Christine E. Fell (1938–1998)

Christine Elizabeth Fell was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and went to school there. She read English at Royal Holloway College, graduating with first-class honours in 1959 and went on to earn a master's degree in Scandinavian studies at University College, London. She then spent a year in Copenhagen working on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Her thesis, a critical edition of the Icelandic text Dunstanus Saga, was published in 1963. Prof. Fell lectured at Ripon Training College from 1961 until 1963, served as assistant lecturer at Aberdeen University, and was a lecturer at Leeds University. She then joined the English Department at the University of Nottingham, where she was appointed Professor of Early English Studies in 1981, Head of the Department of English 1990, and first Director of the Humanities Research Centre in 1994. An able administrator, she was also Vice-Chancellor from 1985-89, with particular responsibility for student affairs. She retired in 1997. Prof. Fell taught Old and Middle English and Old Norse, enlivening these topics for her students with the introduction of old manuscripts and objects, field trips to Viking settlements, and visits from her Scandinavian philologist and archaeologist colleagues. Prof. Fell consolidated and expanded the research started by previous scholars at Nottingham in runology and English place-names. Her efforts won a new lectureship in Viking Studies for the university in 1985 and initiated a five-year Leverhulme research project in 1992, A Survey of the Language of English Place-Names, which continues and is now funded by the British Academy. Her publications include Edward King and Martyr (1971), a translation of Egils Saga (1975) and the original work Women in Anglo-Saxon England (1984). Prof. Fell and colleagues and her two nieces recorded the soundtrack, in both Old English and Old Norse, for the award-winning Jorvik Viking Centre in York, and she wrote two best-selling pamphlets, Jorvikinga Saga and Toki in Jorvik!, which have been bought by millions of visitors over the years. The Viking Society for Northern Research benefited from her energy and enthusiasm; she served as council member, joint editor, and president. In recognition of her contributions to Icelandic studies, she was awarded the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1991, and, shortly before her death, she was appointed O.B.E. for her work in Early English studies.