Posts Tagged ‘Norse’

The historical importance of Viking-Age Waterford

The historical importance of Viking-Age Waterford

By Clare Downham

The Journal of Celtic Studies, Vol.4 (2004)

Introduction: The recent Viking-Age discoveries at Woodstown, near Waterford, in the Irish province of Munster, have highlighted the need to assess the importance of Waterford as a viking-settlement in the ninth and tenth centuries. Mainly drawing on written sources, I set out in this paper to discuss: (a) the site of Woodstown and the origins of Waterford; (b) Waterford’s relationship with other vikingsettlements in Ireland and (c) links with neighbouring Irish polities; (d) Waterford’s economic significance; and finally, (e) the external contacts of the port. I shall restrict my analysis to the years before A.D. 1035 when Waterford was ruled by viking-kings.

In Ireland, the Viking-Age is conventionally dated from the first recorded viking-raids in 795 until the Angevin invasion of 1171/2. The enduring contribution of these centuries is the foundation of major Irish ports – including Waterford, Dublin, and Limerick – which brought Ireland into closer contact with viking-colonies throughout Europe. The nature of vikings’ impact on Irish history is still hotly debated, and it is hoped that further research at Woodstown will shed new light on this formative period of Irish history.

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10 Apr 2010
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The Battle of Clontarf in Irish History and Legend

The Battle of Clontarf in Irish History and Legend

By Clare Downham

History Ireland, Vol. 13 No.5 (2005)

Introduction: The battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday (23 April) 1014, is one of the most famous events in Irish history. In this conflict the forces of the Munster over-king Brian Boru and his allies were pitched against the armies of north Leinster, Dublin, and viking mercenaries and allies from across the sea. The event has been popularly portrayed as a struggle between the forces of good and evil. Brian has been regarded as a national hero, a ruler who rose from relative obscurity to unite Ireland briefly under his rule. He has been seen as a paragon of Christian leadership, who struggled against all odds to rid Ireland from the perils of conquest by pagan vikings. He won the battle, but made the ultimate sacrifice in losing his life while praying for victory.

Like all good stories, this stereotypical account of the battle is a blend of fact and fiction. Clontarf was undoubtedly a significant event. Nevertheless, the celebration of this event in literature, over the centuries, is a fascinating topic in its own right. We can perceive in accounts of the battle how national identities are developed through historical myths, the sense of a shared past, and the development of common hopes for the future. As political developments bring different national interests to the fore, so historical narratives are often remoulded to suit current affairs.

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10 Apr 2010
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Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change, Trade, and The Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands

Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change, Trade, and The Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands

By Andrew J. Dugmore, Christian Keller, and Thomas H. McGovern

Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2007)

Abstract: Changing economies and patterns of trade, rather than climatic deterioration, could have critically marginalized the Norse Greenland settlements and effectively sealed their fate. Counter-intuitively, the end of Norse Greenland might not be symptomatic of a failure to adapt to environmental change, but a consequence of successful wider economic developments of Norse communities across North Atlantic. Data from Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and medieval Iceland is used to explore the interplay of Norse society with climate, environment, settlement, and other circumstances. Long term increases in vulnerability caused by economic change and cumulative climate changes sparked a cascading collapse of integrated interdependent settlement systems, bringing the end of Norse Greenland.

Introduction: At a time when the effects of global climate change can be seen to be taking place, there is a pressing need to assess how these might affect human society.  The extent to which climate changes exacerbate environmental degradation, drive settlement collapse, cause famine, spur migrations, or trigger conflict over resources has received widespread attention. It is clear that climate change, and the weather it produces, can have a wide range of impacts, many negative, some positive, but all with the potential to affect human security.

Crucially, however, opinions differ as to the importance to human societies of climate on its own and in comparison to unrelated processes of social, political, and economic change. Furthermore, even if climate change can be shown to have produced a direct impact (for instance crop failure or livestock mortality), perhaps the most important question of all is why people do not (or cannot) adapt and either avoid or mitigate the bad effects of the weather.

