The Vikings and their Enemies

Uses the account of Ohthere and runic inscriptions to demonstrate that at least some members of the Scandinavian aristocracy had a sense of belonging to supra-regional entities.

Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2016

2000

During every war between Denmark and Sweden from at least 1505 to 1676 popular peace treaties were concluded by "common men" on both sides of the national border. These treaties were negotiated in contrast to the aggressive policy of the political leaders and to the nationalistic discourse of the elite. The aim of this article is to use archaeology to give an economic, social, and mental background to these treaties, and to the regional identity across the border that they presuppose. Above all a specific building tradition seems to have given the peasants a mental affinity across the border.

This is the manucript of a chapter in Vinland Revisited; the Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium, ed. Shannon Lewis-Simpson, [Selected papers from the Viking Millennium International Symposium Sept. 15-24, 2000, New Foundland and Labrador], St. John's 2003, pp. 51-64.

Some recent studies concerning early medieval Europe have suggested that Scandinavia and Francia represented two ideological poles with which other populations within the Germanic world might have intended to align themselves. While such a view sometimes may be useful, it may also over-simplify a more complex situation. Scandinavians must have recognised cultural distinctions between themselves and Christian Europeans, but may not have viewed these distinctions necessarily as emblems of opposition unless faced by a direct political or military threat. Indeed, ideological contrasts concerning the way society was structured and power was wielded may have cut across apparent ethnic boundaries. Roman influences on early Germanic society may have assisted in the creation of a ‘Germanic’ identity. Roman pressure also may have affected the development of Germanic governmental structures, encouraging king-centred governmental ideologies that contrasted with possibly older, assembly-centred systems. Scandinavia, never threatened by Roman domination, may have retained assembly-centred structures longer than other Germanic societies. Southern Scandinavia’s ‘central places’ of the Early Germanic Iron Age, such as Gudme, may have had functions comparable with those of the later Old Saxon Assembly and Icelandic Alþingi. Such sites may have provided a focus for an emergent Scandinavian identity. This assembly-centred system may have been disrupted as chieftains struggled to attain the kind of power enjoyed by their counterparts in king-centred societies (much as happened in medieval Iceland), perhaps explaining the poverty of archaeological finds in the region from the Late Germanic Iron Age. The growing Frankish threat to Scandinavia in the eighth century may have both spurred further consolidation of power in the hands of the élite and, initially, provoked an ideological reaction against Christian Europe. Yet while wary of domination by Christian European kingdoms, the Viking-Age Scandinavian élite may have envied their powerful model of lordship and had an interest in accessing elements of their culture. Such a situation may be reflected in historical legends, particularly the Scylding-Skjöldung cycle, which perhaps developed during the Viking Age. These legends might represent not source material for historical glimpses of early northern Europe (as is often assumed) but rather Scandinavian attempts at self-definition in relation to the burgeoning and powerful cultures of Christian Europe. Scandinavia’s eventual adoption of Christianity and Christian lordship in the course of the Viking Age largely resolved the ideological contrasts that had existed both within Scandinavian society and between Scandinavia and Christian Europe.

Scandinavia is a large region. 1 The distance from North Cape to the southern boundary of medieval Denmark, the river Eider, is over 2000 km.; Bordeaux and Warsaw are not so far apart. The region has a great variety of landscapes, one of the greatest contrasts being between Norway, a quarter of which is more than 1000 m. above sea level, and Denmark, where the highest point is 175 m. and the sea is never more than 75 km. away. The western part of the great Scandinavian peninsula is a region of mountains, much of it over 1200 m. high. Along much of the west coast the mountains reach the sea to form a deeply indented coastline with many fjords, some of them over 100 km. long. In the north the mountains extend into the sea to form many islands; one group of which, Lofoten, stretches over 200 km. from the mainland. The highest summits, almost 2500 m., are towards the south, but heights of over 2000 m. are reached in the far north. i The central region is lower and the mountains can be most easily crossed there; east of Trondheim Fjord there are passes under 500 m.. To the east of the mountains there is a wide, uneven plateau with extensive plains, scattered mountains and hills, traversed by rivers that generally flow south-east into the Gulf of Bothnia. This area now forms the northern part of Sweden. The southern part of Sweden, between the Kattegat and

Quaestio Insularis 18, 2017

This article considers the theoretical approaches commonly used to propose answers to two questions. First is the question of how one should define ‘collective identity’. The second is how to identify groups of collective identity using the limited resources available. The article outlines a methodology with which to reconstruct the regional landscape of pre-unification Viking Age Norway, which is then be tested through two detailed case studies based on the modern Norwegian ‘landsdeler’ of Vestland, Sørland and Nord-Norge. Finally, this article proposes that regional elites are likely to have played the primary role in the creation and maintenance of regional collective identity.

Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe, 2008

Image of Progress in the Era of Modernisation, 1998