Scandinavia in the Age of Vikings
Scandinavia in the Age of Vikings

Author: Jon Vidar Sigurdsson

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2022-03-15

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 1501760483

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In Scandinavia in the Age of Vikings, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson returns to the Viking homeland, Scandinavia, highlighting such key aspects of Viking life as power and politics, social and kinship networks, gifts and feasting, religious beliefs, women's roles, social classes, and the Viking economy, which included farming, iron mining and metalworking, and trade. Drawing of the latest archeological research and on literary sources, namely the sagas, Sigurðsson depicts a complex and surprisingly peaceful society that belies the popular image of Norsemen as bloodthirsty barbarians. Instead, Vikings often acted out power struggles symbolically, with local chieftains competing with each other through displays of wealth in the form of great feasts and gifts, rather than arms. At home, conspicuous consumption was a Viking leader's most important virtue; the brutality associated with them was largely wreaked abroad. Sigurðsson's engaging history of the Vikings at home begins by highlighting political developments in the region, detailing how Danish kings assumed ascendency over the region and the ways in which Viking friendship reinforced regional peace. Scandinavia in the Age of Vikings then discusses the importance of religion, first pagan and (beginning around 1000 A.D.) Christianity; the central role that women played in politics and war; and how the enormous wealth brought back to Scandinavia affected the social fabric—shedding new light on Viking society.

Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age
Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age

Author: Albrecht Classen

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-10-19

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 1793648298

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People in the Middle Ages and the early modern age more often suffered from imprisonment and enslavement than we might have assumed. Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age approaches these topics from a wide variety of perspectives and demonstrates collectively the great relevance of the issues involved. Both incarceration and slavery were (and continue to be) most painful experiences, and no one was guaranteed exemption from it. High-ranking nobles and royalties were often the victims of imprisonment and, at times, had to wait many years until their ransom was paid. Similarly, slavery existed throughout Christian Europe and in the Arab world. However, while imprisonment occasionally proved to be the catalyst for major writings and creativity, slaves in the Ottoman empire and in Egypt succeeded in rising to the highest position in society (Janissaries, Mamluks, and others).

21st Century Medievalisms
21st Century Medievalisms

Author: Karl Christian Alvestad

Publisher: Trivent Publishing

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 6156405798

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21st Century Medievalisms. Between the Global and Individual is an edited volume consisting of 14 chapters by scholars interested in contemporary medievalisms across the world. It is a timely contribution to the growing scholarship on medievalisms offering chapters that consider both the individual experiences of medievalisms, as well as those of societies and cultures at large. The chapters of the book are grouped into three parts, the first explores stereotypes and myths in medievalisms; the second examines medievalisms that speak to particular communities and audiences; and the third studies how medievalisms are impacted by or stimulate conversations of politics and gender. These chapters all reflect a growing interest in medievalisms, and the appreciation of how they are present, materialise and evolve in different contexts and offers insights into medievalisms in politics, popular culture, social activism and more. Throughout the book, examples and case studies demonstrate how medievalisms in the modern age are at times individual experiences, at other times global phenomena and sometimes are in between. Therefore these medievalisms can speak to different audiences at the same time, showcasing how the Middle Ages and their memory continue to be a pertinent topic of study within the wider field of medieval studies.

Queering the Runes
Queering the Runes

Author: Siri Vincent Plouff

Publisher: Weiser Books

Published: 2024-11-04

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1633413357

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Queering the Runes is a contemporary, inclusive, and forward-thinking approach to the runes that focuses on finding queer experience, life, and joy in the Elder Futhark. Siri comes to the runes as a queer, nonbinary reader, and presents a path for reclaiming the ancestral wisdom and mystery of the runes in a way that can provide insight and understanding of their sacred nature for masculine, feminine, and nongendered aspects of self. Written as a love letter to the runes, the gods, and the people who follow the Nordic path, Queering the Runes presents an alternative approach to the runes—one that creates a gentle container for those who want to follow this heathen path. Based on the author’s personal gnosis, as well as deep academic research on runes and Nordic culture, this book explores the root culture of the runes, both in terms of myth and of lived, real folkloric experience, and paves the way for understanding how to work with runes disencumbered from patriarchy and white supremacy. Siri Vincent Plouff presents the traditional meanings of the runes, then helps the reader to queer the runes in their own way. Included are the lore associated with each rune, exercises to apply them to modern life, activities to engage with the runes (layouts, castings, and galdr), and advice on how to use the runes for divination. Throughout, the author provides journal prompts meant to help the reader channel the energy of specific runes, to get to know their energy, as well as to use the runes to help them move forward in a journey of self-discovery. Queering the Runes seeks to blow open perceptions of the runes, exploring them as active, living symbols available to all, as well as the inherent connection with ancestral magic that comes with rune work.

The Great Divergence
The Great Divergence

Author: Kenneth Pomeranz

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 0691217181

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A landmark comparative history of Europe and China that examines why the Industrial Revolution emerged in the West The Great Divergence sheds light on one of the great questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe? Historian Kenneth Pomeranz shows that as recently as 1750, life expectancy, consumption, and product and factor markets were comparable in Europe and East Asia. Moreover, key regions in China and Japan were no worse off ecologically than those in Western Europe, with each region facing corresponding shortages of land-intensive products. Pomeranz’s comparative lens reveals the two critical factors resulting in Europe's nineteenth-century divergence—the fortunate location of coal and access to trade with the New World. As East Asia’s economy stagnated, Europe narrowly escaped the same fate largely due to favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas. This Princeton Classics edition includes a preface from the author and makes a powerful historical work available to new readers.

Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe
Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe

Author: Robert S. Duplessis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-09-18

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9780521397735

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Between the end of the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, the long-established structures and practices of European agriculture and industry were slowly, disparately, but profoundly transformed. Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe, first published in 1997, narrates and analyzes the diverse patterns of economic change that permanently modified rural and urban production, altered Europe's economy and geography, and gave birth to new social classes. Broad in chronological and geographical scope and explicitly comparative, the book introduces readers to a wealth of information drawn from thoughout Mediterranean, east-central, and western Europe, as well as to the classic interpretations and current debates and revisions. The study incorporates scholarship on topics such as the world economy and women's work, and it discusses at length the impact of the emergent capitalist order on Europe's working people.

The Cambridge History of Scandinavia
The Cambridge History of Scandinavia

Author: Knut Helle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-09-04

Total Pages: 942

ISBN-13: 9780521472999

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This volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.