As with so many other environmentally related issues that cut across disciplinary boundaries, assessments of relative emphasis, sensitivity, thresholds, adaptation, and response are vital. This paper reconsiders the case of Norse Greenland and the end of the settlements in the early part of the Little Ice Age. For this iconic example of settlement desertion widely associated with climate change and an inability to adapt, the paper explores both the nature of climate change and unrelated economic factors that may have played crucial if not dominant roles in determining the ultimate fate of the Norse Greenlanders.

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3 Apr 2010
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The Viking Mind, or In Pursuit of the Viking

The Viking Mind, or In Pursuit of the Viking

By Anthony Faulkes

Saga Book of the Viking Society, Vol.31 (2007)

Introduction: Historians and archaeologists over the last two generations have changed our perceptions of the Viking Age and have drawn people’s attention to less destructive and more creative activities than rape and pillage, such as their trading and settlements both in new countries like Iceland and in already settled countries like Britain and France, where they had a great effect on the culture, organisation, law and language of the local populations, an effect that was not always deleterious and may in many respects be seen as having been beneficial. The Viking exhibitions that were held by various museums in the second half of the twentieth century emphasised the peaceful side of the Vikings, as traders, craftsmen, shipbuilders; and archaeologists and anthropologists have radically changed our understanding of what Vikings were like, showing us that their culture was not just destructive and chaotic, but ordered and creative. Vikings are now seen as having made a positive and valuable contribution to the development of western civilisation. This view is encapsulated particularly in the title of Peter Foote and David Wilson’s book, The Viking Achievement (1970).

Literary historians and theorists have also changed our perceptions of the Viking Age. Archaeology can only show us the objects and artefacts made and used by Vikings, and illuminating though these objects are for a proper understanding of the nature of the Vikings, it is to literary sources that we must go to find a representation of what went on in their minds. The interpretation of literary sources about the Vikings is, however, problematic; they conflict with each other and all contain various kinds of bias, so that the truth about the Vikings is difficult, probably impossible, to recover. Indeed structuralists and other literary and historical theorists warn us that there may not be a simple truth to discover about the past and about the meaning of literary sources.

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25 Mar 2010
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Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display At the Viking Settlement of Hofstaðir, Iceland

Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display At the Viking Settlement of Hofstaðir, Iceland

By Gavin Lucas and Thomas McGovern

European Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2007)

Abstract: This article attempts an interpretation of an unusual assemblage of cattle skulls recovered from recent excavations at the Viking Age monumental hall of Hofstaðir in Iceland. Osteological analysis of the skulls indicates ritual decapitation and display of cattle heads, and this article seeks to explore the meanings of this practice in relation to the context of the site and the wider historical and ethnographic literature. It is argued that the beheading of cattle and display of their heads was a part of sacrificial acts conducted on a seasonal basis at the site, and primarily in the context of feasting and socio-political gatherings. The gatherings acted simultaneously as a means of both dissipating social tension and enhancing political status.

Introduction: Recent excavations at the tenth-century Viking settlement of Hofstaðir in northeastern Iceland have recovered a minimum of 23 individual cattle skulls which display a range of unusual contextual, taphonomic and butchery characteristics. The site itself is also highly unusual because of the size of its main hall and the place name, which together might indicate it was a pagan cult-site. The conjunction of these features forms the subject of this article, which considers the problem of how to interpret the site and, in particular, the assemblage of skulls associated with it. It will be argued that seasonal acts of ritual slaughter occurred which were entwined with social gatherings in the context of feasting; moreover, the highly bloody nature of the slaughter will be emphasized as a key element to understanding the specific link to the socio-political nature of the gathering, underlining its broader importance rather than a narrowly religious interpretation.

