Dr Christopher Abram
Lecturer in Medieval Scandinavian Studies
About me: I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2004, and in the same year joined UCL, where I teach Old Norse language and literature and courses on medieval Scandinavian history and culture. (My C.V. is available...)
Research: My first book, Myths of the Pagan North: the Gods of the Norsemen, was published by Continuum in March 2011.
My doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Representations of the Pagan Afterlife in Medieval Scandinavian Literature’. In this work, I attempted - at times successfully, but not always - to disambiguate Old Norse mythic narratives concerning the fate of the ‘soul’ after death according to the various historical and cultural contexts that produced them. Subsequent research has continued along similar pathways: I am fascinated by the timely, contingent, situated aspects of myth - how mythic narratives reflect the concerns and values of the culture that produces, receives, or re-creates them. My current project is, on these lines, a major diachronic investigation of the changing texts of the Norse Eddas that attempts to re-historicize (or, looking at it another way, to de-mythologize) the successive versions of the myths they present.
My other interests include early Christian writing in Old Norse, religious change and conversion, theoretical approaches to mythology, and textual criticism. Although my work focuses on Iceland and Norway at present, I’ve also published on Anglo-Saxon literature, and I try to look at medieval Scandinavia in comparative European perspective wherever possible.
I supervise doctoral students in the fields of Old Norse-Icelandic literature and comparative mythology.
I run a website, oldnorsenews.org, to provide a forum for the exchange of information, news, and ideas across the field of Medieval Scandinavian Studies.
Finally, I occasionally dabble in comedy (although only on Old Norse themes). Here is a recording of my performance at UCL's Bright Club in February 2011.
Publications:
- Myths of the Pagan North (London: Continuum, 2011)
- 'New Light on the Illumination of Grendel's Mere', JEGP 109 (2010), 198-216
- 'Gylfaginning and Early Medieval Conversion Theory', Saga-Book 33 (2009), 5-24
- 'Snorri Sturluson' and 'Skaldic Poetry', entries in The Literary Encyclopedia (2009/10)
- 'Anglo-Saxon Homilies in their Scandinavian Context', in The Old English Homily. Precedence, Practice, and Appropriation, ed. A. Kleist, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 17 (Turnhout, 2007), pp. 425-444
- 'Aldhelm and the Two Cultures of Anglo-Saxon Poetry', Literature Compass 4 (2007) [web journal]
- 'The Errors in The Rhyming Poem', Review of English Studies 58 (2007), 1-9
- 'Hel in Early Norse Poetry', Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 2 (2006), 1-29
- 'Snorri’s Invention of Hermóðr’s helreið', in The Fantastic in Old Norse / Icelandic Literature. Sagas and the British Isles. Preprint Papers of the 13th International Saga Conference, Durham and York, 6th-12th August, 2006, ed. John McKinnell et al. (Durham, 2006), I, 22-31
- 'Anglo-Saxon Influence in the Old Norwegian Homily Book', Mediaeval Scandinavia 14 (2004), 1-34
- 'Scribal Authority in Skaldic Verse: Þórbjörn hornklofi’s Glymdrápa', Arkiv för nordisk filologi 116 (2001), 5-19
- 'In Search of Lost Time: Aldhelm and The Ruin', Quaestio (Selected Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic) 1 (2000), 23-44
Teaching: In the spring term of 2012 I shall be teaching ELCS 6014 Myth and SCAN GM06 Advanced Old Icelandic Literature (MA level).
I normally also teach the following courses in the Department of Scandinavian Studies
- SCAN 1401 Introduction to Old Norse
- SCAN 7402 Old Norse I
- SCAN 4401 Old Norse II
- SCAN 7404 Medieval Scandinavian Mythology and Religion
... and I participate in the team-taught SCAN 1303 Histories and Cultures of the Nordic Region and SCAN 7006 Nordic Landscapes.
I also co-ordinate the BA in Viking Studies and the MA in Language, Culture and History (Medieval and West Norse Studies). I contribute to the teaching of the 2nd-year Core Course for the BA in Language and Culture (LCUL 2001 European Cultures) and to the MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Administration: I am Honorary Assistant Secretary of the Viking Society for Northern Research, and I organize the UCL Medieval Scandinavian Seminar. I am Deputy Editor of the journal Scandinavica.
Contact: email c.abram@ucl.ac.uk | tel.0207 679 3175
