Akademisk avhandling--Institution för arkeologi--Stockholm, 1991. / Résumé en allemand.

Doctoral diss.--Göteborg universitet, 1994. / Bibliogr. p. 147-163.

There is a boat burial in Scar, on Sanday, Orkney that was excavated in 1991. This undergraduate thesis compares Scar with 5 other boat burials from Norway, to determine if the burial custom is uniform or if there are regional differences.  The 6 burials are presented individually and then the type and typology of the finds is compared. The conclusion is that the boat itself and the rivets in the boat burial in Scar are very similar to the burials in Norway, and there are strong similarities between the finds in Scar and the corresponding type of finds in the Norwegian burials. However, they are not uniform in their collections of finds, and this could be due to regional differences. Other potential causes, such as dating of the burials, are discussed as well.

La thèse analyse le rituel du seidr (pratique utilisée entre autres pour la divination, la guérison et la guerre sur des plans surnaturels) des anciens Scandinaves et celui du noaidevuohta (rituel chamanique pratiqué par les Sâmes) chez les Sâmes. Le seidr était pratiqué surtout par des femmes qui se déplaçaient d’une ferme à l’autre. Il était directement lié au dieu Ódinn, tel que décrit dans l’Ynglinga saga. Quant au noaidevuohta, apparemment l’apanage des hommes, il participait au complexe circumpolaire des chasseurs/éleveurs du renne ou du caribou. Les deux complexes rituels ont été intégrés dans leur culture respective, tout en possèdant des différences. Il est impossible, dans l’état actuel de la recherche, de déterminer s’il y a eu des emprunts de part et d’autre. Selon les conclusions de nos recherches, les deux rituels sont de nature chamanique, s’inscrivant au nouveau paradigme circumpolaire des études contemporaines. En revanche, il n’existe pas de consensus au sujet de la nature chamanique ou non, ni au sujet de l’origine, des rituels en question. Il y a très peu de recherches en langue française sur le sujet, la majorité des études ont été réalisées en langue anglaise ou dans des langues scandinaves. Les textes originaux ne sont d’ailleurs pas tous traduits en français. Notre thèse contribuera de manière significative à la recherche. Nous avons établi un lexique des catégories « prêtre », « sorcier » et « chamane » de la Scandinavie préchrétienne. De plus, nous avons remis dans leur contexte culturel les textes et les objets de la culture matérielle, en utilisant des méthodes de l’anthropologie culturelle et de l’histoire, tout en intégrant les recherches archéologiques pertinentes et l’étude des textes. L’objectif de cette thèse est de démontrer 1) que le seidr et le noaidevuohta sont apparentés et de nature chamanique, et 2) qu’il est impossible de déterminer la direction (des anciens Scandinaves vers les Sâmes ou le contraire) des échanges et des influences pour chacun des deux rituels.

The meaning with this essay is to study and analyze the figuration of vikings in Swedish educational books during a period between 1969-2010, together with how the Swedish government's curriculums during the same time period have shaped the content of the educational books regarding the content of vikings. In order to be able to answer these questions a set criterion was formed before the writing started on the essay to form a foundation for the conclusions that were later formulated in the essay. In the essay it emerged that the earliest curriculum had a big focus on teaching the students national history whilst the two later curriculums had a bigger focus on a broader teaching on European history and other nationality groups and their views and a smaller focus on only national history. The results showed that although the curriculums in the Swedish school had changed, the educational books view on vikings remains similar with small changes present throughout the texts. Most notably the change in perspective from only a national view to several perspectives from both the vikings point of view but also the view from ethnic groups around Europe.

Trefoil brooches are one of the most abundant types of Viking Age jewellery in Scandinavia. This thesis delves into the journey of one such brooch, known as 555783, discovered in Birka, Sweden. Through an archaeological object biography approach this thesis examines the brooch's construction, provenance, transportation, transformation, and deposition in an attempt to shed light on how this and other similar examples evolved in Scandinavian society compared to their cultural origins. Furthermore, this research aims to uncover broader patterns in the Viking Age Scandinavian society's contact with and adaptation of foreign material culture through the incorporation of comparative examples, in order to explore what this illustrates about the Scandinavian people in general. The conclusion reached is that 555783 was likely made in Frankia then transported to Scandinavia through unknown means. There it was modified from a mount on a sword belt with male, martial associations into a piece of fastening-jewellery associated with female costume and display. It was also determined that the adoption and adaption of foreign material culture was primarily a way of displaying foreign connections in a way better suited to their own aesthetic and material preferences. / En av de mest rikligt förekommande smyckestyperna från vikingatiden i Skandinavien är treflikiga spännen. Den här uppsatsen undersöker livshistorien av ett treflikigt spänne (555783) som upptäcktes i Birka. Genom ett arkeologiskt objektbiografiskt tillvägagångssätt undersöker denna uppsats spännet konstruktion, ursprung, förflyttning, förändring och deposition. Undersökningen illustrerar hur spänne 555783 och liknande exempel utvecklades i det skandinaviska samhället jämfört med i sin ursprungskultur. Vidare syftar denna uppsats till att belysa ett bredare mönster i vikingatida skandinavers kontakt med och anpassning av främmande materiell kultur. Uppsatsen besvarar detta genom jämförelse med andra liknande exempel. Slutsatsen ernådd är att spänne 555783 troligen har tillverkats i det Frankiska riket och sedan transporterats till Skandinavien på ett okänt sätt. Där modifierades den från ett beslag på ett svärdsbälte med manliga, krigiska associationer till ett smycke förknippat med kvinnlig uppvisning av status. Det fastställdes också att inlemmandet och modifieringen av främmande materiell kultur i första hand var ett sätt att visa utländska kopplingar som var anpassat till deras egna estetiska och materiella preferenser.

