The unique structure of this programme provides an in-depth focus on the interrelationships and cross-cultural interactions among the societies of Scandinavia, Iceland, Ireland, and Britain during the Viking and Middle Ages.
Relevant questions
What were the causes and effects of the Viking Age?
- What do runic inscriptions and manuscripts tell us about literacy, the use of writing, and scribal culture?
- How was the Church’s Latin book culture introduced to Norse culture, and how did the emerging Old Norse textual corpus appropriate and borrow from European literary cultures, which it then influenced in turn?
- To what extent can the extraordinary saga literature of medieval Iceland be used as an historical source?
- How did the encounter with Christianity and insular literatures in Ireland and Britain impact Vikings and Norse settlers in these regions, and how did these influences affect Norse culture elsewhere?
- How can we draw on archaeological remains and material culture to understand the process of urbanization in the Middle Ages?
Interdisciplinary perspectives and strategies for interpreting sources
Our core courses introduce a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on source criticism, while the specialized courses focus on strategies for interpreting sources, including approaches for dealing with different sources that not only complement but also contradict each other.
We welcome applications from both international and Norwegian students who want to study one or more disciplines, e.g.:
? Old Norse philology
? Old Norse philology combined with history and/or archaeology
? history and/or archaeology combined with Irish philology
? Irish philology
? Irish philology combined with Old Norse philology
? history combined with archaeology
These various possibilities to combine disciplines make the programme in Viking and Medieval Studies one the most unique master’s degree programmes in the world.
UiO and Oslo
The research environment at UiO is very active, and UiO hosts a number of conferences and workshops on medieval subjects.
Oslo and Norway offer especially strong opportunities to interact with the material culture of the Viking and Middle Ages: in Oslo you can visit
- The Viking Ship Museum
- Museum of Cultural History
- National Library of Norway
- The National Archives of Norway
- ruins from medieval Oslo
Elsewhere in Norway you can find the famed Nidaros Cathedral, stave churches, rune stones, gravemounds, and much more.
Structure
During the first two semesters you will choose from a variety of courses in Old Norse, Runology, Celtic, Archaeology and History; these courses will provide a strong foundation for writing your master's thesis in the second year of the programme.
In your second year you can choose between two options. The first consists of a project semester during which you intern at a workplace or participate in a research project at the Department and write a 30 credits master’s thesis in your last semester. The other option is writing a 60 credits master’s thesis over two semesters.
Examples of workplaces where you can spend your project semester are, one of the many museums, the National Library, the National Archives and many more.
Study environment
We want to offer a good study environment, and in collaboration with learning assistants we offer several colloquia in addition to our ordinary teaching, as well as social events to support an active and close study environment.
As a student at Viking and Medieval studies, you can participate in the Student Committee and represent students in the program council and in the department board at ILN. Join us and contribute to a good study environment!
For more information about everything UiO and Blindern has to offer, see Life around the studies.
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