Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen
Position
Associate Professor, Old Norse Philology
Affiliation
Research groups
- Research Group for Medieval Philology
- Research Group Literature & Religion
- Research Group for Law and Culture in the Pre-Modern North
Research
I am the project leader for two projects: "Transformations of Medieval Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern Norwegian Law Books" and "Ballads Across Borders: The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-Telling World".
My research is centred on later translations of medieval texts (both early modern and modern), early modern law books, legal prologues, the Faroese Völsung ballads and Old Norse prosimetrum, particularly in the fornaldarsögur.
Publications
Academic lecture
- Ødegaard, Marie Kjærnet; Helle, Vogt; Simpson, Andrew et al. (2024). Concluding panel discussion. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Story Worlds, Performance and Constructions of Authority in the Sjúrðar kvæði. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Influences from Denmark: The Printing of the Norwegian Law Code of 1274. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Ballads Across Borders – The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-telling World. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Transformations of Medieval Law. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). Translating the Prologue to the Landslǫg of 1274. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The Prologues to the Landslǫg of 1274. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The New Testament Title Page in Christian III’s Bible of 1550. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The Ballads Across Borders Project: A New Translation of the Faroese Völsung Ballads. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). Offuerseet, corrigerit oc forbedrit: The Printing of the Norwegian Law Code of 1274 in 17th-Century Denmark. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The Ballads Across Borders Project: A New Translation of the Faroese Völsung Ballads. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2021). Recycling the Prologues to the Landslǫg. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2021). The Development of Definitions and Attributing Meaning to Terms in the Landslov and Associated Law Codes. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2021). Ballads Across Borders: A New Research Project. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2020). Madness and Personal Responsibility in Old Norse Legal Material. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2020). Unanswered Questions: Intertextuality and the Shaping of Gylfaginning. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). The Codicological Contexts of Norwegian Law in the Middle Ages. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Offuerset, corrigerit oc forbedrit: The First Printed Norwegian Law of 1604. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Queer Textures of the Past, 5th to 16th Centuries: A Round Table Discussion. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Parergon, Paratext and Processes of Transformation in the Medieval Legal Prologue. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Non-Linear Access to Information in Manuscript Books. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Mangia godh thing: Saint Birgitta in a 14th Century Norwegian Law Manuscript. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). The Cross in Text and Image: Sources of the Dream of the Rood. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Grant Writing Workshop. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). Taking the Law West in the 9th to 13th Centuries. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). The 1604 Danish Translation of 13th-Century Norwegian Law. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). “Written at the Beginning, Before the Book itself Begins”: Prologues to Medieval Norwegian Laws.. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). How Innovative is Innovative? Adaptations of Norwegian Law in New Law Codes in Iceland and Norway from the Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). Mangia godh thing: St. Birgitta at the Beginning of a Norwegian Law Manuscript. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). St Bridget in a Norwegian Legal Manuscript: Codex Hardenbergensis. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). The Self-Representation of King Magnus the Law-Mender in the Landslov of 1274. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Final Places of Belonging: Home in the Old Norse Death Songs. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). The Sacred Grove in Pre-Christian Germanic Religion. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). The Figure of the Poet and the Old Norse Death Songs. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Definitions of Terms and Social Norms in Medieval Norwegian Law. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Laws for the Margin of Society in 13th Century Norway. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2016). Aspects of the Germanic Hero Sigurðr Fáfnisbani in Medieval Scandinavia, Especially Norway. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2016). Food and the Landslov in Thirteenth Century Norway. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2016). The Performance of Skaldic Poetry in the Prosimetric Fagrskinna. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2016). 'If a Man Steals Apples or Turnips': Law and Food in 13th-Century Norway. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). The Medieval Germanic Hero and Old Age. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). “Ertu ei sá Oddr er fór til Bjarmalands fyrir lǫngu?”: Places and the Construction of Ǫrvar-Odds saga. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). Coming Face to Face with Sigurd Fafnesbane in Medieval Norway. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). New Directions in Fornaldarsögur Studies Round Table (Ballads). (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). The Sacred Grove in Germanic/Scandinavian Pre-Christian Religion. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). The Evidence for the Existence and Function of Sacred Groves in Germanic Pre-Christian Belief. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). The Norwegian National Law of 1274 and its translation into English. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). Project Presentation: Approaches to the Manuscript Compilations of the Landslov. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2014). The mise-en-page of poetry in manuscripts of fornaldarsögur. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2014). Eddic Poetry in the Fornaldarsögur: Contexts and Questions. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2014). Intertextual Perspectives on Örvar-Oddr's Death Song in its Various Manuscripts. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2014). The Landslov of 1274. A new translation. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2014). Omsetjing til engelsk (igangverande). (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2014). Medieval Icelandic Prosimetra in the Context of the Learned Tradition. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2013). Runic Revaluations and the Bryggen (Bergen) Finds. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Heroes and the Death Song in Germanic Tradition. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Mise-en-page and the prosimetrum of Ketils saga hængs. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Settling the North and Mythic Ethnography in Two Old Icelandic Genres. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Mise-en-page and the Prosimetrum of Ketils saga hængs. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Prose Contexts of Eddic Poetry: Snorra Edda and the fornaldarsögur. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Latin and the Light Literature in Old Norse. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Grottasǫngr. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Unanswered Questions: Intertextuality and the Shaping of Gylfaginning. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Types of Poetic Autobiography in Old Norse Legendary Sagas. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Three Vættir in Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Unanswered Questions: Intertextuality and the Shaping of Gylfaginning. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Well-Pissers and Water Goblins: What the Monsters of Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka Mean. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2011). Starting Points for the Theory of "Science" Essay. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). The Introduction of Eddic Poems into the Narrative of Gylfaginning. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). Performing Óðinn and the Prosimetric Form in Snorra Edda (article presentation). (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). Performing Óðinn and the Prosimetric Form in Snorra Edda. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). Continuum of Tradition and the Men of Hrafnista. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). The Quotation of Grottasöngr in Snorra Edda. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). Project: Prose Contexts of Eddic Poetry. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2009). The Prose Contexts of Eddic Poetry. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2009). Landscape and the Other Worlds of the Fornaldarsögur. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2009). Landscape and the Other World in the Fornaldarsögur. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2008). “Metamorphosis of Context: Generating Meaning in Völuspá”. (external link)
Programme participation
Popular scientific lecture
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Oversettelser av Magnus Lagabøtes Landslov i Bergen. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Kristian IVs norske lov av 1604: Mer enn bare en dansk oversettelse. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). Cycles of Violence in Old Norse Mythology. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). Old Norse, Manuscripts and Rune Stones. (external link)
Lecture
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Taking a Digital Humanities Course. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Faroese Ballads: Characteristics, Origins, Printing. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Faroese Ballads and Digital Humanities. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2024). Disiplinrelevant digital kompetanse. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Sigurðr fáfnisbani in Medieval Scandinavia. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Eddic Prosimetrum in the Poetic Edda and Beyond. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Danish Translations of the Norwegian Landslǫg in the University of Bergen Special Collections. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2020). The Sacred Grove in Pre-Christian Germanic Religion. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Transformations of Medieval Law: The Hows and Whys of Designing a Larger Research Project. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). TMS Starting Grant – A Personal Path to Funding. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). Transformations of Medieval Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern Norwegian Law Books. Project Presentation.. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Round Table: Teaching: Skills and Technologies. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Round Table: Career Planning & Funding Applications. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). Member of Group "Endings and Beginnings". (external link)
