Erin Goeres is Lecturer in Old Norse Language and Literature at University College London. Her research focuses on Old Norse poetry and the kings' sagas, and on the relationship between Old Norse and Anglo-Norman literature. She received her doctorate in 2010 from the University of Oxford. She also holds an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of York and a BA(Hons) in English Literature and French Studies from the University of Winnipeg. After completing her doctorate she lectured in medieval literature for two years at the University of Oxford before taking up a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto. She joined UCL in September 2013.

• Introduction


• 1: Remembering Ancestors: Ynglingatal and the early Scandinavian Kings


• 2: The Afterlife of Kings: Eiríkr blóðøx, Hákon inn góði and Óláfr Tryggvason


• 3: Changing Patrons: The Poets of Haraldr gráfeldr and Hákon inn góði


• 4: Elegy, Hagiography, and Advice to Princes: The Commemoration of Óláfr inn helgi


• 5: Divided Loyalties: Arnórr jarlaskáld and the Jarls of Orkney


• Conclusion


• Bibliography

The Poetics of Commemoration is a study of the role poetry played in the commemoration of kings during the Viking Age, investigating the variety of ways in which poets responded to the death of a king, and how poetry helped to constructed a shared memory and identity for the community he left behind.