Stefka G Eriksen
I am a research professor in Old Norse literature and cultural history, with academic background from interdisciplinary medieval studies, including Nordic archaeology, art history, history, and literary studies. My PhD degree is from the University of Oslo (2010), with a dissertation focusing on book history and manuscript culture in France, Norway, and Iceland, c. 1200-1500.
I am currently working on several book and research projects:
- Minds and Mentalizing in Old Norse Culture (monograph)
- Globalisering, statsdannelse og litteratur i middelalderens Norge [Globalization, State Formation, and Literature in Medieval Norway] (monograph )
- Det Gamle Oslo, 1000–1624 [Medieval Oslo] (ed. with Egil L. Bauer, Morten Stige, Håvard Hegdal), forthcoming with Cappelen Damm (interdisciplinary anthology; ca. 35 authors)
- Sound Cultures in the Medieval North (research project)
- Notions of Energy in the Medieval North (research project)
My main areas of interest are:
- Writing, Composition and Reading in medieval manuscript culture
- Old Norse literature, and especially Old Norse translations
- Intellectual culture, pedagogy, and attitudes to knowledge in Old Norse culture
- Cognition, theory of mind, and mentalizing in Old Norse literature and culture
- Environmental History/ Eco-criticism and Old Norse studies
- Urbanization in medieval Norway/ Notions of urbanity in the Middle Ages
- Multimodal communication in the Middle Ages (Texts, Things and Images)
- Interdisciplinarity and medieval studies
- Literature and Sustainability
I am currently working on several book and research projects:
- Minds and Mentalizing in Old Norse Culture (monograph)
- Globalisering, statsdannelse og litteratur i middelalderens Norge [Globalization, State Formation, and Literature in Medieval Norway] (monograph )
- Det Gamle Oslo, 1000–1624 [Medieval Oslo] (ed. with Egil L. Bauer, Morten Stige, Håvard Hegdal), forthcoming with Cappelen Damm (interdisciplinary anthology; ca. 35 authors)
- Sound Cultures in the Medieval North (research project)
- Notions of Energy in the Medieval North (research project)
My main areas of interest are:
- Writing, Composition and Reading in medieval manuscript culture
- Old Norse literature, and especially Old Norse translations
- Intellectual culture, pedagogy, and attitudes to knowledge in Old Norse culture
- Cognition, theory of mind, and mentalizing in Old Norse literature and culture
- Environmental History/ Eco-criticism and Old Norse studies
- Urbanization in medieval Norway/ Notions of urbanity in the Middle Ages
- Multimodal communication in the Middle Ages (Texts, Things and Images)
- Interdisciplinarity and medieval studies
- Literature and Sustainability
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Books by Stefka G Eriksen
De norrøne oversettelsene spenner vidt tematisk og inkluderer historier om kong Artur og ridderne av det runde bord, trojanerkrigen, Aleksander den store, Teoderik den store, Karl den store, korstog og kristne legender med røtter i buddhismen.
Boka presenterer hvem som bestilte og utførte oversettelsene, hvem som leste dem og hvorfor. Denne nye kunnskapen om oversettelsenes sosiopolitiske rolle og deres dynamiske relasjon til den norrøne lokale litteraturen utvider forståelsen av norsk middelalder.
This special issue presents four papers that explore how the dynamics between nature and culture both affected, and was affected by, the development of medieval urban settlements in the North Atlantic region, and more specifically in medieval England and Norway. Insights through interdisciplinary discussions of new and previously known archaeological data, in juxtaposition to written sources, and from novel theoretical perspectives, allow us to gain a deeper knowledge of the aforementioned dynamics. The focus on medieval urban sites becomes significant due to the recent tendencies in environmental history to promote the study of more varied social and demographic contexts as these are inevitably linked to, formed by, and forming back the environment within which they are created. In the Middle Ages, the environment was certainly under pressure and was transformed by, among other factors, intensified centralisation and urbanisation. Medieval towns were some of the first institutions that left a distinct ‘ecological footprints’, as they were dependent on the intensified exchange of energy (food, water, fuel), material (wood, stone, raw material) and waste with the surrounding ecosystems. Towns were also the main foci of political, administrative, economic, and religious activities, and the places where descriptive and prescriptive narratives about the society and people’s place in the environment were often (but not exclusively) written. Medieval urbanisation, inseparable from its environment, encompassed ecological and cultural innovations that changed nature-culture dynamics permanently and formed the historical background for modern urban development.
