Rate My Professor Carl Phelpstead

Professor Carl Phelpstead is Professor of English Literature in Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy. He earned his BA in English Language with Medieval Literature (first-class honours) from the University of Sheffield in 1992, MPhil in English Medieval Studies 1100–1500 from the University of Oxford in 1995 funded by a British Academy Studentship, and DPhil in Old Norse literature from Oxford in 1999, also supported by a British Academy Studentship. Phelpstead joined Cardiff University as Lecturer in English Literature in 1999, progressing to Senior Lecturer in 2007, Reader in 2010, and Professor in 2012. He has undertaken major administrative roles such as Director of Studies for English Literature and Creative Writing, School Director of Teaching and Learning, Head of English Literature and Creative Writing, and Co-Deputy Head of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy. As a member of Cardiff’s Centre for Medieval Studies and Cardiff Environmental Cultures, he offers postgraduate supervision in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, Old English literature, ecocriticism, environmental humanities, medieval gender and sexuality, hagiography, the global Middle Ages, World Literature, and twentieth-century British medievalism. His teaching includes the Year 2 module Epic and Saga on Beowulf and Old Norse-Icelandic legendary sagas, lectures on Old English and Chaucer in Encountering Bodies in Medieval Literature, and the final-year module Island Stories: Literatures of the North Atlantic.

Phelpstead’s research focuses on medieval literature especially Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English literature, twentieth-century British medievalism, ecocritical and environmental approaches, literature and the global Middle Ages, hagiography, and medieval gender and sexuality. His current projects encompass a book-length study of early medieval England in twentieth-century literature, film, and culture, and co-editing essays on ecocriticism and Old Norse-Icelandic literature with Timothy Bourns. Major publications include An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders (University Press of Florida, 2020), Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity (University of Wales Press, 2011; winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, 2012), Holy Vikings: Saints’ Lives in the Old Icelandic Kings’ Sagas (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007), The Medieval North and Its Afterlife: Essays in Honor of Heather O'Donoghue (De Gruyter, 2024; co-edited with Sian Gronlie), and Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2007; co-edited with David Clark). Selected articles comprise ‘Kringla heimsins’: Old Norse sagas, world literature and the global turn in medieval studies (Saga-Book, 2022), Ecocriticism and Eyrbyggja saga (Leeds Studies in English, 2014), and Companions, conflicts, and concubines: clerical masculinities in Lárentíus saga biskups (D.S. Brewer, 2020). He served as Guest of Honour at the Tolkien Society Annual Dinner in 2025.