For Northern Research
News-Sheet 2009
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Viking Society was held on Saturday 16 May 2009 in York.
The President, Heather O’Donoghue, was in the Chair. The minutes of the last AGM were read and accepted.
Election of officers of the Society was announced as follows:
Re-elected as President: Heather O’Donoghue (Oxford)
Re-elected as Vice-Presidents in Council: Michael Barnes, Anthony Faulkes, Peter Foote, Rory McTurk, Raymond Page, Richard Perkins, John Townsend, Kirsten Williams
Elected as Councillors: Lesley Abrams (Oxford), Chris Callow (Birmingham), Alaric Hall (Leeds), Richard North (London)
Re-elected as Councillors: Martin Arnold (Hull), Stefan Brink (Aberdeen), Haki Antonsson (London), Helen Carron (Cambridge), David Clark (Leicester), Victoria Cribb (London), Emily Lethbridge (Cambridge), Tarrin Wills (Aberdeen)
Meetings 2008-09
Autumn: Friday 21 November 2008, at University College, London. Speaker: Matthew Driscoll (Arnamagnæan Institute, Copenhagen), ‘Of Fragments Shored Against Ruins: Magnús Jónsson í Tjaldanesi and the end of manuscript culture in Iceland’
Spring: Friday 13 March 2009, at Birkbeck College, London. Speaker: Jens Peter Schjødt (Aarhus University), ‘Reflections on Dealing with Pre-Christian Religion in Scandinavia: the limits of philology’
Summer: Saturday 16 May 2009, at the University of York. Speaker: Søren Sindbæk (University of York): ‘Towns, Marriage, and Why the Viking Age Happened’
Student Conference: Making History: the Legendary Sagas, Saturday 28 February 2009, at the University of Hull, organized by Martin Arnold
Speakers:
Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), ‘Fathers and Monsters: Sigurðr Fáfnisbani talks to a dragon’
Carolyne Larrington (University of Oxford), ‘Ragnars saga – or Áslaugs saga? Dealing with a dragonish heritage’
Tom Shippey (Saint Louis University), ‘The Hrólfs saga kraka and the Legend of Leire’
Elizabeth Ashman Rowe (University of Cambridge), ‘Sögubrot af fornkonungum: mythologized history for late-thirteenth-century Iceland’
Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir (University of Oxford), ‘Hyggin ok forsjál: women’s counsel in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar’
Andrew Wawn (University of Leeds), ‘Úlfs saga Uggasonar and the End of a Tradition?’
Forthcoming Meetings
The next meeting, and annual dinner, will be held on Friday 27 November 2009 at University College, London. The speaker will be John Tucker (University of Victoria).
Publications
The following works have recently been published by the Society:
Matthew Driscoll (ed. and trans.), Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum, 2nd edition
Clive Tolley (ed. and trans.), Grottasöngr
Most of the Society’s publications are freely available at the following website:
http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/
Prizes and Awards
The following student prizes were awarded for the academic year 2007-08:
The Townsend Viking Society Prize: Stephen Zill (University College London)
The Margaret Orme Prize: Declan Taggart (University of Durham)
The Turville-Petre Prize: Erin Goeres (Lincoln College, Oxford)