Judith Jesch

Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress

Ethnographic studies trace the background to and impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking age to the medieval period.

An Ethnographic Perspective

The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century

Through runic inscriptions and behind the veil of myth, Jesch discovers the true story of viking women.

Women in the Viking Age

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.

The Viking Diaspora

Richard Hall

James Graham-Campbell

David Parsons

A selection of papers from the 13th Viking Congress focusing on the northern, central, and eastern regions of Anglo-Saxon England colonised by invading Danish armies in the late 9th century, known as the Danelaw. This volume contributes to many of the unresolved scholarly debates surrounding the concept, and extent of the Danelaw. Contents: Defining the Danelaw (Katherine Holman); The problems and possibilities of inter-disciplinary approaches (Dawn Hadley); The Conversion of the Danelaw (Lesley Abrams); Repton and the 'great heathen army' (Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjbye-Biddle); Viking burial in Derbyshire (Julian D. Richards); Pagan Scandanavian burial in the central and southern Danelaw (James Graham-Campbell); Aspects of Anglo-Scandanavian minting south of the Humber (Mark Blackburn); Anglo-Scandanavian urban development in the East Midlands (Richard Hall); Lincoln in the Viking Age (Alan Vince); New light on the Viking presence in Lincolnshire: the artefactual evidence (Kevin Leahy and Caroline Paterson); The strange beast that is the English Urnes Style (Olwen Owen); Five town funerals: decoding diversity in Danelaw stone sculpture (David Stocker and Paul Everson); The Southwell lintel, its style and significance (Philip Dixon, Olwyn Owen and David Stocker); The search for Anglo-Scandanavian rural settlement in the Northern Danelaw (Julian D. Richards); In the steps of the Vikings (Gillian Fellows-Jensen); Scandanavian elements in English place-names: some semantic problems (Tania Styles); How long did the Scandinavian language survive in England? (David N. Parsons); Skaldic Verse in Scandanavian England (Judith Jesch); Eddic poetry in Anglo-Scandinavian northern England (John McKinnell); Representation of the Danelaw in Middle English Literature (Thorlac Turville-Petre); Hereward, the Danelaw and the Victorians (Andrew Wawn).

Vikings and the Danelaw

David N Parsons

A selection of papers from the 13th Viking Congress focusing on the northern, central, and eastern regions of Anglo-Saxon England colonised by invading Danish armies in the late 9th century, known as the Danelaw. This volume contributes to many of the unresolved scholarly debates surrounding the concept, and extent of the Danelaw.

A critical survey of the vocabulary of Viking ships and their crews, of fleets and sailing and battles at sea, based on the runic and skaldic evidence from c.950-1100, and studied within the context of Viking activity in the period.

The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse

Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age

The Vikings are not often thought of as poets, though they came from a culture that valued poetry highly and rewarded poets handsomely. There is evidence for the kinds of poetry favoured by the Vikings from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, in oral tradition, in runes and in medieval manuscripts. This book features a selection of carefully-chosen poems to encompass the rich store of genres and styles of the Vikings, whose poetic language is colourful, intricate and steeped in mythological knowledge. The style of the poetry ranges from the highly formal to the scurrilous, and is often light-hearted, even in the face of death and tragedy. Beautifully illustrated with works of art from the British Museum collection, this book captures perfectly the essence of Viking Poetry and offers a fascinating glimpse into the ideology of the time.

Viking Poetry of Love and War

"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, in the period known as the Viking Age as a form of 'diaspora'. It concentrates on the connectedness between migrants and both their homelands and regions within the diaspora, particularly through language, naming customs and in traditional stories and poems. Rather than the movements of armies, it considers the movements of people, and on the linguistic and cultural effects of those population movements. Providing a broad survey of the Viking Age and its aftermath, the book draws evidence from a wide range of sources that will interest students and academics"--

Judith Jesch

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