Sunday, 3 August 2025, 16:00-20:00

Registration: lobby, ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Sunday, 3 August 2025, 16:00-18:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, room B.0.39

Speakers:

Series Editor Felix Lummer
Head of Trivent Medieval Imprint Teodora C. Artimon

Published by Trivent Publishing, “Old Norse Studies” is a new, interdisciplinary book series aimed at fostering scholarly dialogues by creating a discussion forum within Old Norse studies and adjacent scholarly fields. A selection of themes includes Old Nordic religion and mythology, comparative literature studies, the study of emotions and the senses, ecocriticism, reception studies, and studies on Eastern Vikings/Rus. We are delighted to welcome you to our Open House, where you can meet the editors of the “Old Norse Studies” series to learn more about our latest and upcoming publications and how you can publish with us.

For more information, please visit: https://trivent-publishing.eu/104-old-norse-studies

Sunday, 3 August 2025, 18:00-19:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, room B.0.39

The Network of Early Career Researchers in Old Norse (NECRON) warmly invites Saga Conference delegates to a reception aimed to foster connections, learn about the network, and encourage new memberships. The reception will provide an open and inclusive environment where early career researchers can mingle with peers, learn about NECRON‘s mission and upcoming projects, and connect with the board and network members.

NECRON is an international, interdisciplinary network of PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, adjuncts, external lecturers, and employees in museums and libraries working in all areas of research on Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia. Our network serves as a vital forum for early career scholars navigating the challenges of the modern academic landscape, offering opportunities for collaboration, peer support, and professional development.

For more information, please visit: https://necronnetwork.wordpress.com/

Monday, 4 August, 8:00-11:00

Registration: lobby, ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Opening of the conference

Monday, 4 August, 9:00 – 9:30

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Monday, 4 August, 9:30

Keynote lecture by Bjørn Bandlien, University of South-Eastern Norway

“THE SAGAS OF OBJECTS: MATERIAL NARRATIVES IN THE MEDIEVAL NORSE WORLD” 

Chair: Caitlin Ellis

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Coffee break 10:30-11:00 

Room B.1.33

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Small session 

News from Helgafell 1: Beeke Stegmann (chair) 

• Book production at Helgafell monastery in the fourteenth century: Project review and forthcoming publication / Beeke Stegmann, Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir
• Significant Others: Towards a Statistical Framework for Measuring Intra-Writer and Intra-Group Variation in Medieval Iceland / Katrín Lísa Mikaelsdóttir
• Choice and context – scribal decisions during manuscript production / Lea D. Pokorny

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Small session 

News from Helgafell 2: Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir (chair)

• Colours within the lines: A systematic investigation of colourful initials in the “Helgafell manuscripts” / Giulia Zorzan
• Collaboration or augmentation? The genesis of AM 233 a fol. and its implication for Helgafell / Beeke Stegmann
• Book burning at Helgafell / Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 16:00-17:30

Small session

Probability, Bias and Otherness: Roland Scheel (chair)

• The “other” scholar – E. A. Kock versus Finnur Jónsson and Hans Kuhn / Haukur Þorgeirsson
• Klaus von See and the Anti-Germanic Frontier / Mikael Males
• National bias transformed into “otherness” / Klaus Johan Myrvoll

Room B.0.38 

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Meeting the other: Daniela Hahn (chair)

• Dwarfs, other supernatural beings, and humans / Ugnius Vizgirda Mikucionis
• Encountering Völundarkviða as an Anglo-Scandinavian Poem / Harriet Soper
• Crafts and Technologies in Rígsþula / Jens Eike Schnall

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Roundtable 

• Othering the ‘Poetic Edda’: Kate Heslop, Carolyne Larrington, Judy Quinn, Lukas Rösli, Brittany Schorn

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 16:00-17:30

Small session

Shape, essence, condition? Old Norse Ideas about Nature: Rebecca Merkelbach (chair)

• Un-, super-, natural: boundaries of nature in Old Norse literature / Gwendolyne Knight
• “Otr, bróðir minn, hafði aðra iðn ok náttúru”: Norse constructions of personal nature / Santiago Barreiro 
• Contextuality of Old Norse identity / Marie Novotná
• Online: Nature, the Prince of Darkness, and the Arrogance of Man in Alexanders saga / Stefka Eriksen

Room B.0.39 

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Small session 

Open: Vitor Fortuna (chair)

• Inventio crucis, Haukr Erlendsson, and the Norwegian Court / Sabine Heidi Walther
• Online: Performance and Constructions of Authority in the Sjúrðar kvæði / Helen Leslie-Jacobsen 
• ‘Sá er enn talðr með ásum’: Loki and Alterity in Medieval Icelandic Literature / Ela Sefcikova

