{{Short description|Norwegian scholar}} '''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<ref name=forskning>[http://www.forskning.no/32/59 profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306040033/http://www.forskning.no/32/59 |date=6 March 2012}} at forskning.no {{in lang|no}}</ref><ref name=Apollon>Aslaug Veum, [http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/1998/4/veithonok "Gro Steinsland: Veit ho nok, eller kva?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719152551/http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/1998/4/veithonok |date=19 July 2011 }}, Portrait, ''Apollon'', University of Oslo research magazine, 1 April 1998. Retrieved 17 January 2011. {{in lang|nn}}</ref> from its founding in 1993 until its dissolution.<ref name=PROSA>Gunnhild Røthe, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160416160936/http://2001-10.prosa.no/artikkel.asp?ID=545 "Vet dere nok eller hva? Om den moderne volven Gro Steinslands forfatterskap"], ''Prosa''. Archived 16 April 2016. Accessed 9 August 2023.{{in lang|no}}</ref> 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.<ref name=forskning/> In 2007-08, she led the international interdisciplinary research group in "The Power of the Ruler and the Ideology of Rulership in Nordic Culture 800-1200" at the Centre for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters,<ref>Olaf Christensen, [https://www.hf.uio.no/for-ansatte/aktuelt/hf-aktuelt/2005/uke47/steinsland.html HF-aktuelt: En fremragende religionshistoriker], Det humanistiske fakultet, University of Oslo, 21 November 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2011. {{in lang|no}}</ref><ref>[http://www.cas.uio.no/research/0708rulership/index.php Research Group 2007/2008 - Rulership], Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo.</ref> and, since 1 August 2009, has been its Scientific Director.<ref>Bjarne Røsjø and Else Lie, [http://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Newsarticle/Cultivating+the+crme+de+la+crme+of+basic+research/1253954293454&kilde=f "Centre for Advanced Study: Cultivating the crème de la crème of basic research"], Research Council of Norway, 4 March 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2011.</ref>
Steinsland specialises in pre-Christian religion, the associated Old Norse texts and mythology and the conversion of Scandinavia.<ref name=forskning/> At both Oslo and Tromsø, she made Norse religion a main subject within the history of religion programme.<ref name=Apollon/> She is a member of the group for theology and religious studies in the Academy of Science and Letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dnva.no/c26848/artikkel/vis.html?tid=27645|title=Gruppe 8: Religionsvitenskap og teologi|publisher=Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters|language=Norwegian|accessdate=15 January 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref name=PROSA/> In 2005, she published a wideranging introductory book, ''Norrøn religion'' (Norse religion), which presents the subject from the perspective of myth and praxis.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}
In her 1989 Ph.D. dissertation, ''Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi: en analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljód'' (the sacred marriage and Norse ideology of kingship: an analysis of the myth of the ''hieros gamos'' in ''Skírnismál'', ''Ynglingatal'', ''Háleygjatal'' and ''Hyndluljóð''), she reinterpreted the sacred marriage between a god and a giantess as a power myth legitimising rulership rather than a fertility myth; she specialises in the interpretation of written sources but made extensive use of archaeology and frequently takes an interdisciplinary approach. She emphasised the female aspect of pre-Christian religion,<ref name=Apollon/> particularly in her 1997 book ''Eros og død i norrøne myter'' (Eros and death in Norse myths), in which she contrasts the sexualisation of death in, for example, references to drowning as being embraced by the sea goddess Rán with the post-conversion view of female sexuality as shameful.<ref name=PROSA/>
Steinsland has written newspaper opinion articles,<ref name=forskning/> for example in 2000 taking the position that Thor Heyerdahl's Odin expedition to Azerbaijan was inspired by a conjectural "charade" orchestrated by Snorri Sturluson.<ref>[http://tux1.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/d176403.htm "Heyerdahls og Odins 'narrespill': Med Thor Heyerdahls nye Odin-prosjekt er et 800 år gammelt 'narrespill' satt i scene, en gedigen skøyerstrek, regissert av Snorre Sturlason"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716233921/http://tux1.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/d176403.htm |date=16 July 2011}}, Meninger - Kronikk, ''Aftenposten'', 24 November 2000. Retrieved 14 January 2011. {{in lang|no}}</ref>
==Selected publications== * ''Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi: en analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljód''. Oslo: Solum, 1991. {{ISBN|82-560-0764-8}}. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo, 1989. * (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) ''Før kristendommen: digtning og livssyn i vikingetiden'' Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1990. {{ISBN|87-00-79194-6}} * (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) ''Menneske og makter i vikingenes verden'' Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1994. {{ISBN|82-00-21316-1}} * ''Eros og død i norrøne myter''. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1997. {{ISBN|82-00-22938-6}} * (with Preben Meulengracht Sørensen) ''Voluspå, Gjendiktning og kommentar''. Oslo: Pax, 1999. {{ISBN|82-530-2136-4}} * ''Den hellige kongen; om religion og herskermakt fra vikingtid til middelalder''. Oslo: Pax, 2000. {{ISBN|82-530-2227-1}} * (with Magnus Rindal) ''Heilage stader i Norge''. Oslo: Det Norske samlaget, 2001. {{ISBN|82-521-5657-6}} * ''Norrøn religion: Myter, riter, samfunn''. Oslo: Pax, 2005. {{ISBN|82-530-2607-2}} * (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. {{ISBN|82-00-07751-9}} * (Ed.) ''Voluspå, og andre norrøne helligtekster''. Verdens hellige skrifter. Oslo: De norske Bokklubbene, 2003. {{ISBN|82-525-4113-5}} * (Ed.) ''Draumkvedet, og tekster fra norrøn middelalder''. Verdens hellige skrifter. Oslo: De norske Bokklubbene, 2004. {{ISBN|82-525-4627-7}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.hf.uio.no/iln/personer/vit/groste/index.html Gro Steinsland] at Institute for Linguistic and Nordic Studies, University of Oslo {{in lang|no}} * [http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Gro+Steinsland&qt=results_page Gro Steinsland] at OCLC Worldcat * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100610061539/http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/msp/wun/steinsland01.htm Gro Steinsland] at Worldwide Universities Network: Medieval Studies
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinsland, Gro}} Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Academic staff of the University of Oslo Category:Academic staff of the University of Tromsø Category:Old Norse studies scholars Category:Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Category:Norwegian women academics Category:Writers on Germanic paganism