University of Silesia in Katowice

The so-called Viking Age was a period of intensive and varied contacts between Scandinavians and the peoples occupying other parts of Europe and beyond. What often resulted from such cultural, political, and economic encounters were the ideas and phenomena which may be broadly categorized under the term of “otherness” or “alterity”. Understandably then, in their various senses and contexts, they are also markedly present in the Old Norse/Icelandic literary corpus frequently playing pivotal roles there.

Since the Slavs (the Vindr) were among the groups considered as “other” by medieval Scandinavians and since this classification resulted in their both negative and positive judgements, we think it opportune to invite the discussion of the phenomena related to otherness in the sagas to take place during the 19^th International Saga Conference in Poland, in Katowice and Kraków, in 2025.

The conference logo is inspired by a small (4,5 x 3,0 cm) carved zoomorphic head made of wood, dating to the 10th c. and found in Wolin, present-day north-western Poland, in 1975. The zoomorphic head is exhibited at the Andrzej Kaube Regional Museum in Wolin. The logo has been designed by Marta Gorgula after the original archaeological drawing by Helena Bona.