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Meeting the other: Virginie Adam (chair)

• How the encounter between the human Gylfi and the mythical trinity transforms his earthly vision through the illusionary art of narrative / Gísli Sigurðsson
• Online: Alterity in Þórr’s Journey to Útgarðr / Blake Middleton

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 16:00-17:30

Meeting the other: Gerður Halldóra Sigurðardóttir (chair)

• Meeting the other from the mythical world: Óláfr Tryggvason’s specular encounters with Norna-Gestr and Helgi Þórisson / Piergiorgio Consagra
• Wild Nights: Crossing the Threshold of Darkness in the Íslendingasögur / Andrew Pfrenger

Room B.1.34

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Anna Kaiper (chair)

• The Vínland Sagas and Settler-Colonial Entitlement on the East Coast of North America / Jay Lalonde
• Degrees of Separation?: Perceptions of Otherness in the non-Icelandic landscapes of Orkneyinga saga, Færeyinga saga, and the Vinland sagas / Emma Horne
• ‘Yet she was a Christian, and no superstitious Hindoo’: Allusions to Sati in Victorian Norse Medievalism / Maggie Pavleszek

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs:  Lukas Grzybowski (chair)

• What is human? A study of dehumanization in Old Norse literature / Arngrímur Vídalín
• Barnaútburðr: Some Ethical Implications of Child Abandonment in the Icelandic Sagas / Łukasz Neubauer
• Judging holiness, humanity, and otherness / Max Naderer

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 16:00-17:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Guillaume Ferreire (chair)

• The Role of Sveinn Úlfsson as Conversion King in Bragða-Ölvis saga and Hákonar saga Hárekssonar / Teresa Dröfn Freysdóttir Njarðvík
• A pagan Christian? Haraldr Sigurðarson’s portrayal in kings’ sagas / Maciej Lubik

Room B.1.35

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Max Naderer (chair)

• Vikings and the Manosphere / Verena Höfig
• Nihon ni Hokuō no Shinwagaku: The Eddas Reimagined in Japanese Visual Media / Brent Johnson

Christianity and pagan beliefs:

• Ritual Transformations: The Journey of Blót from Old Norse Sagas to Modern Practices / Sarah Matilda Rysková

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Medievalism and the sagas: João Ricardo Malchiaffava Terceiro Correa (chair)

• Trolls in Dungeons and Dragons: inspirations and evolutions of a figure of otherness / Laurent Di Filippo
• Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Evil Guy?: Old Norse Monstrosity in Dungeons and Dragons and New Avenues of Adaptation / Elliott Little
• The Ghost Box: Hauntology, Folk Horror, and an Old Norse Role-Playing Game / Thomas Spray

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 16:00-17:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Anja Blode (chair)

• Daheim in der Fremde oder der Fremde daheim – Zum Motiv der Fremdheit in ausgewählten Königssagas [“(Home) Away From Home – On foreignness in some Kings‘ sagas“] / Jan Alexander Van Nahl
• The role of the Other in Norwegian Saga Plays: A study in Saga reception and Norwegian Medievalisms / Karl Alvestad

Room B.1.36

Monday, 4 August, 11:00-12:30

Methodological diversity (MD) Hannah Burrows (chair) 

• Fighting the Other in the Hjǫrungavágr: the Younger Jómsvíkinga saga as a Counter Narrative / Josef Juergens
• Gerald of Wales and the King’s Mirror: A North-western Peripheral Discourse / Jonas Zeit-Altpeter

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Monday, 4 August, 14:00-15:30

Methodological diversity (MD) Basil Price (chair)

• ‘Otherworlding’ in Saga Discourse / Frog
• The Other in Us? Otherness as Aesthetic and Retrospective Concept in the Tradition of the Íslendingasögur / Andreas Schmidt

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Monday, 4 August, 18:00

Venue: Klub Rawa, ul. Bankowa 5, Katowice

Speakers:

Jürg Glauser
Lena Rohrbach
Pernille Hermann
Stephen Mitchell
Lucie Korecká

This series focuses on cultural memory studies in relation to the extensive and varied Nordic cultural goods from, and since, pre-modern times. Its interdisciplinary monographs and essay collections analyze the roles of memory, remembrance, commemoration, and other forms of anamnesis in, and deriving from, the Viking Age and the Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Volumes in the series often build on and extend the work of the international research network, “Memory and the Pre-Modern North” (http://premodern-memory.org/), whose members earlier published The Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches (2018).

