In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea
By Marika Mägi
BRILL 2018

ABSTRACT

Marika Mägi’s book considers the cultural, mercantile and political interaction of the Viking Age (9th-11th century), focusing on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea. The majority of research on Viking activity in the East has so far concentrated on the modern-day lands of Russia, while the archaeology and Viking Age history of today’s small nation states along the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea is little known to a global audience.

This study looks at the area from a trans-regional perspective, combining archaeological evidence with written sources, and offering reflections on the many different factors of climate, topography, logistics, technology, politics and trade that shaped travel in this period. The work offers a nuanced vision of Eastern Viking expansion, in which the Eastern Baltic frequently acted as a buffer zone between eastern and western powers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1 Viking Age Cultural Contacts across The Baltic Sea: Behind the Interpretations
1.1 The Evolutionary Development Model
1.2 Eastern Baltic Archaeology and the Concepts of Different Cultural Impacts
1.3 The Character of Communications across the Baltic Sea
1.4 Conclusions

2 Clan-Based Collectivists or Hierarchical Individualists? Late Prehistoric Societies in the Eastern Baltic
2.1 Finland
2.2 Estonia
2.3 Latvia and Lithuania
2.4 Prussia
2.5 Comparing Social Systems in Different Regions in the Eastern Baltic
2.6 Conclusions

3 Making Trade: Cultural Landscapes and Communication Routes
3.1 Maritime Landscapes in Countries around the Baltic
3.2 Long-distance Trade Routes through the Eastern Baltic
3.3 Travelling along Viking Age Routes
3.4 Points in Communication
3.5 Different Modes of Communication in the Eastern Baltic
3.6 Conclusions

4 The Historical Reality: Places, Place Names, and Ethnonyms in Written Sources
4.1 Estland(s) in the East
4.2 Pre-viking and Viking Age Eastern Baltic in Scandinavian Sources
4.3 What Was Rus’?
4.4 Languages and Personal Names
4.5 Conclusions

5 Networks Take Shape: Communication Through the Eastern Baltic 600–850
5.1 Cultural Situation around the Northern Part of the Baltic Sea
5.2 Viking Colonies in the Southern Half of the Eastern Baltic
5.3 Pre-Viking Period Hill-Forts and Trade Centres along the Eastern Baltic Coast
5.4 Conclusions

6 West Goes East: Viking Age Long-distance Communication and the Eastern Baltic 850-ca. 1000
6.1 Viking Age Centres Connected with International Trade Routes in the Eastern Baltic
6.2 Cultural Landscapes along the Eastern Way
6.3 Cultural Landscapes in the Middle Part of the Eastern Baltic
6.4 Coin Finds in the Eastern Baltic
6.5 Interpreting Routes and Centres in the 9th–10th Centuries
6.6 Conclusions

7 Between Consolidating States. The Eastern Baltic Areas in the 11th and 12th Centuries
7.1 Interaction with Scandinavian Kingdoms
7.2 Northern Eastern Baltic in the Final Centuries of Prehistory
7.3 The East Attacks
7.4 Landscapes around the Daugava Route
7.5 Southern Couronian Coast
7.6 Coins and Trade
7.7 Conclusions

8 Summing up and Conclusions
8.1 Two Cultural Spheres in the Eastern Baltic
8.2 The Shared Cultural Sphere of Warriors
8.3 Written Sources and Places on the Eastern Coasts of the Baltic Sea
8.4 Different Periods in the Viking Age

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marika Mägi, PhD (2002), Tartu University, is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies at Tallinn University. She is an archaeologist and historian and has published mainly on Viking Age and Middle Ages in Estonia and neighbouring areas.

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Silver, coins, pendants, and jewellery were not the only types of valuables in the Viking Age. Butter and cloth were also significant elements in the Viking economy

Silver, Butter, Cloth: Monetary and Social Economies in the Viking Age
Series: Medieval History and Archaeology
By Jane Kershaw, Gareth Williams, Søren Sindbæk, and James Graham-Campbell

ABSTRACT

Silver, Butter, Cloth advances current debates about the nature and complexity of Viking economic systems. It explores how silver and other commodities were used in monetary and social economies across the Scandinavian world of the Viking Age (c. 800-1100 AD) before and alongside the wide-scale introduction of coinage. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach that unites archaeological, numismatic, and metallurgical analyses, Kershaw and Williams examine the uses and sources of silver in both monetary and social transactions, addressing topics such as silver fragmentation, hoarding, and coin production and re-use. Uniquely, it also goes beyond silver, giving the first detailed consideration of the monetary role of butter, cloth, and gold in the Viking economy. Indeed, it is instrumental in developing methodologies to identify such commodity monies in the archaeological record.

