Programme

Monday, 27 November 2017

Venue: Finnish Literature Society main building, the Great Hall (Hallituskatu 1, second floor)

08:40–09:00    Coffee and registration

09:00–09:15    Opening words

09:15–10:45    Session I

Old Norse Mythology and Legend Tradition

John Lindow, University of California, Berkeley

Gotland Picture Stones and Narration

Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt, Swedish National Heritage Board

Old Norse Mythology, Heroic Legends, Religion and Folklore

Else Mundal, University of Bergen

10:45–11:00 Coffee

11:00–12:30 Session II

Pre-Cristian Religion of the North as Folklore: The Example of Freyr

Jens Peter Schjødt, Aarhus University

Myth and Character-Building in the Icelandic Family Sagas

Joonas Ahola, University of Helsinki

Fifth-Column Mother: Týr’s Negotiation of Kinship (and jötunheimar) According to Hymiskviða

Judy Quinn, University of Cambridge

12:30–13:45 Lunch

13:45–15:15 Session III

Basic Instincts?

Rudy Simek, University of Bonn

A Brief History of Giants

Tommy Kuusela, Institute for Language and Folklore, Uppsala

Size Matters – Dwarfs in Old Norse Myths and Folklore

Henning Kure, mythologist, independent scholar, Copenhagen

15:15–15:30 Coffee

15:30–17:00 Session IV

Traces of Pre-Christian Religion in British Ballads and Popular Poetry

John McKinnell, Durham University

Transforming, Transgressing, and Terrorizing: Shape-Shifters in Swedish Medieval Ballads

Catharina Raudvere, University of Copenhagen

The Configurations of Old Norse Religion and its Relevance for the Study of Late Scandinavian Folklore

Andreas Nordberg, University of Stockholm

Tour of the archive of folklore of the Finnish Literature Society

17:30-19:45 Reception hosted by the Collegium for Advanced Studies (Fabianinkatu 24, third floor)

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Venue: Finnish Literature Society main building, the Great Hall (Hallituskatu 1, second floor)

08:45–09:00 Coffee

09:00–10:30 Session V

George Marwick’s Account of ‘The Muckle Tree or Igasill’: Folklore or Literature?

Terry Gunnell, University of Iceland

Medieval Irish Folklore and the Construction of Place in Eyrbyggja saga

Matthias Egeler, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, and Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin; DAAD-P.R.I.M.E.-Fellow

Magical Fishing in Historia Norwegie – Incomprehensible without Late Folklore

Eldar Heide, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

10:30–10:45 Coffee

10:45–12:15 Session VI

Mythology of the Prose Edda Interacting with the Sky

Gísli Sigurðsson, Árni Magnússon Institute, Reykjavík

Brynhildr, the Suicidal Valkyrie: Views of Suicide in Medieval Iceland

Kirsi Kanerva, University of Turku

Women and Axes in the North: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Viking Archaeology, Old Norse Literature and Folklore

Leszek Gardeła, University of Rzeszów

12:15–13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:00 Session VII

Myths, Historiolas, and Magic

Stephen Mitchell, Harvard University

In Search of the tietäjä with a Little Help from Old Norse Material

Karolina Kouvola, University of Helsinki

Approaching seiðr from Later Traditions – Possibilities and Pitfalls

Kendra Willson, University of Turku

15:00–15:15 Coffee

15:15–16:45 Session VII

Exclusivity in Old Norse Ritual and the Christianization of Ritual Space

Maths Bertell, Mid-Sweden University

Skalds as Ritual Specialists? Looking for Religious Ritual Frameworks in the Oral Performance of Haraldskvæði, Eiríksmál and Hákonarmál

Simon Nygaard, Aarhus University

‘My God Can Beat up Your God!’ – Asserting Specialists’ Power and Authority through Mythic Discourse

Frog, University of Helsinki

16:45–17:00 Closing discussion

Reception hosted by Folklore Studies, University of Helsinki (Unioninkatu 38 C, second floor)