1. Introduction

This is the second occasional Newsletter of the skaldic editing project, issued by the General Editors to keep all Contributing Editors informed of progress to date, news and essential information. The first Newsletter was issued in May 2002, shortly after a successful skaldic symposium and General Editors� meeting in York, organised by Diana Whaley and Matthew Townend. Newsletter No. 2 follows another successful symposium at the University of Kiel, organised by Edith Marold, which in its turn followed the 12th International Saga Conference in Bonn. Details of these meetings are given below.

As a consequence of our annual symposia, to which all Contributing Editors are cordially invited (see below for details of the 2004 meeting in Copenhagen), and the many papers on skaldic poetry presented at the Bonn saga conference, as well as the general enthusiasm aroused by the skaldic editing project, a considerable general interest in the subject has been raised lately among Old Norse-Icelandic scholars and students. This is most gratifying. It is also excellent for the future health of the sub-field that quite a few postgraduate students and early career researchers are now involved in skaldic studies and, in some cases, in the project itself.

Credit for some of the recent interest in the skaldic edition is due to the project�s excellent web site at http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au and to its creator and maintenance man, Tarrin Wills. The site has received praise and admiration from a number of individuals, not all of them scholars within our field.

This Newsletter reports on a number of matters that came up at the Symposium and General Editors� meeting in Kiel on 2-6 August 2003. However, there are other more technical items that will be notified to Contributing Editors within the next two months via a Supplement to the Editors� Manual, 2nd. edn. (2002). This will be sent to all Contributing Editors as a hard copy document and will also be available on the project�s web site.

References