Merrill Kaplan
Contact Information
Job Title
Associate Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Folklore.
- kaplan.103@osu.edu
Areas of Expertise
- Languages and Literatures of Scandinavia
- Medieval Scandinavian literature and culture
- Norse mythology
- Traditional narrative and belief
Education
- PhD (University of California, Berkeley 2006).
Specializations
- Scandinavian Languages and Literatures
- Medieval Scandinavian literature and culture
- Norse mythology
- Traditional narrative and belief in Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish
Books
- The Paganesque and The Tale of Vǫlsi (Volume 14 in the series Studies in Old Norse Literature), Boydell and Brewer, 2024.
- Thou Fearful Guest: Addressing the Past in Four Tales in Flateyjarbók (FFC 301). Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia (Academia Scientiarum Fennica), 2011.
- News from Other Worlds: Studies in Nordic Folklore, Mythology and Culture. Eds. Merrill Kaplan and Timothy R. Tangherlini. Berkeley/Los Angeles: North Pinehurst Press, 2012.
Recent essays
On Norse Mythology
“The Fateful Feminine: Reading Mythology against Snorri.” In Women and Goddesses in Old Norse Mythology and Folklore, edited by Tommy Kuusela and Ingunn Ásdísardóttir. Acta Scandinavica 15. Brepols. Forthcoming Apr/2026.
On Norwegian and Swedish legend tradition
“Supernatural Encounters in the Haunted Mill: Perception and Experience.” Journal of Folklore Research 59, no. 1 (2022): 1–24.
“Trolls in the Mill: The Supernatural Stakes of Waterpower.” In Myth, Magic, and Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia, edited by Jürg Glauser and Pernille Hermann. Acta Scandinavica 11. Brepols, 2021.