Gro Steinsland

Gro Steinsland (born 1945) is a Norwegian scholar of medieval studies and history of religion and since August 2009 has been the Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Steinsland has most recently been a professor in the Institute for Linguistic and Nordic Studies at the University of Oslo, where she was also a member of the international interdepartmental Centre for Studies in the Viking Age and Nordic Middle Ages from its founding in 1993 until its dissolution. She taught in the Institute for Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø and has held guest faculty positions at Linacre College, Oxford University and at the University of Bonn. and, since 1 August 2009, has been its Scientific Director.

Steinsland specialises in pre-Christian religion, the associated Old Norse texts and mythology and the conversion of Scandinavia. As a historian of religion, her publications take Norse paganism seriously and present it in a non-traditional light as having been still strong and vital when it encountered Christianity.

Selected publications Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi: en analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljód. Oslo: Solum, 1991. . Doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo, 1989. (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) Før kristendommen: digtning og livssyn i vikingetiden Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1990. (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) Menneske og makter i vikingenes verden Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1994. Eros og død i norrøne myter. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1997. (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) Voluspå, Gjendiktning og kommentar. Oslo: Pax, 1999. Den hellige kongen; om religion og herskermakt fra vikingtid til middelalder. Oslo: Pax, 2000. (with Magnus Rindal) Heilage stader i Norge. Oslo: Det Norske samlaget, 2001. Norrøn religion: Myter, riter, samfunn. Oslo: Pax, 2005. (Ed.) Words and Objects: Towards a Dialogue Between Archaeology and History of Religion. (Conference proceedings) Instituttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning Serie B-Skrifter 71. Oslo: Norwegian University Press / Oxford/New York: Oxford University, 1984. (Ed.) Voluspå, og andre norrøne helligtekster. Verdens hellige skrifter. Oslo: De norske Bokklubbene, 2003. (Ed.) Draumkvedet, og tekster fra norrøn middelalder. Verdens hellige skrifter. Oslo: De norske Bokklubbene, 2004.