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23 Mar 2010
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The Viking Age: Ireland and the West

The Viking Age: Ireland and the West – Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 2005

Edited by John Sheehan and Donnchadh Ó Corráin
Four Courts Press, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84682-101-1

The relationship of Ireland with the Viking World is one of the enduring themes of the study of the Viking Age. The Fifteenth Viking Congress addressed key issues in the debate, including viking-age Ireland, the colonization of the North Atlantic, weapons and warfare, and the development of urbanism.

This book, comprising papers by more than fifty of the world’s leading Viking specialists, presents a broad range of ideas and approaches to these studies, supported by archaeological, historical, literary and linguistic evidence.

Based on the Fifteenth Viking Congress, which took place in Cork in 2005, this publication may be regarded as a quinennial review of Viking Studies by its leading proponents.

Contents

Conversion and the Church in Viking-Age Ireland – Lesley Abrams

Runic inscriptions and Viking-Age Ireland – Michael Barnes & Jan Ragnar Hagland

The Dunmore Cave [2] hoard and the role of coins in the tenth-century
Hiberno-Scandinavian economy – Kristin Bornholdt Collins

Ragnarök and the stones of York – Paul C. Buckland

Unsung heroes: the Irish and the Viking wars- Howard B. Clarke

Peaceful wars and scientific invaders: Irishmen, Vikings and palynological evidence for the earliest settlement of the Faroe Islands – Kevin J. Edwards & Douglas B. Borthwick

Laithlinn, ‘Fair Foreigners’ and ‘Dark Foreigners’: the identity and provenance of Vikings in ninth-century Ireland – Colmán Etchingham

Place-names as evidence for urban settlements in Britain in the Viking Period – Gillian Fellows-Jensen

Ribe: continuity or discontinuity from the eighth to the twelfth century? – Claus Feveile

Norwegian crosses in the Hebrides and Shetland? – Ian Fisher

Late Viking-Age runestones in Uppland: some gender aspects – Anne-Sofie Gräslund

Weapons and warfare in Viking-Age Ireland – Andrew Halpin

The Suffolk Street sword: further notes on the College Green cemetery, Dublin – Stephen H. Harrison

Who were the Papar? Typological structures in Íslendingabók- Pernille Hermann

Viking elements in Irish towns: Cork and Waterford -Maurice F. Hurley

The warrior ideal in the Late Viking Age – Judith Jesch

The Vikings in Conemara – Eamonn Kelly

Dotted runes: where did they come from? – James E. Knirk

Kirkwall revisited – Raymond Lamb

Viking-Age and Norse poetry in the Hebrides – Alan M. Lane

Viking-Age queens and the formation of identity – Shannon Lewis-Simpson

The ledung and the continuity of warfare from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages: the example of Sweden – Thomas Lindkvist

The baptism of Harald Bluetooth- Niels Lund

King Magnus Bareleg’s adventures in the West: the making of a King’s Saga- Else Mundal

Urbanism and Christianity in Norway- Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide

Rebuiling the ‘city of angels’: Muirchertach Ua Briain and Glendalough, c.1096–1111 – Tomás Ó Carragáin

Culture clashes? The human remains from the Wood Quay excavations- Barra O’Donnabhain

Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West Iceland -Guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas McGovern

Women in early towns -Ingvild Ǿye

Bridging the distribution gap: inscribed swords from Denmark – Anne Pedersen

Ninth-century Viking entries in the Irish annals: no ‘forty years’ rest’ – Emer Purcell

The metal detector and the Viking Age in England – Julian D. Richards & John Naylor

From Scandinavia to Spain: a Viking-Age reliquary in León and its meaning- Else Roesdahl

The sagas and courtly love- Daniel Sävborg

Life and death among the Picts and Vikings at Westness- Berit J. Sellevold

Colonel Sempronius Stretton and the reprovenancing of a Viking-Age hoard- John Sheehan

Weapons and warfare in Icelandic place-names- Svavar Sigmundsson

The Finglas burial: archaeology and ethnicity in Viking-Age Dublin – Maeve Sikora

