Professor Stefan Brink PhD FRSE
Professor of Scandinavian Studies
Member of the Royal Swedish and the Royal Scottish Science Academies;
Professor Brink has been invited for the forthcoming academic year (2019-20) as a Fellow at the Heinz Heinen Centre for Advanced Studies, Bonn;
Honorary Research Associate at the at the University of Cambridge;
Researcher at the Dept. of Archaeology, Uppsala University.
Biography
Professor Stefan Brink FRSE, is Professor of Scandinavian Studies at 厙ぴ勛圖 and specialises in interdisciplinary research on Viking and medieval Scandinavia. His main focus is place-names and Old Norse philology, but also Norse law and mythology, and he has published extensively on these subjects. Stefan was formerly the Sixth Century Chair in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Aberdeen and has also held appointments at the universities of Uppsala and Bergen.
Awards
- The Westinska Prize, for the best PhD-dissertation 1990 by the Royal Humanistic Academic-Society at Uppsala University in 1990.
- International post-doctoral scholarship from the Swedish Research Council to Oceania (1992)
- The Oscar Prize by Uppsala University for his research in 1995
- The Sahlgren Prize by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy in 1998
- The Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow (20082011)
- The Language and Culture Trust's Prize for 2015 by University of Ume疇 (2015)
Research Interests
- Society, Culture and Languages of Early Scandinavia
- The Christianization and Early Church Organization in Scandinavia
- Landscape Studies (Scandinavia)
- Language and History in the Early Germanic World
- Viking Slavery
- Germanic Place-Names
- Early Law in Scandinavia
- Old Norse Mythology
stefan.brink@uhi.ac.uk

Academic Responsibilities
Academic Responsibilities
Teaching on the Vikings in the Landscape: Understanding Old Norse Place-names module
MRes, MLitt dissertation and PhD supervision.
External Memberships
External Memberships
(since 1997)
, Princeton (2017-18)
Editor of the Journal (Brepols)
General Editor of the Series (Brepols)
General Editor Medieval Nordic Laws (a subseries to ) (Routledge)
Member of the Editorial Board of (Edinburgh University Press)
Publications
Publications
Selected Publications
Sockenbildning och sockennamn. Studier i 瓣ldre territoriell indelning i Norden. [Parish-formation and Parish-names. Studies in early territorial division in Scandinavia.] (Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi 57.) Uppsala 1990. [Doctoral thesis.]
&紳莉莽梯;Cult sites in northern Sweden. Old Norse and Finnish religions and cultic place-names. (Scripta instituti Donneriani Aboensis XIII.) bo 1990.
H瓣lsinglands 瓣ldsta skattel瓣ngd. Hj瓣lpskattel瓣ngden G瓣rder och hj瓣lper fr疇n 疇r 1535. Med inledning och kommentarer utg. av Stefan Brink. (Skrifter utg. genom Ortnamnsarkivet i Uppsala. Ser. C. K瓣llskrifter 2.) Uppsala 1994.
&紳莉莽梯;Home. The term and the concept as seen from a linguistic and settlement-historical point of view, The Concept of Home: An Interdisciplinary View, ed. C. N. Benjamin & D. Stea. London, New York & Sydney 1995.
J瓣mtlands kristnande [The Christianization of the province of J瓣mtland], ed. Stefan Brink. (Projektet Sveriges kristnande. Publikationer 4.) Uppsala 1996.
&紳莉莽梯;Political and Social Structures in Early Scandinavia. A Settlement-historical Pre-study of the Central Place. Tor. Journal of Archaeology 28 (1996).
Forsaringen Nordens 瓣ldsta lagbud. Femtende tv疆rfaglige Vikingesymposium. Aarhus Universitet 1996, ed. E. Roesdahl & P. Meulengracht S繪rensen. rhus 1996.
&紳莉莽梯;Political and social structures in early Scandinavia 2. Aspects of space and territoriality the settlement district, Tor. Journal of Archaeology 29 (1997).
&紳莉莽梯;Names and Naming of Slaves. The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery I & II. Gen. ed. J. P. Rodriguez. Santa Barbara: Cal. 1997.
The formation of the Scandinavian parish, with some remarks regarding the English impact on the process. The Community, the Family and the Saint. Patterns of Power in Early Medieval Europe, ed. J. Hill & M. Swan. (International Medieval Research 4.) Brepols: Turnhout 1998.
&紳莉莽梯;. Settlement and Landscape, ed. Ch. Fabech & J. Ringtved. rhus 1999.
&紳莉莽梯;. Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 15 (2000) pp. 274278.
. Kontinuit瓣ten und Br羹che in der Religionsgeschichte. Ed. M. Stausberg. (Erg瓣nzungsb瓣nde zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 31.) Berlin & New York: de Gruyter 2001.
&紳莉莽梯;Slavery in Scandinavia, as reflected in names, runes and sagas. New Perspectives on Slavery. Ed. T. Iversen. Trondheim.
&紳莉莽梯;. The Nordic Languages. Ed. O. Bandle. (HSK Handb羹cher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft.) de Gruyter: Berlin & New York 2002.
