The Viking Society for Northern Research's 2016 Student Conference

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The first page of the first issue of VSNR's Saga-Book, 1896. VSNR was originally known as "Orkney, Shetland and Northern Society, or Viking Club".

The Viking Society for Northern Research (VSNR) is hosting its annual student conference on February 27 at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). The conference lasts for a single day and, as the title of the conference implies ("The Vikings, Old Norse, and Popular Culture"), looks to be heavy on analysis of Germanic studies in modern popular culture, with an agenda items such as a lecture on the influence of Norse mythology in the Game of Thrones universe by Carolyne Larrington and a presentation on the role of Old Norse literature in the works of Vladimir Nabokov by Haki Antonsson.

Founded in 1892, the Viking Society for Northern Research is an iconic organization in the field of ancient Germanic studies, particularly medieval Scandinavian studies. The organization publishes a highly regarded journal, Saga-Book, as well as other items, such as translations. In addition to its annual student conference, the Viking Society for Northern Research meets three times a year.

Pre-Order for Jackson Crawford's Translation of the Poetic Edda and Recent Poetic Edda Editions

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Jackson Crawford's English translation of the Poetic Edda is now available for pre-order at amazon.com.The edition is projected for publication on March 15, 2014  (source).

Jackson's translation is the most recent in a wave of new English language translations of the Poetic Edda. Other recent translations include the Jeramy Dodd's 2014 translation, the late Ursula Dronke's 2011 edition (volume III of, I believe, III volumes) and Andy Orchard's 2011 translation. In addition, a revised and expanded second edition of Carolyne Larrington's 1996 translation was also released in 2014.

The Poetic Edda (or, nowadays more rarely, the Elder Edda) is a 13th century compilation of Old Norse poems that are infamously difficult to translation yet are supremely important to the study of what we nowadays know as "Norse mythology", the religious narratives of the North Germanic peoples.