Pre-modern Seminars

The Pre-modern seminar is an interdisciplinary and informal seminar at Tartu University organized by the Department of Scandinavian Studies and led by Professor Daniel Sävborg. It was founded in 2010 and has so far several meetings with talks by scholars on different levels, both from Estonia and from abroad. The focus is on pre-1800 issues of all kinds.

2019 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010

2019

• 12.11.2019 Olga A. Zolotnikova "Oracle-giving practice – modes of prophecy in the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona (Epirus) according to the ancient sources"

2017

• 05.12.2017 Sabine Walther "A Happy Ending for Jason and Medea? The Quest for the Golden Fleece in Old Norse Trójumanna saga"
• 23.11.2017 Annette Lassen "Óðinn and Medieval Magicians"
• 07.02.2017 Kendra Willson "Inner and Outer Worlds in Old Norse Seiðr Magic"

2016

• 27.09.2016 Terry Gunnel "The Performance of Eddic Poems"
• 11.05.2016 Philip A. Shaw "A glove in hood’s clothing? Beowulf, Hrólfs saga kraka and the transmission of heroic tradition"
• 04.05.2016 Ugnius Mikučionis "Algirdas Julien Greimas and the Old Norse Dwarfs"

2015

• 20.04.2015 Antti Räihä "Lutheran Clergy in the Orthodox Empire: Appointment of Vicars in the 18th Century Karelia"
• 06.04.2015 Maths Bertell "Preserved Drums as Dividers. A New Perspective on Saami Religions?"
• 04.03.2015 Levente Takács "Golden Age and Roman Land Surveying"
• 02.03.2015 Karoline Kjesrud "Reception of Supernatural Spaces: The use and reuse of history and symbols in Norwegian Landscape"

2014

• 08.12.2014 Kaidi Kriisa "The rise of the vernaculars in the 17th century University of Dorpat - code-switching in academic writings"
• 03.11.2014 Camilla Asplund Ingemark "Of Apes and Wet-Nurses: Reading the Implicit in an Ancient Roman Story"
• 13.10.2014 Matthias Müller "Lotteries in the eighteenth century. Criticism - Adaption - Expansion?"
• 29.09.2014 Roman Voitehhovitsh "Europeans About Russian Traditions: to Beat or Not to Beat"
• 12.05.2014 Jan Samuelson "Female Power and Religiosity. The Swedish Noble Females and Their Relations to the Church During the Period 1650 to 1750"
• 12.05.2014 Magnus Perlestam "The Face of Obedience. Military Obedience and Disobedience in the Age of Charles XII"
• 05.05.2014 Jens Peter Schjødt "Odin - Both One and Many"
• 28.04.2014 Leszek Słupecki "Mimisbrunnr – A depository of cut-off organs"
• 24.03.2014 Eike Schnall "Marvels of the Sea: Learned Traditions and Critical Thinking from Medieval to Early Modern Times"
• 17.02.2014 Edit Talpsepp "Pre-Darwinian Taxonomies and the 'Darwinian Revolution'"

2013

• 09.12.2013 Davide Ermacora "HIPPOCRATES, Epid. 5:86, an Ancient 'Simple' Story? A Comparative and Contextual Folkloric Approach"
• 11.11.2013 Maths Bertell "When Odin med Christ: Retrospective methods to explain the transformation of Odin?"
• 28.10.2013 Daniel Sävborg, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungquist "The pagan reaction in 11th century Sweden - new thoughts on an old problem"
• 16.09.2013 Camilla Asplund "Child-Killing Demons: Verbalising Emotion in Ancient Roman Folk Narrative"
• 20.05.2013 Rasa Baranauskienė "Celtic and Scandinavian Cultural Contacts During the Viking Age - the Isle of Man"
• 29.04.2013 Eldar Heide "Learned Literature and Indigenous Heritage in Pre-Modern Cultures - Learned Literature as Comparative Material in Old Norse Studies"
• 15.04.2013 David Hopkin "The Visionary World of the Lacemaker"
• 25.03.2013 Meelis Friedenthal "When we hear words, then what do we hear?"
• 11.03.2013 Jonatan Roper "Sternberg's Ghost"
• 11.02.2013 prof. Kristi Viiding "Latin Writings By Women in Early Modern Livonia"
• 26.11.2012 prof. Ülo Valk "Thunder and the Devil: History of a Folk Belief"

2012

• 05.11.2012 Anti Selart "Economic Profit and Political Ignorance: Knowing Russian In Medieval Baltics"
• 29.10.2012 prof. Jüri Talvet "The European Baroque: Some Considerations, 25 Years Later"
• 22.10.2012 Jason Van Boom "Textual Sources for the Study of Medieval and Early Modern Magic"
• 16.05.2012 Daniel Sävborg, Ragnar Saage and Kristo Siig "The Salme Excavations – Archaeology and Sagas"
• 16.04.2012 Tõnno Jonuks "Christianity before Christianity in Estonia"
• 02.04.2012 Roman Voitekhovich "Russian Frost and Russian National Character"
• 13.02.2012 Svetlana Tsonkova "Medieval and Early Modern Verbal Magic – Crisis Management and Fachliteratur"

2011

• 14.11.2011 Mart Kuldkepp "Einarr Gilsson’s Selkolluvísur as a meeting point of traditions"
• 24.10.2011 Pärtel Piirimäe "Academia Dorpatensis and early modern history of ideas: Perspectives for research"
• 07.06.2011 Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist (University of Stockholm) "The Late Middle Ages: A Turning Point in the History of Europe"
• 17.05.2011 Jürgen Beyer "Ein Vorläufer von Walter Andersons sog. Gesetz der  Selbstberichtigung. Zur Bedeutung von frühneuzeitlichen Bibelvorreden für die historische Erzählforschung"
• 26.04.2011 Silke Pasewalck "Review and modification: The paradigm of interculturality in literary and translation studies"
• 08.03.2011 Janika Päll "Pro-monarchist tendencies and ‘clementia principi’ topos in the rhetoric of Academia Gustavo-Carolina"
• 01.03.2011 Fjodor Uspenskij (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) "Baptism of the bones in medieval Rus’ and Scandinavia"
• 08.02.2011 Daniel Sävborg "Source Criticism and the Disappearance of the Viking Age History of Sweden: The Case of the Fyrisvellir Battle"

2010

• 14.12.2010 Jürgen Beyer "Seventeenth-century inscriptions on the island of Gotland: a discussion of spelling errors and local legends"
• 24.11.2010 Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist (University of Stockholm) "The Medieval Norse Settlements on Greenland"
• 09.11.2010 Jonathan Roper "Dr. Collins, Ivan the Terrible, and ‘the earliest’ Russian Folktales"