Professor Lesley Abrams

Some of my research has concentrated on periods of conversion to Christianity, including the English in the seventh century and Scandinavians (home and away) in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh. I am interested in all aspects of the Scandinavian world in the early middle ages, including viking military activity and the history of Scandinavia and the overseas settlements. Within this broad field, I have worked particularly on Scandinavians outside their homelands, applying an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to issues of integration and interaction between incomers and established societies, while also considering what far-flung Viking-Age populations had in common. My approach can be broad-brush ('Diaspora and Identity in the Viking Age', Early Medieval Europe 20:1 (2012)) or focused on particular locations (‘Early Normandy', Anglo-Norman Studies 35 (2013)). Although I have retired from formal teaching, I am continuing to research in these fields. My most recent studies address conversion to Christianity through political baptism, the religious lives of viking armies, and relations with the Church in England; others focus on the contribution of personal and place-names and material evidence such as stone sculpture and ‘memory objects’ to our understanding of the lived experience of Scandinavians in various overseas locations (see Publications).