Author : Viking Society for Northern Research. Centenary Symposium
Publisher : Viking Society for Northern Research University College
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 22,77 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Northmen
ISBN : 9780903521284
Author : Marianne Hem Eriksen
Publisher : Oxbow Books
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 15,37 MB
Release : 2014-11-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1782977279
Fourteen papers explore a variety of inter-disciplinary approaches to understanding the Viking past, both in Scandinavia and in the Viking diaspora. Contributions employ both traditional inter- or multi-disciplinarian perspectives such as using historical sources, Icelandic sagas and Eddic poetry and also specialised methodologies and/or empirical studies, place-name research, the history of religion and technological advancements, such as isotope analysis. Together these generate new insights into the technology, social organisation and mentality of the worlds of the Vikings. Geographically, contributions range from Iceland through Scandinavia to the Continent. Scandinavian, British and Continental Viking scholars come together to challenge established truths, present new definitions and discuss old themes from new angles. Topics discussed include personal and communal identity; gender relations between people, artefacts, and places/spaces; rules and regulations within different social arenas; processes of production, trade and exchange, and transmission of knowledge within both past Viking-age societies and present-day research. Displaying thematic breadth as well as geographic and academic diversity, the articles may foreshadow up-and-coming themes for Viking Age research. Rooted in different traditions, using diverse methods and exploring eclectic material _ Viking Worlds will provide the reader with a sense of current and forthcoming issues, debates and topics in Viking studies, and give insight into a new generation of ideas and approaches which will mark the years to come.
Author : Jón Karl Helgason
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 32,74 MB
Release : 2017-06-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1780237154
An account of how Icelandic eddas (poems of Norse mythology) and sagas (ancient prose accounts of Viking history, voyages, and battles) have been reinvented and adapted in comic books, plays, music, and films.
Author : Triin Laidoner
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 143 pages
File Size : 36,78 MB
Release : 2020-01-14
Category : History
ISBN : 0429815999
Ancestor worship is often assumed by contemporary European audiences to be an outdated and primitive tradition with little relevance to our societies, past and present. This book questions that assumption and seeks to determine whether ancestor ideology was an integral part of religion in Viking Age and early medieval Scandinavia. The concept is examined from a broad socio-anthropological perspective, which is used to structure a set of case studies which analyse the cults of specific individuals in Old Norse literature. The situation of gods in Old Norse religion has been almost exclusively addressed in isolation from these socio-anthropological perspectives. The public gravemound cults of deceased rulers are discussed conventionally as cases of sacral kingship, and, more recently, religious ruler ideology; both are seen as having divine associations in Old Norse scholarship. Building on the anthropological framework, this study introduces the concept of ‘superior ancestors’, employed in social anthropology to denote a form of political ancestor worship used to regulate social structure deliberately. It suggests that Old Norse ruler ideology was based on conventional and widely recognised religious practices revolving around kinship and ancestors and that the gods were perceived as human ancestors belonging to elite families.
Author : Hyun Jin Kim
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 43,11 MB
Release : 2013-04-18
Category : History
ISBN : 1107067227
The Huns have often been treated as primitive barbarians with no advanced political organisation. Their place of origin was the so-called 'backward steppe'. It has been argued that whatever political organisation they achieved they owed to the 'civilizing influence' of the Germanic peoples they encountered as they moved west. This book argues that the steppes of Inner Asia were far from 'backward' and that the image of the primitive Huns is vastly misleading. They already possessed a highly sophisticated political culture while still in Inner Asia and, far from being passive recipients of advanced culture from the West, they passed on important elements of Central Eurasian culture to early medieval Europe, which they helped create. Their expansion also marked the beginning of a millennium of virtual monopoly of world power by empires originating in the steppes of Inner Asia. The rise of the Hunnic Empire was truly a geopolitical revolution.
