The 15th Francis Lee Utley Lecture will feature Dr. Stephen Mitchell, Robert S. and Ilse Friend Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore at Harvard University, presenting "Memorial landscapes, elegy, and "Ingvar's expedition": An Old Swedish genre of grátr?"
Emerging from the late Iron Age/early medieval Nordic world are strong traditions of genealogical poetry, as well as of elegy (erfikvæði). Dr. Mitchell's presentation looks to examine these traditions in the eastern Nordic region, largely relying on the so-called "archaeology of death" and "performance archaeology." More narrowly, he will focus on possible ritual commemorations associated with the erecting of runic monuments and the textual evidence for an Old Swedish genre of elegy (grátr).
In this reflection on what Torun Zachrisson has characterized as "a memorial culture linked to ritualised acts in accordance with ancient customs, forn siðr," Dr. Mitchell will survey a number of runic inscriptions, in particular those tied to the establishment of an assembly site (þingsstaþer), as well as those stones that specifically commemorate the lost members of a famous 11th-century expedition into the east, events that centuries later inspire a medieval Icelandic fantasy narrative called the "Saga of Yngvar the Wide-Travelled" (Yngvars saga víðförla). Although the saga offers us interesting comparanda, his focus is on the lived lives of the so-called runestone farmers (runstensbönder) of 11th-century central Sweden and the likelihood that we find in their familial monuments tangible indications of an East Norse elegiac tradition.
This event is free, open to the public and welcoming to all. Co-hosted by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Center for Folklore Studies and the OSU Humanities Institute.
Stephen A. Mitchell's research centers on the Nordic world in the medieval and early modern periods, and employs a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, including performance theory, memory studies, anthropological linguistics, and other folklore-centered perspectives. He is a former Master of Eliot House (1991-2000) and, together with colleagues from the University of Aarhus and Moesgaard Museum, Denmark, he annually teaches in and directs Harvard’s Viking Studies Program in Scandinavia, featured in USA Today as one of the nation’s most unique study abroad programs.A frequent award recipient, Mitchell is the author of many publications, his most recent being Old Norse Folklore: Tradition, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia from Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2023.
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