The use of silver and other commodities within Viking economies is a dynamic field of study, fuelled by important recent discoveries across the Viking world. The 14 contributions to this book, by a truly international group of scholars, draw on newly available archaeological data from eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the North Atlantic, and the British Isles and Ireland, to present the latest original research. Together, they deepen understanding of Viking monetary and social economies and advance new definitions of ‘economy’, ‘currency’, and ‘value’ in the ninth to eleventh centuries.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction, Jane Kershaw
1: Silver Fragmentation: Reinterpreting the Evidence of the Hoards, Marek Jankowiak
2: As Long as it Glitters. A Re-evaluation of the Mixed Silver Hoards of Bornholm, Denmark, Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson
3: On Silver Fragmentation: How Reliable is Metrological Data? A Case Study Based on the Mózgowo Hoard, Poland (tpq 1009), Mateusz Bogucki
4: Royalty and Renewal in Viking-Age Ireland, Andrew R. Woods
5: The Rise of Spiritual Economies in late Viking and Early Medieval Scandinavia, Svein H. Gullbekk
6: Reflections on Kingship, the Church and Viking-Age Silver in Ireland, John Sheehan
7: Beyond Economics: The Use of Coins as Pendants in Viking Age Scandinavia, Florent Audy
8: A Viking-Age Gold Hoard from Essu, Estonia: Context, Function and Meaning, Ester Oras, Ivar Leimus, and Lauri Joosu
9: The Importance of Containers for the Deposition and Non-Retrieval of Silver Hoards – a comparison between Gotland and Pomerania, Jacek Gruszczynski
10: From Local Supply to Long-Distance Trade Networks: Fingerprinting Early Medieval Silver, Guillaume Sarah
11: Provenancing Viking-age Silver: Methodological and Theoretical Considerations and a Case Study, Stephen Merkel
12: Gold as a Means of Exchange in Scandinavian England (c. 850-1050 AD), Jane Kershaw
13: Vaðmál and Cloth Currency in Viking and Medieval Iceland, Michele Hayeur-Smith
14: Tracing the Late Viking-Age and Medieval Butter Economy: The View from Quoygrew, Orkney, Aaron J. Critch, Jennifer F. Harland, and James H. Barrett

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Chronicles, hagiographies, and charters tell us different stories of the character and the identity of the Vikings. By comparing the evidence from both England and Normandy, a new book introduces the reader to the complex ways in which Scandinavian heritage was used strategically to cement local politics.

Heirs of the Vikings. History and Identity in Normandy and England, c. 950 – 1015
by Katherine Cross
York Medieval Press 2018

ABSTRACT:

Viking settlers and their descendants inhabited both England and Normandy in the tenth century, but narratives discussing their origins diverged significantly. This comparative study explores the depictions of Scandinavia and the events of the Viking Age in genealogies, origin myths, hagiographies, and charters from the two regions. Analysis of this literary evidence reveals the strategic use of Scandinavian identity by Norman and Anglo-Saxon elites.

Countering interpretations which see claims of Viking identity as expressions of contact with Scandinavia, the comparison demonstrates the local, political significance of these claims. In doing so, the book reveals the earliest origins of familiar legends which at once demonize and romanticize the Vikings – and which have their roots in both Anglo-Saxon and Norman traditions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: The Problem of a Viking Identity
Genealogy: Building a Viking Age Dynasty
Origin Myths: A People for a Dynasty
Hagiography I: Ruin and Restoration
Hagiography II: Saintly Patronage
Charter Narratives: Normans, Northumbrians and Northmen
Conclusion: Viking Age Narratives and Ethnic Identities
Appendix 1: The Date of Fulbert’s Vita Romani
Appendix 2: The Dates of the Latin Vita Prima Sancti Neoti and the Old English Life of St Neot
Bibliography

FEATURED PHOTO:

Miscellany on the life of St. Edmund, England, ca. 1130. Morgan Library and Museum

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