A book of mine exploring letters written by children and published in the North American-Icelandic children’s newspaper Sólskin (Engl. Sunshine) between 1915 and 1918 has been published. The book provides background details, offers cultural and historical context, and traces some of the major recurring themes found in the letters of the so-called “Sunshine Children.” Through their letters, the Sunshine Children added their own layers of experience and understanding to the public discourse of what it meant to be a North American-Icelander in the early part of the 20th century.
New Publication: Letters from the North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin
An open-access e-book of mine collecting transcriptions and my own original English translations of letters published in the Icelandic-language children’s newspaper Sólskin (Engl Sunshine) has been published. Sólskin was printed as an insert intended to be clipped out from the larger Icelandic-language newspaper Lögberg. This collection focuses on letters published in Sólskin between its inauguration in October 1915 and April 1918, when the paper underwent a significant format change. The full e-book is available open-access here.
New publication: “Review: Tim William Machan and Jón Karl Helgason, eds. From Iceland to the Americas: Vinland and historical imagination”
A new book review of mine appears in the latest issue of the journal Scandinavian-Canadian Studies. The book under review is Tim William Machan and Jón Karl Helgason’s edited collection From Iceland to the Americas: Vinland and historical imagination. Click here to read my review, which is available open-access.
New Publication: Cultural Legacies of Old Norse Literature
A new collection of essays I co-edited with Dustin Geeraert, titled Cultural Legacies of Old Norse Literature: New Perspectives, has been published. The collection features 8 essays along with an editor’s Introduction, a Foreword by Tom Shippey, and an Afterword by M. J. Toswell. In addition to co-editing the collection, I also authored one of the essays in the collection, which is titled “Once More, with Fiction: Transforming Myth in Gerður Kristný’s Blóðhófnir and The Eddic Poem Skírnismál.” The collection is available online here, pending institutional access.
Upcoming Lecture: “The North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin: Identity, Culture, and Community”
On Thursday, August 25th at 7:OO PM BST, I will be delivering an online lecture as a part of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies Seminar Series. The lecture is titled “The North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin: Identity, Culture, and Community” and will provide an overview of my ongoing research project The Sunshine Children. The lecture is free and open to all. Click here to read a more detailed abstract and to register for the Zoom meeting.
New publication: “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Disability in Iceland (Late 9th–Early 20th century)”
A new article of mine, co-written with Eva Þórdís Ebenezersdóttir, Sólveig Ólafsdóttir, Arndís Bergsdóttir, Haraldur Þór Haraldsson, Alice Bower, Yoav Tirosh, Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir, and James Rice, appears in the latest issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. The article stems from my work in the Disability before disability project. Click here to read the article, which is available open-access.
New publication: “A Note on the Old Norse-Icelandic verb at dreyma “to dream””
A new article of mine appears in the latest issue of the Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP). The article addresses a commonly held misconception relating to certain grammatical features of the Old Norse-Icelandic verb at dreyma (to dream). Click here to read the article, pending your institutional access to the journal.
New Funding Awarded: Sjóður Páls Guðmundssonar frá Rjúpnafelli
My research project, The Sunshine Children, was recently awarded funding from the Sjóður Páls Guðmundssonar frá Rjúpnafelli (The Páll Guðmundsson from Rjúpnafell Fund) in collaboration with Dr. Birna Bjarnadóttir at the University of Iceland. Click here to read more about the award (in Icelandic).
New publications: “Disability in Medieval Iceland” and “Health, Healing, and the Social Body in Medieval Iceland”
Two book chapters that I have co-authored appear in the recently published book Understanding Disability Throughout History: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Iceland from Settlement to 1936, edited by Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir and James G. Rice. The two book chapters are a product of my involvement in the Disability before disability research project. Click here to see the whole edited collection, which is available open-access.
New Funding Awarded: Manitoba Heritage Grant Program
My research project, The Sunshine Children, was recently awarded funding from the Manitoba Heritage Grant Program. The grant will support the translation portion of the project, which will be made publicly available online in 2022.
Christopher W. E. Crocker 