Seminars & Events

Scandinavian Studies Seminar

SPRING 2013

Friday the 22nd of February
Professor Terry Gunnell Háskoli Íslands, Reykjavík
Prof. Gunnel is visiting the Centre giving a lecture, Seminar and Supervision!
Lecture will be at 11am (room TBA)

Thursday the 28th of February
PHD WORKSHOP I

Thursday the 7th of March, 4pm
Professor Stefan Brink
Centre for Scandinavian Studies, Aberdeen
ON skáli, Orc./Shet. skaill, Sc. dial. skåle, ON salr, OE sele, Sc. -sal, Sc. dial. säl, OE hall, Sc. hall Prestigious (even royal) banqueting halls or primitive huts?

Friday the 8th of March
CENTRE GOES TO EDINBURGH!
National Museum of Scotland, Copenhagen
Vikings! The Untold Story

Thursday the 14th of March
PHD WORKSHOP II

Tuesday the 26th of March, 4pm – NOTE! Change of day
DR Judy Quinn
ASNC, University of Cambridge
Textual Criticism and orally transmitted poetry

Thursday the 18th of April, 4pm
Professor Michael H. Gelting
Centre for Scandinavian Studies, Aberdeen/Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen
A neglected medieval law-book: The Latin translation of the Law of Jutland

Thursday the 16th of May, 4pm
DR Alan MacNiven
Scandinavian Studies, University of Edinburgh
The place of names in Hebridean settlement history
 

Reading Groups

Apardjónar lið: the Old Norse Reading Group
Fortnightly, Thursdays at 5.30pm in EIG1
Currently reading: Eyrbyggja saga
Contact: Tarrin Wills

Past Seminars

Thursday, 11th October 2012, 16.00
Stefan Brink, Aberdeen
The Jarllev names – and the -lev/-löv and German -leben names. Early Politics and Toponymy around Skagerrak and Kattegat
Room: CB 202

Thursday, 25th October 2012
PhD Workshop

Tuesday, 13th October 2012, 17.00
Morten Ravn, University of Copenhagen
Naval transport in Late Viking Age Denmark. Resources, organisation and deployment. An on-going PhD.-project
Room: CB 009

Thursday, 15th November 2012, 16.00
Jakob Kieffer-Olsen, Copenhagen
Church and Church structure in Medieval Denmark – a research project
Room: CB 202

Wednesday, 21th November 2012, 17.15 (together with the History Seminar)
Kerstin Hundahl, Copenhagen
The History of the Forgotten Principality of Rügen. Warrior Vassals of the Danish Kings 1170s-1325
Room: KCG5

Thursday, 22th November 2012, 16.00
Bjørn Bandlien, Oslo
Friar Mauritius of Scotland: His career in Norway and his voyage to the Holy Land in the 1270s
Room: CB 202

Thursday, 29th November 2012, 16.00
Ian Crockatt, Aberdeen
Power-dressing, Gender and Angst in Earl Rognvaldr Kali Kolsson's Poetry
Room: CB 202

Thursday, 19 April 2012, 17.00
Dr Maths Bertell, Mid Sweden University, Sweden
Thor and Tjalfi in the light of a possible comparative retrospective method
Room: MacRoberts 265

Thursday, 15 March 2012, 17.00
Dr Søren Sindbæk, University of York
Viking Age Settlement and Kingship: Revisiting the Fortress of Aggersborg, Denmark
Room: MacRoberts 252

Thursday, 1 March. 2012, 17.00
Dr Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford
Sisters in Old Norse Literature: Being and Having
Room: MacRoberts 252

Thursday, 16 Febr. 2012, 17.00
Dr Erik Niblaeus, University of Erlangen, Germany
German Influence on Liturgy and Clergy in Denmark and Sweden, c. 1050–1150
Room: MacRoberts 252

Wednesday, 8 Febr. 2012, 16.00 (co-hosted with The Centre for the Study of Myth Seminar Series)  NOTE the day!!
Stefan Brink
Mythologizing Landscape
Room: Taylor C11

Thursday, 24 Nov. 2011, 17.00 (co-hosted with the History Seminar)
Ian Beuermann, University of Oslo
Fornjótr's descendants. Reading Orkneyinga saga's origin myth
Room: MacRoberts 302

Also, co-hosted with the History Seminar:
Wednesday, 23 Nov. 2011, 17.15
Ian Beuermann, University of Oslo
What does Sveinn (Áslaifarsson) do in Orkneyinga saga?
Room: King's College F22

Thursday, 1 Dec. 2011, 17.00
Stefan Brink
The Cultic Grove in Pagan Scandinavia
Room: MacRoberts 302

