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Study groups

Old Norse Study Group

The Old Norse Study Group runs in Semester Two and is an informal opportunity to continue to develop your skills in Old Norse. Together, we will read a wide variety of texts; including sagas, mythology, and poetry.  Texts will be provided with vocabulary, and online Old Norse dictionaries are freely available. 

The Old Norse Thing

The Old Norse Thing is a reading group (not a language class), which meets two or three times a semester to read a wide range of medieval Scandinavian texts in translation- sagas, poetry, and histories.

Viking Studies Research Group

Are you interested in Viking Studies and want to stay up to date with the latest research? The UoY Viking Studies Research group holds regular free talks with some of the most prominent scholars working on all aspects of and sources connected to the Viking Age. 

More details can be found on the Viking Studies Research Group website. Interested parties can also contact the CMS office

Old French Study Group

The Old French Study Group runs in Semester Two and covers a wide range of texts and periods and is open to anyone and everyone who is interested in learning or expanding their knowledge of this fascinating language.

Old English Study Group

The Old English Study Group meets in Semester Two and involves sessions on editing and working through transcriptions of an Old English text extract.  Scans of the original source manuscript will be available for those interested. Meetings are conducted such that each attendee will hopefully learn something new, regardless of the level of skill of the attendee.

Latin Study Groups

Our Latin Study Groups (Beginners, Intermediate & Advanced) meet six times each in Semester Two and informally continue the learning from the formal tuition in Semester One. There is a level to suit all abilities. 

The Beowulf Reading Group

This reading group meets in semester 2 to read Beowulf

This wonderful Old English poem was likely written c. 700, drawing on earlier orally circulating stories. In some version, it was influential in the reign of Alfred the Great (d. 899), while its surviving manuscript dates to c. 1000. It is a poem then with a life that extends across almost all of the early medieval English period. 

As its eponymous hero, Beowulf, grapples with three monsters before being tragically killed by the last, a dragon, its Christian poet grapples with how to relate to a pagan northern past, carefully displaced to long ago and far away in sixth-century Scandinavia.

Although its reputation is big, the poem is short – not much more than 3,000 lines. We will focus on a key section in each of our meetings, but it would be good to read through the whole poem in advance.

We will read in translation – and all are welcome whether you’ve been studying Old English, or not – though we will occasionally peak at the Old English (so good to have a dual language edition).