Scandinavia and Europe 800-1350: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Scandinavia and Europe 800-1350: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence Shane McLeod Adams, Jonathan and Katherine Holman , eds. Scandinavia and Europe 800-1350: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence, ( Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 4), Turnhout, Brepols, 2004; hardcover; pp. xvi, 369; 60 b/w illustrations; RRP €65; ISBN 250351085X. This attractive volume is a welcome addition to Scandinavian studies, going beyond the usual confines of the Viking Age, and examining the two-way interaction between Scandinavia and Europe. However it must be noted that 'Europe' is Western Europe, and the significant contact between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe receives almost no mention. The only exception to this is Janus Møller Jensen's article on Denmark's twelfth century war against the Wends. The book is divided into four sections: 'Historical and Archaeological Evidence for Contact with the British Isles', 'Evidence for the Linguistic Impact of Scandinavian Settlement', 'Evidence for the Impact of Christianity on Scandinavia', 'Textual Evidence for Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence'. Olwyn Owen opens proceedings with an examination of the Scar boat burial in Orkney, and goes on to suggest earlier contact between the Norse and the Northern Isles, and that Norse power in the area was extended more peacefully than is usually thought. Derek Gore's article, 'Britons, Saxons, and Vikings in the South-West' is strangely out of place in the volume as Scandinavians are almost peripheral to the discussion. Anne Pedersen's article discusses the archaeological evidence for contact between England and Denmark, including the period after Danish rule in England ended. The first section of the volume ends with David Caldwell's 'The Scandinavian Heritage of the Lordship of the Isles', which examines such things as fifteenth century buildings to show that Norse influence continued. Section two begins with an interesting article by Peder Gammeltoft, suggesting that the place-name evidence of Orkney and Shetland indicates that priests may have continued to live alongside the Norse settlers. Arne Kruse argues that the place-names along the west coast of mainland Scotland suggest Norse settlers rather than visitors as is usually thought. Andrew Jennings then takes this argument further in relation to Kintyre, using the early sixteenth-century Crown Rentals to show that 17% of named estates have Norse names. [End Page 131] He suggests that Kintyre was settled in the second half of the ninth century following MacAlpin's conquest of Pictland, an interesting idea that will hopefully be developed. Michael Barnes next provides an overview of what the runic evidence says about the Scandinavian language throughout the British Isles. An overview is also provided by Gillian Fellows-Jensen, using place-name evidence to discuss Scandinavian settlement in the British Isles and Normandy. Normandy is also the focus of Elisabeth Ridel's examination of the Norse words used there from the eleventh century; unsurprisingly, she discovers that most of them are nautical. The third section opens with Stefan Brink discussing the Christianization of Scandinavia, and the regional differences evident in burial customs, the building of churches, and the formation of parishes. Christopher Morris considers that place-name evidence indicates the survival of Christian religious centres during the Norse settlement of Orkney and Shetland. He also finds little evidence for tenth-century paganism, and that there may have been Norse chapels there before 1000. In 'Early Monasticism in Scandinavia', Tore Nyberg surveys the development of monastic foundations throughout Scandinavia. Jan Ragner Hagland discusses the application of regulations on consanguinity in the early Norwegian laws, concluding that the strict rules of the church were not strongly applied. Janus Møller Jensen argues strongly that the Danish wars against the Wends were seen as a crusade. Remaining in Denmark, Axel Bolvig examines the Christian visual language used from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. He finds that Romanesque art fitted into contemporary aristocratic ideals, and therefore appealed as much to the elite in Denmark as in the rest of Europe. The final section of the volume begins with Judith Jesch using runic inscriptions and skaldic poetry to provide greater evidence for Scandinavian activity in Western Europe during the eleventh century. Brian Levy then looks at how Vikings were depicted in Anglo-Norman literature, showing how in many...