Elite Women in the Time of King Magnus the Lawmender 

This event will focus on the women in King Magnus’s life and times, examining who they were as individuals, their interests, worldview, and scope for power. It will place royal and aristocratic women in a broader historical and cultural context, looking at how they align with the portraits of elite women common in contemporary literature (e.g., sagas and romances), and how these narratives, in turn, might have shaped social attitudes.

12:00 Welcome 

12:10 In Potentia. The Political Agency of Norwegian Elite Women, 1250 to 1319 

Randi Bjørshol Wærdahl, NTNU 

12:40 Political Women of the House of Sverrir:  
The View from the Later Kings’ Sagas 

Markus Eldegard Mindrebø, Stavanger University 

13:10 Four Women – and Magnus 

Carolyne Larrington, Oxford University 

13:40 Coffee break 

14:10 Medieval Women’s Prayer Books, Thirteenth to Fourteenth Centuries 

Eleanor Jackson, British Library 

14:40 Women of Arthurian Literature and the Europeanisation of Medieval Scandinavian Culture 

Sofia Lodén, Stockholm University 

15:10 Bridal Quest Ballads and Marriage Litigation in the Age of Magnus the Lawmender 

Bjørn Bandlien, University of Southern Norway

15:40 Questions and discussion 

The event will be streamed live on www.nb.no