Academic article
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2023). Corrected and Improved: The Motivation behind the Printing of the Norwegian Lawbook of 1604. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The Parergon and the Transformation of the Prologues to the Medieval and Early Modern Norwegian 'Landslǫg' (1274–1604). (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). Translation and the Fracturing of the Law: The Motivation Behind the Norwegian Law of 1604. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). The Ecology of Eddic and Skaldic Poetry. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). The Old Norse Poetic Form stikki. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2012). Younger Icelandic Manuscripts and Old Norse Studies. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2010). "The Matter of Hrafnista". (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2009). Border Crossings: Landscape and the Other World in the Fornaldarsögur. (external link)
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). Accretive Quotation and the Performance of Verse in Fagrskinna. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2022). The Theft of Food in Thirteenth- Century Norway and Iceland. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Ǫrvar-Oddr's Ævikviða and the Genesis of Ǫrvar-Odds saga: A Poem on the Move. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). Perspectives on Translating Medieval Law. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2016). Eddic Poetry and the Genre System of the Fornaldarsögur. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2014). The Death Songs of Örvar-Odds saga. (external link)
- Leslie, Helen Frances (2013). Younger Icelandic Manuscripts and Old Norse Studies. (external link)
Poster
- Myking, Synnøve Midtbø; Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2019). Mellomalderlov i endring. Nyvinningar og bruksmåtar i førmoderne norske lovhandskrift . (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2018). Transformations of Medieval Law: Ordering, Conveying and Updating Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Norwegian and Iceland Law Books, from 1274 to 1687. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2017). Transformations of Medieval Law. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2015). Sigurðr in the Medieval North. (external link)
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen Frances (2012). Prose Contexts of Eddic Poetry: Snorra Edda and the fornaldarsögur. (external link)
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
Doctoral dissertation
Book review
See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.
Selected publications (see my Academia.edu page for PDFs of many of these)
- 2022. 'Translation and the Fracturing of the Law: The Motivation Behind the Norwegian Law of 1604.' RMN Newsletter 15-16 (2020-2021): 57-65.
- 2019. ‘Ǫrvar-Oddr’s Ævikviða and the Genesis of Ǫrvar-Odds saga: A Poem on the Move.’ Moving Words in the Nordic Middle Ages. Ed. Amy Mulligan and Else Mundal. Turnhout: Brepols. 279-296.
- 2018. ‘Perspectives on Translating Medieval Law.’ Tradurre: un viaggio nel tempo. Ed. Maria Grazia Cammarota. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. 131-147.
- 2017. 'The Ecology of Eddic and Skaldic Poetry.' RMN Newsletter 12-13: 123-138.
- 2016. 'Eddic Poetry and the Genre System of the Fornaldarsögur.' Genre – Text - Interpretation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Folklore and Beyond. Ed. Frog, Kaarina Koski and Ulla Savolainen. Studia Fennica 22. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 251-275.
- 2015. 'The Old Norse Poetic Form stikki.' RMN Newsletter 9: 35-43.
- 2014. 'The Death Songs of Örvar-Odds saga.' Cartografies del l’ànima. Identitat, memòria i escriptura. Ed. Isabel Grifoll, Julián Acebrón & Flocel Sabaté. Lleida: Pagès editors. 231-244.
- 2013. 'Younger Icelandic Manuscripts and Old Norse Studies.' Approaching Methodology. Ed. Frog & Pauliina Latvala with Helen F. Leslie. Revised 2nd edition with an introduction by Ulrika Wolf-Knuts. Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Humaniora series, Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica. 287-309.
- 2012. 'Younger Icelandic Manuscripts and Old Norse Studies.' RMN Newsletter (special issue Approaching Methodology) 5: 148-161.
- 2010. '"The Matter of Hrafnista".' Quaestio Insularis 11: 169 – 208.
- 2009. 'Border Crossings: Landscape and the Other World in the Fornaldarsögur.' Scripta Islandica 60: 119 – 136.
Projects
Project leader for:
Transformations of Medieval Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern Norwegian Law Books
Funded by Bergen Research Foundation and University of Bergen
The research project Transformations of Medieval Law explores how medieval and Early Modern law books in Norway and Iceland reflect the legal and cultural contexts in which they were written and compiled. How were the laws recorded before the timeframe of the recognisable red volume, Norges lover 1687-2015?
