Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka litteraturen efter agenterna och deras handlingar vid de religiösa sammankomsterna, i Tröndelag, så som det beskrivs av Snorre Sturlason i ”Håkon den Godes saga” Följande frågor fokuseras: Hur ser det rituella gästabudet ut i Snorres text? Vilka var det som agerade i den fornskandinaviska kulten och varför? Vad säger källorna om rituella gästabud och kultfunktionärer? Speglar texten autentiska traditioner?

This thesis deals with the image of the Vikings. I wish to investigate how this image came to being during the 19th and early 20th century and give examples of how the Viking age was approached archaeologically during this time period. In addition to this, I discuss the image of the Vikings in relation to concepts such as nationalism, Scandinavian identity and how we use history. The aim is to contribute to the discourse about ideology in relation to history. I wish to raise awareness about how we use history and how our evaluation of the past, in this case the Viking age, affects our perception of the past and the present. I have chosen three archaeological sites in order to exemplify how archaeologists have approached the Viking age, and how archaeology can be linked to ideology. These sites are Old Uppsala and Birka in Sweden, and Hedeby in present-day Germany. In addition to this, I also discuss what role the Viking age played in the 19th century world of ideas. I read and analyse publications on the topic from different time periods and contexts. The theories used are those of Stefan Bohman, Benedict Anderson and Lise Nordenborg Myhre on nationalism and its symbolism. The discussion is also based on Evert Baudou’s theories on archaeological interpretations, as well as the theoretical framework characteristic of the 19th century, culture-historical archaeology. The Viking age played an important part in shaping a Scandinavian identity, particularly in Sweden. The loss of Finland to Russia in 1809 created a need of a new identity. In the wake of this, as well as deepened relations to Norwegians and Danes, a new ideology called scandinavism was formed with the Viking age at centre. Later, the Iron Age was of significance when the German Nazi regime needed to legitimise their policies and ideology. The excavations at Hedeby mirror the Nazi ideology, but the Swedish sites have also proven to have connections to nationalism, both at the time of excavation but also in the form of interpretation. I base my analysis on the phenomena explanation, consolidation and rejection in order to establish how the past can be used in defining the present in relation to the past. I discuss how the past is used to define the present, ourselves and our society and how it is can be used in a nationalistic setting.

The aim of this study is to examine the temporary museum exhibit World of the Vikings (Welt der Wikinger), created by Sweden’s Statens Historia Museum (SHM), through the lenses of  gender and pedagogical analysis. The exhibit which was planned to be showcased in the German city of Kiel in time for the sailing Olympics in 1972 and had several goals in mind. The primary goals were to showcase models of Viking ships and achievements of their ship art (to coincide with the sailing Olympics), provide an overview of the Viking Age and showcasing all its different aspects as opposed to just the infamous warrior. Using a gender theory and the overarching analyst method ‘The Feminist Museum Hack’, primarily utilizing a discourse analysis and a visual method (as well as comparative reading, a quantitative method and content analysis, depending on which objects were analysed), this study examines archival material of the exhibit in order to unveil both gender and pedagogical aspects. The material used, consisting of protocols, memos, exhibition texts, booth overviews (consisting of photographs), catalogues and letter correspondents, provide an extensive look into the exhibit, its purposes as well as the overall structure. The main findings of this study are that the exhibit had a clear pedagogical goal in mind, as its content was divided into different parts and chapters to detail various parts of the Viking Age, including their everyday life. Several artifacts collected from various museums were showcased, and the exhibition texts were designed to both educate its visitors and inspire to seek further knowledge. Nuancing gender roles was not part of its purpose, which is confirmed by a gender analysis of the exhibit. A significant portion of the Nordic people mentioned were men while only a few women were mentioned, but  most of the featured men and women were also from a higher hierarchical standing. In terms of expression of gender and gender roles, men were the primary focus in describing and showcasing everyday Nordic life, whereas the women remained passive and secondary. Through the exhibit material, it is clear the roles and chores performed by men were deemed of a higher importance.

