Research interests: Old Norse-Icelandic literature, mainly mythology and poetry; Scandinavian folklore, mainly legends; Finno-Ugric folklore.

Teaching Experience: Medieval Scandinavian language, literature, and culture; Viking and medieval Scandinavia; Scandinavian mythology; Scandinavian, European, Arctic and Subarctic folklore. Teaching generally focuses on the interpretation of texts in social and historical context. Affiliated with Finnish Studies Program, Religious Studies Program, and the graduate degree programs in Folklore and Medieval Studies.

Current projects: Monographs on Thor, Odin and Freyja.

Selected Publications

Books: (Move over title for cover photo. Click to purchase @ Amazon)

Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. New edition of Handbook of Norse Mythology. Santa Barbara, Denver and London: ABC-Clio, 2001.

Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs. Ed. Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, and John Lindow. Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2000.

Murder and Vengeance Among the Gods: Baldr in Scandinavian Mythology. FF Communications, 262. Helsinki: Akademia Scientiarum Fennica,1997.

Scandinavian Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography, Garland Publishing, 1988.

Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. Ed. with Carol Clover. Cornell Univ. Press, 1985 -- Reprint University of Toronto Press, 2005.

Swedish Legends and Folktales, UC Press, 1978.

Comitatus Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary, UC Press, 1976.

Recent Articles:

"Akkerisfrakki: Traditions Concerning Óláfr Tryggvason and Hallfreðr Óttarsson vandræðaskáld and the Problem of the Conversion." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 108 (2007): 64-80.

"Poets and Poetry in Myth and Life: The Case of Bragi." In Old Norse Religion In Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes And Interactions: An International Conference in Lund, Sweden June 3-7, 2004. Vägar till Midagård, 8. Ed. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert, and Catharine Raudvere (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006), 21-25.

"Cultures in Contact." Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society, ed. Margaret Clunies Ross. The Viking Collection, Vol. 14. (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2003), 89-109.

"Myth Read as History: Odin in Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga Saga." Myth: A New Symposium, ed. Gregory Schrempp and William Hansen. (Blomington and Indianapolis: Univeristy of Indiana Press, 2002), 107-123.

"The Tears of the Gods: A Note on the Death of Baldr in Scandinavian Mythology." Journal of Englush and Germanic Philology 101 (2002): 155-169.

"Norse Mythology and the Lives of the Saints." Scandinavian Studies 73 (2001): 437-456.