Read more about the series ‘Memory and the Medieval North’ here: https://www.degruyter.com/serial/mmn-b/html

Tuesday, 5 August, 9:30

Keynote lecture by Olof Sundqvist, Stockholm University

“THE DEMISE OF NORSE RELIGION: DISMANTLING AND DEFENDING THE OLD ORDER IN VIKING AGE SCANDINAVIA” 

Chair: Daniel Sävborg

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Coffee break 10:30-11:00 

Room B.1.33

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Small session

New Perspectives on Warriors and Warriorhood in the Viking-Age: Christian Cooijmans (chair)

• Between Integration and Otherness: Institutional Perspectives on Viking-Age Warrior Groups / Ben Raffield
• We and I: the Poet as the Voice of the Viking Age War Band / Declan Taggart
• Fictionalised Ruler Genealogies as Social Adhesive / Sophie Bønding

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Roundtable

• Innovations and Collaborations in Old Norse-Icelandic Lexicography and Digital Resources: Simonetta Battista, Tarrin Wills, Johnny F. Lindholm, Ellert Þór Jóhannesson, Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir, Sheryl McDonald, Jóhannes B. Sigtryggsson

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Roundtable

• Globalising the Norse world: Perspectives on Vikings from overlooked regions and languages: Jonas Wellendorf, Caitlin Ellis, Karl Farrugia, Christian Cooijmans, Daria Segal

Room B.0.38

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Meeting the other: Jens Eike Schnall (chair)

• Blóðnætur eru bráðastar – The bellicose berserkir as a sensory community? / Felix Lummer
• On Multifaceted Shapeshifting Creatures in Old Norse Literature / Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir
• Lithic Affect in Medieval Iceland / Timothy Bourns

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Small session 

Towards a Material (Saga) Narratology: Massimiliano Bampi (chair)

• The Art of Telling Sagas in Manuscripts / Lena Rohrbach 
• The Reconstruction of Melabók. Material Perspectives on the Narrativization of Landscape Knowledge / Nora Kauffeldt
• Paper Trails: Materiality and Narration in Late Premodern Literature / Madita Knöpfle

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Small section 

When vowels (and consonants) are (not) what they seem: issues in using the evidence of sound repetitions and lexical positioning for metrical and historical analysis of Old Norse poetry and its close relatives: Klaus Johan Myrvoll (chair)

• The sjónhverfing of a feathered biped, or, what is wrong in seeing a short line of fornyrðislag in a dróttkvætt line with coda removed / Ilya Sverdlov
• Online: Boundary signals and runic poetry: The phonological word as the basic unit of runic metrical texts / Michael Schulte
• Online: Changes in the alliterative ordering of synonyms from Old to Middle English / Maria Volkonskaya
• Online: A prehistory of skalds / Anatoly Liberman 

Room B.0.39

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Andris Mucenieks (chair)

• Online: The vision of the other around the Baltic Sea (9th-12th century) / Ella Le Peltier-Foschia
• Human and Inhuman: Dogs, Slavs and humanity / Natalia Radziwiłłowicz

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Meeting the other: Carina Damm (chair)

• Trolling Male Same-Sex Eroticism in Njáls saga and Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss / Matthew Roby
• Geirriðr, Katla and the currency of women’s knowledge in Eyrbyggja Saga / Clare Mulley

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Methodological diversity: Katrín Lísa von der Linde Mikaelsdóttir (chair)

• Dating and reconstruction: the otherness of the past in the manuscript and its text / Tarrin Wills
• Online: The hows and the whys of making a digital manuscript edition in the Swedish setting: The National Library of Sweden, Isl. perg. fol. 2 Case Study / Alexandra Petrulevich
• The other sagas: Digital approaches to estimating loss of Icelandic saga literature / Katarzyna Anna Kapitan

Room B.1.34

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Thomas Spray (chair)

• Consumed creatures and hidden humans: animal-human hybridisation in Saga af Hrólf Konungi Kraka / Francesca Squitieri
• Two Jötnar and a Knight walk into a Cave…: Idolatry and Othering in Tristrams saga / Andrea Guttormsen Wetzler
• Encountering the Other as an Altered Perception of the Mind / Ines García López

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Moritz Draschner (chair)

• “Renouantur iam nostro tempore antiqua saecula”: the paganisation of Islam and the Islamisation of pagans in Old Norse literature / Karl Farrugia
• Encountering Pagan Others in the Postola sögur: Conversion, Conversation, and Cosmopolitanism / Carl Phelpstead

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Manu Braithwaite-Westoby (chair)