More specifically, it aims to analyze and deepen our understanding of how liturgy and religious practice modelled and modified selves and communities, how they shaped and transformed identities and built communities - both individual and collective, religious and lay.
This book relates a story about the writing, reading, and reception of one text in three different cultural and political contexts across Europe. The focus is on the story of the Christian knight Elye and his Saracen princess Rosamunde, which was translated into Old Norse in the thirteenth century. This is a study of three of the manuscripts in which the work is preserved: one Old French manuscript from Flanders (BnF, fr. 25516, c. 1280) and two Old Norse manuscripts, one from Norway (DG 4–7 fol., c. 1270) and one from Iceland (Holm Perg 6 4 to, c. 1400). These manuscripts represent three different rhetorical and communicative situations and show how the writing and reading of the same text was conditioned by the respective cultural and political environment. The book innovatively conveys Old Norse culture as an active respondent, participant, and thus modulator of European literary tendencies. Tracing the translation, transmission, and transformation of the text throughout Europe redefines aspects of the Latin-vernacular nexus in the Middle Ages, and thus presents a new and valuable voice in the discussion of medieval European literary and cultural systems.
Articles by Stefka G Eriksen
https://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Research-Companion-Medieval-Icelandic/dp/0367133652/
The last fifty years have seen a significant change in the focus of saga studies, from a preoccupation with origins and development to a renewed interest in other topics, such as the nature of the sagas and their value as sources to medieval ideologies and mentalities.
The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas presents a detailed interdisciplinary examination of saga scholarship over the last fifty years, sometimes juxtaposing it with earlier views and examining the sagas both as works of art and as source materials.
This volume will be of interest to Old Norse and medieval Scandinavian scholars and accessible to medievalists in general.
50 free online copies of their article are available here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WYMXG4XDN3S7FT5558FI/full?target=10.1080/14614103.2021.1953935
comprehensive, or selective, survey: we hope this initial chapter will be the inspiration or more submissions for future issues of JIAS, so we can continue to collect these histories. Please get in touch if you would like to offer an entry; meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this compendium, and send thanks to all our valiant contributors who responded with such speed and enthusiasm to our SOS!
Samantha Rayner
De norrøne oversettelsene spenner vidt tematisk og inkluderer historier om kong Artur og ridderne av det runde bord, trojanerkrigen, Aleksander den store, Teoderik den store, Karl den store, korstog og kristne legender med røtter i buddhismen.
Boka presenterer hvem som bestilte og utførte oversettelsene, hvem som leste dem og hvorfor. Denne nye kunnskapen om oversettelsenes sosiopolitiske rolle og deres dynamiske relasjon til den norrøne lokale litteraturen utvider forståelsen av norsk middelalder.
This special issue presents four papers that explore how the dynamics between nature and culture both affected, and was affected by, the development of medieval urban settlements in the North Atlantic region, and more specifically in medieval England and Norway. Insights through interdisciplinary discussions of new and previously known archaeological data, in juxtaposition to written sources, and from novel theoretical perspectives, allow us to gain a deeper knowledge of the aforementioned dynamics. The focus on medieval urban sites becomes significant due to the recent tendencies in environmental history to promote the study of more varied social and demographic contexts as these are inevitably linked to, formed by, and forming back the environment within which they are created. In the Middle Ages, the environment was certainly under pressure and was transformed by, among other factors, intensified centralisation and urbanisation. Medieval towns were some of the first institutions that left a distinct ‘ecological footprints’, as they were dependent on the intensified exchange of energy (food, water, fuel), material (wood, stone, raw material) and waste with the surrounding ecosystems. Towns were also the main foci of political, administrative, economic, and religious activities, and the places where descriptive and prescriptive narratives about the society and people’s place in the environment were often (but not exclusively) written. Medieval urbanisation, inseparable from its environment, encompassed ecological and cultural innovations that changed nature-culture dynamics permanently and formed the historical background for modern urban development.
More specifically, it aims to analyze and deepen our understanding of how liturgy and religious practice modelled and modified selves and communities, how they shaped and transformed identities and built communities - both individual and collective, religious and lay.
