence of the saints Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas and Birgitta of Sweden is examined as also is the question of Jewish culpability in each of the texts and what this would have meant to the audience and readers. The Christkiller motif is shown to be an effective and flexible tool for the Church in marking the boundaries of vita christiana and in teaching empathy and spirituality to its members.

Published in 1516, Poul Ræff's Iudeorum Secreta, a translation of Johannes Pfefferkorn's The Conlession of the Jews, was a landmark in the development of anti-Jewish polemics in Denmark.

For the first time, Danes were presented with descriptions of Jewish ceremonies that aimed to portray these practices as dangerously anti-Christian, superstitious and deviating from 'real' Biblical Judaism. Contemporary Judaism is described as a rabbinical construction that is worthy of nothing but ridicule and mockery.  Lessons in Contempt explores this key text that comprises a valuable source for a range of academic disciplines: the history of antisemitism, the study of Jewish-Christian relations, social history, the history of religious culture, and medieval and early modern Danish language and literature.

This book includes an outline of how Jews were portrayed in medieval Danish vernacular literature; a description of Pfefferkorn's life and works; a discussion of Ræff's translation and publication of Iudeorum Secreta; a presentation of the language and style of the Danish version, as well as an edition of the text together with the Latin original, an English translation and an extensive commentary.