Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)
In short, the end of the Viking Age may have involved a suite of environmental, economic, and sociocultural changes, yet despite these changes practices of food preference and food procurement were maintained within the coastal site of Ridanas. Our research contributes to archaeological th
How Much Taxes Did a Medieval Peasant Pay? The numbers from Sweden
A new study on taxation in late medieval Sweden has revealed fascinating details about how much peasants had to pay to the royal government in taxes.
The Laws about Weddings in Viking-Age Gotland
An important source about daily-life in Viking-Age Scandinavia is Guta Lag, a set of laws from the Swedish island of Gotland. This includes details on how weddings were to be conducted.
Parental Grief and Prayer in the Middle Ages: Religious Coping in Swedish Miracle Stories
This article focuses on expressions of bereavement and religious coping in medieval miracle stories from Sweden.
Viking dragon’s head discovered in Sweden
Archaeologists from Sweden and Germany have discovered a little dragon’s head while digging in the port of the Viking town of Birka near Stockholm.
The building of Castles and the administration of Sweden
Throughout Sweden the King began to build castles on the basis of foreign models in the middle of the 13th century. It is about the new art of castle building under Anglo-Norman and German influence.
The Rök Stone – Riddles and answers
Challenges to the mind were popular at the Frankish court at the time of the Rök Stone. Due to the political situation in Scandinavia at that time the stone was made in a combined Swedish and international context. The methods of the stone are clearly influenced by the Frankish renaissance initiated by Alcuin of York.
Of thieves, counterfeiters and homicides: crime in Hedeby and Birka
Material evidence of prehistoric crime is rare. A compilation of finds from Hedeby harbour however offers three case studies, where three different offences – thievery, counterfeiting and homicide – are likely.
The Medieval Saints of Sweden and Denmark
There is a clear link between the celebration of native saints and the ecclesiastical organisation that emerged in Scandinavia in the 12th century. Yet, according to a new doctoral thesis in history from the University of Gothenburg, important differences can be noted between Sweden and Denmark.
Witchcraft Trials In Sweden: With Neighbours Like These, Who Needs Enemies?!
Everyone has “that” neighbour on their floor, or street who they’d secretly love to move to Mars and never see again. Well, the Early Modern Swedes had a way of dealing with those kinds of nasty neighbours…
The Lost Shoe: A Symbol in Medieval Scandinavian Ballads and Church Paintings
Tommy Olofsson examines the Clog Man, a medieval wall painting in a Swedish church – what was it really about?
Viking Hall discovered in Sweden
A Viking feasting hall measuring about 47.5 metres in length has been identified near Vadstena in central Sweden.
Medieval glass artefacts shed new light on Swedish history
Archaeological finds of glass material from Old Lödöse, a Swedish trade centre in the High Middle Ages, call for a revision of the country’s glass history.
Fast and Feast – Christianization through the Regulation of Everyday Life
This article will illustrate that an important part of rulers’ wish to create a Christian society was the introduction of Christian legislation.
Rethinking medieval spaces in digital environments
Many digital websites and archives of medieval spaces and its objects are not only informed by what we might call a post-romantic notion of aesthetics, they also excise crucial dimensions of medieval materiality and performativity such as touch, smell, movement and sound.
Signs of Power. Manorial Demesnes in Medieval Iceland
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.
The Reenactors: A Documentary on Medieval reenactors
We are visiting the medieval fair on Gotland. Here we find people dedicating mostly of their spare time to as accurate as possible recreate medieval life. What makes them want to do that? Is it geeks escaping reality or a proper presentation of researched history? Or maybe a little bit of both?
Saints’ Cults in Medieval Livonia
Saints’ cults played a crucial role in medieval society. Although we know very little about the beliefs and rituals of the indigenous peoples of Livonia, either before or after the thirteenth-century conquest, we may assume that the process of Christianization must have caused major changes in their religious practices.
Death as an architect of societies Burial and social identity during the Viking Age in South-western Scania
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.
How Nordic are the old Nordic Laws?
Medieval legislation plays a peculiar and very important role in Nordic legal history.
The political impact of crusading ideology in Sweden, 1150-1350
Swedish historiography has occasionally touched on the political impact of crusading ideology but the topic cannot be said to have attracted any great deal of research and only in recent decades have certain scholars given it their undivided attention…
Medieval Widowhood and Textual Guidance: The Corpus Revisions of Ancrene Wisse and the de Braose Anchoresses
In this article, I shall examine the lives of Loretta and her siblings as templates for the kind of audience imagined by the authors of the Ancrene Wisse Group and, in particular, by the author of Ancrene Wisse as he revised his original text.
Island Words, Island Worlds: The Origins and Meanings of Words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe
This paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and world- views. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languages in North and West Europe are then discussed.
Unlocking the secrets to Sweden’s Holy King
Researchers in Sweden have opened the casket of King Erik IX, and hope to analyze his bones to understand more about the health of the twelfth-century ruler and to even make sure these remains are his.