tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14229351487551870672024-03-05T08:09:21.075+00:00Norse and Viking RamblingsA gentle wander through the Viking worldViqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.comBlogger202125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-47181589581278577622023-08-19T14:51:00.000+01:002023-08-19T14:53:00.354+01:00One Day Towards the End of Summer<p>The following is an extract from something I am working on at the moment - an analysis of the killing of Earl Rǫgnvaldr of Orkney, as reported in chapter 103 of <i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, on the 20th of August, in 1158 (all translations my own):</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2vP0kcjBFRbvK2GL6Fm4jjiB0ChM2YOHpY8ekGmFeyvidJPglZk8uXEeurigB9uyHM5zFWq-JQNWCkbYwc8r0sX6kTU0OSNt_VuLwG1mA2fsjLXME9PdTjJeJFQ6lX2P_rIjKQ-xNonsSPbX_P89z1esb1c-ShalKCiPK2zxiR8AAKgFfm7cq4N62ZHh/s4000/20220824_191429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="4000" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2vP0kcjBFRbvK2GL6Fm4jjiB0ChM2YOHpY8ekGmFeyvidJPglZk8uXEeurigB9uyHM5zFWq-JQNWCkbYwc8r0sX6kTU0OSNt_VuLwG1mA2fsjLXME9PdTjJeJFQ6lX2P_rIjKQ-xNonsSPbX_P89z1esb1c-ShalKCiPK2zxiR8AAKgFfm7cq4N62ZHh/s320/20220824_191429.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Replica of a statue possibly of Earl Rǫgnvaldr, Kirkwall, Photo © Judith Jesch</span> </td></tr></tbody></table><br />It was one day <i>at áliðnu sumri </i>'towards the end of
summer' that the two joint earls of Orkney, R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr, originally called
Kali Kolsson, and Haraldr Maddaðarson, sailed over to Caithness to go
deerhunting. By the end of the following day, the 20th of August, or five
nights after Assumption Day as <i>Orkneyinga saga</i> has it (ch. 103), R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr
was dead and Haraldr was in sole charge of the earldom. For Haraldr, this was the beginning of a very long period of rule which is
given rather short shrift in the saga. As for R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr, it was some 34 years
before his holy relics were taken up, ostensibly after some miracles and with
the Pope's permission, and he was sanctified, though there is no official
record of this. In the Icelandic annals, the death of R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr is dated to 1158 and
his translation to 1192. Discussion of this episode has tended to focus on its implications
for politics, both ecclesiastical and secular. Whatever the politics of it all, the episode describing
the killing of R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr in chapter 103 deserves some more detailed
attention.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Already the first words of chapter 103 are remarkable
enough: 'When
R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr
had been earl for twenty-two years since Earl Páll was captured...'. This
reminds us that R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's grip on the Orkney earldom was consolidated when
his rival Páll Hákonarson was eliminated through the actions of Sveinn
Ásleifarson (chs 74-75). On that occasion, R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr managed to keep a low
profile despite clearly benefiting from Sveinn's actions. This first sentence is
a clear signal that this chapter, too, will result in a similar situation: the reduction
of two earls to one, with the survivor escaping any real responsibility for the
events.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is another echo of earlier events in the lead-up to the
killing. Chapter 100 tells how R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr and his eventual killer, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn
Cleric, get involved in a feud between their respective followers which turns
violent after some drinking in Kirkwall. This feud was never settled and the
implication is that this unfinished business contributed to the events that led
to R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's
death. This episode echoes a longer one back in chapter 61 in which there is a similar
feud between followers of respectively R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr and a Norwegian called Jón,
also arising during some drinking, but this time in Bergen. This feud is
eventually settled by no less than the king of Norway, who also uses the
occasion to grant half of the earldom to Kali and to bestow on him the name of
R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr.
This echo of
an earlier episode at a crucial moment in R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's career serves to
suggest that his luck has now run out, that what once served him well will no
longer do so. This is further emphasised by two ominous events. On the first
night in Caithness, R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr sneezes, and on the next day when he sees <a name="_Hlk110932147">Þorbjǫrn</a> and wants to dismount to engage with him, he
unfortunately catches his foot in his stirrup. Both of these are typical
saga-motifs of omens signalling the death of the person to whom they happen. Other
omens have happened before in the saga: in chapter 29, R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's namesake R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr
Brúsason anticipates his own death with the fateful misspeaking <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">'"We will be fully old when these fires
have burned out." But what he wanted to say was that they would then be
fully warmed up'. And in chapter 47 a wave engulfs Magnús Erlendsson's ship as
he is approaching Egilsay where he will eventually be martyred.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr however does not come out of his 'martyrdom' quite
as well as his uncle Magnús did. Or at least the story of R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's
killing lacks the hagiographical tinge that one might expect of a future saint
and there are some details which suggest that the narratorial sympathy is not
entirely with him. Interestingly, it is R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's killer who is
presented as a heroic figure in this account. Þorbjǫrn Cleric is the one who
manages, despite severe injuries, to leap nine ells across a ditch. The extent
of his injuries only becomes clear after his death: 'and when <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn’s wounds were inspected, his intestines had slipped out
through the wound that Jómarr had given him'. The wound in question was given
right at the beginning: 'And at that moment Jómarr thrust a spear into <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn’s
thigh and the lunge continued into his intestines'. After receiving that wound,
<a name="_Hlk110937648">Þorbjǫrn</a> and his men cross a swamp and defend
themselves manfully, Þorbjǫrn makes a long impassioned speech to Haraldr and
then jumps across the ditch, and he and his men make for some deserted
shielings where again they defend themselves manfully, before eventually Þorbjǫrn
expires. No one else in this chapter is said to have defended themselves
manfully, certainly not R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr, but the defence <a name="_Hlk111901919">of </a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk111901919;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj</span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk111901919;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn and his men </span>is twice described this way in the
chapter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Þorbjǫrn's speeches are also extraordinary. In asking
Haraldr for a truce, his grounds are that the surviving earl is going to
benefit from his crime: 'And this deed that I
have done is a great crime, and I am responsible, but all the territory has
fallen into your power'. It is only at this point, as Haraldr is dithering
about what to do, that some of R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's followers intervene and put
an alternative argument, emphasising Haraldr's potential role in the killing:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">...if <a name="_Hlk110938179"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj</a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk110938179;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn</span> is given a truce after this
deed and also that he dares to tell you to your face in every word that he had
done this evil deed for you or to honour you, it will bring everlasting shame
and dishonour to you and all the earl’s kinsmen if he is not avenged. I think
that Earl R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫgnvaldr’s
friends believe that you will have for some time been advising the killing of
Rǫgnvaldr, which has now happened.'<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the end, Haraldr takes the easy way out, refusing to do
anything to Þorbjǫrn but tacitly allowing him to be killed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Stepping in at this late stage to chase Þorbjǫrn and his men are
the sons of Hávarðr Gunnason, including one called Magnús, who made that
speech, but it is noteworthy that these supporters of Rǫgnvaldr take no part in
the earlier encounters. The only followers of Rǫgnvaldr mentioned when he is first
attacked are two complete unknowns, a young Norwegian called Ásólfr who gets
petulant when he loses a hand in the fight, and Jómarr, said to be a kinsman of
the earl. Jómarr could be said proleptically to have carried out the vengeance
for Rǫgnvaldr with his spear-thrust to Þorbjǫrn's intestines which was the
ultimate cause of his death. It is therefore odd that he is not more celebrated
for this, rather the focus is on Þorbjǫrn for heroically persisting despite
such a grave injury.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This reading suggests that the narrative of R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr's
death did not come from his camp. He does not cover himself in glory, but then
neither does Haraldr. Indeed, Haraldr's prevarications stand in contrast to the
way in which R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>gnvaldr himself managed totally to evade any
responsibility for the elimination of his rival Páll Hákonarson twenty-two
years earlier. It has been suggested that the
narrative derives from the eyewitness account of the sons of Hávarðr, but as
already noted these only come into the story at a slightly later stage.
Certainly the close attention to landscape and place-names in chapter 103 does
suggest origins in an account by someone who knew the area and perhaps even was
present at the events. But the real import of the narrative is in the speeches
of both <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Þ</span>orbj<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫ</span>rn
himself, and Magnús Hávarðarson, as cited above. These are both deeply
political speeches, encapsulating what must have been a matter of much local discussion,
at the time or afterwards, about responsibility and benefit in situations where
a leader is ousted.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By contrast, the rather glowing obituary for R<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ǫgnvaldr
in chapter 104 presents him as quite the paragon:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s death was much
lamented, because he was very popular there in the isles and widely elsewhere.
He had been of assistance to many people, generous with money, calm and loyal
to friends, a man of many skills and a good poet.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This can presumably be seen as official church or court
propaganda, especially since it follows the reference to his translation many
years later, and so is likely to represent a later, whitewashed picture. There
is little sense of this person in the chapter describing his killing and, as
already suggested, Haraldr does not necessarily come off much better either. Chapter
103 resonates with a feeling of 'a plague on both their houses', the response
of an exasperated population who is not particularly enchanted with the
leadership available to them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3TGkWaEkjHC8izh_bMpTb4T8AYS4vRgw76rubBQ48-KPVo3J8ic3L2NTLP-VYlWYw06iZvpWZMcC_DzUTAB7XQSwJdVxVxj4mW00nVf8q9mKRhik_k55-DCjsQUunYwM9y8BkdPbzqhNlJ3hhBxji134u3pwyrHwpL1J81dot1FLIrlMZvJ6x7NxrSwt/s4912/DSC07062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4912" data-original-width="3264" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3TGkWaEkjHC8izh_bMpTb4T8AYS4vRgw76rubBQ48-KPVo3J8ic3L2NTLP-VYlWYw06iZvpWZMcC_DzUTAB7XQSwJdVxVxj4mW00nVf8q9mKRhik_k55-DCjsQUunYwM9y8BkdPbzqhNlJ3hhBxji134u3pwyrHwpL1J81dot1FLIrlMZvJ6x7NxrSwt/s320/DSC07062.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Street named after Earl Rǫgnvaldr, Lerwick. He had connections in Shetland. Photo © Judith Jesch</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">This is for all 'exasperated populations' around the world....</p><br /><p></p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-25518443290278288542022-04-24T18:59:00.004+01:002022-04-24T18:59:23.613+01:00On Oak Hill I<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZGARmLnnFjSYrsq17WFikxBSV6u0ZWM65xUlPtyAX1gJjhKC4XwWBUqdzCh9jZ6E5JKvP9Hb_g0Y7gVibMZLeNKnM1fNpUtTxgposmG5bKcESwN0OPAJ_-yBUoZXfEhz6wzL7wHrp6eEtGI4LNhWuO_zkvLugbWx0myI974UxdodV5jSBs_eWZY29g/s4000/20220424_112208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZGARmLnnFjSYrsq17WFikxBSV6u0ZWM65xUlPtyAX1gJjhKC4XwWBUqdzCh9jZ6E5JKvP9Hb_g0Y7gVibMZLeNKnM1fNpUtTxgposmG5bKcESwN0OPAJ_-yBUoZXfEhz6wzL7wHrp6eEtGI4LNhWuO_zkvLugbWx0myI974UxdodV5jSBs_eWZY29g/w400-h180/20220424_112208.jpg" width="400" /></a>It's good to be in Norway again on <a href="https://www.niku.no/forskningsprosjekt/viking-nativity-gjellestad-across-borders/" target="_blank">Norse and Viking business</a> and today I had a free day in Oslo. I'm almost ashamed to say that despite coming here regularly for many decades and even living here a long time ago, I had never been up to Ekeberg. Until, that is, when, on a previous trip in a brief Covid lull last December (<a href="https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/forskning/prosjekter/norron-poesi-og-utviklingen-av-sagalitteratur/index.html" target="_blank">on different Norse and Viking business</a>), our group was taken up there for dinner one night, and <a href="https://www.ekebergrestauranten.com/" target="_blank">a very fine dinner it was too</a>. Seeing what a fabulous view there is from up there of the city, particularly the newer parts of the city in Bjørvika, I decided I really needed to go back up that hill on my next visit. So there I was today in Ekebergparken, on a slightly chilly but still beautifully sunny spring day, ready for both <i>friluftsliv </i>and cultural experiences. And, wow, there are certainly a lot of those!</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaReMwzvT7JW1zsCkR93KoZEdh5nPEdzqJeEYK0pli5tVD8ZlUmEwOA10TGBZhm_1Kihzip0441EkrXTtnRJ9cVAxJQUx1nHvfFhSG0p8QAGYcpvezgEch1TIB8K_Pus8j8XvyvscXgnn-c1LrJgYl48DgSt4BxDiNGXBHna_kiDhld1Y51U1LmnYhw/s3264/20220424_120617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="3264" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaReMwzvT7JW1zsCkR93KoZEdh5nPEdzqJeEYK0pli5tVD8ZlUmEwOA10TGBZhm_1Kihzip0441EkrXTtnRJ9cVAxJQUx1nHvfFhSG0p8QAGYcpvezgEch1TIB8K_Pus8j8XvyvscXgnn-c1LrJgYl48DgSt4BxDiNGXBHna_kiDhld1Y51U1LmnYhw/w400-h180/20220424_120617.jpg" title="Drawing attention to the ship setting" width="400" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Today, most of Ekeberg is a part of Ekebergparken, which is primarily a sculpture park, and more about these in a moment. But the area has associations and antiquities from the Stone Age to the twentieth century, all within a fascinating morning's walk. There's <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/historie" target="_blank">a good website explaining it all here</a>. In the Stone Age, the plateau was actually an island, but as the ice receded and the land rose up, gradually it came to be the prominent hill it is today, rising up to 200m. above the sea level of the Oslofjord. There are rock carvings galore, including a <i>helleristning </i>(petroglyph) with hunted animals, and quite a few cup marks, those slightly more boring but still mysterious rock carvings. There are burial mounds, some possibly from the Bronze Age, most probably later, into the late Iron Age (early Viking Age to you and me), all as far as I know still unexcavated. Mostly they are not particularly visible except with the eye of archaeological faith (or expertise). Easier to see are a stone circle (or what remains of one) and a ship setting (ditto, and now reconstructed, as it was destroyed in the war). I particularly liked the way the ship setting was set off by a metal structure drawing attention to it and explaining it, even down to the little ship-shaped holes (click on the photo above to enlarge it and see!). There are dry stone walls from 2000 years ago and a cemetery wall which relates to the second World War. <a href="https://lokalhistoriewiki.no/wiki/Ekeberg_krigskirkeg%C3%A5rd" target="_blank">The Germans used a part of the area as a memorial cemetery for their fallen soldiers, with some monumental steps.</a> These steps were removed and replaced with modern steps, and the spot has the most glorious view of the blue Oslofjord. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-EWcGn-LlWrqNSkP0FZucPS94qCkmoxYBUgNQka4eTpBga1Ms9hIlwzb8eULiVtHU_gpZlwXoi3k-WDZuNYi4_OMMDGmGVSyQq1aD5Wr4sk7BnSuk5yK_ndWd8uCK6ww7xIFBpc92SI8Cm9BpD07RbP6-K5kOYsAXIImzWgM22YQiM0rNW6kFOo-Nw/s4000/20220424_123933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-EWcGn-LlWrqNSkP0FZucPS94qCkmoxYBUgNQka4eTpBga1Ms9hIlwzb8eULiVtHU_gpZlwXoi3k-WDZuNYi4_OMMDGmGVSyQq1aD5Wr4sk7BnSuk5yK_ndWd8uCK6ww7xIFBpc92SI8Cm9BpD07RbP6-K5kOYsAXIImzWgM22YQiM0rNW6kFOo-Nw/w400-h180/20220424_123933.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2Ek5eWd9KfvVtahSN4j4O2Rpv9SnbKadncgTvdirUQl8pdzzR1TlOPh2TYgMRU1o_hIGMRT_ijAf9MIfFx78P2-M4tw9vo5uc2AvJ4IN4gzfOgCrV1YsUN0HLIt64nX7HgFawholBtJo7-PgAAj7L-015G32EyJeUMMHOd0leFBZ8DTSwaCotlRX9g/s4000/20220424_124506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2Ek5eWd9KfvVtahSN4j4O2Rpv9SnbKadncgTvdirUQl8pdzzR1TlOPh2TYgMRU1o_hIGMRT_ijAf9MIfFx78P2-M4tw9vo5uc2AvJ4IN4gzfOgCrV1YsUN0HLIt64nX7HgFawholBtJo7-PgAAj7L-015G32EyJeUMMHOd0leFBZ8DTSwaCotlRX9g/s320/20220424_124506.jpg" width="144" /></a></div>Two nineteenth-century houses in the 'Swiss Villa' style beloved in Oslo at the time, and the slightly Art Decoish restaurant from 1929 complete that strong sense of travelling through time. All of these are to be seen in a glorious wood carpeted (today at least) in wood anemones. Now you might just wonder about the name of the place, for Ekeberg (Old Norse <i>Eikaberg</i>) means 'oak hill' but there are very few oak trees about. I could identify spruce and birch, and the lovely (free) museum on the site informed me there are also willow, ash, pine, black alder and maple. Oak is of course a very useful timber and so most of the oak trees which once distinguished the hill enough to give it this name were felled and used to build things. The whole area was opened as a scuplture park in 2013, and there are currently <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kart" target="_blank">43 sculptures dotted about along the paths that wind through this wood</a> (as well as a 44th, a horrendous enormous red Santa at the bottom of the hill).</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEvW2X5Dm9C0wFhXHrctsQ7bWsG4sKKnDRp10c2s2uqn3jI3qhtiqUTNBtvi9Sul56dBn9wX4LqfwSAgRwnbMYApUfmfBocvqSaEJknp9qG7FdTns2bKNmPZX9m7nQ448tQYMWYVD53_KNcxLkslzh5-LDrk5-fw54tB6I_eP-70QGPuJqa82usj6Ng/s4000/20220424_130654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEvW2X5Dm9C0wFhXHrctsQ7bWsG4sKKnDRp10c2s2uqn3jI3qhtiqUTNBtvi9Sul56dBn9wX4LqfwSAgRwnbMYApUfmfBocvqSaEJknp9qG7FdTns2bKNmPZX9m7nQ448tQYMWYVD53_KNcxLkslzh5-LDrk5-fw54tB6I_eP-70QGPuJqa82usj6Ng/w150-h200/20220424_130654.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>The sculptures are both traditional and modern, and it's fair to say whoever chose them has a fondness for the female form (by both male and female sculptors), as these seem to predominate. There are some pretty big names here, ranging from <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/venus-de-milo-aux-tiroirs" target="_blank">Salvador Dali</a> to <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/anatomy-angel" target="_blank">Damien Hirst</a> via <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/man-and-woman" target="_blank">Gustav Vigeland</a>, and many other names that even a non-sculpture person like me has heard of. The sculptures themselves are a pretty mixed bunch, as might be expected, but they often appear in unexpected places, or in startling ways that certainly make it an experience to walk around and look at them. Some of the best ones are by female sculptors: <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/couple" target="_blank">Louise Bourgeois' couple</a>, dangling from the trees, and <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/traveler" target="_blank">Tori Wrånes' traveller</a> both surprise and delight, while <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/fideicomissum" target="_blank">Ann-Sofi Sidén's self-portrait urinating</a> is more engaging than you might think.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYc4nSFH4ZEgUYDATSXSYc5_IB9F91mESSozFPan4dDzi5W37Pt5PCG8az-F1PlpuFCRUo7eyc53zzsIDOAdlQC_7C10gsTjhtqZMnhNEB1sOSlw-qSJvHcPwVaU1k79wquqgNAJ3dJ6G_ArqIooOGDsG9HZQZo16LacN1z3Bc3Ai1zExh3WX_LYoQA/s4000/20220424_124635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="4000" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYc4nSFH4ZEgUYDATSXSYc5_IB9F91mESSozFPan4dDzi5W37Pt5PCG8az-F1PlpuFCRUo7eyc53zzsIDOAdlQC_7C10gsTjhtqZMnhNEB1sOSlw-qSJvHcPwVaU1k79wquqgNAJ3dJ6G_ArqIooOGDsG9HZQZo16LacN1z3Bc3Ai1zExh3WX_LYoQA/s320/20220424_124635.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>My favourite sculpture though was <a href="https://ekebergparken.com/en/kunst/walking-woman" target="_blank">Sean Henry's 'Walking Woman'</a>, slightly larger than life, and confidently striding along the footpath as her slightly smaller real-life counterparts were doing around her.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the Stone Age to the twenty-first century, with glorious views and a wonderful place for a walk, there is certainly something for everyone here. If you are ever in Oslo at a loose end, I highly recommend jumping on <a href="https://ruter.no/globalassets/rutetabeller/trikk/trikk-linjekart-09082021.pdf" target="_blank">the no. 19 tram</a> to Ekebergparken and checking it all out.</div><div><br /></div><div>'On Oak Hill II' to follow in due course ...</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-26911604530999473932022-03-19T09:18:00.004+00:002022-03-19T13:40:46.681+00:00Tooley Street Delight<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlf8MJR8pUm-5bqdYBruuGEyEO5fFMy56HD2kZ30zJOSlp5AV4XsoyH3yBnpdhEmTAhm7ZsU7uSC9CJfLdtcCKwE38sAZKXLhtj4NFq3RmY2Dz1nBecDSus8WrKMhJjitKV_9uAv8eADyY5hvG_8zCemPi56yixR1zvEQUjpibuYi0xJbZpOMAQ9g2Vw=s3264" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlf8MJR8pUm-5bqdYBruuGEyEO5fFMy56HD2kZ30zJOSlp5AV4XsoyH3yBnpdhEmTAhm7ZsU7uSC9CJfLdtcCKwE38sAZKXLhtj4NFq3RmY2Dz1nBecDSus8WrKMhJjitKV_9uAv8eADyY5hvG_8zCemPi56yixR1zvEQUjpibuYi0xJbZpOMAQ9g2Vw=s320" width="320" /></a></div>On academic business in London the other day, I chanced upon Tooley Street, just near London Bridge Underground station. Now, I've known about Tooley Street for a long time, but never actually visited it, which was clearly remiss of me, as you will understand below.<p></p><p>Tooley Street takes its name from St Óláfr of Norway, or rather from a church dedicated to that saint, as explained by <a href="http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%20XII.pdf" target="_blank">Bruce Dickins in a classic article in <i>Saga-Book </i>in 1940 (pp. 67-68).</a> As Dickins shows, there are quite a few churches dedicated to the saint in London, but this one is special, since its site is very close to one of Óláfr's youthful exploits, as recorded in the poem <a href="https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1360" target="_blank"><i>Víkingarvísur</i> by the king's Icelandic poet </a>Sigvatr Þórðarson, and edited by yours truly some years ago.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgcgcrzfY_HM0qMaCjOb3hUc8FA2KhW8IEjfHiXgqrkIZdvYWVS17ppLpFqJVShUvktYPfRFlb3TbqWSE1ARknRRMJUPbycUXM3u3WlCFuyQnN2vKGhaKmuD9RWbzKA2OT0xM2edvIn5qUO88iNyM7NBm2RV_dFYCLZ_BI1oFeAXwaE3cD4UxA9Fm8Ew=s1094" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="867" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgcgcrzfY_HM0qMaCjOb3hUc8FA2KhW8IEjfHiXgqrkIZdvYWVS17ppLpFqJVShUvktYPfRFlb3TbqWSE1ARknRRMJUPbycUXM3u3WlCFuyQnN2vKGhaKmuD9RWbzKA2OT0xM2edvIn5qUO88iNyM7NBm2RV_dFYCLZ_BI1oFeAXwaE3cD4UxA9Fm8Ew=w159-h200" width="159" /></a></div>The poem recounts, in a numbered list of battles, the future king's youthful adventures in England and across the European continent. <i> </i><a href="https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3847&x=0&v=t" target="_blank">Stanza 6 is as follows</a>:<p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a; font-size: 14px;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">Rétts, at sókn in sétta,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">(snarr þengill bauð Englum</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">at) þars Ôleifr sótti</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">(Yggs) Lundúna bryggjur.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">Sverð bitu vǫlsk, en vǫrðu</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">víkingar þar díki;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">átti sumt í sléttu</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">Súðvirki lið búðir.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">t is correct that the sixth battle [took place] where Óláfr attacked the wharves of London; the valiant prince offered the English {the strife of Yggr <= Óðinn>} [</span><span class="kenref" style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">BATTLE</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">]. Frankish swords bit, and vikings defended the ditch there; some of the troop had huts in level Southwark.</span></span></p></blockquote><p>At the end, he returns to Norway to become king and eventually martyr, Scandinavia's first royal saint, and <i>rex perpetuus Norvegiae </i>(Norway's forever king)<i>.</i> </p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a; font-size: 14px;"></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">It is of interest that stanza 6 mentions two specific place-names, giving the location of the battle, firstly Southwark and then the <i>bryggjur </i>of London. I have argued that this does not refer to London's bridge(s), as one might think, but to the wharves of London (as depicted on the cover of the book pictured above; follow the link above to read more about this question, there are also some comments there on the name <span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;"><i>Súðvirki </i>and on the possible meanings of the word </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;"><i>víkingar </i>in this context</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">)</span></span>.</div></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpWQi1ZVVUPGHasXJS-dX0ZvRGmjOK5l0z2ZJqHltflYITUUpWuYqWzIqEO-Dt85lSS_EvUFNwmCNfTrO8jnTDqIuQgYMiSfhYs14XbgM2B_jQv7acBt6WYWNodUmeKqGI6pxyvj5_t-sXoE-gtwMtZth-C-tpRiiXnhrzveZqhZD7Jpio9cgEqTIoVw=s4000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpWQi1ZVVUPGHasXJS-dX0ZvRGmjOK5l0z2ZJqHltflYITUUpWuYqWzIqEO-Dt85lSS_EvUFNwmCNfTrO8jnTDqIuQgYMiSfhYs14XbgM2B_jQv7acBt6WYWNodUmeKqGI6pxyvj5_t-sXoE-gtwMtZth-C-tpRiiXnhrzveZqhZD7Jpio9cgEqTIoVw=s320" width="320" /></a></div>But getting back to Tooley Street, imagine my delight to discover that one part of London Bridge Hospital is the unbelievably splendid (and grade II* listed) St Olaf House. This was built on the site of the old church, which stood until 1737, then was rebuilt and eventually demolished in 1928 to be replaced by this amazing edifice in 1932. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Olaf_House" target="_blank">It was originally built for the Hay's Wharf Company and became a part of the hospital in the 1980s. </a>It's a lovely example of Art Deco, <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1385977?section=comments-and-photos" target="_blank">with lots of gorgeous details and quite a splendid entrance</a>. I'm surprised it hasn't appeared in one of the Poirot episodes (or perhaps it has?).<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEOwkTU2uwuQBcBDGNpaK1DQN_W31HuRX7yYztB6tN8unMX63Zw4T9E5wZO35NjihR-oXmGgEXbvIyGQ_uL10g-dmshDAkFQlRWnRRu2bEopm2U3p_ee8-zr7igqj8EitIXwjQ8lRdt6YySXV2pIMVT4ys5KuHCCysEpI3nW-Q5K8sRaCVsGePdnVDbQ=s4000" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEOwkTU2uwuQBcBDGNpaK1DQN_W31HuRX7yYztB6tN8unMX63Zw4T9E5wZO35NjihR-oXmGgEXbvIyGQ_uL10g-dmshDAkFQlRWnRRu2bEopm2U3p_ee8-zr7igqj8EitIXwjQ8lRdt6YySXV2pIMVT4ys5KuHCCysEpI3nW-Q5K8sRaCVsGePdnVDbQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>An inscription on the corner of the building gives a brief history of the site and mentions Óláfr's military activities in the vicinity. However the exact history of all this is difficult to determine. <a href="https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3847&x=0&v=t" target="_blank">Back in 2013 I wrote:</a> '<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">Although Óláfr appears to have fought for the English King Aðalráðr (Æthelred) after the death of Sveinn tjúguskegg ‘Fork-beard’ in 1014, Snorri’s claim that Óláfr’s earlier battles were fought in support of him ... is probably erroneous ..</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">. His earlier English campaigns seem rather to have been fought alongside Þorkell inn hávi and the Danes ...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">, and it appears that Óláfr ‘like his friend Þorkell, changed sides and became a supporter of Æthelred’ (A. </span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="ajaxpopup" class="ui-link" data-position-to="#dom.head" data-rel="popup" href="https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3847&x=0&v=t#ajaxpopup" style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a; text-decoration-line: none; text-shadow: none;">Campbell 1971</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">, 12). The skaldic stanzas do not in themselves clarify who Óláfr’s allies and opponents were, nor exactly where and when he fought; even when they are considered in conjunction with the English and Norse prose sources much remains uncertain ...' And it goes without saying that the idea that </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c370a;">Óláfr’s exploits are commemorated in the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is falling down' is most likely fanciful.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYqnvn4nKxOCGqnl_lhmA2C6rRDhXV0dVaWs0-1ylvp50uilAg34yHwizrYY2OqTqgu2zR4iWmu5mrfbGP-bTCGxZWqcUAgMwOIPwyHAljOGATcas9ieA2jgXcbAsc7S7E7mzqlu2G_ouFw8eUJr9sUX_5mmSkCJXv8-l26-vVD2ZITVOZwh-EEUvALw=s4000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYqnvn4nKxOCGqnl_lhmA2C6rRDhXV0dVaWs0-1ylvp50uilAg34yHwizrYY2OqTqgu2zR4iWmu5mrfbGP-bTCGxZWqcUAgMwOIPwyHAljOGATcas9ieA2jgXcbAsc7S7E7mzqlu2G_ouFw8eUJr9sUX_5mmSkCJXv8-l26-vVD2ZITVOZwh-EEUvALw=s320" width="240" /></a></div>The other corner of the building depicts the royal saint in all his regal majesty, rather than as a young attacker (or possibly defender - the stanza is a bit ambiguous) of a muddy ditch. It is this subsequent saintly and regal figure, rather than the youthful warrior on his gap year abroad, that is commemorated in this very fine building. I'm glad to have discovered it for myself and can recommend it as a must visit for anyone who loves both Art Deco and royal Viking saints....<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdOkzZh4zLrbRgOV34CjOw8WOvikUUAzlMLqTUjAoJY0sC_ye36YARMT1uHLCqfYuTlWwCpnnpsX7ooCVD6cgm-e7yrn_l_lvr_lj0mC5_hv4Te_-iGA9tyeZ8woUp-6ZwovXJo0gyuWs54tmH7dgshLsvMw1P9caf6YzQ83vQMeqcUTXdF2zXv2-jww=s4000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdOkzZh4zLrbRgOV34CjOw8WOvikUUAzlMLqTUjAoJY0sC_ye36YARMT1uHLCqfYuTlWwCpnnpsX7ooCVD6cgm-e7yrn_l_lvr_lj0mC5_hv4Te_-iGA9tyeZ8woUp-6ZwovXJo0gyuWs54tmH7dgshLsvMw1P9caf6YzQ83vQMeqcUTXdF2zXv2-jww=w320-h240" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3LoByLzRhFH9_4URqE9gQ6oAbxECNUhwHRayaKoE32d8mv2hpRJkVakrpAFGBRtzL2yVk0pBUz7fkNkOr1SaNak1Nr1FA3K3pBoQ40BWQqDsExq0aGXqZlMVm2_2qaU9kw_0wxB4PSpXP6nKiuU-mbpchhvV6L7DrOKVE1kIs0Ug68srmjN7NHG_NAA=s4000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3LoByLzRhFH9_4URqE9gQ6oAbxECNUhwHRayaKoE32d8mv2hpRJkVakrpAFGBRtzL2yVk0pBUz7fkNkOr1SaNak1Nr1FA3K3pBoQ40BWQqDsExq0aGXqZlMVm2_2qaU9kw_0wxB4PSpXP6nKiuU-mbpchhvV6L7DrOKVE1kIs0Ug68srmjN7NHG_NAA=s320" width="144" /></a><p></p></div>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-1807305965864793032021-07-29T15:27:00.004+01:002021-07-29T19:33:28.752+01:00St Olaf and Orkney<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC43MXM_7ajwufzuKNNQvI7yFcDzL453T6bR0IZ1xr2eqmudUrh-hWnFmFy8dz4YbLfI9MW6rHt2QPswxtEwl96E_HxKfeYWUhBgGz-327NOLVs9lTMEEg9je30-weO9Dsef17kAzKQUkU/s640/Orkney+011+%25282020_08_30+10_58_25+UTC%2529+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC43MXM_7ajwufzuKNNQvI7yFcDzL453T6bR0IZ1xr2eqmudUrh-hWnFmFy8dz4YbLfI9MW6rHt2QPswxtEwl96E_HxKfeYWUhBgGz-327NOLVs9lTMEEg9je30-weO9Dsef17kAzKQUkU/w150-h200/Orkney+011+%25282020_08_30+10_58_25+UTC%2529+%25282%2529.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doorway in Kirkwall<br />photo by Judith Jesch</td></tr></tbody></table>Today is the feast day of Óláfr Haraldsson, king of Norway and saint, who died in battle, killed by his political enemies at Stiklestad, on this day in 1030. He soon became a popular saint in many parts of northern Europe and further afield, as can be seen in some interesting contributions on Twitter today (they tend to turn up every year on this day, and I have been guilty of some blog posts on this theme too). Thus, St Óláfr was venerated in England (<a href="https://twitter.com/ClerkofOxford/status/1155788075001401345" target="_blank">Eleanor Parker</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/DrFrancisYoung/status/1420693394955833347" target="_blank">Francis Young</a>), Denmark (<a href="https://twitter.com/HopeSteffen/status/1420706916934864898" target="_blank">Steffen Hope</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/DCLAReadingRoom/status/1420726423392763913" target="_blank">Ireland</a>. So it is no surprise that he was an important figure in Orkney, too. The doorway pictured is what is thought to be left of a medieval church (possibly from the eleventh century) dedicated to St Óláfr in Kirkwall.<p></p><div>As an important saint and historical figure, Óláfr gets quite frequent mentions in <i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, the text I'm mainly working on these days. That he was considered to have a special bond with some of the earls of Orkney is also clear. Thus, in chapter 29, Earl Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason travels to Papa Stronsay to get some malt for the brewing of ale for the upcoming Christmas feast. While they were sitting by the fire there one evening, </div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">....he
who was stoking the fire spoke about how the firewood was running out. Then the
earl misspoke and said this, ‘We will be fully old when these fires have burned
out’. But what he wanted to say was that they would then be fully warmed up. And as soon as he noticed, he said this, ‘I have not misspoken before, as far as I remember. What occurs to me is what my foster-father, King
Óláfr, said at Stiklestad, when I heard him misspeak, if it ever happened that
I misspoke, that I should prepare myself that I would stay alive for only a
short time. It might be that kinsman </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Þ</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">orfinnr
is alive.’ [my translation]</span></span></div></blockquote><p>And indeed, Rǫgnvaldr's uncle and rival earl, <span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Þ</span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">orfinnr Sigurðarson and his men turn up and make short work of killing him to consolidate </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Þ</span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">orfinnr's power.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg5Ih2kT9iS9pnk-B7vnPljx_B-Qw9SficJIgRAiPl3uoHcpQUS-ZNvnIYmg-ihU8-lXjFYA5LjXZCI5_YJne_Q8J7bKK1b_hODN25UKG-y6bLfLVrhafHd5mJr7ZMemNea1XaD69TL0M/s2048/Orkney+017+%25282019_01_18+21_50_53+UTC%2529.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg5Ih2kT9iS9pnk-B7vnPljx_B-Qw9SficJIgRAiPl3uoHcpQUS-ZNvnIYmg-ihU8-lXjFYA5LjXZCI5_YJne_Q8J7bKK1b_hODN25UKG-y6bLfLVrhafHd5mJr7ZMemNea1XaD69TL0M/w150-h200/Orkney+017+%25282019_01_18+21_50_53+UTC%2529.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">South doorway<br />St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall<br />photo by Judith Jesch</td></tr></tbody></table>The earls of Orkney were often in the habit of killing their kinsmen to ensure their own grip on power. The most notorious example involved the feud between <span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Þ</span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">orfinnr's grandsons, the cousins Hákon Pálsson and Magnús Erlendsson. The former killed the latter on the island of Egilsay at Easter, creating another much loved Scandinavian aristocratic saint, to whom the very beautiful cathedral in Kirkwall is dedicated, replacing the smaller church dedicated to St </span>Óláfr.<p></p><p>Magnús' connection to <span style="line-height: 18.4px;">St </span>Óláfr is perhaps not quite as clear as that of his father's cousin Rǫgnvaldr, though the saga does connect their deaths chronologically, stating somewhat confusedly that the killing of Magnús happend 74 years after that of <span style="line-height: 18.4px;">St </span>Óláfr (ch. 51) - although we don't know the exact year it happened that is out by at least a decade.</p><p>As can be seen from the quotation above, Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason had been present at the battle in which Óláfr was killed, while Magnús in his turn became a saint like Óláfr, his cathedral sponsored by his nephew, also called Rǫgnvaldr, who was in his turn murdered by his political enemies in the interminable internecine warfare of those times. Despite his saintly powers, Óláfr could no more keep his Orcadian earls alive than he could keep himself alive, but it may have comforted these political martyrs that he was on their side. Certainly, through the powers of sanctity and the church they are remembered more than the kinsmen and compatriots who killed them.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-39162633102673559672021-04-03T17:04:00.002+01:002021-09-15T21:12:58.227+01:00The Tale of the 'Holiday Shocker'<p> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlatDOGNnrAzGhqlShfKEssNx_PCES6Z4yRAOsKetXjorkVzHQXO8noQ49JUpOTzOJ1iAWgpFfQn2Di4N6LmspmboLSmJEyrrUPnarmKfWFxz1g3x3hHNQAC0TIbCl1MED_mKp3rG9mgj2/s1804/1312-Chris+Fell+1965+cropped.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1804" data-original-width="967" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlatDOGNnrAzGhqlShfKEssNx_PCES6Z4yRAOsKetXjorkVzHQXO8noQ49JUpOTzOJ1iAWgpFfQn2Di4N6LmspmboLSmJEyrrUPnarmKfWFxz1g3x3hHNQAC0TIbCl1MED_mKp3rG9mgj2/w108-h200/1312-Chris+Fell+1965+cropped.jpg" width="108" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine Fell in 1965<br />from a photo<br />kindly provided by <br />Gillian Fellows-Jensen </td></tr></tbody></table>One of my most treasured possessions is my copy of Sigurður Nordal's scholarly edition (1913-16) of <i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, which has been my constant companion for over two decades now, ever since I inherited it from my former colleague and friend Professor Christine E. Fell OBE (1938-1998; you can read about her on <a href="http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%20XXV.pdf" target="_blank">pp. 214ff. of this link</a>). I have treasured this volume for its mere existence, because this edition is not always easy to get hold of and it is essential to my work on this saga and on Orkney generally. As a result, it's started to get a bit battered. Using it regularly always reminds me that it was Chris who encouraged me to go to <a href="https://orkneyheritagesociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987.pdf" target="_blank">a conference in Kirkwall in 1987, celebrating the 850th anniversary of St Magnus Cathedral</a>. It was my first visit to Orkney and so she can be held responsible for my subsequent obsession with the place. But, although I have always been aware that the book has an interesting history, I've only just recently started to explore that history in more detail through the clues in the book itself.<p></p><p>The book bears the mark of Weeks & Co. Binders. London. N.W.1., and it was when it was bound that the letter that explains the book's provenance was bound into it. Loosely inserted into the book (it's a miracle that I still have it) is a small, neatly written note that explains who that letter was from. More on the letter later, but first the note. It is signed (but not dated) by Edith C. Batho. The name rang a faint bell with me, so with the help of Wikipedia, I discovered that she was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Clara_Batho" target="_blank">Principal of Royal Holloway College of the University of London from 1945-62.</a> There I thought I had a possible connection with Chris Fell, as she got her BA in English from Royal Holloway in 1959, and Batho was an English specialist. Chris Fell went on to do an MA in Old Norse at UCL, awarded 1961, and presumably her interest in the subject began during her undergraduate years. However I have not been able to find any evidence that the two met then, though it is quite possible - in the late 1950s, there were apparently fewer than 400 students in the college. There's a nice <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dr-edith-batho-12954" target="_blank">painting of Edith Batho in 1961 here</a> and I would like to imagine that Batho had given Fell the book around then, but it could equally have been at a later date. I'm told by an authoritative source that Batho was a regular attender at meetings of the <a href="https://www.vsnr.org/" target="_blank">Viking Society for Northern Research</a> until her death, suggesting that she was still interested in Old Norse topics even after her retirement. This could have been where they met if not before and it gives an extended window during which Batho could have given Fell the book, perhaps especially when Chris was the Society's President 1980-82. But I also know that Chris was an assiduous purchaser of secondhand books and had built up an impressive library before her own death in 1998, so she might have bought the book after Batho's death in 1986. At the same time, Chris was keen for her books to be passed on to people who would find them useful, which is how I and some other younger colleagues and students had the privilege of selecting items from her library after her death. I suspect that this attitude reflected her own experience as a grateful young scholar on the receiving end of important books, which is why I like to think she got it directly from Edith Batho, whenever that was.</p><p>But why did Edith Batho have this book in her possession? Well, she had a degree in English and, although Wikipedia only mentions her publications on Wordsworth and the Victorians, she also had an interest in Scottish texts. She published on James Hogg, the 'Ettrick Shepherd' (more on this below) and co-edited<a href="https://digital.nls.uk/publications-by-scottish-clubs/archive/106519409" target="_blank"> John Bellenden's 1531 translation into Scots of Hector Boece's </a><i><a href="https://digital.nls.uk/publications-by-scottish-clubs/archive/106519409" target="_blank">Chronicles of Scotland</a> </i>for the Scottish Text Society. And she published an article on <a href="https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.nottingham.ac.uk/stable/3715102?sid=primo&origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank">Sir Walter Scott and the sagas</a> in the <i>Modern Language Review </i>for 1929. Well, that's more than enough to explain why she might want the edition of <i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, but how did she get it?</p><p>The answer is in the letter, which Edith's note explains is from Olivia Stuart Horner, 'my friend for 50 years'. While the note is not dated, the letter is, to '10.11.25', so the note cannot have been written any later than 1975 and could be quite a bit earlier. In 1925, Edith was 30, and Olivia a bit older (the note states that she married Sir Ernest Barker a year or two after writing the letter and the <a href="https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Horner-1623" target="_blank">census records that she was baptised in 1891</a>, though elsewhere it is suggested that she was born in 1894). Googling <a href="https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=3878&inst_id=13&nv1=search&nv2=" target="_blank">Olivia Stuart Horner</a> certainly gave me a clue to what the letter says about the book. Olivia was the god-daughter of no less than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._P._Ker" target="_blank">William Paton Ker, a distinguished literary scholar</a> usually known as W.P. Ker, who was himself Scottish and who wrote on both Old Norse and other medieval topics. Among his many achievements was the establishment of the <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/3f039f1e-980f-3951-83c9-47de286e8d51" target="_blank">teaching of Scandinavian Studies at University College London in 1917.</a> Olivia was with him when he died on a walking tour of Italy, at a place called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macugnaga" target="_blank">Macugnaga</a>.</p><p>According to the letter, Olivia is sending Edith what she describes as 'W.P.'s "holiday shocker" as he called it in 1923 at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macugnaga" target="_blank">Macugnaga</a>'. The reason she had it was because 'it got among other paperbacked books' which she discovered as her family was moving house. Clearly Edith thought highly enough of this rough paperback (the original paper covers are bound into the back of my copy) to have had it bound in London, with the letter also bound in to indicate its provenance. Olivia notes that 'you are the right person to have it'. This is explained by the fact that not only did Edith get her degree in English from University College London in 1915, while W.P. was Quain Professor of English there, but her book <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Ettrick_Shepherd/OTmNAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=edith+batho+ettrick+shepherd&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank"><i>The Ettrick Shepherd </i>(1927)</a> is posthumously dedicated to him. The preface makes clear that it is based on work she did for her MA, and one could surmise that he was her supervisor for it, but then perhaps these things worked differently in those days. I'm wondering if it was W.P. who introduced his promising student to his god-daughter.</p><p>W.P. Ker's literary interests were very wide, and when he wrote about Old Norse texts it was usually to place them in a broader literary context. Typical is his inaugural address when he became President of the Viking Society for Northern Research (then still known as the Viking Club) printed in its journal <a href="http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%20V.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Saga-Book </i>as 'Iceland and the Humanities'.</a> He was very active in the Viking Club during the first two decades of the twentieth century and <a href="http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%201-22%20searchable/Saga-Book%20IX.pdf" target="_blank">his obituary in </a><i><a href="http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%201-22%20searchable/Saga-Book%20IX.pdf" target="_blank">Saga-Book</a> </i>notes that 'The thing for which he cared most was the study
of what Scandinavia had given to the world' (p. 410).</p><p>Although Olivia Barker is less well-known than the other actors in this little saga, there's actually quite a bit more to say about her and her family, even if it is not especially relevant to my book and its history. She was born in Cheshire, but by the <a href="https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/results?datasetname=1911%20census%20for%20england%20%26%20wales&sid=103&firstname=olivia&firstname_variants=true&lastname=horner&keywordsplace_proximity=5" target="_blank">1911 census </a>was living in Surbiton, and may have spent time in the family's ancestral home of the <a href="https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Horner-3927" target="_blank">Manor House in Mells, Somerset</a>. At the time of writing the letter she was, on the testimony of the letter itself, still living in Surbiton but about to move to Sussex. One of her brothers, <a href="http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/klmno/Maurice%20Stuart%20Horner.html" target="_blank">Maurice, was murdered in London in 1943</a>, a murder that was never solved. Another, <a href="http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/ch-d-e/David%20Horner.html" target="_blank">David, wrote a novel based on this murder and was the long-term partner of no less than Osbert Sitwell.</a></p><p>I still need to find out whether the Scot W.P. Ker had a particular interest in this 'Scottish' saga, or whether he was just omnivorous when it came to Old Norse-Icelandic literature. So far I have not discovered any specific references in his works (but there are very many!) to <i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, but maybe he was reading it for the first time on that fateful Italian holiday. After all, it had only quite recently been published. So there may still be more to be found out about my treasured book. In the meantime, I'm delighted to have learned a bit more about its adventures.</p><p>So it's wonderful to think that my copy of this book has been to northern Italy with W.P. Ker, sat on the shelves first of Edith Batho and then of Christine Fell, and here I've been bashing it about for 20-odd years. I really must take better care of it! And from a personal point of view, I am delighted that this book links three Past Presidents of the Viking Society (Ker, Fell and myself) and three women scholars (Batho, Fell and myself), and that it is all down to Olivia Stuart Horner's clearout.</p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-26188455628770184012021-03-08T00:00:00.003+00:002021-03-08T07:32:04.259+00:00International Women's Day<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><blockquote dir="rtl" style="border: none; margin: 0px 40px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><p style="text-align: right;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrtV9nUrxYbKxIxMhU1ndL4fz0yj00XNE4MD-D3RhVxSR5JVDCIJgOq4ZG0aRwWzijkHqJUGDjzJoQo7ZepAudNn_p58JsddmERbwbfP0g1tzSCSAKnjBofscURasyD9bFWe_46HLCpWJL/s1000/Astrid_olofsdatter-taler.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="629" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrtV9nUrxYbKxIxMhU1ndL4fz0yj00XNE4MD-D3RhVxSR5JVDCIJgOq4ZG0aRwWzijkHqJUGDjzJoQo7ZepAudNn_p58JsddmERbwbfP0g1tzSCSAKnjBofscURasyD9bFWe_46HLCpWJL/w126-h200/Astrid_olofsdatter-taler.jpg" width="126" /></a></div><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For International Women's Day it is always useful to remind ourselves that, even in the Viking Age, women were approximately half of the population. There seems to persist an idea that both Vikings and everything that went on in the Viking Age were somehow entirely a masculine domain. Naturally, I have been trying to nuance this picture for at least thirty years (this year being the anniversary of my </span><a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780851153605/women-in-the-viking-age/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank"><i>Women in the Viking Age </i>(1991)</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, still to my amazement in print after all this time. I suppose it is still useful to people though I hope my ideas have moved on a bit since then.</span></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although I haven't been publishing on this topic too much recently, I still often get asked to talk about it, or write in a popular context. So here are some links to what I have said or written about women and other female figures in the Viking Age during the last few years:</span></p></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: inherit;">'In Praise of Queen Astrid' 10-minute talk from the British Academy (March 2021)</span></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-praise-queen-astrid-norway/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #005597; font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-praise-queen-astrid-norway/</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;">[the image above is how the late nineteenth-century artist Christian Krohg envisaged Queen Astrid's speech at the Swedish assembly, public domain via Wikimedia Commons]</div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Inghen Ruaidh, the Birka Grave and Viking warrior women’ podcast on</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit;">Not What You Thought You Knew </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">with Fern Riddell and guests (September 2020)</span></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; text-align: left;"><a href="https://play.acast.com/s/notwhatyouthought/inghenruaidh-thebirkagraveandvikingwarriorwomen" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #005597; font-family: inherit;">https://play.acast.com/s/notwhatyouthought/inghenruaidh-thebirkagraveandvikingwarriorwomen</a></div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Valkyries: Fierce women of war’ on BBC World Service, </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit;">Forum</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> with Bridget Kendall and guests (July 2020)</span></li></ul><p></p></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjvk" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #005597;" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjvk</a></span></p></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>'Viking women at home and at war', <i>History Extra </i>(March 2019)</li></ul><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/vikings-women-home-matriarchs-traders-artisans/">https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/vikings-women-home-matriarchs-traders-artisans/</a></p></blockquote><p> </p><p>For those particularly interested in shield-maidens, I do have an article forthcoming in the <a href="https://journals.uio.no/viking/index" target="_blank">journal <i>Viking</i></a>. </p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-17396144238192051042020-11-29T17:12:00.001+00:002020-11-29T17:12:23.425+00:00If You Want to Listen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Z4_yl8cnOKlUcJ_fL8OOxVoxr6gwaj-OIMpr0fgQ7gaTQvdagTXT_SGgzx_i5563MmW0qqmIkhAzL6jSG4xD0DjPDMPpysE9_IZsMqrMPWlhqbxDeuEQFpieVa43_Ez9qEde_75SWa7c/s2448/DSC05638+%25282019_01_17+08_58_29+UTC%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1624" data-original-width="2448" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Z4_yl8cnOKlUcJ_fL8OOxVoxr6gwaj-OIMpr0fgQ7gaTQvdagTXT_SGgzx_i5563MmW0qqmIkhAzL6jSG4xD0DjPDMPpysE9_IZsMqrMPWlhqbxDeuEQFpieVa43_Ez9qEde_75SWa7c/w200-h133/DSC05638+%25282019_01_17+08_58_29+UTC%2529.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Shameless self-promotion has not generally been the main purpose of this blog.
I've tended to aim for the slightly quirky, or even personal, just recording things that I have
found interesting. But I have also enjoyed bringing to light various Norse and
Viking things that I have observed in my studies or my travels. And every
once in a while I am minded to comment on books or other phenomena from the
academic world of Viking studies. Over the last few years (and especially during
the pandemic) I have increasingly been doing this in the form of podcasts and other
audio discussions or interviews. While my preferred medium is still the written
word, I have noticed that more and more people seem to like listening to
something more than reading something (and unlike reading it's something they can more easily do while doing something else). So I have enjoyed this way of communicating
with people who might not otherwise read anything I have written. The audio
experience is also different from this blog (and from much of what I write) in
that in these contributions I am not necessarily following my own nose but more likely responding to questions or topics
suggested by those who produce them, and this can force me to look at
things differently.
