Scandinavian Studies at Harvard
Scandinavian Studies began at Harvard around 1835, when the celebrated poet and Harvard professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) made a book-buying trip to Scandinavia on behalf of the Harvard Library. It was at Longfellow’s initiative that the University Libraries undertook to collect Nordic texts systematically, and their collections have developed into the finest of their kind in North America (see Resources). Longfellow later based his epic American poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855) on the distinctive meter of Finland’s national folk epic The Kalevala, published by Elias Lönnrot in 1835. The de facto establishment of Scandinavian at Harvard can be dated to the appointment of William H. Schofield to the Faculty at the beginning of the 20th century. Schofield had studied at the University of Copenhagen and had a thorough knowledge of both the old and modern languages. His appointment in 1906 as Director of the newly formed Department of Comparative Literature further secured the position of Scandinavian at Harvard. Following Schofield’s death in 1920, the instruction of Old Norse and other Scandinavian courses was carried on by Frank S. Cawley until his untimely death in 1940, when a series of junior appointments were made. In the 1950s, a Swedish-American industrialist in Detroit, Gustav von Reis, donated sufficient monies to establish the Gustav Adolf Fund, an endowment which provided for “instruction in the Swedish language and in Scandinavian civilization at Harvard.” With the assistance of the Swedish Institute in Stockholm, a series of Lecturers in Swedish were appointed; since then Swedish, as well as Old Norse, have consistently been offered to Harvard undergraduates. Scandinavianists Einar Haugen and Theodore Andersson presided over an impressive expansion of Harvard’s Scandinavian Program in the 1960s and early ‘70s, the heyday of the Scandinavian welfare model, and course offerings expanded to include virtually all modern Scandinavian languages and all literary periods and genres. Since the 1980s, Professors Stephen Mitchell and Joseph Harris have offered Harvard students an exciting array of courses on medieval and modern Scandinavian topics as well as comparative Germanics, and Maria Tatar’s course on childhood, featuring the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, continues to be popular. In 2009, Ursula Lindqvist took over from longtime Preceptor Annette Johansson-Los to coordinate a new Scandinavian Languages Program, which offers instruction in Danish, Finnish, modern Icelandic, and Norwegian; and to introduce new courses in Nordic Cinema and Nordic Drama and Theater. In Spring 2012, we are delighted to host a visiting Fulbright Hildeman Scholar from Sweden, Professor Sara Kärrholm from Malmö University, an expert on Scandinavian crime fiction. She will teach the undergraduate course Scandinavian 65: Crime, Power and Politics in Contemporary Scandinavian Culture.
What is Scandinavian Studies?
This highly interdisciplinary field includes the study of the languages, literatures, folklore, cultures, histories, societies, religions, and mythologies of the Nordic region. This region includes five nation states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), three autonomous territories (Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland), and the homeland of the indigenous Sámi people known as Sápmi (Lappland), which spans an area north of the Arctic Circle in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Denmark’s red-and-white cross flag, called “Dannebro,” is the oldest state flag in the world still in use and provided the model for the other “Nordic cross” flags except for Greenland and Sápmi, which employ circular patterns. The region is home to eight active modern languages as well as Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Many of these languages are offered here at Harvard.
Photo by Vidar Lindqvist
THE SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Learning a Scandinavian language opens to students the distinctive worldview of the Scandinavians. From the time of the Vikings to the present day, Scandinavia has made fiercely unique contributions to Western civilization. Students who learn Swedish can read Stieg Larsson’s blockbuster crime novels in the original, decipher the furniture names at IKEA, and greet the King of Sweden in his own language when they later accept a Nobel Prize. Scandinavia is the birthplace of modern drama, and learning Norwegian or Swedish reveals to students the nuances of Ibsen’s and Strindberg’s masterpieces. Learning Danish helps students understand the irony of Hans Christian Andersen’s celebrated fairy tales. Learning Finnish enables students to appreciate the remarkable meter of Finland’s folk epic The Kalevala. And learning Old Norse immerses students in the mythology, folk traditions, blood feuds, histories, and humor of the Viking sagas and acquaints them with the source material for Wagner’s Ring cycle and the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien.
In our courses, students also learn about the societies that have given rise to these amazing texts. Professor Stephen Mitchell’s popular Summer Study Abroad course, Viking Studies in Scandinavia, visits actual sites where the mighty Vikings roamed (see Study Abroad). In the modern era, Scandinavia has been associated with peace and prosperity. Sweden and Norway award the annual Nobel Prizes, named after the Swedish inventor of dynamite. In international relations, Scandinavian countries often host sensitive negotiations or send representatives (such as 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari) to aid in such talks. Scandinavia also leads the world in genetics and biomedical research and in environmental sustainability technologies. They are the most wired countries in the world, home to technology innovators Nokia, Ericsson, Linux, and Skype. The Scandinavian countries rank as the most egalitarian in the world and its residents enjoy the highest standards of living. Scandinavia is home to the world’s oldest parliament (Iceland’s Althing, 930) and a unique set of social welfare states. It has produced pathbreaking models in areas of law, such as children’s rights and sex trafficking. Our faculty work closely with Harvard undergraduates, and network with other faculty in the College, to help students pursue their particular interests in Scandinavia.
WELCOME! VÄLKOMMEN! VELKOMMEN! VELKOMIN! TERVETULOA! VÆLKOMIN! TIKILLUARIT!
