Stefan Drechsler

Position

Researcher, Old Norse philology

Short info

I have a background in Old Norse philology and art history and am the PI of two research projects related to Nordic law manuscript cultures and bilingual scribal practice in medieval Norway.
Research

The principal academic work of Stefan Drechsler includes researching textual and codicological compilation strategies in Scandinavian law manuscripts, legal iconography in medieval European book painting, and social network analysis data related to vernacular law texts. Furthermore, he has worked on personal networks related to the making and use of manuscripts produced throughout the Scandinavian Middle Ages. He is particularly interested in the literary and artistic exchange between western Scandinavian societies and other parts of Europe during the High Middle Ages.

In the past years, Stefan Drechsler has published a scientific monograph, articles in journals such as Gripla, Opuscula (Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana), Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, Das Mittelalter, Open Cultural Studies and Collegium Medievale, as well as book chapters in law culture-themed anthologies. In his publications, he has shown that interdisciplinary research into vernacular manuscripts from medieval Scandinavia can provide new and important information on the exchange of cultural goods, as well as secular and ecclesiastical networks in the North Atlantic region in the Middle Ages. His monograph examines not only one but several medieval cultures in relation to similar domestic artistic monuments and relevant historical evidence: Helgafell in Iceland, East Anglia in England and the broader area around Bergen in Norway. It offers a detailed account of one cultural site in relation to its scribal and artistic connections with other ecclesiastical and secular scriptoria. The book can be downloaded for free (Open Access Gold) at Brepols Online.

Outreach

(2020-) Organiser of biannual public lecture series on medieval topics. Middelalderforum Lecture Series (Medieval Research Cluster; University of Bergen)

(2024) ‘Middelalderens landslove var alt andet end demokratiske’ (in Danish), Short interview with the NordForsk foundation on my current project. Available in Open Access.

(2024) ‘Hvorfor havnet dette i Bergen? Mitt valg: Fragmenter av Landsloven’ (in Norwegian), Film clip made by the University Library of Bergen's Special Collections. The film showcases two medieval fragments of the Norwegian Laws of the Land (Landsloven). Available on Facebook.

(2024) ‘Lovskaping i mellomalderen’ (in Nynorsk), Vestland fylkeskommune website on the 750-jubilee of the Norwegian Laws of the Land (Landsloven). The text discusses the Norwegian legislation prior to Landsloven. Available in Open Access.

(2024) ‘Eit første sted mot modern lovgivning’ (in Nynorsk), Vestland fylkeskommune website on the 750-jubilee of the Norwegian Laws of the Land (Landsloven). The text describes normative aspects of Landsloven. Available in Open Access.

(2021) ‘Apinn og konungurinn. Myndskreytingar í Belgsdalsbók’ (in Icelandic), Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum YouTube channel video (3:24 min.) on selected book painting in the medieval Icelandic law manuscript Belgsdalsbók (AM 347 fol.). Available in Open Access.

Teaching

University of Bergen, Norway

2023 NOLI103 Den eldre litteraturen (BA Course; 2 lectures)

2023 NOFI101 Norrønt språk (BA Course)

2023 NOFI112 Norrøn litteratur i omsetning (BA Course)

2023 NORSK624 Nordisk litteratur: Teksthistorie og kulturutvikling (Utdanning; 2 lectures)

2022 NOLI103 Den eldre litteraturen (BA Course; 3 lectures)

2022 NORD100 Innføring i nordistikk (BA Course; 3 lectures)

2021 NOFI210 / NOFI250 / NOFI300/ NOFI302 / NOFI303 Norrøn litteratur i Håkon Håkonssons tid (BA/MA Course)

2021 NOLI103 Den eldre litteraturen (BA Course; 3 lectures)

2021 KUN209 Kunst, retorikk og lærdomstradisjoner i før- og tidlegmoderne tid (BA Course; 2 lectures)

2021 NOFI101 Norrønt språk (BA Course; 1/4 of the course)         

2021 NORSK624 Nordisk litteratur: Teksthistorie og kulturutvikling (Utdanning; 2 lectures)

2021 NOFI112 Norrøn litteratur i omsetning (BA Course)

2020 NOFI210 / NOFI250 / NOFI300/ NOFI302 / NOFI303 Kongesagaer (BA/MA Course)

2020 KUN209 Kunst, retorikk og lærdomstradisjoner i før- og tidlegmoderne tid (BA Course; 2 lectures)

University of Oslo, Norway

2022 NFI2120 / NFI4111 Old Norse Palaeography and Codicology (BA/MA Course)

University of Greifswald, Germany

2019 Die Königssagas (BA/MA Course)

2018 Einführung in das Altnordische (BA Course)

2018 Literatur und Kultur im Alten Island (BA Course)

University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

2018 Archival Research in the Arts and Humanities (Lecture & Workshop; SGSAH Summer School), University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

