Professional and Academic Papers
Well, I finally had to break down and do it. I've finally reached what I consider "saturation point" on my own writings on history and literature that are worth sharing with the world. Some people will note that these are invariably very good papers, and might think that's because that's all I turn out. Not true. I have my share of crappy, formulaic papers that are designed solely to push the correct buttons with professors so I can get a good grade. Some of the ones below are just such papers. However, in order to save the public, I'm adherring to two rules in posting papers:
1) It has to make sense as something other than a paper for a class. While, ideally, all my papers will do this, some papers simply will not make sense unless you're part of the class. Those papers are not included.
2) It must be, in my opinion, a high-quality paper. This means I won't publish any of my papers that I am not personally proud of.
In some cases (I've tried to mark where), my papers don't have any footnotes. This is because my WYSIWYG html editor (which I use to quickly convert 20 page papers) doesn't convert them, and I'm usually too tired to go through all of my footnotes and properly reference them in my text html editor. Unfortunately, I had computer problems recently (it was a confirmed ID-10-T error; probably the nastiest variety), so I lost the original of most of these papers, and cannot provide originals anymore.
Lastly, a caveat. There are many people around the nation who are in college, and perhaps needing a bit of a boost. Do not plagarize these papers. If you need help with an idea, talk to me and I'll try to help. If you wish to cite one of my papers, I can send you the absolute URL so your can provide it to your instructor. I will warn you now, though: If I find one of these papers is plagarized, I will sue you for copyright infringement until your ears bleed. All of these papers are copyright 1999, 2001 by Mark Hall. Please respect that.
Of Heathen Interest
-This is a paper I wrote in my 6th semester, on the importance of kinship in pagan Germanic society, using evidence from the third section of Beowulf. It now that I've cleaned it up, it should read better.
--Yet another paper from my Poetry class, this one on the invocation of Ireland, attributed to Amergin. I realize I called it the "Song of Amergin" in the paper, but my teacher knew no better, and I didn't until after I read it again, after my paper was turned in.
-A review I wrote on Gwyn Jones's History of the Vikings.
--A review of Jesse Byock's Medieval Iceland.
-A review of Jenny Jochen's Women in Old Norse Society.
--My paper named on the Conversion of Scandinavia. On this, special thanks goes out to Hnikar, Steelfoot, and someone I only have named "Gaiason", who HTMLd the paper for me.
-The Conversion of Iceland is a paper I wrote which examines Icelandic society and law, and how they were important to the conversion of Iceland to Christianity. Yet another paper without the proper footnotes included.
-A Heathen translation of The Seafarer, an Anglo-Saxon poem. Like the paper on the fens, it lacks footnotes due to the problems with my WYSIWYG, and my general laziness.
--My first post-school paper worth posting, a commentary on the Vinland Sagas.
-A book review for Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar by Jane Sibley.
--Icelandic Law as seen in Njal's Saga
General History
--My term paper from my Junior Seminar, on William Lloyd Garrison.
-The fourth paper was written in my 8th undergraduate semester, and is for my Topics In Global Environmental History class. It is about the impact of the Columbian exchange on the New World.
--Another paper from my Global Environmental History class, this one on the seventeenth century English Fens.
General Literature
--An interpretation of the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen, and a comparison of Owen's poem to Ehrhart's "Invasion of Grenada". Neither poem is included in the paper, unfortunately; the poems are commonly available in American Literature texts, however. Also, neither had much in the way of footnotes to start with; the fact that they don't have them now doesn't omit much.
-Where The Wild Things Are is a children's book that many have enjoyed since its initial printing in 1963. This paper is an allegorical interpretation of the book, as a chronicle of the journey into adulthood.
Comments? Citation requests? Questions?