University of Hull > Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences > English > Our Staff
  • yellow
  • orange
  • black
  • default
  • |
  • small
  • med
  • large

Dr Martin Arnold, BA, MA, PhD(Leeds), PGCE

Contact details

Dr Martin ArnoldSenior Lecturer, Director of International Partnerships: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Email: m.p.arnold@hull.ac.uk

Phone: +44 (0)1482 465695

Office: Larkin Building, Room 230 (L230)

Profile

I have research and teaching interests in the area of early medieval languages, literature and history, particularly in the North European context. These interests also include the reception and reinterpretation of the medieval in film, fantasy fiction, art, music and politics.

I am a Council Member of the Viking Society for Northern Research and a member of the international research group Pre-Christian Religions of the North. I welcome PhD applications.

Selected Publications

Books

  • The Post-classical Icelandic Family Saga (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003)
  • The Vikings: Wolves of War (Rowman and Littlefield Press, 2006)
  • The Vikings: Culture and Conquest (Continuum Press, 2006)
  • A Short History of the Vikings (The History Press, 2007)
  • Thor: Myth to Marvel (Continuum Press, 2011)

Articles

  • ‘“Hvat er tröll nema þat”: the Cultural History of the Troll’ in Tom Shippey, ed., The Shadow Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Monstrous Breeds (University of Arizona Press and Brepols Publishing, 2006)
  • ‘“Lord and protector of the earth and its inhabitants”: Poetry, Philology, Politics, and Thor the Thunderer in Denmark and Germany, 1751-1864’ in Andrew Wawn, ed., Constructing Nations, Reconstructing Myth (Brepols Press, 2007)
  • ‘“Strength, Work, Duty, Truth, Honor Bright”: Pan-Scandinavianism, Pan-Germanicism and the Myths of Thor the Thunderer’, in Paul Hardwick and David Kennedy, eds, The Survival of Myth: Innovation, Singularity and Alterity (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010)
  • '"Víð þik sættumsk ek aldri": Örvar-Odds saga and the meanings of Ögmundr Eyþjófsbani', in Martin Arnold and Alison Finlay, eds,  Making History: Essays on the fornaldarsögur (University College London, Viking Society  for Northern Research, 2011)

Co-editor

  • Scholarship, Politics, Fraud: Studies in Medievalism (Boydell and Brewer) Vol. X1 (2001) – with Tom Shippey.
  • Film and Fiction: Studies in Medievalism (Boydell and Brewer) Vol. XII (2002) – with Tom Shippey.
  • Correspondences. Medievalism in Scholarship and the Arts (Boydell and Brewer) Vol. XIV (2005) – with Tom Shippey.
  • Making History: Essays on the fornaldarsögur (University College London, Viking Society for Northern Research, 2011) – with Alison Finlay.

Research

My research has led to publications concerning the Vikings, Icelandic sagas and Old Norse mythology.

I have acted on several occasions as co-editor of the international journal Studies in Medievalism, and have worked for BBC Radio 4 as a researcher and expert commentator on the series The Viking Way (2006).

My recent study of post-medieval interpretations of Old Norse mythology, Thor: Myth to Marvel (Continuum, 2011), is among the Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year 2011.

Teaching

I convene the following undergraduate modules: Beowulf and Old English Poetry; Myths, Legends and Language of the Vikings; and Introduction to Medieval Literature (co-convener). I convene the post-graduate module Applied Research Skills for the MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

I have supervised a wide variety of MA dissertations on topics ranging from gods and monsters in Old Icelandic literature to images of Merlin in contemporary fiction to the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Administration

As Director of International Partnerships: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, I help to develop links with universities across the world. Student and faculty exchange agreements, and international teaching and research collaborations are central to this work. For several weeks of the year, I am fortunate enough to be the Faculty’s ‘man in a suitcase’.