The 12th Bergen International Postgraduate Symposium in Old Norse Studies 2018: Norms, Laws and Literature
The symposium for postgraduate students of Old Norse is hosted annually by the University of Bergen. Initiated by Professor Else Mundal under the auspices of the Centre for Medieval Studies, it is now organized by the Old Norse section of the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies.
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Each year MA and PhD students are invited from Bergen and several other universities to present their research to their peers, gaining experience in writing papers and public speaking, and getting the opportunity to meet students at the equivalent academic stage.
The theme of the 2018 conference is "Norms, Laws and Literature".
The academic programme will take place on the 9th to the 11th of April at the University of Bergen. The location for all three days is the Law Faculty (Jusbygget, Dragefjellet, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1), Auditorium 3.
On Thursday the 12th April there will be an excursion in Bergen.
All are welcome to listen to the papers and participate in the discussion free of charge. For registration or more information please contact: helen.leslie@uib.no.
Monday 9th April
08.30 - 09.00: Registration
09.00 - 09:15: Opening address by Jørgen Sejersted (Dean of the Humanities Faculty)
Session 1: Íslendingasögur
Chair: David Ashurst
09.15 - 09.45: Brynja Thorgeirsdottir (Cambridge), Anger in Njáls saga: Body, Words and Gender
09:45 - 10.15: Tom Grant (Cambridge), Creating Problems: The Smith-Poet Figure in the Íslendingasögur
10.15 - 10.45: Lauren O'Brien (Nottingham), Egils saga Skallagrímssonar and the Rejection of his Father’s Authority
10.45 - 11.15: Coffee break
11.30 - 12.30: Visit to special collections
12.45 - 14.00: Lunch
Session 2: Poetry
Chair: Hannah Burrows
14.00 - 14.30: Francesco Colombo (Cambridge), Advice, Betrayal and Possession: The Word ráða in the Eddic Poems about Sigurðr’s Youth
14.30 - 15.00: Katie Haley-Halinski (Cambridge), Birds of a Feather: Avian Taxonomies in Skaldic Kennings
15.00 - 15.30: Leiv Olsen (Bergen), Linguistic Criteria for the Age of Eddic Poetry: Will We Ever Be Able to Achieve a Consensus on the Date of Eddic Poetry?
15.30 - 16.00: Coffee break
Session 3: Fornaldarsögur and Romance
Chair: Brittany Schorn
16.00 - 16.30: Claudia Hoßbach (Cambridge), Hún mællti þá hlæjandi með miklum ógangi: Laughter in Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur
16.30 - 17.00: Katherine Olley (Cambridge), Co-Presence or Consumption: Transgressing Kinship Norms in Old Norse Mythic-Heroic Literature
17.00 - 17.30: Alisa Valpola-Walker (Cambridge), Viktors saga ok Blávus: Global Narratives from the Edge of the World
Tuesday 10th April
Session 4: Gender Perspectives
Chair: Judy Quinn
09.00 - 09.30: Luthien Cangemi (Cambridge), The Role of Women in Old Norse Medicine
09.30 - 10.00: Michael Frost (Aberdeen), Bishops and Witches in Fourteenth-Century Iceland
10.00 - 10.30: Jessica Yusek (Nottingham), Loathly Ladies and Shape-shifting Women: Gender and the Supernatural in Medieval Icelandic and Middle English Literature
10.30 - 11.00: Coffee break
Session 5: The King and the Aristocracy
Chair: Jens Eike Schnall
11.00 - 11.30: Beñat Elortza (Aberdeen), Memory, Law and Pragmatism: The Institutionalisation of the leiðangr in Scandinavia during the Civil Wars
11.30 - 12.00: Heidi Synnøve Djuve (Aberdeen), A Reappraisal of Konungastyrelsen – A Swedish Medieval Treatise on the Art of Royal Governance
12.00 - 12.10: Short break
12.10 - 12.40: Tom Morcom (Oxford), The Oscillating hirð in Morkinskinna
12.40 - 13.10: Will Raybould (Durham), “Gilded Axe-Heads and Sword-Hilts” Examining Aristocratic Identity in Sven Aggesen’s Lex Castrensis Sive Curiae
13.10 - 14.30: Lunch
Session 6: Law
Chair: Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen
14.30 - 15.00: Anne Ladefoged (Copenhagen), The Layout in Prologue and Law Text
15.00 - 15.30: Viktória Gyönki (Budapest), Oaths in Medieval Scandinavian Law and Literature
15.30 - 16.00: Joseph Ryder (Bergen), Udal Law, Place Names and Thing Places? The Problems of Interdisciplinary Research as an Archaeologist of the Viking Age and Late Norse Period of Skye and the Outer Hebrides
16.00 - 16.30: Coffee Break
Session 7: Northern Geographies
Chair: Ruarigh Dale
16.30 - 17.00: Jonas Zeit-Altpeter (Bonn), Infernum Hyslandie – Gateway to Hell? Icelandic Volcanism in Medieval Texts, ca. 900-1300
17.00 - 17.30: William Pidzamecky (Nottingham), So it was written, so it shall be? Investigating Written Primary Source Evidence for Viking Expansion to England, Ireland, and Eastern Europe in the 8th to 10th centuries
19.00: Conference Dinner (Matbørsen, Vågsallmenningen 1)
Wednesday 11th April
Session 8: Writing Culture and Runology
Chair: Juliane Tiemann
09.00 - 09.30: Johan Bollaert (Oslo), Roman Alphabet Inscriptions in Early Medieval Norway – A Distinct Writing Culture?
09.30 - 10.00: Elisabeth Magin (Nottingham), Rethinking Runology
10.00 - 10.30: Caroline Wilhelmsson (Aberdeen), Öland’s Runes and its Clergy: A Case of Interdependence?
10.30 - 11.00: Coffee break
Session 9: Manuscript Studies
Chair: Odd Einar Haugen
11.00 - 11.30: Sven Kraus (Berlin), Medieval Literature and ‘the National’: Normative Discourses in Research and Perception
11.30 - 12.00: Patrick Farrugia (Bergen), A Case for Lasting Old Norwegian Influence in Northern Iceland
12.00 - 12.10: Short break
12.10 - 12.40: Zuzana Stankovitsová (Bergen), Building a Stemma of the Króka-Refs saga Manuscripts
12.40 - 13.10: Nina Stensaker (Bergen), Dealing with a Law Fragment
13.10 - 14.30: Lunch
Session 10: Communities
Chair: Zuzana Stankovitsová
14.30 - 15.00: Alexander J. Wilson (Durham), “Alternative” Communities in the Sagas: Constructing a Methodology for Literary Interpretation
15.30 - 16.00: William Brockbank (Oxford), Nis þæt heoru stow: Unpleasant Places in Beowulf andGrettis saga
15.30 - 16.00: Thomas Spray (Durham), On Origins: George Dasent, Charles Darwin, and Old Norse ‘Glossology’
16.00: Coffee
