Preface 13
Keynote lectures
The vernacular scribe in medieval Iceland: On the transmission of texts in a living language vs. “relic texts” 14
Haraldur Bernharðsson, University of Iceland
Revisiting ‘Folkminnesforskning och filologi’ 15
Stephen A. Mitchell, Harvard University
Viewing the Vikings: An interdisciplinary challenge 16
Neil Price, University of Uppsala
Paper presentations
Into the unknown: Contextualizing the Finnar of the sagas 17
Sirpa Aalto, University of Oulu / Hanken School of Economics, & Anna Wessman, University of Bergen
Religious lives away from home in the Viking Age: Animal sacrifice 26
Lesley Abrams, University of Oxford / University of Cambridge
Otherness and similarity of Glæsivellir: Rhetorical and intertextual implications 28
Virginie Adam, Sorbonne Université
Writing classical antiquity in mediæval Iceland: The interpolations of Trójumanna saga 29
Malo Adeux, Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO)
From Circum-Baltic brothers to Atlantic antagonists: Orcadian and Norwegian agendas in the Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum origin tradition 30
Ben Allport, University of Bergen
Skáld, vates, ינאב (poet, seer, prophet): A cross-cultural study of separate charismatic traditions 31
David Ashurst, Durham University
Kolskeggur hinn fróði og landnám: Bera formúlukenndar landnámsfrásagnir merki um upphaflegt mót? 32
Auður Ingvarsdóttir, Reykjavíkurakademían
What Snorri saw but never told: Material and textual sources to the early medieval history of Tønsberg 33
Bjørn Bandlien, University of South-Eastern Norway
Encircling serpents: Cosmological timelines and the example of the world serpent 34
Jesse Barber, University of Helsinki
Norse notions of labour 43
Santiago Barreiro, CONICET – Universidad of Buenos Aires
The Old Icelandic uses of the WEAVING and SPINNING of FATE metaphor and their provenance 50
Grzegorz Bartusik, University of Silesia, Katowice
Sickness and emotion in Old Norse prose: Exploring somatic experience 51
Caroline Batten, University of Oxford
A digital conversation: Applying data analysis to Viking Age symbols in archaeology and mythological literature 52
Katherine Beard, University of Oxford
Towards a reoriented global North Atlantic: Race and captivity in the stories of Geirmundr Heljarskinn 53
Jacob Bell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Mun aldri fyrnask í þýðverskri tungu ok á Norðrlöndum: Centering Denmark and erasing the Baltic through supernatural geographies in Völsunga saga and Ragnars saga Loðbrókar 54
Adam Bierstedt, Simmons University
Hallgerðr’s hair and breeches: The original meaning of Hallgerðr Hǫskuldsdóttir’s nicknames 58
Bjarni Gunnar Ásgeirsson, University of Iceland
Resonant motion in the poems of Eyvindr Skáldaspillir Finnsson 59
Isobel Boles, University of California, Berkeley
The othered woman: Language changes in the translation of the supernatural in Rómverja saga 60
Natasha A. J. Bradley, University of Oxford
Disruption in Hárbarðsljóð 61
Manu Braithwaite-Westoby, University of Sydney
Hybridity and selfhood in Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli 62
Daniel Brielmaier, University of Toronto
Women, trolls, and manuscripts: Female aspects of saga production, character drawing and transmission of the fornaldarsögur 63
Valerie Broustin, University of Bonn, & Rudolf Simek, University of Bonn, em.
