Emotions in Old Norse literature

I've spent the last few days in Oxford, attending and presenting at a workshop on methods for understanding emotions in Old Norse literature.

The study of emotions in different historical periods has been a significant field of enquiry in the Humanities for a couple of decades, and has seen the publication of a growing number of papers and books about the topic in Old Norse studies, too. The workshop I attended was a very collaborative one that was used as a step towards the production of a new book of essays, coordinated and edited by Gareth Evans of St John's College, Oxford University and Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir from the University of Iceland. My chapter, on creative approaches to understanding emotions in Old Norse literature, will suggest ways we can adapt creative writing methods to generate new research questions in the area.

For me, the trip has also marked a welcome return to Oxford, where I spent some three months in the winter of 2023-2024, and began work on my current creative writing project, one now nearing (some form of) completion. In a wider sense, it is also a return to places that are part of my family's history, that is, my English side that was here before migrating to Australia: my mother, Susan, was born in Oxford and her father, Harold, served as a policeman not far from here.

Surprise coalescences are, I suppose, something one finds in many places, but I find them particularly resonant here, and then somehow also in how Oxford's gothic architecture seems always to present staggered views, layers, and worlds within worlds.