Professor Richard North


Email: richard.north@ucl.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7679 3122
Internal Phone: 33122 

Education and experience

Richard North got his a BA from Oxford (1983) and PhD from Cambridge (1987). He held a postdoc in Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 1987-9, then appointed lecturer of Old and Middle English at UCL. Since then he has taught English literature of all periods, but mainly Old and Middle English, and also Old Icelandic, to undergraduates and MA students, and has also supervises PhD students.

Research interests

These follow works which he teaches, keeping mostly with Life Stories and Editions. In the first case, his book on Beowulf (2006) argued not only for a date of composition (826-7) but also for the poet’s identity as Eanmund of Breedon (died c. 848), whose observation of the ninth-century Mercian decline is seen by North as reflected in this poem. He has also argued that the Icelandic chieftain Sighvatr Sturluson was the author of Víga-Glúms saga (c. 1225). In the second case, North edited and translated most of the poetry and prose contained in the Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures (2011), including sections from Beowulf, Andreas and the whole of Genesis B, and the Sonatorrek of Egill Skalla-Grímsson (c. 960). In the latter book he also edited and translated other Skaldic (occasional) poems including the Þórsdrápa of Eilílfr Goðrúnarson (c. 985), as well as separately editing and translating the Haustlǫng of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (c. 900) and the Húsdrápa of Úlfr Uggason (c. 995). At the moment he is trying to make a case for the influence of Beowulf on Grettis saga (the saga of Grettir the Strong), to live long enough to see the publication of his piece on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and to understand Chaucer’s changes in his Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1388) to Il Filostrato of Giovanni Boccaccio. He has also written on two contemporaneous comic (or as some would say, ‘comedic’) poems, on the OE Andreas with respect to a mockery of Beowulf in this poem, and on the Ynglingatal of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (c. 890), which makes fun of Swedish kings. What impact his scholarship has made on the outside world, if not lost in the ephemera of radio and independent TV, may be found in his short history of stand-up appearances in UCL Bright Club. With Joe Allard (and Patricia Gillies) of the University of Essex, he finally got around to producing his Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures (Pearson, 2011), a Reader (dear Reader) to go with the much-loved 'Beowulf' & Other Stories which came out in 2007 (and again, in 2011).

Selected Publications

Books

1. Pagan Words and Christian Meanings, Costerus New Series 81 (Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1991), 198 pp. ISBN 90 5183 305 9

2. The Haustlöng of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, edited, with introduction, translation, commentary and glossary (London: Hisarlik Press, 1997), lxvii and 105 pp. ISBN 1 874312 20 6

3. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 22 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), x and 374 pp. ISBN 0 521 55183 8

4. The Origins of ‘Beowulf’: From Vergil to Wiglaf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), xviii and 365 pp., 6 Illustrations, 10 Figures, ISBN 0-19-926776-6

5. The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures, Richard North, Joe Allard, and Patricia Gillies (London: Pearson Education Ltd, 2011), 888 pp. ISBN 978-1-4082-4770-9

Edited Books

1. Latin Culture and Germanic Europe: Proceedings of the First Germania Latina Conference, ed. Richard North and Tette Hofstra, Germania Latina I (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1992), 128 pp. ISBN 90 0980 059 7

2. Fótarkefli rist Peter Foote 26.v.99 [birthday Festschrift], ed. Alison Finlay, Richard North and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, 2 vols. (London: Birkbeck Press, 1999), 55 and 33 pp.