The first phase of Viking activity in Ireland: archaeological evidence from Dublin – Linzi Simpson

Close ties and long-range relations: the emporia network in early Viking-Age exchange – Søren M. Sindbæck

Ailikn’s wagon and Óðinn’s warriors: the picture son the Gotlandic Andre monuments- Þórgunmur Snædal

Ulfberht revisited: a classification – Anne Stalsberg

Toftanes and the early Christianity of the Faroe Islands – Steffen Stummann Hansen

Cosmic aspects of sanctuaries in Viking-Age Scandinavia with comparisons to the West-Slavic area – Olof Sundqvist

The making of a centre: the case of Reykhold, Iceland – Guðrún Sveinbjarnardóttir

Ethnicity and class in settlement-period Iceland – Orri Vésteinsson

Hedeby, the settlement and the harbour: old data and recent research – Claus von Carnap-Bornheim, Volker Hilberg, Scen Kalmring & Joachim Schultze

Plot-use and access in an eleventh-century Dublin building level – Patrick F. Wallace

On eið-names in Orkney and other North Atlantic islands – Doreen Waugh

Textiles that work for their living: a late eleventh-century cloth from Cork, Ireland – Elizabeth Wincott Heckett

13 Mar 2010
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The Vikings in the East : a Survey of Settlement, Trade and Military Activity c.700 – 1100

The Vikings in the East : a Survey of Settlement, Trade and Military Activity c.700 – 1100

By D.A.F.  Adams

MA Thesis, University of Canterbury, 1988

Abstract: This thesis surveys three principal Scandinavian activities during the period from 700 to 1100 – those of settlement, trade and military activity – in the regions east of the Baltic Sea. As secondary sources debate the origin and ethnicity of the people known as the Rus mentioned by the primary literary sources and identified with Swedish Vikings, the philological arguments for the derivation of the name and the source material supporting the Scandinavian identity of the Rus are initially discussed.

In examining colonising activities, much attention has been paid to the archaeological evidence (supported by literary sources) indicating Scandinavian settlement in the region of North Russia. This is essentially an examination of burial sites and Norse burial practices and rituals. The tradition of the foundation of the first Russian State by Varangian warriors centred initially at Novgorod and shifting to Kiev in the ninth century is also discussed. The development of commerce from the pre-Viking period deals with trade-routes, wares and modes of travel. There is a division along the lines of trade with the Muslims and that with the Byzantines. To some extent, this is divided by the source material, numismatic evidence for Muslim commerce and literary for trade with the Byzantines.

My final chapter examines the Norse warrior tradition, their weapons and tactics. A discussion of the great raids on Constantinople and in the Caspian region based primarily on the written accounts of Byzantine and Muslim authors forms the basis of the last chapter. A brief account of the development of the Varangian Guard and some of the personalities associated with it completes that chapter. My overall conclusions then follow.

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24 Feb 2010
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Saga and East Scandinavia: Preprint papers of The 14th International Saga Conference

Saga and East Scandinavia: Preprint papers of The 14th International Saga Conference

Edited by Agneta Ney, Henrik Williams and Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist

Gävle: Gävle University Press, 2009

In August 2009, Uppsala University hosted the 14th International Saga Conference. Papers from the conference have now been made available online and can be downloaded as PDF files in two parts:

Part 1 – pages 1 to 550

Part 2 – pages 551 to 1081

Here is a list of English-language papers which have been published in full in this volume:

Part 1

Karelia, Finland and Austrvegr, by Sirpa Aalto and Ville Laakso

Dancing Images from Medieval Iceland, by Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir

Outlaws, women and violence. In the social margins of saga literature, by Joonas Ahola

The Formation of the Kings’ Sagas, by Theodore M. Andersson

Why be afraid? On the practical uses of legends, by Ármann Jakobsson

Writing origins: the development of communal identity in some Old Norse foundation-myths and their analogues in Guta saga, by Robert Avis

