Old swedish literature
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To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly... more
To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, which so far has been done. They both have their separate history.
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
’Hallandia Landæmærkæ’, kaldet Hallandslisten, blev sandsynligvis til i Valdemar II Sejrs regeringstid (1202-1241) og plausibelt i et dertil oprettet kancelli. Oplistning af grænsens landemærker fra syd mod nord, har været et stort og... more
’Hallandia Landæmærkæ’, kaldet Hallandslisten, blev sandsynligvis til i Valdemar II Sejrs regeringstid (1202-1241) og plausibelt i et dertil oprettet kancelli. Oplistning af grænsens landemærker fra syd mod nord, har været et stort og besværligt stykke forarbejde fra dansk side, før grænsens beskrivelse - og er udarbejdet i et kongeligt miljø plausibelt på kongsgårdene i Halland. Selvom nærværende analyses gennemgang viser en række sammenfald i grænseteksterne, kan afvigelserne snarere tolkes som, at den danske grænsetekst ’Hallandia Landæmærkæ’ ikke blev approberet fra svensk side.
The Older Law of Västergötland is the oldest surviving text in Old Swedish and marks the beginning of parchment manuscripts written in the vernacular in Sweden. As a result of its primary status, the law code has received a lot of... more
The Older Law of Västergötland is the oldest surviving text in Old Swedish and marks the beginning of parchment manuscripts written in the vernacular in Sweden. As a result of its primary status, the law code has received a lot of attention in Sweden, but very little scholarship on the text has appeared outside of Sweden and practically nothing in English. The section of the law presented here in the original Old Swedish accompanied by an English translation comes from the most famous part of the law known as Rætløsæ bolkær (The Rightless Code), where the process of electing the Swedish king is discussed, as well as a passage that mentions the punishment for accusing someone of witchcraft. An annotated glossary of the Old Swedish text and detailed commentary on the translation is provided at the end.
The article discusses historiography of 13th-century about the history of Sweden with a focus on king lists. It analyzes and establishes the relationship between the Icelandic and the Swedish lists of Swedish kings, written in the 13th... more
The article discusses historiography of 13th-century about the history of Sweden with a focus on king lists. It analyzes and establishes the relationship between the Icelandic and the Swedish lists of Swedish kings, written in the 13th century. The accepted opinion among scholars has been that the Icelandic Langfeðgatal, which includes a list of Swedish kings, is dependent on the Swedish king list of the so-called Uppsala type. Here this idea is rejected and the article argues that the king list in Langfeðgatal – as well as the similar list in Hervarar saga – is independent of both of the two types of Swedish king lists, the Uppsala- and the Västgöta type. The article further argues that there is an influence from Langfeðgatal on one of the later versions of the king list of the Uppsala type, which is preserved in ms C92, where some additions seem to be directly influenced by the Icelandic work. The last part of the article investigates what kinds of sources 13th-century Icelandic historians had for earlier Swedish kings and Swedish history. It argues that Langfeðgatal is mainly based on written Norse works (kings’ sagas etc.), but also that there existed a vital oral tradition on Iceland about the history of Sweden and its kings. This is supported by the evidence of Yngvars saga, an Icelandic work from ca 1200. Yngvars saga treats events in 11th-century Swedent hat feature in inscriptions on contemporary rune stones but were never recorded in Swedish written sources. Knowledge of these events must have been transmitted orally until they were written down, for the first time ever, on Iceland ca 150 years later. How this oral transmission worked is discussed by an analysis of Skáldatal, a mid-13th-century work where Icelandic skalds from the Viking Age to the 13th century are listed in connection with the kings and jarls they praised. One part of Skáldatal concerns the skalds of Swedish kings. The article argues both that Skáldatal is evidence of the oral tradition about Swedish kings that existed on Iceland independent of Swedish written sources and that it provides one explanation of the sources of Icelandic knowledge about Swedish kings and history: the many skalds in Skáldatal’s list are continuously active informants, from the Viking age to the 13th century, with knowledge direct from the Swedish court.
Keynotes: Sweden, historiography, Iceland, Middle Ages, sagas
Keynotes: Sweden, historiography, Iceland, Middle Ages, sagas
To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly... more
To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, which so far has been done. They both have their separate history.
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly... more
To understand the history of Gotland, the home of the Varangians, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, which so far has been done. They both have their separate history.
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super- power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’.
The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.
Let us look at the archaeological evidences and take such a simple example as the 7500 Roman coins from Tacitus time and there about, denarius, found in present day Sweden. 6500 of these are from Gotland. Only 80 are from the Lake Mälar area. Or take the quantity of bronze bowls from the Capuan factory outside Naples found on Gotland.
How can Swedish scholars with this quantity of finds on Gotland from the Roman Imperial time pretend that Gotland did not exist?
Tacitus wrote about Suionum Civitate. He accordingly tells about the people who lived in Mare Suebicum (the Baltic Sea), i.e. the Gotlanders, who already then had reached a high cultural level and had trade relations all over Europe, including the Roman Empire.
He continues: “Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.” The Sithones lived in the Lake Mälar area and are what we later call Svear.
From the archaeological findings we can accordingly establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense.
No Svea kingdom as such existed yet at that time. Tacitus says that the people in the Lake Mälar area were ruled by a woman. Still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 700s, the people in the Lake Mälar area are not known as Svear but as Skilfings.
It is quite clear that historical observations can not only be based on name similarities, but one must first look at the map, the archaeological finds and the chronological development and only secondarily try to match the names that different peoples have had in different areas at different times, and when these names first appear in written sources.
The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220, and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored - i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga.
Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. The extensive trade relations convey influences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland.
The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the area (what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion), is mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlanders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos.
The Guta Saga tells that the Gotlanders always kept the victory and their right: “Many kings fought against Gutland while it was heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to ‘suiarikis’ (Svear), but none of them could make peace before Avair Strabain of Alva parish. He made the first peace with the ‘suja kunung’ (king of the Svear).”
The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear, probably from second half of the 500s, means that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. There were large Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650-850 CE, an area at that time conquered by the Svear. Helgö and Birka would be trading places with large Gotlandic influence. E.g., writes Adam of Bremen in his story, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, that “Birka is a Gotlandic (Gothia) town located in the middle of the country of the Sveoner.”
A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar. If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälar area at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendel era, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages. On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom.
The first writer to mention some people on the Scandinavian peninsula (THULE), except Tacitus Sitonens in the Lake Mälar area, is Prokopios who wrote in the 500s. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150, Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin finds.
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants. The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region (the Gotlanders). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means ‘union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits. It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers of Khazaria, Miklagarðr (Constantinople) and Garðaríki (Kievan Rus’).
The Gotlandic Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988. .
Magic often plays a significant role in medieval European narratives, where it can be used in a variety of ways, including as a literary tool. In this essay, I briefly consider magic as a narrative device and propose a typology of modes... more
Magic often plays a significant role in medieval European narratives, where it can be used in a variety of ways, including as a literary tool. In this essay, I briefly consider magic as a narrative device and propose a typology of modes of presentation (general, detailed, and explicit), and argue that Old Norse-Icelandic literature appears to engage in an especially wide array of narrative presentations of magic, particularly when contrasted with comparable materials from elsewhere in northern Europe.
