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Professor Margaret Clunies Ross

Prof Margaret Clunies-Ross

BA Adel. MA, BLitt Oxf. FAHA
fil. dr. hc, University of Gothenburg; Fellow (arbetande ledamot) Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademi, Uppsala.
McCaughey Professor of English Language and Early English Literature

+61 2 9351 6832

Research Groups

Research areas

  • Old Norse-Icelandic Studies, especially Norse mythology, Old Norse-Icelandic poetry (especially skaldic verse), indigenous Norse poetic treatises and poetic theory, the Norse literature of fantasy.
  • Medievalism, especially the influence of Old Norse poetry upon European literature and culture after the Renaissance.
  • The history of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Gothic studies, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Current projects

  • With Dr Victor Hansen, an edition of the correspondence of Robert Jamieson (1772-1844), Scottish ballad collector and translator of Danish ballads. - Funded by a University of Sydney Sesquicentenary grant in 2003.
  • Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages: a New Edition. This project, due for publication both electronically and in hard copy by Brepols from 2006-2011, is under the direction of five General Editors, of whom Margaret Clunies Ross is one, and has over 40 Contributing Editors. For further details, see the project website. - Funded by an ARC Discovery-Project grant 2002-6. Research Associate Dr. Tarrin Wills.
  • A book on the Old Norse-Icelandic literature of fantasy (including, but not confined to, fornaldarsögur and riddarasögur) and mythic patterns to be discerned there. - Funded by an ARC Discovery-Project grant. Research Associate 2002-2003 Dr. Kate Heslop.
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Publications 2005-2011

Books
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2010, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  • Clunies Ross, M B et al 2007, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages Vol. VII Poetry on Christian Subjects, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2005, A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
Journal articles
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2007, Stylistic and Generic Definers of the Old Norse Skaldic Ekphrasis, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 3, 161-184
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, Poet into Myth: Starkaor and Bragi, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 2(2), 31-43
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2005, A Tale of Two Poets: Egill Skallagrimsson and Einarr sklaglamm, Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi, 120(1), 69-82
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2005, Conjectural Emendation in Skaldic Editing Practice, with Reference to Egils saga, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 104(1), 12-30
Book chapters
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2009, Fornaldarsogur as fantastic ethnographies, Fornaldarsagaerne: myter og virkelighed- studier i de oldislandske fornaldarsogur nordurlanda, Museum Tusculanum Press, Kobenhavn, 1, 317-330
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2009, Mariuflokkr - an Icelandic pieta?, Greppaminni, Reykjavik - the Icelandic Literary Society, Iceland, 63-70
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2008, Love in a cold climate: with the Virgin Mary, Romance and love in late medieval and early modern Iceland: essays in honor of Marianne Kalinke, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 54, 303-317
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2008, The creation of Old Norse mythology, The Viking World, Routledge, New York, 231-234
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, Heusler and the English-speaking world, Germanentum im Fin de Siecle: Wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien zum Werk Andreas Heuslers, Schwabe Verlag, Basel, 286-308
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, The Cultural Politics of the Skaldic Ekphrasis Poem in Medieval Norway and Iceland, Medieval Cultural Studies: Essays in Honour of Stephen Knight, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 227-240
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, The measures of Old Norse religion in long-term perspective, Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions - An international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3-7, 2004, Nordic Academic Press, Lund, 8, 412-416
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2005, Criticism and Literary Theory in Old Norse-Icelandic, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2, 345-360
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2005, Frequent Flyers in Old Norse Myth, Travel and Travellers from Bede to Dampier, Cambridge Scholars Press, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 79-96
Conference proceedings
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, Poetry and Fornaldarsogur, The Thirteenth International Saga Conference (2006), The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University, Durham, 180-187
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2006, Stylistic and generic definers of the Old Norse skaldic ekphrasis, The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature; Sagas and the British Isles. 13th International Saga Conference
  • Clunies Ross, M B 2008, Did the Vikings have enemies?, Vikings and their Enemies, Viking Research Network, Melbourne, 30-36
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Areas of teaching and research supervision

Teaching
  • Old Norse-Icelandic language, literature and culture
  • Norse mythology
  • Old English language and literature
  • The history of the English language
  • Editing theory and practice
  • English Studies as an academic discipline and its history, with an emphasis on the rise of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English studies
  • The influence of Old Norse literature upon English literary movements, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Supervision
  • Ms Phillipa Bright (PhD submitted August 2004; thesis is an edition of a selection of tales from the Anglo-Latin Gesta Romanorum)
  • Dr. Tom Clark (PhD conferred April 2003; thesis on irony in Beowulf; associate supervisor with Mr. Alex Jones)
  • Dr. Victor Hansen (PhD conferred May 2002; thesis on the Scottish ballad collector Robert Jamieson)
  • Dr. Kate Heslop (PhD conferred November 2002; thesis on the role of skaldic verses in Íslendingasögur)
  • Mr Peter Hupfauf (PhD to be conferred October 2004; thesis on early Scandinavian visual iconography)
  • Mr. Craig Ronalds (PhD submission expected 2005; thesis on the pedagogy of Abbot Ælfric)
  • Ms Kathy Watson (PhD commenced 2003; thesis on Thomas Warton’s representation of Old English language and literature in his History of English Poetry I (1774))
  • Dr. Tarrin Wills (PhD conferred December 2001; thesis on the Old Icelandic Third Grammatical Treatise; associate supervisor with Dr. Judy Quinn until her move to Cambridge in September 2000; thereafter sole supervisor)
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