The Black Death and Later Plague Epidemics in the Scandinavian Countries:

Perspectives and Controversies

Ole Jørgen Benedictow

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open Poland
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9788376560465
• eBook ISBN: 9788376560472
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This monograph represents an expansion and deepening of previous works by Ole J. Benedictow - the author of highly esteemed monographs and articles on the history of plague epidemics and historical demography. In the form of a collection of articles, the author presents an in-depth monographic study on the history of plague epidemics in Scandinavian countries and on controversies of the microbiological and epidemiological fundamentals of plague epidemics.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Postscript
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• 1 Introduction
• Perspectives and Issues
• What is Plague? Some Basic Facts on Contagion, Transmission, and Dissemination
• 1.3 What to Look for and Keep in Mind: The Defining Features of Bubonic Plague and Some Crucial Fact
• 1.3.1 Introduction
• 1.3.2 Defining Features
• 1.3.3 Some Crucial Matters of Fact
• Bibliography
• 1.4 Serious Plague History Under Pressure: The Twelfth Alternative Theory of Historical Plague: Comm
• 1.4.1 Introduction
• 1.4.2 The Purported Functions of Caravans and the Silk Roads in the Transportation of Plague with an
• 1.4.3 Patterns of Spread and Comparative Spread Rates
• 1.4.4 Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence, I: On the Medievalist’s Craft and the Fallacy
• 1.4.5 Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence, II: On the Presence of Rats and the Local Pers
• 1.4.6 Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence, III. On the Life and Death of Rats
• 1.4.7 On the Medievalist’s Craft and more Fallacies of Reverse Circular Lines of Argument. The Funct
• 1.4.8 The “Reintroductions” that Disappeared
• 1.4.9 The Importance of the Historian’s Craft for Understanding the Conquest of Plague and the Means
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• 1.5 The Triumph of Paleobiology in Historical Plague Research
• 1.5.1 Introduction
• 1.5.2 The Status of Paleobiological Studies, 1998-2014
• Bibliography
• Bibliography to Table 1.1
• 2 The Black Death in Norway, 1348-1349
• 2.1 Fundamentals of Plague Epidemiology
• 2.2 Bubonic Plague and Pneumonic Plague
• 2.3 Long Distance and Short Distance Spread of Plague
• 2.4 Plague Epidemics’ Pace of Development and Spread Rates
• 2.5 The Territorial Origin of the Black Death and Its Route to Norway
• 2.6 The Arrival of the Black Death in Oslo
• 2.7 The Black Death Conquers Østlandet [the “East Country”] in 1349
• 2.8 The Black Death Arrives in Bergen
• 2.9 The Black Death Comes to Nidaros (Trondheim)
• 2.10 The Black Death Arrives in Agder and Stavanger
• 2.11 The Triumph of Death: How Many People Died in the Black Death in Norway?
• 2.11.1 Introduction
• 2.11.2 The Question of Average Household Size and the Denial of Elementary Facts: Some Consequential
• 2.11.3 Average Household Size, Numbers of Households in the Middle Ages, and Population Size and Dec
• 2.12 Life After the Black Death
• 2.13 The Powers of Spread of the Black Death
• 2.14 Contemporary Understanding of the Causation of Epidemic Disease
• Appendix 1: Plague Epidemics in Norway 1348-1500 and Their Provenience
• Appendix 2: Some Basic Elements of the Medieval Norwegian Agricultural System which Affect Analysis
• Bibliography
• Unpublished Sources
• Bibliography (including published sources and abbreviations)
• 3 The Black Death in Norway: Arrival, Spread, Mortality. Discussions with Birger Lindanger and Hal
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2. Lindanger’s Views on the Black Death’s Arrival and Spread in Norway
• 3.2.1 Introduction: Sources and Source-criticism
• 3.2.2 The Black Death in South-eastern Norway
• 3.2.3 The Chronicle of Hamar: A Source-critical Analysis
• 3.2.4 Spread Rates of the Black Death from Oslo, and the Epidemics in Stavanger and Agder
• 3.2.5 How Lindanger Relates to Problems Arising from His Theory
• 3.2.6 Social and Political Evidence on the Aftermath of the Black Death
• 3.3 Bjørkvik’s Views on the Black Death’s Routes of Spread and Mortality in Norway
• 3.3.1. The Black Death’s Spread to Norway
• 3.3.2 Medical and Clinical Problems
