[This is the abstract of a presentation given at the Southeastern Medieval Association annual meeting at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, in October, 1998. This was in a session on using computers and the Internet in medieval classes, and so I originally included a long list of URLs, now updated and summarized on my Research and Professional Links page.]

Everyone likes Vikings--but who, outside of Scandinavia, pays any serious attention to Norse art? Most Medieval art textbooks give it a scant five pages and three pictures in the "Barbarian Art" chapter, and leave it at that. We tackled this question in a recent seminar I organized for senior undergraduates, "Advanced Topics in Medieval Art: The Norse World." It seemed an ideal topic for several reasons: it was something new for both me and my students, it was a topic that cries out for interdisciplinary research, and it was an excuse to read medieval literature, both sagas and historical documents. Blurring the line between "art" and "material culture" helped. As it turned out, one of the best reasons to study Norse culture and the Vikings is that, like Arthuriana, it has a vast popular following beyond the walls of Academia. However stingy the treatment of Norse antiquities in English-language textbooks, the Vikings are alive and well on the World-Wide Web. Here is a list of texts we read, films we viewed, and individual, Web-based projects that resulted from the course.

Texts we read together:

• Else Roesdahl, The Vikings (Penguin, 1992), was the textbook.
• The Saga of Burnt Njal
• The Vinland Sagas, Penguin Classics, ed. and trans. Magnusson/Palsson
• King Harald's Saga (from Snorri Sturlusson's Heimskringla) Penguin Classics, ed. and trans. Magnusson/Palsson.
• Two Viking Romances, Penguin Classics, ed. and trans. Palsson/Edwards
• Selections from the Eddas.

Films we viewed. These are all saga-age adventure flicks by contemporary Icelandic film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson. I particularly recommend "In the Shadow of the Raven" to anyone teaching the sagas. It is an Icelandic revenge story, with clear homages to Njal's Saga, the Laxdaela Saga, and even the Vinland Sagas. I make no claims for period authenticity, but for bringing the sagas alive with vivid images of landscapes, ships, costumes, architecture, and drama, all three of these are marvellous in the classroom.

• When the Raven Flies (Hrafninn flygur), Hrafn Gunnlaugsson,1984.
• In the Shadow of the Raven ( I skugga hrafnsins), Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, 1988.
• The White Viking, a six-part television series on the conversion of Norway.

Successful research and presentation topics: Each student's presentation had to include primary source material from the sagas, eddas or chronicles we had all read, plus a discussion of Web resources.

• Viking ships
• Houses and furnishings
• Gift-giving
• Runestones
• Stave churches
• Metalworking
• Icelandic manuscripts
• Economic archeology
• Norse culture museums
• L'Anse aux Meadows
• Vinland Map controversy
• Celtic and Norse ornament
• Norse women's arts/Women in Norse art and saga
• Ongoing archeological campaigns in York, Dublin, Normandy, Denmark, etc.
• Representations of old Norse and Christian religions in archeological finds.
• The Vikings and Norse mythology in nineteenth and twentieth century creative imagination.
• UNESCO World Heritage sites in Scandinavia and issues of cultural heritage preservation.