• Punishing Lust and Lustlessness: Fire and Sexual Violence in Old Norse Literature / Grace O’Duffy
• Poisonous Serpents: The Biblical Seductress in Old Norse Translation / Natasha Bradley
• Marcia Catonis in Rómverja saga: Cato Minor’s wife (marita) or concubine (friðla)? A case of abjection and otherness / Grzegorz Bartusik

Room B.1.35

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Methodological diversity: Andreas Schmidt (chair)

• Em ek blár öðrum megin: Blackface and Performance in Mágus saga jarls / Basil Arnould Price
• Strange Bedfellows: What Classical Somali Poetry Can Tell Us About Orality in Skaldic Verse / Carsten Haas
• Layers of Identity: Sámi Men as the Other² in the fornaldarsǫgur / Ambra Ventura

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Viktória Gyönki (chair)

• The Concept of “Pagan” on the Beginning of Scandinavian Religious Change: vestiges or narrative topoi? / João Ricardo Malchiaffava Terceiro Correa
• Weaving heathendom: The layers of reception regarding Medieval Scandinavia / Vitor Fortuna
• ‘How could I fight for Christ-god, a stranger?’ – Ideological subtexts of the pagan-Christian opposition in the Vikings TV show / Barbora Davidek 

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Jay Lalonde (chair)

• A Brazilian Viking Story: the reception of the ‘viking phenomena’ and Old Norse texts in Brazil / Pedro Botelho
• Medievalism and the Antipodes: The sagas and three Australian novels / John Kennedy
• “A power beyond imagination” – a different reading of Bifröst in the Psycho-Pass series / Anja Blode

Room B.1.36

Tuesday, 5 August, 11:00-12:30

Methodological diversity: Kendra Willson (chair)

• Rasmus Rask’s orthographic principles in editions of Old Norse texts / Jóhannes B. Sigtryggsson
• Semantic and Cultural Dimensions of the Old Norse Word Annarr / Ellert Þór Johannsson

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 14:00-15:30

Methodological diversity: Julia Jaworska (chair)

• Turn It the Other Way Around – Kaleidoscopic Narration and the Depiction of Trolls in the fornaldarsögur / Hilkea Blomeyer
• The Elusive Andra rímur / Pétur Húni
• Looking Anew: Combining and Widening Our Approaches to Gender, Emotion, and Monstrosity in Old Norse Literature / Juliane Witte

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Tuesday, 5 August, 16:00-17:30

Meeting the other: Natalia Mazur-Rodak (chair)

• Troubled Understanding: Mixed Race Experiences in the Hrafnistumannasögur / Arwen Thysse 陳藹文
• Constructing the Supernatural Other and Heroic Dis/ability in the Legendary Past / Erin Benton

Tuesday, 5 August, 18:00

A guided tour of the Silesian Parliament Building.

In the interwar period, the Silesian Parliament (Sejm) was the legislative authority of the autonomous Silesian voivodeship in Poland. In the years 1925-1929, a magnificent edifice was built in Katowice, which became the seat of both the Silesian Parliament and the Voivodeship Office.

Wednesday, 6 August, 9:30

Keynote lecture by Sirpa Aalto, University of Oulu

“OTHERNESS AND MEDIEVALISM IN OLD NORSE-ICELANDIC SAGAS – WHY DOES SCHOLARLY WORK MATTER MORE THAN EVER IN AN AI-DRIVEN ERA?”

Chair: Frog

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Coffee break 10:30-11:00 

Room B.1.33

Wednesday, 6 August, 14:00-15:30

Small session 

Between East and West: Germans and Scandinavians between Byzantium and Western Europe (6th-13th centuries). War and other aspects: Marcin Böhm

• The Seafaring and the military activity at sea of the Scandinavians in the light of Anglo-Norman and Cambro-Norman sources (11th-13th centuries) / Marcin Böhm
• How (not?) to Fight the Germanic Peoples in the Light of the Strategikon / Łukasz Różycki

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00-17:30

Roundtable

• Digital manuscript studies: catalogues and data sets: Tarrin Wills, Juliane Tiemann, Guðrún Laufey Guðmundsdóttir, Elisabeth Magin, Eline Elmiger, Svenja Walkenhorst

Room B.0.38 

Wednesday, 6 August, 11:00-12:30

Methodological diversity: Thomas Morcom (chair)

• Online: The Uncanny Other: Narrative Doubles in Some Scenes of Old Norse Childbirth / Katherine Olley
• Trauma as Interpretative Framework for Old Norse Literature / Yoav Tirosh
• Last Rights: Legal Perspectives on Death and Personhood in Medieval Iceland and Scandinavia / Hannah Burrows

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 14:00-15:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Mary O’Connor (chair)