Individuality and Iconography: Jakob Sigurðsson’s Renderings of Codex Upsaliensis f.26v, by Patricia A. Baer

St. Óláfr and his Enemies in the Saga Tradition, by Sverre Bagge

“Gofuct dýr ec heiti”: Deer Symbolism in Sigurðr Fáfnisbani?, by Massimiliano Bampi

Muslims in Karlamagnúss saga and Elíss saga ok Rósamundar, by Bjørn Bandlien

Byzantium in the riddarasögur, by Geraldine Barnes

The World West of Iceland in Medieval Icelandic Oral Tradition, by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough

What do the norns actually do?, by Karen Bek-Pedersen

Ásmund á austrvega: The Faroese Oral Tradition on Ásmund and its Relation to the Icelandic Saga, by Chiara Benati

The ‘Other’ and the Noble Heathen: Ambiguous Representations of Grettir and Finnbogi, by Lisa Bennett

The Good, the Bad and the Devil! On rewriting a Religious Motif in some Virgin Martyr Legends, by Kjersti Bruvoll

Negotiations of Space and Gender in Brennu-Njáls Saga, by Katrina Burge

The Secret Lives of Lawspeakers: the portrayal of lögsögumenn in the Íslendingasögur, by Hannah Burrows

Vatnsdoela saga and Onomastics: the case of Ingimundr Þorsteinsson, by Jörg Büschgens

Sagas and Archaeology in the Mosfell Valley, Iceland, by Jesse L. Byock

An Icelandic Genesis, by Betsie A.M. Cleworth

Poets and Ethnicity, by Margaret Clunies Ross

Passing Time and the Past in Grettis Saga Ásmundarsonar, by Jamie Cochrane

Editing the Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, by Matthew J. Driscoll

Anatomies off the Map: “Secret and distant freaks” and the Authorization of Identity in Medieval Icelandic and Irish Literature, by Amy Eichhorn-Mulligan

Which came first – the smith or the shaman? Volundarkviða, craftspeople and central place complexes, by Leif Einarson

Love affairs versus Social Status: A Theme in Kormáks saga?, by Elín Bára Magnúsdóttir

The ethical map of the Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, by Alexey Eremenko

Reception and function of stories about the East, by Stefka G. Eriksen

From saga to Chronicle: Motif Migration inside Medieval Scandinavia, by Fulvio Ferrari

Narrative Trajectories between Nodal Points in the Cultural Landscape – The Eriksgata of King Ingjald, by Svante Fischer

Snorri Sturluson and oral traditions, by Frog

The Good, the Bad and the Undead: New Thoughts on the Ambivalence of Old Norse Sorcery, by Leszek Gardeła

Sensory deceptions. Concepts of mediality in the Prose Edda, by Jürg Glauser

On the Reception of Eastern Europe in Pre-Literate Iceland, by Galina Glazyrina

Saintly Exile: the commemoration of King Óláfr inn helgi in the poetry of Heimskringla, by Erin Goeres

Recreating Tradition: Sigvatr Þórðarson’s Víkingarvísur and Óttarr svarti’s Hofuðlausn, by Jonathan Grove

Alternative criteria for the dating of the sagas of Icelanders, by Guðrún Nordal

Ansgar’s Conversion of Iceland, by Terry Gunnell

Egill Skalla-Grímssonr on the Library Site in Trondheim?, by Jan Ragnar Hagland

More inroads to pre-Christian notions, after all? The potential of late evidence, by Eldar Heide

A Short Report from the Project on Codex Upsaliensis of Snorra Edda, by Heimir Pálsson

Law recital according to Old Icelandic law: Written evidence of oral transmission?, by Helgi Skúli Kjartansson

Hjarta sjónir. Ekphrasis and medium in Líknarbraut, by Kate Heslop

The Herjólfr Legend from Härjedalen and Its Resemblances to the Stories of Landnámabók, by Olof Holm

