Dr Matthew Firth

Matthew is an Associate Lecturer in medieval literature and history at Flinders University. His research focuses on historiography, cultural memory, and the transmission of historical narrative across time and place. With research specialities in the history of early medieval England and in Scandinavian saga literature, he has published numerous articles on various aspects of society and culture in England and Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, and their intersections. His first monograph, a biographical study of English queens-consort in the years 850-1000, is currently in press with the Routledge Lives of Royal Women series. A second monograph based on his doctoral thesis is in preparation, also for publication with Routledge. Matthew is Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) (2023).

Matthew is the current editor of Cerae Journal, an assistant editor of the Brepols published series East Central Europe, 476–1795, the reviews editor for the Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA), and Communications Officer for ANZAMEMS.

Most recent publications:

Matthew Firth, 'Identifying Queenship in Pre-Conquest England,' in Norman to Early Plantaganet Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty, ed. Aidan Norrie et al. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 17-45.

Matthew Firth, 'Memories of Viking Age Cultural Contact: England in the Íslendingasögur', in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, Series 3, Vol. 17: Essays in Memory of Paul E. Szarmach, ed. Joel T. Rosenthal and Virginia Blanton (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2023), 1-25.

Erin Sebo and Matthew Firth, 'Saxo Grammaticus's Account of the Viking Age Site on the Danish Island of Hjarnø in Gesta Danorum', Scandinavian Studies 95, 2 (2023), 166-82.

Erin Sebo, Matthew Firth and Daniel Anlezark (eds), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.