• A Holy Handmaid: Kátrín as ‘Ambátt’ in Kátrínar saga and Kátrínardrápa / Alicia Maddalena
• „Ris up ðu oc far i borgina“ Space and Movement in Páls saga postola I / Freya Schlaefer
• Why Sigrfluga? King Sverrir and his banner / Fjodor Uspenskij

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00-17:30 

Meeting the other: Ugnius Mikučionis (chair)

• “HERO SLAY SERPENT”: making the Other familiar / Virginie Adam
• Eddic alterities: settings of alienation and familiarity in mythological poetry / Joshua Lee

Christianity and pagan beliefs:

• Scóco æsir scioldo sína: The significance of ‘shaking’ in eddic poetry / Manu Braithwaite-Westoby

Room B.0.39

Wednesday, 6 August, 11:00-12:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Natalia Radziwiłłowicz (chair)

• No Country for Old Gods: Religious Othering in Old Norse Texts / Lucie Korecká
• Religious Conflict in Late Viking Age Norway: A Study of Heimskringla and the Regions of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal / Guillaume Ferreire
• Facets of Otherness: Scaling proximity and distance in Kings’ Sagas and Saxo / Roland Scheel

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 14:00-15:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Arngrímur Vídalín (chair)

• Female revenants: a different type of troll? / Irina Manea
• Online: The Reception and Adaptation of Ælfrician Demonology in Hauksbók / Thomas Hughes
• Books of magic in Medieval and Post Medieval Scandinavia / Maria Cristina Lombardi

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00-17:30 

Methodological diversity: Katarzyna Anna Kapitan (chair)

• Graphing the Íslendinga Saga: Methods and Possible Applications of Knowledge Graphs in Old Norse Studies / Shintaro Yamada, Jun Ogawa, Ikki Ohmukai
• Growing Vikings: Approaches to Child Soldiers and Narratives of Adolescence / Caitlin Ellis

Room B.1.34

Wednesday, 6 August, 14:00-15:30

Small session 

The Past as Other Than Us. The Methodological Challenges of Posing New Questions to Old Texts Bianca Patria (chair)

• Gísli Súrsson: The Hero in the Closet / Bianca Patria 
• The Supernatural in Old Norse Literature. Medieval Men and Medievalists / Daniel Sävborg 
• The Authorial Construction of ‘Otherness’ in Snorri’s Edda / Yulia Osovtsova

Room B.1.35

Wednesday, 6 August, 11:00-12:30

Meeting the other: Felix Lummer (Chair)

• Bridging Worlds: Otherworldly Objects in the fornaldarsögur and Heroic Lays / Daniela Hahn
• Supernatural Saga Swords and their Archaeological Parallels / Katherine Beard
• Synchronizing Worlds: Bringing the Otherworld to Earth in Old Norse Funerary Rituals / Gerður Halldóra Sigurðardóttir

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 14:00-15:30

Methodological diversity: Cassidy Croci (chair)

• Discourse structure in saga dream episodes / Kendra Willson
• A Spurious Stanza in Landnámabók? The Potential of Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a Method of Dating and Authentication for Skaldic Verse in Prose Contexts / Edel Porter

Medievalism and the sagas:

• Naming Sagas, Naming People: new historical and literary perspectives on saga titles and the identities behind them / Nikolaus Frenzel

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00-17:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Maciej Lubik (chair)

• Alluring, dangerous, powerful, but were they human? Heathen women from Eastern Europe depicted in the Icelandic saga / Anna Kaiper

Open:

• Björn Ironside and the Scandinavian attack on Pisa in 860. Between the account from the sagas and Latin sources / Marcin Böhm
• Feud in old Icelandic family sagas and in Polish literature of 17th-19th century. Echoes of some real social and historical phenomena in two great works of old Icelandic and old Polish literatures / Leszek P. Słupecki

Room B.1.36

Wednesday, 6 August, 11:00-12:30

Open: Juliane Witte (chair)

• The vargr and a Viking Age concept of crime Níðingsverk / Anne Irene Riisøy
• In Praise of Shadows: Reflections on the Aesthetic of Darkness in Saga Literature / Jules Piet
• Performative Expressions: The Role of Emotive Poetry in the Íslendingasögur / Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Pre-business meeting 

Wednesday, 6 August, 12:30-14:00

Venue: spinPLACE building, ul. Bankowa 5,  Cafe Operacyjna

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, Room B.1.36

Speaker:

Publishing Manager Rosie Bonté

This session, aimed in particular at early career researchers, is intended to offer an overview of all things academic publishing and to debunk some common myths in the process. Led by Dr Rosie Bonté, publishing manager at Brepols Publishers (and who herself has a background in Old Norse studies), the session will cover how to find an academic publisher, how to write a proposal, turning a PhD thesis into a monograph, peer review, and what publishing really involves. There will also be time for an extended Q&A session.

