Centre for Viking and Old Norse Studies, Aarhus University

The University of Aarhus is a major international centre for Viking and Old Norse Studies, sustaining a vibrant interdisciplinary milieu with frequent seminars and conferences.

Through the MA programme in Scandinavian Languages and Literature (Department of Aesthetics and Communication) we offer English-language summer schools, and a number of MA-courses in Old Norse literature and culture as well as in Viking Studies. All courses are offered as single courses, and can be combined according to individual interests. The faculty in Scandinavian Languages and Literature works closely together with and combines teaching with colleagues from history of religion, history and archaeology.

Old Norse research is primarily literary and cultural historical. Our faculty’s research covers a broad range of Old Norse genres – sagas, myths, history, Eddic and skaldic poetry – and centres around methodological and theoretical issues, such as genre, discourse, orality/literacy, memory culture, as well as critical text editing and translating. Our research is interdisciplinary and often carried out in cooperation with historians, historians of religion, archaeologists and linguists on both a national and international basis.

PhD Scholar Bergdís Þrastardóttir: Þættir, Icelandic sagas, saga genres, oral tradition and oral narratives
Associate Professor Pernille Hermann: Old Norse prose literature, memory culture, orality and literacy
PhD Scholar Mathias Nordvig: Old Norse literature, eddic poetry, the Prose Edda, myths and mythology, orality and literacy
Postdoc Rolf Stavnem: Skaldic poetry, orality, narrativity, text-edition, translation
PhD Scholar Lisbeth H. Torfing: Biographies of things/artefacts, social networks, names and namegiving, orality, kings’ sagas, legendary sagas
Old Norse studies at Aarhus University encourage international cooperation between researchers and students through Visiting Professorships, teaching exchange, frequent seminars and conferences. Over the last few years several international scholars have been affiliated with the program.