This thesis examines the relevance of animal symbolism for group cohesion within Vendel- and Viking Age warrior groups. Late Iron Age Scandinavia (c. 550-1050) saw increased political centralization where leading figures would legitimize and maintain their authority by forming and maintaining warrior groups. Animal symbolism is examined with regards to its role in stimulating processes of 'ingroup identification and identity fusion, which are likely to have been of vital importance in facilitating cohesion within ancient Scandinavian warrior groups. Literary, historical and archaeological sources are examined and compared in order to identify independently reoccuring phenomena, which collectively provide indications about the martial ideologies and practices of the Vendel- and Viking periods. Animals were used as identifying symbols for specific individuals, groups and organizations which could hade served to identify group members and hightlight the distinctiveness of ingroups in order to stimulate cooperation. Particular animals such as ravens were used by Scandinavian leaders in order to indicate martial competency and connections to the god Odin. Both of these functions would have increades the warrior bands' confidence in, and presumably loyalty towards their commanders. Animal symbolism was likely used by some warrior groups in the assumption of therianthropic identities. Conceptions of therianthropy could have stimulated identity fusion by cultivating specific personality traits, providing ideological motivations for violent actions, enhancing actual or perceived combat performance and by distinguishing therianthropic warriors from the rest of society. The relevant forms of animal symbolism would have coexisted to various degrees withing the same or similar ideological frameworks with Odin as a reoccuring and significant - but not necessarily essential - central figure.

Med hjälp av osteologiska och genetiska analyser har flera gravar från vikingatiden som tidigare tolkats tillhöra män nu visat sig tillhöra kvinnor. Det är dock fortsatt kontroversiellt att tolka dessa kvinnor som krigare. Att kvinnorna tillhört den sociala eliten är studenter och forskare i stort överens om men vilken roll de haft i vikingatidens samhälle råder det delade meningar om. Att tolka tidigare samhällen och deras sociala roller utifrån det material som finns tillgängligt idag är komplext vilket blir tydligt i denna uppsats. Vikten av att inte tolka vikingatidens sociala roller utifrån samtidens syn på könsroller, ideal och normer blir också tydligt. / With the help of osteological and genetic analyses, several warriorgraves from the Viking Age that where previously interpreted as belonging to men have been shown belong to women. However, it remains controversial to interpret these women as warriors. That the women belonged to the social elite most students and researchers largely agree on but there are divided opinions about what role they had in the Viking Age society. Interpreting past societies and their social roles based on the material available today is complex, which comes clear in this essay. The importence of not interpreting the social role of the Viking Age based on the contemporary view of gender roles, ideals and norms also becomes clear.

This thesis examines the relevancy of south-west portals with regards to their potential usage in post-burial ritual activity with particular focus on the deposition of sacrificial offerings. South-west portals are a type of stone constructions found on the edges of mounds and stone settings in eastern central Sweden usually dating to the Viking Age (c. 750-1100 CE). As many as possible of all excavated south-west portals are accounted for. The find materials in south-west portals as well as their accessibility are assessed in accordance with the reasoning that long-term grave cult would result in repeated sacrificial depositions and that the portals would have had to have been accessible for such sacrifices to have been conducted. There is no clear evidence of south-west portals having been used for deliberate sacrificial depositions. Some portals would have been inaccessible and most non-funerary find assemblages were likely non-deliberate or at least nonindicative of repeated sacrifices. South-west portals were likely more relevant in funerary rites of passage or potentially odd instances of necromancy rather than in sacrifices connected to ancestor worship. / Denna avhandling undersöker relevansen av sydvästportar med avseende på deras potentiella användning i rituella aktiviteter efter begravningen med särskilt fokus på deponering av offergåvor. Sydvästportar är en typ av stenkonstruktioner som förekommer på kanterna av högar och stensättningar i östra Mellansverige, vanligtvis daterade till vikingatiden (ca 750-1100 e.v.t.). Så många som möjligt av alla utgrävda sydvästportar redovisas. Fyndmaterialet i sydvästportar samt deras tillgänglighet bedöms utifrån resonemanget att långvarig gravkult skulle resultera i upprepade offerdepositioner och att portarna skulle ha behövt vara tillgängliga för sådana offer att genomföras. Det finns inga tydliga bevis för att sydvästportar har använts för avsiktliga offerdepositioner. Vissa portar skulle ha varit otillgängliga och de fyndmaterialansamlingar som inte var gravar var sannolikt oavsiktliga eller åtminstone icke indikativa på upprepade offerriter. Sydvästportar var sannolikt mer relevanta i begravningsriter eller potentiellt udda fall av nekromanti snarare än i offer kopplade till förfädersdyrkan.