3. ‘Beowulf’ & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures, ed. Richard North and Joe Allard (London: Pearson Education Ltd, 2007), c. 500 pp., 15 Illustrations. ISBN 1405835729

4. 'Beowulf' & Other Stories;  A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures, 2nd edition, ed. Richard North and Joe Allard (London:  Pearson Education Ltd, 2011), 556 pp., 29 illustrations, one new chapter.  ISBN 978-1-4082-8603-6

Articles and Chapters

1. ‘Jeux d’esprit in “Deor”’: Geat and Mæðhild’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 27 (1988), 11-24

2. ‘Kening Finn en it ferdrach fan Finnsboarch’, Us Wurk 38 (1989), 1-11

3. ‘Tribal Loyalties in the Finnsburh Fragment and Episode’, Leeds Studies in English n.s. 21 (1990), 13-43

4. ‘The Pagan Inheritance of Egill’s Sonatorrek’, Atti del 12. Congresso internazionale di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, ed. Teresa Pàroli (Rome: Il Calamo, 1991), pp. 147-67

5. ‘Getting to Know the General in The Battle of Maldon’, Medium Ævum 60 (1991), 1-15

6. ‘Saxo and the Swedish Wars in Beowulf’, in Saxo Grammaticus. Tra Storiografia e Letteratura, ed. Carlo Santini (Rome: Il Calamo, 1992), pp. 175-88

7. ‘King Æthelwulf and the Goths in “Deor”’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 40 (1994), 7-20

8. ‘“Wyrd” and “wearð ealuscerwen” in Beowulf’, Leeds Studies in English n.s. 25 (1994), 69-82

9. ‘Metre and Meaning in Wulf and Eadwacer: Signý Reconsidered’, in Loyal Letters: Studies in Mediaeval Alliterative Poetry and Prose, ed. L. A. J. Houwen and A. A. MacDonald (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1994), pp. 29-54

10. ‘Boethius and the Mercenary in The Wanderer’, Pagan and Christian Themes in Medieval Germanic Literature: Proceedings of the Second Germania Latina Conference, ed. L. A. J. R. Houwen and A. A. MacDonald, Germania Latina 2 (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995), pp. 45-68

11. ‘Óðinn gegen Freyr: Elemente heidnischer Religion in der Víga-Glúms Saga’, in International Scandinavian and Medieval Studies in Memory of Gerd Wolfgang Weber, ed. M. Dallapiazza, O. Hansen, P. Meulengracht Sørensen and Y. S. Bonnetain, Hesperides: Studies in Western Literature and Civilization 12 (Trieste: Edizioni Parnaso, 2000), 347-65

12. ‘Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Attitudes to 999/1000’, in Fins de Siècle / New Beginnings, ed. Ib Johansen, The Dolphin 31 (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2000), 17-38

13. ‘Goð geyja: the Limits of Humour in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature’, Quaestio 1 (2000), 1-22

14. ‘Loki’s Gender, or Why Skaði Laughed’, in Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwest Europe, ed. K. E. Olsen and L. A. J. R. Houwen, Mediaevalia Groningana, n.s. 3 (Louvain, 2001), 141-51

15. 'Paganism, Anglo-Saxon', in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. L. Jones, Macmillan Reference series (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2005), s.v.

16. ‘Money and Religion in Færeyinga saga’, in Viking and Norse in the North Atlantic: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19-30 July 2001, ed. A. Mortensen and S. V. Arge, Annales Societatis Scientarum Færoensis, Supplementum XLIV (Tórshavn, 2005), 60-75

17. ‘Image and Ascendancy in Úlfr’s Húsdrápa’, Image, Word, Text: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature and its Insular Context in Honour of Éamonn Ó Carragáin, ed. Alastair Minnis and Jane Roberts, Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 18 (Turnhout, 2006), 369-404

18. ‘End Time and the date of Völuspá: Two Models of Conversion’, in Conversion and Colonization in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Catherine E. Karkov and Nicholas Howe, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 318 (Tempe, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2006), 213-236

19. ‘An Introduction to this Book’, by Richard North, David Crystal and Joe Allard (2007)

20. ‘Old English Minor Heroic Verse’, in above

21. ‘The Dream of the Rood and Anglo-Saxon Northumbria’, by Éamonn Ó Carragáin and Richard North, in above

22. ‘OE scop and the Singing Welsh Bishop’, in Northern Voices: Essays on Old Germanic and Related Topics offered to Professor Tette Hofstra, ed. Kees Dekker, Alasdair MacDonald and Hermann Niebaum, Germania Latina VI, Mediaevalia Groningana, N.S. 11 (Leuven: Peeters, 2008), 199-122

23. 'Sighvatr Sturluson and the authorship of Viga-Glums saga', in Analecta Septentrionalia. Beiträge zur nordgermanischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte. Festschrift an Kurt Schier, ed. Wilhelm Heizmann and Astrid van Nahl, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (Berlin: de Gruyter, March 2009), pp. 20-36.

