Old Norse News

The arrival of the programmes for the big summer conferences is one of the surest signs that spring is upon us. As a service to you, the reader, Old Norse News brings you a summary digest of the Scandinavian-interest sessions and papers at the biggest of them all: the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan (7-9 May). We’ll follow this up by looking at the Medieval Academy, SASS, and Leeds over the coming weeks.

It looks like being a fairly good year: I count ten sessions devoted solely to the Norse world, and a total of 49 papers on Scandinavian topics. It’s still perhaps not enough, considering that there are over 1500 papers delivered each year at Kalamazoo, but it’s a healthy number. Also encouraging is the interesting spread of sub-disciplines between the papers. Literature predominates, but people are talking about an interesting range of texts, including some less commonly studied ones: the session on biskupa sögur and the two papers on Tristans saga stand out, for example. There isn’t, however, very much on poetry this year. As usual, medieval Scandinavian history — even the Vikings — is a bit thin on the ground, although the titles of the individual history papers sound very interesting. It’s a shame there aren’t any sessions devoted entirely to Scandinavian history, though. There’s also a sprinkling of archaeology, and even some linguistic topics. It also looks as there are none of the major clashes between Norse sessions that annoyed some of us so much last year.

Alas, I can’t make it to Kalamazoo this year, but I shall be trying to persuade people to update Old Norse News  on what’s going on. In the meantime, there follows the digest of Scandinavian Studies sessions and papers at Kalamazoo this year; you’ll see that it will almost be possible to go to every session of the conference and only to hear papers on Scandinavia! Apologies if I’ve missed anything out.

Thursday 10.00

• 11 Old Norse Literature and Culture

Sponsor: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis Univ., and the Viking Society for Northern Research

With Friends like These . . . : Thor as Outsider among the Æsir

Kevin J. Wanner, Western Michigan Univ.

The New World and the Numinous in the Vinland Sagas

Mahlika Hopwood, Fordham Univ.

Saving Face: Negotiating Feud in the Fornaldarsogur

Michael Nagy, South Dakota State Univ.-Brookings

• 14 Male Garrulity

Sponsor: Dept. of Medieval Studies, Central European Univ.

Talkative Men in Old Norse Culture: How Were They Judged?

Else Mundal, Senter for Middelalderstudier, Univ. i Bergen

• 29 Early Medieval Military History: Obligations, Sources, and Technology

Sponsor: De Re Militari and the Society for Military History

Viking Warfare in the Ninth Century: The Contributions of the Annales Xantenses and Annales Vedastini

Steve Bivans, Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• 31 The Tristan Motif: National Traditions and Their Significance

Sponsor: Tristan Society

“Translating” Tristan: Hákon Hákonarson’s Norway and the Possibilities of Translatio

Adam Oberlin, Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities

A Tristan Parody in the Saga of Thidrek of Bern

Edward R. Haymes, Cleveland State Univ.

Thursday 1.30

• 67 Celtic Literature

Norse Heathenism in the Irish Landscape

Gwendolyn Sheldon, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto

• 73 Dress and Textiles I: Threads and Fibers

Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)

Evidence for Roundels in Viking Age Embroidery from Bjerringhøj, Mammen Parish, Denmark

Raven Alexandra Fagelson, Independent Scholar

• 85 Medieval Icelandic Bishops’ Sagas

“If the Law Is Split Asunder”: The Confrontation between Religious and Political Authority in the Sagas of Guðmundr Arason

Annalisa C. Moretti, Western Michigan Univ.

Var með honum alla ævi: The Image of Mother in Þorláks Saga

Gregory L. Laing, Western Michigan Univ.

“A good name is better than precious ointment”: Sacred Names in Þorláks Saga

Colleen Dunn, Western Michigan Univ.

Clothing Sin: Sumptuary Law and Unction in Þorláks Saga

Jana K. Schulman, Western Michigan Univ.

• 103 Approaches to Magic in the Northern European World

Magic S(words)

Melissa Sprenkle, Whitworth Univ.

Norse Magic and the Power of Written and Spoken Words

Derek Newman-Stille, Trent Univ.

“Harðsnúin froeði”: Magic and Knowledge in Laxdæla Saga

Christopher Bailey

Thursday 7.30

• 184 The Beverage of Valhalla: Mead in the Viking World

The Drink of the Gods: The Origins of Mead Supremacy in Northern Europe

Max Nelson, Univ. of Windsor

Of Horn Maidens and Hostesses: The Role of Women in the Drinking Rituals of the North

Christine M. Bethke, Florida State Univ.

“Site nú tó symle, and onsæl meodo”: Quaffing Mead with the Vikings

Ken Schramm, Ann Arbor Brewers Guild

• 192 The Irish Sea in the Viking Age

Sponsor: Dept. of History, Appalachian State Univ.

Hitting Your Head on an Axe: The Impact of Weapons on Social Discourse

David B. Beogher, Eastern Michigan Univ.

“A Christian Burial”: Funerary Rites and the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnois

Maggie McEnchroe Williams, William Paterson Univ.