Wednesday, 7 Dec. 2011, 17.00 (OBS the Date!) (co-hosted with the History Seminar)
Karen Bek-Pedersen
Tba
Room: King's College F22

Thursday, 8 Dec. 2011, 17.00
Paul Bibire
Þórr and Hrungnir: the strange case of Henry
Room: MacRoberts 250

Thursday, 19 May 2011, 17.00
Barbara Crawford, University of St Andrews
The joint earldoms of Orkney and Caithness. A conflict of loyalty?
Room: MR252

Thursday, 12 May 2011, 17.00
Johan Adetorp, Linnaeus University
A Reinterpretation of the Scandinavian Gold Bracteates: Celtic and South-Scandinavian Religion in the Iron Age
Room: MR250

Thursday, 5 May 2011, 17.00
Ian Crockatt, University of Aberdeen
Skaldic Poetry, Kennings and the search for 'Dynamic Equivalence' - a poet's experience of translating Rognvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson's verses
Room: MR251

Thursday, 28 April 2011, 17.00
Ralph O'Connor, University of Aberdeen
How to seduce your stepson and why it won't last: deviance and taboo in medieval Icelandic and Gaelic narrative
Room: MR250

Tuesday, 22 March 2011, 17.00
Edward Carlsson Browne, University of Aberdeen
Magnús berfættr and the jarls of Orkney
Room: MR304

Thursday, 3 March 2011, 17.00
Haki Antonsson, University College London
Yngvars saga viðförla and the beginning of saga writing in Iceland
Room: MR265

Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 16.00
Daniel Löwenborg, University of Uppsala
The Iron Age Shock Doctrine - GIS analyses of property rights in the landscape in the wake of a climat crisis AD 536-545
Room: MR 2652

Thursday, 11 November 2010, 17.00
Bjarne Thomsen, University of Edinburgh
(Trans)national Narratives: H.C. Andersen, Selma Lagerlöf - and the British Perspective
Room: MR 252

Thursday, 14 October 2010, 17.00
Marteinn Sigurðsson, University of Copenhagen
Fortress of the Gods: On the the Place-Name Goðaborg in East Iceland
Room: MR 252

Tuesday, 11 May 2010, 16.00
David Dumville, University of Aberdeen
Protests about Orkneyinga saga
Room: EIG1

Tuesday, 4 May 2010, 16.00
Andrew Jennings and Arne Kruse, Shetland College and University of Edinburgh
Shetland, Unst and Yell: Onomastic Evidence for Pre-Viking Contact between Norway and the Northern Isles
Room: MR302

Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 16.00
TARRIN WILLS, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Behavioural evidence for testosterone production and effects in early Northern literature
Room: EIG1

Thursday, 4 March 2010, 16.00
BRIAN SMITH, SHETLAND ARCHIVES
Assemblies and Assembly Sites in Shetland
Room: MR302

Thursday, 18 February 2010, 15.00
Claire Thomson, University College London
The Sun Will Shine on the Homes of the Future: Architecture and Interculturality in New Danish and Swedish Cinema
Room: MR252

Monday, 7 December 2009, 16.00
PATRICIA BOULHOSA, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Laws and Society in Medieval Iceland: Are the Sources Irreconcilable?

Seminar: Thursday, 3 December 2009, 16.00
JAN HENRIK FALLGREN, UNIVERSITY OF UPPSALA & ABERDEEN
Continuity and Change – Settlement and Society on Öland 200-1300 AD

Seminar: Thursday, 19 November 2009, 16.00
IRENE GARCÍA LOSQUIÑO, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Traces of West Germanic in the Older Runic Inscriptions

Seminar: Thursday, 30 April 2009, 16.00
CLARE DOWNHAM, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Coastal communities and diaspora identity in Viking Age Ireland

Seminar: Thursday, 26 March 2009, 16.00
BARBARA FENNELL, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Resurrections of earlier forms of address in present day Swedish

Seminar: Thursday, 26 February 2009, 16.00
STEPHEN HARRISON, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
Warriors, Womenfolk and Pagans? The Viking Graves of Scotland Reconsidered.

