HI1526: VIKINGS! (2015-2016)

This was a period of warfare and pillage, political turmoil and social transformation, but also economic expansion and cultural innovation. In 795 raiders attacked the Christian monastic community on Iona in the Scottish western isles. Their activities extended from Denmark, Norway and Sweden out to Continental Europe, North America, Russia, and the Mediterranean Basin. Over time they accepted Christian beliefs and gradually integrated into European society. In Iceland they created a republic which has remained Scandinavian in culture; elsewhere, for instance Britain, Ireland, and Russia, they adopted and modified the host culture. By the twelfth century, Christian national kingdoms had been created in Scandinavia. "Viking" cultures became fully integrated into the wider project of European Christianization, including active involvement in the Crusades. The Viking Age had come to an end.

The course will introduce students to a broad range of methods and approaches to primary sources, from archaeological remains and rune-stones to ships and bridges, and from legal texts and chronicles to praise-poetry and sagas. Scandinavian expansionism will be presented in the wider political context of Dark-Age Europe, rooted in the late-antique breakdown of Roman rule and the accompanying ‘barbarian’ incursions. Alongside the political developments students will be introduced to key aspects of so-called "Viking-Age" culture and society, which in turn helped shape the politics of the period. These include religions old and new, the relationship between law and blood-feud, the transition from oral to textual modes of commemoration and learning, the development of new maritime technologies, and the roles of women in society.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).