• 3.3.3 Mortality of the Black Death in Norway
• 3.3.4 Closing Comments on the Topics of Arrival, Spread and End of the Black Death in Norway
• 3.4 On Household Size, Population Size, and the Mortality Caused by the Black Death
• 3.4.1 Introduction
• 3.4.2 Historical Sociology and the Specificity of Medieval Demography: Some Important Perspectives a
• 3.4.3 Estimation of Population Size and the Mortality Wrought by the Black Death in Norway
• Bibliography
• 4 The Black Death in Norway, 1348-49: Sources, Chronology, Spread. Discussion with Kåre Lunden
• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Some Methodological Perspectives
• 4.3 The “Traditional Doctrine” of the Black Death’s Spread in Time and Space in Norway-and the Conv
• 4.4 The Chronicle of Hamar: A Brief Source-Critical Recapitulation
• 4.5 On the Time, Original Place of Arrival and Early Spread of the Black Death in Norway
• 4.5.1 Icelandic Annals on the Time and Spread of the Black Death in Norway
• 4.5.2 The Time Bishop Hallvard of Hamar Died and the Time of the Black Death in Hamar
• 4.5.3 The Election and Consecration of Bishop Hallvard’s Successor
• 4.5.4 The Time Bishop Thorstein of Bergen Died, the Time of the Black Death in Bergen and in South
• 4.5.5 Lunden’s Assertions about King Magnus’s Circular Letter: A Closer Look
• 4.5.6 The Bishops: The Living and the Dead on the Morrow of the Black Death
• 4.6 Political and Social Evidence on the Time the Black Death in Norway was Over
• 4.6.1 The Meeting of the Assembly of the Realm in Bergen in June 1350
• 4.6.2 Social Evidence on the End of Black Death
• 4.7 The Black Death in South-eastern Norway and in Sweden: The Connection
• 4.8 Donations to Religious Institutions by Will or Deed of Gift as Reflections of the Presence of th
• 4.8.1 Introduction: Donations to Religious Institutions in Denmark and Sweden
• 4.8.2 Donations to Norwegian Religious Institutions and the Importance of Source-criticism
• 4.8.3 Facts or Fiction: The Real History of the Time of the Black Death and its Spread in Eastern No
• Bibliography
• 5 The Spread of the Black Death in Norway: Revisionists, Spread Rates, Alternative Microbiological
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 On the Spread Rates of Plague
• 5.2.1 On the Revisionist Alternative Theories on the Spread Rates of Historical and Modern Plague
• 5.2.2 On the Spread Rates of Historical and Modern Plague
• 5.3 Did Plague Spread in the Winters?
• 5.4 The Alternative Spread Rates of Anthrax, Filoviridal Diseases, and Cohn’s Disease
• 5.5 Lunden’s Genetic Theory of the Role of Mutations and the Microbiological Identity of Plague of t
• 5.5.1 Part 1.
• 5.5.2 Part 2. Lunden’s Views on the Questions of Mutations and Microbiological Identity of Plague Co
• Appendix 1: My Works on the Dynamics of Spread and the Spread Rates of Plague
• Bibliography
• 6 Walløe, Juhasz and the Sociology of Plague
• Bibliography
• 7 Lars Walløe’s Human-Flea Theory of Plague Epidemology
• 7.1 Introduction
• 7.2 Short History of the Human-Flea Theory on the Epidemiology of Bubonic Plague
• 7.3 Some Basic Empirical Facts Invalidating the Human-Flea Theory
• 7.3.1 Introduction
• 7.3.2 Prevalence and Levels of Human Bacteraemia (Human Plague Cases as Sources of Infection of Huma
• 7.3.3 Mechanical Transmission
• 7.3.4 Prevalence and Levels of Rat Bacteraemia (Plague Rats as Sources of Infection of Rat Fleas)
• 7.3.5 Blockage of Fleas
• 7.4 Virulence, Lethality, and Immunity: The Basis of Plague Mortality
• 7.4.1 Virulence and Lethality
• 7.4.2 Immunity
• 7.5 Defining Features of Rat-Flea-Borne Bubonic Plague
• 7.5.1 Introduction: The Concept and Uses of Defining Epidemiological Features
• 7.5.2 The Latency Period
• 7.5.3 The Inverse Correlation of Population Density and Infection Rates
• 7.6 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• 8 Black Rats in the Nordic Scandinavian Countries. Discussion of Papers by Lars Walløe and Anne K. 
• 8.1 Introduction: The Bombastry of Advocates of Radical Alternative Theories
• 8.2 The Ecological Habitats and Behavioural Strategies of Black Rats
• 8.2.1 Methodological Introduction: More about the Fallacy of Argumentum ex Silentio, that Absence of
• 8.2.2 The Climate Theory of a Purported Absence of Black Rats, and the Neglect of Evolutionary Theor
• 8.2.3 The Denial that Black Rats Burrow
• 8.2.4 Did the Brown Rats Outcompete the Black Rats?
