Scandinavia was a relatively homogeneous region during the Viking Age. Much of the political power was decentralised, with the socio-political organisation being centred on magnate halls. The most well-known activities of the Scandinavians of this time are, without a doubt, the raiding and colonising activities carried out by Vikings, which give the name to the period. From the late tenth century onwards, however, two strongly interlinked transformation processes can be discerned: the Christianisation of Scandinavia and the formation of the realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The creation and consolidation of these large Christian polities led to further changes; new budding state structures were created, episcopal seats were founded and new methods of exploiting the peasantry found their way into the region. Warfare and the military apparatus were not impervious to these changes. As the socio-political scene changed, the way armies were organised and how warfare was waged transformed with it. The aim of this thesis is to provide a comparative overview of the transformation of warfare and military organisation in Scandinavia between 1035 and 1202. The effects of Europeanstyle reforms in the political, ideological and social spheres will be taken into account in order to explain how Danes, Norwegians and Swedes adopted new ways of campaigning, organising their forces and waging war in general. A particular emphasis will be put in the transformation of the leiðangr, the Scandinavian peasant naval levies, and the importance of naval warfare during the period.

Thesis--Freie Universität Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [371-391]).

Thesis--Copenhagen.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 141 p. : maps. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-141).

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The interest in understanding how books move from a Scandinavian source culture to the British target culture has never been greater. This thesis analyses this buoyant demand by tracing the transmission of Scandinavian literature to Britain and its relationship with the British literary market over the past century. Through a series of case studies, the thesis examines what influences the likelihood of transmission and successful reception in Britain; the position of Scandinavian books in the British literary polysystem; how the transmission of Scandinavian books to Britain differs from the transmission to other polysystems; and how the publication practices of translated books have evolved. This approach is supported by an interdisciplinary framework encompassing translation, literary and sociocultural theories: key theoretical strands utilised are Holmes' theory of function-oriented Descriptive Translation Studies, Even-Zohar's polysystem theory, and Heilbron's sociology of translation. In addition, elements of book history and patronage theory are also applied. The thesis comprises five case studies, spanning the years 1917-2017, of which one is Danish (Peter Høeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow), two are Norwegian (Knut Hamsun's Growth of the Soil and Agnar Mykle's four Ash Burlefoot novels), and two are Swedish (Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Martin Beck decalogy, and Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, now continued by David Lagercrantz). Each of these case studies draws upon a wide range of sources, including newspapers, periodicals, archival materials, interview transcripts, industry statistics, and a range of scholarship, in order to provide comprehensive and contextualised insight into the transmission and reception trajectory of its respective subject, exploring the sociological and literary background to both production and reception. The increasing commercialisation of publishing, and more specifically of translated Scandinavian literature, is explored alongside literary and social changes, with emphasis on the tendency for transmission to be most likely at moments of paradigmatic shift in British society. This is especially reflected in the emergence of genre fiction and hybrid forms of writing during the period in question. Taken in combination, the case studies generate significant and original findings by identifying and analysing overarching trends that cannot be established through examining just one case subject or one source language. They both provide an historical account of Scandinavian literary transmission to Britain during the twentieth and early-twenty- first centuries, and they identify and analyse the significant factors involved in that process. The research offers an enhanced understanding of the contemporary situation of the publication of Scandinavian books in Britain.

No description available.

The argument of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it is to show that from the eighteenth century onwards Scottish scholars and writers have made a distinct and important contribution, hitherto mostly unnoted, to the dissemination of Old Norse history and literature in Britain. Furthermore Scottish writers such as Samuel Laing, Thomas Carlyle, and R.M. Ballantyne played a significant role in the creation of the literary notion of a Norse ethos which was to be a central point in the literary and journalistic debate in Scotland between c.1880 and 1940 on the relative merits of opposing Norse and Celtic influences on Scottish history, culture and society. Secondly, and more particularly, the thesis illustrates how this consciousness of a literary and historical Norse heritage in Scotland influenced many minor authors in Orkney and Shetland, and eight important Scottish writers in the twentieth century: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil M. Gunn, John Buchan, David Lindsay, Naomi Mitchison, Eric Linklater, and George Mackay Brown. The thesis examines in detail the Norse-inspired works of these writers and investigates how and why they became influenced by Old Norse history and literature, what sources they used, and what effect this had on their work. The Old Norse influence is mostly notable in the writers' attitudes to the Norse/Celtic debate, their use of saga and skaldic styles, their knowledge and application of Viking history, their interpretation and use of Old Norse mythology, and a belief in atavism and contemporary applications of a Norse ethos. The nature of this influence on each individual author varies both in extent and form, but its existence and relevance cannot be questioned, and the thesis argues that this Old Norse influence has thus played an interesting and significant role in modern Scottish literature.

Akademisk avhandling--Uppsala. / "Källor och litteratur": p. [xi]-xvi.

Inaug.-Diss.--Göttingen. / Lebenslauf. "Die vollständige Abhandlung erscheint als Bd. LIII der 'Studien zur englischen Philologie." "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [vii]-viii.