2017 Vikings! (Tutorial, BA Course)

University of Iceland, Iceland

2020 Book Painting in Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts: Styles, Iconography and Interdisciplinary Research (ERASMUS+ MA Course)

Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, Iceland

2018 Illuminations and Art Historical Perspectives (Lecture), Illuminated Manuscripts (Workshop; 15th International Arnamagnæan Summer School in Manuscript Studies)

2016 Illuminated Manuscripts of Jónsbók (Lecture), Jónsbók manuscripts (Workshop; 13th International Arnamagnæan Summer School in Manuscript Studies)

2015 Manuscript Illumination (Lecture; 12th International Arnamagnæan Summer School in Manuscript Studies)

2013 Book Painting (Lecture), Manuscript Description (Workshop; 10th International Arnamagnæan Summer School in Manuscript Studies)

Publications

Book

(2021) Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland. Literary and Artistic Activities of the House of Canons Regular at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century, Manuscripta Publications in Manuscript Research Series (Turnhout: Brepols). Open Access: Link; Print: Link.

  • Reviewed by Synnøve Midtbø Myking, in The Medieval Review, 14/03/2022; John Kennedy, in Parergon, 39/1, 2022, p. 234-236; Jeffrey F. Hamburger, in Medium Aevum, XCII.I, 2022, p. 143-144; Sverrir Jakobsson, in Saga: Tímarit sögufélags, LX:1, 2022, p. 222-223; Visa Immonen, in Speculum, 98/4, 2023, p. 1234-1235; Patricia Pires Boulhosa, in Church History, 92/1, 2023, p. 177-178; Lasse Mårtensson, in Collegium Medievale, 36, 2023, p. 266-269.

Co-Edited Book

(2019) Djuve, Heidi Synnøve, Stefan Drechsler, Beñat Larrea Elortza & Deniz Cem Gülen (eds.), The North as Home: Proceedings from the Nordic Research Network 2017, Norvik Press Series C: Student Writings no. 4 (London: Norvik Press). Available here: Link.

Articles

(2024) (forthcoming) "Advanced Use and Textual Change: Paratextual Commentaries in Medieval Norwegian and Icelandic Law Manuscripts", in Agostino Paravincini Bagliani & Francesco Santi (eds.), Micrologus: Natura, scienza e società medievali (Bologna: Sismel).

(2023) "Cultural Syncretism and Interpicturality: Throne Benches in Medieval Icelandic Book Painting", in Jørgen Bakke, Jens Eike Schnall, Rasmus T. Schlaattelid & Synne Ytre Arne (eds.), Writing the Image, Showing the Word: The Agency of Knowledge Production in Texts and Images, Open Cultural Studies, Special Issue 7/1 (Berlin: De Gruyter), 1-20. Link

(2022) "The Production and Use of Norwegian Law Manuscripts 1280-1400", in Matthew J. Driscoll (ed.), Opuscula XX (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Forlag), 193-273. Link.

(2021) "Law Manuscripts from Fifteenth Century Iceland", in Annette Lassen & Gísli Sigurðsson (eds.), Gripla XXXII (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi), 165-98. Link.

(2020) "Marginalia in Medieval Western Scandinavian Law Manuscripts", in Roland Scheel & Silke Schwandt (eds.), Imaginationen und Praktiken des Rechts: Literatur- und geschitswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Das Mittelalter: Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung, Themenheft 1/2020 (Berlin: De Gruyter), 180-195. Link.

(2017) "Illuminated Manuscript Production in Western Iceland in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries", in Emily Lethbridge & Rósa Þórsteinsdóttir (eds.), Gripla XXVIII (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi), 169–196. Link.

