This is the story of one woman’s quest to answer these questions: From where and whom did Ralph Waldo Emerson first learn about the Scandinavian Vikings? In the words of Andrew Wawn, “The most fundamental Viking-Age belief was self reliance.” If Ralph Waldo Emerson was exposed to the mythical stories and historical actions of the Scandinavian Vikings early in life, could that mean that the origin of his Self-Reliance doctrine expressed in his lectures and writings was a direct result of knowing about these Nordic stories as a child? Elizabeth Scofield walks the reader through her 1993-2006 journey from the West Coast of the United States to Roskilde, Denmark, then to Cambridge, Massachusetts with the aim of answering these questions. Tracing evidence from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s published lectures, handwritten journal entries at Houghton Library, and marginalia discovered within the volumes of family books at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, Ms. Scofield opens up new questions as to the possible true source of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s concept of Self-Reliance.
Janaway Publishing, 2021. Paperback, 200pp.

"Elizabeth Scofield blends two themes in this study—one a rarely heard personal narrative of experience as a graduate student researcher, the other her conclusions about the Nordic influence on Emerson’s self-reliance. The latter focus is new in Emerson studies. Scholars know of the mythic reach of his prose—from the gods and heroes of Greece and Rome to those of Asia. But what of Odin and Eric the Red as figures in his journals and essays? Scofield builds a case for this lore as early learning for Emerson, a heritage of reading that she discovers from books that still survive in his family home at Concord’s Old Manse". -Phyllis Cole, Professor Emerita of English, Women's Studies, and American Studies at Penn State Brandywine