The first volume of Le lingue nordiche nel medioevo offers extracts of central and typical medieval Nordic texts from the period 1200–1500. There are four texts from each of the languages Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic, as well... more
The first volume of Le lingue nordiche nel medioevo offers extracts of central and typical medieval Nordic texts from the period 1200–1500. There are four texts from each of the languages Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic, as well a a single text in Gutnish. Each text has a brief introduction, a facing translation into Italian, and a broad selection of textual notes. All texts have been transcribed and edited by the authors themselves, and for each text a facsimile is reproduced in order to display the manuscript from which the text has been edited. The general introduction aims at putting the linguistic development of the Nordic languages into perspective, as well as the textual genres and the manuscripts themselves.
See: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14800.html “impressively interdisciplinary”—Edward Bever, Jrnl of Interdisciplinary History “comprehensive and enlightening”—Thomas DuBois, JEGP "an impressive book”—Jenny Jochens,... more
See: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14800.html
“impressively interdisciplinary”—Edward Bever, Jrnl of Interdisciplinary History
“comprehensive and enlightening”—Thomas DuBois, JEGP
"an impressive book”—Jenny Jochens, Speculum
“deft use of the full array of sources”—Michael Bailey, American Historical Review
“challenges established views”—Rune Blix Hagen, Historisk tidsskrift
“excellent study of ‘religious’ change”—Nicolas Meylan, Jrnl of Religion
“excellent overview”—Lars Lönnroth, Svenska Dagbladet
“how other shelves in the library of cultural history can be reorganized”—John Ødemark, Arv
“of great value not only to scholars of Scandinavia but to anyone interested in the complex history of European witch-beliefs”—Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore
---
Stephen A. Mitchell here offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia. He focuses on those people believed to be able—and who in some instances thought themselves able—to manipulate the world around them through magical practices, and on the responses to these beliefs in the legal, literary, and popular cultures of the Nordic Middle Ages. His sources range from the Icelandic sagas to cultural monuments much less familiar to the nonspecialist, including legal cases, church art, law codes, ecclesiastical records, and runic spells.
Mitchell's starting point is the year 1100, by which time Christianity was well established in elite circles throughout Scandinavia, even as some pre-Christian practices and beliefs persisted in various forms. The book's endpoint coincides with the coming of the Reformation and the onset of the early modern Scandinavian witch hunts. The terrain covered is complex, home to the Germanic Scandinavians as well as their non-Indo-European neighbors, the Sámi and Finns, and it encompasses such diverse areas as the important trade cities of Copenhagen, Bergen, and Stockholm, with their large foreign populations; the rural hinterlands; and the insular outposts of Iceland and Greenland.
By examining witches, wizards, and seeresses in literature, lore, and law, as well as surviving charm magic directed toward love, prophecy, health, and weather, Mitchell provides a portrait of both the practitioners of medieval Nordic magic and its performance. With an understanding of mythology as a living system of cultural signs (not just ancient sacred narratives), this study also focuses on such powerful evolving myths as those of "the milk-stealing witch," the diabolical pact, and the witches' journey to Blåkulla. Court cases involving witchcraft, charm magic, and apostasy demonstrate that witchcraft ideologies played a key role in conceptualizing gender and were themselves an important means of exercising social control.
Stephen A. Mitchell is Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore at Harvard University and author of Heroic Sagas and Ballads."
“impressively interdisciplinary”—Edward Bever, Jrnl of Interdisciplinary History
“comprehensive and enlightening”—Thomas DuBois, JEGP
"an impressive book”—Jenny Jochens, Speculum
“deft use of the full array of sources”—Michael Bailey, American Historical Review
“challenges established views”—Rune Blix Hagen, Historisk tidsskrift
“excellent study of ‘religious’ change”—Nicolas Meylan, Jrnl of Religion
“excellent overview”—Lars Lönnroth, Svenska Dagbladet
“how other shelves in the library of cultural history can be reorganized”—John Ødemark, Arv
“of great value not only to scholars of Scandinavia but to anyone interested in the complex history of European witch-beliefs”—Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore
---
Stephen A. Mitchell here offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia. He focuses on those people believed to be able—and who in some instances thought themselves able—to manipulate the world around them through magical practices, and on the responses to these beliefs in the legal, literary, and popular cultures of the Nordic Middle Ages. His sources range from the Icelandic sagas to cultural monuments much less familiar to the nonspecialist, including legal cases, church art, law codes, ecclesiastical records, and runic spells.
Mitchell's starting point is the year 1100, by which time Christianity was well established in elite circles throughout Scandinavia, even as some pre-Christian practices and beliefs persisted in various forms. The book's endpoint coincides with the coming of the Reformation and the onset of the early modern Scandinavian witch hunts. The terrain covered is complex, home to the Germanic Scandinavians as well as their non-Indo-European neighbors, the Sámi and Finns, and it encompasses such diverse areas as the important trade cities of Copenhagen, Bergen, and Stockholm, with their large foreign populations; the rural hinterlands; and the insular outposts of Iceland and Greenland.
By examining witches, wizards, and seeresses in literature, lore, and law, as well as surviving charm magic directed toward love, prophecy, health, and weather, Mitchell provides a portrait of both the practitioners of medieval Nordic magic and its performance. With an understanding of mythology as a living system of cultural signs (not just ancient sacred narratives), this study also focuses on such powerful evolving myths as those of "the milk-stealing witch," the diabolical pact, and the witches' journey to Blåkulla. Court cases involving witchcraft, charm magic, and apostasy demonstrate that witchcraft ideologies played a key role in conceptualizing gender and were themselves an important means of exercising social control.
Stephen A. Mitchell is Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore at Harvard University and author of Heroic Sagas and Ballads."
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
Please note that the video 'doing the dozens' referred to in note 53 of my essay has a new URL and is, on this date, 15 December 2020, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZA50XB9aE&t=23s
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
*FOR CITATIONS PLEASE USE "SHEILA LOUISE WRIGHT"* This paper was written as documentation for the SCA (Society For Creative Anachronism), Kingdom of An Tir Bardic Championships 2010 (and before I really knew what I was doing...) The... more
*FOR CITATIONS PLEASE USE "SHEILA LOUISE WRIGHT"* This paper was written as documentation for the SCA (Society For Creative Anachronism), Kingdom of An Tir Bardic Championships 2010 (and before I really knew what I was doing...)
The story behind the Swedish ballad “Den Underbara Fiolen” is a long-standing traditional tale, as evidenced by its widespread popularity. By the 17th century it seems that nearly every country in Britain, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, even as far east as India, Korea, & China, may each have had up to hundreds of versions of the piece.
The “murder ballad” most commonly known as “The Two Sisters”, an English cousin to the Swedish “Den Underbara Fiolen”, is a cautionary tale of sadness, betrayal and vengeance and in many tellings, love and happy-endings. These are themes and emotions that have touched the hearts of many singers and poets for hundreds of years all over the world and continue to do so to this day.
Excluding differing details, in most cases the major points of the tale can be summarised as such: Two sisters go down to the waterside. Once there, the elder sister pushes the younger sister into the water where she pleads for her life, offering the elder sister land, riches and even her own true love if the elder will help her out. She refuses and the younger sister drowns. Later, a passerby find the girl’s body and fashions some sort of instrument (in this case a violin) out of it. The instrument then ends up at the drowned girls home, often at the wedding feast of the elder sister to the younger’s lover. There, the instrument magically begins to play on its own and tells the tale of the murdered girls betrayal and death. After the murder is revealed, the dead girl comes back, the elder sister is punished and the younger sister is reunited with her lover.
It is widely surmised among such experts that this tale, particularly the variant in which the instrument magically plays on its own, was probably the original version, and likely came from Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe. In Sweden alone, there are more than 125 version of this ballad, which tops all the other Nordic countries, and likely anywhere else.
Ballads regardless of what country they come from are meant to be songs (or even dances), narrative in nature, full of imagery and generally containing a single story of tragedy, history, romance and/or comedy, typically following an accepted formula within the 3 main types of ballads: Traditional, Literary and Broadside Ballads.
Broadside ballads are ballads that were printed in flyers called “broadsides”, a popular and cheap means of advertising and communication in the 16th to 20th centuries. Many ballads that survive today are thanks to these broadsides. Generally ballads were printed with words only and a suggestion of a tune of an already well known song which would fit the words. An English version of “The Two Sisters” tale, entitled “The Miller and the King’s Daughter” appeared in a 1656 English broadside and again in 1658. There is also a 17th Century Icelandic version entitled, “ Hörpu Kvæði” or “Kvæði Um Tvær Systur”.
In Scandinavia, ballad tradition is predominately oral in nature, changing with each rendition, each singer, each time it is told, living and organic and probably never the same twice. Scandinavians only began recording their traditional ballads in the mid 14th century when ballads were popular at the Royal courts of Norway and Denmark, and were greatly influenced by the works of traveling musicians from the rest of Europe, particularly France and Germany.
There are 2 styles of Scandinavian ballad, Refrain Stanza and Burden Stanza, and 6 types of ballads, as classified in the “Types of Scandinavian Ballads”. “Den Underbara Fiolen” is of the “Refrain Stanza” style, classified as a type “A38 - Ballad of the Supernatural”.
One can only guess at the tales age and origin. Svend Grundtvig, Scandinavian Ballad scholar and author of “Danmarks Folkviser” (1834), mentions 16th century English and Icelandic documentation of the tale and goes on to tell of older versions from elsewhere, including a possible connection to a similar tale in the 14th Century “Arabian Nights” (aka 1001 Nights) from Syria, which may actual date from the 10th Century. Clues in the tale, including the supernatural elements, hints of post-Christian influence and some archaic language, as well as the nearly global popularity of the tale by 1656, points to a date of origin in Scandinavia of at least the 1300’s or later, but definitely prior to the 17th Century.
The story behind the Swedish ballad “Den Underbara Fiolen” is a long-standing traditional tale, as evidenced by its widespread popularity. By the 17th century it seems that nearly every country in Britain, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, even as far east as India, Korea, & China, may each have had up to hundreds of versions of the piece.
The “murder ballad” most commonly known as “The Two Sisters”, an English cousin to the Swedish “Den Underbara Fiolen”, is a cautionary tale of sadness, betrayal and vengeance and in many tellings, love and happy-endings. These are themes and emotions that have touched the hearts of many singers and poets for hundreds of years all over the world and continue to do so to this day.
Excluding differing details, in most cases the major points of the tale can be summarised as such: Two sisters go down to the waterside. Once there, the elder sister pushes the younger sister into the water where she pleads for her life, offering the elder sister land, riches and even her own true love if the elder will help her out. She refuses and the younger sister drowns. Later, a passerby find the girl’s body and fashions some sort of instrument (in this case a violin) out of it. The instrument then ends up at the drowned girls home, often at the wedding feast of the elder sister to the younger’s lover. There, the instrument magically begins to play on its own and tells the tale of the murdered girls betrayal and death. After the murder is revealed, the dead girl comes back, the elder sister is punished and the younger sister is reunited with her lover.
It is widely surmised among such experts that this tale, particularly the variant in which the instrument magically plays on its own, was probably the original version, and likely came from Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe. In Sweden alone, there are more than 125 version of this ballad, which tops all the other Nordic countries, and likely anywhere else.
Ballads regardless of what country they come from are meant to be songs (or even dances), narrative in nature, full of imagery and generally containing a single story of tragedy, history, romance and/or comedy, typically following an accepted formula within the 3 main types of ballads: Traditional, Literary and Broadside Ballads.
Broadside ballads are ballads that were printed in flyers called “broadsides”, a popular and cheap means of advertising and communication in the 16th to 20th centuries. Many ballads that survive today are thanks to these broadsides. Generally ballads were printed with words only and a suggestion of a tune of an already well known song which would fit the words. An English version of “The Two Sisters” tale, entitled “The Miller and the King’s Daughter” appeared in a 1656 English broadside and again in 1658. There is also a 17th Century Icelandic version entitled, “ Hörpu Kvæði” or “Kvæði Um Tvær Systur”.
In Scandinavia, ballad tradition is predominately oral in nature, changing with each rendition, each singer, each time it is told, living and organic and probably never the same twice. Scandinavians only began recording their traditional ballads in the mid 14th century when ballads were popular at the Royal courts of Norway and Denmark, and were greatly influenced by the works of traveling musicians from the rest of Europe, particularly France and Germany.
There are 2 styles of Scandinavian ballad, Refrain Stanza and Burden Stanza, and 6 types of ballads, as classified in the “Types of Scandinavian Ballads”. “Den Underbara Fiolen” is of the “Refrain Stanza” style, classified as a type “A38 - Ballad of the Supernatural”.
One can only guess at the tales age and origin. Svend Grundtvig, Scandinavian Ballad scholar and author of “Danmarks Folkviser” (1834), mentions 16th century English and Icelandic documentation of the tale and goes on to tell of older versions from elsewhere, including a possible connection to a similar tale in the 14th Century “Arabian Nights” (aka 1001 Nights) from Syria, which may actual date from the 10th Century. Clues in the tale, including the supernatural elements, hints of post-Christian influence and some archaic language, as well as the nearly global popularity of the tale by 1656, points to a date of origin in Scandinavia of at least the 1300’s or later, but definitely prior to the 17th Century.
A wide-ranging interview with the editors of Scandia
Sigfrid, Eskil, and Blotsven. The relation between some Icelandic and Swedish Medieval Sources on the Christianization of Sweden. The article discusses the 13th century sources for the two saints Sigfrid and Eskil and the possible... more
Sigfrid, Eskil, and Blotsven. The relation between some Icelandic and Swedish Medieval Sources on the Christianization of Sweden.
The article discusses the 13th century sources for the two saints Sigfrid and Eskil and the possible connection with some Old Norse sources. The extant Sigfrid legend is from the mid-13th century, but there is also an older Swedish source. The bishop chronicle, usually dated to ca 1240, in the manuscript of Äldre Västgötalagen also tells about Sigfrid and his mission in Värend. In addition, a section attributed to Gunnlaugr Leifsson (ca 1200) in the Long Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason tells about the
Christianization of Värend by a certain bishop Sigurðr. According to Lars Olof Larsson Gunnlaugr’s text and the bishop chronicle must be based on a common, now lost, written Sigfrid vita, earlier than the extant one, which was exported to Iceland where it was used by Gunnlaugr. The hypothesis has been accepted by later scholars, and it has formed the basis for a theory by Henrik Janson about the sources for another saint: an early, now lost, Swedish vita about St Eskil was exported to Iceland ca
1200 and formed the basis for all the information in Iceland about Blót-Sveinn and his pagan revolt against king Ingi (described also in the extant Eskil vita from ca 1290), mentioned in several Old Norse texts. In this article Larsson’s and Janson’s hypotheses is challenged, and arguments are presented for the existence of independent traditions in 13th Sweden and Iceland concerning the Christianization of Sweden.
The article discusses the 13th century sources for the two saints Sigfrid and Eskil and the possible connection with some Old Norse sources. The extant Sigfrid legend is from the mid-13th century, but there is also an older Swedish source. The bishop chronicle, usually dated to ca 1240, in the manuscript of Äldre Västgötalagen also tells about Sigfrid and his mission in Värend. In addition, a section attributed to Gunnlaugr Leifsson (ca 1200) in the Long Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason tells about the
Christianization of Värend by a certain bishop Sigurðr. According to Lars Olof Larsson Gunnlaugr’s text and the bishop chronicle must be based on a common, now lost, written Sigfrid vita, earlier than the extant one, which was exported to Iceland where it was used by Gunnlaugr. The hypothesis has been accepted by later scholars, and it has formed the basis for a theory by Henrik Janson about the sources for another saint: an early, now lost, Swedish vita about St Eskil was exported to Iceland ca
1200 and formed the basis for all the information in Iceland about Blót-Sveinn and his pagan revolt against king Ingi (described also in the extant Eskil vita from ca 1290), mentioned in several Old Norse texts. In this article Larsson’s and Janson’s hypotheses is challenged, and arguments are presented for the existence of independent traditions in 13th Sweden and Iceland concerning the Christianization of Sweden.
Building on and applying the theoretical debates developed in /Memory and Remembering: Past Awareness in the Medieval North/, ed. Pernille Hermann and Stephen A. Mitchell, special issue of /Scandinavian Studies/, 85:3 (2013)—itself the... more
Building on and applying the theoretical debates developed in /Memory and Remembering: Past Awareness in the Medieval North/, ed. Pernille Hermann and Stephen A. Mitchell, special issue of /Scandinavian Studies/, 85:3 (2013)—itself the result of a 2012 Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar—the articles in this volume deal with the vocabulary, concepts, and functions of memory in medieval Norse texts (e.g., sagas, myths, skaldic poems, laws, runic inscriptions, historiographical writings), with reference to international memory studies. Drawing on these emerging theoretical tools for studying—and conceptualizing—memory, the collection looks at new ways of understanding medieval cultures and such issues as transmission and media, preservation and storage, forgetting and erasure, and authenticity and falsity. Despite its interdisciplinary and comparative basis, the volume remains grounded in empirical studies of memory and memory-dependent issues as these took form in the Nordic world.
CONTENTS: JÜRG GLAUSER, “Foreword” vii; PERNILLE HERMANN, STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, and AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, “Introduction: Minni and Muninn – Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture” 1; Part I. Memory and Narration —PERNILLE HERMANN, “Key Aspects of Memory and Remembering in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature” 13; JOHN LINDOW, “Memory and Old Norse Mythology” 41; MARGARET CLUNIES ROSS, “Authentication of Poetic Memory in Old Norse Skaldic Verse” 59; KATE HESLOP, “Minni and the Rhetoric of Memory in Eddic, Skaldic, and Runic Texts” 75; RUSSELL POOLE, “Autobiographical Memory in Medieval Scandinavia and amongst the Kievan Rus’” 109; Part II. Memory and History — RUDOLF SIMEK, “Memoria Normannica” 133; STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, “The Mythologized Past: Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Gotland” 155; GÍSLI SIGURÐSSON, “Constructing a Past to Suit the Present: Sturla Þórðarson on Conflicts and Alliances with King Haraldr hárfagri” 175; STEFAN BRINK, “Minnunga mæn: The Usage of Old Knowledgeable Men in Legal Cases” 197; AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, “Legal Culture and Historical Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Iceland” 211; Index 231""
CONTENTS: JÜRG GLAUSER, “Foreword” vii; PERNILLE HERMANN, STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, and AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, “Introduction: Minni and Muninn – Memory in Medieval Nordic Culture” 1; Part I. Memory and Narration —PERNILLE HERMANN, “Key Aspects of Memory and Remembering in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature” 13; JOHN LINDOW, “Memory and Old Norse Mythology” 41; MARGARET CLUNIES ROSS, “Authentication of Poetic Memory in Old Norse Skaldic Verse” 59; KATE HESLOP, “Minni and the Rhetoric of Memory in Eddic, Skaldic, and Runic Texts” 75; RUSSELL POOLE, “Autobiographical Memory in Medieval Scandinavia and amongst the Kievan Rus’” 109; Part II. Memory and History — RUDOLF SIMEK, “Memoria Normannica” 133; STEPHEN A. MITCHELL, “The Mythologized Past: Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Gotland” 155; GÍSLI SIGURÐSSON, “Constructing a Past to Suit the Present: Sturla Þórðarson on Conflicts and Alliances with King Haraldr hárfagri” 175; STEFAN BRINK, “Minnunga mæn: The Usage of Old Knowledgeable Men in Legal Cases” 197; AGNES S. ARNÓRSDÓTTIR, “Legal Culture and Historical Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Iceland” 211; Index 231""
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
The Swedish rhyme chronicle known as Karlskrönikan has generally been considered as a product of decadence and barbarization of the Swedish aristocracy’s literary taste during the 15th century. In particular, Karlskönikan has often been... more
The Swedish rhyme chronicle known as Karlskrönikan has generally been considered as a product of decadence and barbarization of the Swedish aristocracy’s literary taste during the 15th century. In particular, Karlskönikan has often been compared with the older Erikskrönikan in order to demonstrate its weakness from an artistic point of view. Moreover, Karlskrönikan has always been considered as a work of propaganda. The paper aims at discussing both the current literary judgement on the chronicle and its function in Swedish society at the time of its composition. By questioning the notions of ‘courtly literature’ and of ‘propaganda’, the paper comes to the conclusion that the author of Karlskrönikan shared the courtly vision of Erikskrönikan and, as did his predecessor, addressed a courtly audience. The changed political conditions and the influence of other genres (the political songs, above all) explain the main stylistic differences between the two chronicles, in particular the stronger realism and the verbal violence in the narrator’s comments that characterize Karlskrönikan.
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
This paper deals with the issue of how literature during the Middle Ages could be used as a means of political propaganda by being proposed to the audience as historiographical material. This is evident also during the courtly age,... more
This paper deals with the issue of how literature during the Middle Ages could be used as a means of political propaganda by being proposed to the audience as historiographical material. This is evident also during the courtly age, beginning in the Anglo-Norman area, whence this tradition spread to the German-speaking area and then to Scandinavia through important dynastical links. The three Swedish romances, known as Eufemiavisor, are particularly important from this perspective, as they introduce the courtly rhymed verse into Scandinavia, a tradition that will be typical of proper historiographical literature, i.e. the rhymed chronicles, starting from the Erikskrönika. But they are also significant in a historical perspective, not only as witnesses of a period, but also because they are presented to the audience as historical narratives: real historical figures and literary characters were used together by both historiography and fiction. Hence, the Eufemiavisor mention real places and real historical figures such as Charlemagne or King Arthur, though both really imbued with the features they acquired in the knightly literary tradition, thus using the very same techniques as those used in medieval historiography. These elements were probably exploited by Eufemia of Rügen to “import” the values of continental Europe, with which she had grown up, into the Swedish court of her daughter Ingeborg, who was married to Duke Erik Magnusson of Sweden and was the only heir to the throne of Norway: by spreading these values, she might have wanted to enhance the power of her daughter, thus of the Norwegian crown, at the Swedish court. This could help us explain why she had the poems composed in Swedish rather than in Norwegian. Also, Eufemia was linked to the House of Welf, one of the most influent dynasties in Europe during the Middle Ages; therefore, analyzing in this light her genealogy and the role of aristocratic women could give us a new glimpse into the very origin and role of the three romances that still bear her name, and into how history and legendary elements were used in Germanic medieval literature.
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
Project-poster presented at the conference 'Exploring the Middle Ages', 25th to 27th november 2011, University of Bergen.
This article on researching the portrayal of Jews in medieval Denmark and Sweden argues for the importance of the period for understanding the breadth, nuances, and history of anti-Jewish stereotypes in Scandinavia. I discuss the rather... more
This article on researching the portrayal of Jews in medieval Denmark and Sweden argues for the importance of the period for understanding the breadth, nuances, and history of anti-Jewish stereotypes in Scandinavia. I discuss the rather scant previous research on Jews in Old Danish and Old Swedish (East Norse) literature and medieval art. The lack of scholarship is somewhat surprising given the volume of sources available and the many types of investigation they invite. I suggest a number of themes – the question of absent-presence, the role of the Church, and the medieval legacy – that could prove fruitful for future research and provide questions and suggestions for how to approach the material.
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its... more
To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian rivers from time to time. Already 800- 500 BCE Gotlandic merchants had a large trading emporium in Achmulova on the Volga. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, that so far has been done.
They both have their separate history. Gotland only became part of Sweden in 1679.
We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al- Rus’ were merchants from the island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From there comes later the name Russia.
The Byzantine Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter 867, calls the Gotlandic merchants Rhos.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘expedition of rowing ships’.
On the Russian rivers in the 800s there were rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic writers accordingly called al-Rus’. This linguistic usage tells us already a lot. In Eastern Europe, the Arabs have thus had time to peacefully get acquainted with the Gotlandic merchants, and for them make two Gotlandic words, al-Rus’ and Warang, the Old Norse Vaeringi. In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Gotlandic merchants were called Varangians. A couple of hundred years later there came rowing Svear to Finland and Estonia who went on crusades and conquered their lands and were then called Ruotsi and Rootsi.
Please note that there is no sign of Scandinavians in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of Scandinavians come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors. In the west, however, the Arabs have not had a clue about the Vikings’ language, and therefore in their perplexity seized back on an old word for pagans, that from the Quran familiar word madjù, ‘magi- cian’. It fits pretty well with the fact that in the west there were mostly sudden passing military assaults, which did not allow any linguistic contact. After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants traded with the Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland. They sold furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad. Between the Baltic Sea where Birka was in the mid 700s established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad and the Volga the Gotlanders founded bases which today are called the Rus’ Khaganate. Most of these bases were destroyed in about 860. The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos) to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast to the small farms they had at home in Gotland. A Gotlandic fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople in 860-861 with the outcome of long lasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the Byzantine Emperor. The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land. This fits very well with Guta Saga, which is the foreword to Guta Lagh written down about 1220, that says: ‘Although the Gotlanders were heathen, they nevertheless sailed on trading voyages to all countries, both Christian and heathen. The merchants saw Christian customs in Christian lands. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptised, and brought priests to Gotland. Botair of Akebäck was the name of the one who first built a church in the place which is now called Kulstäde’. The church in Kulstäde was according to Guta Saga burned down, but in 897 the church in Visby was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art. Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art. In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under the name Leo VI.
The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and Georgian churches independant and did never submit to any bishop. During the first 300 years the Gotlandic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. Passing bishops inaugurated new churches.
In 1164 the Gotlanders made a treaty with the bishop who lived closest to them, the one in Linköping, to undertake the duties of a bishop against special conditions regulated by the Gotlanders. Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian) trading Emporium at the northern point of the Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad https://www.academia.edu/34783496/Birka_was_established_as_a_Gotlandic_Varangian_trading_Emporium_at_the_northern_point_of_the_Rus-Varangian_trading_route_to_Bagdad
Guta Saga and Guta Lagh are written in the Gotlandic language, ‘Gutniska’, clearly distinct from other
Nordic languages and is very close to the Gothic
language. It lacks any counterpart on the Swedish
mainland. Gotland, from distant... more
Guta Saga and Guta Lagh are written in the Gotlandic language, ‘Gutniska’, clearly distinct from other
Nordic languages and is very close to the Gothic
language. It lacks any counterpart on the Swedish
mainland. Gotland, from distant times and even well into modern times, was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic with its own history and
its own distinctive culture. Gotland’s own formal
world developed early. Gotland was the center for
the rich Baltic Sea culture. Guta Saga is also a literary masterpiece, which according to Adolf Schück shows that the Gotlanders early had reached an advanced stage in the narrative arts. An interesting linguistic difference between Gotlandic and Swedish
is the Swedish word ‘arv’, inherit, that in Gotlandic
is called ‘lutum, liautr’.
In addition to the few sources of written nature
and the many descriptive picture stones there is a very large archaeological material. It not only complement the written sources. It is also independent
research material relevant to in particular the Late
Bronze Age, Roman Iron Age, Vendel era, Viking Age and earlier Medieval history on Gotland.
With the name Tjelvar the Gotlandic history begins. Some Danish and Norwegian researchers have associated the name Tjelvar with the name of Thors agile servant Tjalvi, where ‘a’ under the rules of the Nordic ‘i’ sound should have passed over to an ‘e’. Such an interpretation is likely considering the mythological character that the Guta Saga undoubtedly has. The Thor cult seems to have had a wide expansion on Gotland. Thor and his servant who belong together as mythical nature beeings were wellknown. Thor was the god of thunder and lightning and was looked upon to cause thunder-storms “tordön”.
According to the Guta Saga, Tjelvar had a son by the name of Havde, who married Vita stjerna and with her had three sons, Gute, Graipr and Gunnfjaun. From these three originated since the entire Gotlandic people. Thus the Guta Saga ties in with the triad, which is so common in most origin myths all the way from the Biblical story of Noah’s three sons, from which all nations of the earth descended. All here mentioned names are formed in a typically Nordic way except for the name of Havde’s wife Vitastjerna. This name stands there like an exotic flower in an otherwise entirely Nordic name flora. In the Low German translation the translator has to the name appended the following statement, translated into English, “it is by far the wisest hereditary daughter”. If you agree with the Low German interpretation it gives the Guta Saga still another mythological dimension. With the wisest it could refer to the goddess Athena in Greek mythology. In the Guta Saga it says that some Gotlanders emigrated to Greece. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts, crafts, justice and skill.
It is interesting to compare Tacitus Germania with Tjelvar and his family, where Tacitus talks about the Germanic gods in the first century. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribes Ingaevones, Herminones and Istvaeones. Note that Wodan and that group of gods are not known at that time.
The Guta Saga and Guta Lagh are probably written down around 1220 on the recommendation of the Archbishop in Lund, Andreas Sunesen. He was in 1207 passing through Gotland. There is preserved a letter from him to Bishop Bengt in Linköping in which he stresses the benefits of having the law written down. He also points out that the law must be suitable to the country, adding: “It is noted that, like the island Gutland, through a long sea stretch, is separated from other countries in the same way its inhabitants are so different from other people as concerns regulated law and customary right both the secular and spiritual.” This Gotlandic distinctiveness had a long history.
What is not mentioned in Guta Saga is the ‘Bulverket’ in Tingstäde träsk which was probably built as a fortification in relation to ravages by Norwegian Vikings and a winter tradingplace. If so, the ‘Bulverket’ has not been built later than the end of the 900s or early 1000s, the time when these Viking kings ravaged Gotland. In 1007 came a Norwegian fleet under the 13 year old Olaf Haraldsson (later Christianized and called Olaf the Saint) on a ravaging expedition to the Baltic Sea. The campaign was however led by the king trainer Hrane who had been on Viking ravaging expeditions several times before. As Olaf was the most famous Gotlandic saint when Guta Saga was written down, this could of course not be mentioned.
Both documents show the way beyond themselves, deep in the ancient world, where only the abandoned settlements, burial grounds, picture stones and prehistoric finds speak for themselves in its dumb but expressive language. People came to Gotland already in the Paleolithic, during the time of the Ancylus Lake, when the climate was warm and moist and Gotland was abounding with water, and prey of all kinds were swarming. But for how long has there been a social organization? Can we find any hint to the cause and origin of the Merchant Farmers’ Republic?
What do our Stone Age discoveries say? Yes, they speak in the beginning of a people of seal hunters and fishermen. Of astronomers who were able to read the sky and document an astronomical calendar. They must have had knowledge of what we today call the Metonic cycle. The Metonic calendar assumes that 19 solar years are equal to 235 lunar months, which is in turn equal to 6940 days.
The power and glory of the old Gotlanders was built, as we know, on foreign trade far more than its own products. How far back can we trace the merchandizing on Gotland? At least to the Neolithic period. It is quite clear that the Gotlanders early begun to use the good trading position of their home island for trade.
Already the boom during the Bronze Age would have meant a strong community organization where we can see the great piles of stones, cairns, and those for Gotland unique stone ships.
The outlines of an organized form of society with trade contacts with the Roman Empire can on Gotland be traced back to at least around the beginning of our era.
This seems at the beginning of the Roman Iron Age, also called ‘Time of emperors’, to have been one of the Gotlandic ancient culture’s most prosperous economic booms. Roman authors like Pliny the Elder and Tacitus write about the mighty people on the island in Mare Suebicum (Baltic Sea). This culture was built on regular trade exchange with the continental tribes, and directly and indirectly with the Roman Empire, where the Roman basilicas appear to be prototypes for the large Gotlandic halls of that time known as ‘kämpgravar’. The structure of this society appears to have had that in the Nordic region character of ancient great family. The peculiarity of this cultural image is precisely the singular style of the break between people with their artistically trained, partially refined personal luxury and world-knowledge and their daily lives in a district of simple shepherds. For those who built the huge halls in accordance with ancient inherited traditions and laid Roman wine ladles from Capua in Italy in the tombs and lost Emperor silver denarius behind the headboard must have been not only wealthy but also globetrotters. (see ‘The largest known Nordic building from the Roman Iron Age’ with the measures 67 x 11 metres). The Gotlanders most probably controlled the northern part of the Amber Road and were at the right place when the Gothic federation was formed. In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast in Prussia through the land of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (modern Gulf of Venice).
With the name Tjelvar the Gotlandic history begins. Some Danish and Norwegian researchers have associated the name Tjelvar with the name of Thors agile servant Tjalvi, where ‘a’ under the rules of the Nordic ‘i’ sound should have passed over to an ‘e’. Such an interpretation is likely considering the mythological character that the Guta Saga undoubtedly has. The Thor cult seems to have had a wide expansion on Gotland. Thor and his servant who belong together as mythical nature beeings were wellknown. Thor was the god of thunder and lightning and was looked upon to cause thunder-storms “tordön”.
According to the Guta Saga, Tjelvar had a son by the name of Havde, who married Vita stjerna and with her had three sons, Gute, Graipr and Gunnfjaun. From these three originated since the entire Gotlandic people. Thus the Guta Saga ties in with the triad, which is so common in most origin myths all the way from the Biblical story of Noah’s three sons, from which all nations of the earth descended. All here mentioned names are formed in a typically Nordic way except for the name of Havde’s wife Vitastjerna. This name stands there like an exotic flower in an otherwise entirely Nordic name flora. In the Low German translation the translator has to the name appended the following statement, translated into English, “it is by far the wisest hereditary daughter”. If you agree with the Low German interpretation it gives the Guta Saga still another mythological dimension. With the wisest it could refer to the goddess Athena in Greek mythology. In the Guta Saga it says that some Gotlanders emigrated to Greece. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts, crafts, justice and skill.
It is interesting to compare Tacitus Germania with Tjelvar and his family, where Tacitus talks about the Germanic gods in the first century. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribes Ingaevones, Herminones and Istvaeones. Note that Wodan and that group of gods are not known at that time.
The Guta Saga and Guta Lagh are probably written down around 1220 on the recommendation of the Archbishop in Lund, Andreas Sunesen. He was in 1207 passing through Gotland. There is preserved a letter from him to Bishop Bengt in Linköping in which he stresses the benefits of having the law written down. He also points out that the law must be suitable to the country, adding: “It is noted that, like the island Gutland, through a long sea stretch, is separated from other countries in the same way its inhabitants are so different from other people as concerns regulated law and customary right both the secular and spiritual.” This Gotlandic distinctiveness had a long history.
What is not mentioned in Guta Saga is the ‘Bulverket’ in Tingstäde träsk which was probably built as a fortification in relation to ravages by Norwegian Vikings and a winter tradingplace. If so, the ‘Bulverket’ has not been built later than the end of the 900s or early 1000s, the time when these Viking kings ravaged Gotland. In 1007 came a Norwegian fleet under the 13 year old Olaf Haraldsson (later Christianized and called Olaf the Saint) on a ravaging expedition to the Baltic Sea. The campaign was however led by the king trainer Hrane who had been on Viking ravaging expeditions several times before. As Olaf was the most famous Gotlandic saint when Guta Saga was written down, this could of course not be mentioned.
Both documents show the way beyond themselves, deep in the ancient world, where only the abandoned settlements, burial grounds, picture stones and prehistoric finds speak for themselves in its dumb but expressive language. People came to Gotland already in the Paleolithic, during the time of the Ancylus Lake, when the climate was warm and moist and Gotland was abounding with water, and prey of all kinds were swarming. But for how long has there been a social organization? Can we find any hint to the cause and origin of the Merchant Farmers’ Republic?
What do our Stone Age discoveries say? Yes, they speak in the beginning of a people of seal hunters and fishermen. Of astronomers who were able to read the sky and document an astronomical calendar. They must have had knowledge of what we today call the Metonic cycle. The Metonic calendar assumes that 19 solar years are equal to 235 lunar months, which is in turn equal to 6940 days.
The power and glory of the old Gotlanders was built, as we know, on foreign trade far more than its own products. How far back can we trace the merchandizing on Gotland? At least to the Neolithic period. It is quite clear that the Gotlanders early begun to use the good trading position of their home island for trade.
Already the boom during the Bronze Age would have meant a strong community organization where we can see the great piles of stones, cairns, and those for Gotland unique stone ships.
The outlines of an organized form of society with trade contacts with the Roman Empire can on Gotland be traced back to at least around the beginning of our era.
This seems at the beginning of the Roman Iron Age, also called ‘Time of emperors’, to have been one of the Gotlandic ancient culture’s most prosperous economic booms. Roman authors like Pliny the Elder and Tacitus write about the mighty people on the island in Mare Suebicum (Baltic Sea). This culture was built on regular trade exchange with the continental tribes, and directly and indirectly with the Roman Empire, where the Roman basilicas appear to be prototypes for the large Gotlandic halls of that time known as ‘kämpgravar’. The structure of this society appears to have had that in the Nordic region character of ancient great family. The peculiarity of this cultural image is precisely the singular style of the break between people with their artistically trained, partially refined personal luxury and world-knowledge and their daily lives in a district of simple shepherds. For those who built the huge halls in accordance with ancient inherited traditions and laid Roman wine ladles from Capua in Italy in the tombs and lost Emperor silver denarius behind the headboard must have been not only wealthy but also globetrotters. (see ‘The largest known Nordic building from the Roman Iron Age’ with the measures 67 x 11 metres). The Gotlanders most probably controlled the northern part of the Amber Road and were at the right place when the Gothic federation was formed. In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast in Prussia through the land of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (modern Gulf of Venice).
The article examines the sources for Blotsven, the alleged pagan king in late 11th century Sweden who is said to have lead a short pagan rebellion against King Inge the elder. For a long time this was seen as an historical event, but the... more
The article examines the sources for Blotsven, the alleged pagan king in late 11th century Sweden who is said to have lead a short pagan rebellion against King Inge the elder. For a long time this was seen as an historical event, but the last decades the historicity of both Blot-Sven and a pagan revolt in late 11th century Sweden has been questioned or rejected, and the events are now generally seen as unhistorical. The question of the historicity of those events is an important one, since it concerns the most fundamental process in the history of Sweden, the Christianization. The main arguments for rejecting the existence of Blot-Sven and the pagan revolt have been that the sources are claimed to be late and Icelandic and that the story must be a literary construct based on allegorical figures and literary clichés. The article demonstrates that there are more and older sources than most recent scholars are aware of and that there are several Swedish sources in addition to the Icelandic ones. The article focuses on the relationship between the sources. A main conclusion is that the Swedish and Icelandic sources are independent of each other. The article also demonstrates that the absence of contemporary mention is something Blot-Sven shares with all Swedish kings in late 11th and early 12th century whose existence has never been questioned. The article also shows that those features which have been pointed out as allegories and literary clichés occur only in the latest and least relevant source, which means that the knowledge about Blot-Sven is not bound to these features. In conclusion the article argues that the source evidence for a short pagan restoration under a king called Sven is stronger than the recent scholars have claimed.
East Norse philology – the study of Old Danish, Old Swedish, and Old Gutnish – continues to attract scholarly attention from around the world. Beyond the Piraeus Lion comprises fourteen articles on a vast number of topics by researchers... more
East Norse philology – the study of Old Danish, Old Swedish, and Old Gutnish – continues to attract scholarly attention from around the world. Beyond the Piraeus Lion comprises fourteen articles on a vast number of topics by researchers from Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and the USA. They are based on a selection of the papers given at the Second International Conference for East Norse Philology held at Ca’Foscari University ofVenice in November 2015. The volume covers subjects ranging from codicology and material philology to text transmission and reception, from women’s literacy in medieval Sweden to studies of Old Danish lexicon, and from Bible translations to Old Swedish poetics. In all, there are five sections in the volume – Palaeography, Codicology, and Editing; Manuscript Studies; Vocabulary and Style; Literature and Writing; Bibles and Translations – that all demonstrate the breadth and vitality of East Norse philology. The book is the second volume published by Selskab for Østnordisk Filologi · Sällskap för östnordisk filologi, established in Uppsala in 2013.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Authors
1. A Venetian Miscellany
Jonathan Adams & Massimiliano Bampi
I. Palaeography, Codicology, and Editing
2. Paleografiska egenskaper ur ett digitalt perspektiv
Lasse Mårtensson
3. Linjeringen i medeltida svenskspråkiga handskrifter
Patrik Åström
4. Normalizing Old Swedish Texts: Why Not?
Henrik Williams
II. Manuscript Studies
5. Vadstena Novices, Prague University, and the Old Swedish Evangelium Nicodemi
Dario Bullitta
6. The Bishop Murderer
Jonathan Adams
III. Vocabulary and Style
7. Word Formation, Syntax, and Style in Old Danish Medical Texts
Simon Skovgaard Boeck
8. The Vocabulary of Chivalry in Old Danish Romances
Marita Akhøj Nielsen
IV. Literature and Writing
9. Kvinnligt deltagande i det svenska skriftsamhället under medeltiden
Inger Lindell
10. “Of Lice and Men”: A Comparison of the King Snio Episode in the Annales Ryenses
Anja U. Blode
11. On the Old Swedish Trollmöte or Mik mötte en gamul kerling
Stephen Mitchell
12. Courtliness, Nobility, and Emotional Restraint in the First Old Swedish Translated Romances: on Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor
Kim Bergqvist
V. Bibles and Translations
13. St Jerome and the Authority of Medieval East Scandinavian Texts
Karl G. Johansson
14. A. D. 1526: The Beginning or the End of the Beginning? Humanist Bibles in Sweden
Lars Wollin
Index
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Authors
1. A Venetian Miscellany
Jonathan Adams & Massimiliano Bampi
I. Palaeography, Codicology, and Editing
2. Paleografiska egenskaper ur ett digitalt perspektiv
Lasse Mårtensson
3. Linjeringen i medeltida svenskspråkiga handskrifter
Patrik Åström
4. Normalizing Old Swedish Texts: Why Not?
Henrik Williams
II. Manuscript Studies
5. Vadstena Novices, Prague University, and the Old Swedish Evangelium Nicodemi
Dario Bullitta
6. The Bishop Murderer
Jonathan Adams
III. Vocabulary and Style
7. Word Formation, Syntax, and Style in Old Danish Medical Texts
Simon Skovgaard Boeck
8. The Vocabulary of Chivalry in Old Danish Romances
Marita Akhøj Nielsen
IV. Literature and Writing
9. Kvinnligt deltagande i det svenska skriftsamhället under medeltiden
Inger Lindell
10. “Of Lice and Men”: A Comparison of the King Snio Episode in the Annales Ryenses
Anja U. Blode
11. On the Old Swedish Trollmöte or Mik mötte en gamul kerling
Stephen Mitchell
12. Courtliness, Nobility, and Emotional Restraint in the First Old Swedish Translated Romances: on Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor
Kim Bergqvist
V. Bibles and Translations
13. St Jerome and the Authority of Medieval East Scandinavian Texts
Karl G. Johansson
14. A. D. 1526: The Beginning or the End of the Beginning? Humanist Bibles in Sweden
Lars Wollin
Index
By comparing the instructions for a crusade against Russian Novgorod 1347-51, which Christ made known to King Magnus Eriksson through revelations to his go-between, the future saint Birgitta, with the accounts of the crusade in Russian... more
By comparing the instructions for a crusade against Russian Novgorod 1347-51, which Christ made known to King Magnus Eriksson through revelations to his go-between, the future saint Birgitta, with the accounts of the crusade in Russian sources, we find that King Magnus in fact attempted to go along with these instructions by inviting the Russians to a theological discussion to establish which confession, the Catholic or Orthodox. Thereby the King abandonned the element of surprise when he finally unleashed his forces upon Novgorod. When the enterprise dismally failed Birgitta soon received further revelations that distanced herself – and Christ – from the venture.
The paper includes some text critical remarks pertaining to the edition of Revelaciones Extravagantes (1956), arguing that the Extravagantes 43 and 26 of the Ghotan Edition originally formed one text as they do in Codex Falkenberg. The texts in question consider how a disobedient king can be reconciled with Christ (and Birgitta). Two appendices further offer Danish translations of 1) the account on King Magnus' crusade in the Novgorod chronicles, and 2) the so-called Testament of King Magnus.
The paper includes some text critical remarks pertaining to the edition of Revelaciones Extravagantes (1956), arguing that the Extravagantes 43 and 26 of the Ghotan Edition originally formed one text as they do in Codex Falkenberg. The texts in question consider how a disobedient king can be reconciled with Christ (and Birgitta). Two appendices further offer Danish translations of 1) the account on King Magnus' crusade in the Novgorod chronicles, and 2) the so-called Testament of King Magnus.
Translation of a section from the Byzantine Romance Florios
Le Eufemiavisor, romanzi cavallereschi in svedese del XIV secolo, presentano elementi comuni con la letteratura più propriamente storiografica, a partire da una tradizione manoscritta condivisa. Il passato è presentato nelle Eufemiavisor... more
Le Eufemiavisor, romanzi cavallereschi in svedese del XIV secolo, presentano elementi comuni con la letteratura più propriamente storiografica, a partire da una tradizione manoscritta condivisa.
Il passato è presentato nelle Eufemiavisor in modo certamente più vago e immaginifico rispetto alle opere più propriamente storiche, tuttavia il legame appare evidente: i personaggi del romanzo sono proposti come antenati e modelli per l’aristocrazia cui entrambi i filoni erano destinati.
Storiografia e romanzo cavalleresco nell’ambito nordico medievale si sovrappongono sia per la forma sia per il contenuto, seguendo un modello che risaliva alla propaganda guelfa del sec. XII-XIII esemplificato dalla Deutsche Kaiserchronik, giunto nel nord in seguito a precisi legami dinastici.
Il fine politico di questi testi di corte ispirati a modelli francesi e tedeschi era quello di promuovere ideali etici e politici per stabilire anche in Scandinavia un sistema feudale cavalleresco europeo.
Il passato è presentato nelle Eufemiavisor in modo certamente più vago e immaginifico rispetto alle opere più propriamente storiche, tuttavia il legame appare evidente: i personaggi del romanzo sono proposti come antenati e modelli per l’aristocrazia cui entrambi i filoni erano destinati.
Storiografia e romanzo cavalleresco nell’ambito nordico medievale si sovrappongono sia per la forma sia per il contenuto, seguendo un modello che risaliva alla propaganda guelfa del sec. XII-XIII esemplificato dalla Deutsche Kaiserchronik, giunto nel nord in seguito a precisi legami dinastici.
Il fine politico di questi testi di corte ispirati a modelli francesi e tedeschi era quello di promuovere ideali etici e politici per stabilire anche in Scandinavia un sistema feudale cavalleresco europeo.
The article comprises an introduction to and an edition and translation of an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This previously... more
The article comprises an introduction to and an edition and translation of
an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the
Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This
previously unpublished paper fragment is one of the missing parts of the
Old Swedish Homily Book (known as Svensk järteckens postilla), dating
from the second half of the fifteenth century and now housed at the
Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (Cod. Holm. A 111). The text in
Hannaas 66 comprises a sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity based
on Matthew 7. 15–16 and includes a miracle exemplum that illustrates
the importance of acting justly and following the will of God.
an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the
Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This
previously unpublished paper fragment is one of the missing parts of the
Old Swedish Homily Book (known as Svensk järteckens postilla), dating
from the second half of the fifteenth century and now housed at the
Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (Cod. Holm. A 111). The text in
Hannaas 66 comprises a sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity based
on Matthew 7. 15–16 and includes a miracle exemplum that illustrates
the importance of acting justly and following the will of God.
The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle... more
The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta's Revelations (Liber Caelestis and Revelationes Extravagantes) and of St Bernard's A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem). The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and may predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library , A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint's writings in Sweden.
What did Danes and Swedes in the Middle Ages imagine and write about Jews and Judaism? This book draws on over 100 medieval Danish and Swedish manuscripts and incunabula as well as runic inscriptions and religious art (c. 1200–1515) to... more
What did Danes and Swedes in the Middle Ages imagine and write about Jews and Judaism? This book draws on over 100 medieval Danish and Swedish manuscripts and incunabula as well as runic inscriptions and religious art (c. 1200–1515) to answer this question. There were no resident Jews in Scandinavia before the modern period, yet as this book shows ideas and fantasies about them appear to have been widespread and an integral part of life and culture in the medieval North. Volume 1 investigates the possibility of encounters between Scandinavians and Jews, the terminology used to write about Jews, Judaism, and Hebrew, and how Christian writers imagined the Jewish body. The (mis)use of Jews in different texts, especially miracle tales, exempla, sermons, and Passion treaties, is examined to show how writers employed the figure of the Jew to address doubts concerning doctrine and heresy, fears of violence and mass death, and questions of emotions and sexuality. Volume 2 contains diplomatic editions of 54 texts in Old Danish and Swedish together with translations into English that make these sources available to an international audience for the first time and demonstrate how the image of the Jew was created in medieval Scandinavia.
A selection of a dozen or so examples of how memory is represented and/or discussed in various medieval Nordic sources.
Published in: V. Dolcetti Corazza, R. Gendre, Le leggi degli Anglosassoni, Alessandria 2013
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