I research the interrelations between various Nordic religions during the Viking Age, broadly defined to include the ninth through the thirteenth centuries. My particular research interest lies in investigating the ways in which personal and communal identities became expressed through the adoption or adaptation of religious traditions, including Christianity. My work in this area includes a monograph, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, which was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by the Graduate School Fund at the University of Washington, Seattle.

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University of Pennsylvania Press

Published research:

Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.  271 pages.

“Rituals, Witnesses, and Sagas” In Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspective: Origins, Changes and Interactions. Ed. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert, and Catharina Raudvere. Lund:Nordic Academic Press, 2006. Pp. 74-78.

“Dynamics and Continuities of Tradition—What a Finnish Epic Song Can Teach Us About Two Old Norse Poems” In Dynamics of Tradition: Perspectives on Oral Poetry and Folk Belief. Ed. Lotte Tarkka.  Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2003.  Pp. 233-247.

"Continuities Through Change: The Ritual Life of Finnish Women Before and After Christianity." Journal of  Finnish Studies  1 no. 1 (1997): 5-24.

"Seidr, Sagas, and Saami: The Nature and Significance of Religious Exchange in the Viking Age." Northern Peoples, Southern States: Maintaining Ethnicities in the Circumpolar World.    Ed. Robert Wheelersburg. CERUM Northern Studies 1.  Umeå: CERUM, 1996.  Pp. 43-66.