<div><br /></div>
<div>
So, for those who think this blog has been a bit thin of late, or who can't be
bothered to browse in it, here are some links to the things that I have been
broadcasting to the world in recent times, in reverse chronological order:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://sevenages.org/podcasts/the-viking-diaspora-saaj-42/" target="_blank">The Viking Diaspora</a>
- podcast interview with two of the guys who run the
<a href="https://sevenages.org/" target="_blank">Seven Ages website</a>,
'Exploring History, Archaeology, Science and Culture' (November 2020)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;"><a href="https://play.acast.com/s/notwhatyouthought/inghenruaidh-thebirkagraveandvikingwarriorwomen" target="_blank">Inghen Ruaidh, the Birka Grave and Viking Warrior Women</a> </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;">Not What You Thought You Knew </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;">with Fern Riddell and one other guest (September 2020)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-indent: -47.0667px;"><br /></div><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjvk" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.45pt;" target="_blank">Valkyries: Fierce women of war</a><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.45pt;"> BBC World Service, </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.45pt;">Forum</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.45pt;">
with Bridget Kendall and two other guests (July 2020) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-indent: -47.2667px;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;"><a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/everything-you-wanted-know-about-vikings-judith-jesch-podcast/" target="_blank">Everything you ever wanted to know about the Vikings, but were
afraid to ask</a> </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;">History Extra </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;">podcast with David Musgrove (May 2020)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-indent: -47.0667px;"><br /></div><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003jp7" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">The Danelaw</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">In Our Time </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">BBC Radio 4 with Melvyn Bragg and two other
guests (March 2019) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://thehistoryofvikings.com/episodes/runes-the-vikings-in-their-own-words-w-dr-judith-jesch/" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;" target="_blank">Runes: The Vikings in their own Words</a><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;"> on The History of Vikings podcast with Noah Tetzner (October
2018) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-indent: -47.0667px;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -35.3pt;">By the way, the title of this blog post is a quotation from the first
stanza of <i>H</i></span><i style="text-indent: -35.3pt;">áttalykill </i><span style="text-indent: -35.3pt;">'Key of Metres' by
<a href="https://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/m.php?p=text&i=1347" target="_blank">Earl Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson and Hallr </a></span><a href="https://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/m.php?p=text&i=1347" style="text-indent: -35.3pt;" target="_blank">Þórarinsson, ed. by Kari Ellen Gade</a><span style="text-indent: -35.3pt;">
for the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 35.3pt; text-indent: -35.3pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -35.3pt;"><br /></span>
</p>
</div>
Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-86543129950334322832020-09-19T11:37:00.005+01:002021-02-12T19:43:47.067+00:00The Children of Ash and Elm<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRZ11PeayyCzD30sDzRJtD1p5FU_2ah4XrQ97NzuyByKwDVNzOoRGAvbRsFJth23nAJIMQ_Xf93USUIBkgFM_spmebsupHFlUkG_YuYLJW3B_HauoLGbiwF5O_u7dPYMYuvrV8hJdt04q/s1032/Price+cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1032" data-original-width="774" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRZ11PeayyCzD30sDzRJtD1p5FU_2ah4XrQ97NzuyByKwDVNzOoRGAvbRsFJth23nAJIMQ_Xf93USUIBkgFM_spmebsupHFlUkG_YuYLJW3B_HauoLGbiwF5O_u7dPYMYuvrV8hJdt04q/w150-h200/Price+cover.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">In what now seems like a completely other world, less than a year ago I wrote <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/some-viking-reading.html" target="_blank">a </a></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/some-viking-reading.html" target="_blank">blog post listing some recommended Viking reading</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. If I had been writing that blog post now, I would certainly have had to consider this very recent offering (it was published last month), all 599 pages of it, with the rather curious title </span><i><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/298807/the-children-of-ash-and-elm/9780241283981.html" target="_blank">The Children of Ash and Elm</a></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and the more prosaic subtitle </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">A History of the Vikings</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. This book is by Neil Price, one of the best-known Viking specialists working today. He is professor of archaeology at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and leader of a massive 10-year project called </span><a href="https://www.arkeologi.uu.se/Research/Projects/viking-phenomenon/" target="_blank">The Viking Phenomenon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. By any account, this book, one of the outputs of that project, deserves serious attention.</span></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have to admit that not long ago I declined an opportunity to review the book, though this was only for practical reasons and not from any disinclination. Since then no one else has asked. So I thought I'd share some thoughts here. In fact, I rather like the freedom of writing as many (or as few) words as I like, and not having to follow the conventions of book reviews, or worry about who I was writing for, or explain the book to those who haven't read it and are wondering whether they should or not (the short answer is yes, though there's a longer and more complicated answer below). So this is <i>not </i>a review. Just some thoughts, mainly on those aspects of the book which particularly interest me, and which may or may not be of interest to others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first thing to note is that not only have I read it, but I have read it carefully and in its entirety and enjoyed doing so. You might think this goes without saying, but I can assure you that when it comes to popular or trade books about the Viking Age, this is very rarely the case for me... Too many books about the Vikings, aimed at a general audience, just say the same old things, in the same order, and in the dullest possible way. They might have their uses in providing the basics for those who know nothing, but I can rarely get past the first few pages... I <i>assume</i> this one is intended for a wide audience, as it is published by Allen Lane and will I guess eventually become a Penguin paperback, presumably to replace <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/22491/the-vikings/9780141984766.html" target="_blank">Else Roesdahl's <i>The Vikings</i></a>, which has now been around for quite a long time. So the very fact that I enjoyed reading it, and with attention, tells you a lot. However, its destiny as a popular book also makes it a bit difficult to review. How much should we expect of it? Who is it really for? We all know that it is really hard to encompass the whole of the Viking Age without making some mistakes, but how significant is that in this context? Does anyone care? I'm always being told that our first priority is to engage as well as inform the general public. But how far do we go in this process?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, this book is certainly very engaging. So what do I like about it? A variety of big and small things. Most important to me is how Neil's love of his subject shines through every word on these 599 pages. Here is someone who likes Vikings and the Viking Age a lot, <a href="https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/studywhatyoulove/2013/03/08/why-study-vikings/" target="_blank">as much as I do</a>, almost certainly even more than I do, although probably for very different reasons. He resists the dreary tendency of some archaeologists to insist on the calling it the 'Viking period' and instead argues cogently (p. 9) for the validity of the notion of a 'discrete Viking Age'. He even admits that he is 'promoting the Vikings' worldview' (p. 26), something that sounds potentially dangerous these days. But it's not sinister, rather it is clear that his aim is deep understanding, an attempt to get inside the skin of the Vikings. Overall, I like this attitude. This is not a book for those who want battles and bling, rather I see it as an attempt to work out what motivated battles and bling (and of course much else).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another good thing is that some of the book is about the centuries before the Viking Age, a period which is given a variety of names in different archaeological traditions (usefully tabulated on p. 66) and which is less well studied outside the circles of Scandinavian archaeology than the Viking Age itself. Very few books about the Viking Age consider this preceding period in any detail and it is illuminating to see both the continuities and the changes. In fact, you could argue that the author's idea of a 'discrete' and in many ways unified Viking Age is justified by that very contrast with the preceding period, with its multiple monikers and lack of a unifying narrative. Despite his over-fondness for <i>Beowulf </i>and the sixth-century 'dust veil', this focus on the pre-Viking period is still an important aspect of this book. I would also say the author is generally good on religion, even if I shudder at his adoption of the term 'religiolect' (p. 207), or when he overstates <a href="https://notts.rl.talis.com/items/76CFEE8D-80B4-5C58-60AD-482EB4BFE6D3.html" target="_blank">the evidence for worship of the Norse deities in England</a> (p. 408).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am of course very pleased that the author recognises the usefulness of the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Viking-Diaspora/Jesch/p/book/9781138020795" target="_blank">concept of 'diaspora'</a> in understanding the Viking Age - this word is the title of the whole of chapter 13. Unlike many others, he is also alert to the fact that it is a difficult word to use and needs explanation and exploration rather than just appropriation (see especially pp. 363-5 and 555).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, overall, this is a book which has many new and interesting things to say about Vikings and the Viking Age and already for that reason it is well worth reading. It's also a book which stimulates both thought and occasional disagreement, and I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some Thoughts about some of what Neil says.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book is definitely the product of an archaeologist's mind, as indeed his predecessor Else Roesdahl's is. Allen Lane/Penguin still seems to belong to the class of publisher who believes only archaeologists are qualified to write about this topic. However, Neil is one of those archaeologists who is not only not embarrassed to use Old Norse texts to help understand his subject, but is also pretty knowledgeable about them. Indeed he has been supporting his archaeological interpretations with textual evidence for most of his career. This is laudable, but has some dangers. I have sometimes noticed that not only MA dissertations and PhD theses but also papers by more senior archaeologists have a tendency to use his work as a primary source to access these texts. While it is understandable that archaeologists cannot also be textual specialists, I think there is still some educating to be done here. But that is not this author's fault, rather that of those who use him in this way. This book is upfront about its use of sagas in particular, more than once urging its readers to 'read the sagas' - which can only be a good thing. I'm also totally with Neil when he notes (p. 23) that 'skeptical literary researchers' are probably too skeptical since they do not explain where all the Viking Age material in the sagas comes from, though his own justification (e.g. p. 222) is a bit thin. Let's by all means have more exchange and discussion of this topic which is sorely needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I am disappointed to have to say that this book is not a particularly good advertisement for the use of sagas, or indeed any old texts, in archaeological narratives. At the most basic level, there are too many errors, often of a linguistic variety. So not only are we introduced to those weird Anglo-Norse hybrid dynasties the 'Ynglingas, Skjöldungas, and Völsungas' (p. 92) but, even more egregiously, the <i>Saga of the Ljósvetningas </i>(p. 160). I think our author has been reading too much <i>Beowulf </i>and not enough sagas<i>. </i>Constantine Porphyrogenitos' <i>De Administrando Imperio </i>is, despite the title, written in Greek not Latin (p. 366). <i>Miðjarðarhaf</i> is a literal translation of 'Mediterranean Sea' and nothing to do with <i>Miðgarðr </i>(p. 374).<i> </i>A few such errors are forgivable but there are a little too many for my taste. Especially because they could easily have been eradicated by asking someone who knows about these things to read through the manuscript. But despite two pages of Acknowledgements to the Great and the Good of Norse and Viking Studies (pp. 574-6), this appears not to have been done, at least not successfully. The hubris of thinking you know everything affects us all in the end...and it's those who really do know a lot who have to be particularly careful. (I'm looking at myself here, too).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, some of Neil's reading of Old Norse texts is at least debatable and sometimes just wrong. On p. 55, he conflates without notice the texts of the poem <i>Darraðarljóð </i>and the prose narrative of <i>Njáls saga</i> in which it is cited. This is a pity for the argument because many people believe the poem is a genuine Viking Age product, while the saga definitively is not, and is therefore unlikely to be a reliable guide to what the poem really means. (I've more than once heard archaeologists at conferences claim they are citing the saga when in fact they are using the poem - when making a point about textiles, for example, this is an important distinction). Individual texts are in danger of being overinterpreted. Thus, Neil says (p. 110) that <i>Rígsþula </i>'describes an elaborate high-status wedding with fine linens and much ceremony', but there is no such thing, only a very sketchy reference in st. 38 (40 in Larrington's translation) to Erna marrying Jarl and wearing linen. On the same page, he refers to the 'impotence' of Hrútr in <i>Njáls saga</i>, whereas most readers would I think say this character's marital problem was too much potence. We're told that 'sagas and poems are utterly saturated in magic' (p. 221). Well, yes, there is a fair bit of magic in these texts but 'utterly saturated'? Not in my experience. 'Professional mourner' is an odd concept to link to the Eddic heroine Guðrún (p. 253) in a context in which it is clear that she is mourning her own daughter - surely a genuine tragic figure rather than a hired weeper. It all smacks a bit too much of making the evidence fit the argument.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Runes are also not well-represented in this book, despite many of them being, unlike the sagas but like some poetry, contemporary texts from the Viking Age or earlier. It's disappointing when the author misses several opportunities to mention that important archaeological finds he discusses actually have runic inscriptions on them, such as some of the pre-Viking weapon deposits at Illerup (p. 70). Even more scandalously, the carved stones of the Isle of Man are mentioned for their Christian iconography beside images from Old Norse cosmology (p. 417) without any reference to their (more frequent, but perhaps less obviously exciting) runic inscriptions. Two Swedish rune-stones which Neil alleges (p. 112) provide evidence for men having two wives simultaneously are not only rather slim evidence for polygyny but could also be read in a variety of ways, even before we consider t<a href="https://www.academia.edu/3873231/Runic_inscriptions_and_social_history_some_problems_of_method" target="_blank">he problems of using these laconic inscriptions to write social history</a>. And no, Ingibjörg did not have 'sex with me when I was in Stavanger' (p. 192). The medieval (not Viking Age) Bergen rune-stick N B390 M says that <i>Ingibjörg unni mér þá er ek var í Stafangri </i>or 'Ingibjörg loved me when I was in Stavanger'. You might argue that the verb <i>unna </i>is a euphemism here (though not always in <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2012/02/runic-valentine.html" target="_blank">runic inscriptions where it does seem to indicate romantic love</a>). But I would argue that is interpretation which needs to be argued for, ideally with a consideration of how the word is used in other contexts. In this context, what is needed rather is just to get the translation right. Norse-speaking people are not known for euphemisms and did not shy away from the f-word when they needed it, as can be seen from several runic inscriptions including a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7186160/Earl_R%C3%B6gnvaldr_of_Orkney_a_poet_of_the_Viking_Diaspora" target="_blank">famous one in Maeshowe</a> (also post-Viking Age). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Any one of these slips, individually, is not significant on its own, but there are rather a lot of them when it comes to the texts. What is more concerning is the overall pattern, of exaggeration and dramatisation, of literally sexing up things that were originally perhaps more mundane. Too much of this ends up with a slightly cartoonish view of the Vikings which both feeds into and panders to the ways they are portrayed in popular culture. Boring as I am, I would argue that the Vikings are fun enough without having to exaggerate what they were up to, they don't need all this showmanship. The end result is that the book sits very uneasily on the border between scholarship and yet another 'popular' version of the Viking Age. This is a worrying tendency in several aspects of Viking studies today, one example being the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/meet-the-vikingsor-meet-halfway-the-new-viking-display-at-the-national-museum-of-denmark-in-copenhagen/A40E54491325BC2E3951F975F6452708" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">controversial Viking display at the National Museum of Denmark</a>, though this book is not I think in that league, mercifully. And yet many people will regard this book as the 'defnitive' view of the Viking Age (as can be seen from both journalistic reviews, and consumer reviews on Amazon). Once again, the drive to 'engage' the public seems to be at the forefront of all public-facing scholarship and is in danger of overshadowing the actual scholarship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This popularising tendency may be responsible for the author more or less ignoring certain forms of evidence which are not so easily tied into a colourful narrative (though others do manage it). So, place-names, a really important source of evidence, get very short, and sometimes inaccurate, shrift. It is simply not true that there are 'no non-Norse place-names in the Hebrides' (p. 404). I wonder if the author meant the Northern Isles in this instance, but even there this is not true. According to him, place-names provide the 'greatest evidence for the Scandinavian presence' in Normandy, 'as in several areas in the British Isles' (p. 419), but this point regarding the latter (and especially England) is not taken up elsewhere. The author could, I would suggest, also do with reading up on some of the recent (and older) discussion about the name of Norway which I, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/25123022/Etymologien_%C3%A5t_namnet_Noreg" target="_blank">in agreement with others</a>, no longer believe means the 'North Way' (p. 86). It's perfectly understandable that this is an area in which our multi-talented archaeologist author feels less confident, but I would really have liked to have seen more about this in a 599-page book which calls itself 'A History of the Vikings'.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even in areas where he is more knowledgeable, the author is not always entirely reliable. I didn't know that ringed pins were a 'uniquely Norse invention' (p. 135) and I doubt it, but admittedly that's not my area of expertise. Snaptun (the find location of a carving beloved of my students which ostensibly shows Loki with his mouth sewn up) is not 'near the Norwegian border' (p. 136) - Denmark does not share a land border with Norway. It did in the Middle Ages, but that is still not where Snaptun is. I do wonder how we can be sure that Sámi traditions recorded in early modern times go back to the Viking Age and beyond (p. 89). This could well be true, but I'd welcome some comment on the question, especially in light of the author's semi-skepticism about the (earlier-recorded) sagas. His disappointingly brief comments on genetic research (p. 381) add nothing to what is an important and current discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, despite the stated commitment to interdisciplinarity, and a voluminous bibliography (in which I have happily discovered many items I knew nothing about), I'm not convinced that the author has fully digested everything he has read, especially in other disciplines. The saga-references in particular read a bit like someone who once read a saga some years ago and is retailing it from memory. Personally, I do not mind these errors, they are easily made and I can recognise them and filter them out. I can also tell when the narrative slips from fact to speculation and I for one enjoy speculation even when I do not fully agree with it, because it stimulates thought. A case in point is the author's new-found conviction that the Vikings were non-binary or queer, which seems a bit tacked on here and there to a narrative which otherwise still assumes a highly gendered society (my considered views on shield-maidens will, I hope, be published elsewhere soon, in the meantime you can get an idea from <a href="https://play.acast.com/s/notwhatyouthought/inghenruaidh-thebirkagraveandvikingwarriorwomen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">this recent podcast</a>). The speculation is not always signposted though careful reading will reveal it. But I do wonder how many students and less experienced readers will look at the range of evidence cited and assume the author is equally expert in all of it. And then continue to cite him, rather than the original sources, for literary and linguistic detail... I'm almost tempted to say that you should study the Vikings for a few years before reading this book - you'll get more out of it and not be led astray. But is this the right kind of book for The Penguin Book of the Vikings? I'm already dreading some of Neil's more colourful exaggerations turning up in student essays for years to come.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite these disappointments, I do still really like this book. I hope it is recognised that engagement at this level of detail is a form of praise for this book - there are very few books I would take so much trouble to write about, especially in this informal way. I fantasise that I could even use this slightly uneven character of the book to train students in distinguishing between old news, new news and fake news, but it wouldn't be easy. The narrative is, I imagine, pretty seductive to those (almost everyone) who have less knowledge than Neil Price.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To end on a more positive note, the book has some insights or generalisations that are sufficiently interesting and provocative that I want to take them away and really chew over them, which is one reason I like this book. While it should not always be taken literally, the following random selection of observations shows some of the ways in which this book successfully stimulated my thought processes at least:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0cm 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px 2.5em;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'trickster ... nomenclature may not help in understanding [Loki] from the point of view of the Vikings themselves' (p. 46)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The mythology of the Vikings is one of only a tiny handful in all world cultures in which the divinities also practised religion' (p. 50)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[with reference to the Migration Period, but also relevant to the Viking Age, and here's looking at you 2020] 'Some were fleeing, and others were those they fled from. Most were looking for economic security, safety, and a quieter life while a powerful minority were trying proactively to shape a world more to their liking' (p. 68)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'it is the man's gender that was limited and intensive, while the gender of women was to a degree unlimited and extensive' (p. 172)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'the Rök stone ... was deeply socially embedded (and visible) in a way that the book cultures of the Continent never wished to be' (p. 195)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the importance of planning and preparing for Viking expeditions (p. 308)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the 'armies' in England were 'continuously evolving migratory communities' (p. 339) or 'armed family migrations' (p. 357)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'There is little evidence of racism in Viking society' (p. 398)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'the Vikings live on today primarily as tourist magnets, as the draw of heritage trails and "experiences". The Scandinavians of the Viking Age were acutely concerned with memory; they might have been happy at this.' (pp. 498-9)</span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-48233161633107291102020-09-05T23:03:00.001+01:002020-09-05T23:05:00.909+01:00Runes in Our Troubled Times<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lDgDeTyGIDqpGaiRcqm2ptm214fgAUr9b2vpXUYWIABJj0BlbQiXN7939Zp8qycYvfML7sEJo5AWAAK1j7sGTOtEe2zogGEH0WfGZNRWFuoNf2r_rORMmvkSYR383Hz7hGuRFT6_Asm8/s2873/20200905_214940+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="2873" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lDgDeTyGIDqpGaiRcqm2ptm214fgAUr9b2vpXUYWIABJj0BlbQiXN7939Zp8qycYvfML7sEJo5AWAAK1j7sGTOtEe2zogGEH0WfGZNRWFuoNf2r_rORMmvkSYR383Hz7hGuRFT6_Asm8/s320/20200905_214940+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Back in the day when this blog was nobbut a baby blog, <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/search?q=julian+cope" target="_blank">one of my first posts</a> gave a quick mention to the Odinic obsessions of a certain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Cope" target="_blank">Julian Cope</a>, ageing musician and antiquarian who grew up in Tamworth. Twelve years later, the Other Half is still keeping not-very-musical me up to date with Cope's antics, especially when they have a Viking flavour, as they often do, such as his 2017 album <i><a href="https://www.headheritage.co.uk/drunken-songs/" target="_blank">Drunken Songs</a></i> with a cute Viking ship on the cover. So I couldn't help noticing that his latest album, <i><a href="https://www.headheritage.co.uk/self-civil-war/" target="_blank">Self Civil War</a></i>, includes a runic inscription which is very familiar to me (pictured above). It is of course one of the graffiti from the chambered tomb of Maeshowe, on the mainland of Orkney, which I have had occasion to mention <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/search?q=maeshowe" target="_blank">one or two times before</a>. Not that you would know this from the album, which nowhere explains what these funny marks are...<p></p><p>The runes read <b>utnorþr : er fe · folhit · mikit</b>, which in standard Old West Norse is <i>Útnorðr er fé folgit mikit</i>, meaning 'In the north-west is great wealth concealed.' What it actually means is anyone's guess, though I suspect there is a strong element of joke about it, like many of the other graffiti in Maeshowe, several of which play with the idea that there was once treasure in the mound. Why this inscription is on this album is also anyone's guess, though Cope has a long history of being interested both in ancient monuments and Norse stuff. A quick internet search shows that he was <a href="https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/julian-cope-poses-backstage-at-the-lunar-festival-on-june-7-news-photo/476280458" target="_blank">writing a version of this message </a>(with what looks like a felt-tip pen) on a plastic-looking stone at the <a href="https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/julian-cope-poses-backstage-at-the-lunar-festival-on-june-7-news-photo/476277552" target="_blank">Lunar Festival in Tamworth in 2015</a>. OK, so he wrote 'buried' instead of 'concealed', and 'north', instead of 'north-west', but he is forgiven for thinking that treasure is always buried and for not knowing the concept of <i>útnorðr, </i>which<i> </i>only features in my more advanced Old Norse classes. Like many Old Norse words it reveals a fascinating way of looking at the world, but would require altogether another blogpost to explain.</p><p>But Cope does appear to have been doing his Scandi homework, since the album also contains a song 'Lokis sympati' in Danish. I don't pretend to understand what it's about, even though my reading Danish is excellent. If you have any thoughts, let me know! The credits say 'All words by Julian Cope' so I have to assume he knows Danish. Good lad. I suppose this goes back to his interest in <a href="https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/feature/danskrocksampler/" target="_blank">'lost Danish music'</a> which started in a charity shop in Melksham in 1999...</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaPHIy0x-_7Q-JirZD7AkoUyxD3DoyXDb8Bq3FVc-fYWjy9LmTIETiHYHnNdYNMrM-k8vMKdotL1ZVOM97mc7rQ4qKrJ3dk9UwAYMxVt-G9bc_XDs95dchAcfJtDf-k66PUpT4z6A0otk/s2048/20200905_215122%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaPHIy0x-_7Q-JirZD7AkoUyxD3DoyXDb8Bq3FVc-fYWjy9LmTIETiHYHnNdYNMrM-k8vMKdotL1ZVOM97mc7rQ4qKrJ3dk9UwAYMxVt-G9bc_XDs95dchAcfJtDf-k66PUpT4z6A0otk/s320/20200905_215122%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div><br />The title of the album is however not Cope's but taken from a poem from the 1630s, 'Self Civil War' by a certain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Brereley" target="_blank">Reverend Roger Brearley</a>. This one I do understand, all too well, and also Cope's comment that it 'seems to sum up the psychic and political divisions that many modern Brits share with their Cavalier and Roundhead counterparts.' This is even more true now than when the album came out at the beginning of this year. Let us hope we can somehow find that elusive treasure, wherever it is.<p></p><div><br /></div><p><br /></p>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-34881884523578043302020-01-14T07:40:00.001+00:002020-01-14T19:50:49.200+00:00Dad Runes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZAEsXHrFiDHGG5JgKMLmTKlZKTeYXGAEY1_Ytug-Pz-mtbGQehYyqVy5GALkTpa2bR65fXVmgwdZT93H981vLoSZnVs067m5387SGneSn2dK_b9dzgexQxWR9dw0nHhq3hZsV65JdZP0/s1600/20170923_164732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZAEsXHrFiDHGG5JgKMLmTKlZKTeYXGAEY1_Ytug-Pz-mtbGQehYyqVy5GALkTpa2bR65fXVmgwdZT93H981vLoSZnVs067m5387SGneSn2dK_b9dzgexQxWR9dw0nHhq3hZsV65JdZP0/s200/20170923_164732.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
The 29th of this month would have been Terje Spurkland's 72nd birthday. I first encountered him in the academic year of 1980-81, when I was on a scholarship in Norway and attended his lectures on Old Norse grammar, to improve both my Norwegian and my Old Norse. He was certainly a memorable lecturer, even then, but I didn't really get to know him until about ten years later. That was when I attended my first of what have come to be known as the '<a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/publications/nytt-om-runer/konv/conf-rep.htm" target="_blank">Annual Meeting of Field Runologists</a>' which on that occasion in 1990 ranged from Cambridge to Scotland, but with a focus on Northumbria. From then we met regularly at runic and other Norse and Viking events. The last time I saw him was again at one of the annual runologist meetings, in Västergötland, Sweden, in September 2017, where I took this runatic selfie (right) with him. Terje was a devoted runologist, a good colleague, and really excellent company on any runic excursion. He died on Christmas Day in 2018 from an aggressive form of brain cancer, and is deeply missed by all runologists, but also remembered by them and others with great affection.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgefY8ukp5Mz7lTc6ugiuOZ6TNpuWis57COv6JXMQKKmXQB9SI_uGF4axZYlYM3WC9gvVQD_FV9NW7FSHlg5mWH0SPwy2hDYRMtsKU0tZ1Kr56AwqsNsbKLS4BDjMzdXObFH-jfw7Wd6f/s1600/20200112_195809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgefY8ukp5Mz7lTc6ugiuOZ6TNpuWis57COv6JXMQKKmXQB9SI_uGF4axZYlYM3WC9gvVQD_FV9NW7FSHlg5mWH0SPwy2hDYRMtsKU0tZ1Kr56AwqsNsbKLS4BDjMzdXObFH-jfw7Wd6f/s200/20200112_195809.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
In this, what would have been his birthday month, I have been reading a memoir by his daughter Marte,<i> Pappas runer</i> ('Dad's runes'). It really is a most extraordinary book. Terje had been working for some years on a book about runes, but also about literacy more generally, with a particular focus on the 300 or so years when Norway in particular was a two-script society, in which both runes and the roman alphabet were used side by side, often by the same people. A substantial draft of this book was in existence when Terje's cancer was diagnosed at Christmas 2017. His daughter had the idea to work on it with him as a way of distracting them both from the tedium and anxiety of all the hospital appointments, treatments and general misery of the illness. In the end, it turned out to be a different sort of book, in which a very personal account of Terje's illness and its effect on his family is interwoven with an introduction to runes and runic inscriptions. The ideas about runes and inscriptions are very much Terje's, and derived from his manuscript, but seen through the eyes of his daughter, whose interest in runes only came during this last year of her father's life. Like dad dancing, her father's interest in runes was just an embarrassment to the younger Marte, along with his clogs and old rucksack, his firm opinions on some aspects of the modern world, his oft-repeated stories, and his generally friendly grumpiness. This book is the story of how, just in time, she discovered why runes are so fascinating and why her father was such a gifted communicator of that fascination.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKaa9w02K14yfPEsTZCNGRJ7iutEPSRBiKwA31i-qHa_ggGyHjr1tyloRLKwOuXzV6zbfYcujHicrFP8tdRRrcd8ZvPXR5tJqKV2WOlLR_ncMJ7E71G2u_KWEoT72Eud0q4Z8EmW5sWAP/s1600/20200112_204707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKaa9w02K14yfPEsTZCNGRJ7iutEPSRBiKwA31i-qHa_ggGyHjr1tyloRLKwOuXzV6zbfYcujHicrFP8tdRRrcd8ZvPXR5tJqKV2WOlLR_ncMJ7E71G2u_KWEoT72Eud0q4Z8EmW5sWAP/s200/20200112_204707.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
Obviously, the book is of great interest to those of us who knew Terje and who also love runes and runic inscriptions (though I think few people loved them quite as much as Terje did). Terje was a very popular teacher, and an engaging speaker, and his voice shines through much of what Marte writes about runes. In this way the ideas he had for his book find their way into print, though in an unusual context. It's hard for me to judge how the book would strike those who do not share these obsessions, or do not know the people concerned. However I believe the book has done very well here in Norway and even won a prize. It is certainly well-written and Marte switches between the two threads expertly. What I find fascinating is how well she has woven together the story of the rise and fall of runic writing with the story of Terje's last year on earth. There is an obvious metaphorical connection, and also many surviving runic inscriptions, especially on stone, are memorials to the dead. But some were raised by living people to commemorate themselves, and the book recalls how Terje commissioned the lovely stone pictured above right for himself and his wife Marit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVup8hn15Iz2dvS0NYZTYlNcSkggF8uvhPgDQ-KE7Pox6bqBe9204vhwsDrr2IAp-odYiPZislsm9d6_8L0eYh-7zXJKivd4-7Gm4MXinPGbaOJiOqOMf0pJmPD5bOcZL1JO_LNpXc0lA/s1600/20170812_102122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVup8hn15Iz2dvS0NYZTYlNcSkggF8uvhPgDQ-KE7Pox6bqBe9204vhwsDrr2IAp-odYiPZislsm9d6_8L0eYh-7zXJKivd4-7Gm4MXinPGbaOJiOqOMf0pJmPD5bOcZL1JO_LNpXc0lA/s200/20170812_102122.jpg" width="112" /></a></div>
Marte finds even more intricate connections, discussing runic inscriptions that echo the events and memories of the book. For instance, the 8th-century human skull with runes from Ribe, in Denmark, comes at the point in the book when Terje has had an operation on his brain. The Ribe skull has a hole in it which might be evidence of Viking Age trepanation, also a form of brain operation. The Jelling stone erected by Harald Bluetooth is linked to her father's late adoption of a very simple mobile phone, which nevertheless also had Bluetooth technology. The Eggja stone, which probably recounts a shipwreck, recalls Terje's feats of rowing. These took place in Terje's childhood tracts of Nordmøre, and visits there during the last year of his life evoke other inscriptions, like the Kuli stone and the very fine inscription in Tingvoll church, near the family cabin. In fact, much of the book evokes Terje as he was before struck down by illness, strong, reliable, often taciturn, kind, and with a wicked sense of humour. To me it's a familiar picture, and yet I also learned a lot about Terje the father, the husband, and the human being, as well as the runologist. He's lucky to have had such a daughter, even if her runic enthusiasm came a little late! Thanks, Marte.<br />
<br />
<br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-77637902149259261412020-01-12T09:28:00.001+00:002020-12-07T16:49:45.155+00:00Víkingr in Oslo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnIUikqRLv_44r4FEU2cs5dLML6LLRL1JFOFzpJaIuI6A1wIavjvj0OCEsBxKTUsfibKlm6IVmO4le1hdmv-JONsZq2xOrlK6aYtJOYIAZUDtmYkh867gZUALih-tN8Ba3S_CbrsQqCgyg/s1600/20200111_105704.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnIUikqRLv_44r4FEU2cs5dLML6LLRL1JFOFzpJaIuI6A1wIavjvj0OCEsBxKTUsfibKlm6IVmO4le1hdmv-JONsZq2xOrlK6aYtJOYIAZUDtmYkh867gZUALih-tN8Ba3S_CbrsQqCgyg/s200/20200111_105704.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Here in dismal, grey, snowless Oslo it was a delight to visit the <a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/besok-oss/historisk-museum/" target="_blank">Historical Museum</a> and especially its exhibition called<i> Víkingr</i>. The museum is currently being renovated, so this exhibition is a pared-down version of its old Viking Age exhibition, but also a long-term stop-gap while we wait for the <a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/new-viking-age-museum/norways-new-world-attraction/?fbclid=IwAR0_PxJb2dKNXGKbVpwvV_OkhoSLZS-rVF1XHFcFDBxb0CtpkgAeMP0auEA" target="_blank">new Viking museum on Bygdøy in 2025.</a> It's quite minimalist, in terms of both the way it is presented and what it presents. I suppose that is partly because of limited space during the renovations and partly from a recognition that the Viking Age is such an extensive and complex phenomenon that it is hard to encompass it all in one exhibition. So on entering the room the visitor is told to expect 'a selection of exceptional objects that reflect the world of the Vikings and what they valued'. This seems to me like a good idea - it admits it's only a partial view of the subject and gives the exhibition focus, even if it does lead to a slightly clichéd emphasis on war and bling. There is no 'daily life in the Viking Age' as we were also promised there wouldn't be in <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2014/03/" target="_blank">the big exhibition of 2013-14</a> - which was a shame in the much bigger exhibition, but fine for this one.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcp1wSpMbFFrIEtYgO7_dOetX2nfbpcGPvEoIkvksECyOlYIhq9yNQk4rHkgMD09wnTd0TWLQbxlCD7HTAzobmzNwfRSB1I4SntnSFlCxwqahC0wSAGzNLyvt_C4F4UxphOs6XIQCbwA2/s1600/20200111_113051.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcp1wSpMbFFrIEtYgO7_dOetX2nfbpcGPvEoIkvksECyOlYIhq9yNQk4rHkgMD09wnTd0TWLQbxlCD7HTAzobmzNwfRSB1I4SntnSFlCxwqahC0wSAGzNLyvt_C4F4UxphOs6XIQCbwA2/s200/20200111_113051.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Entering the room is a delight. It's a beautiful room in its own right, but is also very beautifully lit and laid out. The cases are all the same size and it is easy to follow them through the room in a logical order, with each row of three given an introduction on the wall to the right. The labels on the cases are very low down (for smaller people, or those in wheelchairs?) but there is a booklet you can borrow which gives general information and full details of all the exhibits. (You can also <a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/historical-museum/exhibitions/viking-age/index.html" target="_blank">download the booklet </a>in either Norwegian or English.) The massive Dynna rune-stone at the end and the logo behind it break up the monotony and draw the eye through the room, and you get to appreciate the <a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/om/tall-og-fakta/om-bygningene/historisk-museum.html" target="_blank">art nouveau details of this very fine building</a> from 1902.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNHPM0P32r31dv4NQuqwbPjt6xvRxDNg-QgcX0v6lbz_tVgEICUtdogZRL1L_WIok2m2OTh3GJ3mRtoLLgIXbWUobOmnAO9nRrw_HB6G3kMZm1y6hicLFLFrYMINJzyO59lyYNUMw6Qov/s1600/20200111_113009.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNHPM0P32r31dv4NQuqwbPjt6xvRxDNg-QgcX0v6lbz_tVgEICUtdogZRL1L_WIok2m2OTh3GJ3mRtoLLgIXbWUobOmnAO9nRrw_HB6G3kMZm1y6hicLFLFrYMINJzyO59lyYNUMw6Qov/s200/20200111_113009.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The exhibits themselves move logically from international contact and the riches acquired from there to war and its accoutrements, ending with religion and new ways. This does mean that the vast majority of the items displayed are of metal, with just a few beads and the rune-stone breaking up this heavy metal emphasis. But I'm not complaining, for some of the absolutely top metal objects from the museum's collections are on display: the gold hoard from Hoen, the Gjermundbu helmet, and plenty of coins, jewellery (including some made from bits of metalwork acquired in the west), Thor's hammers and weaponry. The other non-metal exhibit is the skull of the young lady from Nordre Kjølen that featured in a recent National Geographic documentary on women warriors <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/viking-warrior-women-more-of-same-i.html" target="_blank">which I discussed in a previous post</a>. The curators of the exhibition are suitably cautious as to whether or not this burial represents a female warrior, I was glad to see, and present alternative explanations.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMFBPEdl1kYm-D5nIiRjCSQHJZ8_k7t-lFyu3-v8vIaaiG9bVKa8fhDV0jFuYGS3SQN-0lNP07_l-z1Di-H8nzyb2McjK_WMl5EXwF-og7dNSYyhkY8xQ6zI2tDGS9XyOqv-nZKu0ojUd/s1600/20200111_112751+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNNHV5YmdC2AXD0BlbTprhYJNURBJhTrgB9Vgk3Bn-5DDKFPVMu505MtC-BfcaID_9mhKdMGmZCWggwmjumbKLJIgAGdiSQgT321_kNaxSEI4ozjLoWNFLKr9hCZBX5KWIrDwYWCoORhm/s1600/20200111_112751+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNNHV5YmdC2AXD0BlbTprhYJNURBJhTrgB9Vgk3Bn-5DDKFPVMu505MtC-BfcaID_9mhKdMGmZCWggwmjumbKLJIgAGdiSQgT321_kNaxSEI4ozjLoWNFLKr9hCZBX5KWIrDwYWCoORhm/s200/20200111_112751+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
In addition to the burial from Nordre Kjølen, women are well represented, in part by their jewellery (there are plenty of both oval and trefoil brooches) and by the magnificent Dynna stone. This has always been a striking element of the museum's exhibitions. It is a roughly 3-metre high pillar of sandstone on which a mother commemorates her deceased daughter Ástríðr, the 'handiest maiden in Hadeland' (her name is in the picture to the right) with a runic inscription and Christian images, particularly of the Epiphany (so very seasonally appropriate, even if a few days late).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfOWHbHDjNDgv_RYibUz7RCetg2TxwKVa3_kdFeVXBeESLnSd6_JZWiERWsUF6HNpzNE4kP2I_tYfbT-1x85deKhuDn-EfetmSYMP2exi22VKek2aXjRy93LVatL-uklBEHsvq_AuTWS_/s1600/20200111_113721+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="1600" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfOWHbHDjNDgv_RYibUz7RCetg2TxwKVa3_kdFeVXBeESLnSd6_JZWiERWsUF6HNpzNE4kP2I_tYfbT-1x85deKhuDn-EfetmSYMP2exi22VKek2aXjRy93LVatL-uklBEHsvq_AuTWS_/s200/20200111_113721+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
On the whole, I would say the exhibition is small but perfectly-formed, like the little gold serpent from the Hoen hoard pictured left, and well worth a visit. Also, if you buy a ticket to the Historical Museum, you also get in free at the current Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy, also a beautiful building containing some fabulous objects. I only wonder why they called this exhibition<i> Víkingr</i> (just one Viking?). <a href="https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/blog/whatdoesvikingmean/" target="_blank">I myself would have gone for<i> Víkingar</i> (Vikings) or even<i> Víking</i> (a Viking expedition).</a> Oh well, you can't have everything.Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-64322125338286572252019-12-24T13:05:00.003+00:002020-01-07T07:10:32.202+00:00Orkney Yule<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcPuuhH4e4cYZIIwy-sF3Ma9oapIkLEehyphenhyphencxK0_NvJWIn7hSCbJTIq1-kwGD7RqiRb9V7SFE5v1VNGdAYTUNp1MvvvPwUs_lS6Cp_ilmtXmP4LgojCqe78wL7bjizGvL1NVFB5KAvKj2E/s1600/Orkney+036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcPuuhH4e4cYZIIwy-sF3Ma9oapIkLEehyphenhyphencxK0_NvJWIn7hSCbJTIq1-kwGD7RqiRb9V7SFE5v1VNGdAYTUNp1MvvvPwUs_lS6Cp_ilmtXmP4LgojCqe78wL7bjizGvL1NVFB5KAvKj2E/s200/Orkney+036.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
The church at Orphir.</div>
<div>
Photo © Judith Jesch</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I noted in a <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2015/12/skaldic-yule.html" target="_blank">festive blog post a few years ago</a>, the Old Norse word<i> jól</i> can refer either to the pre-Christian midwinter festival, or the Christian one. What seems to unite them is that it is very much a time of feasting, as can be seen from both skaldic and saga-references. But the stories are generally interested in conflict, so we rarely get a picture of peaceful feasting, rather the Yuletide feast often seems to be a trigger for violent altercations. These violent events are quite clearly linked to the alcohol consumed at these feasts, and I guess it is these saga-episodes which give us our popular image of violent Vikings indulging in excessive drinking..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the saga about the earls of Orkney, usually known as<i> Orkneyinga saga</i>, we get two rather different views of the most famous of those earls, Þorfinnr Sigurðarson, at this season. In chapter 20, he is praised for how he treats his followers at this time of year and, yes, it does involve feasting, with perhaps a little moral twist to the tale:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Earl Þorfinnr did that admirable deed in the Orkneys that he gave hospitality, both food and home brew, to all his court and to many other powerful men all through the winter, so that they did not need to go to the tavern, just as it is the custom for kings and earls in other countries to entertain their court throughout Yule.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The anecdote is supported by a half-stanza by Arnórr <i>jarlaskáld</i> 'Earls' poet' emphasising Þorfinnr's generosity. It comes just at the point in the story in which Þorfinnr's brother Brúsi dies, and he takes power over all the Orkneys. The throwaway comment about keeping his men out of the pub also underlines his firm hand on the tiller of state.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The saga is largely about internecine warfare in the families born to rule. So it is no surprise that Brúsi's son Rǫgnvaldr soon comes back home from his travels to challenge for his share of power, which he gets, at least temporarily. Þorfinnr however starts to chafe at the power-sharing arrangement, which also involved political interventions from Norway. After a decisive battle, Rǫgnvaldr flees to Norway but soon comes back and sets fire to the farm where Þorfinnr was staying at the time, but doesn't realise that the earl has managed to escape with his wife Ingibjǫrg. Rǫgnvaldr assumes power and does his ruler's duty by going to Papa Stronsay for the malt with which to brew the Christmas ale (chapter 29).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">His followers never get to drink the brew, as Þorfinnr uses the advantage of surprise to attack Rǫgnvaldr and his men and burn the house down over their heads. Rǫgnvaldr has a premonition of his death just before: as they are sitting around the fire he misspeaks and says that 'we will have reached our allotted ages [<i>fullgamlir</i>]<i> </i>when these fires have burnt out', having meant to say<i> fullbakaðir</i> 'fully-baked', or 'well-warmed up', I suppose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Having eliminated his main rival ('the most popular and most accomplished of the earls of Orkney; his death was a great sorrow to many'), Þorfinnr consolidates his power and continues to rule successfully. His obituary is less positive. In chapter 32, we're told that he was the most powerful of the earls of Orkney. His death was mourned by those in his ancestral lands. But in those lands he had subjugated, people really felt their lack of freedom living under his power.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">More dramatic Yuletide events are recounted in chapter 66, as I alluded to briefly in <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2016/01/nordic-noir-yule.html" target="_blank">a blog post a few years ago</a>. It is a chapter of great interest since it not only provides quite a lot of detail about the buildings at the earl's residence of Orphir (remains of which can still be seen), but also gives a detailed account of the Christmas festivities as held by the earl, in this case Páll Hákonarson. Páll was at the time resisting claims to power by yet another Rǫgnvaldr, or Kali Kolsson, the nephew of St Magnús who had been killed by Páll's father Hákon. I told you there were family feuds aplenty in the saga.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The sequence of feuds and killings in the saga is really quite complicated at this point, so suffice to say that the episode marks our introduction to the saga's most complicated character, Sveinn Ásleifarson, a great power player in Orkney politics, and variously friend or enemy to several of the earls. At this point in the story, Sveinn's father Óláfr has recently been burned to death in his house with five other people. Sveinn uses the Christmas feast at Orphir as an opportunity to kill another Sveinn, called<i> brjóstreip</i> 'Breast-rope', an associate of the person responsible for <span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Óláfr's death.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">The narrative weaves the story of the killing into the sequence of Christmas festivities<span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. Orphir is said to have had a large<i> drykkjusk</i><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>áli</i> 'drinking-hall', with a fine church right next to it. Going into the hall, there was a large flat stone slab on the lefthand side, behind which were many large beer-barrels. When people came from Evensong, they were placed in their seats. After the tables had been taken up, most of the people went to sleep, but then got up during the night for the canonical hours. Then there was a high mass, and people then went to eat. There was a master of ceremonies, a certain Eyvindr, who was in charge of the feast, with waiters and attendants serving the drinks he poured out. There was a minor contretemps when Sveinn <span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>brjóstreip</i> thought he was being served more quickly than Sveinn Ásleifarson, who was holding back on the drinking, contrary to etiquette. After another service at nones, the drinking continued, with speeches and drinking from horns. Then Sveinn <span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>brjóstreip</i>, whose horn was smaller, wanted to switch with Sveinn Ásleifarson. Eyvindr intervenes to make this happen and Sveinn <span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>brjóstreip</i> mutters under his breath that one Sveinn will kill the other. This is heard by Eyvindr, who basically eggs Sveinn Ásleifarson to kill Sveinn <span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>brjóstreip</i></span>, but not before further drinking up until Evensong. The deed is done beside the aforementioned slab, as people are leaving the hall for church again. Sveinn Ásleifarson is spirited away and thanked by the bishop for his good deed in ridding the country of Sveinn<i> brjóstreip</i>. His responsibility for this (another man is killed too) becomes clear back in Orphir when the earl makes people go back to their seats and only Sveinn Ásleifarson is missing. Clearly, feasting your followers to keep them out of the pub and whatever trouble they might have got into there didn't really work, and the episode does seem to mark Páll out as a rather weak earl.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And so the feuds continue. It's rather hard to sum up all the events of<i> Orkneyinga saga</i> so I won't. But the episode presents quite a complex picture. Two people are dead and, though there are feuds and enmities to explain the killings, the sheer amount of drinking that appears to have gone on must have been a factor, too. Presumably the regular excursions to church broke the drinking up somewhat, but the church is also complicit in this kind of behaviour by the powerful, to judge by the bishop's reaction. Once again, there is a potent combination of the dark of winter, fire, home brew, and murder, here with added multiple church services.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's rather good to think that nowadays, factions of Orcadians compete and contend at Christmas (and New Year) only in a rough, but not violent, game of surfing a ball from one end of Kirkwall to the other, <a href="http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/bagame/" target="_blank">known as the Ba'</a> - indeed they are doing it more or less as I write this. And Merry Christmas to them.</span><br />
<i></i><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-54237921403310772722019-12-17T22:18:00.001+00:002020-02-03T20:04:37.480+00:00Viking Warrior Women - More of the Same? II<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnvr3YsnmCLRv60O2RDD8jBCivBY_Up5R01kMelXq9OMDQLL6titTVmC_PI6k2EWIOdVkXz1Qy-Gf8j75qhx48P98xzuqKE67oiLYkebf9vxXxQ2aiWaIMZu4tEwnwEiInd4hbWn_8xvg/s1600/18-06-21-mlb_16598_reproduction-artefacts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnvr3YsnmCLRv60O2RDD8jBCivBY_Up5R01kMelXq9OMDQLL6titTVmC_PI6k2EWIOdVkXz1Qy-Gf8j75qhx48P98xzuqKE67oiLYkebf9vxXxQ2aiWaIMZu4tEwnwEiInd4hbWn_8xvg/s200/18-06-21-mlb_16598_reproduction-artefacts.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reproduction dice and a gaming piece<br />
made by Adam Parsons<br />
(c) University of Nottingham<br />
CC-BY-4.0</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In my <a href="https://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/viking-warrior-women-more-of-same-i.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a>, I looked at two recent television programmes on this perennially popular topic. I found a few things to like but on the whole concluded that the programmes were still very much driven by a strong desire to prove at all costs that there really were Viking women warriors (without really defining what those might have been). I also came to realise that what is essentially an academic debate was being carried out in the televisual sphere rather than in more academic fora, to the detriment, I think, of the discussion. Basically, when a TV programme has a particular message to sell (as both of those did), there is no real discussion, apart from a few knee-jerk references to 'debate' and 'controversy', which are not explored. I'm not even sure I think there's that much of a controversy, so one-sided have most of the discussions been - these are straw men to stir up interest in the programmes. What there certainly hasn't been is any nuanced discussion of the fragmentary, ambiguous and complex evidence, let alone the challenges of defining our terms, and reaching conclusions through interdisciplinary explorations.<br />
<br />
I've never denied the possibility of female Viking warriors and, in case anyone still believes I am a warrior-woman denier, they should refer to what I wrote in 2015, even before the current discussions blew up in 2017 (<i>The Viking Diaspora</i>, pp. 104, 107):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...people in the Viking Age and its aftermath were perfectly capable of imagining women as warriors, or at least as imagining them carrying and using weapons, whether this occurred in real life or not. Doubtless it did occur in real life, since human beings are capable of most things, whether or not it is considered 'normal' for them to do so, but the strong emphasis on gender distinctions in Viking Age society already outlined suggests that it did not happen very often.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... that the very few women buried with weapons were warrior women in life seems the least likely explanation of all. </blockquote>
I may have moved slightly on the last point, but not that much. But really, being the nerd that I am, what I am most interested in is not the answers but the questions. I'm fascinated by the past because we know so little about it, we have to piece things together using, as I have just said, fragmentary, ambiguous and complex evidence. I also relish the challenges of defining terms, and of interdisciplinary explorations. And there is no doubt that such things are hard to put across in a television show. Which doesn't mean we shouldn't try. And I was heartened to come across yet another Swedish TV programme on Viking women warriors that shows signs of a more nuanced approach than the ones I discussed in my previous post. Even though it takes its starting point in the Bj 581 burial, and features some of the same experts as other shows, and despite its oddly provocative title, it does seem to be moving slowly towards that kind of more nuanced (and much more interesting) discussion that I have been looking for all along.<br />
<br />
The programme was first aired in October and comes from the series <i>Vetenskapens värld </i>'The World of ???' Unfortunately, we don't have an English word for <i>vetenskap</i> (as for German <i>Wissenschaft</i>). Although a literal translation would pick up on the root (from <i>veta </i>'to know') and translate it as 'knowledge', it is a bit more than that, implying science, scholarship and all those kinds of things that go on in universities (sometimes), and sometimes elsewhere too. The <a href="https://www.svtplay.se/video/24061026/vetenskapens-varld/vetenskapens-varld-sasong-31-sanning-i-sagorna?start=auto" target="_blank">actual programme is called 'Sanning i sagorna</a>?' or something like 'Truth in the sagas?' but again it doesn't translate well since the 'sagor' of the programme go beyond what we tend to think of as the (Icelandic) sagas. In this case, the anonymous Old English <i>Beowulf</i>, the Latin-writing Dane Saxo Grammaticus and the Byzantine historian Skylitzes all get a mention, and I would call none of their works sagas. So that is stretching it a bit, but despite the title, the programme takes an intelligent approach, at least to the female warrior question.<br />
<br />
My advice is to skip the first 40 minutes of the programme (some self-indulgent stuff about <i>Beowulf</i> not relevant to my topic today) and just watch the last 18 minutes which takes up the question of Viking women warriors again, in supposed contrast to the 'masculine world' of <i>Beowulf.</i> After a brief repetition of the scientific identification of our old friend Bj 581 as a woman, the camera shows Tommy Kuusela, identified as a historian of religion at Uppsala, w ith quite a pile of books. The voiceover states by way of introduction that there are a lot of 'more or less' trustworthy textual accounts of female viking warriors. Kuusela reads out the usual bits of Saxo, and then the relevant bit of Skylitzes, which the voiceover narrator claims is more more reliable than Saxo because written down in the 11th century (not quite correct, but I'll leave all that pesky detail for another occasion). But when challenged about the textual basis for Viking warrior women, Kuusela admits that there is no 'certain' evidence. This is then immediately contrasted with Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson claiming that the evidence of Bj 581 <i>is</i> 'certain' evidence for female warriors. But interestingly she straightaway modifies this by emphasising that this evidence does not mean that this was a common phenomenon. Also, unlike some other presentations, the programme recognises that the evidence could potentially be undermined by some of the find circumstances in which the bones might have been mixed up. Even though the osteologist Anna Kjellström reassures us that the remaining bits of the skeleton do in fact belong together and are from the right grave, it is still interesting to see these various admissions of potential uncertainty.<br />
<br />
There then follows a bit in which our heroine the presenter sets out to demonstrate what might be required physically of a female Viking warrior by meeting a combat trainer. Compared to a similar episode in the National Geographic programme, this seems much more realistic and the presenter concludes that it was not that simple to become a female viking warrior after all. The emphasis is very much on the physical training that would have been required to wear all that armour and swing those weapons, not to mention wielding the shield. This leads into the point that the Bj 581 skeleton shows no traces of such physical training, or indeed of wounds that might have come from fighting. Kjellström does point out the fragmentary nature of the evidence, that not much of the skeleton survives, so we cannot say for sure, but again it's good that these counter-arguments are aired. Back to Hedenstierna-Jonson and we get once again the argument that the playing pieces suggest someone whose role in war is a strategic one, as a senior officer, for example. The suggestion is made that the nature of the grave-goods suggest a member of the elite and that it was such elites that could 'break the gender mould'. Hedenstierna-Jonson brings up the parallels of patriarchal societies where women could nevertheless rule because they belonged to a particular dynasty (presumably she is thinking of the likes of Benazir Bhutto).<br />
<br />
It is then proposed that the spear in the Bj 581 burial was a kind of ticket to Valhalla for the deceased, but, importantly, it is stressed that this does not mean that she actually participated in battle in life. Kuusela's concluding suggestion is that she was the wife of a military leader who accompanied him on his expeditions (here I'm reminded of Admiral and Mrs Croft in Jane Austen's <i>Persuasion</i>) and who was buried in this way to follow him in the next world too. I'm not sure I really buy that argument, partly for lack of evidence of women in Valhalla (apart from valkyries, but they're another story...), but it's a thought.<br />
<br />
Just when you think the programme is over and the credits roll, there's a curious postscript. Our friend Leszek Gardeła pops up again and gives a better brief summary of the Åsnes burial than in the National Geographic programme (where it was supposedly a centrepiece), and, unlike there, with at least a hint of why the skeleton has been identified as female (it is slight and gracile). On being questioned about the Birka burial, Gardeła admits that the lack of trauma on the skeleton complicates the warrior interpretation, and that gaming boards might have had other meanings than indicating military commanders or strategists.<br />
<br />
All in all, I would say there is some considerable backtracking going on in this short programme from the original bombastic claims of '<a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2017/09/lets-debate-female-viking-warriors-yet.html" target="_blank">A Female Viking Warrior Confirmed by Genomics</a>' back in 2017. There is some recognition of potential problems with both the physical and the textual evidence, there is an emphasis on what being a 'warrior' (however that is defined) involves by way of training, and there are alternative suggestions put forward as to why a woman might have been buried with what is traditionally regarded as male equipment. And all in 18 minutes. Well done <i>Vetenskapens Värld.</i>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-22656614024825147462019-12-17T20:19:00.000+00:002020-02-02T11:58:26.870+00:00Viking Warrior Women - More of the Same? I<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGSXO5dhNfpVZw-6HjHVQ9Ht1_Ii3lFecQ5frbt8Zjeu75oYAIrUNMn29nTkEoT5vyTDKDy5gs_mvbTobL1FK6yhwXePbl278MIDja5kw8YHr8MxsZpAEuH9C856EcBZkcP2TUQSBioMBi/s1600/DSC03125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGSXO5dhNfpVZw-6HjHVQ9Ht1_Ii3lFecQ5frbt8Zjeu75oYAIrUNMn29nTkEoT5vyTDKDy5gs_mvbTobL1FK6yhwXePbl278MIDja5kw8YHr8MxsZpAEuH9C856EcBZkcP2TUQSBioMBi/s200/DSC03125.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MM131 Andreas II<br />
Viking Age runic cross from the Isle of Man, <br />
commemorating a certain Arinbjǫrg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I never for a moment thought the fascination with the possibility of female Viking warriors would go away. After all, <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/birka-warrior-woman-vikings-female-argument-judith-jesch/" target="_blank">I have already argued</a> that this fascination goes back at least as far as the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus writing in Latin around 1200, and since then <a href="http://blogg.mah.se/historiskastudier/2019/01/11/hyper-masculinity-vs-viking-warrior-women-pop-culture-vikings-and-gender/" target="_blank">it has come back at regular intervals</a>. Way back in 1991, I suggested (and I was not the only one) that Saxo's warrior women owed more to Amazons than to Vikings (<i>Women in the Viking Age</i>, p. 178). This is an aspect I have touched on in some talks over the past year, and which I am developing for a proper academic article in the near future, for those who think (with some reason) that blogs are not an appropriate venue for such discussions. In the meantime, of course, the proponents of the Birka warrior (Bj 581) continue to pop up all over the place. I have already discussed a brief reference in the Channel 4 programme <a href="https://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/04/britains-viking-graveyard.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Britain's Viking Graveyard</a>, last April, so won't repeat myself about that. Howard Williams will fill you in on the <a href="https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/fox-rocks-a-review-of-legends-of-the-lost-with-megan-fox-viking-warrior-women-an-archaeodeath-response-part-7/" target="_blank">Megan Fox approach</a> to the topic. What I thought I would survey in this blog post and <a href="https://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/viking-warrior-women-more-of-same-ii.html" target="_blank">the next</a> are three recent television programmes which take the discussion in new directions, not all of them entirely negative. I'm not going to rehearse arguments which have already been aired ('what is a "warrior" exactly?', 'do board games really indicate military leadership', etc. etc.) but try to see what directions these programmes are taking the debate in, since judging by the number of TV programmes just within the last year, the debate is being conducted on the airwaves more than in academic fora.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Den kvinnliga vikingakrigaren</h2>
<div>
<a href="https://www.svtplay.se/video/23227350/den-kvinnliga-vikingakrigaren" target="_blank">This programme </a>, the title of which translates as 'The female Viking warrior', was first aired on Swedish television in August of this year and is still available (in Swedish, though some interviews are in English). Although the main heading on the website describes it as a 'documentary', this is nuanced a bit in the paragraph below, which claims it is a 'drama documentary' based on 'research results'. It is basically a dramatisation of what the life of the person buried in Bj 581 'could have been like'. I will leave others to decide how well they think it works as a drama - in these contexts fiction is not my business. However, it seems clear enough to me that the dramatisation (which is only about half of the programme, interspersed with more academic content) seems designed to give further credence to those 'research results' to a wider audience. The programme makes brief reference to the 'international debate' those results caused back in 2017, without giving any sense of what the debate might have been about. Some of the interviews are with the archaeologists involved in the original research, and Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson in particular is worth listening to in her explanation of the importance of roles, and of belonging to a group, which I agree is an important aspect of the Viking Age. Other interviews are clearly designed to give the drama bit a sheen of academic credibility but they don't really explain anything. Thus Elisabeth Ward gives some useful information about Iceland, Greenland and North America, based on the sagas of Icelanders, but there is no explanation of why or how these sagas might be relevant to understanding the Bj 581 burial, it is just assumed that they are. This assumption that what happened in one part of 'Viking society' can explain what happened in another part of 'Viking society' is shared by Janina Ramirez who also generalises about 'Viking society' without reference to any actual evidence - her comments are all based on, and obviously meant to support, the narrative of the drama. At the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, the programme refers to 'Byzantine sources' as evidence for female warriors. This idea is crucial to the development of the narrative, which envisages the Birka person as having travelled to and to some extent developed her martial skills in the East - here we are presented with a rather distinct part of 'Viking society' when it suits the story. The programme several times makes the suggestion that Freyja was a goddess of war (the evidence for this is actually quite limited and mainly from Snorri), and the implication that she was therefore a goddess for female warriors. Also, my favourite bugbear, the word 'Viking' itself, makes some annoying appearances. The archaeologist Leszek Gardeła, asserts that 'Saxo talks about Viking women', but Saxo never used the word 'viking', and of course Saxo is problematic as I keep saying. And Ramirez asserts that 'the Vikings did not call themselves Vikings', <a href="https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/blog/whatdoesvikingmean/" target="_blank">but they did</a>! She also says that what they did say is that they would 'go a-viking', implying that it is a verb, <a href="https://roderickdale.co.uk/2017/08/03/viking-is-not-a-verb/" target="_blank">which it patently is not</a>. Yes, yes, I know I'm nitpicking, but even so, let's get it right folks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
The programme is yet another example of <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/birka-warrior-woman-vikings-female-argument-judith-jesch/" target="_blank">what I have called</a> 'a view of research ... which fills out our meagre evidence with speculation and imaginative reconstruction' which 'can lead to the blurring of the line between primary research and public presentation'. It's a difficult balance to manage in these days when academics are practically required to engage with the general public and I know how difficult that can be. I'm not sure how successful this programme is as drama - the story is interesting enough but could have been more so. It is clearly devised to reinforce the research results and the interspersed interviews tend to disrupt any flow it might have had. I cannot see this programme as anything more than yet another attempt to lodge the interpretations of the 2017 and 2019 articles even more firmly in the minds of the general public and cut off further discussions. I am still uneasy with the 'docudrama' format, since the 'docu' bit is just there to support the drama, and doesn't allow for any ambiguities in the interpretation of the evidence, let alone any counter-evidence. A proper documentary, however, can be expected to present different interpretations, no?<br />
<br />
<h2>
Viking Warrior Women</h2>
<div>
So is this programme such a documentary? It was first aired (in Britain at least) on the National Geographic Channel earlier this month, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/television-schedule#schedule=ngc/12/17/2019" target="_blank">I assume it is regularly repeated.</a> This programme is more closely focused on archaeology, which is I think a good move, since previous attempts have come a bit unstuck on the literary and linguistic aspects. Nevertheless, the credits show that Neil Price was a consultant on the show, so it is once again a show with a mission (as the presenter, an 'archaeologist and National Geographic explorer', admits). As the presenter, Ella El-Shamahi, is not to my knowledge a Viking archaeologist, she plays the traditional role of the non-specialist presenter being informed by a variety of experts, most of whom have already appeared in previous TV shows about this topic. One could almost get a bit bored... (Disclaimer: a few years ago, when National Geographic was first thinking about this programme, they got in touch with me with a view to interviewing me for it. For whatever reason known only to them, that never happened).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The non-specialist presenter is of course allowed to say things like 'It's always been assumed that Viking warriors were all men' or 'what is being revealed right now is transforming everything we thought we knew about the Vikings and how their women might have gone to war' to big up the programme, even though they are patently untrue. Again, there is the formulaic reference to the fact that Bj 581 is 'causing controversy in Viking archaeology' but without really explaining what that controversy might consist of. But heyho, a good controversy will make the programme seem even more cutting-edge and relevant and all that. And I'm afraid the word 'badass' is used of the occupant of Bj 581...sorry but it grates in something intended to be serious.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The content of this programme is really rather interesting, as it draws on the research of the aforementioned Leszek Gardeła, and Marianne Moen from Oslo, regarding certain Viking Age graves in Denmark and Norway which could also be interpreted as being those of 'warrior women'. What interests me is the questions that the programme raises without answering, or sometimes even without recognising that they are interesting and important questions (I suppose the downside of having a non-expert presenter). An example is how an examination of the Bj 581 skeleton moves very quickly from the width of the greater sciatic notch being 'in keeping with a female pelvis' to it is 'of course female'. But OK, I'm willing to take the osteoarchaeologist's word on this matter. In other cases, there is a real lack of information.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The programme is about two graves, in addition to Bj 581, one Danish and one Norwegian. On the Danish island of Langeland, there is apparently one (out of 49) graves that has been identified as female, but never before as a warrior. (Leszek admits at this point that 'I don't think this [i.e. women warriors] was very common but they certainly existed'). What makes her a warrior? Well, she has an axe, a battle-axe in fact, and indeed one that was 'crafted hundreds of miles to the east'. Does one axe (especially an exotic one) make a woman a warrior? I'd like to have heard more about that. But it is a high-status chamber grave, so with some parallels (including the eastern connection) with Bj 581. Lots to discuss here, but it is not discussed much.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The presenter and Moen then make a pilgrimage to <a href="http://www.opplevsolor.no/attraksjoner/skjoldmoya/" target="_blank">Åsnes, in Hedmark, Norway</a>. Here, there is a grave discovered in 1900 which contained a 'kvinneskjelett med mannsutstyr' (a woman's skeleton with a man's equipment), according to a contemporary monument on the spot (a fascinating object in its own right, as Moen points out). This skeleton is the piece de resistance of the programme, since her grave goods, along with a wound on her forehead interpreted as a battle-scar, are the evidence for her having been a warrior. What I'm interested in is how, in 1900, the archaeologists decided it was a female skeleton? They certainly didn't have the advanced techniques used on the Birka 'warrior'. Given what we're told about Victorian (and later) preconceptions about Viking warriors being all male, what led the 1900 archaeologists to decide the skeleton was female? And do specialists still agree with this assessment? We are not told. We are only told by the presenter that 'not everyone agrees', but we are not told who disagrees, nor are any such people interviewed. Academic discussion is reduced to a one-way monologue by experts on a mission. I was particularly annoyed by the presenter's comment about these '[n]ew discoveries that I really hope will challenge what some people still refuse to believe, that there's evidence out there that not only did elite female viking warriors exist but that they had the skills and the weapons to fight on the battlefield alongside men'. It's not a matter of 'belief', dear TV presenters all, just let us into the secrets of the evidence!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Despite these caveats, there were one or two good bits in the programme. I did quite like the suggestion that the occupant of Bj 581 was a high status mounted archer. But does this imply that s/he was a warrior or a leader? Could she have been an aristocratic lady who liked hunting? I can't help but remember the riding and hunting imagery on some of the Manx Viking Age crosses, several of which commemorate women. This needs some more digging, including the implication that burials with horses suggest that the occupants were riders. Well, yes, people with sufficient wealth probably did ride horses (in the summer), but does this make them a warrior, or a hunter, or could the horses have other meanings? I don't know, just asking for a friend.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The excellent Cat Jarman was also a refreshing interviewee on the programme regarding <a href="https://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/04/britains-viking-graveyard.html" target="_blank">the female skeletons at Repton</a>. Ignoring the presenter's astonishment ('it's previously been thought that Viking women were left at home' - no, Dr El-Shamahi, see Jesch 1991 and others), Cat made the important point that, yes, 'women were in some way part of moving out of Scandinavia, they weren't just sitting at home, looking after the farm'. But what part they played in this process is certainly multifarious, complex, and still to be discussed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While these two programmes had some good bits, on the whole they were both mainly designed to reinforce the PR machine that has grown around the Bj 581 project. There is one other recent programme which does, however, in my view, begin to really have the more nuanced and important discussions that this topic needs. I'll let that programme have its own blog post, so stay tuned for '<a href="https://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2019/12/viking-warrior-women-more-of-same-ii.html" target="_blank">Viking Warrior Women - More of the Same? II</a>'.</div>
Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-37199120403393830562019-12-03T21:12:00.002+00:002022-03-03T20:17:21.867+00:00Some Viking Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqSSjx7q8Vccvu9PD37EyPqYZx_5Nz8FrtUJkV5wAS1Scx_gMww5e2zPiUcgj5XDsf8ioKUBQjvIyf4pyoYcOmJC1icddGy91e-HPuIZvGuwD6CqdlnHF6HDxbRS86xQjlxeHeCNM-Oed/s1600/DSC02492+%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1600" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqSSjx7q8Vccvu9PD37EyPqYZx_5Nz8FrtUJkV5wAS1Scx_gMww5e2zPiUcgj5XDsf8ioKUBQjvIyf4pyoYcOmJC1icddGy91e-HPuIZvGuwD6CqdlnHF6HDxbRS86xQjlxeHeCNM-Oed/s400/DSC02492+%25282%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rune-stick N B644 (late 12thc.) from Bryggens Museum, Bergen. Photo Judith Jesch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It's quite common for various media and/or internet sites to put up a list of suggested book titles for people wanting to learn more about the Vikings. A recent one is this on Medievalists.net entitled '<a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2019/06/which-books-about-the-vikings-should-i-read/" target="_blank">Which Books About the Vikings Should I Read</a>'? A couple of years ago the Guardian did '<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/15/top-10-books-about-the-vikings" target="_blank">Top Ten Books About Vikings'</a>. I know I'm a bad person for shuddering when I looking at these lists. Well, maybe not quite shuddering, but having mixed feelings about them. The lists often include books which are not about Vikings at all, but are for example modern fiction, or fourth-hand retellings of myths and legends. Such lists often mix books aimed at different audiences without really specifying what kinds of audiences they are aimed at. And, I'm afraid to say, some of the books on those lists are just not very good. I recognise it is not easy to put such lists together - there are so many books about Vikings out there and it is impossible to read them all. It's also quite hard to judge them, precisely because some which are suitable for some audiences are not suitable for other audiences. Some books are written by experts, and some are put together by jobbing writers trying to make a living. Or people who have just discovered the Vikings and are taking you the reader on their rocky journey finding out about them. Or, some of them written by experts having an off day. Or by people who are an expert in something completely different (you'd be surprised how much of that goes on).<br />
<br />
So my list of recommended reading might be just as unsatisfactory as those that I turn my nose up at. Nevertheless, I am going to have a go, since those other lists have inspired me to try to do better. Far be it from me to tell you what you 'should read' - the internet is already too full of people telling other people how to think or behave. But I offer my list for a very specific audience: those who genuinely want to learn about Vikings but are still relative beginners. Intelligent and interested beginners. I'm afraid this list is particularly aimed at those who are thinking of making this a fairly serious study, whether in an educational institution or not. I am going to avoid the myriad of coffee table and popular books which in my view provide entertainment rather than instruction, even though some of these are very good. But they're often a one-stop shop - people might read them (or flick through the pics) once and then never think about Vikings again. Other people read as many such books as they can get their hands on but don't really learn very much because these books often just say the same things, re-use the same images, and, in some cases, peddle the same myths. Just because a lot of books say something doesn't mean it's true. You'd be amazed how many 'serious' books by experts get a bit muddled when trying to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-word-viking-really-mean-75647" target="_blank">explain the word 'Viking</a>'.<br />
<br />
What I'm interested in are books that help you engage with the evidence and thereby to think about the process of how we find out about the Viking Age, not just what the 'answers' might be. I'm going for the popular but not the populist. I'm mainly interested in books that have something new to say, have new ways of saying it that make us think, even if they might at some level be 'wrong'. I'm generally very much in favour of thinking. But thinking requires time and commitment, which is why I'm sticking to the more serious end of the market, though you'll see that seriousness can be found in all kinds of places! And yes, I do still, somewhat against the current tide, believe in experts. All I can promise is that, if you read some of the books below, you will be well-equipped to evaluate all the other books about Vikings out there. I have provided some comments to help you identify those you really want to read, just in case you can't get through all of them.<br />
<br />
Another word of warning: aficionados will notice that many books that might have made it onto this list are simply not there. There are two possible reasons for this: I might not have read them (I certainly haven't read everything), or I have read them and was not impressed! And I'm not telling which. Other books, while excellent, might be missing because they just are not the kind of book I had in mind for this particular list, which is, I admit, quite personal. I have therefore also avoided books which are too obviously trying to be clever and iconoclastic, or genuinely trying to say something new but which are not well-written or well-argued - life is too short for them.<br />
<br />
<div>
It's not that easy to find one good book that will tell you everything, or almost everything, you need to know. There's a simple reason for this, which is that Vikings and the Viking Age are complex topics that are not easily reduced even to 300 pages. Also, definitions of what constitutes the Viking Age. or what 'Vikings' really are, do differ, and rightly so. The terms cover a wide variety of people and places over quite a long period of time, and within those places and that time there is a lot of variation. Studying those people, places and times requires a serious commitment to multi-disciplinarity (no, archaeology is not always the only answer, let alone archaeological science), a knowledge of several languages, and the general ability to deal with evidence that is always fragmentary and often elusive. There are really very few geniuses out there who can do this, though quite a few make a noble effort. So what should you read as a general introduction?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Well, if you live in, or have an interest in, Britain or Ireland, you could do worse that start with<b> Jayne Carroll, Stephen Harrison and Gareth Williams,<i> The Vikings in Britain and Ireland</i> (British Museum Press, 2014).</b> What I most like about this book is that the three authors come from different disciplines: Carroll is a philologist and onomast, Harrison an archaeologist and Williams a numismatist and museum curator, so you are in good hands when they evaluate the evidence. There is indeed a good focus on evidence and what it does, or does not, tell us, with some well-chosen illustrations which go beyond the ones that usually appear in such books. It's a good place to start though obviously its coverage is geographically limited..</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Having sailed around the northwest European archipelago, you'll probably want to find out more about Scandinavia, where the Vikings came from, next. It's not actually easy, especially if you don't read any Scandinavian languages. Let's hope that by 2025, when the <a href="https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/new-viking-age-museum/" target="_blank">new museum of the Viking Age opens in Oslo</a>, there will be some decent introductions to Viking Age Scandinavia. In the meantime,<b> Anders Winroth,<i> The Age of the Vikings</i> (Princeton University Press, 2014)</b> is quite a good place to start. It takes a broad view of the Viking Age, focusing on the period as transformational for Scandinavia and largely from a Scandinavian point of view. It starts with a fictional vignette of a Scandinavian chieftain and his followers back home celebrating their successes abroad in both raiding and other activities. The core of the narrative is however closely linked to the primary sources, which it brings to life successfully, while keeping a keen critical sense and often emphasising what the sources do not reveal. The book is thematically organised (with chapters on violence, emigration, ships, trade, etc.) which means the author tends to whiz around different times and places, often without a very clear chronology (a bit surprising in a historian). It's also quite light on the important evidence of archaeology, especially excavated sites, with the historian preferring written sources even when they are post-Viking Age. But the Swedish author does love his rune-stones! In general, it does the job in an engaging way.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Although Winroth's book is well-illustrated, it can usefully be supplemented by the perfect picture book,<b> Steve Ashby and Alison Leonard,<i> Pocket Museum: Vikings</i> (Thames and Hudson, 2018).</b> It is literally like carrying a museum around with you, with nearly 200 artefacts pictured, with brief but useful explanatory texts. A picture book that is also educational.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Moving from there to a more specialised archaeological study, I can't resist recommending<b> Steven P. Ashby,<i> A Viking Way of Life </i>(Amberley, 2014). </b>It's a book about - wait for it- combs! And hair! The author does a great job of showing how a simple, everyday object opens up all kinds of meanings in the Viking Age. It starts with the question of how you actually make a comb. First you have to catch your animal whose antler or bone you will use as raw material. And it's not as easy as you think. From these beginnings a complex and fascinating narrative emerges. A book that everyone can relate to, even if you no longer have much hair you probably had some once! The author is not fully reliable when it comes to the literary sources, but he has a good go, and I forgive him for otherwise producing such an exciting book.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While archaeologists occasionally stumble over sagas and poetry, the literary scholars are similarly uncertain when it comes to material culture. Thus,<b> Christopher Abram,<i> Myths of the Pagan North: Gods of the Norsemen</i> (Continuum, 2011)</b> is really quite vague on the material evidence for the pre-Christian beliefs of the Vikings. But he comes into his own discussing the medieval Icelandic literary sources. I particularly liked his emphasis, and detailed analysis, of some skaldic poetry which is almost certainly genuinely from the pagan period. In particular, he moves his gaze away from the fixation with Iceland that the written sources tend to bring, and makes some controversial but stimulating suggestions about religious conflict in tenth- and eleventh-century Norway.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Beliefs, myths and religion are an important aspect of studying the Vikings, so I am also happy to recommend<b> Carolyne Larrington,<i> Norse Myths: A Guide to the Gods and Heroes</i> (Thames and Hudson, 2017)</b>. Of all the myriad books about the myths, this one is I think most successful in keeping a balance between retelling the undeniably attractive stories and actually giving the reader a sense of the significance of and relationships between the sources. While this is a book aimed at the general public, Larrington successfully steers her mythological ship with the firm hand of the expert scholar.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While we are on the topic of literature, all study of the Vikings has to grapple with the Icelandic sagas. Scholarship has veered between believing them to be written records of Viking Age oral tradition to discounting them as literature 'because all literature is lies' (direct quote from a senior Norse specialist). Nowadays, saga scholarship often ignores the problem and prefers to study the sagas without considering if, whether, or how they might provide insights into the Viking Age. To me that is the interesting question, which is far from resolved. Since no one has resolved it, the best thing do to is first to get to know this fascinating corpus and the best way of doing that is by reading<b> Margaret Clunies Ross,<i> The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga</i> (Cambridge UP, 2010).</b> This is the best place to find out what exactly a saga is, how many types there are, and indeed every saga gets at least a mention. But there are also some really useful close readings of extracts which will help the reader develop a good idea of how sagas work. Though Clunies Ross doesn't explicitly see it this way, I also think this is the first step to an understanding of how sagas relate to the Viking Age (the short answer is, in many complicated ways, and it's never straightforward!).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A much-neglected literary topic is the afterlife of the Vikings in medieval English literature. This is expertly presented in<b><i> </i>Eleanor Parker<i>, The Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England </i> (I.B. Tauris, 2018)</b>. Starting with contemporary poems like<i> The Battle of Maldon</i>, Parker traces how Vikings are presented in a wide range of medieval texts in English and Latin, many of them little-known, even to specialists. She <span lang="EN-US">sets out
to complicate the narratives of historians past and present for whom the Vikings came 'not to govern but rather to destroy'. She does this by examining how literature and popular traditions told more complex stories of
England’s Viking Age, demonstrating both the lasting impact and legacy of, and
the regional diversity of English responses to, the people most of the texts
figure as ‘Danes’. The very complexity of these divergent responses to England's </span> Viking past is clear, if indirect, evidence of just how important an impact the Scandinavians had.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's not possible to study Vikings without some grasp of runes and runic inscriptions and<b> Martin Findell,<i> Runes</i> (British Museum Press, 2014)</b> is the best place to start. Admittedly, Findell has more of a soft spot for the runes of Anglo-Saxon England, rather than the far more copious Scandinavian corpus (unbelievable!). But he gives a nicely pedagogical and well-illustrated account of the significance and study of these absolutely contemporary, if occasionally rather laconic, texts.</div>
<div>
<b></b><i></i><i></i><b></b><br /></div>
<div>
Words, words, words. For those who are most comfortable with pictures, and for a different kind of thinking, there is nothing better than<b> Dayanna Knight,<i> The Viking Coloring Book</i> (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2017)</b>. The author is a trained archaeologist and, like many an archaeologist, good at drawing. Except that she is far better than most, being a quite exceptional artist who can bring the Viking world to life in a way that goes far beyond the technical drawings of the average archaeological report, while still being as accurate as it is possible to be. Plus, colouring pictures is a very relaxing thing to do in our stressful world, and you really get inside the Viking mind while doing it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Disclaimer: It is true that I am personally acquainted with every single author mentioned above, so there may be a wee bit of bias in my choices. But then, I wouldn't be doing my job very well if I didn't know all these great scholars and fabulous communicators, so I hope I can be forgiven. Enjoy!</div>
<div>
<b></b><i></i><i></i><b></b><br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-50748122558055228832019-10-26T22:07:00.000+01:002019-10-26T22:43:28.121+01:00Ardnamurchan Vikings<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgltlbDROkszGnWBmyREmoxdxQK7kCWXEASVG_wcL8foLwRGUWQIlYs_Jyuhju8lg__9pcP1jimj2Jg_5IR4N6HOsYFnlkRn_BQP3T_X9dPkwRA3ioI8G5XGgb8OiT2YeH_Se0-ek1CIs__/s1600/DSC06791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgltlbDROkszGnWBmyREmoxdxQK7kCWXEASVG_wcL8foLwRGUWQIlYs_Jyuhju8lg__9pcP1jimj2Jg_5IR4N6HOsYFnlkRn_BQP3T_X9dPkwRA3ioI8G5XGgb8OiT2YeH_Se0-ek1CIs__/s200/DSC06791.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lighthouse at the Point of<br />
Ardnamurchan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As I have <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-poetry-of-shipping-forecast.html" target="_blank">previously pointed out</a>, many of the poetic-sounding names of the shipping forecast have Viking associations, as does the Point of Ardnamurchan, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Forecast#Inshore_waters" target="_blank">inshore waters</a> section. Plus it sounds wonderful, too. So who could resist a little trip up there, especially when someone else was paying and there was a work reason to go? (More information on why exactly I was there will follow in its own good time). So last month I went and it turned out to be easier than I thought - fly to Glasgow, then it's a four-hour drive. Well, easy or easy. The drive is quite something, along Loch Lomond (the bonnie banks don't have room for more than a narrow road with lots of traffic), through Glencoe (stunning), a fun ferry crossing to Ardgour, and then the last thirty-five miles of single-track road, dodging confident locals, hesitant tourists, and a variety of fauna. You can see why the Vikings preferred to arrive by boat.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eSGGkP1yzy984_aRUuTWvAQUUeymzrRnA3tFErnXweRU-BKfzTImrFJHOwxWj53-jpnxaI0rbyKCU-CV33XvFSpLkTsUf-7lw_jw7kQXhCNvPM56rJEyGynuIBF97g3SWnUI2v6xMSjQ/s1600/DSC06765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eSGGkP1yzy984_aRUuTWvAQUUeymzrRnA3tFErnXweRU-BKfzTImrFJHOwxWj53-jpnxaI0rbyKCU-CV33XvFSpLkTsUf-7lw_jw7kQXhCNvPM56rJEyGynuIBF97g3SWnUI2v6xMSjQ/s200/DSC06765.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Viking grave at Swordle Bay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The main reason for being there was in connection with the <a href="https://www.wildlochaber.com/ardnamurchan/history/viking-boat-burial-site-swordle-bay" target="_blank">Viking grave found at Swordle Bay</a> in the northern side of the Ardnamurchan peninsula a few years ago, which had me pretty excited. It's touted as being the first Viking boat burial found on the mainland of Britain, but that is somehow to see it with our contemporary landlubber eyes. Certainly modern technology makes it easy enough to get there overland, but even a few decades ago that would not have been the case, let alone a millennium ago. Even getting to Swordle by car from the south side of the peninsula involved quite a steep climb over the central ridge. The bay has excellent views of Eigg and Rum and other Hebridean islands - and for all practical purposes it might as well have been an island too. Certainly it was on a main Viking Age transport route.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUsb-2jflfJ1Qlj-WnSZtgFIoYk-SvgOXl3I9uNj8eFKKhVTIw8wzAZq5RWOcLhUb086ucTSKBtLs8pdt3iSck2V-f_Xn0NLHkSuBQrFyjkTrNojAuFYGpmOgh7Y5T4SgFc9V7nFhgSoNR/s1600/DSC06769.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUsb-2jflfJ1Qlj-WnSZtgFIoYk-SvgOXl3I9uNj8eFKKhVTIw8wzAZq5RWOcLhUb086ucTSKBtLs8pdt3iSck2V-f_Xn0NLHkSuBQrFyjkTrNojAuFYGpmOgh7Y5T4SgFc9V7nFhgSoNR/s200/DSC06769.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swordle Bay, Ardnamurchan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The burial is in a stunning location - a great place to spend all eternity. There are many interesting aspects of the grave (it was in all likelihood a man, buried with both weapons and practical items, in a boat) and you can read all about it <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/assembling-places-and-persons-a-tenthcentury-viking-boat-burial-from-swordle-bay-on-the-ardnamurchan-peninsula-western-scotland/77752CA983D55D191B702EC081941CD4" target="_blank">in this academic publication from a couple of years ago</a>. Or read a shorter <a href="http://butstillitmoves.com/atp_wpv4/?page_id=279" target="_blank">presentation on the website of the Ardnamurchan Transitions project </a>of which it is part. Now of course, there is not much to see, only the shape of the burial marked out in stones, and a sense of the site, which looks like an ideal spot for a Viking to settle in. Further archaeological investigations might reveal whether the person buried there also lived there or was just passing through when he decided to take a detour to Valhalla. I have my reasons for thinking the former is more likely. Or at least that there were Vikings living there at the time.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTdHDWTj351yABPB48REfrKwjSh3Ag73uA2KMtQvwEcssLRo2w6rTQsPSVL9mWMTPWSP4daXSGTbxe0ORmFI6e4efyLbahyHBJq-tObeV1JtnJZv15HSYT3y8FbHb3SIZbBZoULzTsQ05/s1600/DSC06797.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTdHDWTj351yABPB48REfrKwjSh3Ag73uA2KMtQvwEcssLRo2w6rTQsPSVL9mWMTPWSP4daXSGTbxe0ORmFI6e4efyLbahyHBJq-tObeV1JtnJZv15HSYT3y8FbHb3SIZbBZoULzTsQ05/s200/DSC06797.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Sanna, a small settlement on the western</div>
<div>
end of the peninsula</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of the reasons for thinking this is the small but significant number of place-names on the peninsula that have an Old Norse origin. Swordle Bay itself contains the element<i> svörðr</i>, cognate with English 'sward' (as in 'greensward'), plus<i> dalr</i> 'valley', and it is indeed very lush and green round about. Sanna, now a small settlement on the western end of the peninsula is indeed next to a sandy beach, and if it does come from<i> Sandey</i> 'Sand Island' as it seems to, then there are some small islands in the bay which this could I suppose refer to. The place-names have not been studied in any detail since <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30070334?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank">Angus Henderson in 1915</a>, so there's a job for someone!<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEYiYg8FPzQdcwaG0zyKowCleZ6V63jhyZ4UzUOu7E4tuEQZLMAeUMSR7Oh1AAiXnvtFyJa16rLVrt0k7UBY1vaCHZAafKldcnJRX5tMpdtcVWYdqtRhHRZuO6UmYwpukT0HJIRJf7eUs/s1600/DSC06779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEYiYg8FPzQdcwaG0zyKowCleZ6V63jhyZ4UzUOu7E4tuEQZLMAeUMSR7Oh1AAiXnvtFyJa16rLVrt0k7UBY1vaCHZAafKldcnJRX5tMpdtcVWYdqtRhHRZuO6UmYwpukT0HJIRJf7eUs/s200/DSC06779.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ockle</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many might think there's not much to do on Ardnamurchan, and certainly what we think of as civilisation is thin on the ground at its western end. But for me the landscape and seascape, the lighthouse, the place-names, the burial, were all of great interest. I was also taken by the tiny settlement of Ockle, where the sun came out, enhancing the faded colours of this derelict cottage. I also like old tractors, sheep, cast iron mileposts and many of the other things to be seen there and I know I could amuse myself there for more than the two days I had on this visit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; float: right; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 16px; orphans: 2; padding: 6px; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody style="margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<tr style="margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3SczYE3MZDVyul3lWp-L9NYEmo0D83QSNHgqfe62jke1heEmLJhauDlpThi5W9dQ2oFRE9OzhWiaaSmPi6_gDk4MgU9wmbc9m-qcg-DYtvpE_AcFrQFMwALDw_YNvK62LK2qVvE_2iJ1/s1600/20190906_132739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3SczYE3MZDVyul3lWp-L9NYEmo0D83QSNHgqfe62jke1heEmLJhauDlpThi5W9dQ2oFRE9OzhWiaaSmPi6_gDk4MgU9wmbc9m-qcg-DYtvpE_AcFrQFMwALDw_YNvK62LK2qVvE_2iJ1/s200/20190906_132739.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr style="margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strontian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One last little tidbit of information which I had not known until I travelled all the way there was the significance of the village of Strontian. It turns out that this place gave its name to the element strontium, which is key in so much Viking Age research these days, as the bioarchaeologists use isotopes to work out where people came from. If you want to know more about the element, then I recommend the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ztPGrsgNQ&t=23s" target="_blank">Strontium video</a> from the very fun series of videos about the periodic table made by my amazing colleague <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/chemistry/people/martyn.poliakoff" target="_blank">Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff</a>.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just goes to show how educational following the Vikings can be!</span>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-21327635061660442772019-04-22T11:10:00.000+01:002019-04-22T12:06:05.001+01:00Britain's Viking Graveyard<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklpNU5pFEZLhfsdVVpmpLRp7BLUagyrCTfP6MyxhQ8uregbqKxUalBvlLXPhVL_JNzvZnzDDOXm6fY5PVvw-z5bdv2PTCANopBQYjDJWp_TzdrrURgwf_70cpP9dTgyfIkQu0jgWO57q/s1600/DSC03623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklpNU5pFEZLhfsdVVpmpLRp7BLUagyrCTfP6MyxhQ8uregbqKxUalBvlLXPhVL_JNzvZnzDDOXm6fY5PVvw-z5bdv2PTCANopBQYjDJWp_TzdrrURgwf_70cpP9dTgyfIkQu0jgWO57q/s320/DSC03623.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Viking ship model in Repton. Photo Judith Jesch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This blog started off as a light-hearted romp through some of my interests, mainly to do with Vikings and Scandinavia. I hope it is still mostly light-hearted, but I have come to realise that it is also, and now perhaps primarily, an outlet for some of the knowledge I have amassed over the years. Over the eleven (!) years I have been writing this blog, public interest in the Vikings, though it has always been there, has increased exponentially. In response to this, I have, almost subconsciously, more and more wanted to make sure that each post, however frivolous, is underpinned by that knowledge. The other thing that has changed enormously in the last decade is that academic research is now often consumed directly by people who are not themselves academics ('open access' we call it). Blogs like this may be conduits to that research which means that even a frivolous blog has some responsibilities for how it presents academic research. So I find myself taking that responsibility more and more seriously, but it's not always easy to be both engaging and correct.<br />
<br />
Another common outlet for research into the Viking Age is the television programme. There have been noticeably many over the last decade, one or two of which I have even participated in, or at least been interviewed for only to end up on the cutting-room floor. I have on the whole not touched on these in this blog. Television programmes have their own raison d'etre, their own ways of doing things which sometimes serve the academic cause and sometimes undermine it. They have to achieve the tricky balance of edutainment, and operate within the constraints of time, budget, and how far the researchers are really able to read up on and understand the issues. In any case, there is little room for nuance or subtle arguments. For these reasons, it's not easy for an academic to evaluate them, especially from the point of view of the general audience at whom they are aimed, best to leave that to television critics.<br />
<br />
So the following is not an evaluation, or a review, but simply my take on the programme <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-viking-graveyard" target="_blank">Britain's Viking Graveyard</a>, which was on Channel 4 last night and will no doubt sweep its way around the world fairly soon. The programme highlights excavations in and around Repton, in Derbyshire, a place I have taken an interest in since the late 1980s when I visited the excavations then being carried out by Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle. Repton and the nearby Viking cemetery at Heath Wood, Ingleby, were one of the excursions we organised for the <a href="http://www.vikingcongress.com/pages/earlier-viking-congresses/1997/" target="_blank">Thirteenth Viking Congres</a>s in Nottingham in 1997 and the Biddles' work featured prominently in the <a href="https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/vikings-and-the-danelaw.html" target="_blank">Proceedings of that Congress, published in 2001</a>. More recently, we in Nottingham have followed with great interest the <a href="http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/eastmidlandsvikings/2018/02/23/repton-legacy-viking-great-army/" target="_blank">excavations being carried out at Repton by Dr Cat Jarman</a> (of whom much more later), and some of our students have been lucky enough to participate in them, too. As more or less our nearest Viking site, Repton was an important reference point for our AHRC-funded project <a href="http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/eastmidlandsvikings/2017/06/16/repton-viking-age/" target="_blank">Bringing Vikings Back to the East Midlands of 2017-18</a>. A legacy of that project is the <a href="https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/?s=repton" target="_blank">Vikings in the East Midlands website</a>, which at the moment has too little on Repton, though it does have a great <a href="https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/items/repton-and-the-legacy-of-the-viking-great-army/" target="_blank">lecture by Cat Jarman</a>. We are still working on this website so no doubt there will be more soon.<br />
<br />
But on to last night's programme, which is what I really want to write about. First and foremost let me say I thought it was a really good programme - superior to most other 'Viking' programmes I have seen. There were several reasons for this, I think. Most importantly, there was no star presenter acting dumb and asking questions 'on behalf of the audience', but who inevitably becomes a bit too central to the film and overshadows the story. The voiceover narrator explained what needed to be explained, but luckily there wasn't too much going over old ground about who exactly the Vikings were and when and why. Instead, the bioarchaeologist Dr Cat Jarman was allowed to shine, with her store of knowledge, her enthusiastic personality and her ability to explain things succinctly and clearly. The other academic contributors were also well-chosen. Importantly, much of the programme was presenting real, current research, rather than the clichés that too many Viking programmes fall victim to. (Not that there weren't some clichés, but more on that later). So all in all, my preliminary conclusion is that the programme is A Good Thing and well worth watching. But beware, there are a few spoilers below.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPKFEpRKGDd78Dh84sRAtYHYtKKCiwq8nw5kqX75Fac4dCt__adklTEZbANkGvEHPzy0yrEAhy_4rQFIepx2dd6F-uyoVN4Ol8Y2ylOVQAIWodIhWew3oDPqms0fuwzWlyr4IiuqOKg-k/s1600/DSC03624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPKFEpRKGDd78Dh84sRAtYHYtKKCiwq8nw5kqX75Fac4dCt__adklTEZbANkGvEHPzy0yrEAhy_4rQFIepx2dd6F-uyoVN4Ol8Y2ylOVQAIWodIhWew3oDPqms0fuwzWlyr4IiuqOKg-k/s320/DSC03624.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Repton. Photo Judith Jesch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now comes my own take on the presentation and content of the programme. I will try not to forget that a programme is not an article in an academic journal, and cannot be subjected to the same kind of forensic analysis and criticism, given all the caveats I outlined in the second paragraph above. So this is just a list of things I liked more and other things I liked less, for what it's worth. I hope these comments might be of interest to readers of this blog.<br />
<br />
When I first saw the <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-viking-graveyard" target="_blank">publicity for the<span style="color: #005000; font-family: "c4.chadwick.regular.lowercase" , "c4.chadwick.regular.uppercase" , "c4.chadwick.regular.numbers" , "c4.chadwick.regular.punctuation" , "c4.chadwick.regular.currency" , "c4.chadwick.regular.maths" , "trebuchet ms" , "lucida sans unicode" , "lucida grande" , "lucida sans" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span>programme</a>, there were two things that caused my eyebrows to head north. One was the title and the other was the claim that<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #005000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'[I]<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">t reveals the extraordinary stories of female Viking warriors'. Readers of this blog will understand my trepidation at the second of these in particular. Had Cat really found another female warrior?</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_qjPdqIC2GGObWkOhF9oFV5Rbd821cjZ2KehXoyFZaNQITDnOWN0qRCaKAjfl6itvvxemz_nFTYGGKKpZFRHEtt4YrJz4PS6bkkRWg1ULl6kj_73mVDzb8647iztRyER6p_BcKA6Zvrw/s1600/PRP8596_2048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_qjPdqIC2GGObWkOhF9oFV5Rbd821cjZ2KehXoyFZaNQITDnOWN0qRCaKAjfl6itvvxemz_nFTYGGKKpZFRHEtt4YrJz4PS6bkkRWg1ULl6kj_73mVDzb8647iztRyER6p_BcKA6Zvrw/s320/PRP8596_2048.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Dr Roderick Dale face to face with a reconstruction</div>
<div>
of the Repton warrior in Derby Museum.</div>
<div>
Photo Rob Ounsworth.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Although my first reaction to the title was disapproval ('don't people know the difference between Britain and England anymore?'), it became clear that the title was actually quite carefully chosen, given that one of the arguments made in the programme was that the well-known burial of a warrior and his companion near St Wystan's church in Repton was that of two identifiable Vikings, the father and son Olaf and Eystein, who had died in Scotland and had their bones brought to Repton to be buried. Although I find this kind of identification of individuals unconvincing, I shall reserve judgement until I read the article Cat is promising on this. And certainly the mass burial in the Vicarage garden at Repton does allow for the possibility of bones having been brought there from all over Britain, not just England. Which, if true, makes the title highly appropriate.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklpNU5pFEZLhfsdVVpmpLRp7BLUagyrCTfP6MyxhQ8uregbqKxUalBvlLXPhVL_JNzvZnzDDOXm6fY5PVvw-z5bdv2PTCANopBQYjDJWp_TzdrrURgwf_70cpP9dTgyfIkQu0jgWO57q/s1600/DSC03623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a>As to the female warriors, mercifully it turned out this was mostly just clickbait, a particular kind of hype to get people to watch the programme, unfortunate but not a huge element in the programme. It is true that Cat did fly to Sweden to view the <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2017/09/" target="_blank">Birka 'warrior woman' </a>with Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson. Cat also mooted the possibility that she might find a female warrior at Repton, but no evidence for this was produced beyond the fact, which we knew already, that both women and children had been present at Repton. Even Charlotte admitted that she wasn't sure whether or not her 'baby' had ever actually fought. And Cat's conclusion in the programme, which is in line with current academic thinking, was that the 'Great Heathen Army' at Repton and Torksey was not so much a purely military affair but more of a mobile community. The programme did acknowledge that women often accompanied armies, but did not suggest that they actually fought. The closest it came to suggesting this was when the camera panned along a line of female Viking re-enactors, of whom the last one was armed.<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCklpNU5pFEZLhfsdVVpmpLRp7BLUagyrCTfP6MyxhQ8uregbqKxUalBvlLXPhVL_JNzvZnzDDOXm6fY5PVvw-z5bdv2PTCANopBQYjDJWp_TzdrrURgwf_70cpP9dTgyfIkQu0jgWO57q/s1600/DSC03623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>By the way, I did like the way the re-enactors featured included quite a large number of women and children - I think this might be a first for this kind of use of re-enactors in archaeological documentaries about the Vikings. And I'm sure this is partly down to the choice of my excellent friends <a href="https://twitter.com/eblueaxe" target="_blank">Einar Blueaxe</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/gearandgraith" target="_blank">Sigurðr</a> and their families and colleagues to do the re-enactments. So in a way it was a shame that this innovative use of women in the programme just HAD to be associated with the so far quite chimerical female Viking warrior.<br />
<br />
I was not particularly enamoured of the more clichéd use of snarling hairy guys to represent the violent activities of the Vikings. Not because Vikings weren't violent (as well as many other things) but because of the way they always look like the same hairy snarling guy in all documentaries about Vikings. I'd like to see some snarling Anglo-Saxons next time. Please. Another cliché was the use of images of large numbers of Viking ships. In this case they looked like they were made of papier maché and were all far too influenced by the Oseberg ship, when Gokstad would have been a better model. Not sure about the red-and-white striped sails, either. These graphics were EXECRABLE. (Sorry for the shouting).<br />
<br />
But back to women warriors. There was a narratorial comment about the 'shield-maidens' of Norse mythology. Let me just repeat myself, as I have pointed out in quite a lot of lectures recently, there are no shield-maidens in Norse mythology. Any shield-maidens in other genres of Old Norse literature are a learned construct based on the Amazons, who also did not exist. (I really must get my article on this published soon, to stop the rising tide of shield-maidens engulfing serious academic as well as popular discourse). Valkyries yes, shield-maidens no. And it's not just a matter of words, but how we use words and texts in studying the Viking Age. But that's another rant, some time.<br />
<br />
For me, the most important and exciting revelation of the programme was the discovery of a potential Viking site at Foremark. This could be extremely important in understanding the process by which the mobile community turned into permanent settlers. I really look forward to further investigations there and what they will come up with. Cat quite rightly mentioned the Scandinavian origins of the place-name, and I think this deserves further consideration, preferably by a specialist. In fact, the programme would have been much better if it had included more onomastics and fewer papier maché Oseberg ships. There is a distressing tendency among television producers (and the world at large) to assume that Vikings are only about archaeology. It distresses me, anyway. Let's bring on the specialists in Old Norse mythology, Old Icelandic poetry and prose, and place-names, whose work underlies some of the statements on which archaeologists build their interpretations. That's my rallying cry.<br />
<br />
Overall, then, a few things that rankled. But with the River Trent, skulls and bones, playing-pieces, women, and some great participants, what's not to like? Congratulations to Cat Jarman and the Windfall films team for a programme that both informed and stimulated thought and discussion.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="color: #b08000;"></span>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-45575210689139887172018-08-26T11:10:00.001+01:002018-08-26T11:10:29.944+01:00Polar Bear Steak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocH81z3oBZzfEwKLNbwmPC09g9KfVXgbRQ5dAStmR3Z-NyyaefkIVgfiqjx527n0sd3aEnwFEljMuHH4WT62yKPlVt6x4zfync2IvnKoKqayhZFXgxievJp2Oj9p_eFaP4G0y08cc5XXS/s1600/DSC06302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocH81z3oBZzfEwKLNbwmPC09g9KfVXgbRQ5dAStmR3Z-NyyaefkIVgfiqjx527n0sd3aEnwFEljMuHH4WT62yKPlVt6x4zfync2IvnKoKqayhZFXgxievJp2Oj9p_eFaP4G0y08cc5XXS/s320/DSC06302.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2017/04/writing-ice-bear-ii.html" target="_blank">In a blog post last year</a>, I questioned whether the meat of the polar bear was especially edible. Well, travel is educational and I got some kind of an answer on my <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/search?q=westfjords" target="_blank">recent visit to the Westfjords of Iceland</a>. The very splendid <a href="https://www.nedsti.is/" target="_blank">Westfjords Heritage Museum</a> in Ísafjörður had a small display about the shooting of a polar bear up at Hornvík in the far northwest of the region in June 1963 by some egg-hunters from Ísafjörður. It made the front page of the national newspaper and what struck me was the description of how the bear was eaten. According to the article, they cooked the meat and found it delicious, not unlike beef. They also ate the heart and gave the liver to guests. They managed to bring back 250 kg of meat which they sold at 30 kr./kg., along with the 3000 guillemot eggs they had collected during their week-long trip. So there you have it. Not sure I'd fancy polar bear myself, but apparently it is perfectly edible.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgExcQwMFV35em8vH28-LFvL3EB-ZNdGwrmG0YcASj_94HxzyVswweL6QxNeXhRSOXGNkbyJDsf0ogNai1f3KEZlluofLqh5iXJio87h6Q4HTr1vM9MPTChM5WUt_nTSydkh_yyLNUKDaMS/s1600/DSC06301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: #0066cc; float: left; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1064" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgExcQwMFV35em8vH28-LFvL3EB-ZNdGwrmG0YcASj_94HxzyVswweL6QxNeXhRSOXGNkbyJDsf0ogNai1f3KEZlluofLqh5iXJio87h6Q4HTr1vM9MPTChM5WUt_nTSydkh_yyLNUKDaMS/s320/DSC06301.JPG" width="212" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s1600/DSC06304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s1600/DSC06304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1064" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s320/DSC06304.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="212" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgExcQwMFV35em8vH28-LFvL3EB-ZNdGwrmG0YcASj_94HxzyVswweL6QxNeXhRSOXGNkbyJDsf0ogNai1f3KEZlluofLqh5iXJio87h6Q4HTr1vM9MPTChM5WUt_nTSydkh_yyLNUKDaMS/s1600/DSC06301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s1600/DSC06304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s1600/DSC06304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></a><u></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBCjSTdgSFcsxGjSlO6wptWei4F5A9390FS1EUKaUHbRXwh-b6cB_ZiED8J8uRXllsGHfzICaU0yjyH30Be7WF5t-YYXofPJ5MWoRmaND4OMd9ijDs_cha6MIjbbsc163opev4Twgo6BL/s1600/DSC06304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-80127468286165221382018-08-25T16:14:00.000+01:002018-09-04T20:34:47.035+01:00Westfjord Stories II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMopZtIZ_iunrm7llvtcOQ_rpa4PFhxlum-Cd8u-qxzgTs1CmVnwH3jegBfnOSzeubO_fkXt10vWApqaSgai_imKWJYxLqwqNCC5FiC6RUyakp6JhjUBaE5RmuVWKzKuUYyfVxrRaU53-F/s1600/DSC06050.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1064" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMopZtIZ_iunrm7llvtcOQ_rpa4PFhxlum-Cd8u-qxzgTs1CmVnwH3jegBfnOSzeubO_fkXt10vWApqaSgai_imKWJYxLqwqNCC5FiC6RUyakp6JhjUBaE5RmuVWKzKuUYyfVxrRaU53-F/s320/DSC06050.JPG" width="212" /></a></div>
My recent visit to the Westfjords, and to Hrafnseyri in particular, sent me back to re-read<i> Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar</i>. A relatively little-discussed saga, it is set in the Sturlung era, and recounts the life history of Hrafn up to his execution by his rival Þorvaldr in 1213. Much of the saga is taken up with feuds of various kinds, over sheep or whales, or the more serious political rivalries which characterised the Sturlung period. But there is much of general interest in the saga, not least the fact that Hrafn was a famous medical practitioner. He inherited this skill from his great-grandfather Atli who acquired it at the battle of Hlýrskógsheiðr when St Óláfr appeared in a vision to his son Magnús the Good and told him to select twelve of the best men to bind the wounds of the warriors. That slight touch of sanctity accompanied Hrafn throughout his life and in his martyr-like death. In general the saga has a vast cast of characters, including quite a few women, lots of poetry, and the hero has some interesting adventures abroad. But most of all it has a lot of detail about life in the Westfjords at the time. Here I just look at a few anecdotes which particularly caught my eye after being in the place.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8tjjVl91UHLHak5uuQDZSlaUU_TyntYDehDyGfwIFPAuK2KLerGo1a9m5H-Em6XP6vsk1vBYhzyr8nZ7jL7lUCH8W6XhDecol_wTWiazb_mH9gGZ1FtjvNc3sLN63BuATKqt906W9xi4/s1600/DSC06044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8tjjVl91UHLHak5uuQDZSlaUU_TyntYDehDyGfwIFPAuK2KLerGo1a9m5H-Em6XP6vsk1vBYhzyr8nZ7jL7lUCH8W6XhDecol_wTWiazb_mH9gGZ1FtjvNc3sLN63BuATKqt906W9xi4/s320/DSC06044.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The saga-author was particularly partisan as regards his hero, and spends considerable time outlining his virtues. Hrafn lived at Eyrr (now Hrafnseyri) for most of his life and was apparently a very benevolent local leader. He was a generous host who fed everyone who visited, he ferried people across the Arnarfjörður for free, and also kept a ship on Barðaströnd for the use of people who needed to cross the Breiðafjörður. Certainly, a ferry across <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Arnarfjörður </span>would have been a lot quicker than the long road around every fjord that is so typical of the Westfjords today. Hrafn also took no fees for his medical interventions. As the pious author remarks, 'For that reason, we expect that Christ will have provided Hrafn with spiritual healing with him for free on his death-day'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQlyUbCQNk5G2VFVE9Jsapgj4owIwqv_aOfTGl7vu8wYe3LyIpdyn80ncOMGzhYtQX4bh7NeceCpW9NzkvBbY2Rxbzj4J_nAbv6MjCiS0ZXBg9ZmYtXsK2jhZGD50Qz6dSN70Exh6v4lU/s1600/DSC06139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQlyUbCQNk5G2VFVE9Jsapgj4owIwqv_aOfTGl7vu8wYe3LyIpdyn80ncOMGzhYtQX4bh7NeceCpW9NzkvBbY2Rxbzj4J_nAbv6MjCiS0ZXBg9ZmYtXsK2jhZGD50Qz6dSN70Exh6v4lU/s320/DSC06139.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Early on in his career, Hrafn was able to help out when a walrus beached in the Dýrafjörður during the spring assembly. The animal proved difficult to capture, so Hrafn called on St Thomas of Canterbury for help and promised to give him the tusks, still attached to the skull, in return. The walrus was duly caught and the following year Hrafn went to England where he donated the tusks, as well as some money, to the minster in Canterbury. The walrus skull and tusk (of unknown antiquity) pictured here was in the splendid local museum at <a href="http://www.hnjotur.is/" target="_blank">Hnjótur</a>. There is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818116303356" target="_blank">archaeological evidence for walrus hunting</a> in the first century of Norse settlement in Iceland, but this seems to have died out and the export of walrus ivory became a mainstay of the economy in Greenland. More recent captures of walrus in Iceland will be of stray walruses (who do however seem to be <a href="https://grapevine.is/news/2013/09/30/a-wealth-of-walruses/" target="_blank">arriving in greater numbers in recent years</a>).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiykFSxZK9nMwktJDbPwNcQqptUSwp19kD4n79l4yJuPO3ua7Lf-LXfpiwSskPMmDfkpCyrlgw3uC7-3YoUUlOOw6y1BCEX1yNgo9sWm91xWXxWVvtE5W9hceifFzTtMO_wgpq6_ojn88MR/s1600/DSC06037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiykFSxZK9nMwktJDbPwNcQqptUSwp19kD4n79l4yJuPO3ua7Lf-LXfpiwSskPMmDfkpCyrlgw3uC7-3YoUUlOOw6y1BCEX1yNgo9sWm91xWXxWVvtE5W9hceifFzTtMO_wgpq6_ojn88MR/s320/DSC06037.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The course of true love did not run smoothly in the Westfjords, according to the saga's account of the tribulations of a woman called Jórunn. Her father was Snorri, a great chieftain in Ísafjörður, who had many children, none of whom were legitimate. A half-brother of Jórunn's was Hrafn's great rival Þorvaldr, and her love life undoubtedly contributed to the start of their feud. Jórunn's first admirer was a certain Sveinn, who just happened to be her brother-in-law. Sveinn was a follower of her brother Þorvaldr, but it was her other brother Þórðr who organised an attack on Sveinn, in which he was severely wounded, eventually being healed by Hrafn. Sveinn then left the country and Jórunn's next suitor was a priest called Magnús, who took her away from Ísafjörður to Dýrafjörður. This displeased a man called Bergþórr, who had previously fancied her and came looking for her. Magnús concealed Jórunn elsewhere and sent <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Bergþórr off with a dog as a parting gift, along with a couple of satirical verses. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Bergþórr and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Þorvaldr then chase <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Magnús who hides in a cave. Eventually <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Magnús and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Jórunn make their escape to Norway, with her disguised as a man. In Norway they have many children and presumably live happily ever after. The <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Hrafns_Saga_Sveinbjarnarsonar.html?id=i0wiAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">saga's editor, Guðrún P. Helgadóttir</a>, draws attention to a similar episode on<i> Sturlu saga</i> (in the <i>Sturlunga </i>compilation) in which a widow, Yngvildr, cut her hair and dressed as a man to escape to Norway with her lover. That episode took place in 1158 and may have been a model for this one, though no doubt such things also took place in real life. The<i> Sturlu saga</i> episode also had the complication of a possible love-child, though there is no mention of such a thing in<i> Hrafns saga</i>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">For some more stories from the Westfjords, I can recommend Emily Lethbridge's <a href="http://sagasteads.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-snfellsnes-to-west-fjords-gisla.html" target="_blank">Saga-steads blog</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span>Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-76493435895113834012018-08-24T11:30:00.001+01:002018-08-25T21:41:41.928+01:00Westfjord Stories I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEEZubyQVylS8GR5ddz8I6Wg4sitAsjeM6YdNYdYGieH3R_Zq2V3EXr5W-iba0aV3-0924GpPsvYh7E48zLuZBOW0nrSpqTxd37PQZEvnh19nyktQuf1M0TA0rPCUWc00n362oCY4C0UW/s1600/DSC06088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEEZubyQVylS8GR5ddz8I6Wg4sitAsjeM6YdNYdYGieH3R_Zq2V3EXr5W-iba0aV3-0924GpPsvYh7E48zLuZBOW0nrSpqTxd37PQZEvnh19nyktQuf1M0TA0rPCUWc00n362oCY4C0UW/s320/DSC06088.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) of Iceland are sparsely populated nowadays, they do figure quite largely in a variety of Old Icelandic texts. Several sagas are set, wholly or in part, in the region, including some very well-known ones like<i> Gísla saga</i>, which has its own trail mainly around the Dýrafjörður area. Here however I will just look at a few anecdotes from my favourite text <i>Landnámabók </i>which both interested me and are linked to places I visited on my recent tour of the region.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMQyrGo57sCkbwgFVP24S-dmuNCBs355BTyxN3qZQStTY8WLze-E_I8dH7CubERFg5zzdOTJDsYSzCK2y_4wm8YdJ0pvesGvYsQNmEjPH0OebIRrcInsy27n2awpGbs_HqDKm5POF9pjS/s1600/20180818_085459.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMQyrGo57sCkbwgFVP24S-dmuNCBs355BTyxN3qZQStTY8WLze-E_I8dH7CubERFg5zzdOTJDsYSzCK2y_4wm8YdJ0pvesGvYsQNmEjPH0OebIRrcInsy27n2awpGbs_HqDKm5POF9pjS/s320/20180818_085459.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Flying to Ísafjörður, our <a href="https://www.airicelandconnect.com/" target="_blank">Air Iceland Connect</a> plane was named after Þuríðr<i> sundafyllir</i> 'sound-filler'. The lady was a settler from Hálogaland, in Norway, where she had the particular talent of filling every sound with fish at a time of famine. She continued her fishing leadership role in Iceland. Having settled Bolungarvík (where we stayed at the splendid<a href="https://www.westfjords.is/en/what-to-see-and-do/services/einarshusid" target="_blank"> Einarshúsið guesthouse</a>), she established a fishing ground at Kvíarmið out in the mouth of the Ísafjörður and took as payment one ewe from each of the farmers in the region. She could be seen as the founder of the fishing industry which is still such an important part of the economy of the Westfjords. The name <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Ísafjörður nowadays refers to the fjord in which the town of the same name is situated, but then seems to have referred to the whole of what is now known as <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Ísafjarðardjúp, as discussed by <a href="https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=72520" target="_blank">Svavar Sigmundsson</a>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Ísafjörður is particularly associated with the little-known <a href="http://sagadb.org/havardar_saga_isfirdings.is" target="_blank">saga of Hávarðr</a>. This saga is several times referred to in <i>Landnámabók</i> which appears to have used an earlier version of it as a source.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_zThUVRKsp6ZnnX1SMnEHAjQ3SwDjwCHVB97gHxHS4V48d8-2lO8BYcEeElvneIQDuMlgal4GLih5iXNHz6LjJe5O4dKUR-nll5PVxbWa0wC-B8BgviGCr8mi6tJn50HWtzkvlDEl2PU/s1600/DSC06167.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_zThUVRKsp6ZnnX1SMnEHAjQ3SwDjwCHVB97gHxHS4V48d8-2lO8BYcEeElvneIQDuMlgal4GLih5iXNHz6LjJe5O4dKUR-nll5PVxbWa0wC-B8BgviGCr8mi6tJn50HWtzkvlDEl2PU/s320/DSC06167.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A memorable experience on our trip was the extremely hairy drive down to Rauðasandur, near Patreksfjörður. The eponymous beach is extremely beautiful and, as the name suggests, the sand is indeed fairly reddish. The explanation seems to be that this colour derives from <a href="https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=68034" target="_blank">some scallops with reddish shells which form the sand</a>. However, the sand did not strike me as particularly red on our visit, but I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'red'. This colour term was a bit wider in Old Norse than in modern English, also being applied for instance to gold. Although I don't have a convincing picture to demonstrate, I could just about see the sand as reddish gold (as indeed in <a href="https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=68034" target="_blank">the picture here</a>). <i>Landnámabók</i> provides an alternative explanation, namely that the place was named after a certain Ármóðr <i>inn rauði</i> 'the red'. The area is still being farmed and one can see why it would be an attractive proposition for a settler, particularly one who would arrive by boat rather than the vertiginous road over the mountain that we took. Since <i>Landnámabók</i> does not have much to say about <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Ármóðr, we can perhaps assume that his nickname was derived from the place-name, rather than the other way around, and that the colour and size of the beach were sufficiently distinctive for it to be an important navigational marker. Uncertainty about the origin of the name could explain the alternative forms, Rauðisandur 'Red Sand' and Rauðasandur 'Sand of Red'.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxPmXwqEUkxHDaUpoQGUM4dj-R4HgoCnXHFgVjhG0eIyFDXo_cAbFXfae3n0IVDez1bn3ITUW-QGS3nFGEhUMK1BR85O0QpyGJyQl1RO3lVZNEftCZwqtjvKJ0DoA2rrVxRe9PuC4Z5LF/s1600/DSC06066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxPmXwqEUkxHDaUpoQGUM4dj-R4HgoCnXHFgVjhG0eIyFDXo_cAbFXfae3n0IVDez1bn3ITUW-QGS3nFGEhUMK1BR85O0QpyGJyQl1RO3lVZNEftCZwqtjvKJ0DoA2rrVxRe9PuC4Z5LF/s320/DSC06066.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My third anecdote relates to what is now called Hrafnseyri, but is in the old texts mostly known as Eyrr or Eyri (along with Flateyri and Þingeyri - spits of land sticking out into the fjord were the ideal settlement sites in this region it seems). As mentioned in <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2018/08/from-nottingham-to-arnarfjorur.html" target="_blank">my previous blog post</a>, the place was eventually named after Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, a topic to which I will return in another post. But the first settler there was a certain Ánn<i> rauðfeldr</i> 'red-cloak' who received the land from the eponymous settler of Arnarfjörður, Örn, when the latter moved over to the more clement Eyjafjörður. Ánn had married a certain Grélöðr while harrying in Ireland, and she had thought there were bad smells emanating from the ground at their first residence in Dufansdalur. But when they moved to Eyri, she thought the grass had the fragrance of honey. While we were there, someone was cutting the grass around the church and the whole place was indeed very sweet-smelling!.</span></span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><i></i><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><i></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-77609430749329535712018-08-23T13:50:00.002+01:002018-08-23T20:02:25.777+01:00From Nottingham to Arnarfjörður<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSS_FZ11aXirJEsOUpaqlyWuLAFLcaWVByHwjTEx92_AdYrx_RmYwASF39ckYsH2mP0EsY8F9Bzgb4TiB61AAEzlQp_lqpDgF7c5zIHPbjYTy0KqtcVdM-SgqtQLiar5d3j7HFx_PJbYPS/s1600/DSC06208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSS_FZ11aXirJEsOUpaqlyWuLAFLcaWVByHwjTEx92_AdYrx_RmYwASF39ckYsH2mP0EsY8F9Bzgb4TiB61AAEzlQp_lqpDgF7c5zIHPbjYTy0KqtcVdM-SgqtQLiar5d3j7HFx_PJbYPS/s320/DSC06208.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
As regular readers of this blog know, I quite often go to academic conferences in the Viking diaspora and usually manage to stay on for a few days to have a bit of a busman's holiday. This summer's big conference was the <a href="http://sagaconference2018.hi.is/" target="_blank">17th International Saga Conference in Iceland, held in Reykjavík and Reykholt</a>. The conference was both enjoyable and useful but rather large (over 400 attended). And Iceland is a pretty popular tourist destination these days. So where to go to get away from it all? A colleague and I decided that a tour to the <a href="https://www.westfjords.is/" target="_blank">Westfjords (Vestfirðir)</a> was in order. This region has only about 7000 inhabitants (everyone having moved to the Reykjavík area), but some of the most beautiful and wildest scenery in Iceland. The trip was a great success and if you like you can follow some of our adventures on <a href="https://twitter.com/JudithJesch/status/1030887401655345152" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
The region resounds with saga-echoes, mainly many sites associated with<i> Gísla saga</i>, but I was also delighted to visit Hrafnseyri, the home of Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, whose maritime adventures in the Hebrides I once wrote about. But we were mainly there for the scenery and there was certainly plenty of that. I totally fell in love with Arnarfjörður (pictured above), the views of which were some of the most magical I have ever seen. The fjord is named after a certain Örn, a noble man from Rogaland, who first settled there to escape the tyranny of Haraldr Finehair. Clearly, he was not so impressed with the beauties of Arnarfjörður, for<i> Landnámabók</i> relates that he spent the winter at Tjaldanes because there the sun did not disappear entirely on the shortest days of the year. And not long after that he moved to the more forgiving landscape of Eyjafjörður.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMT3EHH2zQRqgh-hbwVzQsjakaDUIbCLZvWHqm48InGBvNX9zxOMd0uKkRjC4fiVkxvZN3rUzEwQnkmJF_fnVlCM_jJRsWsuQAoAcsxsyGh35QecY9CVsalAJ6qO1882FMvVqW0-G8X8eu/s1600/DSC06387.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMT3EHH2zQRqgh-hbwVzQsjakaDUIbCLZvWHqm48InGBvNX9zxOMd0uKkRjC4fiVkxvZN3rUzEwQnkmJF_fnVlCM_jJRsWsuQAoAcsxsyGh35QecY9CVsalAJ6qO1882FMvVqW0-G8X8eu/s320/DSC06387.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Still, some people continued to live in Arnarfjörður, and at some point in the fifteenth or sixteenth century they acquired an alabaster sculpture of the Trinity, which is now in the National Museum of Iceland. The caption there states that it was made in Nottingham and found in Arnarfjörður, but not where. The sculpture is mentioned in an article by Philip Nelson in the<i> <a href="http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1132-1/dissemination/pdf/077/077_192_206.pdf" target="_blank">Archaeological Journal</a></i><a href="http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1132-1/dissemination/pdf/077/077_192_206.pdf" target="_blank"> of 1920</a>, but its provenance is not given. There may be more detailed information I can track down in which case I shall report back. Certainly, Nottingham was famous for its alabaster carvings and they were widely dispersed at the time. In the meantime, let's hope that the refurbishment of Nottingham Castle Museum now underway will acknowledge this Icelandic connection, for there are certainly more of these alabasters there than the 'one' that is mentioned in <a href="https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/news-opinion/dont-revere-sculptors-who-came-222658" target="_blank">this article in the Nottingham Post last year.</a> Maybe they will even borrow one or two for an exhibition, in which case it will be Nottingham to Arnarfjörður and back.Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-11249365205797947232018-05-12T12:03:00.002+01:002018-05-12T12:03:43.415+01:00How(e) I Love Hoxa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimRD1-QptnKyoJhmS4Hn4wQ_lH5D71PvuSHkuJAzQi5ng7Gh6kDQOG9Myk1rqbnuhkNhIACQfRpjWv7varSyf_kTBoM1BywL_xUCkZLcpD_CgjTNdOK8eR-pPTel6PlwrBvU_Kr4QcElV/s1600/DSC05661.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSMhfVsSU_HZP-SPEm3_d0JHU2VdyHT67MO9Y7t9TUm9CGhQdLhupvVnTgr-j2M1vpPh2zSom1IAkasFxlsKKgj15c1rSpDSuOmxyRSIwgaxi5MSjQlUIsbfl89Zt73w_6ay_8EKHSMag/s1600/DSC05661.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSMhfVsSU_HZP-SPEm3_d0JHU2VdyHT67MO9Y7t9TUm9CGhQdLhupvVnTgr-j2M1vpPh2zSom1IAkasFxlsKKgj15c1rSpDSuOmxyRSIwgaxi5MSjQlUIsbfl89Zt73w_6ay_8EKHSMag/s320/DSC05661.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Time flies, and it's been all of three years since I was last in Orkney, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to go again last month. As so often, the excuse was an academic event, the splendid <a href="https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/institute-for-northern-studies/conferences/4th-st-magnus-conference/" target="_blank">4th St Magnus Conference</a>, but I always manage to work in some extra time to enjoy my favourite islands. As this was my twelfth visit to Orkney, I have been around quite a lot of it, including most of the inhabited islands. But each time I discover something new, and this time I got quite excited about Hoxa on South Ronaldsay. Something for everyone there, starting with a broch (who doesn't love them?), a fascinating Norse place-name with associated saga-reference, antiquities from both world wars, and a gallery with some wonderful tapestries. So here's a little bit about all of these marvellous things.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Y3Ehtwq7i1NxnVlUD3DrktgX2sCUIj4QKBWPWBaaIFNwVZ-U9fW8DDUpC7WSmhbuvpsnGEEFBZDRFAuP018dZqYQGUv11nkRNWSu5sxVMtO3rOcNRdne-y3r-PzJ5M0wtkrK9lkj2kr4/s1600/DSC05670.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Y3Ehtwq7i1NxnVlUD3DrktgX2sCUIj4QKBWPWBaaIFNwVZ-U9fW8DDUpC7WSmhbuvpsnGEEFBZDRFAuP018dZqYQGUv11nkRNWSu5sxVMtO3rOcNRdne-y3r-PzJ5M0wtkrK9lkj2kr4/s1600/DSC05670.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Y3Ehtwq7i1NxnVlUD3DrktgX2sCUIj4QKBWPWBaaIFNwVZ-U9fW8DDUpC7WSmhbuvpsnGEEFBZDRFAuP018dZqYQGUv11nkRNWSu5sxVMtO3rOcNRdne-y3r-PzJ5M0wtkrK9lkj2kr4/s320/DSC05670.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There's not much to see of the broch, as it's been mucked about with quite a lot, but its position is amazing, as with so many brochs, <a href="https://canmore.org.uk/site/9612/south-ronaldsay-howe-of-hoxa" target="_blank">and as noted by the RCAHMS</a> <span style="color: black;">'<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The broch, Howe of Hoxa, lies in a conspicious and commanding position on a rounded eminence, 50-60ft above the beach, at the N end of a hog-backed ridge on the broad low-lying isthmus which divides the Bay of Widewall on the S frrom the Dam of Hoxa on the N.' In the Viking Age, the broch will have appeared as a mound and this mound has given its name (Old Norse <i>haugr</i>)<i> </i>to the nearby farm, Howe, and to the isthmus on which it is placed, Hoxa. The name of this isthmus is recorded in<i> Orkneyinga saga</i> as 'a Haugahæide' - the form is not very reliable as the only medieval manuscript of the saga at this point is the late, and sometimes confused, Flateyjarbók. Luckily, there is an earlier reference to it from 1329 as 'a Haugs æiðe' and by 1492 it is already being written as 'Hoxa'. The <a href="http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/middelalder/diplom_vise_tekst_2016.prl?b=1294&s=n&str=" target="_blank">1329 document</a> is of great interest since it is one of the only four surviving documents written in Old Norse and issued in Kirkwall. It records a sale of lands and has contemporary forms of 10 place-names (including that of the island) 'all of which, with the exception of [one], can still be easily recognised today' (Hugh Marwick,<i> Orkney Farm-Names</i>, 1952, p. 169).</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><b><u><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></u></b></i></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxtyPG93NHp-c2ONKNIPK5sPITT-quAmg-BovK3dnKgDxsVkjBKTqiTLjFt3n3NqDsjY8k2KWGBN2Vd3rxzrgsVUB7VnRlB-l2dijF3w_xAB6yh2Qxk1rQ2wrPVfOBqaPtLhqLrcDigne/s1600/DSC05742.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxtyPG93NHp-c2ONKNIPK5sPITT-quAmg-BovK3dnKgDxsVkjBKTqiTLjFt3n3NqDsjY8k2KWGBN2Vd3rxzrgsVUB7VnRlB-l2dijF3w_xAB6yh2Qxk1rQ2wrPVfOBqaPtLhqLrcDigne/s1600/DSC05742.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1064" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxtyPG93NHp-c2ONKNIPK5sPITT-quAmg-BovK3dnKgDxsVkjBKTqiTLjFt3n3NqDsjY8k2KWGBN2Vd3rxzrgsVUB7VnRlB-l2dijF3w_xAB6yh2Qxk1rQ2wrPVfOBqaPtLhqLrcDigne/s320/DSC05742.JPG" width="211" /></span></a><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The saga-reference to Hoxa is equally interesting, as it claims (<i>Orkneyinga saga</i>, ch. 8) that Thorfinn Skull-Splitter (Þorfinnr hausakljúfr) died of illness and was<i> heygðr</i> 'laid in a<i> haugr</i>'<i> í Rögnvaldsey á Haugaeiði</i> as Finnbogi Guðmundsson's edition of 1965 has it. There are examples of Viking Age burials in brochs, at <a href="https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1214944" target="_blank">Gurness for example</a>, so this is not implausible. Or it could just be an example of an aetiological tale, a story explaining the origins of something, derived from an understanding of the place-name. We don't know much about this particular Thorfinn, or why he got his nickname, though the saga does tell us that the daughter of Eirik Bloodaxe and Queen Gunnhild was married to his son Arnfinnr and that Thorfinn got to be Earl of Orkney because his two brothers had died with Eirik Bloodaxe in England. Thorfinn was<i> höfðingi mikill ok herskár</i> 'a great chieftain and warlike' - I suppose they had to add the last bit to counter the fact that he died on his sickbed. His nickname was also borrowed for the strong ale (Alc 8.5% b.v.) produced by the <a href="http://www.orkneybrewery.co.uk/" target="_blank">Orkney Brewery</a>.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span><br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
