Vikings and the Vikings

Paul Hardwick is Professor of English at Leeds Trinity University, where he leads the creative writing programs and teaches medieval literature. He has published widely on the art and literature of the Middle Ages, with a particular focus on misericords and animal iconography, and on medievalism. Kate Lister is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Communications at Leeds Trinity University. She has published in the medical humanities, material culture, Victorian Studies, and neo-medievalism. She is a columnist for inews and won the Sexual Freedom Publicist of the Year Award in 2017.

“All-in-all, this is a well-rounded, well-conceived and very welcome volume that will not only enhance enjoyment and understanding of Vikings itself, but in its wide-randing exploration of issues of portrayal and reception of violent and problematic pasts also holds a great deal of invaluable insight for studies of medievalism...significant and thoroughly enjoyable”—Medievally Speaking

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword by Justin PollardIntroduction (Paul Hardwick and Kate Lister)The Once and Future Viking: The Popularity of Ragnar Loðbrók in the 18th Century (Stephen Basdeo)Norse Noir: Sagas and Sources (Donna Heddle)Fantasizing History: Anachronism, Creative License and the ­Re-Emergence of an Early Language of Storytelling (Eleanor Chadwick)“What does a man do?” Representing and Performing Masculinity (Katherine J. Lewis)Shieldmaidens in ­Anglo-Saxon England: Historical Possibility or Wishful Thinking? (Shane McLeod)Motherhood in Vikings (Lillian Céspedes González)“Have you done this sort of thing before?” Sexual Violence and Historical Revision in Vikings (Kate Lister and Paul Hardwick)Dialogues with the Dead in Vikings (Howard Williams and Alison Klevnäs)Nature and Supernature (Aleks Pluskowski)Things in Vikings (Alexandra Sanmark and Howard Williams)Ambiguous Images: “Vikingness,” North American White Nationalism and the Threat of Appropriation (Richard Ford Burley)About the ContributorsIndex