Gro Steinsland

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Gro Steinsland (born 1945) is a Norwegian scholar of medieval studies and history of religion and since August 2009 has been the Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

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Steinsland has most recently been a professor in the Institute for Linguistic and Nordic Studies at the University of Oslo, where she was also a member of the international interdepartmental Centre for Studies in the Viking Age and Nordic Middle Ages [1] [2] from its founding in 1993 until its dissolution. [3] She taught in the Institute for Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø and has held guest faculty positions at Linacre College, Oxford University and at the University of Bonn. [1] In 2007-08, she led the international interdisciplinary research group in "The Power of the Ruler and the Ideology of Rulership in Nordic Culture 800-1200" at the Centre for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, [4] [5] and, since 1 August 2009, has been its Scientific Director. [6]

Steinsland specialises in pre-Christian religion, the associated Old Norse texts and mythology and the conversion of Scandinavia. [1] At both Oslo and Tromsø, she made Norse religion a main subject within the history of religion programme. [2] She is a member of the group for theology and religious studies in the Academy of Science and Letters. [7] As a historian of religion, her publications take Norse paganism seriously and present it in a non-traditional light as having been still strong and vital when it encountered Christianity. [3] In 2005, she published a wideranging introductory book, Norrøn religion (Norse religion), which presents the subject from the perspective of myth and praxis.[ citation needed ]

In her 1989 Ph.D. dissertation, Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi: en analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljód (the sacred marriage and Norse ideology of kingship: an analysis of the myth of the hieros gamos in Skírnismál , Ynglingatal , Háleygjatal and Hyndluljóð ), she reinterpreted the sacred marriage between a god and a giantess as a power myth legitimising rulership rather than a fertility myth; she specialises in the interpretation of written sources but made extensive use of archaeology and frequently takes an interdisciplinary approach. She emphasised the female aspect of pre-Christian religion, [2] particularly in her 1997 book Eros og død i norrøne myter (Eros and death in Norse myths), in which she contrasts the sexualisation of death in, for example, references to drowning as being embraced by the sea goddess Rán with the post-conversion view of female sexuality as shameful. [3]

Steinsland has written newspaper opinion articles, [1] for example in 2000 taking the position that Thor Heyerdahl's Odin expedition to Azerbaijan was inspired by a conjectural "charade" orchestrated by Snorri Sturluson. [8]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jörmungandr</span> Sea serpent in Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr, also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is an unfathomably large sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth (Midgard) and biting his own tail, an example of an ouroboros. As a result of it surrounding Midgard it is referred to as the World Serpent. When it releases its tail, Ragnarök will begin.

The Search for Odin is the project title of Thor Heyerdahl's last series of archaeological excavations, which took place in (Tanais) in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grógaldr</span>

Grógaldr or The Spell of Gróa is the first of two poems, now commonly published under the title Svipdagsmál found in several 17th-century paper manuscripts with Fjölsvinnsmál. In at least three of these manuscripts, the poems are in reverse order and separated by a third eddic poem titled, Hyndluljóð. For a long time, the connection between the two poems was not realized, until in 1854 Svend Grundtvig pointed out a connection between the story told in Gróagaldr and the first part of the medieval Scandinavian ballad of Ungen Sveidal/Herr Svedendal/Hertig Silfverdal. Then in 1856, Sophus Bugge noticed that the last part of the ballad corresponded to Fjölsvinnsmál. Bugge wrote about this connection in Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania 1860, calling the two poems together Svipdagsmál. Subsequent scholars have accepted this title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hålogaland</span>

Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the medieval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a kingdom extending between the Namdalen valley in Trøndelag county and the Lyngen fjord in Troms og Finnmark county.

Ynglingatal or Ynglinga tal is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the Ynglinga saga, the first saga of Snorri's Heimskringla. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Thjodolf), who was a poet for Harald Fairhair, is traditionally credited with its authorship. Snorri quotes frequently from this poem and cites it as one of the sources of the saga. The composition of the poem is dated to the 9th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunniva</span>

Saint Sunniva is the patron saint of the Norwegian Church of Norway Diocese of Bjørgvin, as well as all of Western Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lóðurr</span> Norse deity

Lóðurr is a god in Norse mythology. In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. Scholars have variously identified him with Loki, Vé, Vili, and Freyr, but consensus has not been reached on any one theory.

Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost is a Norse neopagan organisation in Norway. It was founded in 1996 and acts as an umbrella organisation for a number of local groups in Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urðr</span> A Norn in Norse mythology

Urðr is one of the Norns in Norse mythology. Along with Verðandi and Skuld, Urðr makes up a trio of Norns that are described as deciding the fates of people. Urðr is attested in stanza 20 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá and the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning.

<i>Galdr</i> Old Norse word for spell or incantation

A galdr or ġealdor refers to a spell or incantation in Old Norse and Old English respectively; these were usually performed in combination with certain rites.

Háleygjatal is a skaldic poem by Eyvindr Skáldaspillir written towards the end of the 10th century to establish the Hlaðir dynasty as the social equals of the Hárfagri dynasty

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Hjörungavágr</span>

The Battle of Hjǫrungavágr is a semi-legendary naval battle that took place in the late 10th century between the Jarls of Lade and a Danish invasion fleet led by the fabled Jomsvikings. This battle played an important role in the struggle by Haakon Sigurdsson to unite his rule over Norway. Traditionally, the battle has been set during the year 986, though the Gesta Wulinensis ecclesiae pontificum has the year 984 as the year of the battle.

The Sólarljóð is an Old Norse poem, written in Iceland ca 1200. It is written in the traditional metric style of the Poetic Edda, but with content from Christian visionary poems.

Lars Magnar Enoksen is a Swedish writer and Glima wrestler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus Olsen</span> Norwegian philologist

Magnus Bernhard Olsen was a Norwegian philologist who specialized in Old Norse studies.

Norse religious worship is the traditional religious rituals practiced by Norse pagans in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times. Norse religion was a folk religion, and its main purpose was the survival and regeneration of society. Therefore, the faith was decentralized and tied to the village and the family, although evidence exists of great national religious festivals. The leaders managed the faith on behalf of society; on a local level, the leader would have been the head of the family, and nationwide, the leader was the king. Pre-Christian Scandinavians had no word for religion in a modern sense. The closest counterpart is the word siðr, meaning custom. This meant that Christianity, during the conversion period, was referred to as nýr siðr while paganism was called forn siðr. The center of gravity of pre-Christian religion lay in religious practice – sacred acts, rituals and worship of the gods.

<i>Passio Olavi</i>

Passio Olavi, more correctly Passio a miracule beati Olavi is a collection of legends about the Norwegian national saint Olaf II the Holy. The text was probably collected while Eysteinn Erlendsson was Archbishop of Nidaros (1159-1188), and is possibly written by Eysteinn himself. Egil Kraggerud dated the Passio Olavi to ca. 1150–1160.

Odd Einar Haugen is professor of Old Norse Philology at the University of Bergen, Norway. He was born and grew up in Lunde, Telemark, but moved to Bergen in 1973 when he began his studies at the university. He is not related to the American linguist Einar Haugen.

Else Olaug Mundal is a Norwegian philologist.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 profile Archived 6 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine at forskning.no (in Norwegian)
  2. 1 2 3 Aslaug Veum, "Gro Steinsland: Veit ho nok, eller kva?" Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine , Portrait, Apollon, University of Oslo research magazine, 1 April 1998. Retrieved 17 January 2011. (in Nynorsk)
  3. 1 2 3 Gunnhild Røthe, "Vet dere nok eller hva? Om den moderne volven Gro Steinslands forfatterskap", Prosa. Archived 16 April 2016. Accessed 9 August 2023.(in Norwegian)
  4. Olaf Christensen, HF-aktuelt: En fremragende religionshistoriker, Det humanistiske fakultet, University of Oslo, 21 November 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2011. (in Norwegian)
  5. Research Group 2007/2008 - Rulership, Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo.
  6. Bjarne Røsjø and Else Lie, "Centre for Advanced Study: Cultivating the crème de la crème of basic research", Research Council of Norway, 4 March 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
  7. "Gruppe 8: Religionsvitenskap og teologi" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters . Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  8. "Heyerdahls og Odins 'narrespill': Med Thor Heyerdahls nye Odin-prosjekt er et 800 år gammelt 'narrespill' satt i scene, en gedigen skøyerstrek, regissert av Snorre Sturlason" Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine , Meninger - Kronikk, Aftenposten, 24 November 2000. Retrieved 14 January 2011. (in Norwegian)