</span></span><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdsw9sKhy7zg7xDEkZVbgbO_cNQRCK13WH-JBbBj1IcTpYxd28H9SLCfnjgBog9Wvu1_gBtDYm4h0MjRuQSHX8e-kFBnoywm4qIeglZijyv0K-d9moMi2dnsBSI8WsAv4Qwh-qWOfcdfs/s1600/DSC05667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdsw9sKhy7zg7xDEkZVbgbO_cNQRCK13WH-JBbBj1IcTpYxd28H9SLCfnjgBog9Wvu1_gBtDYm4h0MjRuQSHX8e-kFBnoywm4qIeglZijyv0K-d9moMi2dnsBSI8WsAv4Qwh-qWOfcdfs/s1600/DSC05667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdsw9sKhy7zg7xDEkZVbgbO_cNQRCK13WH-JBbBj1IcTpYxd28H9SLCfnjgBog9Wvu1_gBtDYm4h0MjRuQSHX8e-kFBnoywm4qIeglZijyv0K-d9moMi2dnsBSI8WsAv4Qwh-qWOfcdfs/s320/DSC05667.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The broch-mound does indeed dominate the isthmus though the latter is very hard to photograph, as you can see from my attempt. And why does English not have a better word than the unpronounceable 'isthmus'? 'Neck' doesn't sound quite right....<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Also, d</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">o ignore the Hermann Pálsson/Paul Edwards Penguin translation of</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Orkneyinga saga</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> which claims that Thorfinn 'was laid in a burial mound at Hoxa in North Ronaldsay' - they had clearly confused the two present-day Ronaldsays, although the names are clearly distinct in the saga (what is now North Ronaldsay was </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">originally</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Rínansey </i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">and this is the form used in the saga</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">). A. B. Taylor managed to get it right in his 1938 translation.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7fDw2t94JunazqXzhua4_dnQDbSUfkXS7KQxDUy4k2idfnDm1Xmrlp0eKubuCBrcx_701XchRxBC8iliTYR8L8dpQBH9BdIfx8lm8PwpvskHXsSmJ_z5F44P9Uwchb0hyphenhyphen5txE9hnH8VZ/s1600/DSC05656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7fDw2t94JunazqXzhua4_dnQDbSUfkXS7KQxDUy4k2idfnDm1Xmrlp0eKubuCBrcx_701XchRxBC8iliTYR8L8dpQBH9BdIfx8lm8PwpvskHXsSmJ_z5F44P9Uwchb0hyphenhyphen5txE9hnH8VZ/s1600/DSC05656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7fDw2t94JunazqXzhua4_dnQDbSUfkXS7KQxDUy4k2idfnDm1Xmrlp0eKubuCBrcx_701XchRxBC8iliTYR8L8dpQBH9BdIfx8lm8PwpvskHXsSmJ_z5F44P9Uwchb0hyphenhyphen5txE9hnH8VZ/s320/DSC05656.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Another interesting place-name nearby, in fact just a bit off to the right of the picture of the isthmus above, is Roeberry, which I argued (<i>Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age</i> 2001, 78) was the<i> Rauðabjörg</i> where a later Earl Thorfinn defeats his kinsman and rival Rögnvaldr Brúsason in a sea-battle. The significance of this part of Orkney for military strategy is underlined by the twentieth-century antiquities out on <span id="goog_195543317"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_195543316">Hoxa Head, gun batteries from both the First and Second World Wars<span id="goog_195543318"></span></a>. The site is quite amazing to walk around, especially for the views on a day as gorgeous when I was there.</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoG-Y2OlVJl71YQCfFDyIXwSQBTDP_mTVjqu0fsf5BP3vebm-2C3jTDuGeqEDgl1buYJ6gSvfvyh3o9jLQoWmovq7hQboN1WRvLnLocz7JiYypq6p-dwaCSb8x8EWSXSAcHtDW1_ijkK3N/s1600/DSC05663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoG-Y2OlVJl71YQCfFDyIXwSQBTDP_mTVjqu0fsf5BP3vebm-2C3jTDuGeqEDgl1buYJ6gSvfvyh3o9jLQoWmovq7hQboN1WRvLnLocz7JiYypq6p-dwaCSb8x8EWSXSAcHtDW1_ijkK3N/s1600/DSC05663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoG-Y2OlVJl71YQCfFDyIXwSQBTDP_mTVjqu0fsf5BP3vebm-2C3jTDuGeqEDgl1buYJ6gSvfvyh3o9jLQoWmovq7hQboN1WRvLnLocz7JiYypq6p-dwaCSb8x8EWSXSAcHtDW1_ijkK3N/s320/DSC05663.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Last stop before the war relics is the <a href="https://twitter.com/hoxatapestry" target="_blank">Hoxa Tapestry Gallery</a>. I learned about this through my mother, who is very interested in weaving and textiles generally, so dropped in for a visit. The tapestries are amazing, all of them, and Leila Thomson frequently makes use of both the local landscape and its historical associations. Although the isthmus is difficult to photograph, as I noted above, she can imagine it, and has, in a tapestry called<i> <a href="http://www.hoxatapestrygallery.co.uk/product/haugsaith-two-shores/" target="_blank">Haugsaith: between two shores</a></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> which also has some not bad runes on it. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is so much of interest at Hoxa and with the fabulous weather it was certainly a most successful excursion.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-23675319290978332662018-04-02T22:03:00.002+01:002018-04-03T11:01:37.950+01:00Writing the Ice-Bear III<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TcZNEMlCZW-6rLFpeHwi_ZntUbUy0omuMN-0U2PoeNj8MSVVu-pxyXS-QOIslC5KSTLzkM3w9jl0OMM54L6sV0EAH2jwCiY-YpAhsc5nRPM0R6KNrpuzBGU-lN2UD4nsb0tPRn5cnY_A/s1600/664px-Polar_bear_walking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="664" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TcZNEMlCZW-6rLFpeHwi_ZntUbUy0omuMN-0U2PoeNj8MSVVu-pxyXS-QOIslC5KSTLzkM3w9jl0OMM54L6sV0EAH2jwCiY-YpAhsc5nRPM0R6KNrpuzBGU-lN2UD4nsb0tPRn5cnY_A/s200/664px-Polar_bear_walking.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Photo by Brocken Inaglory</div>
<div>
Wikimedia Commons</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Just a little footnote to previous posts on this topic... Here in Britain we have suffered some unseasonal weather at a time when we might expect winter to be turning its thoughts to spring. In March there was quite a lot of snow across the country (something generally unusual in lowland England, even in the winter months) causing a period of chaos. Some <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterJStockwell/status/980720858783248384" target="_blank">places even had snow as recently as today</a>. This weather was popularly known as the <span id="goog_611579549"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_611579548">'Beast from the East'.<span id="goog_611579550"></span></a><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><br /></a>
I don't think the nature of this beast was specified anywhere, but I can now reveal that the answer is to be found in the Eddic poem<i> Atlamál</i>. This is the wordier, more prosaic, and later, version of the much-told story of how the heroes Gunnar and Högni are deceived and killed by Atli, the husband of their sister Guðrún, who then takes a particularly violent revenge. Before Gunnar and Högni depart on their fateful visit, the latter's wife Kostbera has a prophetic dream of a bear breaking into their home, smashing it up and even apparently eating a few people. Her husband, like all Old Norse heroes, cannot allow such a clear warning to put him off, so he claims the dream just has a meteorological meaning (st. 18 in <i>Eddukvæði</i> 2014, ed. Vésteinn Ólason and Jónas Kristjánsson):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Veðr mun þar vaxa, / verða ótt snemma, / hvítabjörn hugðir, / þar mun hregg austan.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It means that a storm will grow, it will soon be daybreak, if you think of a polar bear, it means a blizzard from the east.</blockquote>
Interestingly, this reference to a polar bear is what scholars have used to justify the manuscript title of the poem <i>Atlamál in grœnlenzku</i> 'The Greenlandic Poem about Atli'. There is however little real evidence for a Greenlandic origin for the poem, which the latest editors think is quite likely to be Icelandic and no earlier than the twelfth century. The story is ostensibly set in Denmark, but whether the author was Greenlandic or Icelandic, we don't need, I think, to take either their dream interpretations or their ideas of Danish weather too seriously. And we can enjoy the author's little joke in making Kostbera (the second element of whose name means 'she-bear'), dream of a bear.Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-92071982439458703072017-10-15T20:15:00.002+01:002017-10-15T20:15:58.152+01:00Baby Vikings<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrvZ2UdLAXT6xn1lSBVS-gBWIQmmOymZZ2Tlb8dXGYAS5Gg0N_s0VU9zII4129yktuFI3qcr1FcT-o_6nu0XKmCTzSx2VyKEf0Am__0S_KL7ngSwkXOOlkA4RZUygVpz_TinjCuXLfHql/s1600/1024px-Heimdal_and_his_Nine_Mothers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="1024" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrvZ2UdLAXT6xn1lSBVS-gBWIQmmOymZZ2Tlb8dXGYAS5Gg0N_s0VU9zII4129yktuFI3qcr1FcT-o_6nu0XKmCTzSx2VyKEf0Am__0S_KL7ngSwkXOOlkA4RZUygVpz_TinjCuXLfHql/s200/1024px-Heimdal_and_his_Nine_Mothers.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Heimdall and his nine mothers</div>
<div>
by W. G. Collingwood 1908</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My North American correspondent has alerted me to a news item in which some 'celebrity' or other refers to her infant daughter as a 'baby Viking' because she celebrated her first birthday by 'feasting on steak'. As it happens, I am not aware that the eating or not eating of steak is one of the aspects of how <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-word-viking-really-mean-75647" target="_blank">we define Vikings</a>. Nevertheless, I thought it might be of interest to see what some Old Norse texts see as the defining features of baby Vikings.<br />
<br />
Starting with the youngest, there is the legendary hero Helgi Hundingsbani, who is celebrated in two poems of the Poetic Edda. The first of these describes his birth, and quotes this conversation between two ravens who are rejoicing at it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Stendr í brynju / burr Sigmundar, / dœgrs eins gamall, / nú er dagr kominn; /hvessir augu / sem hildingar, / sá er varga vinr, / vit skulum teitir. (<i>Eddukvæði </i>II, ed. Kristjánsson & Ólason, 2014, p. 248)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i></i><i></i>'He stands in his mail-coat, the son of Sigmundr, one day old, now the day has come! He sharpens his glance as leaders do; that one is a friend of wolves, we two will be cheerful.'</blockquote>
The ravens are of course, anticipating the carrion that the warrior will provide for them and the wolves during his martial career. He does indeed have a varied and interesting career and eventually grows up enough to fall in love with a valkyrie. But that is another story...<br />
<br />
Next up is Magni, son of Thor. In one of his many giant-fighting episodes, Thor manages to fell Hrungnir, but in such a way that the giant's leg lay across his neck, pinning him down. Young Magni saves the day by being the only one strong enough to remove the giant's leg, after all the other Æsir have tried and failed. Magni was three years old at the time (and his name means 'strength'). He clearly felt he could have done more:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sé þar ljótan harm, faðir, er ek kom svá síð. Ek hygg at jötun þenna mundak hafa lostit í Hel með hnefa ef ek hefða fundit hann. (<i>Skáldskaparmál</i>, ed. Faulkes, 1998, p. 22)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i></i>'It is a awful shame, father, that I came so late. I think I would have struck this giant into Hel with my fist if I had encountered him.'</blockquote>
His father is impressed and predicts a glowing future for his son, and gives him Hrungnir's horse Gullfaxi as a reward. This irks Odin, who thinks he, as Thor's father, should have had this gift, rather than Magni the 'son of a giantess'. Presumably it was Magni's maternal giant heritage that made him strong enough for the deed. Magni's fate is to survive Ragnarök, but that is another story...<br />
<br />
Another precocious three-year-old is the hero of <i>Egils saga. </i>We meet him first in ch. 31, ugly, black-haired and clever with words, but a bit obstreperous in playing with other children. When the family sets out for a party at the grandparental home, Egil's father refuses to take him, saying that he can't be trusted to behave when there is drink being taken, indeed he is hard enough to deal with when he's sober. The toddler won't have this, grabbing a horse to follow the party. At the party, grandfather Yngvar welcomes Egil and gives him three sea-snail shells and a duck's egg as a reward for a verse he composed in a drinking game which involved competitive poetic composition:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Kominn emk enn til arna / Yngvars, þess's beð lyngva, / hann vask fúss at finna, / fránþvengjar gefr drengjum; / mun eigi þú, þægir, / þrevetran mér betra, / ljósundinna landa / linns, óðar smið finna. (<i>Egils saga</i>, ed. Nordal, 1933, pp. 82-3)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'Still I have come to the hearth of Yngvar, he who gives to warriors gold (the bed of the gleaming thong of the heather). I was anxious to find him. You will not, giver of the twisted, shining gold (land of the snake) find a better three-year-old craftsman of poetry than I am. [<i>Thong of the heather </i>is a snake, and the snake's <i>bed</i>, according to tradition, is gold]. (<i>Egils saga</i>, tr. Christine Fell, 1975, p. 182).</blockquote>
It's quite a sophisticated poem for a three-year-old. Egil doesn't however, kill his first man until he is in his seventh year, the victim being a boy of ten or eleven who had bested and humiliated him at a ball game. This killing led his mother to declare that Egil was a <i>víkingsefni </i>'the makings of a Viking'. Indeed Egil goes on to fulfil his destiny, but that is another story...<br />
<br />
Anyway, six is a bit beyond babyhood and nearing the age of reason. This little tour of baby Vikings does not suggest that steak played any part in their achieving that status, but then it is not recorded what they ate and only hinted at what they drank. From the legendary poetry of the <i>Edda </i>to Snorri's prose mythology and the historical fiction of the saga, we do find an admiration for exceptional individuals, expressed in their baby Vikinghood. But I do not expect any time soon to read articles claiming that the Vikings started training their warriors at one day old. At least I hope not.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1422935148755187067.post-61178292758275141832017-09-18T17:04:00.002+01:002017-09-18T18:43:17.675+01:00Some Further Discussion of the Article on Bj 581Since <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/lets-debate-female-viking-warriors-yet.html" target="_blank">writing my previous blog post</a>, I have been prevented, for a variety of personal reasons, from engaging in any way with the discussions that have raged about this matter on social and news media. I do see this as a blessing in disguise. As I said then, I do not think the complex matters raised in the <i>American Journal of Physical Anthropology</i> article entitled 'A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics' lend themselves to the reductions demanded by Twitter, or the selection and rewriting that are inevitable when the press come calling for quotes.<br />
<br />
<b>Why am I writing again?</b><br />
<br />
Now that I am back in harness, I do however feel it is my duty to come with some kind of response, even if not on Twitter or in the media. This is not least because my blog post has, at the time of writing this, had some ~60K pageviews. This is exactly 15x as many pageviews as my next most viewed blog post and far exceeds any expectations I might have had when writing. Such a reach for a matter which is essentially about the academic minutiae and the conventions of academic discourse certainly deserves public acknowledgement. I will discuss some aspects of this response below.<br />
<br />
A further reason for writing, which I would like to but cannot ignore, is that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/europe/sweden-viking-women-warriors-dna.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">I have been publicly challenged, in the </a><i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/europe/sweden-viking-women-warriors-dna.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a></i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/europe/sweden-viking-women-warriors-dna.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">, no less</a>, by 'Mattias Jakobsson, a geneticist at Uppsala University and a co-author of the paper, adding: “We would like to urge her to send her critique to a peer-reviewed journal.”' The second purpose of this blog post is therefore to explain why I will not be submitting my 'critique' to a peer-reviewed journal and why I think that this is an inappropriate challenge.<br />
<br />
<b>The worldwide response</b><br />
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
First, the easier question. My blog post was entitled <a href="http://norseandviking.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/lets-debate-female-viking-warriors-yet.html" target="_blank">'Let's Debate Female Viking Warriors Yet Again'</a> and this in itself reveals that my aim in writing was indeed to stimulate debate. This seems to have happened, in spades, and I am delighted that that has happened. On Twitter, and in the responses to my blog, I have generally found the debate to be thoughtful and considered, even when I thought the contributor was misguided, or hadn't really understood what I was saying. Responses have come from both layfolk and academics, from supporters and opponents (though I am sorry when the discussion does turn into a case of 'for' or 'against'). I'm pleased to say it has certainly stayed fairly polite, unlike what I gather some of the Facebook responses have been (mercifully I am not on Facebook), or some of the responses BTL in the popular press as outlined by my colleague <a href="https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/viking-warrior-women-an-archaeodeath-response-part-3/" target="_blank">Howard Williams on his blog recently</a>. Many of these were perhaps responding to the original article, or how it was presented in the media, rather than to my blog post in particular and thus do not concern me here (though see below on the responsibility of academics in this age of open access). In this way, I feel I have achieved my aim in writing the blog in the first place - the debate has taken place. I am particularly proud of when I became a Twitter Moment (until this week I didn't even know what a Twitter Moment was and am still not very sure) - its headline was <a href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/907262975945428994?lang=en-gb" target="_blank"><i>Prof adds a grain of salt to the 'female Viking warrior' story</i></a><i>. </i>A grain of salt is pretty much how I envisaged my contribution, and not a big bag of sodium chloride.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I would also point out that I have with one exception not censored the comments published on my blog, even though some of them are getting a bit repetitive and some I consider misguided. There was just one response which I chose not to publish simply because, though witty, I thought it had no real relevance to the current debate. That comment section is now closed, though I am for the moment happy to entertain comments on this post here.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>The challenge</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Although generally polite, many of the responses, from archaeologists and scientists in particular, have been quite firm in declaring me wrong. These commentators have made the following points, among others:</div>
<ul>
<li>I am not a scientist and therefore not qualified to evaluate the science behind the article</li>
<li>other than the new scientific results presented in the article, all the information in the <i>Am J Phys Anthropol</i> article was 'pre-established' and therefore no longer a matter for discussion</li>
<li>they would believe a 'peer-reviewed article' over a 'blogpost' any day</li>
<li>I am out of order to complain about established reference conventions in scientific/archaeological journals</li>
</ul>
<div>
The challenge, as noted above, for me to present my 'critique' in a peer-reviewed journal is misguided and the challenger has I think not read my original blog post carefully enough. I made it pretty clear there that my concern was not with their results, but with the quality of their argument in the interpretation of those results. This poor quality that I think I have identified relates to all of the points raised above:</div>
<ul>
<li>I did not claim to have any opinions about the actual scientific analyses reported in the article and would never do so. My critique was partly about (a) the foundations of and the evidence used in the scientific analyses and (b) about the historical interpretations of the scientific analyses. I think this is clear enough in the blog post and if any readers have not picked that up, they should read it again.</li>
<li>the article, despite all of its scientific apparatus, poses an essentially historical question, and frames this question using vague, unexplained and unsupported references to narratives, poetry and historical documents. This means that the article chooses to interpret its scientific results in a historical/literary framework, without having had the courtesy to understand, or correctly cite, the long-standing discussions that have taken place within that historical/literary framework.</li>
<li>on peer review, see further below. I would just point out that I was not presenting any counter-argument to the published paper, for people to 'believe', but pointing out what I considered to be deficiencies in the argument of the published paper.</li>
<li>I explained in the previous blog post why I did not think that a referencing system designed for short scientific articles was valid when citing books of several hundred pages and stand by what I said there. And is it not a fundamental principle of science that results should be reproducible? This should also apply to the thought processes behind the arguments as well as what happened in the lab.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Peer review</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
All academics understand that peer review is both necessary and imperfect. I find it particularly ironic that commenters are claiming the superiority of the article because it has been peer-reviewed and attacking me for daring to critique it without the benefit of peer review, because I do not believe that the peer review process at <i>Am J Phys Anthropol </i>has done the authors any favours at all, other than giving them a huge audience for their work.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Forgive me if I have misunderstood, but I assume that the peer reviewer(s) for <i>Am J Phys Anthropol </i>are not well-acquainted with Old Norse literature and Viking Age and medieval Scandinavian history and therefore are unlikely to have picked up on the deficiencies of the article in these areas. I do wonder though why they couldn't at least recognise that the article might have had more force if it had avoided straying into these areas, and simply presented its scientific results for others to interpret. Whether or not a board game indicates an 'officer' is hardly a matter that a physical anthropologist can determine.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More seriously, I am surprised that the peer reviewer did not pick up on the fact that the supposed osteological analyses which these latest genomic analyses are supposed to confirm are not properly referenced in the article. I have already pointed out the fact that the article provides no indication of where these osteological analyses can be checked. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2017/09/12/a-female-viking-warrior-interred-at-birka/" target="_blank">Even a Swedish archaeologist generally positive towards the article recognises that it is a bit slim in the information it provides and states the following</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The plan of the grave shows which bones were well preserved. This should be enough to counter the charge that maybe the skeleton currently labelled Bj 581 is not in fact the one found in this weapon grave. This the authors should have written a few sentences about. I take their silence to mean that having already published her arguments about this elsewhere, Kjellström considers the issue uncontroversial.</blockquote>
<div>
Kjellström may consider the issue uncontroversial but are we just to believe her? Why couldn't the authors have simply provided a proper reference to where the osteological analyses have been published?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Since writing my critique, I have discovered that there is still some doubt about both the bones themselves and the plan of the grave as published in the article. These doubts have been expressed in a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34564381/FEMALE_VIKING_REVISED?campaign=upload_email" target="_blank">draft response by Fedir Androshchuk</a>. This is clearly a draft and should be taken as such, but at the very least it suggests some caveats which the authors really should have cleared up properly before doing their scientific analyses. <a href="http://videnskab.dk/naturvidenskab/arkaeologer-om-kvindelig-vikingekriger-slaa-koldt-vand-i-blodet" target="_blank">Other highly respected Viking Age archaeologists have also expressed doubts about some aspects of the analysis and interpretation</a>. Again, these are in some cases quite specialist doubts which were perhaps not so easily picked up by the anthropological peer reviewer.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I stated in my original blog post that I did not have a considered alternative hypothesis for Bj 581, and may never have. There is therefore nothing to submit to peer review. However, I do feel I am qualified to come with a critique (and once again I repeat myself), not of the 'results' of the investigation, but of the quality of the argument and the nature of its academic discourse. I myself am often asked to peer review articles, books or projects that are primarily in Viking Age archaeology (though usually with some interdisciplinary aspect) and there seem to be plenty of people out there who consider me able to do this. Indeed I have indirectly heard from some such authors that they have respected and appreciated my critiques. It is my strong view that, in this age of open access and public engagement, academics have an even stronger responsibility than before to present the best possible research to the general public as well as to fellow academics. Which brings me to my final point.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Academic responsibility</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My colleague Howard Williams, <a href="https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/14/viking-warrior-women-an-archaeodeath-response-part-1/" target="_blank">in another one of his blogs on this issue</a>, points out that 'this has become a story about modern identities, and perhaps also about the crisis of academics attempting to be both digital public archaeologists and public intellectuals.' The original article had a very arresting title which overstates the case made in the article itself. The article is open access and was clearly designed for maximum worldwide public impact, as indeed it proved. To my mind this indicates all the more reason for the doubts, caveats and issues of interpretation to be brought to the fore in the discussion and not brushed under the carpet. Precisely because this is an article clearly intended to have maximum public and popular impact, it is entirely appropriate for it to be critiqued, by me and others, in the public domain of social and news media, and not in some peer-reviewed article I may or may not write within the next year or two and have published within the next five or ten. In an era of open access we do a disservice to our readers by leaving out the processes by which we arrive at our conclusions and just feeding them the sensational results. Although a bit of a shot in the dark as to its potential audience, my critique was indeed aimed at those readers of the article who may not have been sufficiently well versed in Viking Studies to see that there were some holes in the argument. I am content that many lay readers (or experienced academic readers in other disciplines) have understood this, but you can't win'em all.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>P.S.</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
The last paragraph was going to be my final point, but there is one more thing worth mentioning. Many of the discussions of the original article, whether or not influenced by or in reaction to my blogpost, have turned on questions of gender fluidity, non-binary genders and similar matters, as for instance in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2017/sep/12/does-new-dna-evidence-prove-that-there-were-female-viking-warlords" target="_blank">recent article in the </a><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2017/sep/12/does-new-dna-evidence-prove-that-there-were-female-viking-warlords" target="_blank">Guardian</a></i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2017/sep/12/does-new-dna-evidence-prove-that-there-were-female-viking-warlords" target="_blank">, quoting Carolyne Larrington</a>, and much of the Twitter and other discussion has turned on this matter. I would just point out that any such assertions still rely very heavily on various kinds of literary evidence, and that these texts should be subject to the same kinds of source criticism as the archaeological evidence. Interpretations of sagas are not set in stone, but in my experience few saga specialists have wanted to engage with archaeologists enough to help them work out what interpretations of these texts are plausible as evidence in conjunction with archaeological evidence when considering the Viking Age. There are many different kinds of relevant texts in Old Norse and other languages, and each genre has its own quirks and characteristics. All this, and the evolving context of literary study, has to be understood before these texts can be automatically transferred into more general historical or archaeological arguments. It's not an easy matter, and it's something I have been thinking about for most of my career, and occasionally expressed my views in writing on. It's also the kind of detailed study that some of my former PhD students have tackled, for example <a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28819/" target="_blank">Roderick Dale on the </a><i><a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28819/" target="_blank">berserkir</a> </i>and <a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13634/" target="_blank">Teva Vidal on houses and domestic life</a>. Both have been able to demonstrate the stratigraphy of certain sagas in ways that must please any archaeologist. Let us hope there is more such work forthcoming and that interdisciplinary dialogue, to which most Viking Age archaeologists of my acquaintance pay lip service, truly happens, in contexts which demand less disciplinary constraint than the <i>Am J Phys Anthropol.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Viqueenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05144146397028019725noreply@blogger.com3