I am currently writing a book about the representation of 1066 in the literatures of England, Normandy, and Scandinavia. My study brings together historiography from all three regions, as well as saints' lives, romance, and myth. I am particularly interested in how trauma, memory, and negative emotions are portrayed in literature, and how medieval authors adapt the same story for different audiences.

My doctoral thesis examined the social functionsof commemorative skaldic verse during the Viking age and has since been published as Poetics of Commemoration: Skaldic Verse and Social Memory, c. 890-1070 (Oxford University Press, 2015). In this book I trace the evolution of commemorative poetry from its rootsin the disparate kingdoms of pre-Christian Scandinavia through to its emergenceas a highly crafted, Christian art form in the eleventh century. I argue that that poeticcommemoration played a key role in the construction of a shared history andidentity for members of the elite, courtly communities of early medievalScandinavia.