Category: Legacy
I’ve been doing this for a long time, which means some of my content is, well…a bit old. That doesn’t make it useless, though, so I’ve made a special place for it here in this delightful category.
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Primary Sources for Women in the Viking Age
tatterhood asked: Hello, I have a ‘quick’ question regarding your most recent post about Women in the Viking Age. You list your sources at the bottom, but do you know what (primary) source they use? (You have a truly wonderful source-list page, but there wasn’t a ‘Law and Society’/’Women’ section, so I thought I’d ask) Thanks!…
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Women in the Viking Age, Part 1 (Overview)
Modern society has recently begun looking towards the Viking Age woman in order to find a historical place for strong, independent women. There is no fault in this, and there are many good reasons for this. Yet, women still did not have it easy, even in a society that made more effort to consider them.…
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Medieval Iceland: A Unique Settlement
“Medieval Iceland is an almost unique instance of a community whose culture and creative power flourished independently of any favoring material conditions, and indeed under conditions in the highest degree unfavorable. Not ought it to be less interesting to the student of politics and law as having produced a Constitution unlike any other whereof records…
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Blood, Feud, and Honor in the Viking Age
Last week we discussed the ideal system of law in Viking Age society. Yet, that is just the surface of the system that actually existed. Although not directly related, feud was the true process for obtaining justice. Law was merely a phase that most feuds would go through. This lesson aims to shed light on…
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Introducing the Course: Medieval Iceland
“The story goes that some people wanted to sail from Norway to the Faroes—a viking called Naddodd, to name one of them. They were driven out to sea westwards, and came to a vast country.” (landnámabók, 16) Far to the north lies a small island called Iceland. Settled by vikings, it eventually would become an…
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Law in the Viking Age
This week is a brief, uncomplicated overview of Viking Age Law. Most of this material, however, has been gathered from sources that pertain to later medieval Iceland. Still, the roots of Icelandic law run back to Viking Age Norwegian law. Keeping that in mind however, our understanding can never be without some level of doubt.…
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Old Norse Greetings
Anonymous asked: Hi, could you please do a specific post on the use of greeting words? Prime examples are “hail” “hailsa” etc… lots of people getting into “vikings” use them without seeming to know the origins, meanings or proper usage… I will most gladly provide a detailed post on Viking Age greetings. Though, I think the…
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Viking Age Society
Now that we are done with literature, we will begin discussing the aspects of Viking History that such literature has helped us to better understand. I have talked about this subject once before with @gothic-metalhead through the following ask. Some of that information will be provided here, but you may also refer to that post for more…
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Sagas: Icelanders and Style
Last week, we discussed the two saga genres of Fornaldarsögur (mythical-heroic sagas) and Konungasögur (king sagas). This week, we will be discussing the third genre of saga literature:Íslendingasögur (family sagas). This final genre actually makes up the bulk of saga literature we have. It is also the genre that is most studied for historical information, in regards to medieval…
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Sagas: Kings and Heroes
This week, we will be discussing two genres of saga literature, king and mythical-hero. I will start by discussing the genres and then I will provide summaries of a few sagas that are well known from these categories. I will avoid summaries and spoiling details, but I will discuss the most popular kings and heroes…
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Sagas: Skalds and Poetry
This week we will begin a discussion on skalds (poets) and their tradition. Poetry had a much higher value in the medieval world than it does today. Words had power, so much so that they could even physically deform you. Law texts specifically note punishments for slandering someone’s name. This is not only unique to Scandinavian region…
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Sagas: Snorri and Eddas
This week we will continue our discussion of Viking Age related literature by entering the realm of the Edda and Eddic poetry. We will start by discussing an important Icelander named Snorri Sturluson, discussing the literature that has preserved much of our mythological material. Contents: Snorri Sturluson (d. 1241) Snorri Sturluson was a prominent member of…