Iceland, Baltic, Turkmenistan: The archaeological connections of the Mosfell excavations 66
Jesse Byock, University of Iceland / University of California, Los Angeles
‘Eg hørde på dæn hundegaul i míne langsomme dagar’: The otherworldly dogs of Medieval Europe 67
Ashley Castelino, University of Oxford
Ok þá kvað hann vísu: Sagas and the ongoing history of skaldic reception 68
Ben Chennells, University College London
Narratological functions of geography in Göngu-Hrólfs saga 77
Kathrin Chlench-Priber, University of Bonn
Knowledge is power: The limits of acceptable magic use in medieval chivalric rímur 80
Lee Colwill, University of Cambridge
Alternative models of community formation in Jómsvíkinga saga 81
Jonathan F. Correa-Reyes, The Pennsylvania State University
Garðarshólmr: Exploring the social networks of eastern Scandinavians in Landnámabók 82
Cassidy Croci, University of Nottingham
Of vinðr and vargar – Exploring a motif in medieval literary tradition 83
Carina Damm, Leipzig University / GWZO Leipzig
Maritime cultural geographies in Örvar-Odds saga and the alliterative Morte Darthure 84
Rebecca Drake, The University of York
Heroes, trolls, and ‘fan fiction’: Saga characters in the landscape of folklore 85
Matthias Egeler, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Kinsmen, friends or mercenaries? Problematising the existence of ‘international’ forces in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scandinavia 86
Beñat Elortza Larrea, Nord University
Man’s best friend? Re-evaluating canine-human relationships in Viking-Age multispecies communities 87
Harriet Evans Tang, Durham University
Three sons in the third generation: A cosmogonic genealogy echoing through history 88
Frog, University of Helsinki
The backgrounds and early careers of Swedish bishops in the late Middle Ages 97
Michael Frost, University of Gothenburg
Sagas in the digital age: Comments on the digital interpretation of saga literature 98
Gregory Gaines, University of Maine
Representations of poetical performances in the skáldsögur: A review from a pragmatical approach 99
Inés García López, Universitat Rovira i Virgili
On wings of death: Ibn Faḍlān’s “angel of death” as a valkyrja and/or völva 100
Gerður Halldóra Sigurðardóttir, University of Iceland
“I travel around in the West” fjords: Fóstbræðra saga as a mapping device 101
Gísli Sigurðsson, The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
The mode of retelling: Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa in Bæjarbók á Rauðasandi 102
Daria Glebova
The travels of Haraldr Sigurðarson: Gamanvísur and other stories 106
Erin Goeres, University College London
Born of snow: The development of Snær inn gamli and his family in Scandinavian sources 107
Tom Grant, Utrecht University
Adam of Bremen’s Descriptio: Is it just an ethnic-geographic portrayal of Scandinavia? 115
Lukas Gabriel Grzybowski, State University of Londrina
High seat pillars and settlement: Fact, fake news or folklore 116
Terry Gunnell, University of Iceland
Some comments on the construction of Guta saga 117
Viktória Gyönki, Eötvös Loránd University / Klauzál Cultural House, Budapest
On the origins of things: Finnic syntyloitsut and cultural constructions of the material world 118
Alaric Hall, University of Leeds
King Redbad of the Frisians: A posthumous Viking 123
Simon Halink, Fryske Akademy
“A bag of words” – Stylometry and authorship attribution for Old Norse texts 124
Haukur Þorgeirsson, The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Polaris and the world pillar in Northern tradition – and the god Heimdallr 125
Eldar Heide, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Nú er at segja frá: Narratorial comments in Jómsvíkinga saga 126
Anna Katharina Heiniger, University of Tübingen
‘Least moved out of place’ (sízt ór stað foerð): Writing down the skalds 127
Kate Heslop, University of California, Berkeley
[Dixit] non se carere posse consortio praedecessorum suorum, ‘He said he was unable to be without his predecessors’: Attitudes towards the damnation of heathen ancestors in Old Norse-Icelandic literature 128
Thomas Andrew Hughes, Durham University
Redemption in the Rus’: The motif of the lost-and-found hand and ring in three medieval Icelandic romances 135
Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Nanyang Technological University
Loki the blood-sibling of Óðinn in Japanese interpretations: A lean and lithe, philosophical and mutable, father-mother figure of monsters 144
Tsukusu Jinn Itó, Shinshu University
The archaeology of text: Digging into Orkneyinga saga 147
Judith Jesch, University of Nottingham
Norse depictions of the Sámi: Stereotypes and implications 148
Brent Johnson
Harðar svefnfarar? Medieval Icelandic conceptions of unpleasant nocturnal experiences 149