Sörla saga sterka and Rafn’s edition, by Silvia Hufnagel

Odin – an immigrant in Scandinavia?, by Anders Hultgård

The Gosforth Fishing-Stone and Hymiskviða: An Example of Inter-Communicability between the Old English and Old Norse Speakers, by Tsukusu Itó

Aldeigjuborg of the sagas in the light of archaeological data, by Tatjana N. Jackson

The Sea-Kings of Litla Skálda, by Judith Jesch

Royal Women and the Friðgerðarsaga Episode, by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

Biörner’s edition of the Friðþjófs saga ins froekna, by Vera Johanterwage

Where Old West and Old East Norse literature meet. A project outline, by Regina Jucknies

Sweden of the Sagas, by Kári Gíslason

Sweden and the Swedes in English language surveys of the Viking period, by John Kennedy

Celtic and Continental handicraft traditions; Template use on Gotlandic Picture Stones analysed by 3D-scanning, by Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt

When small words make a big difference: On adaptation and transmission of texts in Late Medieval
manuscripts, by Elise Kleivane

Rune stones and Saga, by Lydia Klos

Sverris saga in Uppsala De la Gardie 3, by James E. Knirk

When was the Battle of Helgeå?, by Annette Kruhøffer

Frithjof and Röde Orm: Two Swedish Viking impersonations, by Hans Kuhn

Part 2

Mirrors of the Self – Deconstructing Bipolarity in the Late Icelandic Romances, by Hendrik Lambertus

Troll and Ethnicity in Egils saga, by Paul S. Langeslag

Stjúpmoeðrasögur and Sigurðr’s Daughters, by Carolyne Larrington

Scribal Presence in Eggertsbók and Modern Editorial Attitudes, by Emily Lethbridge

Gendered memory – Rune stones, early Christian grave monuments and the Sagas, by Cecilia Ljung

The Gutnic runkalender and the ancient system of time calculus, by Maria Cristina Lombardi

Óðinn’s Role as a Guarantor of Law and Order in Norse Texts, by Lorenzo Lozzi Gallo

Royal Descent from Odin, by Emily Lyle

“Archaic” Assonance in the Strophes of Ragnarr Loðbróks Family and Other Early Skalds, by Mikael Males

The kauphús of Peter the Apostle in leiðarvísir: A Market or a Scribal Error?, by Tommaso Marani

Kenn mér réttan veg til þess kastala er Artús konungr sitr í: References to Kingship in the Old French Conte du Graal and its Old Norse and Middle English Adaptations, by Suzanne Marti

The Valtari story in Þidriks Saga af Bern: sources and parallels, by Inna Matyushina

Overcoming Óðinn: the Conversion Episode in Njáls saga, by Bernadine McCreesh

Alu and hale II: ‘May Thor bless’, by Bernard Mees

Óláfr soenski and his skalds in Old Norse tradition, by Jakub Morawiec

Time-reckoning, ritual time and the symbolism of numbers in Adam of Bremen’s account of the great sacrifice in Old Uppsala, by Andreas Nordberg

Imagining the Kalmar union: Nordic politics as viewed from a late 15th-century Icelandic manuscript, by Hans Jacob Orning

Runic Literacy and Viking-age Orality, by Rune Palm

West Slavic toponyms in Knýtlinga saga: orthographic adaptations or orthographic mistakes?, by Aleksandra Petrulevich

The East as a Model for the West: Translation Method and Aims in Alexanders saga, by Jonatan Pettersson

Hair Loss, the Tonsure, and Masculinity in Medieval Iceland, by Carl Phelpstead

The Thidrekssaga and the birth of the first Russian state, by Alessio Piccinini

Suffering a sea-change: poetic justice in Egill’s Sonatorrek, by Debbie Potts

Betrothal and betrayal: the eddic tradition’s treatment of Sigurðr, by Judy Quinn