&紳莉莽梯;. The Nordic Languages. Ed. O. Bandle. (HSK Handb羹cher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft.) de Gruyter: Berlin & New York 2002.
&紳莉莽梯;. The Nordic Languages. Ed. O. Bandle. (HSK Handb羹cher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft.) de Gruyter: Berlin & New York 2002.
&紳莉莽梯;. Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century, ed. J. Jesch. San Marino: CIRSS 2003.
&紳莉莽梯;Legal Assemblies and Judicial Structure in Early Scandinavia. Political assemblies in the earlier Middle Ages. Ed. P. Barnwell & M. Mostert. (Studies in the Early Middle Ages.) Turhout: Brepols.
Namenwelten. S. Brink, L. Elmevik & A. van Nahl. (Erg瓣nzungsband zum Reallexikon der germanische Altertumskunde), Berlin & New York: de Gruyter 2004
Mytologiska rum och eskatologiska f繹rest瓣llningar i det vikingatida Norden. Ordning mot kaos. Studier av nordisk f繹rkristen kosmologi. Ed. A. Andr矇n et al. (V瓣gar till Midg疇rd 4.) Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Some New Perspectives on the Christianization of Scandinavia and the Organisation of the Early Church. Scandinavia and Europe. Ed. K. Holman & E. Adams. (Texts and Cultures in Northern Europe 4.) Turnhout: Brepols.
&紳莉莽梯;Legal Assembly Sites in Early Scandinavia. , ed. Aliki Pantos & Sarah Semple. Dublin: Four Courts Press 2004.
&紳莉莽梯;.&紳莉莽梯; Literacy in medieval and Early Modern Scandinavian culture, ed. P. Hermann. (Viking Collection 16.) Odense 2005.
&紳莉莽梯;Some aspects on the Christianization in Sweden and early Church organization. Church Centres. Church Centres in Iceland from the 11th to the 13th Century and their Parallells in other Countries, ed. H. Thorl獺ksson. (Snorrastofa. Rit 2.) Reykjav穩k.
&紳莉莽梯;. Ohthere's voyages: a late 9th-century account of voyages along the coasts of Norway and Denmark and its cultural context, ed. Janet Bately and Anton Eglert. (Maritime Culture of the North 1.) Roskilde 2007.
&紳莉莽梯;Sk穩ringssalr, Kaupang, Tj繪lling the Toponymic Evidence. Kaupang in Skiringssal. Ed. Dagfinn Skre. (Norske Oldfunn 22.) rhus: rhus University Press 2007.
&紳莉莽梯;, Old Norse world. Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross, ed. J. Quinn et al. (Medieval texts and cultures in northern Europe 18), Turnhout: Brepols 2007.
&紳莉莽梯;The Kingdom of Sweden (together with Nils Blomkvist and Thomas Lindkvist), Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy. Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' c. 900-1200, ed. N. Berend, Cambridge: CUP 2007.
, Facets of Archaeology. Essays in Honour of Lotte Hedeager on her 60th Birthday (Oslo Archaeological Series vol. 10), Oslo: Unipub 2008.
&紳莉莽梯;, Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe, ed. P. Geary et al. (Cursor Mundi 5) (Brepols 2008).
(The Dorothea Coke Memorial Lecture in Northern Studies 2005.) London: Viking Society 2008.
, ed. Stefan Brink (in collaboration with Neil Price), (Routledge World Series), London & New York: Routledge 2008.
&紳莉莽梯;Place Names in Scandinavia, The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Ed. Robert E. Bjork. Oxford: OUP 2010.
&紳莉莽梯;Early Ecclesiastical Organization of Scandinavia, especially Sweden, in England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947), edited by David Rollason, Conrad Leyser, and Hannah Williams (Studies in the Early Middle Ages37), Turnhout: Brepols 2010.
H瓣lsingelagens st瓣llning mellan v瓣st och syd, och mellan kung, kyrka och lokala traditioner, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens rsbok 2010.
&紳莉莽梯;Oral Fragments in The Earliest Old-Swedish Laws?, in Medieval Legal Process: Physical, Spoken and Written Performance in the Middle Ages, ed. by Marco Mostert & Paul S. Barnwell (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 19), Turnhout: Brepols 2011.163.
&紳莉莽梯;), The Gudme/Gudhem Phenomenon. Papers presented at a workshop organized by the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schleswig, April 26th and 27th, 2010, ed. by Oliver Grimm & Alexandra Pesch (Schriften des Arch瓣ologischen Landesmuseums Erg瓣nzungsreihe Band 6), Neum羹nster: Wachholtz 2011.
(Leiden & Boston: Brill 2009), in Early Medieval Europe 19(3) 2011.
&紳莉莽梯;Mediality and Usage of Medieval Laws: the Case of the H瓣lsinge Law, Liber Amicorum Ditlev Tamm. Law, History and Culture, ed. by P. Andersen et al., Copenhagen: Dj繹f Publ. 2011. [Note: Mistake in title of the proof - medical for medieval!]
Vikingarnas slavar ['Viking Slavery'; book]. Atlantis f繹rlag: Stockholm (2012). Paperback in 2018.
