The Society has announced the winner of its 2025 Magnus Magnusson Essay Prize. Out of a wide range of original, thought-provoking, and insightful papers, the panel of judges named Amanda Boeing the winner for her essay ‘Memorialization, Nation-building, and the Power of a Poet: A Comparative Study of the Battle of Brunanburh and Egill Skalla-Grímsson’s Höfuðlausn‘. Amanda’s essay will be published in an upcoming volume of Northern Studies, and she is awarded the prize amount of £500.

Amanda will graduate with an MA in Medieval Literatures and Languages from the University of York in January 2026 and is hoping to pursue a PhD starting fall 2026. Her research interests include Old English and Old Norse literature, Viking Age England, animal studies, and environmental studies.

She is the fifteenth winner of the prize, which is named in memory of Magnus Magnusson KBE, scholar and journalist of the northern world. A call for submissions for the 2026 edition of the prize will open soon.

Many congratulations, Amanda!