Cross and Scepter (42 page)

Early state formation and national identities are discussed in Patrick Geary et al. (eds.),
Franks, Northmen and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2007).

On the royalist ideology in the High Middle Ages, see Sverre Bagge,
The Political Thought of “The King's Mirror”
(Odense: Odense University Press, 1987) and Nanna Damsholt, “Kingship in the Arengas of Danish Royal Diplomas, 1170–1223,”
Medieval Scandinavia
3 (1970), pp. 66–108.

There are several recent accounts of the conversion of Scandinavia. Richard Fletcher,
The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity, 371–1386 AD
(London: Fontana, 1998) is a general survey which also includes Scandinavia. Nora Berend (ed.),
Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus, c. 900–1200
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) contains separate articles on the three Scandinavian kingdoms. See also Anders Winroth,
The Conversion of Scandinavia
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012) and Sæbjørg W. Nordeide,
The Viking Age as a Period of Religious Transformation: The Christianization of Norway from AD 560–1150/1200
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2011). On Archbishop
Eystein and the Norwegian Church in the twelfth century, see Tore Iversen (ed.),
Archbishop Eystein as Legislator: The European Connection
(Trondheim: Tapir, 2011).

The
CHS
has no separate chapter on law but deals with it in some of the general chapters on state formation. Otherwise, there has been great interest in legal history in Scandinavia recently. An important problem has been the relationship between Scandinavian and European law. Elsa Sjöholm,
Sveriges medeltidslagar. Europeisk rättstradition i politisk omvandling
(Lund, 1988) rejects any suggestion of an original Scandinavian law, explaining the existing laws partly by foreign influence and partly by royal decisions. Although much criticism has been directed against Sjöholm's method, the main trend in recent years has been to point to the European background of Scandinavian laws. See Helle Vogt,
The Function of Kinship in Medieval Nordic Legislation
(Leiden: Brill, 2010). The series
Medieval Legal History,
papers from the Carlsberg conferences on legal history, contains many valuable articles in English on Scandinavian law and its relationship to Europe; see in particular, Ditlev Tamm and Helle Vogt,
How Nordic Are the Nordic Medieval Laws?
(Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen Press, 2005); Per Andersen et al.,
Law and Power in the Middle Ages
(Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2008); and
Law and Private Life
(Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2011). A different point of view is represented by Stefan Brink, “Law and Legal Customs in Viking Age Scandinavia,” in Judith Jesch (ed.),
The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective
(San Marino: The Boydell Press, 2002), pp. 87–117, who points to runic evidence of similar rules as in the Swedish provincial laws. Sverre Bagge, “Law and Justice in Norway in the Middle Ages: A Case Study,” in Lars Bisgaard et al. (ed.),
Medieval Spirituality in Scandinavia and Europe: A Collection of Essays in Honour of Tore Nyberg
(Odense: Odense University Press, 2001), pp. 73–85, is
an attempt to use later narrative sources to trace early-medieval legal practice.

The military changes resulting from European influence are discussed briefly in Robert Bartlett,
The Making of Europe,
pp. 70–76. On the new administrative system, based on
len,
see Erik Lönnroth,
Statsmakt och statsfinans i det medeltida Sverige
(Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1984 [orig. 1940] and Dag Retsö,
Länsförvaltningen i Sverige, 1434–1520
(Stockholm: Stockholms universitet, 2009). On the parallel development in East Central Europe, see Pál Engel,
The Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary
(London: I.B. Tauris, 2001) and S. C. Rowell, “The Central European Kingdoms”, CMH, vol. 5, pp. 754–68.

Chapter 3: State Formation, Social Change, and the Division of Power

The information in the text about Danish royal finances is based largely on Hybel and Poulsen,
The Danish Resources,
pp. 314–22. For Norway, see Bagge,
From Viking Stronghold,
pp. 110–21. The passage on coinage is based on Svein Gullbekk,
Pengevesenets fremvekst og fall i Norge i middelalderen
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009). On the general European background for Scandinavian state formation, see Wolfgang Reinhard, “Introduction: Power Elites, State Servants, Ruling Classes, and the Growth of the State,” in Wolfgang Reinhard (ed.),
Power Elites and State Building
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 1–18, and W. Mark Ormrod, “The West European Monarchies in the Later Middle Ages,” in Richard Bonney (ed.),
Economic Systems and State Finance
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 123–60. See also Bjørn Poulsen, “Kingdoms on the Periphery of Europe: The Case of Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia,”
ibid.,
pp. 101–22.

