Medieval scholar brings UNM students mythological wisdom

Visting professor John McKinnell, from England shares his personality and knowledge.

by NATALIE McBRIDE

Singing, acting, directing, researching, teaching and writing keep a retired professor going and going.

John McKinnell, 65, is technically retired, but he still remains in the classroom. He’s a visiting professor at University of New Mexico from Durham University in England, instructing Norse mythology this spring.

McKinnell specializes in Scandinavian mythology, but there are many fields of knowledge he carries with him on his many travels throughout the world.

“I think he’s got a very strong and intelligent character,” said Christine Kozikowski, a graduate student who assists McKinnell. “He seems like an all around good person."

McKinnell has been teaching sine 1965. He spent the last 43 years at Durham, where he built a career by mastering a subject few dare tackle.

“I never really wanted to move,” McKinnell said.

He started out being the youngest instructor at Durham and ended up being one of the oldest. The university is located in northeast England in Durham, a medieval city that has produced the heart of McKinnell’s research. He figured the best place to study medieval poetry, legends, sagas and ballads would be where most of the action once took place. He didn’t grow up too far away.

His place of birth is Croydon, London. He lived with his parents for a time in South England and also with his grandmother in Scotland. His grandmother used to recite poetry to him as a boy. This is when McKinnell says his curiosity for legend and ballad began.

Photo by Natalie McBride

Mckinnell's knowledge of the Icalandic alphabet is written on the board behind him.

While he attended college at Oxford University his passion for medieval studies flourished. McKinnell also studied for a year at Copenhagen University on a Danish government scholarship. He had some stories to share while he was attending college.

McKinnell said he was tutored by Gabriel Turville-Petre, the most important Old Norse scholar Britain has ever produced. One day Turville-Petre handed McKinnell some hefty German books to read.

McKinnell said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t read German.”

Turville-Petre replied with a stern voice, “I suspect you ought to learn.” So, McKinnell learned German. That’s just one of nine languages he now knows.

He also speaks: French, Latin, Russian, Old English, Old Norse, Danish, modern Icelandic, Italian and modern English. He figures if he was going to live in Albuquerque longer he may as well learn Spanish, too.

Though he knows so many languages, he has been known to speak the wrong one at times.

He said he went to the research institute in Copenhagen and thought he shouldn’t speak English because the people there may not, so he spoke what he thought was modern Icelandic. He spoke 13th century Icelandic and the group of people fell about, laughing.

“But at least it meant they remembered me,” McKinnell said.

He was later hired at Durham at age 23 and though he’s been at it a very long time, McKinnell said he enjoys teaching because of his curiosity of mythology and has a sense of excitement when he passes on the enjoyment to others. During his 43 years of teaching he has wrote about 80 publications.

“The Internet prevents people from being anonymous,” he said.

Some of his major publications are not for the faint-hearted: “Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend,” published in 2005 and “Runes, Magic and Religion” are among his works. So is “Both One and Many: Essays on Change and Variety in Late Norse Heathenism.”

When he’s not researching poetry or teaching he is directing and acting. In Durham, McKinnell is a member of the Durham Medieval Theatre Company and a member of the Durham County Shakespeare Group. He’s played a character called Pistol, who is a low-grade gangster. McKinnell has also been chairman for the Saga International Society and president of the Viking Society.

His love of being on stage is accompanied by his love for music. He sings in a church choir. He sings folk music and what he calls “high culture music,” which dates from the present back to the year 1500. His particular love in church music is Palestrina, unaccompanied voice music. No instruments are used. He grew up in a tradition in which people sung folk music.

“Acting, music, and research are all in a way the same thing,” McKinnell said. “I’ve spent most of my career being paid for what I wanted to do anyway."

He has participated in an academic exchange program for staff and has taught all over the world. He has been to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bown, Germany; Cagliari, Italy; Aarhus, Denmark and Reszedow, southeast Poland. He’s also been to Russia and all the Scandinavian countries. He’s given a lecture on a luxurious cruise as well. If that sounds fun, then imagine teaching in Sydney, Australia; then getting off work and swimming in the coral reefs. He’s done that, too.

He may be a traveling man, but when he’s home he spends time with his family.

McKinnell is married and has three children, two sons and a daughter. He’s also a grandfather of two. He’s been encouraging his daughter, who is in her final year of her doctorate. His one son is a plastic surgeon. McKinnell and his son wrote a medical article together. McKinnell wrote it in Latin.

While McKinnell has been in the U.S., he communicates with his grandchildren through e-mail. One of his grandsons asked him,"'Tell me all about the cowboys.'"

“The only cowboys I’ve seen here have been Indians," McKinnell replied.

McKinnell has been in New Mexico just over four months. In the last month he flew to Iceland for a weekend visit. But he was back on Tuesday, ready to teach his mythology class.

He was invited to teach here by professor Helen Domico, McKinnell’s boss. She was at the International Saga Conference in Durham in 2006. McKinnell organized the gathering. The guests stayed in a castle, which took years in advance to book.

“I can only say that Dr. McKinnell is one of the most distinguished scholars in medieval Scandinavian mythology,” Domico said. “He is an admirable teacher and a brilliant scholar, and we are honored to have him as a visiting professor."

His students think highly of him, too. Jaclyn Pino, a student of McKinnell, said he’s thorough in his lectures compared to other professors who only give the basics.

McKinnell looks for enthusiasm in his students. A good student should have the ability to think for themselves and have the ability to write well without putting in too much jargon he said. He has been enjoying the American teaching scene, and all that New Mexico has to offer.

“When I can get out of Albuquerque, I’m enjoying the landscape and the space in New Mexico,” he said.

“Things I haven’t been enjoying-I haven’t been able to hire a car all the time,” he said. “We’ve rented a car for weekends, but that’s all." McKinnell said, “I do find it a bit irksome getting about because the public transport system has been a bit basic, but I don’t have much to complain about.”

McKinnell said he walks 40 minutes to school.

“It’s very good for me, I don’t usually get enough exercise,” McKinnell said. “While I’ve been here I’ve lost a bit of weight. That’s not a bad thing."

He said he’s been enjoying the weather and has met a lot of people. The medieval post-graduate students sort of adopted him he said.

“They’re going to take me to a baseball game,” he said. “I’m looking forward to a baseball game. I’ve never seen a baseball game.” Actually, he said he doesn’t know much about American sports.

Soon, he will be heading back home. He intends to continue researching when he gets back to Durham in part because he wants to finish a number of projects. He plans on teaching part-time in Durham while researching and writing about pre-Christian religion.

After all this, some might think this guy is lucky. That is exactly how he describes himself.

“I think I’ve been lucky in a lot of ways, partly in my upbringing,” he said. “I don’t think I’m particularly clever, but I think that I have a shape of mind, that which is unusual."

Written May 1, 2008

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