Wednesday, 6 August, 18:00

Venue: Muzeum Śląskie, ul. T. Dobrowolskiego 1, Katowice

This concert programme by FLORIPARI – Early Music Ensemble depicts the broad musical landscape of medieval Europe, starting in the windy northern regions, passing through the  central lands, and finishing in the sun-clad South of the continent.

This review concert presents both sacred and secular compositions, monodic as well as polyphonic music, with songs of court, church, and folk provenance. There is time to have fun, to dance and sing, but also to pray and ponder the fleetingness of human life. A diversity of styles, compositional techniques, and musical genres make the HOMO MEDIEVALIS programme not only of artistic, but also educational and interpretive value – it enables the audience to experience “in a nutshell” the musical culture of the Middle Ages. 

On the programme among others: 

Bryd one brere (Anonim ca.1300)

Drømde mik en Drøm i Nat (Codex Runicus, ca.1300)

Rosa rorans bonitatem (gregorian hymn to saint Bridget of Sweden)

Alleluja (Mikołaj of Radom, 15th c.)

Santa Maria Strela do dia – Alfonso X El Sabio (1221–1284)

Questa fanciull’ amor (Francesco Landini, 1335 – 1397)

FLORIPARI – an early music ensemble that has been in continuous existence since 1994, created by professional musicians specializing in historical performance.

Since the beginning of its activity, FLORIPARI has been gaining a loyal audience by actively performing at festivals in Poland and abroad, making many recordings and conducting research on unknown Polish musical pieces. The rich instrumentation of the Ensemble (including gemshorns, cornumuses, old percussion instruments, hurdy-gurdy, virginal, portative) is unique on a national scale and is the subject of many concerts and educational broadcasts.

For many years, the Ensemble was associated with the Wawel Royal Castle, where it regularly performed, restoring the musical traditions of the royal court and entertaining the guests of Wawel Hill.

FLORIPARI’s wide repertoire demands attention, covering music from the 15th – 17th centuries from Poland and the leading music centers of Europe.

Musicians:

Maria Klich – soprano, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery
Michał Jan Barański – baritone
Justyna Grabowska – portative organ
Mateusz Kowalski – medieval fiddle
Bartosz Sałdan – percussion instruments
Aleksander Tomczyk – recorder, gemshorns, cornamuse, percussion instruments and artistic direction

For further details, visit the website: https://floripari.pl/en/

Thursday, 7 August, 8:00

Travelling to Kraków.

Details to be announced.

Thursday, 7 August, 9:30

Keynote lecture by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland

“IRONWOOD”

Chair: Yoav Tirosh

Venue: Auditorium Maximum, Aula Duża, ul. Krupnicza 33, Kraków

Coffee break 10:30-11:00 

Excursions

Start: 11:00

Excursions starting from Kraków after the lecture and concluding with return to Katowice. Details to be announced.

For more information, please visit: Excursions

Friday, 8 August, 9:30

Keynote lecture by Rebecca Merkelbach, University of Tübingen

“TRIAL APPROACHES: MULTIDISCIPLINARITY AND THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF OTHERNESS IN MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC LITERATURE”

Chair: Santiago Barreiro

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Coffee break 10:30-11:00 

Room B.1.33

Friday, 8 August, 11:00-12:30

Roundtable 

• Retelling HIStory: (Ever) New Perspectives on Óláfr Haraldsson, Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae: Joanna Srholec-Skórzewska, Karl Christian Alvestad, Bjørn Bandlien, Marie Novotná,  Lena Rohrbach

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Friday, 8 August, 14:00-15:30

Roundtable 

• Exploring manuscript variation in skaldic poetry: Guðrún Nordal, Tarrin Wills, Kate Heslop, Soffía Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Guðrún Brjánsdóttir, Haukur Þorgeirsson

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Friday, 8 August, 16:00-17:30 

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Hannah Armstrong (chair)

• Encountering the Heathen of Romance / Mary O’Connor
• “Wel ȝerne he thanked Godes sonde”: A Comparative Analysis of the Performativity of Religious Identity in the North and West Germanic Versions of Floire et Blancheflor / Moritz Draschner, Elliot Worral

Room B.0.38

Friday, 8 August, 11:00-12:30 

Small session 

Material Ecocriticisms: States of Water in Old Icelandic Literature: Jonas Koesling (chair)