De nordiska spr疇kens p疇verkan p疇 ortnamnsskicket i Storbritannien, in Svenskans beskrivning 32. F繹rhandlingar vid trettioandra sammankomsten f繹r svenskans beskrivning, ed. by B. Bihl et al. (University of Karlstad: Karlstad 2013), pp. 38-51.
&紳莉莽梯; Historical Research vol. 86 (nr 233): 432-42.
Sacred Sites and Holy Places. Exploring the Sacralization of Landscape Through Time and Space, ed. by S. Walaker Nordeide and S. Brink (Studies in Early Middle Ages 11) (Brepols 2013).
, in Sacred Sites and Holy Places. Exploring the Sacralization of Landscape Through Time and Space, ed. by S. Walaker Nordeide and S. Brink (Studies in Early Middle Ages 11) (Brepols 2013), pp. 33-51.
Early Ecclesiastical Organization of Scandinavia, especially Sweden, in , ed. by K. Salonen, K. Villads Jensen and T. J繪rgensen (Acta Scandinavica 1) (Brepols 2013), pp. 23-39.
Die Christianisierung Skandinaviens, in Credo. Christianisierung Europas in Mittelalter, vol. 1. Ed. by Ch. Stiegemann, M. Kroker & W. Walter (Petersberg: Imhof 2013), pp. 250-60.
, ed. by Stefan Brink and Lisa Collinson (Acta Scandinavica 3) (Brepols 2014).
, in New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia, ed. by Stefan Brink and Lisa Collinson (Acta Scandinavia 3) (Brepols 2014), pp. 37-56.
Minnunga m疆n The Usage of Old Knowledgeable Men in Legal Cases, in . Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture, ed. by Hermann, Mitchell and Arnorsdottir (Acta Scandinavica 4) (Brepols 2014), pp. 197-210.
Reading Cult and Mythology in Society and Landscape: The Toponymic Evidence, in Nordic Mythologies: interpretations, intersections, and institutions, ed. T. Tangherlini (Berkeley: North Pinehurst Press 2014), pp. 157-72.
, in The power of the book : medial approaches to medieval Nordic legal manuscripts, ed. L. Rohrbach (Berliner Beitr瓣ge zur Skandinavistik 19) (Berlin: Humbolt Universit瓣t 2014), pp. 157-62.
Early Law in the North, Questio Insularis 16 (Cambridge 2015): 1-15.
Transferred Names and Analogy in Name-formation, in The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming, ed. C. Hough (Oxford UP 2016), pp. 158-66.
, in , ed. J. Barrett & S. J. Gibbon (The Society for medieval Archaeology. Monograph 37) (Leeds: Maney 2015), pp. 88-98.
Gesellschaft und Kultur, in Wikinger!, ed. M. Helmbrecht (Rosenheim: Koehler im Maximilian Verlag GmbH & Co 2016), pp. 78-89.
Stefan Brink (Aberdeen), and John Lindow (Berkeley), Place Names in Eddic Poetry, in A Handbook in Eddic Poetry. Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia, ed. C. Larrington et al. (Cambridge University Press 2015) (pp. 173-89)
Avaldsnes, Kormt and Rogaland. A Toponymy and Landscape Survey, in Avaldsnes A Sea-Kings Manor in First-Millennium Western Scandinavia, ed. by Dagfinn Skre (Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Erg瓣nzungsband 1049 (Berlin & New York: de Gruyter, 2017), pp. 665-86.
Law, Society and Landscape in Early Scandinavia, in Comparative Law and Anthropology, ed. by James A. R. Nafziger (Research Handbooks in Comparative Law Series) (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2017), pp. 319-37.
Nationernas och regionernas 疇terkomst, in Stad och land, ed. by Kurt Almqvist (Stockholm: Axel och Margaret Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, 2017), pp. 47-53.
Theorizing Old Norse Myth, eds S. Brink and L. Collinson (Acta Scandinavica 7), Turnhout: Brepols 2017.
Uppsala in Myth and Reality, in Theorizing Old Norse Myth, eds S. Brink and L. Collinson (Acta Scandinavica 7), Turnhout: Brepols 2017, pp. 17594.
Memory in Law and Onomastics, in Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies. Interdisciplinary Approaches, ed. by J. Glauser, P. Hermann & S. Mitchell, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018, pp. xx
Selected Talks and Conferences
Selected Talks and Conferences
Professor Brink has delivered
the Dorothea Coke Memorial Lecture at University College London in March 2005;
the Sir David M. Wilson Lecture at British Museum/Dept. of Archaeology, University College London in October 2011;
The G. O. Sayles Memorial Lecture on Mediaeval History 2015, University of Aberdeen (March 2015).
PhD Students
PhD Students
PhD Students
Professor Brink has supervised more than 30 PhD students in Sweden and in the UK.
He is currently supervising Andrea Freund.
Areas of research
- Society, Culture and Languages of Early Scandinavia
- The Christianization and Early Church Organization in Scandinavia
- Landscape Studies (Scandinavia)
- Language and History in the Early Germanic World
- Viking Slavery
- Germanic Place-Names
- Early Law in Scandinavia
- Old Norse Mythology