It is argued that Viking Age people built ‘doors to the dead’ of various types, such as freestanding portals, causewayed ring-ditches or thresholds to grave mounds; or on occasion even buried their dead in the doorway.
Doors to the dead: The power of doorways and thresholds in Viking Age Scandinavia
October 5, 2015 By
What’s New in Scandinavian Rune Stones
September 23, 2015 By
Danielle Turner reports on the papers from the session The World of Images of the Scandinavian Rune Stones
Rich and Powerful: The Image of the Female Deity in Migration Age Scandinavia
July 25, 2015 By
I believe serious blunders have been made concerning the identification of males and females. It
is simply inadmissable to interpret any figure with open, shoulder-length hair as female when all the evidence for the centuries in question shows females have only been depicted with long hair tied in the Irish ribbon knot.
Scandinavian trade ‘triggered’ the Viking Age, researchers find
May 7, 2015 By
Archaeologists from the University of York have played a key role in Anglo-Danish research which has suggested the dawn of the Viking Age may have been much earlier – and less violent – than previously believed.
Choosing Heaven: The Religion of the Vikings
February 15, 2015 By
The Viking-age gods stemmed from two races – Aesir and Vanir.
Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age
January 31, 2015 By
Drinking ceremonies played a very important social role in Viking Age Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England.
Trolls in the Middle Ages
January 6, 2015 By
Where did trolls come from? What did medieval and early modern people think of trolls? How did the concept of the modern day troll evolve?
Nourishment for the Soul – Nourishment for the Body: Animal Remains in Early Medieval Pomeranian Cemeteries
November 25, 2014 By
Late medieval sources clearly refer to souls, which in traditional folk beliefs were periodically returning to feed and warm themselves by the fires made by the living. This kind of conception can be merged with Slavic eschatology. There is multiple evidence to confirm that belief some form of spirit or soul was spreading amongst the people, who in the early medieval period, bordered directly with Pomerania.
Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance
November 23, 2014 By
This study opens with a historical account of Corbie from its foundation until the reign of Charles the Simple, which clarifies the political importance of the abbey and its relations with rulers and bishops.
The Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga
November 18, 2014 By
The Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga Hilda Radzin (St. John’s University) Literary Onomastics Studies: Volume 5, Article 7 (1978) Abstract In the Old Norse language the word saga denoted any kind of story or history in prose, whether written or oral. Used in this sense, the word saga […]
The Viking Language of the Highlands and Islands: Reconstructing the Norn Language from Old Norse
November 18, 2014 By
The Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland were at one time colonized by Vikings and belonged firmly within the field of Scandinavian cultural influence. During this time the people of these archipelagos spoke a unique language known as Norn which evolved from the Old Norse language.
The Cults of New Saints and the Christianization of Scandinavia
November 1, 2014 By
This research project examines aspects of the cults of local saints that developed in Scandinavia during the latter stages of the Christianization of the region.
Houses and domestic life in the Viking Age and medieval period
September 28, 2014 By
This thesis examines the representations of houses as physical structures in the Íslendingasögur with specific emphasis on the material aspect of housing culture in the Viking Age and medieval period, as well as the interactions between material culture and text.
The Case of the Greenlandic Assembly Sites
September 8, 2014 By
In the early 20th century, scholars identified two possible Greenlandic assembly sites at Brattahalíð and Garðar respectively. Later scholars, with one exception, have neither refuted nor corroborated this, and research on this topic has therefore not significantly moved forward in the last 100 years. In this article, the two proposed assembly sites are examined in the light of recent research.
Fast and Feast – Christianization through the Regulation of Everyday Life
September 7, 2014 By
This article will illustrate that an important part of rulers’ wish to create a Christian society was the introduction of Christian legislation.
Signs of Power. Manorial Demesnes in Medieval Iceland
August 20, 2014 By
An important aspect of medieval Icelandic social organization, namely the manor, has been neglected in previous research, and very little research has been undertaken comparing Icelandic manorial organization with other regions. This article focuses on one aspect of manorial organization, namely the manorial demesne or central farm of the manor.
Money and trade in Viking-Age Scandinavia
August 18, 2014 By
This paper addresses the question of how money was conceived and used in trade in the Viking Age and before, but starts with some brief reflections on the role of gifts.
Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015
August 12, 2014 By
This thesis is a comparison of ethnicity in Viking Age England and Normandy. It focuses on the period c.950-c.1015, which begins several generations after the initial Scandinavian settlements in both regions.
Death as an architect of societies Burial and social identity during the Viking Age in South-western Scania
July 30, 2014 By
In my opinion, the mono-cultural Viking Age is largely the product of one past social group, that had imposed on us their narration about the events, through production of tangible and durable monuments and sources. If analysis of the past should be of any value, it needs to be not only specifically spatially located, but also socially located.
Making Sacrifices: Beowulf and Film
July 21, 2014 By
This essay reviews opening scenes in some recent film Beowulfs, which, although they have nothing at all to say about Scyld Scefing, suggest a sacrificial reading of the prologue and perhaps even the whole poem.
Scandinavia and the Huns: an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Migration Era
July 15, 2014 By
The aim of this paper is to discuss the early Migration period as a particular period of ‘short term history’ and its formative impact on the Scandinavian longue duree in the first millenium.
How Nordic are the old Nordic Laws?
July 3, 2014 By
Medieval legislation plays a peculiar and very important role in Nordic legal history.
The ‘Living’ Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: An Interdisciplinary Study
June 29, 2014 By
This thesis explores perceptions of two-edged swords as ‘living’ artefacts in Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia between c. 500 and 1100.
The effects of Viking activity on Scandinavian society
June 29, 2014 By
Three ways in which Viking raids and conquests in western Europe affected Scandinavian society are discussed
Kingdom, emporium and town: the impact of Viking Dublin
June 24, 2014 By
In recent years the precise location and nature of Viking Dublin have been much debated. It is now generally accepted that there was a longphort phase from 841 to 902: a period of enforced exile from 902 to 917, and thereafter a dún phase.
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