• Seeing the Sea in the Sagas: Oceanic Entanglements in Mediaeval Iceland Writing / Jonas Koesling 
• A Land Without Ice? Material Considerations for Glacial Formations in Gylfaginning and Bergbúa þáttr / Timothy Liam Waters 
• Aqueous Alterity in the Icelandic Sagas: the Paranormal Ecologies of Water in Snæfellsnes / Miguel Andrade

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Friday, 8 August, 14:00-15:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Francesca Squitieri (chair)

• King Valentinus of France meets Emperor Jóhannes of Greece: Removing, Adding and Changing Elements of Otherness in Post-Medieval Icelandic Versions of Medieval European literature / Reynir Þór Eggertsson
• Online: Svíþjóð Revisited: Scythian Swedes, Icelandic Scythians, and the Ultimate Outsiders / David Ashurst

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Friday, 8 August, 16:00-17:30 

Medievalism and the sagas: Emma Horne (chair)

• The Creation of the ‘Other’ Hero – the Case of Króka-Refr / Viktória Gyönki
• Understanding “the Other” in the Sagas and Tales of Icelanders: A Multidisciplinary Analysis / Solveig Bollig

Room B.0.39

Friday, 8 August, 11:00-12:30 

 Medievalism and the sagas: John Kennedy (chair) 

• Online: Gerður Kristnýs Blóðhófnir  (2012) og Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhters Snøfrid (2018) som moderne gjenfortellinger av den norrøne bryl / Maria Sibińska
• ‘From the Witch of Death and the Evil Sprite’: Ann Radcliffe’s depiction of Old Norse mythology in an origin story of Stonehenge / Sarah McAllister
• Other Then, Other Now? Rewriting Melkorka / Christine Schott

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Friday, 8 August, 14:00-15:30

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Marie Novotná (chair)

• The Exile of the Gods / Jonas Wellendorf
• Inn ríki as the “other”: semantic and stylistic harmonization in Vǫluspá H58 / Miriam Conti
• Making history: Narratives of Christianization and their shaping of Icelandic Christian identities in the 12th and 13th centuries / Lukas Grzybowski

Coffee break 15:30-16:00 

Friday, 8 August, 16:00-17:30 

Christianity and pagan beliefs: Łukasz Neubauer (chair)

• Freyr and Fortune’s wheel in Hrafnkels saga / Richard North
• The geography of Hrafnkels saga. New thoughts on its topic and source value / Eldar Heide

Room B.1.34

Friday, 8 August, 11:00-12:30

Medievalism and the sagas: Ines García López (chair)

• A Sceptical Pilgrim: Alice Selby (1895-1973) and 20th Century Saga Pilgrimage / Hannah Armstrong
• Boreal medievalism, an identity-based alterity / Pierre-Brice Stahl

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Room B.1.35

Friday, 8 August, 11:00-12:30

Methodological diversity: Hilkea Blomeyer (chair)

• Ontologies of the Unfree: Intersections of Slavery and Outlawry in Medieval Iceland / Alexander Wilson
• Minor Characters and Minority Discourses in Sturlunga saga / Thomas Morcom
• Filling the Landscape: The Phantom Settlers of Landnámabók / Cassidy Croci

Lunch break 12:30-14:00 

Friday, 8 August, 14:00-15:30  

Open: Brent Johnson (chair)

• (Re)shaping the Prose Edda: Addressing the Constitutio Textus of a ‘Modern’ Classic / Lyonel Perabo

Methodological diversity:

• Resonances of Otherness: The Medieval Gusli and Interculturality in Viking Age Novgorod / Andris Mucenieks

General Business Meeting

Friday, 8 August, 17:30

Venue: Aula Pawlikowskiego (B.1.1), ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice

Conference dinner

Friday, 8 August, 20:00

Venue: Novotel, al. Walentego Roździeńskiego 16, Katowice

Sunday, 3 August 2025, 16:00-18:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, room B.0.39

Speakers:

Series Editor Felix Lummer
Head of Trivent Medieval Imprint Teodora C. Artimon

Published by Trivent Publishing, “Old Norse Studies” is a new, interdisciplinary book series aimed at fostering scholarly dialogues by creating a discussion forum within Old Norse studies and adjacent scholarly fields. A selection of themes includes Old Nordic religion and mythology, comparative literature studies, the study of emotions and the senses, ecocriticism, reception studies, and studies on Eastern Vikings/Rus. We are delighted to welcome you to our Open House, where you can meet the editors of the “Old Norse Studies” series to learn more about our latest and upcoming publications and how you can publish with us.