The examples from England are taken from Michael Clanchy,
From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307
(London: Edward Arnold, 1979). Slavica Rancovic et al.,
Along the Oral-Written Continuum: Types of Texts, Relations and Their Implications
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2010) deals with various aspects of orality and literacy in Scandinavia, including administrative literacy, as does also Arnved Nedkvitne,
The Social Consequences of Literacy in Medieval Scandinavia
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2004).

The observations on the importance of the court and the relationship between the king and the aristocracy are partly inspired by Jacob Tullberg,
Beyond Feudalism: Comparative Perspectives on the European Middle Ages
, PhD thesis, The Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2012. On the relationship between the king and individual nobles and their way of addressing one another, see Lars Bisgaard,
Tjenesteideal og fromhetsideal. Studier i adelens tænkemåde i dansk senmiddelalder
(Århus: Arusia, 1988).

On contemporary social theories, see Sverre Bagge, “Old Norse Theories of Society: From
Rígsþula
to
Konungs skuggsiá,”
Jens Eike Schnall and Rudolf Simek (eds.),
Speculum regale. Der altnorwegische Königsspiegel (Konungs skuggsiá) in der europäischen Tradition
(Vienna: Fassbinder, 2000), pp. 7–45. On slavery and its abolition, see Tore Iversen,
Knechtschaft im mittelalterlichen Norwegen
(Ebelsbach: Aktiv, 2004).

The question of feudalism in Scandinavia is discussed by Michael H. Gelting and Erik Opsahl in Sverre Bagge (ed.),
Feudalism: New Landscapes of Debate
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 159–201.

There has been considerable discussion on whether nationalism is essentially a modern phenomenon, originating in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, or whether it can also be found earlier. For the former point of view, see e.g., Ernest Gellner,
Nations and Nationalism
(Oxford: Blackwell 1983); for the latter, A. Smith,
Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History
(Cambridge:
Polity, 2001). The Scandinavian discussion includes Sverre Bagge, “Nationalism in Norway in the Middle Ages,”
Scandinavian Journal of History
20 (1995), pp. 1–18; KÃ¥re Lunden, “Was there a Norwegian National Identity in the Middle Ages?” ibid. pp. 19–33; and Troels Dahlerup, “Omkring en dansk identitsfølelse i middelalderen,” Per Ingesman og Bjørn Poulsen (eds.),
Danmark og Europa i middelalderen
(Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2000), pp. 30–38. See also Brian McGuire (ed.),
The Birth of Identities: Denmark and Europe in the Middle Ages
(Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1996).

Chapter 4: Royal, Aristocratic, and Ecclesiastical Culture

For a survey of the various expressions of Scandinavian culture: religion, literature, art, and music, see
CHS,
pp. 465–555.

The European influences on various aspects of Scandinavian culture are discussed in Gerd Wolfgang Weber (ed.),
Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism
(Odense: Odense University Press, 1986) and J. Adams and K. Holman (eds.),
Scandinavia and Europe, 800–1350: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2004).

On books and libraries, see Alf Härdelin and Monika Hedlund, “The Monastic Library of Vadstena,”
Acta Bibl. Reg. Universitatis Upsaliensis
29 (Uppsala: Almqvist och Wiksell, 1990) and Mia Korpiola, “Literary Legacies and Canonical Book Collections: Possession of Canon Law Books in Medieval Sweden,”
Law and Learning,
pp. 79–103. On the Norwegian fragments, see Åslaug Ommundsen,
Books, Scribes and Sequences in Medieval Norway
(Bergen: University of Bergen, 2007). On Scandinavian students abroad, see Sverre Bagge, “Nordic Students at Foreign Universities”,
Scandinavian Journal of History
9 (1984), pp. 1–29.

