The Scardigli award to Giorgio Basciu's for the Doctoral thesisWord Pairs and Other Syndetic Constructions in Old Norse Poetry (2025)

"Giorgio Basciu’s monograph, Word Pairs and Other Syndetic Constructions in Old Norse Poetry, presents an analysis of the use of poetic word pairs and other syndetic constructions in Old Norse verse. By developing a unified interpretative framework together with a detailed and carefully structured classification, the study succeeds in reconciling divergent descriptions found in previous scholarship. At the same time, it offers an innovative perspective on an ancient poetic device and on the compositional practices of Old Norse poets.

The volume thus challenges established paradigms and proposes a coherent interpretative model for a deeper understanding of syndetic constructions. It demonstrates how such expressions constituted a highly productive and versatile poetic resource, ranging from compact word pairs to broader and more complex structures extending across multiple lines of verse. In doing so, the study opens new avenues of research into the interaction of metre, syntax, and semantics within the alliterative traditions of the Germanic languages.

The corpus analysis is based on a methodologically innovative, rigorous, and clearly defined approach.

The corpus analysis is based on a methodologically innovative, rigorous, and clearly defined approach. The author applies established philological and linguistic methodologies with considerable critical awareness, while at the same time demonstrating notable scholarly maturity and interpretative insight.

Distinguished by the solidity of its scholarly foundations, the work arrives at original results that provide valuable points of departure for future research. For these reasons, the committee considers Giorgio Basciu’s monograph to be an outstanding scholarly achievement, particularly for its strong adherence to the methodological traditions of Germanic philology and linguistics.

The committee has therefore unanimously decided to award the 2026 Piergiuseppe Scardigli Prize to Dr Giorgio Basciu."

(The jury’s oral statement at the award ceremony, recorded and translated from Italian into Swedish by Giorgio Basciu with the help of AI.)