Gleðilega hátíð! Happy Holidays!
Greetings from the Old Norse Program at UW!
Firstly, I’m absolutely thrilled and honoured to have joined the Department of Scandinavian Studies this past September as Assistant Professor of Old Norse.
I was previously a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at University College London, and over the summer I taught a course on fantasy literature at the University of Oxford and conducted fieldwork in Greenland, visiting archives and sites of Norse settlement. I’m currently teaching a course on The Vikings, which covers a great geographic range and a diversity of source materials from medieval Scandinavia and further afield, including historical, literary, and poetic texts, runes and various archaeological sites and finds, and the ongoing legacy of Vikings in the modern world. Dr. Katherine Larson recently gave a brilliant guest lecture on Viking Age Sails, which was informative and fascinating!
In other news, Dr. Lars Jenner has been teaching Scandinavian Mythology this fall quarter and says that “Students come into Scandinavian mythology with a great deal of enthusiasm for the material, whether it is based on previous study or exposure to Viking culture in popular culture.” He adds that “It is a privilege for me to teach a course that is so central to an understanding of Scandinavian culture and so engaging for the students.”
Kær kveðja – Kind regards,
Timothy Bourns