Kirsi Kanerva, University of Helsinki
bera Botta tilldi: A Gaelic phrase in Holm papp 4 4°x? 150
Merrill Kaplan, The Ohio State University
Flesh, feathers, bones: Birds in the Viking Age funerary rituals 151
Klaudia Karpińska, Museum of Cultural History University of Oslo
Place-making in the codex – The geographies of *Vatnshyrna and Pseudo-Vatnshyrna 152
Nora Kauffeldt, University of Basel
Presenting Jómsvíkinga saga (and Stýrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa) to an English-speaking audience 154
John Kennedy, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Magic and magic-handlers: Categories of knowledge between past and present 156
Gwendolyne Knight, Stockholm University
The sea(s) in Old Icelandic sagas and Circum-Baltic folklore: The case of Rán/rán and the rå 157
Jonas Koesling, University of Iceland
Jómsvíkinga saga: Constructing a memory of the past 159
Lucie Korecká, Charles University
Fettered by feathers: The bird transformations of Völundr and Óðinn 167
Jan Kozák, Charles University in Prague
The death year of Óláfr Eiríksson and its influence on the dating of Yngvarr’s expedition 168
Annett Krakow, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach
Språk- og kulturmøter i østerled 169
Gunhild Kværness, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN University)
Hurtful words: Verbal and physical dimensions of wounding in Old Norse laws and sagas 170
Sean Lawing, Bryn Athyn College
Birgitta: Study of her political and religious influence in the Baltic world in the 14th and 15th centuries 171
Ella Le Peltier-Foschia, Sorbonne University
Fóstbroeðra saga and its author, Ingimundr Einarsson (†1170) 179
Yves Lenzin
Esja, the fostermother in Kjalnesinga saga 184
Anne Lind, Oslo Metropolitan University
Bones, back-breaking and magical creatures 185
Maria Cristina Lombardi, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’
The first and second life of a trilingual psalter palimpsest: Latin, French and Icelandic in AM 618 4to 192
Tom Lorenz, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Where did Þórólfur go? Multicultural interactions and genre development in Egils rímur and the “Younger Egla” 198
Nikola Macháčková, University of Iceland
Words of a wizard: The lexical relationship between Merlínússpá and Breta sögur 207
Alicia Maddalena, University of York
Die Interrelationen der Guðmundar sögur mit besonderem Fokus auf Guðmundar saga C 208
Magnús Hauksson, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Hávamál: Date, internal coherence and context of composition 217
Mikael Males, University of Oslo
Shaping courtly identity: The transformation of the werewolf in Old Norse-Icelandic adaptations of Marie de France’s Bisclavret 218
Matthew Malone, Durham University
Hér er bleikr kallaðr hræddr, þvíat bliknan kemr eptir hræzlu—Fearless to fearful: Reconstructing fear in Old Norse literature 219
Teodoro Manrique Antón, University of Castilla-La Mancha
Eitt sinn skal hverr deyja: On the relationship between kinship duties and the cursed treasure in Vǫlsunga saga 220
Mario Matín Páez, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain) / Complutense University of Madrid
Is Valhǫll a paradise? Adaptations of Norse myths in modern Japanese fiction 221
Sayaka Matsumoto, Fukui Prefectural University
“Maðr þóttumk ek mennskr til þessa”: Rethinking “female” (?) warrior figures in medieval Norse sources: Material engagement, composite personhoods, and the value of archaeological theory for literary studies 222
Miriam Mayburd, University of Iceland
Women’s wisdom as prophetic ability in Ívens saga and Hærra Ivan 228
Holly McArthur, University of Wisconsin, Madison
‘Oldtids tunge’: Nineteenth-century antiquarian research into the sagas and the politics of language 229
Ciaran McDonough, University of Iceland
Motif as a form of the representation of the past in the legendary sagas 230
Elena Melnikova
Troll culture: Alterity and the shifting spatiality of the paranormal in the ‘postclassical’ Íslendingasögur 231
Rebecca Merkelbach, University of Tübingen
What it takes to make a knight: Modes of representation and narrative function of the Baltic regions in Sigurðar saga þögla 232
Michael Micci, University of Iceland
Knýtlinga saga as source for political and military encounters in the Danish/German/Slavonic borderland 233
Jakub Morawiec, University of Silesia
Relationship and exchange between the northern elites in the Viking and medieval Baltic area: The case for the Baltic psalteries’ origins 234
Andris Mucenieks
Origins and impact of the first printed collections of sagas 243
Ermenegilda Müller, University of Iceland
Representations of the witch: The ongoing narrative of Scandinavian nation building 244
Clare Mulley, University of Oxford
Theodoric on the Rök stone 245