For more information, please visit: https://trivent-publishing.eu/104-old-norse-studies

Sunday, 3 August 2025, 18:00-19:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, room B.0.39

The Network of Early Career Researchers in Old Norse (NECRON) warmly invites Saga Conference delegates to a reception aimed to foster connections, learn about the network, and encourage new memberships. The reception will provide an open and inclusive environment where early career researchers can mingle with peers, learn about NECRON‘s mission and upcoming projects, and connect with the board and network members.

NECRON is an international, interdisciplinary network of PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, adjuncts, external lecturers, and employees in museums and libraries working in all areas of research on Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia. Our network serves as a vital forum for early career scholars navigating the challenges of the modern academic landscape, offering opportunities for collaboration, peer support, and professional development.

For more information, please visit: https://necronnetwork.wordpress.com/

Monday, 4 August, 18:00

Venue: Klub Rawa, ul. Bankowa 5, Katowice

Speakers:

Jürg Glauser
Lena Rohrbach
Pernille Hermann
Stephen Mitchell
Lucie Korecká

This series focuses on cultural memory studies in relation to the extensive and varied Nordic cultural goods from, and since, pre-modern times. Its interdisciplinary monographs and essay collections analyze the roles of memory, remembrance, commemoration, and other forms of anamnesis in, and deriving from, the Viking Age and the Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Volumes in the series often build on and extend the work of the international research network, “Memory and the Pre-Modern North” (http://premodern-memory.org/), whose members earlier published The Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches (2018).

Read more about the series ‘Memory and the Medieval North’ here: https://www.degruyter.com/serial/mmn-b/html

Tuesday, 5 August, 18:00

A guided tour of the Silesian Parliament Building.

In the interwar period, the Silesian Parliament (Sejm) was the legislative authority of the autonomous Silesian voivodeship in Poland. In the years 1925-1929, a magnificent edifice was built in Katowice, which became the seat of both the Silesian Parliament and the Voivodeship Office.

Wednesday, 6 August, 16:00

Venue: ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice, Room B.1.36

Speaker:

Publishing Manager Rosie Bonté

This session, aimed in particular at early career researchers, is intended to offer an overview of all things academic publishing and to debunk some common myths in the process. Led by Dr Rosie Bonté, publishing manager at Brepols Publishers (and who herself has a background in Old Norse studies), the session will cover how to find an academic publisher, how to write a proposal, turning a PhD thesis into a monograph, peer review, and what publishing really involves. There will also be time for an extended Q&A session.

Wednesday, 6 August, 18:00
Venue: Muzeum Śląskie, ul. T. Dobrowolskiego 1, Katowice

This concert programme by FLORIPARI – Early Music Ensemble depicts the broad musical landscape of medieval Europe, starting in the windy northern regions, passing through the  central lands, and finishing in the sun-clad South of the continent.

This review concert presents both sacred and secular compositions, monodic as well as polyphonic music, with songs of court, church, and folk provenance. There is time to have fun, to dance and sing, but also to pray and ponder the fleetingness of human life. A diversity of styles, compositional techniques, and musical genres make the HOMO MEDIEVALIS programme not only of artistic, but also educational and interpretive value – it enables the audience to experience “in a nutshell” the musical culture of the Middle Ages. 

On the programme among others: 

Bryd one brere (Anonim ca.1300)

Drømde mik en Drøm i Nat (Codex Runicus, ca.1300)

Rosa rorans bonitatem (gregorian hymn to saint Bridget of Sweden)

Alleluja (Mikołaj of Radom, 15th c.)

Santa Maria Strela do dia – Alfonso X El Sabio (1221–1284)

Questa fanciull’ amor (Francesco Landini, 1335 – 1397)

FLORIPARI – an early music ensemble that has been in continuous existence since 1994, created by professional musicians specializing in historical performance.

Since the beginning of its activity, FLORIPARI has been gaining a loyal audience by actively performing at festivals in Poland and abroad, making many recordings and conducting research on unknown Polish musical pieces. The rich instrumentation of the Ensemble (including gemshorns, cornumuses, old percussion instruments, hurdy-gurdy, virginal, portative) is unique on a national scale and is the subject of many concerts and educational broadcasts.

For many years, the Ensemble was associated with the Wawel Royal Castle, where it regularly performed, restoring the musical traditions of the royal court and entertaining the guests of Wawel Hill.

FLORIPARI’s wide repertoire demands attention, covering music from the 15th – 17th centuries from Poland and the leading music centers of Europe.

Musicians:

Maria Klich – soprano, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery
Michał Jan Barański – baritone
Justyna Grabowska – portative organ
Mateusz Kowalski – medieval fiddle
Bartosz Sałdan – percussion instruments
Aleksander Tomczyk – recorder, gemshorns, cornamuse, percussion instruments and artistic direction

For further details, visit the website: https://floripari.pl/en/