Selected for the Young CAS Fellow programme
Medieval philologist Helen Leslie-Jacobsen is one of four young, outstanding researchers in Norway who will participate in the Young CAS Fellow programme. She will do research on medieval ballads from the Faroe Islands.
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The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) has selected four researchers for the Young CAS Fellow program, one of them medieval philologist Helen Leslie-Jacobsen at the University of Bergen.
The aim of the Young CAS Fellow programme is to support outstanding younger researchers by giving them the opportunity to build independent research networks and gain experience as research leaders.
Medieval heroic ballads from the Faroe Islands
Helen Leslie-Jacobsen will lead the project Ballads Across Borders: The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-Telling World (BARD).
Leslie-Jacobsen describes her project as the first of its kind to approach the medieval heroic ballads from the Faroe Islands from the perspective of Old Norse philology, thus placing and relating them to their cultural context.
"My project will analyse the place of the Faroese ballads in their wider cultural context in the medieval North, and, since the Faroese heroic ballads are very understudied, the project will begin to plug a large gap in research and make the material available to other scholars," Leslie-Jacobsen said.
In addition to article publications, the UiB scholar plans that her Young CAS Fellow group will translate all the Nordic ballads concerning the hero Sigurðr Fáfnisbani.
Will make a dream team
"I am very happy and satisfied with the award, this is a very good way to start a new project," says Leslie-Jacobsen.
The funds will be used for workshops in Oslo and Bergen, where she can invite her dream colleagues from all over the world. Here they will research the ballads thoroughly, and work on translating the ballads.
In addition, the same colleagues will have a research stay of two months in Oslo, where they will continue to work on the most important points from the meetings, and finish writing publications.
"I look forward to gathering a dream team of researchers and would like to include people from the University of Bergen, from the Faroe Islands and from other universities in the Nordic countries."
