Category: Reports

In September, the Aveland History Group held a Viking Festival in Threekingham, Lincolnshire, as part of a five-year plan to move from village to village, highlighting a facet of the history and heritage of each place. The Viking Society’s contribution paid for a comprehensive lecture programme, meaning that all visitors could hear experts give a range of lectures for free on the Scandinavian forbears in this part of the Danelaw, as well as the extent of their activities further afield.

Over the two days, we offered a range of activities and materials – there were almost 300 enactors in costume and settled in a living history camp, where they engaged with the public on all aspects of their life in Viking times; Lindissi had kids making beads and smelting metal for decorative objects to wear; our archaeologists had kids digging in the dirt, unearthing pottery fragments and other treasures as they hit a wall (sadly more 17^th century than Viking!) within the first hour of digging.

The Viking theme was selected because of the reference to two days of fighting at the Battle of Stow in 870 AD in Threekingham in the Crowland Chronicle. It is recorded that the Great Heathen Army met the Anglo Saxons and, after an initial defeat, were victorious on the second day, slaughtering all the enemy. Our introductory speaker on Friday night was able to provide some supporting context for this, with new research into the winter camps of Vikings at Torksey and Aldwark. With the archaeology test pit and opportunities for children to learn Viking battle techniques, experiential insights were delivered to a young audience, bringing history vividly to life.  

The lecture programme explored the history of Viking activity, especially in the Danelaw. We learned about their innovation in boat building and textiles; how the gender roles were divided and the life of a heroine of the Anglo Saxon era. We also heard about the reach of the Norsemen, with some being represented in the Crusades a little over 200 years after the battle we commemorated. The Aveland History Group continues to work with other local history groups to create a legacy of community interest and participation in researching and learning more about our villages and their role in the broader sweep of British and world history. We have launched an electronic archive: www.avelandarchive.org.uk to collect memories and images from the area.

Graydon Jones of Folkingham took a few photos of the day, which you can enjoy here.

International Medieval Congress Leeds

Thanks to the Viking Society and the International Medieval Congress (IMC) Bursary Fund, I presented a paper and participated in a roundtable at the 2023 IMC, which took place at the University of Leeds, from 3-6 July.

IMC 2023’s special thematic strand of ‘Networks and Entanglements’ was particularly aligned with my PhD research which constructs, visualises, and quantifies the narrative networks of the Sturlubók redaction of Landnámabók. Here, I attended multiple panels dedicated to applying Social Network Analysis to medieval texts and had the unique opportunity to discuss the quantitative side of my project with historical network scholars who use similar approaches.

My paper entitled, ‘I’ll Make a Landnámsmaðr Out of You: A Social Network Analysis of primary, secondary, and dependent settlers in Iceland as portrayed in Landnámabók’ discussed how social hierarchies form and operate in the narrative networks of Sturlubók (i.e. networks constructed of the approximately 3,100 individuals in the text and roughly 8,100 relationships). This talk was well received by both Old Norse scholars and Digital Humanities scholars.

I also participated as an invited panellist in the session ‘Networked Middle Ages: Celebrating Social Network Scholarship in Medieval Studies – A Round Table Discussion’ sponsored by the Social Network Analysis Researchers of the Middle Ages (SNARMA). This roundtable introduced a forthcoming medieval Social Network Analysis volume to be published by Arc Humanities Press. Here, I discussed the chapter I will be contributing, which will be based on my IMC Leeds paper and PhD research.

Attending 2023 IMC Leeds has further strengthened my international academic network and provided valuable insights into how to apply a variety of digital approaches to medieval sources. I am grateful for VSNR for providing funding to make this opportunity possible and supporting my research throughout the course of my studies.

Report of the conference held at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, 21-22 June 2023

Building on previous events held in 2016 and 2019, ‘Old Norse Poetry in Performance: Inheritance and Innovation’ was the third conference in the series which brings established academics, early career researchers, students, and independent scholars of Old Norse poetry together with performers in the poetic traditions of the medieval north. 44 delegates attended, including 15 students/early career researchers, and five more participated online. In-person participants came from as far away as Australia, South Korea, and Colombia, along with representatives of eight different European countries.

The papers presented as part of the academic side of the conference covered a wide range of topics, including medieval modes of Eddic and skaldic performance, how these are represented in both medieval prosimetra and modern performance practices, and the emerging connections between performance and runic poetry. Simon Nygaard’s keynote lecture focused especially on this latter dimension, drawing on the field of contextual runology to produce intriguing insights into the lesser-discussed performative functions of such well-known artefacts as the Schlwesig rune stick and the Ribe skull fragment. The programme also boasted an exciting line-up of performance events. After the first day of the conference, delegates were treated to a two-part event at the Oxford Story Museum. This featured an original English translation of Vǫluspá performed by Clare Mulley and Kjell Braaten, and a performance of Þorbjǫrn hornklofi’s Glymdrápa by Pétur Húni Björnsson and Ben Chennells, which was accompanied by discussions investigating the relationships between performance, performer, and audience. Mulley and Braaten’s performance was especially well received and attracted a favourable review in the national press. As the conference came to a close, delegates also participated in an interactive workshop on Faroese balladry hosted by Tóta Árnadóttir, who combined enthusiasm and patience to great effect in getting a roomful of academics to enact a chain dance.

The conference organisers are immensely grateful to the Viking Society for once again supporting this event via the Research Support Fund, which was used to secure technical support at the Story Museum. The ongoing ONPiP project continues to prove engaging and productive for both academics and performance practitioners, and the organisers look forward to building on its success in the years to come.