When all available sources on the Viking world are combined, there is a strong sense that the Scandinavians of the late Iron Age (8th-11th centuries AD) recognised no clear distinctions between the profane and the sacred. The latter could manifest itself in different ways, in places, beings or objects, and it often aroused ambivalent feelings of both fear and awe. This thesis explores these entanglements and the notion of ambivalence in relation to a particular group of Viking-Age individuals involved in the practice of magic (e.g. seiðr). Chapters 1-3 form the background for the considerations on ritual specialists' lives, tools of trade and ways of burial. After a detailed review of Viking-Age funerary practices, focus shifts towards the corpus of so-called ‘deviant burials', which in recent years have often been interpreted as belonging to ritual specialists. Chapter 4 compares the written and archaeological evidence for the funerary treatment of ritual specialists. Particular attention is devoted to graves where the deceased are covered with stones, since in the written sources execution by stoning is often employed as a punishment for malevolent magic. Nonetheless, caution is suggested in labeling all of them as belonging to ritual specialists and the necessity of a more individual, contextual approach is proposed. Chapter 5 examines a specific group of Viking-Age artefacts that usually take the form of iron rods, which have recently been interpreted as magic staffs. These items are discussed in the light of Old Norse texts and comparative materials from other areas of the world. Ultimately, the thesis embraces the notion of ambiguity in Viking attitudes to the supernatural, viewing this not as an obstructive problem but as an active component of interpretation. This combines an appropriate caution in approaching a difficult aspect of past societies, with a sensible refusal to introduce more rigid definitions than those used by the Vikings themselves.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a novel assistive device improved two dimensional base of support (BOS) as compared to unassisted walking. Telescoping walking poles (T poles) are designed to allow a gait pattern more closely resembling unassisted gait and provide enhanced stability. Nine healthy male and female subjects who had no recent lower extremity pathology or surgery and were between the ages of 59 and 78 were recruited from the community to participate. Subjects were instructed to use the T poles in a consistent manner and were monitored through weekly supervised training sessions. At the conclusion of the study, motion analysis was performed using video collected from six cameras. Subjects were adorned with reflective markers on the toe and heel of their shoes as well as the tips of the T poles. These markers were used to define the BOS. Two dimensional analyses revealed a significant increase in base of support, an average of 316% over the entire gait cycle as well as 531% at heel strike and 126 % at toe off with the T poles. These results support the T poles as an effective intervention in enhancing stability in an elderly population of recreational walkers. / School of Physical Education