• 8.3 The Behavioural Strategy of Rats in the Face of Death. Where do Rats Die (So Where Should Archae
• 8.3.1 Methodological Introduction
• 8.3.2 “They do die in unusual [.] and inaccessible places”: The Ostensible Absence or Paucity of Bla
• 8.4 History and Distribution of Black Rats in Europe According to Finds of Skeletal Remains
• 8.5 Black Rats in the Nordic Countries: Skeletal Remains and Living Rats
• 8.5.1 Methodological Problems on the Presence of Black Rats in the Nordic Countries
• 8.5.2 Finds of Pre-Modern (Pre-1660) Skeletal Remains of Black Rats in Sweden and Denmark
• 8.5.3 Urban Finds of Medieval Rat Bones in Norway
• 8.5.4 Rural Finds of Skeletal Remains of Medieval and Pre-Modern Black Rats in Norway
• 8.5.5 The Plague Epidemic in Bergen 1565-1566. Without Rats?
• 8.6 The General Presence of Black Rats in Sweden and Finland and the Time and Causes of Their Decli
• 8.6.1 Introduction: The Functions of Disregard of Early Good Research
• 8.6.2 The Swedish Species Information Centre/ArtDatabanken on the Historical Presence of Black Rats
• 8.7 Early-Phase Transmission? A Few Preliminary Comments (see Chapter 12)
• Bibliography
• 9 The Relevance of Recent Theories on the Microbiological Identity and Epidemiology of Plague for Sc
• 9.1 Introduction
• 9.2 What Disease was Plague?
• 9.3 The Methodological Myth: Retrospective Diagnosis
• 9.4 The Myth That Bubonic Plague Only Spreads Contiguously
• 9.5 Three Myths: (1) The Myth of the Function of Quarantines; (2) the Myth of the Levels of Plague M
• 9.6 The Myth of Alternative Bubonic Plagues
• 9.7 The Myth of the Human-Flea Theory of Plague Transmission
• 9.8 The Silenced Fact: the Resurrection of Yersinia pestis from Graves of the Past
• Bibliography
• 10 The Eight Alternative Theory on the Plague Epidemics of the Past: Discussion of Ole G. Moseng’s
• 10.1 Introduction
• 10.2 Some Perspectives and Methodological Considerations
• 10.3 Yersinia pestis: the Same or Different Strain or Biovar?
• 10.4 The Nosopsyllus-Fasciatus Theory
• 10.4.1 Introduction
• 10.4.2 Fur Fleas and Nest Fleas
• 10.4.3 The Significance of Distance to Human Beings for the Role of Fleas in the Epidemiology of Pla
• 10.5 Inter-Human Cross-Infection by Pulex irritans by Mechanical Transmission
• 10.6 Inter-Human Cross-Infection by Pulex irritans by Biological Transmission (Blockage)
• 10.6.1 Burroughs’s Experiments to Determine the Vector Capacity of Pulex irritans and the Signific
• 10.6.2 Soviet Experiments Designed to Determine the Correlation Between Levels of Bacteraemia in Ho
• 10.6.3 Human Plague Bacteraemia: Human Plague Cases as Sources of Infection of Feeding Fleas: Epidem
• 10.6.4 Cases of Human Plague and Human Plague Bacteraemia in Plague Reservoirs in USA
• 10.6.5 Some Further Comments on Moseng’s Arguments for the Theory of Transmission and Dissemination
• 10.7 Epidemics of Primary Pneumonic Plague in Norway and Iceland?
• 10.8 Sailing along: From Bergen to Iceland with Primary Pneumonic Plague on Board?
• Bibliography
• 11 On the Theories That Plague Epidemics of the Past Were Spread by Cross-Infection by Human Lice
• 11.1 Introduction
• 11.2 The Theory of Louse-Borne Plague
• 11.3 The Question of Mechanical Transmission of Plague
• 11.4 Epidemiological Manifestations of Inter-Human and Rat-Borne Transmission and Spread as Reflecti
• Bibliography
• 12 Problems with the Early-Phase Theory of the Transmission of Plague, Especially with Respect to Ep
• 12.1 Introduction
• 12.2 The Early-Phase Theory of Plague Transmission by Fleas
• 12.3 Types of Plague Bacteraemia in Human Beings
• 12.4 The Average Size of the Ventriculus of Fleas (Stomach or Midgut)
• 12.5 What Happens with Plague Bacteria in the Ventriculus of Fleas? The Questions of Self-Purificati
• 12.6 Plague Bacteraemia in Human Beings
• 12.7 LD for Human Beings, Subinfective or Non-lethal Doses
• 12.8 Plague Bacteraemia in Black Rats: Rats and Human Beings as Sources of Infection of Feeding Flea
• 12.9 Conclusions and Perspectives
• 12.10 Epilogue
• General Bibliography
• Unpublished Sources
• Bibliography (including Published Sources and Abbreviations)
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Index