This book relates a story about the writing, reading, and reception of one text in three different cultural and political contexts across Europe. The focus is on the story of the Christian knight Elye and his Saracen princess Rosamunde, which was translated into Old Norse in the thirteenth century. This is a study of three of the manuscripts in which the work is preserved: one Old French manuscript from Flanders (BnF, fr. 25516, c. 1280) and two Old Norse manuscripts, one from Norway (DG 4–7 fol., c. 1270) and one from Iceland (Holm Perg 6 4 to, c. 1400). These manuscripts represent three different rhetorical and communicative situations and show how the writing and reading of the same text was conditioned by the respective cultural and political environment. The book innovatively conveys Old Norse culture as an active respondent, participant, and thus modulator of European literary tendencies. Tracing the translation, transmission, and transformation of the text throughout Europe redefines aspects of the Latin-vernacular nexus in the Middle Ages, and thus presents a new and valuable voice in the discussion of medieval European literary and cultural systems.
https://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Research-Companion-Medieval-Icelandic/dp/0367133652/
The last fifty years have seen a significant change in the focus of saga studies, from a preoccupation with origins and development to a renewed interest in other topics, such as the nature of the sagas and their value as sources to medieval ideologies and mentalities.
The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas presents a detailed interdisciplinary examination of saga scholarship over the last fifty years, sometimes juxtaposing it with earlier views and examining the sagas both as works of art and as source materials.
This volume will be of interest to Old Norse and medieval Scandinavian scholars and accessible to medievalists in general.
50 free online copies of their article are available here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WYMXG4XDN3S7FT5558FI/full?target=10.1080/14614103.2021.1953935
comprehensive, or selective, survey: we hope this initial chapter will be the inspiration or more submissions for future issues of JIAS, so we can continue to collect these histories. Please get in touch if you would like to offer an entry; meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this compendium, and send thanks to all our valiant contributors who responded with such speed and enthusiasm to our SOS!
Samantha Rayner
Christian theological premise that “God is Happiness” was adapted to the social and ideological
norms and aesthetics of Old Norse literature and culture. This is done by studying
the motif of religious awakening in a variety of Old Norse genres, including primary and
secondary translations of Latin sources, translations from Old French, and indigenous genres
such as Bishops’ sagas, Icelandic family sagas, and legendary sagas. The main conclusion
is that religious awakening is represented in a variety of ways in the literary system as a
whole: as an emotional, intellectual, and physical/sensory process, as well as a pragmatic
rational decision. The differences may be due to the different intended functions and readerships
of translated as opposed to indigenous texts, in Norway and Iceland. From an epistemological
perspective, the article illustrates that believing had complex connotations in
Old Norse culture, and could be understood as an emotional and intellectual process, as a
sensory and physical experience, or as a matter of pragmatics and everyday practices, depending
on the socio-cultural context.
Abstract:
The link between the self and its world and history – as well as the way this link is conceptualized in literature – has been a central concern of literary studies, and humanities in general. The aim of this book is to contribute to this discussion, by investigating Old Norse literature and the opportunities it gave to its readers to mentalize. This will increase our insight in Old Norse writers and readers self-understanding, in juxtaposition to their own and others’ historical past, and earthly and heavenly future. According to Proust, “when reading, each reader is reading himself.” This book will illustrate how and why this was also the case in Old Norse culture.
Arkeologiske funn har gitt ny kunnskap om hvordan osloborgerne i år 1000-1600 bodde, spiste, skaffet inntekter, lagde allianser, forstod verden og skapte mening i hverdagen.
Boka vil sammenstille arkeologiske funn med andre kilder for å fortelle en helhetlig og tverrfaglig historie om middelalder-Oslo, fra etableringen av byen på 1000-tallet til den store bybrannen i 1624.
Redaksjonen vil bestå av arkeolog Egil Lindhart Bauer, kunsthistoriker Morten Stige, arkeolog Håvard Hegdal og litteratur-/kunsthistoriker Stefka G. Eriksen. Disse vil hente inn tekstbidrag fra Norges aller beste forskere på de mest relevante temaene til å skrive boka. Med dette ambisiøse prosjekter håper NIKU å gi et allment publikum et nytt blikk på middelalderhistorien!