(2016) "The Illuminated Þjófabálkr in Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Jónsbók Manuscripts", in Russel Poole (ed.), Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 12 (Turnhout: Brepols), 1–40. Link.

(2016) "Ikonographie und Text-Bild-Beziehungen der GKS 1005 fol Flateyjarbók", in Britta Olrik Frederiksen (ed.), Opuscula XLVIII (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Forlag), 215–300. Link.

(2014) "Zur Ikonographie der AM 350 fol. Skarðsbók", in Espen Karlsen (ed.), Collegium Medievale 27 (Oslo: Novus Forlag), 63–113. Link.

Book Chapters

(2024) (forthcoming) ‘International Aspects of Medieval Book Painting in Norway and Iceland’, in Justin Kroesen, Kerstin Petermann & Anja Rasche (eds.), Bergen, the Hanse and Art. Cultural Connections Around the North Sea (Petersberg: Michael Imhoff Verlag).

(2024) "Codex Hardenbergianus (GKS 1154 fol.) - A Prachthandschrift from Medieval Norway", in Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir & Lukas Rösli (eds.), Old Norse Law Books from a Material Perspective (Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket), 112-158. Link.

(2021) "Chapter 6 Jón Halldórsson and Law Manuscripts of Western Iceland c. 1320–40", in Gunnar Harðarson & Karl G. Johansson (eds.), Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland: The Legacy of Bishop Jón Halldórsson of Skálholt, The Northern World 91 (Leiden: Brill), 125-150. Link.

(2021) "Appendix 4 Contents of AM 671 4°", in Gunnar Harðarson & Karl G. Johansson (eds.), Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland: The Legacy of Bishop Jón Halldórsson of Skálholt, The Northern World 91 (Leiden: Brill), 317-330. Link.

(2021) "Chapter 1 Production and Content of the Fourteenth-Century Norwegian Law Manuscript Lundarbók", in Thomas Gobbit (ed.), Law|Book|Culture in the Early and High Medieval West, Exploring Medieval Culture 7 (Leiden: Brill), 17–50. Link.

(2016) "Reynistaðakirkja hin forna. The Medieval Chapter Seal of the Benedictine Nunnery at Reynistaður", in Ian Giles et al. (eds.), Beyond Borealism. New Perspectives on the North (London: Norvik Press), 24–42. Link.

(2014) "Thieves and workshops: On a historical initial in AM 343 fol. Svalbarðsbók", in Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson & Margrét Eggertsdóttir (eds.), Saltari stilltur og sleginn Svanhildir Óskarsdóttur fimmtugri 13. mars 2014 (Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen), 37–39. Link.

Book Reviews:

(2022) "Katharina Preißler, Fromme Lieder - Heilige Bilder. Intermediale Perspektiven auf die skandinavische Ballade und die spätmittelalterliche Bildkunst Schwedens und Dänemarks", in Klaus Böldl, Karin Hoff & Henrik van der Liet (eds.), European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 2/2022 (Berlin: De Gruyter), 324-327. Link.

(2020) "Kate Heslop & Jürg Glauser (eds.), RE:writing. Medial perspectives on textual culture in the Icelandic Middle Ages", in Präsidium des Mediävistenverbandes (eds.), Das Mittelalter 2020/2 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). Link.

(2016) "Stefka Georgieva Eriksen, Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture. The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts", in Alison Finlay (ed.), Saga-Book 40 (London: Viking Society for Northern Research), 121–123. Link.

(2016) "M. J. Driscoll & Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir (eds.), 66 Manuscripts from the Arnamagnæan Collection", in Alison Finlay (ed.), Saga-Book 40 (London: Viking Society for Northern Research), 119–121. Link.

(2014) "Lena Liepe, Studies in Fourteenth Century Icelandic Book Painting", in Espen Karlsen (ed.), Collegium Medievale 27 (Oslo: Novus Forlag), 201–204. Link.

Projects

NordForsk Project (​​152607): "Nordic Law Books: The Production and Use of Vernacular Law Manuscripts in the North from 1100 to 1600 (NordicLaw)" (2023-2026)

Young CAS Project: "Writing in Latin and in the Vernacular: Bilingual Scribal Practice in Norway ca. 1300–1350" (2025-2026)