Difficult middles, hybridity and ambivalence of a medieval frontier: the cultural landscape of Lolland and Falster (Denmark)

Abstract

This article focuses on the cultural and political landscape of the Danish islands of Lolland and Falster in the Middle Ages. The close economic and dynastic relationships between medieval Denmark and the Slavic area south of the Baltic Sea, as well as Slavic settlement on the islands, contributed to the emergence of complex realities and attitudes, as well as a particular ‘in-betweenness’ of the islanders. By analysing archaeological and historical sources as well as borrowing concepts from postcolonial scholarship, the processes that developed in this borderland geography are explored. The paper highlights hybridity in material culture, pays attention to the ambivalence towards ‘national’ projects and underlines the complex and multi-positional identities of the islanders.