On Scandinavian Christianity, see Bisgaard,
Tjenesteideal
; Anders Fröjmark,
Mirakler och helgonkult: Linköpings biskopsdöme under senmedeltiden
(Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1992); Christian Krötzl,
Pilger, Mirakel und Alltag: Formen des Verhaltens im skandinavischen Mittelalter
(Helsinki: Helsinki University, 1994); Anne Riising,
Danmarks middelalderlige prædigen
(Copenhagen: Gad, 1969); and Arnved Nedkvitne,
Lay Belief in Norse Society, 1000–1350
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009). Haki Antonsson,
St. Magnús of Orkney: A Scandinavian Martyr-Cult in Context
(Leiden: Brill, 2007) contains much information on the cult of Scandinavian princely saints in general. For the distinction between “hot” and “cold” regions, see André Vauchez,
Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

For an introduction to Old Norse literature, see Jonas Kristjánsson,
Eddas and Sagas: Iceland's Medieval Literature
(Reykjavík: Íslendska bókmentafélag, 1997, repr. 2007). On the use and interpretation of Old Norse mythology, see Margaret Clunies Ross,
Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society,
vol 1
: The Myths, The Viking Collection
7 (Odense: Odense University Press, 1994).

Scandinavian historiography is discussed in the following works: Sverre Bagge, “Scandinavian Historical Writing, 1100–1400,” in Sarah Foot and Chase F. Robinson (eds.),
The Oxford History of Historical Writing,
vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 414–27; Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, “Historical Writing in Scandinavia,” ibid., vol. 3, pp. 449–72; Ildar H. Garipzanov (ed.),
Historical Narratives and Christian Identities on a European Periphery
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2011); and
Lars Boje Mortensen
(ed.),
The Making of Christian Myths in the Periphery of Latin Christendom (c. 1000–1300)
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006). On the Old Norse saga literature, see Sverre Bagge,
Society and Politics
and
From Gang Leader to the Lord's Anointed: Kingship in Sverris Saga and Hákonar Saga
Hákonarsonar
,
The Viking Collection
, (Odense: Odense University Press, 1996); Theodore M. Andersson,
The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (1180–1280)
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006); and
The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Saga (1200–1250)
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012). Generally on historiography in the Middle Ages, including the term “civil service historiography,” see Beryl Smalley,
Historians in the Middle Ages
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).

Most of the literature on Saxo is in the Scandinavian languages, including Inge Skovgaard-Petersen,
Da tidernes Herre var nær
(Copenhagen: Den danske historiske forening, 1987) and Kurt Johannesson,
Saxo Grammaticus: Komposition och världsbild i Gesta Danorum
(Stockholm: Almqvist och Wiksell, 1978). A classic analysis is Curt Weibull, “Saxo Grammaticus” in his
Källkritik och historia
(Stockholm: Aldus/Bonnier, 1964), pp. 153–240. However, there are several excellent studies in English by the editor of
Gesta Danorum
, Karsten Friis-Jensen, including
Saxo as Latin Poet: Studies in the Verse Passages of the Gesta Danorum
(Rome: Bretschneider, 1987) and “Saxo Grammaticus's Study of the Roman Historiographers and His Vision of History,” in Carlo Santini (ed.),
Saxo Grammaticus: tra storiografia e letteratura
(Rome: Ed. Il Calamo, 1992), pp. 61–81. See also Karsten Friis-Jensen (ed.),
Saxo Grammaticus: A Medieval Author between Norse and Latin Culture
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1981).

Select Works from the Scandinavian Middle Ages in Translation

Egils Saga
, translated from the Old Icelandic, with introduction and notes by Gwyn Jones (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1960).

Erikskrönikan
:
The Chronicle of Duke Erik, a Verse Epic from Medieval Sweden,
translated by Erik Carlquist and Peter C. Hogg, introduction by Eva Österberg (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2012).

The First Grammatical Treatise
, ed. and trans. by Hreinn Benediktsson (Reykjavík: Institute of Nordic Linguistics, 2002).

Heimskringla,
trans. by Lee M. Hollander (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1964, repr. 2005).

The King's Mirror,
translated into English by Laurence M. Larson (New York: Twayne, 1917).

The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology,
translated with an introduction and notes by Jesse L. Byock (London: Penguin Books, 2005).

The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Vadstena,
trans. by Denis Searby, introduction and notes by Bridget Morris (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).