Author : Pernille Hermann
Publisher : Brepols Publishers
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 35,17 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Civilization, Medieval, in literature
ISBN : 9782503549101
This volume consists of articles about terms for, concepts of and functions of memory. The articles deal with medieval Norse texts, such as sagas, myths, skaldic poems, laws and historiographical writings, and they refer to theoretical insights from international memory studies that have developed recently. In recent years, various branches of memory studies have provided useful tools of analysis that offer new ways of understanding medieval cultures. The articles in this collection draw on these new theoretical tools for studying - and conceptualizing - memory, in order to reassess the function of memory in medieval Nordic culture. Despite its interdisciplinary and comparative basis, the volume remains very much an empirical study of memory and memory-dependent issues as these took form in the Nordic world.
Author : Birgit Sawyer
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 23,29 MB
Release : 2000
Category : Inscriptions, Runic
ISBN : 0198206437
There are over 3000 runic inscriptions on stone made in Scandinavia in the late Viking Age. This book is the first attempt by a historian to study the material as a whole. The analysis reveals significant regional variations that reflect different stages in the process of conversion, and thegrowth of royal power. Many monuments were declarations of faith or manifestations of status; but virtually all reflect inheritance claims, and cast unexpected light on the prehistory of the inheritance customs found in later Scandinavian law codes. The results of this analysis make a significantcontribution to understanding developments in other parts of the Germanic world, as well as Scandinavia. The inclusion of a digest of the data-base on which this book is based will facilitate further study of this rich vein of evidence.
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 35,83 MB
Release : 2013-09-25
Category : History
ISBN : 900422159X
In Scandinavia the study of disputes is still a relatively new topic: The papers offered here discuss how conflicts were handled in Scandinavian societies in the Middle Ages before the emergence of strong centralized states. What strategies did people use to contest power, property, rights, honour, and other kinds of material or symbolic assets? Seven essays by Scandinavian scholars are supplemented by contributions from Stephen White, John Hudson and Gerd Althoff, to provide a new baseline for discussing both the strategies pursued in the political game and those used to settle local disputes. Using practice and process as key analytical concepts, these authors explore formal law and litigation in conjunction with non-formal legal proceedings such as out-of-court mediation, rituals, emotional posturing, and feuding. Their insights place the Northern medieval world in a European context of dispute studies. With introductory sections on social structure, sources materials, and the historiography of Scandinavian dispute studies. Contributors are Gerd Althoff, Catharina Andersson, Kim Esmark, Lars Ivar Hansen, Lars Hermanson, John Hudson, Auður G. Magnúsdóttir, Hans Jacob Orning, Helle Vogt and Stephen D. White.
Author : Kelly DeVries
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 35,14 MB
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : 9781843830276
Three weeks before the battle of Hastings, Harold defeated an invading army of Norwegians at the battle of Stamford Bridge, a victory which was to cost him dear. The events surrounding the battle are discussed in detail. This very accessible narrative...tells the story of 'the first two important battles of 1066', Fulford Gate and Stamford Bridge, and of the leaders of the opposing English and Norwegian factions. CHOICE He places the invasion in a broad context. He outlines the Anglo-Scandinavian nature of the English kingdom in the eleventh century, traces the careers of the major leaders, and devotes a chapter each to the English and Norwegian military systems. JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066 was not the only attack on England that year. On September 25, 1066, less than three weeks before William defeated King Harold II Godwinson at the battle of Hastings, that same Harold had been victorious over his other opponent of 1066, King Haraldr Hardrádi of Norway at the battle of Stamford Bridge. It was an impressive victory, driving an invading army of Norwegians from theearldom of Northumbria; but it was to cost Harold dear. In telling the story of this neglected battle, Kelly DeVries traces the rise and fall of a family of English warlords, the Godwins, as well as that of the equally impressiveNorwegian warlord Hardrádi. KELLY DEVRIES is Associate Professor, Department of History, Loyola College in Maryland.
Author : Sigfús Blöndal
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 44,89 MB
Release : 2007-04-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521035521
This book examines how the Norsemen came to be drawn into the Imperial service.
