Martin Arnold

From the fire-breathing beasts of North European myth and legend to the Book of Revelation’s Great Red Dragon of Hell, and from those supernatural agencies of imperial authority in ancient China to the so-called dragon-women who threaten male authority, dragons are a global phenomenon, one that has troubled humanity for thousands of years. These often scaly beasts take a wide variety of forms and meanings, but there is one thing they all have in common: our fear of their formidable power and, as a consequence, our need either to overcome, appease or in some way assume that power as our own.
In this fiery cultural history, Martin Arnold asks how these unifying impulses can be explained. Are they owed to our need to impose order in chaos in the form of a dragon-slaying hero? Is the dragon our terror of nature, writ large, unleashed in its most destructive form? Or is it nothing less than an expression of that greatest and most disturbing mystery of all: our morality? Tracing the history of ideas about dragons from the earliest of times to Game of Thrones, The Dragon explores exactly what it might be that calls forth such creatures from the darkest corners of our collective imagination. 

Fear and Power 

The Dragon

This work aims to establish theoretical principles for analyzing the group of late 13th- and 14th- century Islendingasogur (Icelandic family sagas) traditionally designated as post-classical. First, the medieval period is examined, then the 19th and early 20th centuries are examined.

The Post-classical Icelandic Family Saga

Kirsty Bell

Founder of sixpackfilm, a platform for Austrian film and video, Viennese artist Martin Arnold (born 1959) has defined himself as an independent filmmaker since 1987. This publication demonstrates Arnold's animated short films that distort and manipulate classic characters from Walt Disney films.

Gross Anatomies

Werner Schiehlen

The coupling of models from different physical domains and the efficient and reliable simulation of multidisciplinary problems in engineering applications are important topics for various fields of engineering, in simulation technology and in the development and analysis of numerical solvers. The volume presents advanced modelling and simulation techniques for the dynamical analysis of coupled engineering systems consisting of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and biological components as well as control devices often based on computer hardware and software. The book starts with some basics in multibody dynamics and in port-based modelling and focuses on the modelling and simulation of heterogeneous systems with special emphasis on robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and on a variety of applied problems including case studies of co-simulation in industrial applications, methods and problems of model based controller design and real-time application.

Simulation Techniques for Applied Dynamics

Urs Fitze

Sklaverei im 21. Jahrhundert

Entmenschlicht

The story of the Vikings is one of the most dramatic in European history. This work is a survey of who the Vikings were, what they did, why they did it, and how we know about them. It includes an account of their remarkable saga literature.

Culture and Conquest

The Vikings

Describes Viking culture, including religion, traditions, and customs, and discusses the influence and spread of Viking civilization across Europe.

Wolves of War

From the fire-breathing beasts of North European myth and legend to the Book of Revelation’s Great Red Dragon of Hell, from those supernatural agencies of imperial authority in ancient China to the so-called dragon-women who threaten male authority, dragons are a global phenomenon, one that has troubled humanity for thousands of years. These often scaly beasts take a wide variety of forms and meanings, but there is one thing they all have in common: our fear of their formidable power and, as a consequence, our need either to overcome, appease, or in some way assume that power as our own. In this fiery cultural history, Martin Arnold asks how these unifying impulses can be explained. Are they owed to our need to impose order on chaos in the form of a dragon-slaying hero? Is it our terror of nature, writ large, unleashed in its most destructive form? Or is the dragon nothing less than an expression of that greatest and most disturbing mystery of all: our mortality? Tracing the history of ideas about dragons from the earliest of times to Game of Thrones, Arnold explores exactly what it might be that calls forth such creatures from the darkest corners of our collective imagination.

Fear and Power

Dragon

The myths of the Norse god Thor were preserved in the Icelandic Eddas, set down in the early Middle Ages. The bane of giants and trolls, Thor was worshipped as the last line of defence against all that threatened early Nordic society. Thor's significance persisted long after the Christian conversion and, in the mid-eighteenth century, Thor resumed a symbolic prominence among northern countries. Admired and adopted in Scandinavia and Germany, he became central to the rhetoric of national romanticism and to more belligerent assertions of nationalism. Resurrected in the latter part of the twentieth century in Marvel Magazine, Thor was further transformed into an articulation both of an anxious male sexuality and of a parallel nervousness regarding American foreign policy. Martin Arnold explores the extraordinary regard in which Thor has been held since medieval times and considers why and how his myth has been adopted, adapted and transformed.

Myth to Marvel

Thor

Storia dei draghi. Dai Nibelunghi a Game of Thrones

I draghi sono una presenza antica e costante nell’immaginario umano: li ritroviamo all’incrocio tra la narrativa popolare e i racconti ancestrali come i miti greci (Tifone e Echidna), norreni (Fafnir della Saga dei Nibelunghi) e cristiani (il drago-satana combattuto da San Giorgio). Non solo: la sua forte presenza in Cina dimostra che stiamo parlando di un fenomeno globale. Per la prima volta il docente Martin Arnold traccia il percorso che da allegorie, saghe e leggende antiche arriva fino al lavoro di Tolkien e Martin: un libro che appassionerà profondamente gli amanti di queste creature spaventose come Licia Torisi (sua la postfazione) che ha creato potenti figure di draghi nei propri romanzi. In traduzione dall’editore Reaktion Books, il lavoro di Martin Arnold (Thor from Myth to Marvel la sua precedente pubblicazione) mette in luce come il drago sia in secoli e culture differenti simbolicamente associato al potere e alla paura. In un periodo storico in cui i draghi ritornano spesso e volentieri nelle serie TV, al cinema, nei libri per ragazzi e nei fumetti, questa pubblicazione mette finalmente in luce la potenza metaforica di questo essere alato dal Vecchio testamento a Game Of Thrones.

Martin Arnold

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