Posters at the 11th HÍ Student Conference on the Medieval North will be displayed both at the National and University Library of Iceland from 7th-8th April 2022 and in a virtual exhibition. All posters are available for download as a pdf file below.
Vitoð ér enn, eða hvat?
Virtual Poster Exhibition Our longhouse returns! The virtual poster exhibition is now open for visitors.
For the full experience, we recommend accessing the exhibition using a mouse, as the navigation tools may be harder to use on mobile or touchpad. We hope you enjoy the exhibition!
Poster Sessions The poster session will be held at the National and University Library of Iceland, on Friday, 8th April 2022 from 13:15 to 14:00 GMT. Visitors to the conference are welcome and encouraged to discuss the research presented with the authors.
Poster authors who are attending the conference online will be available for discussion on Zoom on Saturday, 9th April 2022 from 12:15 to 13:00 GMT.
Do you have a question or comment on a poster? Feel free to send us an email or contact the authors directly. Author contact information can be found on the bottom of each poster.
Posters at HÍStudCon 2022
Bridget Leary and Ema Bushnell, University of Iceland Warrior Women and Maiden-Kings: Gender Fluidity and Trans Identity in Medieval Iceland
Ceilidh Elisabeth Burdick, University of Iceland – ONLINESESSION Women of the Saga Age: Outlining Ideal “Feminine” Traits of Old Norse Literature
Connor Bradley, University of Iceland – ONLINE SESSION Within Reach but Beyond Conquest: Novel Obstacles to Viking Activity in Iberia
Eline Elmiger, University of Basel Nature and National Identity in the Þjóðsögur
Frances Ota, University of Oslo – ONLINE SESSION Medieval Nordic Church Law: Gulaþing Law of Norway, and Västgöta Laws of Sweden
Freyja Petersen, University of Iceland Valkyries and Shieldmaidens: Literary Images and Historical Realities
Kári Pálsson, University of Iceland Binding helskór and Fastening a Ship – A Methodological Comparison Study of Gísla saga Súrssonar
Paige Downey and Julian Menjivar, University of Iceland Werewolves & Berserks: An Analysis of Transformation in Sagas
Rebecca Bernstein, University of Iceland The Beginning of the End: Understanding Symbolic Overlap in Cosmological Apocalypse Narratives
Solveig Bollig, University of Umeå – ONLINESESSION ‘Þorsteinn hét maðr.’: Literary and Socio-Onomastic Considerations
It is our great pleasure to announce the programme of the 11th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North. The conference will be held as a hybrid event at the National and University Library of Iceland from 7th-8th April 2022, and online on 9th April 2022. Please find the conference schedule attached below or download the pdf booklet. The abstracts of all participants can be accessed here. The conference is free and open to all. No registration is required for guests.
Remote participants can follow the entire event online via Zoom by clicking on the button below.
In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to the art and interior content of early medieval manuscripts. Due to their highly decorative quality, we will be using Irish texts (such as the Book of Kells) as examples to demonstrate the creative and technical processes of constructing ancient manuscripts. This is a hands-on workshop, and will include a step-by-step activity following a historical overview of the materials and context. We will be using modern materials for the activity to make it accessible for participants, but the process is generally the same. Participants will be provided with a materials list and a template. No artistic ability is necessary to enjoy the workshop.
Instructor: Ceilidh Elisabeth Burdick
Free Zoom Workshop, Saturday, 9th April 2022 , 5-6pm UTC
Zoom links will be sent to your provided email address before the event.
We are delighted to announce that Dale Kedwards will give the Keynote ‘Old Maps, New Beginnings’ at the 11th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North. We’re looking forward to his talk at the National and University Library of Iceland on Thursday, April 7th at 09:00. The talk is free and open to everyone. You can read Dale’s blog post for more about his talk.
Dale Kedwardsis a postdoctoral research fellow at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. He was awarded his PhD by the University of York, UK, in 2015, and has since held postdoctoral fellowships in Nordic Studies in Switzerland, Denmark and Iceland. His monograph, The Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland, appeared with Boydell and Brewer in 2020, and presents the first book-length examination of world maps in medieval Iceland. His work continues to examine how people conceptualise their physical and social worlds in both literature and science; his more recent work examining the uses of historical imagery related to the Vikings in discourses about space and its exploration.
We invite submissions to the 11th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North, which will be held as a hybrid online and on-site event at the University of Iceland, April 7-9, 2022.
As the world is slowly emerging from the pandemic, graduate students and Early Career Researchers have found new ways to conduct and present their research, to form new networks and friendships. To reflect these changes, we are delighted to announce that the conference will be held under the theme “New Beginnings”. We are open for any independent research related to the Medieval North (broadly defined).
Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:
• Changing tastes in literature, introduced motifs, text transmission, translations, reworkings and reception • New currents in text, codices, book-making, and art • Linguistic innovation, language change, new writing systems • Digital humanities, editing, translation • Technological advances • Christianisation, developments in religious practices • Settlement, migration, and social change • Understudied figures and groups, gender and queer studies • Innovative interaction with Old Norse material in post-medieval literature, games, movies and other modern media • New methods and emerging fields of study
The languages of the conference are Icelandic and English. If you wish to submit, please e-mail an abstract of250-300 words to histudentconference@gmail.comby December 1, 2021 and clearly state whether you apply for a paper or poster, and also whether you intend to present online or in person. Please include with your submission, within the same document, full name, pronouns, affiliation (school and department), what degree(s) you hold, as well as which degree you are working towards.
Find our Call for Papers and Posters below and have a look at the Submission Guidelines page. Please feel free to download/print the Call for Papers and distribute to your institution or other interested parties! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the committee.