Klaus Johan Myrvoll, University of Stavanger
Severed heads as sacred objects 246
Timothy Nancarrow, University of Newcastle, Australia
Morphology of the saga: André Jolles on the Sage as a “simple form” 247
David Nee, Harvard University
Involuntary physical manifestations of emotions: implications for concept of the body and saga style 248
Marie Novotná, Charles University, Prague
Transpersonal identities: Old Norse childbirth in literature and life 249
Katherine Olley, University of Oxford
First-person feuds: A digital humanities approach to the use of medieval Icelandic literature in video games 250
Luca Panaro, University of Iceland
Extremes of the Austrvegr: Cultural diversity between the Circum-Baltic and Byzantium 251
Agni Agathi C. Papamichael, University of Birmingham
The stylistic function of the vreiðr/vega collocation in the Poetic Edda 252
James Parkhouse, University of Oxford
Murder in the baðstofa 253
Katelin Parsons, University of Iceland / Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
How formulaic is a skaldic formula? 254
Bianca Patria, University of Oslo
Death and burial in the Biskupasögur: The cases of Oddr and Solveig 255
Ryder Patzuk-Russell, University of Iceland
From the Baltic Sea to the farthest North: Finnar, magic and imagined geographies in Old Norse literature 263
Gaïa Perreaut, Sorbonne Université
What is Knýtlinga saga and why does it matter? 264
Alexandra Petrulevich, Uppsala University
Disenchanting the world: Euhemerism and the Old Norse cosmology 265
Jules Piet, University of Strasbourg / University of Iceland
‘A sorrowful stone of the shore of thought’: Exploring concepts of heart, mind and emotion in skaldic diction 266
Edel Porter, University of Castilla-La Mancha
The prophecies of Drauma-Finni: Queer indigenous relationality in Finnboga saga ramma 267
Basil Arnould Price, University of York
Scandinavians and muslims in the mediterranean: A case study of Orkneyinga saga 269
Eduardo Ramos, Penn State University
How good is king Magnús? The picture of the King in Knýtlinga saga and Heimskringla 270
Marta Rey-Radlińska, Jagiellonian University
The archaeological eye: Antiquarianism and medievalism in Icelandic paper manuscripts of the Prose Edda 271
Friederike Richter, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / Universität Zürich
Útlegð – Outlaw(ry): A comparison between early Iceland and Norway 272
Anne Irene Riisøy, University of South-Eastern Norway
“En þat þickir mer askorta er ek se þik eigi”: Emotions, gender, and the body in the Old Norse translation of Partonopeu de Blois 273
Meritxell Risco de la Torre, University of Iceland
The negation of male sexual volition in Old Norse-Icelandic depictions of rape: The case of Adonias saga 274
Matthew Roby, University of Toronto
Learned and imagined geographies in the fornaldarsögur 281
T. P. Rowbotham, Durham University
Assembly sites and non-violent intercultural interaction in the viking diaspora 289
Alexandra Sanmark, University of Highlands and Islands, & Irene García Losquiño, University of Santiago de Compostela
Riddarasögur and saga style 290
Daniel Sävborg, University of Tartu
Jómsborg as a heterotopia: Law in Jómsvíkinga saga 291
Roland Scheel, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Finnar, Freyr, or Fate in Vatnsdæla – (Over-)mapping Iceland in Scandinavian cultural geography 292
Andreas Schmidt, Independent Scholar / Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
The wisdom of the sagas in post-medieval Icelandic proverb collection 293
Christine Schott, Erskine College
Law: What is it good for? 298
Ela Sefcikova, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
St. Óláfr’s Miracula in Eastern Europe revisited 299
Daria Segal, University of Iceland
Óðinn’s ale-bearers: Masculinity and the mead of poetry 300
Ann Sheffield, Allegheny College
Old Norse seiðr and Old Russian volkvy: Sub-arctic shamanism in Rus’? 309
Leszek P. Słupecki, Rzeszów University
Putting the past on display: Museological approaches to the interpretation of the past in saga literature 310
Olivia Elliott Smith, University of Oxford
“Grei þetta er fullt flærdar og falskleita”: The many ghosts of Hamlet in sagas and folklore 311
Thomas Spray, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
The medieval North in 19th century French literature 319
Pierre-Brice Stahl, Sorbonne University
Trouble will find me: Narrative structure and character development in Króka-Refs saga 320
Zuzana Stankovitsová, University of Bergen
What (missing) part of Eyja-fjalla-jökull don’t you understand: Truncated compounds in Icelandic saga landscape 321
Ilya Sverdlov, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Morality, communal action and pre-Christian religion in the North 322
Declan Taggart, University of Iceland
