DrEleanor Barraclough
- Senior Lecturer in Environmental History
- Email: e.barraclough@bathspa.ac.uk
- School: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
- Campus: Newton Park
- Website:
Personal statement
Dr Eleanor Barraclough is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities at Bath Spa. Eleanor's research began out in the middle of the North Atlantic, looking at Iceland, land of ice and fire. She was interested in the first settlers who arrived from Scandinavia and the British Isles during the Viking Age, in the 800s. Iceland had never been settled before, and she wanted to find out how these settlers made sense of the dramatic physical environment and their place within it, how they made the landscape culturally familiar, and how they used—and misused—its resources.
After her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she took up a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Oxford. This research led to a book called 'Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas', exploring Viking Age far-travellers and medieval Iceland's saga storytelling culture. Eleanor's research often intersects with arctic studies, and she is a member of the 'Creating the New North' research group at the Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø). At present she holds an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, working on a project called 'Into the Forest: Woods, Trees and Forests in the Germanic-Speaking Cultures of Northern Europe, 46BC-1500AD'.
Eleanor's work has always been very physically embedded in the topography, from exploring Viking ruins in Greenland on horseback to hunting for runic graffiti in Orcadian burial mounds. She likes to start from the physical space and peel back the historical, cultural and imaginative layers. She also broadcasts—mostly for the BBC—where her approach to Environmental History is broader in chronological and geographical scope.
She has presented radio/TV programmes about trees, rivers and ice, and their dark twins, deforestation, flooding and meltwater. She has sought immortality under a Norwegian frozen lake, cast spells with nature witches in Sherwood Forest, and been knighted in the arctic with a walrus penis-bone. Please see Eleanor's personal website for more details of her broadcasting work.
Academic qualifications
- PhD in Old Norse language and literature, University of Cambridge
- MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge
- MA (BA) in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge.
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS)
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Teaching specialisms and areas of expertise
- Environmental History
- Medieval History
- Northern and Arctic Studies
- Public History and Heritage.
Research and academic outputs
Embers of the hands: hidden histories of the Viking Age
book
Barraclough, E.R (2024) Embers of the hands: hidden histories of the Viking Age. Profile Books, London. ISBN 9781788166744
Imagining the supernatural North
book
Barraclough, E.R, Cudmore, D.M and Donecker, S, eds. (2016) Imagining the supernatural North. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, AB. ISBN 9781772122671
Beyond the northlands: Viking voyages and the Old Norse sagas
book
Barraclough, E.R (2016) Beyond the northlands: Viking voyages and the Old Norse sagas. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780198701248
The ice giant cometh: the Far North in the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas
book_section
Barraclough, E.R (2020) 'The ice giant cometh: the Far North in the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas.' In: Figenschow, S, Holt, R and Tveit, M, eds. Myths and magic in the medieval Far North: realities and representations of a region on the edge of Europe. Brepols, Turnhout, pp. 71-94. ISBN 9782503588230
The great Viking fake-off: the cultural legacy of Norse voyages to North America
book_section
Barraclough, E.R (2019) 'The great Viking fake-off: the cultural legacy of Norse voyages to North America.' In: Birkett, T and Dale, R, eds. The Vikings reimagined: reception, recovery, engagement. De Gruyter/Medieval Institute Publications, Boston, MA, pp. 250-266. ISBN 9781501518157
Travel
book_section
Barraclough, E.R (2017) 'Travel.' In: Jakobsson, Á and Jakobsson, S, eds. The Routledge research companion to the medieval Icelandic sagas. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 210-217. ISBN 9781472433305
From Eiríkr the Red to trolls in the wilderness: the development of supernatural Greenland in the Old Norse sagas
book_section
Barraclough, E.R (2016) 'From Eiríkr the Red to trolls in the wilderness: the development of supernatural Greenland in the Old Norse sagas.' In: Barraclough, E.R, Cudmore, D.M and Donecker, S, eds. Imagining the supernatural North. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, AB. ISBN 9781772122671
Europa und die Arktis vor 1800: Entdeckungen, Begegnungen und Kontakte
book_section
Barraclough, E.R and Donecker, S (2016) 'Europa und die Arktis vor 1800: Entdeckungen, Begegnungen und Kontakte.' In: Saxinger, G, Schweitzer, P and Donecker, S, eds. Arktis und Subarktis: Geschichte, Kultur, Gesellschaft. New Academic Press, Vienna, pp. 24-45. ISBN 9783700319795
Trees, woodlands, and forests in Old Norse-Icelandic culture
article
Barraclough, E.R (2021) 'Trees, woodlands, and forests in Old Norse-Icelandic culture.' JEGP, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 120 (3). pp. 281-301. ISSN 1945-662X
Arctic frontiers: rethinking Norse-Sámi relations in the Old Norse sagas
article
Barraclough, E.R (2017) 'Arctic frontiers: rethinking Norse-Sámi relations in the Old Norse sagas.' Viator, 48 (3). pp. 27-51. ISSN 0083-5897
Der übernatürliche Norden: Konturen eines Forschungsfeldes
article
Barraclough, E.R, Cudmore, D and Donecker, S (2013) 'Der übernatürliche Norden: Konturen eines Forschungsfeldes.' Nordeuropaforum, 23. pp. 23-53. ISSN 1863-639X
Naming the landscape in the 'Landnám' narratives of the 'Íslendingasögur' and 'Landnámabók'
article
Barraclough, E.R (2012) 'Naming the landscape in the 'Landnám' narratives of the 'Íslendingasögur' and 'Landnámabók'.' Saga-Book, 36. pp. 79-101. ISSN 0305-9219
Sailing the saga seas: narrative, cultural, and geographical perspectives in the North Atlantic voyages of the 'Íslendingasögur'
article
Barraclough, E.R (2012) 'Sailing the saga seas: narrative, cultural, and geographical perspectives in the North Atlantic voyages of the 'Íslendingasögur'.' Journal of the North Atlantic, 18. pp. 1-12. ISSN 1935-1933
Inside outlawry in 'Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar' and 'Gísla saga Súrssonar': landscape in the outlaw sagas
article
Barraclough, E.R (2010) 'Inside outlawry in 'Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar' and 'Gísla saga Súrssonar': landscape in the outlaw sagas.' Scandinavian Studies, 82 (4). pp. 365-388. ISSN 0036-5637
Transforming the trolls: the metamorphosis of the troll-woman in 'Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss'
article
Barraclough, E.R (2008) 'Transforming the trolls: the metamorphosis of the troll-woman in 'Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss'.' Quaestio Insularis, 9. pp. 52-62. ISSN 1745-8676
Following the trollish 'baton sinister': ludic design in 'Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss'
article
Barraclough, E.R (2008) 'Following the trollish 'baton sinister': ludic design in 'Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss'.' Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 4. pp. 15-43. ISSN 1782-7183