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Paper short abstract

The paper explores ways wicked supernatural beings destabilize existing categories of nature and culture. Using empirical examples from Norwegian folklore, I discuss how supernatural beings challenge simple categories of nature and culture and how they may be read differently

Paper long abstract

This paper explores ways supernatural beings from Norwegian folklore that are narrated as wicked destabilize commonly accepted categories of nature and culture. Stories about wicked supernatural beings might be read as exemplifying social boundaries, narratively construing the undesired as of nature and "proper" human behavior as of culture. Yet, while these beings and their acts are narrated as belonging to nature, both concretely through living in mountains or lakes and figuratively through wicked acts such as fooling or trapping humans, they are also narrated as transgressing nature in a way that categorizes them as outside of common nature, as supernatural. From this perspective, they are narrated as a contrast to humans who are of nature—or at least in contrast to a cultural version of nature, where mountains are for climbing and lakes for swimming, and human nature is characterized by kindness. Instead of trying to untangle this knot of nature and culture, I will use empirical examples to trace the many ways supernatural beings destabilize these simple categories and discuss other ways we might understand these stories, their humans and the beings they bring to life