COVID-19 STATEMENT While we are continuing to plan next year‘s conference and hope to move forward with a hybrid event in spring 2022, we are aware that the situation may change in the coming months. We are closely monitoring the developments and adhere to most up-to-date recommendations of the Icelandic Directorate of Health. Should we not be able to hold in-person panels in April, we will postpone the conference to September 2022. All delegates will be informed in due time.
Poster presentations at the 10th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North will consist of two parts: The3D-modelled digital poster exhibition will open on Monday April 12th, 2021 and be accessible until the end of the conference. In addition to that, this year‘s poster presenters will be organised into groups based on topics and keywords. The groups will be available in an open Zoom meeting on Thursday, April 15, 12:00–13:30 GMT to take questions and feedback.
Session 1 (12:00–12:30 GMT): Archaeological Perspectives in the Medieval North
Amy Blank, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland Finding the Norse in Medieval Orkney Colin Fisher, Háskóli Íslands, Iceland Holy hǫrgr, haugr horror: Interactions with Passage Tombs in the Viking Age Rebecca Mason, Háskóli Íslands, Iceland The Burial Mound and its Occupant in Icelandic Saga Literature Nicola Louise Nuttall, Háskóli Íslands, Iceland War or Peace? Viking Settlement in the 10th Century North-West England Luna Polinelli, Háskóli Íslands, Iceland The Historicity of the Völva: A Comparative Analysis
Session 2 (12:30–13:00 GMT): The Importance of Memory and Cultural Concepts Jan Jürgensen, Háskóli Íslands, Iceland Of Legomancy and Magic Song – Words of Power. Law, Magic & Poetry in Old Norse Saga Literature Lysiane Lasausse, University of Helsinki, Finland Vikings in Gaming, Gaming with Vikings Olivia Little, University of York, England The Role of Memory in Viking and Anglo-Scandinavian Identity Andrew Yakovenko, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Russia The Concept of Sin in the Early Irish and Anglo-Saxon Tradition
Session 3 (13:00–13:30 GMT): Law, Religion, and the Role of Women
Victor Barabino, University of Caen, France Warriors of Odin: Fighting for A God Before Militia Christi in Medieval Scandinavia Listen to the narration here. Eliza Bond, Queen’s University, Canada Fluid Valkyries: Roles and Personalities of the Women in Beowulf Alisa Heskin, Western Michigan University, USA ‘If Necessity Drives Him to It’: Legal Culpability in Hrafnkels saga Listen to the narration here. Tom Lorenz, NTNU, Norway Liturgical Books in Icelandic Palimpsests Anastasiia Gnatchenko, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia The Image of Scandinavia in the European Cartography of the XV and XVI Centuries
We are delighted to announce the full programme of the 10th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North. The below information and our booklet are subject to editorial changes and will be updated in the coming weeks. Click the images below to see a larger version of our schedule or download the pdf. Please consider sharing with your home institution and other interested parties.
HÍStudCon 2021 will be hosted online via Zoom (Meeting ID: 843 6285 5941, Passcode: 316984) and broadcast on Twitch. Note that general conference presentations and the virtual poster exhibition are free and open to all without registration. However, preregistration is required for our two keynote lectures, the virtual manuscript exhibition and the bookmaking and illuminations workshop. You can find more information on our events and sign up for free here.
Find all abstractsand more about this year’s speakers here.
For the 10th Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North, we are delighted to present a selection of keynote lectures, exhibitions, and workshops for everyone to enjoy. All conference-related events are free of charge and available to everyone interested. Registration forms can be accessed below.
Platform: Zoom. Links will be sent shortly before the conference.
Workshop: Manuscript crafts Zoom workshop – Thursday, 15 April 2021 at 18:00 UTC
Gilda Müller and Rain Mason walk you through the main artistic techniques involved in the making of medieval Icelandic manuscripts, from bookbinding to illumination. Rain will be discussing the ways in which pigments were produced, the mediums used for creating paint and gesso for burnishing, and the potential pigments which can be found locally in Iceland. Using these Icelandic pigments and real vellum Rain will show how to produce an illumination, followed by a beginners course in Carolingian Minuscule. Gilda, on the other hand, will show how a manuscript would be physically constructed. No prior knowledge required. Participants should bring ruled paper and a calligraphy pen. The event is open to anyone interested in manuscripts, bookmaking, and calligraphy.
Keynote Lecture with Dr Beeke Stegmann, Research Lecturer, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies Hopes and opportunities: Thoughts on pursuing an academic career Zoom webinar – Friday, 16 April 2021, 14:00-15:00 UTC
Come and join Lea Pokorny and Luca Panaro within the conservation vault of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, which houses half of the manuscripts collected by Árni Magnússon, Iceland’s most precious cultural treasures. Old Norse-Icelandic manuscripts constitute the bedrock material upon which the field of Old Norse studies is built, and as a special privilege for the occasion of the Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North, we have the honor to virtually display three of the most valuable manuscripts in the collection: GKS 2365 4to (Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda) AM 350 fol. (Skarðsbók, the finest example of Jónsbók) AM 132 fol. (Möðruvallabók, one of the most important codices of the Íslendingasögur). In this short video presentation, we will show you some remarkable aspects of these three illustrious manuscripts supplemented by information on their provenance.
Keynote Lecture with Dr Luke John Murphy, Postdoctoral Researcher, Háskóli Íslands ‘I Have a Cunning Plan’: Strategy, Flexibility, and Reality in Early ResearchCareers Zoom webinar – Saturday, 17 April 2021, 14:00-15:00 UTC
The Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North 