This paper is aimed at mapping important traits in a Hiberno-Norse identity. This is the main focus of the essay, but another important part is to problematize this using several theoretical approaches of which the main are identity, creolization and hybridization. The Hiberno-Norse culture being primarily an urban phenomenon, the thesis is delimited to the Hiberno-Norse towns with occasional comparisons to Scandinavia to see how the native Irish population influenced the invaders and how they gradually evolved into the Hiberno-Norse. Early on the Norse show signs of creolization that would ultimately lead to the creation of the Hiberno-Norse hybrid culture known from history and archaeology – an urban culture that show blended Norse and Irish features. / Denna uppsats är till för att sammanställa viktiga uttryck I en Iro-Skandinavisk identitet. Detta är huvudsyftet med uppsatsen, men en annan viktig del är att problematisera detta genom flera teoretiska begrepp, där de främsta är identitet, kreolisering och hybridisering. Då den Iro-Skandinaviska kulturen framför allt var ett urbant fenomen har uppsatsen avgränsats till de Iro-Skandinaviska städerna, med sporadiska jämförelser med Skandinavien för att se hur den inhemska Irländska befolkningen influerade angriparna och hur de skulle komma att utvecklas till Iro-Skandinaverna. Tidigt uppvisar nordborna tecken på kreolisering, som till slut skulle leda till uppkomsten av den Iro-Skandinaviska hybridkulturen känd från historian och arkeologin – en urban kultur som uppvisar blandade nordiska och irländska drag.

This paper deals with testing the method Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) on the copy of the Piraeus-lion in Historic Museum in Stockholm. The purpose is to find out if it is possible to gather more information about the runic inscriptions. RTI is a method that records the surface normal of individual pixels in a digital photograph by analyzing the impact of light coming from different angles of entrance. RTI produces sort of a 3D-image of the object. There will be an overview of earlier interpretations of the runic scripts written on the lion as well as an overview of Varangians in the southeast. After examination of the lion with RTI, has a conclusion been made that the method should be performed again on similar items, and on the copy of the Piraeus-lion to evaluate its full potential.

This thesis aims to study the level and scale of literacy as it expanded in Viking towns during the 8th-12th century. In order to get an understanding of this spread, I have worked with two case-studies of Viking towns, as they were founded and prospered during and by the end of the Viking Age in Sweden; the town of Birka located in Björkö Island in Lake Mälaren, and the town of Sigtuna located in the province of Uppland, in central Sweden. Through the study of selected archaeological material, this paper aims to bring together scattered information and shed light on what we know about the level and spread of literacy in Viking society. The purpose of this endeavour, is to question not only the notion of an illiterate pagan society that the Viking Age Scandinavians are considered to have been, but also question both the methodology in which the scholarly archaeological community studies literacy, as well as the way literacy itself is defined in the study of the ancient world. The paper includes a bibliographic and a material-studying approach, as well as a section where digital archaeological research methods are used with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software in order to illustrate the level and scale of literary expansion in Viking Age Sweden. / <p>The proceedings of the Thesis defence were undertaken in the form of a web meeting via Zoom, in accordance to the local restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>

Föreliggande avhandling syftar till att utveckla läsningen och tolkningen av inskrifterna på de i dagsläget 46 kända vikingatida runblecken. Målet är att ge en så tydlig bild som möjligt av inskriftsgenren vikingatida runbleck. I detta syfte har upprepade fältundersökningar av runblecken genomförts med stereomikroskop. På grundval av på så vis etablerade nya läsningar föreslås nya tolkningar till de mest problematiska ställena i de tidigare tolkade runblecksinskrifterna. Nya tolkningsförslag ges även för runblecksinskrifter som tidigare har ansetts vara olexikaliska. Utöver nya läsningar och tolkningar resulterar denna studie i en kartläggning av relationen mellan runblecksinskrifternas innehåll och form å den enda sidan och runbleckens fyndmiljöer och utseende å den andra. / The aim of this dissertation is to represent as clearly as possible the genre of Viking-Age runic plates by developing readings and interpretations of the inscriptions on the 46 metal plates with runes from the Viking Age known today. Several investigations of the runic plates have been conducted with a stereomicroscope for this purpose. On the basis of the new readings thus established, new interpretations have been proposed for the most problematic sections of previously interpreted inscriptions. New interpretations are also offered for inscriptions on runic plates which have previously been considered non-lexical. As well as providing new readings and interpretations, this study has resulted in clarification of the relationship between the form and content of the inscriptions on the runic plates on the one hand and on their find circumstances and appearance on the other.