Anine Olsen Englund

anine englund
DPhil Candidate
Balliol College
anine.englund@balliol.ox.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Francis Leneghan

Thesis title: Re-contextualising the Old English Soul and Body

 

Research interests: Old English literature; Beowulf; Characterisation of Judgement Day in Old English poetry; Soul and Body relationships; Germanic heroic culture and literature; Old Norse-Icelandic literature; Medievalism; J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Thesis: My thesis examines the Old English poem Soul and Body (extant in both the Vercelli Book and Exeter Book) in depth, not only looking at the poem as part of a wider Old English soul-and-body tradition — which includes homilies — but also within the wider context of Old English poetry and learning. The thesis will be divided into four chapters, each dealing with a separate aspect of the Soul and Body poem: I) The Spiritual and Material Interim Context; II) The Blessed Soul's Address and the Orthodox Soul–Body Relationship; III) The Damned Soul's Address and the Culpability of Sin; and IV) Soul and Body and Judgement Day. 

 

Teaching: I am currently an external tutor at Worcester College, teaching Old English language and literary commentaries for Prelims Paper 2: Literature 650-1350. I was also a graduate teaching assistant for FHS Paper 6 on Fairytales, Folklore and Fantasy during MT 2024.  

 

Publications:

  • Englund, Anine Olsen, "Wulf and Eadwacer", in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages, eds. Sauer, M.M., Watt, D., McAvoy, L.H. (2025) [forthcoming]
  • Englund, Anine Olsen, "Ricard Z. Gallant, Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of Tolkien's Legendarium" (book review), Journal of Inkling Studies 14 (2024), 225-228. 
  • Englund, Anine Olsen, "Michael Fox, Following the Formula in 'Beowulf', 'Örvar-Odds Saga', and Tolkien" (book review), Journal of Inkling Studies 12 (2022), 271-273. 

 

Lectures given:

  • "In the Halls of Mandos": Death, Deathlessness, and Inter-racial Relations in Beren and Lúthien. (Part of Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series; Week 8 HT, 8th March 2024). See lecture online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y6RHaLHqUw 

 

Conference papers given:

  • 18 September 2024 - 34 International Conference of SELIM (University of Granada) - The Journey of the Soul Motif in Old English Poetry: A Comparative Study
  • 22 August 2024 - The Middle Ages in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Relevance, Reimagination, Inspiration (University of Stavanger) - Völuspá and The Prophecy of the Oracle: Inter-textuality and Meta-textuality in The Gospel of Loki (2014)
  • 3 July 2024 - International Medieval Congress (IMC) (University of Leeds) – The Crisis of the Soul: Preparing for Judgement Day in Old English Eschatological Poetry
  • 22 May 2024 – Old Norse and Old English Symposium (University of Oslo) – The Journey of the Soul Motif in Old English Poetry: A Comparative Study
  • 13 September 2023 – 33rd International Conference of SELIM (University of Málaga) – Exploring Soul and Body Doctrine through Soul and Body and the Riddle Tradition in Early Medieval England