Alaric Hall (born 1979) is a British

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

who is an associate professor of English and former director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. He has, since 2009, been the editor of the academic journal '' Leeds Studies in English'' and its successor '' Leeds Medieval Studies''.

Biography

Hall received his B.A. in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, his M.Phil. in

Medieval Studies Medieval studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages. A historian who studies medieval studies is called a medievalist. Institutional development The term 'medieval studies' began to be adopted by academics in the opening ...

from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, and his Ph.D. in English from the

. His Ph.D. thesis was on

elves An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''. In medieval Germanic-speakin ...

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

. He then became an associate professor of English and director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the

. Hall researches and teaches the languages,

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

s and history of

Northwest Europe Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern Europe, Northern and Western Europe. The term is used in geographic, history, and military contexts. Geographic definitions Geography, Geo ...

in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. He has written and edited several works on these subjects. Hall has written on

Icelandic language Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national languag ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. His 2007 book ''Elves in Anglo-Saxon England'' received positive academic reviews. The medievalist and Tolkien scholar

Tom Shippey Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the ...

described the work as an "exceptionally thorough study", while the Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi called it a "solidly scholarly work, with meticulous discussion of philological matters, and also an open-minded (although strictly evidence-based) attempt to look at the bigger picture."

Politics

Hall is an environmental campaigner, and since 2018 has regularly stood for election to

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the ...

for the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...

. For most of the 2010s he was a resident of the Leeds eco-building

Greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

and was active in community organising in the local area of Beeston and

Holbeck Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is t ...

. His activities included campaigning in relation to the

United Kingdom cladding crisis The cladding crisis or cladding scandal is an ongoing social crisis in the United Kingdom that followed the Grenfell Tower fire of 14 June 2017 and the University of Bolton#Halls of residence, Bolton Cube fire of 15 November 2019. The fires rev ...

. Within academia, Hall supports open-access publishing and has made his own research freely available online. Correspondingly, he edits Wikipedia, and incorporates editing into his teaching and research at the University of Leeds. He is a member of the

University and College Union The University and College Union (UCU) is a British trade union in further and higher education representing over 120,000 academics and support staff. UCU is a vertical union representing casualised researchers and teaching staff, "permanent" ...

, campaigning during the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and 2018–2020 UK higher education strikes.Sherratt, Madeline,
We Rally With You: Why the University Strikes are a Force of Good
, ''The Postit'' (28 November 2019).

Select bibliography

* ''Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity'', 2007 * ''Interfaces Between Language and Culture in Medieval England'', 2010 * ''Útrásarvíkingar: The Literature of the Icelandic Financial Crisis (2008–2014)'', 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Alaric Academics of the University of Leeds Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Glasgow Living people British literary historians British non-fiction writers British philologists Celtic studies scholars Germanic studies scholars Old Norse studies scholars Scandinavian studies scholars 1979 births People educated at Aylesbury Grammar School

Biography

Politics

Select bibliography

See also

References