NIKU vil ha boka ferdig i 2022, samtidig som den nye Follobanen åpner!
More specifically, it aims to analyze and deepen our understanding of how liturgy and religious practice modelled and modified selves and communities, how they shaped and transformed identities and built communities - both individual and collective, religious and lay.
Tid og sted: 15. mars 2023 17:00, Historisk museum, Foredragssalen i museets 3. etasje
Panel
Zanette Glørstad, førsteamanuensis i nordisk arkeologi ved Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo
Stefka Eriksen, filolog, kulturhistoriker og forsker ved Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning
Hans Jacob Orning, professor i middelalderhistorie ved Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie ved Universitetet i Oslo
Ordstyrer: Knut Paasche, arkeolog og forsker ved Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning
https://open.spotify.com/episode/50WiTkqWaZH999wgRx3mKy?si=73886bd3ddc9473e
Om forestillingen:
I et samarbeid mellom en dansekunstner, lyddesigner, scenograf og performancekunstner utforskes sammenhengen mellom vibrasjon og form.
Vibrasjoner skaper krefter som får en form til å vokse frem og som styrer dens vilje og retning.
Scenografien består av objekter bygget med materialer som tre, metall og bambus, funnet og gjenbrukt.
Når utøverne beveger seg med og blant disse skulpturelle formene fungerer de også som lydkilder i forestillingen.
Gjennom en lyttende og porøs tilstedeværelse skapes et landskap av resonanser; en hage av forbindelser; et felt fylt av klang der former og mønster oppstår, transformeres og oppløses. Bilder av lyd, syngende objekter, og mellomrom i bevegelse.
I følgje Snorre Sturlasson vart Oslo etablert av Harald Harråde på midten av 1000-talet, men på det tidspunktet hadde bydanninga alt teke til. I 1070 vart det etablert eit bispesete i Oslo, og byen fekk delvis preg av å vera ein biskopsby, som vil seia at biskopen dominerte byen økonomisk og politisk. Dette endra seg i løpet av 1200-talet, og frå kong Håkon V frå 1299 vart Oslo kongeleg residensby, og i ein periode så sentral at vi kan kalla den for ein hovudstad.
Byen vart slik eit økonomisk og politisk senter der Oslofjorden møter eit rikt innlandsområde, og som andre norske mellomalderbyar, vaks Oslo fram som utskipingshamn for naturressursar i innlandet.
Lytt her: https://radio.nrk.no/serie/norgeshistorie/sesong/202206/KMTE87004122
Lenke til artikler: https://www.morgenbladet.no/author/stefka-g-eriksen/
In this workshop, we invite speakers to discuss textual and material variations in manuscripts, in connection to creativity and cognition.
See final program.
DR STEFKA ERIKSEN (NIKU - NORWEGIAN INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE RESEARCH)
Notions of Energy in the Medieval North
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfttWE-zVETiFiwPiPz-cqDpLB-vL1FaqS5conpo7YCnOc-BQ/viewform
The sources tell of various types or notions of energy, which included the energy embedded in and produced by humans, the energy within human communities, the energy inherent in nature and in ‘things’, and of course the energy of God. The main questions that will be discussed based on the literary sources are:
- Was energy seen as local or global? Did this change with the introduction of Christianity?
- How did people relate to these different notions of energy – was energy seen as an agency on its own or was it meant to be used and controlled?
- What gave access to energy and what was the necessary social position for such access?
Ultimately, these discussions will increase our insight about the link between the agents responsible for the literary sources (i.e. the communication about energy) and the agents with greatest access to anergy in medieval Norway and Iceland.
For more information on the conference, see: https://cognitivescience.hunnu.edu.cn/ICMC2022/home/index.html
In this talk, I want to do continue this relatively new endeavor of unmuting the past, disturbing the impression of silence of medieval, and bringing medieval sounds and sound-cultures to our attention. I will do this by studying how and what sounds are described in Old Norse literary sources, how sound is reflected in textual, material, and visual culture, and how the formation of this culture was conditioned by and conditioned back medieval people’s existence.
