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Medievalism and the North

Conference Information

  • Conference Date:
    28-29 July 2021
  • Moesgaard Viking moot:
    Please note the Moesgaard Viking Moot 2021 has been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions. We are sorry that we cannot offer you the Viking Moot as an optional post-conference event. Read more at the museum's website (in danish).

Deadlines

  • Call for papers: Deadline 1 February, 2020
  • Registration: Deadline 25 July, 2021

Registration

In the light of the Covid-19 situation, we are preparing for the eventuality of a hybrid conference with online as well as physical participation. Registration will not open until May 2021 when we hope to know more about travel restrictions and precautio

Registration for ONLINE participation is now open!

The deadline for registration is July 25.

About

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, translations of Old Norse texts into modern languages ignited a new interest among poets and artists in early-medieval Northern European culture. Today, the early-medieval North once again captures our imagination – for better or for worse. The international success of Michael Hirst’s TV series Vikings (2013-2018), Viking-music groups such as Amon Amath and Wardruna, A.S. Byatt’s Ragna-rok. The End of the Gods (2011), or Marvel’s Thor (2011-) suggest that imaginings about Vikings, shield maidens and Norse gods reverberate beyond the borders of Scandinavia. The aim of this interdisciplinary con-ference is to explore constructions of the medieval North across genres and media from the Nordic renaissance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present. The conference will focus on adaptations of Old Norse and medieval texts; on the refashioning of the medieval North in literature, art, music, film, etc.; and on the uses of the North, for instance in nineteenth-century nation-building or in contemporary political discourse. The conference asks participants to consider the ideological, cultural, aesthetical, generic and other implica-tions of these refashionings of the medieval North; diachronic perspectives in the changing imagery; or the the-oretical foundations for such usages.  

Keynote Speakers

  • Heather O’Donoghue, Linacre College, Oxford University
  • Robert Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Simon Trafford, University of London

Organizer

The research group ‘Medievalism in Danish Romantic Literature’, Aarhus University

Contact Information

Email Address:

  • medievalism2020@cc.au.dk