Beings of Many Kinds – Introduction for the Theme Issue “Undead”

Kirsi Kanerva is a cultural historian specialised in Nordic cultural and mental history. In her previous research projects, she has studied the history of mind and emotions in medieval Scandinavia, the restless dead in medieval Icelandic saga sources, and the history of suicide in medieval Scandinavia. Her current research project deals with the agency and social networks of the Swedish-speaking population in rural eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Finnish Southern Ostrobothnia.

Kaarina Koski is a folklorist specialised in vernacular belief traditions and narrative genres. Her previous research projects have dealt with folk legends about the dead and graveyards, church buildings, and supernatural beings in preindustrial Finland. She has also studied interpretations and discourses concerning uncanny experiences, as well as internet cultures. Her current project focuses on ideas of contemporary Finns about the dead and the afterlife.