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People

Dr Alexander Wilson

Research Associate in Old Norse Language and Literature

School/Department: Archaeology and Ancient History, School of

Email: ajw118@leicester.ac.uk

Profile

My research focuses on the textual sources of the medieval North, particularly the Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders). As a doctoral student at Durham University (2013–2017), I investigated the sociopolitical elements of Old Icelandic outlaw narratives. As a postdoctoral researcher at Universität Tübingen (2018–2023), I researched and published on the formal and narratological qualities of poetic quotation in saga literature. I joined the SAAH in early 2024 as a research associate on the ERC project Body-Politics (PI Dr. Marianne Hem Eriksen).

2024–     Research associate:  (Leicester: ERC)

2020–2023     Research associate:  (Tübingen: DFG)

2018–2019     Guest lecturer (Tübingen: Teach@Tübingen)

2013–2017     Doctoral student (Durham: AHRC)

Research

My principal research interests include:

  • literary depictions of legality and community
  • constructions of desire, coercion, and the self in medieval texts
  • the formal and narrative properties of premodern texts
  • outlaw traditions in Britain and Scandinavia

Publications

Edited volumes

B. Þorgeirsdóttir, S. Gropper, J. Quinn and A. Wilson 2025.  (De Gruyter).

Heiniger, A.K., R. Merkelbach and A. Wilson 2022.  (Narr-Francke-Attempto). 

Articles and book chapters

Wilson, A. [forthcoming]. Reading Harðar saga in a Fifteenth-Century Context. In After the Commonwealth: Texts, Politics, and Identities in Medieval Iceland, edited by B. Arnould Price and T. Morcom (Brepols).

Wilson, A. [forthcoming]. The Transposition of Hyper-Masculine Gender Roles in Pálnatóki's Jómsvíkingalög. In Essays on Jómsvíkinga saga, edited by A. Finlay and J. Morawiec (VSNR).

B. Þorgeirsdóttir, S. Gropper, J. Quinn and A. Wilson 2025. . In The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects, edited by B. Þorgeirsdóttir, S. Gropper, J. Quinn and A. Wilson (De Gruyter).

Wilson, A. 2025. . Beiträge zur mediävistischen Erzählforschung Themenheft 18: 107–139. Special issue: "Narrative Voices: Options and Limitations in Saga Literature", edited by A.K. Heiniger.

Wilson, A. 2025. . In The Prosimetrum of the Íslendingasögur: Aesthetic and Narrative Effects, edited by B. Þorgeirsdóttir, S. Gropper, J. Quinn and A. Wilson (De Gruyter).

Wilson, A. 2025. . In Saga Emotions, edited by C. Larrington, G.L. Evans and B. Þorgeirsdóttir (Manchester University Press).

Wilson, A. 2025. . In Storyworlds and World-Building in Medieval Northern European Literature, edited by R. Merkelbach (Brepols).

Wilson, A. and N. Goodison. 2025. . In Re-considering Consent and Coercion in Medieval Literature, edited by J. Bonsall and H. Piercy (Brepols).

B. Þorgeirsdóttir, S. Gropper, J. Quinn, T. Wills and A. Wilson 2022. . Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 18: 51–81.

Wilson, A. 2022. . In Þáttasyrpa – Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa, edited by A.K. Heiniger, R. Merkelbach and A. Wilson (Narr-Francke-Attempto).

Wilson, A. 2021. . In Unwanted: Neglected Approaches, Characters and Texts in Old Norse–Icelandic Studies, edited by A. Schmidt and D. Hahn (Utz Verlag).

Wilson, A. 2019. . In Social Norms in Medieval Scandinavia, edited by J. Morawiec, A. Jochymek and G. Bartusik (Arc Humanities Press).

Wilson, A. 2016. Quaestio Insularis 16: 117–142.

Teaching

At Durham University and Universität Tübingen, I designed and taught modules on a wide range of subjects, including: Old Norse, Old English and Middle English literature; medieval European romance; literary and cultural theory; the history of the English language; and outlaw traditions in the medieval North.

In the SAAH, I contribute teaching to the third-year module AR3092 Bodies and Beings of the Viking World.

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