Category: Reports

I am grateful to the Viking Society for providing funding for my attendance at the 18th International Saga Conference, on Sagas and the Circum-Baltic Arena, which took place in Helsinki and Tallinn, between 7–14 August 2022. Hosting delegates with expertise in all areas of Old Norse studies, and from a global range of institutions, the International Saga Conference is internationally renowned as being the premier conference in the field. I was, therefore, delighted to be able to attend the conference for the first time with the Viking Society’s support.

The range of research delivered at the conference was impressive, deepening my understanding of Old Norse texts both within and beyond my own specialism. Keynote lectures by Neil Price, Haraldur Bernharðsson, and Stephen Mitchell set the tone in their exhibition of highly developed research on Old Norse language, folklore, and mentalities, whilst also encouraging inclusivity in dialogues within the discipline. Amongst the many parallel sessions, I found panels on ‘Skalds and discourse’, ‘Perspectives on Jómsvíkinga saga’, ‘International mobility and contacts’, and ‘Constructing the saga’ particularly helpful and informative. It was excellent to have the opportunity to discuss this research with colleagues both familiar and new, with the social aspects of the conference enhanced by its hybrid format. I was also pleased that my paper, based on my doctoral research on audiences of Old Norse skaldic poetry and entitled ‘Sagas and the ongoing history of skaldic reception’, was well received. The discussion following my presentation has already proved beneficial for my research, since, at the time of writing, I am in the process of writing up my doctoral thesis. Overall, the conference organisers are to be thanked and commended for making this event happen in such difficult circumstances.

In 2021, Steven Mithen travelled to Nave Island in search of evidence of Viking settlement. You can read about his findings in his report, Searching for the Vikings on Nave Island, Isle of Islay, here.

In the spring of 2020, I discovered that in the Stowe collection in the British Library was an Icelandic fourteenth-century parchment bifolium, said to contain “anecdotes of Archbishops of Canterbury,” that had never been studied or discussed by Old Norse-Icelandic scholars. Also in the Stowe collection were three eighteenth-century paper manuscripts which contained texts copied from Icelandic manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan collection in Copenhagen. I ordered images of the bifolium, transcribed and studied its text and found that it had once been a part of the manuscript AM 764 4to (Reynistaðarbók), in the Arnamagnæan collection. My investigation revealed that the bifolium had been removed from the manuscript in the late eighteenth century. It was then taken to England where Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin (1752–1829) presented it to Thomas Astle (1735–1803), whose manuscript collection makes up the bulk of the Stowe collection.

I wrote an article about my discovery and edited the compilation of texts now split between Stowe MS 980 and AM 764 4to. The article, “Anecdotes of several archbishops of Canterbury: a lost bifolium from Reynistaðarbók discovered in the British Library,” is printed in the journal Gripla, vol. 32 (2021), pp. 7–56. A grant I received from the Viking Society for Northern Research allowed me to travel to London to study the bifolium as well as the three paper manuscripts in the Stowe collection in person on October 21–23, 2021. There, I was able to measure the leaves and the text blocks and confirm that they were indeed of comparable size to the leaves of AM 764 4to. I was also able to clarify some readings that were unclear in the images provided by the British Library. Lastly, I used this opportunity to take my own photos of the bifolium as well as of the Icelandic paper manuscripts in the Stowe collection, which will aid me in any future publication.