The Viking Diaspora

Judith Jesch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138020764
• eBook ISBN: 9781317482536
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The Viking Diaspora presents the early medieval migrations of people, language and culture from mainland Scandinavia to new homes in the British Isles, the North Atlantic, the Baltic and the East as a form of 'diaspora'. It discusses the ways in which migrants from Russia in the east to Greenland in the west were conscious of being connected not only to the people and traditions of their homelands, but also to other migrants of Scandinavian origin in many other locations.

Rather than the movements of armies, this book concentrates on the movements of people and the shared heritage and culture that connected them. This on-going contact throughout half a millennium can be traced in the laws, literatures, material culture and even environment of the various regions of the Viking diaspora. Judith Jesch considers all of these connections, and highlights in detail significant forms of cultural contact including gender, beliefs and identities.

Beginning with an overview of Vikings and the Viking Age, the nature of the evidence available, and a full exploration of the concept of 'diaspora', the book then provides a detailed demonstration of the appropriateness of the term to the world peopled by Scandinavians. This book is the first to explain Scandinavian expansion using this model, and presents the Viking Age in a new and exciting way for students of Vikings and medieval history.

INDEX

• Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen 19–21, 47, 127–8, 143
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 8, 26, 62, 72, 77
• annals 13, 62, 83
• Anskar 140, 164
• archaeology 11, 14–15, 58–9, 123;
• of cults and beliefs 126–9, 132–3;
  • and gender 88–9, 107–8
• Ari Þorgilsson 144, 191–2, 197–8; see also Íslendingabók
• Arnórr Þórðarson 1–3, 149, 178; see also skaldic poems
• art and iconography 105, 112, 136–7, 143, 151–3, 155–6
• Baltic Sea 28, 175
• Bergen 65, 155–6, 158, 172, 180
• Birka 96, 164
• Bjarni Kolbeinsson 75, 148, 181; see also skaldic poems
• Bornholm 21–2, 47, 126
• Britain, British Isles 24–7, 141, 198
• Brittany 27–8
• buildings 58–9, 61, 133
• burials 96, 98, 138–41, 182, 187;
• Christian 140–1;
  • in England 95, 99, 106–7, 182;
  • in Iceland 67, 99, 138–9, 141;
  • mass 77, 106;
  • in Norway 107–8;
  • in Orkney 38, 167;
  • pagan 67, 138, 140, 182;
  • in Russia 29, 88–9, 96;
  • sex of occupant 88–9, 106
• Byzantium 29, 175
• Caithness 74, 79, 168
• Celtic: Christianity ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Vikings and their Ages: definitions and evidence
• The Viking world: geography and environment
• The Viking diaspora
• Gender and family
• Cults, beliefs and myths
• Networks and identities
• Bibliography
• Index