Katherine S. Beard

Thesis Title: The Rise and Fall of Viking Age Symbols in Old Norse Mythological Literature and Archeology

Supervisor: Prof. Heather O'Donoghue

Research Interests: Pre-Christian religion and mythology, digital humanities, Scandinavian manuscripts, Old Norse-Icelandic literature, reception of Old Norse myth, and symbolism in both literature and archeology.

My current DPhil research is thoroughly interdisciplinary, combining the study of the Old Norse mythological literary corpus with the analysis of Viking Age artifacts. Upon completing my MA in Old Nordic Religion from the University of Iceland, I published the accompanying Eitri database (eitridb.com), a novel digital-humanities platform that houses several hundred individual Þórr's hammer amulet finds. My current DPhil research has me expanding this database to include other Viking Age objects of power like the sword, spear, cup, and chairs and putting them in context with their medieval literary counterparts to tease out new conclusions.