Seminar: Thursday 19 February 2009, 16.00
PROFESSOR MICHAEL GELTING, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN AND RIGSARKIVET, COPENHAGEN
Two Early Twelfth-Century Views of Denmark's Christian Past: Ailnoth and the Anonymous of Roskilde

Seminar: Monday, 9 February 2009, 16.15
(in conjunction with History and ACREEH)
DR ANDREW NEWBY, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
British Responses to Famine in Finland and Sweden, c.1857-1868

Seminar: Thursday, 27 November 2008, 16.00
PROFESSOR ANGELO FORTE, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Roe, Hólmganga and the 'strange law' of Clann Duib: Some comparative Thoughts on the Duellum in Early Medieval Scotland and Scandinavia

Seminar: Thursday, 13 November 2008, 16.00
DR PERNILLE HERMANN, UNIVERSITY OF ÅRHUS
Cultural Memory and Old Norse Myth

Seminar: Thursday, 16 October 2008, 16.00
Scandinavian Studies Seminar:
DR KAREN BEK-PEDERSEN, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Fate and Weaving

Seminar: Wednesday, 7 May 2008
DR RALPH O'CONNOR, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
The Birth of Legendary Fiction in Medieval Iceland

Seminar: Thursday, 24 April 2008
DR LYDIA KLOS, UNIVERSITY OF KIEL
Runes, roads and riddles. An interdisciplinary approach to runestones

Seminar: Wednesday, 16 April 2008
DR TARRIN WILLS, ABERDEEN
The dating of Old Norse skaldic poetry

Seminar: Thursday, 6 March 2008
DR GARETH WILLIAMS, BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
Ship levies and royal power in Viking-Age Scandinavia

Seminar: Thursday, 28 February 2008
PROFESSOR MICHAEL H. GELTING, ABERDEEN AND COPENHAGEN
The Problem of Danish ‘Feudalism’: Military, legal, and social change in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

Seminar: Thursday, 7 February 2008
PROFESSOR STEFAN BRINK, ABERDEEN
Lord and Lady – bryti and deigja. Some historical and etymological aspects of family, patronage and slavery in Early Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England

Other Past Events

Ancestor Worship

A Half-Day Conference

The Centre for Scandinavian Studies is pleased to announce an interdisciplinary Half-Day-Seminar on Ancestor Worship, taking place in Aberdeen on the 8th of March 2012. The papers discuss aspects on ancestor worship in Early Scandinavia from an archaeological, history of religion, folklore and philological point of view.

Date: Thursday the 8th of March
Time: 13-17
Venue: Fraser Noble 110 (see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/maps/old-aberdeen-download.php)

 Programme
13.00-13.45 Andreas Nordberg Ancestor worship in Scandinavian Research on Old Norse Religion
13.45-14.30 Triin Laidoner In Touch with the Ancestors: Kingship and Kinship in Old Norse Religion
14.30-15.15 Coffee break
15.15-16.00 Terry Gunnell Folk Legends, Folk Traditions and Grave Mounds
16.00-16.45 Stefan Brink The Iron Age ‘Double Burials’ of Scandinavia

Speakers
Professor Stefan Brink, Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen
Professor Terry Gunnell, Folkloristics and Old Norse Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
PhD Triin Laidoner, Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen
Associate Professor (Docent) Andreas Nordberg, Section for History of Religions, University of Stockholm, and The Stockholm County Museum/Archaeology Section, Sweden  

The participation in the conference is free, but we would like anyone interested in participating to send us a mail, preferably before the 1st of March, to s.brink@abdn.ac.uk, so we know roughly how many we will be.


All welcome

Monday, 28 June 2010
One day symposium: Skaldic Project Symposium - Kennings and Skaldic Dictiom
Venue: 24 High Street

Monday, 3 May 2010
One day seminar: Runes in Context: Runes, Runic Inscriptions, Early Scandinavian Society and Early Germanic Languages
Venue: Linklater Rooms

Monday, 30 March 2009
Conference: Nation Building in 19th Century Scandinavia
Venue: Old Town House

Wednesday 9 - Thursday 10 April 2008
Conference: Scandinavian Provincial Laws: Between Local Customs and European Traditions
Joint conference with the Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies (NCMS), Bergen. (By invitation only) 

Thursday, 1 May 2008
Visit by TERJE SPURKLAND and KARL-GUNNAR JOHANSSON, OSLO
And students; tour of medieval and earlier sites around Seaton Park, along with a tour of Old Aberdeen and lunch.

Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 6pm
(University of Aberdeen Director's Cut event)
Dr Alan Marcus in conversation with film director
HANS PETER MOLAND

22-23 October 2009
Myth and Theory in the Old Norse World
Conference with papers from: Margaret Clunies Ross (Sydney); John Lindow (Berkeley); Joseph Harris (Harvard); Pernille Hermann (Århus); Robert Segal (Aberdeen); Judy Quinn (Cambridge); Terry Gunnell (Reykjavík); Rudi Simek (Bonn); Torun Zachrisson (Stockholm); Neil Price (Aberdeen); Karen Bek-Pedersen (Aberdeen); Jens Peter Schjødt (Århus); Stefan Brink (Aberdeen); Sebastian Cöllen (Uppsala); John McKinnell (Durham)

Centre for Scandinavian Studies
24 High St
King's College
Aberdeen, AB24 3EB