The 'Little Ice Age' has been a research subject in historical climate studies since the second half of the 20th century, other historical fields started to deeply engage with it since the turn of the millennium. In recent years, numerous studies identified it as a trigger for political crises and upheavals. Possibly the most prominent publication, Geoffrey Parker's Global Crisis (Par-ker 2013) moves beyond a regional perspective on climate conditions of the 17th century and shows that crop failures, famine crises, pandemics and warlike conflicts were a global phe-nomenon. In his case study of 17th century Dutch culture, Degroot (2018) shows, however, that not all societies suffered equally from climatic changes. In the Science article Towards a Rigorous Understanding of Societal Responses to Climate Change (Degroot 2021), he argues for a stronger emphasis on adaptation mechanisms and resilience as cultural responses to cli-mate crises.
The proposed panel is composed of historians and cultural scholars with a focus on the Chi-nese and European cultural areas. The aim is to discuss, on the one hand, the extent to which temperature falls and associated natural phenomena could destabilize systems, which (re-)action possibilities and narratives the political structures and actors referred to and devel-oped. On the other hand, the panel asks to which extent the Little Ice Age may have served as an amplifying and accelerating factor for cultural and political developments. It thus tries to gain a more differentiated understanding of this phase of history and rethink the idea of its catastrophic nature.
Time and place: Nov. 24, 2021 12:15 PM–1:00 PM, CET. Hybrid format - physically at Stort møterom, GS, Blindern; digitally on Zoom.
For a link, see: https://www.hf.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/oseh/news-and-events/events/lunchtime-discussions/-sustainability-narratives--%28sustain%29-seeing-envir.html
I de tre første innleggene får vi ny kunnskap om middelalderbyene Bergen, Oslo og Trondheim, blant annet basert på resultater fra større arkeologiske utgravninger NIKU har hatt de siste årene.
I det siste innlegget blir vi kjent med hva litteratur og andre kilder fra middelalderen kan fortelle oss om hvordan datidens mennesker tenkte på hva en by skulle være.
Hver av presentasjonene varer i 15 minutter, og så blir det rom for spørsmål og svar på slutten.
- Per Christian Underhaug "Hvordan vannveiene formet Bergen"
- Egil Lindhart Bauer "Sekulære steinbygninger i middelalderbyen Oslo: Datering, bytopografi og forvaltning"
- Ingeborg Sæhle "Fra bakgård til kirke og tilbake. Funksjonsendring i Søndre gate gjennom 400 år"
- Stefka G. Eriksen "Ideen om en by i middelalderens litteratur og kultur"
Ordstyrer: Kristin Bakken
Forskningfrokosten foregår på Teams Live event og er åpen for alle.
Se Facebook for lenke til arransjementet: https://fb.me/e/21NJFxL81
Collegium Medievale har invitert tre spesialister på middelalderens arkeologi, litteratur og historie for å belyse middelalderens klima fra ulike perspektiv. Vi kommer til å finne ut hvordan vi kan vite noe om middelalderens klima overhodet, og hvordan middelalderens litterære skildringer av natur og kultur ble påvirket av klimautfordringene. Vi spør hvordan samfunnet tilpasset seg klimaet og hvordan menneskene tolket ekstreme værhendelser. Gjennom kvelden håper vi å få innsikt i hva som er viktig å forstå om et av de mest populære temaene i samtidens middelalderforskning.
Mer informasjon: https://www.facebook.com/events/622596759148475?ref=newsfeed
I will contribute to a workshop organized by Mark Turner on 'Medieval Cognitive Engineering', with a paper on 'Constructing Identity through Mentalizing in Old Norse Literature and Culture', 26, september 2021
The book is one of the main results of the research project “The Self in Social Spaces”, and is finally out! The book is already available as Open Access on De Gruyter’s site.
At the book-launch, the book, and the project, will be presented by Stefka G. Eriksen, Research Professor of Old Norse literature and culture. This will be followed by a conversations between the authors and two invited external readers: Marianne Hem Eriksen, Associate Professor of Archaeology , Cultural Historical Museum, Oslo and Ylva Østby, Associate Professor of Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo.
Join us for a conversation on how we can study the medieval (and modern) self, on agency of things, on embodied, embedded, and extended minds, and much more!
Everyone is welcome to join the discussion at the Q&A session at the end of the webinar.
Registrate for the event here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ajKbnjdtkEKbIW9QlP9vijju_Gy5x21DoJY1X9onx6tUREM4UlhIQkNWNExHN0JYRUFSOE9UNllGUC4u