Alaric's research focuses on Britain and Scandinavia between around 500 and 1650 (particularly the early medieval period). Previously, his core work examined the relationships between societies, their beliefs in supernatural beings and powers, and the role of language and texts in the creation and transmission of those beliefs. Accordingly, his first monograph was entitled Elves in Anglo-Saxon England; it was based on his Ph.D., which is available here.
|
Working papers (any comments about these are welcome!):
|
Alaric maintains a range of interests; the focus of his research over the next few years will depend partly on funding and the schedules of collaborators. His main trains of thought are:
- Morality and health: along with Markku
Hokkanen and Jari
Eilola, Alaric's beginning a joint monograph on how nineteenth- and twentieth-century
Western clinical medicine defined itself in contradistinction to 'primitive'
medieval and colonial traditions, and how in fact cultural links between morality
and health in modern medicine and its imposition on colonial societies show
a significant inheritance from earlier European traditions. Alaric's contribution
focuses on the history and historiography of medieval Scandinavian and English
charms, medicine and witchcraft.
- Cf. book on elves (2007); article on ţursar (forthcoming).
- Language-shifts in pre-Viking Britain: Alaric explores how people
went about public communication, what languages or language-varieties they used,
and how this affected the linguistic character of the region. His ongoing research
here is partly under the auspices of the project Cultural
Contacts and the Rate of Toponymic Change in Early Medieval Britain, which develops new approaches to estimating and interpreting the rates of place-name replacement in different language communities.
- Cf. article on orality (forthcoming); working paper on language in Bede; article by Fox (2007).
- Fertility: Alaric's looking at the concept of fertility (and Fruchtbarkeit, fruktbarhet, etc.) in modern scholarship on medieval Scandinavia, and the degree to which the use of this concept really conforms
to our medieval evidence. For example, the classic nineteenth-century association
of myths about sex with real-world concerns about agricultural fertility remains
a surprisingly powerful paradigm in our thinking. But does it tell us more about
recent centuries than the Middle Ages?
- Cf. book on elves (2007).
- Sigrgarđs saga frśkna: developing his past work on legendary sagas and similar narratives, Alaric is translating this little-read Icelandic saga, studying its textual history, and analysing its form and content.
- Cf. article on Branwen (2001); article on Heiđreks saga (2005); Alaric's Sigrgarđr resources page.
- Alliums (leeks, garlic, onions, etc.) in the early medieval north-west: this is Alaric's current focus within the Anglo-Saxon Plant-Name Survey. The genus is an interesting one: early Germanic speakers were inclined to write runic inscriptions reading only laukaz ('leek'); leeks are prominent bases for metaphors in medieval Scandinavian poetry; alliums were key food-plants in early Ireland; and alliums appear widely in Old English medical texts. As well as being of intrinsic interest, this work connects with Alaric's interest in medicine and fertility.
- Witchcraft in early modern Scotland: this is a sideline that Alaric visits for intellectual holidays. Great material, great period, and it's always nice to do research connected with countries where you've worked :-) At the moment, Alaric's working on early medieval antecedents for witchcraft beliefs attested in early modern Scotland.
- Cf. article on elf-shot (2005); article on Stein Maltman (2006); article on eldritch (2007); book on elves (2007); short piece on fairies (2008).
