Where the Middle Ages Begin
This paper is based on a review of approximately 520 sites with subfossil bird remains in Sweden (ERICSON & TYRBERG in press). This comprises essentially all published sites plus a majority of the sites where the avian remains have been determined but not yet published.
The most ordinary way to act during prayer was to stand with hands together, palm against palm, and to pray in the vernacular often using mental themes to enhance the devotion.
Sulphur and iron compounds have now been found in shipwrecks both in the Baltic and off the west coast of Sweden.
This project surveys a selection of hoard assemblages in order to scrutinize the changing relationship between economy and identity in Viking Age Scandinavia.
However, if one theoretically unseats the primacy of the Papal cause and instead places its importance within the context of Birgitta’s life as a woman, a more sympathetic portrait emerges. When I re-examine her visions and her life in this light, I find that Birgitta was divided in her allegiance to the Papal Father in her concern for women.
In 1555 a private press in Rome issued a volume in Latin with some 400 woodcut illustrations, most of the specifically commissioned by the author, these being in the form of vignettes at head of a majority of about 600 short chapters of the work.
The British game historian H. J. R. Murray was the first to identify the importance of Linnaeus’s description of the rules of a Lapp game called Tablut. This game, he argued, was related to, and possibly identical with, an ancient Viking game called Hnefatafl, which the Icelandic sagas frequently reference
The Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh, with the Viking attacks on Europe beginning around 750 AD. The Scandinavians were excellent sailors, and they had impressive ships and navigational skills that carried them as far as North America (‘Vinland’) long before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
But whatever Ohthere and his English hosts exchanged in the way of news and information, the re- corded account keeps closely within ränge of its objective: a geography of unknown and little known areas of Scandinavia and their inhabitants.
DNA tests have revealed that the bodies of nine people buried in the tomb actually died sometime between 1430 and 1520.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the colour white of cowry shell-beads in burials from the Viking Age on Gotland, considering aspects of gendered age identities as well as fertility and status.
The German word Wenden is documented as a synonym for Slavs since
the 6th century A.D.. Medieval authors also used Wandali instead of Wenden/Slavs
According to legend, the skulls of St. Birgitta and her daughter Katarina are maintained in a relic shrine in Vadstena abbey, mid Sweden.
Deep into the Middle Ages, in Western Europe a small group of clergymen, mainly monks, had a monopoly on recording dreams in writing
Feminine and masculine in the images of power. A study of the changes in visual political symbolism inSweden ca. 1350-1600 Berglund, Louise, PhD (Örebro University Sweden) Paper presented at the international conference: Creating women: Notions of femininity from 1350 to 1700, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto, 11-12 November, (2005) Abstract It […]
Money and Morality in 14th century Sweden von Heijne, Cecilia Ephesos to Dalecarlia. Reflections on Body, Space and Time in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm. Studies 11.Stockholm Studies in Archeology 48 (2009) Abstract The establishment of the monetary system that came to imbue medieval society brought about a substantial […]
EARLY MEDIEVAL CEMETERIES AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN SIGTUNA, SWEDEN Kjellström, Anna & Wikström, Anders Paper given at the 4th International Congress of Medieval and Modern Archaeology (2007) Abstract Sigtuna is situated at a branch of the Lake Mälaren in eastern central Sweden (figure 1), about 35 km north of Birka and 35 km south of Gamla Uppsala (Old […]
A Swedish Crusader King as Russian Orthodox Saint on the Valamo Archipelago? Lind, John H. (University of Southern Denmark, Odense) University of Paris, Sorbonne, Cahiers slaves n°7, March 21 (2005) Abstract In 1347 King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden undertook a crusade against Novgorodian territory. In this he was inspired by the powerful aristocrat Birgitta Birgersdaughter, […]
Swedish archaeologists have announced earlier this month the discovery what appears to be a medieval cog from built between the 12th and 14th centuries. Sonar images reveal that the vessel is 28 metres long and seven metres wide. The shipwreck was discovered at a depth of 100 metres in waters between the islands of Gotland […]
A Viking Slave’s Saga By Jan Fridegård, translated by Robert E. Bjork Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007 ISBN: 978-0-86698-375-4 ACMRS Occasional Publications Series, Volume 4 A Viking Slave’s Saga is a trilogy of novels by the famous Swedish author Jan Fridegård: Land of Wooden Gods (Trägudars land, 1940), People of the Dawn […]
Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors – the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but with the advent of Christianity, fashions changed, according to Swedish archeologist Annika Larsson. “They combined oriental features with Nordic styles. Their clothing […]
COUNT IVAN ANŽ FRANKOPAN, THE ROYAL STEWARD OF THE ESTATE IN SWEDEN1426 – 1434 Ibler, Malden Croatian History (2005) Abstract Within the framework of medieval history of Europe and its own geostrategic location, Scandinavian royalties and nobility entertained contacts with central and western Europe. Less known however, is the relationship between Eric of Pomerania, the King […]
Name Change as a Consequence of Monastic Ownership By Jan Agertz Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (2009) Abstract: The normal assumption is that old Swedish habitation names are original, and the first recorded for a farm or hamlet. There are however other examples – even medieval. The most common reason for […]
The emergence and the further development of wics and trading places in Northern and North-western Europe (late 7th century to the 10th century) cannot be explained as the result of only one social and economic system.
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 […]
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