ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Contact

• workRoom A56 Trent Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Kate.Olley@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

As an undergraduate, Kate studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Trinity College, Cambridge. She then moved to Newnham College to study for her MPhil, funded by a Newton Trust Award from the Cambridge Home and European Scholarship Scheme (2014-15). She returned to Trinity College for her DPhil, funded by an AHRC-Trinity studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership (2015-18). Her doctoral research explored the nature of kinship in Old Norse myth and legend, focusing especially on parent-child relationships, and was supervised by Dr Judy Quinn. She subsequently spent a year as a Teaching Fellow in Old Norse at University College London (2018-19), before becoming the VH Galbraith Junior Research Fellow in Medieval Studies at St Hilda's College, Oxford (2020-23) and a Research Associate on the ERC-funded BODY-POLITICS project at the University of Leicester (2023). She joined the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ in 2023.

Teaching Summary

Kate teaches on the following modules:

• Academic Community
• Beginnings of English
• The Viking World
• Ice and Fire
• The Viking Mind

Research Summary

Kate's research interests include kinship, childbirth, the body, and emotions in Old Norse literature. Her first monograph Kinship in Old Norse Myth and Legend was published by Boydell and Brewer in… read more

Selected Publications

• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2025. ofsi (pride). In: GARETH LLOYD EVANS, BRYNJA ÞORGEIRSDÓTTIR and CAROLYNE LARRINGTON, eds., Saga Emotions Manchester University Press. 206-23
• MARIANNE HEM ERIKSEN, KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, BRAD MARSHALL and EMMA TOLLEFSEN, 2025. Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2022. Saga-Book. 46, 93–118
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2022. Kinship in Old Norse Myth and Legend D. S. Brewer.

• View all publications

Kate is affiliated with the European Research Council-funded project head by Dr Marianne Hem Eriksen and hosted at the University of Leicester.

Kate is a member of the Old Norse Emotions Network led by Dr Gareth Evans (University of Oxford) and Dr Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir (University of Iceland).

Kate is also part of an international team of researchers, headed by Dr Jonathan Hui, working to translate a selection of the °ù¾±»å»å²¹°ù²¹²õö²µ³Ü°ù (Chivalric sagas) into English for the forthcoming volume Chivalric Romances from Medieval Iceland.

Current Research

Kate's research interests include kinship, childbirth, the body, and emotions in Old Norse literature. Her first monograph Kinship in Old Norse Myth and Legend was published by Boydell and Brewer in July 2022 and she is currently working on her second monograph, Childbirth in Old Norse Literature, which explores the literary depiction and cultural significance of childbirth in medieval Iceland. Engaging with anthropological analyses of birth as a moment of social microcosm, the book examines how birth narratives reflect and challenge the underlying power structures and knowledge systems of Old Norse society.

• MARIANNE HEM ERIKSEN, KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, BRAD MARSHALL and EMMA TOLLEFSEN, 2025. Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2025. ofsi (pride). In: GARETH LLOYD EVANS, BRYNJA ÞORGEIRSDÓTTIR and CAROLYNE LARRINGTON, eds., Saga Emotions Manchester University Press. 206-23
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2022. Saga-Book. 46, 93–118
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2022. Kinship in Old Norse Myth and Legend D. S. Brewer.
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2021. Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 120(4), 490–515
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2018. Scandinavian Studies. 90(2), 237–64
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2018. Neophilologus. 102(3), 421–37
• KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2018. Quaestio Insularis: Selected Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. 18, 46–77
• JONATHAN Y. H. HUI, CAITLIN ELLIS, JAMES MCINTOSH, KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, WILLIAM NORMAN and KIMBERLY ANDERSON, 2018. Leeds Studies in English. 49, 1–43
• JONATHAN Y. H. HUI, CAITLIN ELLIS, JAMES MCINTOSH and KATHERINE MARIE OLLEY, 2018. Leeds Studies in English. 49, 45–64