University of Silesia in Katowice

The 2nd Jómsborg Conference “Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum. Origins, Reception and Significance of Adam of Bremen’s Account” was organised together with the Andrzej Kaube Regional Museum in Wolin. The conference was held remotely due to the pandemic. Over 20 researchers from all over the world, representing various disciplines (history, literary studies, archaeology) discussed the significance and specific character of one of the most important sources concerning the history of Scandinavia and Slavonic lands in the Early Middle Ages, namely the chronicle of Adam of Bremen.

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On 14 January 2020, the CBNS hosted a meeting with Dr Rafał Rutkowski (Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences). The meeting’s aim was the promotion of Dr Rutkowski’s book dedicated to one of the twelfth-century Norwegian chronicles. Dr Rutkowski was interviewed by the members of the CBNS, Prof. Rafał Borysławski and Prof. Jakub Morawiec. The book promotion was co-organised by Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK (The Nicolaus Copernicus University Press), the publisher of the series called Monografia Fundacji na Rzecz Nauki Polskiej (Foundation for Polish Science Monograph).

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On 7 November 2019, Prof. Richard North from the University College London, a renowned researcher of Old English and Old Norse literature, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia. The lecture was devoted to the relationships between the Old English poem Beowulf and the concept of valkyrie known from the early medieval Northern Europe.

Dr Paul Gazzola from the University of Vienna, a historian specialising in the history of Scandinavia in the early Middle Ages, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 20 November 2019. The lecture was devoted to the methodological problems connected with the reconstruction of the history of the tenth-century Norway based on selected narrative sources (particularly the chronicle of Adam of Bremen).

Dr Marta Rey-Radlińska from the Jagiellonian University, a researcher of Old Norse literature, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 27 May 2019. The lecture concerned the complex and specific character of the translation of Old Icelandic sagas to Polish.

Dr Eleanor Heans Głogowska, a researcher of Old Norse literature, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 15 April 2019. The lecture discussed the longest saga devoted to Olaf Tryggvason, a Norwegian king-missionary (995-1000), written in the mid-fourteenth century.

Dr Kendra Wilson from the University of Turku, a researcher of Old Norse literature and culture, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 18 March 2019. The lecture discussed the little known subject of preserved runic inscriptions Finland.

A conference co-organised by Prof. Anne Irene Riisøy from the University of South-Eastern Norway and dedicated to the roles and perceptions of women in the power structures and their ideology in Scandinavia during the Viking Age took place on 28 February - 1 March 2019. The conference, whose plenary speaker was Prof. Jón Vidar Sigurdsson from the University of Oslo, was attended by researchers from Poland and abroad.

Dr David Ashurst from the University of Durham, an outstanding expert in the field of Old Norse and Old English literature and culture, gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 17 April 2018. The lecture was devoted to the Icelandic episcopate in the Middle Ages and the manner of presenting the bishops of two Icelandic dioceses in the sagas dedicated to them.

Dr Rebecca Merkelbach from the University of Tübingen gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 9 April 2018. Dr Merkelbach presented an overview of those of the Icelandic sagas written in the fourteenth century which so far have received relatively little scholarly attention.

Dr Arngrimur Vidalin from the University of Iceland gave a guest lecture to the students and staff of the University of Silesia on 20 March 2018. The lecture discussed the role of the Trojan myth in selected sagas and in other literary works that originated in the medieval North.

A seminar entitled “Viking Women”, dedicated to the role of women in the culture and literature of medieval Scandinavia, took place on 9 March 2018. The seminar was attended by specialists from Poland and abroad who presented papers in the field of history, archaeology, and literary studies.