Religious Controversy in the Kingdom of the Isles: Rushen Abbey’s Relations with the Norse Kings of Mann

Valerie Dawn Hampton, Univ. of Florida/Western Michigan Univ.

Tales of Three Brothers: Historical Fact or Literary Trope?

Mary A. Valante

Friday 10.00

• 205 Icelanders Abroad: International Adventures in Old Norse Literature

Sponsor: New England Saga Society (NESS)

Orkney as a Member of the Anglo-French Culture Club

Maria-Claudia Tomany, Minnesota State Univ.-Mankato

Race Relations in the Vinland Sagas

Gretchen Hendrick, Univ. of Connecticut

Royal Women and Their Power in Heimskringla

Jóhanna Katrin Friðriksdóttir, Lincoln College, Univ. of Oxford

Friday 1.30

• 268 Language in Contact and Context: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Medieval English

Sponsor: Society for the Study of the History of the English Language (SSHEL)

Anglo-Scandinavian Language Contact Scenarios

Elise E. Morse-Gagné, Tougaloo College

• 311 Encounters and Transformations I: Material Cultures along the Silk Road

Encounters between Vikings and Persians on the Silk Road

Mark Bradshaw Busbee, Florida Gulf Coast Univ.

Friday 3.30

• 323 You Better Behave! II: Transgressive Behaviors

Sponsor: Medieval Academy of America

Outlaws and the Otherworld: The Divided Rebel in the Icelandic Sagas

Gregg Smith, Mountain State Univ.

• 371 Papers by Undergraduates II

Literary Representations of Cultural Liminality: The Old Norse and Latin Accounts of Sigurð Magnusson’s Travels to the Holy Land

Aaron James Vanides, Univ. of Chicago

Saturday 10.00

• 416 Between Understanding and Construction: Sanctity in the North

Sponsor: Háskóli Íslands

Shaping the Legitimacy of Leadership: The Royal Martyrs of Medieval Scandinavia in Pseudo-Historical Texts

Joanna Agnieszka Skorzewska, Univ. i Oslo

Selkolla: A Colorful Side of Medieval Icelandic Christianity

Gunnvör S. Karlsdóttir, Háskóli Íslands

Saturday 3.30

• 505 Medieval Languages: Barriers or Bridges to Teaching? II

Sponsor: CARA (Committee on Centers and Regional Associations, Medieval Academy of America)

The Fusion of Old-Norse/Icelandic and Library and Information Studies in the Creation of Educational Materials and Tools

Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

• 525 Old Norse-Icelandic Studies in Honor of Joseph Harris

The Cultivation of Personal Poetry in the Frankish Empire and the Viking Diaspora

Russell Poole, Univ. of Western Ontario

Eiríksmál and Hákonarmál: A Forschungsbericht and an Option or Two

Robert D. Fulk, Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Beer, Vomit, Blood, and Poetry: Egils saga cap. 44-45

Thomas D. Hill

Sunday 8.30

• 559 Virtue, Vice, and Virility: High Status Men in the Middle Ages

Sponsor: Division of History, Univ. of Huddersfield

The Outward Urge: Gender, Status, and Migration in the Viking Age

Simon Trafford, Institute of Historical Research, Univ. of London

• 569 Thesaurus Reliquiarum: Relics and Relic-Like Objects in Monastic Contexts I

Shrines under Siege: The Defensive Role of Relics during the Viking Attacks in Francia (ca. 840-940)

Daniel DeSelm, Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor

• 581 Mostly Old Icelandic Manuscript Studies

Sponsor: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies

Margrétar saga II: The Perfect Edition

Kirsten Wolf, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

Outlaws and Knights on the Edge: Peripheral Manuscript Evidence Pertaining to Grettis saga, Gísla saga, Harðar saga, and Sigrgarðs saga frækna‘

Emily Lethbridge, Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Fixing, Fastening, and Gripping in Norse Society and Material Culture

Carrie Roy, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

• 588 Beyond Geography: New Work on the Old English Orosius

Frozen Debate: The Sagas’ Chilling Effect upon The Voyages of Ohþere and Wulfstan

Jeremy DeAngelo, Univ. of Connecticut

Sunday 10.30

• 610 Barlaam and Josaphat in the European Middle Ages

The Barlaams ok Josaphats saga: A Courtly Legend at the Royal Court in Bergen

Vera Johanterwage, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Univ. Frankfurt am Main

• 614 Scandinavian Studies

Sponsor: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies

Leaving It All Up to Chance (And Other Fateful Fictions)

Oren Falk, Cornell Univ.

Martha versus Mary: The “Sister Saints” and Roles for Women in Medieval Iceland

Natalie Van Deusen, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

Having Fun the Old Way, or, Tradition Never Really Dies: Semi-oral Retelling of Medieval Þorsteins saga bæjarmagnus in 1825 AD

Ilya V. Svedlov, Independent Scholar

The Forgotten Poem: Notes on a Latin Praise Poem for Saint Þorlákr

Susanne M. Fahn, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison