Eleanor Barraclough

{{Short description|British cultural historian and writer}}

{{EngvarB|date=June 2025}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox academic

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Eleanor Barraclough

| honorific_suffix =

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| birth_name =

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| nationality =

| citizenship =

| other_names =

| occupation =

| period =

| known_for =

| title =

| boards =

| spouse =

| partner =

| children =

| parents =

| relatives =

| awards =

| website =

| education =

| alma_mater = Churchill College, Cambridge (MA, MPhil, PhD)

| thesis_title =

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year =

| school_tradition =

| doctoral_advisor =

| academic_advisors =

| influences =

| era =

| discipline =Environmental history

| sub_discipline =

| workplaces = Bath Spa University
Durham University

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students =

| main_interests =

| notable_works =

| notable_ideas =

| influenced =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| signature_size =

| footnotes =

}}

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough {{postnom|country=GBR|FSA}} {{postnom|country=GBR|FRHistS}} is a British historian, broadcaster and writer.{{cite web |title=Eleanor Barraclough Official Website |url=https://eleanorbarraclough.com/ |website=Eleanor Barraclough |access-date=28 August 2024}}

Much of her work explores the cultures, literatures and languages of the medieval north, particularly Viking Age history and Old Norse-Icelandic literature. She is the author of Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age (Profile, 2024){{cite web |title=Embers of the Hands |url=https://profilebooks.com/work/embers-of-the-hands/ |website=Profile Books |access-date=28 August 2024}} and Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas (Oxford University Press, 2016).{{cite web |title=Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas |url=https://www.waterstones.com/book/beyond-the-northlands/eleanor-rosamund-barraclough/9780198701293 |website=Waterstones |access-date=28 August 2024}} She also co-edited Imagining the Supernatural North (University of Alberta Press, 2016).{{cite web |title=Imagining the Supernatural North |url=https://ualbertapress.ca/9781772122671/imagining-the-supernatural-north/ |website=University of Alberta Press |access-date=28 August 2024}}

Eleanor Barraclough studied at the University of Cambridge, in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, where she earned an MA (Cantab), an MPhil, and a PhD.{{cite web |title=Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough |url=https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/travel/dr-eleanor-rosamund-barraclough |website=University of Cambridge |access-date=28 August 2024}} She then moved to the University of Oxford, where she was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of English,{{cite web |title=Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship |url=https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2011/07/12/607/ |website=University of Cambridge |access-date=28 August 2024}} and an Extraordinary Junior Research Fellow at The Queen's College.{{cite web |title=BBC honours Queen’s College junior fellow |url=https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2013/06/06/bbc-honours-queens-college-junior-fellow/ |website=The Oxford Student |access-date=28 August 2024}} From there she moved to Durham University, where she was associate professor in Medieval History and Literature.{{cite web |title=Academia – Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough |url=https://eleanorbarraclough.com/activity_category/academia/ |website=Eleanor Barraclough |access-date=28 August 2024}} She is currently Senior Lecturer in Environmental History at Bath Spa University.{{cite web |title=Academia – Eleanor Barraclough – Bath Spa University |url=https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/eleanor-barraclough/ |website=Bath Spa University |access-date=28 August 2024}} She held an AHRC Leadership Grant from 2020 to 2024,{{cite web |title=Into the Forest: Woods, Trees and Forests in the Germanic-Speaking Cultures of Northern Europe, c. 46 BC – c. 1500. |url=https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT006943%2F1 |website=UK Research and Innovation |access-date=28 August 2024}} for a multidisciplinary study of forests in early northern Germanic cultures.

In 2013, Barraclough was chosen as one of ten BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinkers,{{cite web |title=New research, new broadcasters – Radio 3 announces New Generation Thinkers |url=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/newgenthinkers |publisher=BBC |access-date=28 August 2024}} in a competition to develop a new generation of academics who can bring the best of university research and scholarly ideas to a broad audience through the media and public engagement. Since then, she has presented many documentaries on BBC Radio 3 and 4, for series such as Costing the Earth, On Your Farm, Sunday Feature and Open Country.{{cite web |title=Broadcasting – Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough |url=https://eleanorbarraclough.com/activity_category/broadcasting/ |website=Eleanor Barraclough |access-date=28 August 2024}}

Barraclough was a regular presenter on Radio 3's Free Thinking{{cite web |title=Free Thinking |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3Gx1l5ZXDsblC40tsfnj7Y4/eleanor-rosamund-barraclough |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}} and hosted three series of the Time Travellers podcast for Radio 3's Essential Classics.{{cite web |title=Time Travellers |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069vjyc |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}} She also presented BBC Four's Beyond the Walls: In Search of the Celts.{{cite web |title=Beyond the Walls: In Search of the Celts |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bt8w56 |website=BBC Four |access-date=28 August 2024}} In 2020, she was a judge for the Costa Book Award for Biography.{{cite web |title=Judges Announced for 2020 Costa Book Awards |url=https://costanewsroom.vuelio.co.uk/press/press-releases/2abb3c14-0c59-42cb-aafe-906692d92008/judges-announced-for-2020-costa-book-awards |website=Costa Coffee |access-date=28 August 2024}} In 2019{{cite web |title=BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2019 |url=https://www.countryfile.com/awards/bbc-countryfile-awards-winners-2019 |website=Countryfile |access-date=28 August 2024}} and 2020,{{cite web |title=BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2020 |url=https://www.countryfile.com/awards/bbc-countryfile-magazine-awards-winners-2020 |website=Countryfile |access-date=28 August 2024}} she was a judge for the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards. When she appeared as a guest on Radio 3's Private Passions, her music choices included ‘Rotlaust tre fell’ by Wardruna.{{cite web |title=Private Passions |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pl81s |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}} Thanks to her BBC documentaries, she has jammed with Viking musicians,{{cite web |title=Sunday Feature |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020y90 |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}} dunked herself in a frozen lake in search of immortality,{{cite web |title=A step-by-step guide to ice bathing |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/wtCSp2YwdqJNsK5jf2TKjq/a-step-by-step-guide-to-ice-bathing |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}} and been knighted with a walrus penis bone in the Arctic.{{cite web |title=The Supernatural North |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tvpzl |website=BBC Radio 3 |access-date=28 August 2024}}

Barraclough lives in London.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}