Senior Lecturer
My main research interests are in the medieval North, particularly Old Norse-Icelandic literature, language, culture, and society. I studied for a BA (Hons) in English and Linguistics at the University of York, where the city's visible layers of history, Norse-influenced street names, and the opportunity to study unusual things (Old English and Old Norse, among others) all contributed to me falling in love with medieval languages, literatures and cultures. I stayed on for an MA in Medieval Studies, followed by a PhD examining literary-legal relations in early Iceland. I was finally persuaded away from the charms of northern England for a postdoctoral position in sunny Sydney, where I worked on the international research project Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (2007-12). On my return to the UK I started inching north, with a stint as a Junior Research Fellow at Durham University, before coming to Aberdeen as Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies in September 2014. Since then I have spent time as an ERASMUS Visiting Scholar in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna, and am currently Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies.
Director, Centre for Scandinavian Studies
Director of Postgraduate Taught Studies, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy
Programme Director, MLitt in Scandinavian Studies
Academic Advisor, Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies
Library rep, History
Nominated for an Excellence in Leadership award 2019.
Honorary Secretary, Viking Society for Northern Research (2019-)
Steering Group Member, History UK (2016-19)
My main research interests are in the medieval North, particularly Old Norse-Icelandic literature, language, culture, and society. During 2017-19 I held an AHRC Leadership Fellowship for a project entitled What Am I?, which examines the language used in Old Norse poetry to express ideas about the world and humanity's relationship with it. I am increasingly interested in theoretical and critical approaches from the cognitive and environmental humanities, and their applicability to Old Norse and medieval literature.
My PhD thesis investigated literary-legal relations in medieval Iceland, and I continue to be interested in legal culture. I've researched and published on the use of legal terminology and court scenes in sagas; lawspeakers and lawyers; the impact of literacy on legal knowledge; and the use of poetry in various legal contexts.
Having edited the poetry from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks for the skaldic project, I became especially interested in the saga's collection of riddles, the world views they represent, and the traditions they play with, which has allowed me to think and write about Old Norse mythology, representations of the natural world, poetic traditions, humour and play, Old Norse bird puns, and lots of other fun and interesting things besides (many of which feed into my current project). I am also interested in the semantics of humour and laughter in Old Norse, jokes about women, and the genderedness of laughter in medieval Scandinavia, and have published on the translation and adaptation of Old Norse texts.
I am Principal Investigator, with Daniel Derrin (Durham), of the Humours of the Past (HOP) Network. Follow us on Twitter @historichumour
I am Bibliography Editor for the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project.
2017-19: What Am I? Riddles, Riddling Language and World View in Old Norse Poetry - AHRC Leadership Fellows Scheme
2017: The Saga of the Conspirators. Impact, Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation award, University of Aberdeen
2016-17: Humours of the Past - AHRC Research Networking Scheme (with Daniel Derrin)
2016: Censured and Censuring: Humour, Laughter and Identity in (early) Scandinavian Society - Royal Society of Edinburgh Small Grants Scheme
2015: Humours of the Past - Principal's Interdisciplinary Fund, University of Aberdeen
In 2020-21 I am involved with the following courses:
HI1027 Making History
HI2526 Vikings: An Introduction (co-ordinator)
HI356J Thinking History
HI4026 Special Subject: Myths of the North (co-ordinator)
HI502J Old Norse 1: Language, Literature and Culture (co-ordinator)
HI552M Old Norse 2: Language, Individuals and Society (co-ordinator)
HI5594 Research Preparation in Historical Studies
Undergraduate and MLitt dissertation supervision.
I was nominated for an Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching Award in 2015 and 2017.
I am lead supervisor for the following PhD students:
Pam Corray, 'Children Not Seen and Not Heard in Old Norse Literature'
Heidi Synnøve Djuve, 'The Medieval Scandinavian Specula'
Jennifer Hemphill, 'Weather Magic in Medieval Scandinavia'
Neal Locke, 'Personal Transformation in Medieval Scandinavian Literature: Three Case Studies'
Solveig Marie Wang, 'Investigating the Nature of Norse-Sámi Relations in the Middle Ages'
Caroline Wilhelmsson, 'Defining Sweden, c.800-c.1288'
Second supervisor for:
Ingrid Hegland, 'An Interdisciplinary Reassessment of the Causes of the Viking Age'
Cattlyn Obel, 'The West Semitic origins of Thor’s combat with Jormungandr'
Former students:
Dr Stefan Drechsler, ‘Making Manuscripts at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century’ (2017)
Dr Keith Ruiter, ‘Mannjafnaðr: A Study of Normativity, Transgression, and Social Pragmatism in Medieval Scandinavia’ (2018)
Dr Claire Organ, ‘Colour in the Eddic Mythological Poems’ (2019)
I would be happy to hear from students wishing to undertake doctoral research in any area of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, culture and history.
Profiles for current postgraduate research in the Centre for Scandinavian Studies can be viewed here: Scandinavian Studies Postgraduates.
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Narrating Law and Laws of Narration in Medieval Scandinavia. Scheel, R. (ed.). Walter de Gruyter, pp. 91-116, 26 pages
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Law | Book | Culture in the Middle Ages. Gobbitt, T. (ed.). Brill
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
Palgrave Macmillan
Books and Reports: Books
The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History and Methodology. Derrin, D., Burrows, H. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Culture. Anderson, M., Wheeler, M. (eds.). Edinburgh University Press, pp. 99-119, 21 pages
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen
Books and Reports: Books
Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Clunies Ross, M. (ed.). Brepols, pp. 367-487, 101 pages
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Gade, K. E., Marold, E. (eds.). Brepols, pp. 631-635, 5 pages
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Translating Early Medieval Poetry. Birkett, T., March-Lyons, K. (eds.). Boydell & Brewer, pp. 148-164, 17 pages
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
Northern Studies, vol. 47, pp. 47-75
Contributions to Journals: Articles
