Viking Studies

I'm about to start doing viking studies at Nottingham in September, and I was wondering if anyone else had even heard of this degree! If anyone has any experiences to share, I'd like to hear what you think!

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Bit narrow?

Why don't you just read a book on the Vikings if you've an interest in them? I know someone who did Celtic Civilisation studies, been on the dole for a yr now.

Reply 3

History-Student

Is it a degree or a module? That sounds oddly specific.

Reply 4

Wesssty

I know a few Viking experts.

Spoiler

Reply 5

riotgrrl

That does seem narrow! I'm planning on doing ancient history, which is quite specialised and that'll still cover a whole lot more than viking studies o.0

Reply 6

Shuvel

Hey at least he'll always get a guest slot on Deadliest Warrior.

Reply 7

secret_smile

If you really enjoy it and think you will do well, then I see no reason why not to do it.

Reply 8

C.Davy

susie-q2401

i know nothing about it but it sounds F**king AWESOME!!!

Reply 9

History-Student

That said I do remember seeing Nottingham doing Robin Hood studies, Japanese History & some weird religious degree. Maybe random areas are their thing.

Reply 10

Fjarskafinn

I guess I ought to post here! Just finished my second year, really excited to start my third and final year in September.

With regards to the name of the course, "Viking Studies" is a little misleading. The course covers medieval history, archaeology and literature from 400AD to 1000AD (even up to 1500AD in one of the second year archaeology modules) - it's the Viking Age-specific modules that give the course its name. We (all five of us in my year) are going to propose that they change the name to something like "Norse and Anglo-Saxon studies", since that better represents the content of the course.
Because of this breadth of course content, you come away from the course with a huge range of skills - archaeological methods, working with primary and secondary historical sources, studying a huge range of medieval literatures, and gaining basic skills in Old English and Old Norse.

The lecturers who oversee the course are incredibly dedicated to the study of the Viking Age, and Nottingham is an important centre for Viking Age research, so you can expect a lot of care and consideration to have gone into this degree.

I've not been paid or bribed to say all of this, I genuinely believe this is a great course, and doesn't deserve the negative opinion it seems to have gathered among other students. It's not a 'mickey mouse' degree as someone in another thread suggested - if anything it's more intensive and challenging than the Single Honours English, History or Archaeology degrees.

OP, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask, PM me or whatever you like. :biggrin:

Reply 11

SatanIsAwesome

What is there to study about vikings that you couldn't do by watching a few documentaries?

Reply 12

James Simmonds

I thought they only did this at Cambridge! How many people speak Viking languages?

Reply 13

Fjarskafinn

SatanIsAwesome

What is there to study about vikings that you couldn't do by watching a few documentaries?

If that was all there was, I wouldn't be paying however much in tuition fees now, would I?

Reply 14

SatanIsAwesome

Fjarskafinn

If that was all there was, I wouldn't be paying however much in tuition fees now, would I?

Well give me an example of something that you might learn that I haven't learned from countless documentaries.

Reply 15

Wesssty

Fjarskafinn

If that was all there was, I wouldn't be paying however much in tuition fees now, would I?

Can you make the boats and stuff? :daydreaming:

Reply 16

Xhotas

I have a friend who's going to do Viking Studies next year.

She's doing it because she couldn't get into Medicine. I think she's just going to become a lecturer or something.

Reply 17

History-Student

Xhotas

I have a friend who's going to do Viking Studies next year.

She's doing it because she couldn't get into Medicine. I think she's just going to become a lecturer or something.

Thanks for demeaning my future aspiration btw. Felt good :frown:

Reply 18

decemberchild

What do you do with this kind of degree after graduation?>

Reply 19

Fjarskafinn

SatanIsAwesome

Well give me an example of something that you might learn that I haven't learned from countless documentaries.

I don't know which documentaries you've watched, nor what you've learnt. :rolleyes:

I'm in no position to defend everyone who researches the Viking Age.

I'll give you some examples of what was talked about at a recent conference, entitled "Viking Masculinities", that should give you some ideas on what the department (and scholars from all across the world) actually do, aside from teaching and passing on brief nuggets of knowledge to BBC documentary-makers:

Migrations around the Irish Sea; maintaining masculine networks of identity and exchange in the Norse North Atlantic; weapons and their wielders on runestones; cross-gender name elements in Viking name practices. etc. etc.

There's plenty of work being published every single year that depends on the study of the Viking Age, it's not just a topic for armchair historians watching BBC Four.