Associate Lecturer in Old Norse, UCL. Saga literature and narratology for the most part
Joined April 2018
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My article on Njáls saga, Skarpheðinn, and the utility of insults is out! I hugely enjoyed writing this and would love to know what you all think of it.
brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10…
Dr Tom Morcom retweeted
My article in Gripla dropped just in time for Christmas! Here's my take on the sources, dating & composition of Íslendingabók, the oldest surviving history of Iceland. gripla.arnastofnun.is/index.…
Many thanks to the Gripla team, they do an incredible job! #medieval
Dr Tom Morcom retweeted
The first CSVA seminar of the year is fast approaching! Join us to hear Dr Alexander Wilson from University of Leicester's @bodypoliticsERC talk about ‘Marks of non-personhood: violence against unfree bodies in the Viking world’. #Vikings
18 November @ 5pm | Trent B40
Prepping a Comparative Literature class tomorrow and I’m blown away by Lorna Goodison’s poem about the translation of Cuthbert to Durham. While it’s not constrained to imitation you can still hear echoes of old English alliterative metre and kenning, a faint sense of elegy
It’s the start of term and I’m gearing up for a year as Associate Lecturer in Old Norse at UCL. After a couple of years of pure research, I’m genuinely excited to be back teaching: a heady blend of old Norse, Nordic history, history of the book, and comparative literature!
Old English will only ever be Kennings for Beginners. Old Norse skalds will casually drop rausnarsamr Gripnis ríðviggs gnapsólar gnýstœrandi — ‘the magnificent increaser of the noise of the jutting sun of the riding horse of Gripnir’ to describe a warrior and not break a sweat..
My article on the construction of masculinities in Wulfstan’s homilies is out (and open access)! Massive thanks to @quothgareth and Caz Batten for all their work as editors: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
Strange how everyone is presenting the morality of Tolkien's orcs in the books as cut and dry, as if Tolkien didn't find the problem he'd caused of a sentient, speaking race (fallen elves!) being wholly evil as perhaps THE major incompatibility between LotR and his Catholic faith
Tolkien throws so many different solutions at the problem of orcish morality and the result is an unholy mess of both bestial, demonic, and personlike traits. But as a more sentimental man than some watchers of the Rings of Power, he also often gifts orcs with real moral depth:
Dr Tom Morcom retweeted
Today we will be catching up on what's been happening with Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. Here is some great research from @ThomasMorcom and @Helen_Gittos medievalists.net/2024/07/how… #medieval
Some far-right accounts are celebrating the riots in Southport following the stabbings there. I don't think a tweet is possible that grapples with the full evil of the murder of children in a dance class, but several of them keep using the phrase, 'When the Saxon began to hate':
How deep does your hate have to be that the original, already the hate-filled consolation of a grieving father fantasising that all the English share his hate, isn't enough for you? That you must invoke the blood of distant Saxons to stress the ferocity and purity of your cause?