L'étude est un bilan historiographique de la représentation des Vikings dans l'histoire anglaise. Elle montre qu'il y a eu, au cours du XXe siècle, une humanisation de l'image des Scandinaves projetée par les historiens anglais. L'invasion Scandinave qui apparaissait au tout début du siècle comme un simple épisode sans lendemain devint au fil des ans, un événement ayant des répercussions à long terme dans le développement de la société anglaise. Le changement dans le discours des historiens analysé à travers cinq catégories de publications (article, monographie, synthèse, encyclopédie et atlas) s'explique en bonne partie par le renouvellement méthodologique que subit la discipline historique au cours du XXe siècle. Le passage, durant les deux premières décennies, d'une histoire littéraire à une histoire scientifique et suite à la seconde guerre mondiale, l'ouverture de l'histoire à la multidisciplinarité qui entraîna une diversification des voies d'approche et une augmentation du bassin documentaire qui menèrent à l'élaboration de nouvelles théories et à une redéfinition du Viking. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013

Yes / Historical, artefactual and place-name evidence indicates that Scandinavian migrants moved to eastern England in the ninth century AD, settling in the Danelaw. However, only a handful of characteristically Scandinavian burials have been found in the region. One, widely held, explanation is that most of these Scandinavian settlers quickly adopted local Christian burial customs, thus leaving Scandinavians indistinguishable from the Anglo-Saxon population. We undertook osteological and isotopic analysis to investigate the presence of first-generation Scandinavian migrants. Burials from Masham were typical of the later Anglo-Saxon period and included men, women and children. The location and positioning of the four adult burials from Coppergate, however, are unusual for Anglo-Scandinavian York. None of the skeletons revealed interpersonal violence. Isotopic evidence did not suggest a marine component in the diet of either group, but revealed migration on a regional, and possibly an international, scale. Combined strontium and oxygen isotope analysis should be used to investigate further both regional and Scandinavian migration in the later Anglo-Saxon period.

La pénétration des Scandinaves en Russie, qui s’insère dans un vaste mouvement d’échanges qui entre les VIIIe et XIIe siècles fait circuler hommes et biens, apparaît à bien des égards comme un stimulant économique et politique d’envergure dans l’émergence d’organisations politiques et sociales qui aboutirent au développement de centres proto-urbains et du premier État russe. L’objectif de cette étude est donc de s’attacher à travers le traitement des sources historiographiques scandinaves et leur croisement avec les corpus slavon, byzantin et arabo-persan, à l’appréhension des modalités de transport de ces Scandinaves qui empruntèrent la voie de l’Est. Ce traitement nous permettra alors en plus de mesurer la variété et la richesse des contacts et des types de voyages entrepris, de redessiner des itinéraires, et d’appréhender plus en détail de quelle manière l’historiographie envisageait la géographie russe ainsi que le voyage en ces régions. / The penetration of the Scandinavians in Russia, which takes place in this vast movement of exchanges between the eighth and twelfth centuries where men and goods where circulating around Europe, appears in many respects as a political and economic stimulus in the emergence of political and social organizations that led to the development of proto-urban centers and to the creation of the first Russian state. So the aim of this study is through the analyze of the Scandinavian historiography and its crossing with the Slavonic, Byzantine and Arabo-persian corpuses, to focus on the transport modalities of these Scandinavians who took the road to the East. This treatment will allow us to underline the wide variety of contacts and journeys undertaken, and in addition to reconstruct itineraries, and to understand in a better way how historiography dealt with Russian geography and with the journey across those regions as a pattern.

In the ninth century, the community of St Filibert, which was established on the island of Noirmoutier in the late-seventh century, relocated five times reportedly due to pressures caused by the invasions of the Northmen. The community produced texts during the period of relocations which emphasised the agency of the Northmen and whose testimony has been readily accepted in most subsequent historical analysis. The twofold aim of this thesis is to re-examine the body of literature produced by the community in order first to measure the narrative it provides against the paradigm of flight from the Northmen, and second to understand the nature of the texts themselves. It will argue that rather than being a community in flight, the Filibertines were involved in some of the most important concerns in the ninth-century kingdoms of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald. They were not only at the centre of successive royal patronage circles, but they developed the cult of their patron, St Filibert, through the process of relocation in both architectural and devotional spheres. Moreover, their economic activity, which had always been a concern of theirs since the late-seventh century, developed through the use of salt-pans and vineyards as well as through the donation of exemptions from taxation on the transit of goods. Overall this thesis proposes that the ninth century was, for the community of St Filibert, a period largely dominated by growth on a number of levels and argues that the texts that put flight from the Northmen at their heart were written as a method of defining an identity for a community in flux.