The long road home: Veteran identity and the Varangian guard 323
Rue Taylor, University of California, Berkeley
I know you are but what am I? Film studies and genre in Finnboga saga and Vatnsdoela saga 324
Yoav Tirosh, University of Iceland
Bolli’s choice: Female inciters and social constraint in thirteenth-century Iceland 325
Torfi Tulinius, University of Iceland
Creating the medieval saga 326
Úlfar Bragason, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
“Who will die with him?”: Gender and sacrifice in Arabic accounts of the Rūs 327
Tonicha M. Upham, Aarhus University
Mediums of storytelling in late fifteenth-century Iceland: A study of AM 586 4to and AM 589a-f 4to 328
Alisa Valpola-Walker, University of Cambridge
“Alheil(l)”: Miracles, cures, and constructions of disability in the byskupa sǫgur 329
Natalie M. Van Deusen, University of Alberta
Inspiration Between Two Worlds 336
Bob Oscar Benjamin van Strijen
The Lady Aud, a lifelike word-picture: Reinventing the foremother figure in 19th century Icelandic folklore and Victorian travelogues 344
Sofie Vanherpen, Independent scholar, Ghent University
Kinship, community and gender relations in the Saga of the Jómsvikings and in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival 353
Annette Volfing, University of Oxford
Humiliation and situational ethics: A proverbial motif in some Sagas of Icelanders 354
Eugenia K. Vorobeva, University of Oxford
Canon law and violence against clerics in the contemporary sagas 355
Elizabeth Walgenbach, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Yngvar’s expedition to Serkland: From historical event to cultural memory to fantastic literature in 15th-century Iceland 356
Sabine Heidi Walther, Universität Bonn
Tertiary worlds of the Eddas: Imaginary space and narrative in Norse legend and myth 357
Timothy Liam Waters, University of California, Berkeley
“Hví ertu svá snimma á fótum, sonr?” Negotiating fatherhood in Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs 358
Jan Wehrle, University of Freiburg
The Old Norse prosimetrum – Looking for parallels 359
Jonas Wellendorf, University of California, Berkeley
Towards a literary history of the court skalds 360
Eirik Westcoat
“The quest of Seth” in Icelandic literature: The ecology of evil in Eden 369
Tiffany Nicole White, University of California, Berkeley
Pendant figurines and pocket deities: Material culture as marker of public and private beliefs 370
Nancy L. Wicker, University of Mississippi
Finland and Poland in the margins of Scandinavian runic culture 371
Kendra Willson, University of Turku
Code-switching and other kinds of Latin – Old Icelandic language contacts in the Bishops’ Sagas 375
Yekaterina Yakovenko
Rigmaroles on the margins of the Nordic countries 376
Yelena Sesselja Helgadóttir, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Is there an “other” in Ǫrvar-Odds saga? 377
Jonas Zeit-Altpeter, University of Bonn
Textual and oral re-composition: The case of the younger Bósa saga 380
Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Poster presentations
From Bálagarðssíða to undirheimr: The fantastic journey of Þorstein bæjarmagn from the Baltic Sea region to the underworld and beyond 381
Valerie Broustin, University of Bonn
Body and cosmos: The logic of mythical transformation in Old Norse religion 382
Jan Kozák, Charles University in Prague
Liturgical fragments of Medieval Iceland (1056–1402) 383
Tom Lorenz, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Sagas aus der Vorzeit: Producing a German translation of the fornaldarsögur 384
Valerie Broustin and Jonas Zeit-Altpeter, University of Bonn
Roundtable discussions
Conceptualising emotions and bodies in Old Norse 385
Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford, Caroline Batten, University of Oxford, Marie Novotná, Charles University, Prague, Edel Porter, University of Castilla-La Mancha, & Teodoro Manrique Antón, University of Castilla-La Mancha
Better late than never: Olga Smirnitskaya’s The Verse and the Language of Old Germanic Poetry appears in English 386
Ilya Sverdlov, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Haukur Þorgeirsson, Árnastofnun, Mikael Males, University of Oslo, Michael Schulte, University of Agder, & Maria Volkonskaya
The centenary of Hermann Pálsson 387
Session led by Torfi Tulinius, University of Iceland
The new ONP: Multifaceted approaches to medieval texts 388
Tarrin Wills, University of Copenhagen, Simonetta Battista, University of Copenhagen, Ellert Þórr Jóhannsson, University of Iceland, Johnny F. Lindholm, University of Copenhagen, & Pernille Ellyton, University of Copenhagen
Special sessions
Finnish for total beginners 389
Alaric Hall, University of Leeds
Why are Finnic traditions interesting for Old Norse research? 390
Special exhibit sponsored by the Kalevala Society
