Viking Ethnicities: A Historiographic Overview
The word ‘viking’ is itself used by different scholars to mean different things. Its use in Modern English stems from the early 19th century and it was broadly used to describe people of Scandinavian cultural identity active in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries.
Scandinavian Influences on the English Language
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.
The Economics of Organizing 9th Century Viking raids
Some scholars have argued that the early raids were a deliberate ‘softening up’ of Europe, a deliberate prelude to land-grabbing. But this view assumes that raiders were displaced farmers, victims of climate change or population pressure.
The role of the feline in the medieval society of the North Atlantic region
Were the cats utilised specifically for pest control or is there conclusive proof of a creature having been wholly cared for?
Viking-Age sailing routes of the western Baltic Sea – a matter of safety
Included in the Old English Orosius, compiled at the court of King Alfred the Great of Wessex around 890, are the descriptions of two different late 9th-century Scandinavian sailing routes.
Buried with Honour and Stoned to Death? The Ambivalence of Viking Age Magic in the Light of Archaeology
In 1981 Danish archaeologists revealed a remarkable Viking Age grave mound in the village of Gerdrup.
A “Triangular” Shawl Style for the Viking Age?
Drawing together archaeological evidence of textiles, fastenings, and artwork, from Scandinavia and neighbouring cultures around the 8th-10th centuries.
The Colour of Money: Crusaders and Coins in the Thirteenth-Century Baltic Sea
Were coins actually perceived as coloured? Several studies have elucidated the idea that there are ways of perceiving, understanding and classifying colours other than in the modern western sense.
The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal’s Embassy to the Vikings
Before Dozy’s work,only excerpts from ibn-Dihya in incomplete shape had been known from the writings of the seventeenth-century Maghribi man of letters, al-Maqqari…
HASKINS CONFERENCE: Furness Abbey and Daughter Houses: Irish Sea Relations in the Twelfth Century
This paper focused on the daughter houses of Furness Abbey.
‘í litklæðum’ – Coloured Clothes in Medieval Scandinavian Literature and Archaeology
What do we mean by coloured clothes? Or rather, what did the saga writers mean by their term litklæði?
Frosts, Floods, and Famines – Climate in Relation to Hunger in North-East Europe A.D. 1100–1550
This Master’s thesis examines the relation between climatic conditions and hunger in Northeast Europe in A.D. 1100–1550.
Ships, Fogs, and Traveling Pairs: Plague Legend Migration in Scandinavia
Ships, Fogs, and Traveling Pairs: Plague Legend Migration in Scandinavia By Timothy R. Tangherlini Journal of American Folklore, Vol.101 (1988) Abstract: This article…
Early medieval port customs, tolls and controls on foreign trade
Early medieval port customs, tolls and controls on foreign trade Middleton, Neil Early Medieval Europe, Vol.13:4 (2005) Abstract The objective of this paper is…
Perpetuus Rex Norvegiae and Pyratarum Dux: Olaf Haraldsson’s Conversion of Norway and The Presence of Norman Power in Northern Europe
Perpetuus Rex Norvegiae and Pyratarum Dux: Olaf Haraldsson’s Conversion of Norway and The Presence of Norman Power in Northern Europe By Rachael Kerrigan…
“Ek Skal Hér Ráða”: Themes of Female Honor in the Icelandic Sagas
“Ek Skal Hér Ráða”: Themes of Female Honor in the Icelandic Sagas Rivenbark, Susan Elizabeth (University of North Carolina at Wilmington) M.A. Thesis, Appalachian…
Viking Travellers of the Sagas
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
Textual evidence for spilling lines in the rigging of medieval Scandinavian keels
Textual evidence for spilling lines in the rigging of medieval Scandinavian keels Sayers, William (Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York) The International Journal of…
When did Laskaris Kananos travel in the Baltic lands?
The author describes how he visited Bergen, Stockholm, Riga, Danzig, Lübeck and Copenhagen before moving on to England and Iceland. His account is clearly the result of first hand observation, rather than classical mimesis, and it includes a number of verifiable details such as distances, climate and the diet of the locals.
Medieval North European Spindles and Whorls
This document discusses spindle whorls and shafts found throughout the areas Scandinavians lived in during the Middle Ages (800-1500 CE).
EARLY MEDIEVAL CEMETERIES AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN SIGTUNA, SWEDEN
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…
A Swedish Crusader King as Russian Orthodox Saint on the Valamo Archipelago?
A Swedish Crusader King as Russian Orthodox Saint on the Valamo Archipelago? Lind, John H. (University of Southern Denmark, Odense) University of Paris,…