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Expert in medieval literature Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough explores the world of the Norse sagas with the acclaimed novelist Joanne Harris, whose many works include fantasies based on Norse myth.

Barraclough, a lecturer in medieval literature at Durham University, travelled Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland in search of the stories behind the Norse sagas. She was knighted with a walrus penis bone in Hammerfest, became a member of the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society and sailed ice fjords under the midnight sun with a caribou hunter.  In her book, Beyond the Northlands, she paints a picture of a unique Viking culture through the stories they told and through the physical evidence they left behind.

Harris is author of the international bestseller Chocolat, which was made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Other work includes the fantasy novels based on Norse myth, Runemarks, Runelight and The Gospel of Loki.