For centuries, the Viking age has exerted a fascination on European art and literature through, for example, sagas, Norse mythology and runes. The enigmatic Northerners were romanticised by 18th-century poets, dresssed up by 19th-century painters, and misused to serve the propagandistic purposes of 20th-century National Socialism, which saw itself as the legitimate heir to a mythical Germanic past. This collection of essays in English and Scandinavian languages has its origins in a 1993 symposium on The Scandinavian Past in European Culture. Through case studies of different periods, the authors trace the influence of Scandinavia's heroic past on post-Renaissance France, Germany, Britain, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The title of the book is taken from a famous old Norse Poem, published in English in 1703. Contributors include: Inge Adriansen, Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Francois-Xavier Dillmann, Christine Fell, Pal Hougen, Bo Jansson, Jorgen Hojgaard Jorgensen, Michael Mueller-Wille, Gerd Wolfgang Weber and Sir David Wilson.