Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the joint funding of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Newnham College, Cambridge (AH/R012709/1). The open-access publishing of this monograph was made possible by the generous support of the UKRI, and by a gift to the University of Cambridge in memory of Dorothea Coke, Skjaeret, 1951. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Rosalind Love, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Richard Dance and Lena Rohrbach, whose insight and support have been invaluable, and above all to Judy Quinn, for the time and care she has given to my ideas over the years. I would also like to thank Caroline Palmer and the team at Boydell and Brewer, and series editors Carolyne Larrington and Sif Rikhardsdottir, for their guidance and expertise in bringing this book to publication. I am equally grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose thoughtful feedback strengthened this work. Finally, my thanks go to my family and friends, and above all to my partner George and my parents, for their constant encouragement and for listening to more Old Norse digressions than anyone should have to.