Grettir the Deep: Traditional Referentiality and Characterisation in the Íslendingasögur, by Slavica Ranković

The women and Óðinn, by Margareta Regebro

A Hagiographical Reading of Egils saga, by Philip Roughton

Coming to Grips with the Beast, by Carrie Roy

Brenna at UpsÄlum: the Denial of Cosmos., by Giovanna Salvucci

The “Wild East” in Late Medieval Icelandic Romances – Just a Prop(p)?, by Werner Schäfke

Man as the Measure of All Things: The Relationship Between Mankind and the Gods in Eddic Wisdom Poetry, by Brittany Schorn

Germanic alliteration and oral theory, by Michael Schulte

Saga Accounts of Violence-motivated Far-travel, by John Shafer

Per sortes ac per equum. Lot-casting and hippomancy in the North after saga narratives and medieval chronicles, by Leszek P. Słupecki

Fornaldarsögur and the concept of literacy, by Terje Spurkland

Aspects of editing skaldic verse: The case of Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, by Rolf Stavnem

Sigurðr Fáfnisbani as commemorative motif, by Marjolein Stern

Is Óðinn really ‘alles fader’?, by Mathias Strandberg

Though this be madness, yet there’s method in’t: aspects of word order in skaldic kennings, by Ilya V. Sverdlov

Centre and Periphery in Icelandic Medieval Discourse, by Sverrir Jakobsson

The Versions of Böglunga saga, by Þorleifur Hauksson

Magic in sagas: the curses of Katla and Glámr, by Bernt Øyvind Thorvaldsen

Earl Hákon of Orkney’s Journey to Sweden, by Maria-Claudia Tomany

“Ærið gott gömlum og feigum.” Seeking death in Njáls saga, by Torfi H. Tulinius

Sturla the trickster, by Úlfar Bragason

The Genealogies of West-Icelandic Family Sagas and their relation to the Sturlung family, by Jens Ulff-Møller

From the History of the Obscene: Evident and concealed meanings of the nickname Þambarskelfir, by Fjodor Uspenskij

Hrólfs saga kraka – A History of Editing, by Tereza Vachunová

The Archaeological Material Culture behind the Sagas, by Helena Victor

The reproduction of Old Icelandic close front rounded vowels (, <ý> and ) in a 17th c. manuscript (AM 105 fol) of a part of Hauksbók (AM 371 4to), by Francesco Vitti

Further Remarks on Ohthere’s Beormas, by Vilmos Voigt

Estranged Bedfellows: Saga Scholarship and Archaeological Research in Iceland, by Elisabeth Ida Ward

Kormáks saga and the naming of Scarborough – a likely story?, by Diana Whaley

The Development of Skaldic Language, by Tarrin Wills

Parody and genre in sagas of Icelanders, by Kendra Willson

Towards a Diachronic Analysis of Old Norse-Icelandic Color Terms: The Cases of Green and Yellow, by Kirsten Wolf

Kenning construal as a criterion for the stemmatic analysis of the Codex Upsaliensis in the transmission of Snorra Edda, by Bryan Weston Wyly

Hildibrandr húnakappi and Ásmundr kappabani in Icelandic sagas and Faroese ballads, by Yelena Sesselja Helgadóttir-Yershova

Håkon Jarl Ivarsson and Roðr, by Torun Zachrisson

On the symbiosis of orality and literacy in some Christian rune stone inscriptions, by Kristel Zilmer

12 Feb 2010
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Viking Expansion Northwards: Mediaeval Sources

Viking Expansion Northwards: Mediaeval Sources

By Tette Hofstra and Kees Samplonius

Arctic, Vol.48, No. 3 (1995)

