Where the Middle Ages Begin
This article grew out of a project with our drama students at Bergen University College, Norway, in December 2002. I wanted to introduce the students to pre-Christian roots of Yule, and to give them an historical introduction to extant dramatic/ritual Christmas customs in our country.
Ships, Fogs, and Traveling Pairs: Plague Legend Migration in Scandinavia By Timothy R. Tangherlini Journal of American Folklore, Vol.101 (1988) Abstract: This article examines the various forms the plague assumes in the legend traditions of Scandinavia. Eight new legend types are proposed in an effort to expand the existing type-index to more adequately describe the […]
The Familiar and the Fantastic A Study of Contemporary High Fantasy in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen Vike, Magnus M.A. Thesis (Foreign Languages) The University of Bergen, May 15 (2009) Abstract This thesis deals with fantasy as a literary genre, as well as its […]
Scholars from the University of Cambridge have concluded that sea fishing in northwest Europe was more locally-based than previously believed. By using skulls of cod fish, the Medieval Origins of Commercial Sea Fishing Project was able to determine that the majority of fish catches in the 10th and 11th centuries in England were from waters […]
Perpetuus Rex Norvegiae and Pyratarum Dux: Olaf Haraldsson’s Conversion of Norway and The Presence of Norman Power in Northern Europe By Rachael Kerrigan Ex Post Facto, Vol.18 (2009) Introduction: Gladly I saw the glorious / Gold-ring-dealer’s men there / Busked in cold steel byrnie- / Bated not the sword-din; / But my black hair hid […]
In accordance with the Icelandic sagas’ tendency to show rather than tell, it is rare for saga characters to say explicitly what motivates them to travel from their homes in Scandinavia and Iceland to distant lands
The Perception and Interpretation of Hanseatic Material Culture in the North Atlantic: Problems and Suggestions By Natascha Mehler Journal of the North Atlantic, Special Volume 1 (2009) Abstract: This paper takes the discussion on the concept of Hanseatic material culture from the Baltic and moves it west towards the North Atlantic islands and Norway, focusing […]
This document discusses spindle whorls and shafts found throughout the areas Scandinavians lived in during the Middle Ages (800-1500 CE).
The Wood Beyond the World: Jämtland and the Norwegian Kings By Alex Woolf West over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300, edited by Beverly Ballin Smith, Simon Taylor and Gareth Williams (Brill, 2007) Introduction: For students of the Viking Age in Scotland the dominant paradigm has been that of the Norwegian […]
The thirteenth century occupies a special place in Icelandic history.
The aim is to document and discuss Norse knowledge of oceanographic phenomena including tides, non-tidal ocean currents, surface water properties, and sea ice.
The Archaeology of Medieval Fishing Tackle Steane, J M and Foreman, M Waterfront Archaeology: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Waterfront Archaeology held at Bristol, 23-26 September 1988, edited by G L Good, R H Jones and M W Ponsford (CBA Research Report No 74 (1991)) Abstract This paper provides a summary of fish catching methods in medieval […]
Runes in Changing Contexts: Viking Age and Medieval Writing Traditions Källström, Magnus 7th International Runic Symposium, Oslo (2010) Abstract The topic of Viking Age and medieval writing traditions is is a huge subject which is impossible to cover in a short speech during a conference. For that reason I will not try to give a […]
Illegal Sexual Behavior in Late Medieval Norway as Testified in Supplications to the Pope By Torstein Jørgensen Journal of the History of Sexuality, Volume 17, Number 3 (2008) Introduction: On 22 March 1476 the Regent of the office of the Apostolic Penitentiary absolved and dispensed a young Norwegian man, Svein Igulsson, who was domiciled in […]
Less Favored – More Favored: Queenship and the Special Case of Margrete of Denmark, 1353-1412 By Grethe Jacobsen Less Favored – More Favored: Proceedings from a Conference on Gender in European Legal History, 12th – 19th Centuries (2004) Introduction: Some ten years ago, the German historian Armin Wolf published an article on reigning queens, that […]
Norway’s more than 1,000 year-old-city and historical capital, Trondheim, was a beehive of activity in medieval times. Recent archeological research in the city’s popular public forest, “Bymarka”, has uncovered more than 500 charcoal pits, tell-tale signs of substantial medieval metal working activity. For centuries, Trondheim – or Nidaros as it was then called – was […]
In the 900-1000s the power of the monarch in Norway was consolidated through the establishment of a new system of royal estates. Similar systems can also be found in other Northern European countries. Kingston, Husebygård, Königshof. These three terms in English, Norwegian and German all describe the same thing: royal farmsteads that together formed a […]
Eleven years of archaeological research at Rushen Abbey, 1998 to 2008 Davey, Peter J.. Monastic Research Bulletin vol. 14 (2008) Abstract Man lies in the northern Irish Sea almost equidistant from Cumbria, Galloway and Ulster and only slightly further from Anglesey in North Wales. In the early Middle Ages it had developed an almost legendary […]
In July 1955, a disastrous fire swept through a section of the waterfront in Bergen, Norway, destroying nearly half of the ancient district known as ‘Bryggen.’
The balance of power and control shifted in Scandinavia as the Kalmar Union, which had joined Denmark, Norway and Sweden together under one king since 1397, crumbled in 1523.
An Arab Game in the North Pole? By Thierry Depaulis Board Games Studies, Vol.4 (2001) Introduction: The impressive so far unpublished or very little known material that is presented in the preceding pages show one evidence: the Sámi game sáhkku, the Norwegian and Danish games daldøs and daldøsa, and the tâb group of games in the […]
Linguistic patterns in the place-names of Norway and the Northern Isles By Berit Sandnes Northern Lights, Northern Words. Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar (2010) Introduction: Considering the Vikings’ massive cultural influence on the Northern Isles, the material evidence for Old Norse culture is surprisingly scarce. The buildings […]
The Cult of St. Ólafr in the Eleventh Century and Kievan Rus’ By Haki Antonsson Middelalderforum, Vol.1:2 (2003) Introduction: The sources relating to the emergence of the cult of King Olafr Haraldsson (d.1030) of Norway are in decidedly short supply. Essentially we rely on two types of sources in reconstructing the historical background to Olafr’s […]
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