Viking and Medieval Scandinavia

Víga-Glúms saga and Reykdoela saga ok Víga-Skútu each contain a scene depicting the conflict between the characters Víga-Skúta and Víga-Glúmr. Based on the similarities in wording between the episodes, scholars have concluded that the text of one saga was based on the other, but there is no consensus about which text is the source and which the adaptation. In this paper we introduce new ‘lexomic’ methods of computer-assisted statistical analysis that provide evidence that has some bearing on this long-standing problem of priority. After testing the methods against ‘control’ texts in Old Norse (texts whose sources and relationships were established by traditional methods), we demonstrate that the distribution of vocabulary in the Víga-Skúta episode in Reykdoela saga is in fact closer to that of the entire text of Víga-Glúms saga than it is to the rest of Reykdoela saga, while the distribution of vocabulary of the episode in Víga-Glúms saga is very much like the rest of that text. Víga-Glúms saga, therefore, not a separate interpolation, is the source of the Víga-Skúta episode in both sagas and thus precedes Reykdoela saga in relative chronology.

It is well recognized that the use of formulae originally from the Hebrew language was not uncommon in the hymnody and liturgy of the medieval Church. This article surveys the protrusion of such formulae into Scandinavian runic inscriptions and postulates that there was a particular awareness of their Hebrew identity. The extent of clerical esteem for - and knowledge of - the Hebrew language in medieval Scandinavia is considered using runic and manuscript sources. Finally, some observations are offered concerning the geographical distribution of Hebrew formulae in the runic corpus.

This article deals with the question of whether trading in rural areas in Scandinavia during the middle and late Viking period (c. 875-1050/75) was largely in the hands of elite groups in the society, or if a trading system more open to popular participation prevailed. Jämtland, a region in inland Mid-Scandinavia, is investigated here and constitutes an example of an area with a seemingly open system. On the basis primarily of grave finds, the author shows that many people living in Jämtland participated in buying and selling goods (e.g. furs) to such an extent that they had obtained scales and weights as tools of trade and used weighed silver as a means of payment. This widespread usage of silver as payment had arisen in spite of Jämtland’s remoteness from the major Scandinavian trading centres of the time. Several geographical, cultural, social, and economic factors that might explain this development in Jämtland are discussed.

Early in 2015 a fragment of a silver, Hiberno-Scandinavian broad-band arm-ring was found on the island of Texel, in former Frisia. It is the first find of this type in the Netherlands. A dirham was uncovered at almost the same find-spot a few years earlier. The find may thus possibly be seen as part of a small hack-silver assemblage or hoard, dispersed through ploughing. Although still very few and far between, Viking finds by detectorists have been increasing in the Netherlands, particularly in former Frisia. The Texel find can be seen in the light of these finds. As a Hiberno-Scandinavian type of object, it relates to the Irish Viking kingdom and possibly to the activities of the Great Heathen Army, to which the Frisian coastal area in some way seems connected.

This article examines the local travels of some late Viking period rune carvers in Sweden. The local mobility of rune carvers known by name is analysed on the basis of the distribution of their runic monuments. In order to distinguish between rune carvers of the unornamented and unsigned rune-stones of the late tenth / early eleventh century, the carving technique has been analysed by 3D-scanning and statistical analysis. When compared to earlier studies of mobility in low-technological societies, results indicate that most rune carvers could reach most of their rune-stones within 1-2 days of fast travel or within 3-4 days at a more leisurely speed. It is discussed whether this also may be indicative of the range of the households and their alliances. There may be an indication that carvers travel longer distances in the early phase of the period in question.

The prevailing view of the period of Viking rule in Brittany is that Scandinavians came from outside, attempted to subjugate the inhabitants and were eventually driven out by Bretons. On the basis of an examination of political language in Brittany during the ninth century, this paper instead argues that the period of Northman rule in the peninsula was the result of vicious factional politics. The development of regalian, Carolingian-influenced languages of legitimacy in the late ninth century is discussed and compared with alternatives to determine why Northman ideologies emerged as salient. The ‘Viking occupation’ is thus reinterpreted as arising out of the internal dynamics of the peninsula rather than being an alien intrusion.

There is no doubt that the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish Sea, was settled by Vikings, as is demonstrated by a rich archaeological heritage. But the important questions of when the Vikings first reached the Island and when they settled there, whether they conquered Man by force or assimilated peacefully into the local community have not yet been answered satisfactorily. The two different approaches hitherto adopted have reached two different - and mutually exclusive - conclusions. This paper organizes, summarizes, and evaluates their respective arguments and conclusions and presents a third hypothesis on the early Viking Age in the Isle of Man.

The names of seven Dnieper rapids in Constantine’s Porphyrogenitus De administrando imperio (‘On the Governance of the Empire’) are given both in ‘Slavonic’ and in ‘Rhosic’, i.e. Old Scandinavian, and in addition Constantine explains the meanings of some of these names in Greek. The present paper focuses on the name for the sixth rapid, Βeρούτςη/Λεάντι, and the aim of the author is to show that ‘Rhosic’ Λεάντι corresponds well to Constantine’s Greek translation of this name as ‘the Boiling of the Water’. The etymology to be proposed in this article has its precursor in a suggestion by Bohdan Strumiński but refines on his hypothesis.