Professor Lindow’s research focuses on two areas. Within the Old Norse-Icelandic literary tradition, he is particularly interested in myth and religion and the texts and genres that reflect them. In his research on the folklore of northern Europe, Lindow has specialized in the stories of the rural countryside, from Greenland to Karelia. Common to his research in both areas is an attempt to understand how texts function, both internally and in their greater literary and cultural contexts, with the concept of “culture” understood broadly.
With Jens Peter Schjødt and Anders Andrén, he is co-editor of the forthcoming Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures (4 vols, Brepols), and his book Old Norse Mythology is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Lindow has taught as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Iceland and held a research appointment at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Iceland and in 2018 was awarded the Knights Cross of the Order of the Falcon of the Republic of Iceland.