The answer to that is found in over 100 manuscripts preserving Norway’s medieval and Early Modern law-code. The law code valid in Norway prior to 1687 was written in Bergen and passed in 1274, and is known as the Landslov, the first law-code valid for the whole of Norway. It was in force for an exceptional 400 years, lasting for the reigns of 19 monarchs until it was superseded by Christian den femtes Norske Lov of 1687. This exceptionally long-lived code is of the utmost importance for Norway’s history; law manuscripts are the most abundant genre of manuscript available from medieval to Early Modern times. 1 During that period, Norway transformed from a medieval kingdom to an Early Modern European state, the sweeping changes in religion, culture and language all captured in and reflected by the law manuscripts of the period.
The problem is that many of the manuscripts pertinent to this project are so far unedited and not analysed: whilst the medieval Landslov manuscripts from the 14th century onwards in Old Norwegian have generally been well-researched, very little information is available about the translation of the law from Old Norwegian to Danish in early modern Norway (16th and 17th centuries), the ammendments by the roster of later monarchs who later edited the law, and its revision to form the law-code Jónsbók in Iceland, some parts of which are still in force today.
This innovative project seeks to fill this gap in research by employing methodologies and theoretical frameworks in a novel way to combine legal history and philology. The project team will undertake research on the later manuscripts of the Landslov in order to gain an insight into the development of the law from the end of the Middle Ages onwards. The project makes these manuscripts and their contents accessible to a wide audience, and highlights Norwegian Early Modern cultural heritage, thus making an important contribution to the study of Norway’s legal, linguistic and book history from a hitherto unexplored perspective.
The project has been developed based on the following research questions:
1) How and to what extent do innovations in the structure, contents and use of law books of Early Modern Norway reflect changes to Norwegian society during the Reformation and Renaissance?
2) How did legal circles in Norway and Iceland order and apply their knowledge in medieval and Early Modern times?
The goal of the project is to situate this approach in the cultural, historical and religious contexts in which the Landslov existed through its lifetime. The interdisciplinary, longue durée approach presented here is a unique approach to the contextualisation, transformation and application of the law.
Ballads Across Borders: The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-Telling World
Young CAS Fellowship, Centre for Advanced Studies (Oslo)
The Faroe Islands are a tiny archipelago nation in the North Atlantic Ocean with a truly unique story-telling heritage; this project explores how this small community preserved and transmitted some of the most exciting and enduring stories from Germanic legends. The Faroese medieval heroic ballads preserve an enormous amount of material from the story-world of the medieval north. Despite this, they remain hugely under-researched and are inaccessible to most researchers.
The project 'Ballads Across Borders: The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-Telling World (BARD)' will conduct ground-breaking research on the medieval heroic Faroese ballads from the perspective of Old Norse philology, thereby locating the Faroese ballads in the Norse story-telling world. By doing so, the project will uncover new material about several of the preeminent heroes of the north: Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (the mighty dragon slayer, called Sjúrður Fávnisbani in Faroese) and his mysterious and violent lover, Brynhildr Buðladóttir, not only updating but significantly extending previous research. The subject of the project is three, very long, medieval Faroese ballads called Regin smiður, Brynhildar táttr and Høgna táttr (known collectively as the Sjúrðar kvæði, ‘ballads about Sigurðr’), which provide some of the preeminent material from the medieval North concerning the Völsung legend, stories about the hero Sigurðr Fáfnisbani and his violent, mysterious and powerful lover, Brynhildr Buðladóttir.
The aims of the project are to determine how the Faroese ballads relate to and are located in the Norse and wider Germanic story-telling world, and to integrate the Faroese ballads into the relevant research fields that discuss story-telling traditions of the North. The project will also make all of the Faroese ballad material about Sigurðr Fáfnisbani available in English translation, to aid other scholars in building on the project’s findings.