Abstract: Evidence for Scandinavian activities in the northwestern part of the Barents Sea is scanty; according to the Annals, Svalbari was discovered in 1194, but the entry refers to Jan Mayen rather than present-day Svalbard/Spitsbergen. By contrast, the southern fringe of the Barents Sea was more than once crossed by Vikings on their way to Bjarmaland (Russia) in the White Sea area. As early as the end of the ninth century, an Old English source tells of a Norse expedition to that area and Old Norse sources indicate the existence of trade links back to the tenth century, possibly even earlier. The commodities traded and levied were tusks, precious furs and skins. The trade, also with the nearby Sami, was controlled by Norse chieftains living on the coast south of Tromsø, who competed for power with the kings of Norway. Both kings and chieftains were involved in the Bjarmaland expeditions, as can be seen from historical sources and from fiction. A final expedition took place in 1222. The trips to Bjarmaland did not lead to correct ideas about the geography of the Barents Sea area as a whole. Firm knowledge was limited, leaving room for superstition and learned speculations, such as a land-bridge to Greenland and a race of arctic giants, thought to live somewhere north of Bjarmaland. As to the Barents Sea proper, the sources reflect problems with sailing.

Introduction: The Vikings—that is the expanding Scandinavians from the end of the eighth century onwards—were renowned for the skill in sailing that they displayed in large parts of Europe. The Barents Sea area certainly was within the scope of some mediaeval Scandinavians, for Halogaland in northern Norway was settled by Norwegians, and Finnmark (Old Norse Finnmörk) seems to have been visited frequently by them . Sailing was a common way of travelling, and it appears that at least the southwestern shore of the Barents Sea was known to them.

This paper intends to give an impression of the way in which the Norsemen moved north and penetrated the arctic waters. First we discuss some of the written mediaeval sources that are related to Arctic Norway and the Barents Sea area, and look for some general pattern. Next we compare our findings with those of archaeological research, and look at the recent social anthropological approach. As we are primarily concerned with written sources, these two last disciplines are used only as auxiliaries. In a final section we look at the mediaeval speculation with respect to the area, such as the notion of a north-continent and the occurrence of fabulous creatures.

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1 Feb 2010
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Vikings raids on the Spanish Peninsula

Vikings raids on the Spanish Peninsula

By Rolf Scheen

Militaria: Revista de cultura militar, No.8 (1996)

Introduction: The Muslims described «heathens» as Majus. The name Majus – Magians was originally used of the Zoroastrians. It was then extended to other unbelievers, together with the associations of the term — e. g. incest and fire-worship. Again, the Muslims of the west described Spaniards who remained Christian as adjam, that is «Persians»— a term used in the east for non-Arab muslims, usually of Persian origin.

Among the Muslims of the west the same name was applied to the heathen Scandinavians who were believed to be fireworshippers. The great fire festivais of northern Europe (which were not confined to Seandinavia), or even the seasonal burning of the heather, may have suggested this Magian connotation. In later Arab sources the name al-Ordomaníyun is used; it is borrowed from Latin forms Normanni, Nordmanni, Lordomanni, Lormanes, Leodomanni.

As Shetelig observes, the forms of «Norman» are of Norwegian origin. «The classical example is to be found in Alfred’s writings from about 880-890, when the Norwegian Ottar is his source on this matter. Ottar speaks of the whole country, from Vestfold to Finnmark, as being «Nordmanna land» or «Nordweg». It is of interest that while the Saxons were fighting the Danes, both Alfred and AEthelstan had Norwegians in the royal circle.

In Byzantine and Russian sources the names Ros, Rus’ were applied to Scandinavians, mostly of Swedish origin, who had penetrated down the rivers of Eastern Europe and who founded the city of Novgorod. Sometimes the chronicles preserve specific regional names; as Westfaldingi, Norwegians from Vestfold, round the Oslo fjord.

But in general the chronicles are seldom specific and often inaccurate. In referring to the Viking attacks, the Annals of Ulster call the invaders Genti («gentiles»); «the Four Masters» who compited the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, use the term Gailí («foreigners»). And it was this Majus/gentiles/gailís who in 844 showed up in the Spanish peninsula.

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11 Jan 2010
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