24. 'Revenue and Real estate: Archbishop Wulfred and the Strange Case of Cynehelm', in Anglo-Saxon Traces, ed. Jane Roberts and Leslie Webster, Essays in Anglo-Saxon Studies 4, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 405 (Tempe, AZ, 2011), 181-99

25. ‘OE wopes hring and the Old Norse Myth of Baldr’, in Early Archaeology and Art in the British Isles: Studies in Honour of James Graham-Campbell, ed. Andrew Reynolds and Leslie Webster (Brill, 2012), pp. 893-910

26. [Forthcoming 2012] North and Martin Worthington, ‘Gilgameš and Beowulf: Foundations of a Comparison’, in Decoding Gilgameš, ed. Martin Worthington, KASKAL: Rivista di Storia, Ambienti e Culture del Vicino Oriente Antico, 9 (Florence, 2012), 157-97

27. [Forthcoming 2013] ‘Paganism’, in Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, ed. Kocku von Stuckraden and Robert Segal (Brill, 2013)

28. [Forthcoming 2013] ‘Kurzweilige Wahrheiten: Ari und das Ynglingatal in den Prologen der Heimskringla’, in Snorri Sturluson. Mythologe, Dichter, Politiker, ed. H. Beck, W. Heizmann and A. van Nahl, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, 69 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2013)

29. [Forthcoming 2013] ‘Meet the Pagans: Andreas and the Cult of Beowulf’, Essays on the Transmission and Transformation of Medieval Knowledge, ed. Marilina Cesario and Malte Urban, proposal for Medieval Literature and Culture, Manchester University Press

30. [Forthcoming 2013] ‘Morgan le Fay and the Fairy Mound in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, in Airy Nothings: Studies in Honour of Alasdair A. MacDonald, ed. Karin Olsen and Jan Veenstra (Brill, 2013)

Translated Books

The First Universities: Studium Generale and the Origins of University Education in Europe, by Olaf Pedersen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) [orig. Studium Generale: De europæiske universiteters tilblivelse (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1979), 338 pp.] ISBN 0 521 59431 6

Other publications

1. ’The Pagan Inheritance of Egill’s Sonatorrek’, in ‘Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages’, VII International Saga Conference, Preprints, 4-10 September, 1988 Centro Italiano di Studi sull’ Alto Medioevo, Spoleto), pp. 289-300

2. ‘How was Hávamál performed?’, in ‘The Audience of the Sagas’, VIII International Saga Conference, Preprints, 11-17 August, 1991 (Gothenburg University)

3. ‘Heathen religion in Haustlöng’, in ‘Sagas and the Norwegian Experience’, X International Saga Conference, Preprints, 3-9 August, 1997 (Trondheim University), pp. 511-20

4. ‘Fótardrápa’ [20-stanza Scaldic poem in honour of Peter Foote], in Fótarkefli rist Peter Foote 26.v.99, ed. Alison Finlay, Richard North and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, 2 vols. (London: Birkbeck Press, 1999) I, 30-32

Some reviews

1. On Ursula Dronke, ed., The Poetic Edda, Volume 2, in Saga-Book 25 (1999), 219-26

2. On Magnús Fjalldal, The Long Arm of Coincidence: the Frustrated Connection between Beowulf and Grettis Saga, in Envoi 8 (1999), 52-8

3. On Klaus von See, Europa und der Norden im Mittelalter, in Saga-Book 26 (2002), 139-424