I'd also like to thank everyone involved in your very kind invitation to present the Messenger Lectures this fall. I'd like to begin by echoing Oren's thanks and say what a very great pleasure it is for me and my wife to be here at Cornell and in Ithaca. So you're welcome to join us there later and meet him face-to-face. We'll have time for that.Īnd once everything is wrapped up here, there's a reception happening over in the Art History Gallery over at that end of the building on the same floor. So Neil has agreed to take some questions. Let me just to remind you that there will be Q&A at the end. But most of his very well-earned fame comes from work on medieval Scandinavia and on Vikings.Īnd since you don't want to hear me talk more about Neil, but you came here to hear this fellow, I think I'll turn things over to him. I'm sure he doesn't actually try this on his own but an academic interest in opium, in piracy, no less, in witchcraft, shamanism. He has a very broad range of interests, including the archaeology of the opium trade, recently. Since 2007, he's been Chair of Archaeology at Aberdeen University, where he founded the new archaeology department.Īnd just looking at the places on the globe where he's actually done field work or done various kinds of works, it ranges from Micronesia and South Africa- he's associated with the University of Witwatersrand there- Russia, France, Germany, the US. He's been working or hopping between Sweden, Norway, and Britain ever since. Neil earned his BA in Archaeology from the University of London- from University College If I have all of my wits about me here- and then went on to do postgraduate work, both in York and in Uppsala, where he earned his doctorate in 2002. He is also responsible for many edited projects, including some real doorstoppers, encyclopedias, and over 60 articles, and field reports, and so forth. Three sole-authored books, including the dissertation he wrote in Uppsala University, The Viking Way, which is widely regarded as one of the most important books on pre-Christian Norse religion published in the last few decades. The first, he published before he even earned his doctorate, if I remember correctly. And he's published more in half of that time than I will in twice that time. He's been active for about 20 years now or so. Neil seems to be one of those people whom God put on this Earth to make slobs like me look lazy and feel bad. And especially thank you to Neil for agreeing to come. So thank you to all who have contributed in various ways. But just to give you a sense of the range of units that would be involved here, both faculty, students, and non-academic staff, from English, classics medieval studies, history, comparative literature, the Fiske Icelandic Collection, religious studies, and archaeology all got behind this invitation and finally managed to secure this guest for us. And also- I won't read out all of the individual names. So first of all, the University Lectures Committee, who has extended the invitation. So I'm delighted that this has finally worked out and very excited to hear what he will have to say to us in a few minutes.Īnd I wanted to make sure to thank, first of all, the people who have made it possible for Neil to be here. We've been trying to get Neil over to Cornell for a number of years, now. OREN FALK: It's my very pleasant duty to welcome Neil Price here and to welcome all of you.
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