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Medieval News- Medieval News Roundup: The Viking Facebook, drunken archaeologists, competitive jousting in Australia and ranting about Lancelot
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Iceland Archive
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Discovering Law: Hayekian Competition in Medieval Iceland
Posted on July 27, 2014 | No CommentsFrom the start, Icelandic society operated with well-developed concepts of private property and law, but, in an unusual combination, it lacked most of the formal institutions of government which normally protect ownership and enforce judicial decisions -
From Old Norse to Modern Icelandic
Posted on July 1, 2014 | No CommentsThus the language spoken and written in Iceland today is quite close to what has been called Old Norse, such as it appears in the medieval texts. -
Demonic Magic in the Icelandic Wizard Legends
Posted on June 25, 2014 | No CommentsSaemund Sigfusson is the earliest of the Icelandic wizards. According to the annals he was born in the year 1056. He was educated in France and returned to Iceland in 1076 or 1078. -
Climatic Change and the North Atlantic Seaways During the Norse Expansion
Posted on June 24, 2014 | No CommentsIn order to appreciate how the Norse expansion might have been influenced by climatic fluctuations it is necessary to consider in outline the mechanisms which control weather and climate in the North Atlantic area at the present day, and which also obtained in the past. -
Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland
Posted on June 22, 2014 | No CommentsThe name Surtshellir means, variously, the ‘Black Cave’ or the ‘Cave of Surtur’,a powerful fire giant according to norse mythology. Surtshellir is mentioned several times in icelandic medieval literature and seems to have been well-known as a threatening place, inhabited by giants or outlaws. -
A Grave Revisited: On Grave Robbery in Viking Age Iceland
Posted on June 14, 2014 | No CommentsAre they broken into for social or religious reason or perhaps for simpler reasons of plunder? -
The King in Disguise: An International Popular Tale in Two Old Icelandic Adaptations
Posted on May 27, 2014 | No CommentsThe following essay is intended as a contribution to the current reassessment of the rela- tionship of Old Icelandic saga literature to the European mainstream and of the ways of literary tradition in dealing with oral sources. -
Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol
Posted on May 26, 2014 | No CommentsWith a population of almost 10,000, Bristol was later medieval England’s second or third biggest urban place, and the realm’s second port after London. While not particularly large or wealthy in comparison with the great cities of northern Italy, Flanders or the Rhineland, it was a metropolis in the context of the British Isles. -
Primstav and Apocalypse Time and its Reckoning in Medieval Scandinavia
Posted on May 22, 2014 | No CommentsThis work is intended as an exploration of methods of time-reckoning and conception in Medieval Scandinavia. In the main this is tied to the dynamism between a duality: that of the cyclical and linear models of time‟s progression. Involved in this study are sources verbal and pictoral. -
Seals and Sea Ice in Medieval Greenland
Posted on May 5, 2014 | No CommentsWith a view to placing such developments in the context of changes in the past, the focus of this paper is an interdisciplinary study of the interaction of different seal species in Arctic/North Atlantic regions with sea ice, and, more specifically, the implications for the Norse settlements in Greenland in medieval times. -
Island Words, Island Worlds: The Origins and Meanings of Words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe
Posted on May 5, 2014 | No CommentsThis paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and world- views. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languages in North and West Europe are then discussed. -
From Asset in War to Asset in Diplomacy: Orkney in the Medieval Realm of Norway
Posted on May 5, 2014 | No CommentsThis paper looks at how Orkney figured in Norwegian royal strategies in the west and presents key examples which show its transition from a tool of war to a forum for peace. -
Enabling Love: Dwarfs in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances
Posted on April 27, 2014 | No CommentsMany of these romances deal not merely with love and adventure but also with dwarfs. But how do dwarfs fit in with the romantic idealism of these narratives? What exactly is their function? -
Leiðarvísir: Its Genre and Sources, with Particular Reference to the Description of Rome
Posted on April 13, 2014 | No CommentsFor the last two centuries, Leiðarvísir has been the subject of great interest by scholars from a variety of disciplines: not only Old Norse scholars, but also historians, geographers, toponymists and scholars of pilgrimage have studied and analysed this work. -
Auðun of the West Fjords and the Saga Tradition: Similarities of Theme and Structural Suitability
Posted on April 5, 2014 | No CommentsThis paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a þáttr dating from the Sturlunga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas in terms of their mutual concerns with kings, peace, and the place of Iceland in a larger Christian world. -
The Process of State-Formation in Medieval Iceland
Posted on March 22, 2014 | No CommentsThe aim of this article is to analyze the process of state-formation in Iceland in light of some general models of state-formation in Europe in the Middle Ages. -
All the King’s Men: Icelandic Skalds at Scandinavian Court
Posted on March 10, 2014 | No CommentsSpanning the gap between Iceland and mainland Scandinavia and sitting somewhere between freemen and nobility on the social scale were Icelandic court skalds, who frequented courts on the mainland throughout the Viking Age. -
Accepting Fools as Heroes
Posted on March 10, 2014 | No CommentsWhat sociocultural attitudes towards the intellectually disabled – commonly referred to as fools – were prevalent during the Viking Age? -
Enter the Dragon: Legendary Saga Courage and the Birth of the Hero
Posted on March 9, 2014 | No CommentsWhat is the dragon to Sigurðr? His attitude is interestingly nonchalant. The question arises, Who is Sigurðr the dragon-slayer? Why is he the best person to kill the dragon? And furthermore, why is the dragon important to the hero? -
Textual Efflorescence and Social Resources: Notes on Mediaeval Iceland
Posted on February 21, 2014 | No CommentsThe overt double function of culture traits and products, namely instrumental- ity and symbolicity, which may be explicit in some elements, often remains hidden for other ones. -
Gunnhildur and the male whores
Posted on February 15, 2014 | No CommentsQueen Gunnhildur is one of the most evil Norwegian female characters in the Middle Ages. She appears in many old stories where she is usually the female agent for ill in the sagas; she is wicked, promiscuous and very often skilled in magical arts. -
The Colors of the Rainbow in Snorri’s Edda
Posted on February 4, 2014 | No CommentsIn the second part of his Edda, the Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson gives a systematic account of Norse mythology from the creation of the world to its end. -
Sagas and politics in 13th century Borgarfjörður
Posted on February 2, 2014 | No CommentsWhy did the Icelanders write so much more than almost everybody else in the Middle Ages? This is an old problem that has still not been solved to everyone’s satisfaction. -
Filicide in Medieval Narrative
Posted on January 29, 2014 | No CommentsThese filicide episodes, regardless of origin, serve a dual purpose within their narratives, to captivate with gripping material and to educate through example. Patterns regarding victims and perpetrators transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries. -
Laxdæla Dreaming: A Saga Heroine Invents Her Own Life
Posted on January 25, 2014 | No CommentsAs palpably true as the interpretation is, even before the truth of Gestr's fourfold prophecy is confirmed by what follows, this dream narrative is not merely a symbolic illustration of the future. It raises many other questions, and in this paper I will discuss some of the ambiguities of GuQrun Osvifrsdottir and her four dreams.