BROADCASTS.com

What image comes to mind when you hear the word Vikings? A violent warrior society, raiding and pillaging? A seafaring people trading and migrating across vast distances of the North Atlantic? 

Vikings have a hold on the popular imagination, but new directions in Norse studies might just challenge our preconceptions of who and what the Vikings were. We spoke with professors Andrew McDonald and Angus Somerville from Brock University's Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies about their research into gender roles in Viking society. 

Dr. Andrew McDonald is a professor with the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Department of History. In July 2019, Professor McDonald launched his book The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles c. 1066-1275, which went on to be shortlisted for Scotland’s prestigious Saltire Society Literary Awards. 

Dr. Angus Somerville is a retired professor of English. He taught Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Middle English language and literature while at Brock and won two awards for his teaching. Professor Somerville has published on authors Evelyn Waugh, Robert Graves, Martin Seymour-Smith, and Michael Polanyi. He has worked for almost forty years on The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (published by Oxford University Press).

Professors McDonald and Somerville co-authored the book The Vikings and Their Age and have recently released an updated edition of their textbook, A Viking Age Reader, with University of Toronto Press.

Find a full transcript at https://brocku.ca/humanities/foreword

The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles c. 1066-1275 (Andrew McDonald, John Donald/Birlinn, 2019)

A Viking Age Reader, Third Edition (Angus Sommerville and Andrew McDonald, University of Toronto Press, 2020)

The Vikings and Their Age (Angus Sommerville and Andrew McDonald, University of Toronto Press, 2013)

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press)

Andrew McDonald faculty profile

Brock prof returns to land of Vikings for book launch (Brock News, 24 July 2019)

Viking book shortlisted for prestigious prize (Brock News, 11 Nov. 2019)

Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Brock University

Faculty of Humanities, Brock University

We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.

Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.

Learn more about the Faculty of Humanities, including our events, programs of study, and departments, online.

Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.

Sound design and editing by Serena Atallah. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.

Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.

This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.