Having taught classical Icelandic and Old Icelandic literature at Kiel University from 1994-1999 and again since 2000, Christiane Zimmermann is one of the most experienced teachers in this field.

Christiane Zimmermann holds a master and a PhD in Nordic Philology from Kiel University. She specialised in word formation and language grouping, with particular reference to the early stages of Germanic languages in her master's thesis, and in Old Norse word formation in her PhD.

Christiane Zimmermann's research interests include historical and comparative Germanic linguistics, Scandinavian language history, runic writing and literacy, and linguistic pragmatics; she belongs to the editorial team of the new edition of runic inscriptions in the older fuþark, which will be published in the deGruyter-series. She is also involved in a new research programme which is due to begin soon on Runic writing: "RuneS - Runische Schriftlichkeit in den germanischen Sprachen", which has been confirmed by the Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften. A Habilitationsschrift on speech acts, societal norms and saga literature (on the construction of normative systems in medieval Icelandic literature) is in preparation.

Christiane Zimmermann will teach the Structure of Classical Icelandic and will give some evening lectures.

After a long career in industry conducting research in acoustics and human hearing, William R. Short is now an independent scholar and author, specializing in medieval Icelandic literature and Viking-age topics.

William R. Short is a Master of science and a doctor of science in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most of his research has been conducted at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA, USA (www.higgins.org). At the museum, he regularly lectures on Viking weapons and their place in the society of the saga-age Icelanders, and he demonstrates and teaches Viking-age combat techniques. His next book, on the culture, society, and history of saga-age Icelanders, is due to be released later in the spring of 2010. For more information see his webpage www.williamrshort.com.

William R. Short will give several lessons on the society of the people in the saga time and introduce participants to the fascinating viking weapons.