Scandinavian Studies and Classics

Scandinavian studies and classics is a degree that spans two of the most significant literary and cultural traditions of the European world: the Norse and Scandinavian inheritance that shaped the North, and the Graeco-Roman inheritance that shaped the South. Scandinavian studies encompasses the languages, literatures, and cultures of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and the Faroe Islands, from the medieval sagas and Eddic poetry through the literary naturalism of Ibsen and Strindberg to the contemporary crime fiction and literary novels that have found global audiences in recent decades. Classics brings you to the ancient Greek and Latin traditions, to Homer and Thucydides, Virgil and Cicero, and to the long afterlife of those traditions in European culture.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme draws on two strong departments in an institution with exceptional breadth across the humanities. Edinburgh has a well-established Scandinavian studies programme and a classics department with research strengths in both the ancient world and its reception, and the four-year structure of a Scottish degree gives you the time to develop real competence in the languages and scholarly approaches of both traditions. You will study at least one Scandinavian language to an advanced level, engage with Old Norse and its medieval literature, work with Greek and Latin, and develop the analytical and interpretive skills that sustained engagement with literary and historical texts demands.

The degree trains you to move between very different literary traditions and historical periods, developing the comparative and contextual sensitivity that is one of the hallmarks of a strong humanities education.

Graduates move into careers in academia, heritage, education, publishing, journalism, translation, cultural organisations, the civil service, and a wide range of other sectors where analytical thinking and cultural knowledge are valued.