Nordic Spirit Symposium

The Nordic Spirit Symposium offers a sampling of life in the Nordic region after the Viking Age, with illustrated presentations on Nordic culture and religion by authorities from the U.S. and Europe. The public is invited to join in the spirit of a symposium, which blends music, dining and the free exchange of ideas to enhance the pleasure of learning. Events will be held Friday evening and all day Saturday.

Friday, 5:30 p.m. - Scandinavian Center, 26 Faculty St.
Reception
Reservations requested. Admission is $10.

Friday, 7 p.m. - Preus-Brandt Forum
"The Nordic Countries and Their Roads to Christianity 800-1300 A.D."
Haki Antonsson, lecturer in Medieval Scandinavian Studies at University College London, presents a broad comparative overview of how the different Nordic countries developed from pagan Viking principalities to Christian kingdoms. The lecture includes examples of what the medieval Scandinavians thought about the conversion of their ancestors.

"Scandinavian Medieval Dress: Continuity and Change"
Michelle Nordtorp-Madsen, chief curator and a clinical faculty member in the Department of Art History at University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., traces the form and context of Scandinavian dress from the Migration Age to the High Medieval using images of some of the few extant European garments and accessories, including from the bog graves, the cemetery at Birka, and Herjolfsnæs churchyard in Greenland.

Admission is $20; free for students, CLU faculty and staff.

For information and early registration fees, call 805-778-0162 or email seeallan@hotmail.com.

The Nordic Spirit Symposium is made possible by generous grants from the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in San Francisco, the Norway House Foundation and the Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles.