Marlene Ciklamini

Mondays 10:00-11:00, Thursdays 2:00-2:40, and by appointment

• B.A., Douglass College
• M.A., Ph.D., Yale University

Professor Ciklamini is a medievalist. Her specialization is in Old Norse, in particular in Icelandic sagas and folklore. She has published numerous studies. These deal with the many genres that Icelandic authors, both known and anonymous, began to cultivate in the late twelfth century and continued to do so for the next centuries.

Besides the Viking Age, her major field of interest is Middle High German literature, the interpretation of the era’s classical romance and of post-classical folkloristic and didactic works.

Her most recent article, “Hidden and Revealed: The Presence of the Virgin Mary in Bishop Guðmundr’s Life: The Construction of an Apologia” has been accepted for publication by Frühmittelalterliche Studien.  This is a study that explores the use of a hagiographic theme to cleanse the historical record of a controversial bishop who was ultimately acclaimed as a saint.  She is now working on the function of folklore in the Bishops' Sagas.