The Viking Diaspora

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title
Copyright
CONTENTS
List of tables
Acknowledgements
1 Vikings and their Ages: definitions and evidence
	Vikings and their Ages
		The end of an era?
		Vikings and víkingar
		Viking Ages
	Evidence
		Sources for the Viking Age
		Linguistic evidence
		Artefactual evidence
		Natural evidence
2 The Viking world: geography and environment
	The northlands
		Scandinavia
		Norway
		Sweden
		Denmark
	The North Atlantic
		Faroe
		Iceland
		Greenland
		Vínland
	The west and south
		Britain and Ireland
		The European continent
	The east
		Finland
		The Baltic and Russia
	People and environment – arrival
		Arrival in a pristine landscape
		Arrival in an inhabited landscape
		Human populations
		Animals
		Bones and food
	People and environment – living in the landscape
		Survival and adaptation
		Effects and ends
	Naming the environment
		The uses of place-names
		Naming practices
		First impressions
		Case study – the Sheep Isles
		Names and the changing Viking world
3 The Viking diaspora
	Introducing the Viking diaspora
		The long, broad Viking Age – continuities in time and space
		Natural evidence
		Case study – genetics
		Artefactual evidence
		Case study – steatite
		Linguistic evidence
		Sagas and the past
		Case study – Vágar
	Understanding the Viking diaspora
		Defining diaspora
		‘Dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically’
		‘Alternatively, the expansion from a homeland in search of work, in pursuit of trade or to further colonial ambitions’
		‘A collective memory and myth about the homeland’
		‘An idealization of the supposed ancestral home’
		‘A return movement or at least a continuing conversation’
		‘A strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time’
		‘A troubled relationship with host societies’
		‘A sense of co-responsibility with co-ethnic members in other countries’
		‘The possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in tolerant host countries’
	Themes of the Viking diaspora
4 Gender and family
	Gender
		The importance of gender
		Gender, genes and migration
		Case study – north-west England
		Visible gender – clothing and accoutrements
		Case study – oval brooches
		Case study – swords
		Gender, individuals and names
		Gender in poetry and myth
		Case study – valkyries
	Family in the Viking diaspora
		The sex ratio in early Scandinavia
		Language in the diasporic family
		Case study – the Isle of Man
5 Cults, beliefs and myths
	Cults and beliefs
		Myth and religion of the North
		Cult and beliefs in Scandinavia – place-names
		Cult and beliefs in Scandinavia – archaeology
		Case study – cult leaders and cult buildings
		Deities in the diaspora
		The conversion to Christianity
	Myths
		Recording myths and legends
		Diasporic myths
		Case study – Norse myth in Orkney
		Reworking old legends
		Case study – Sigurðr Fáfnisbani in the Viking Age
		Case study – Sigurðr Fáfnisbani in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
		Myths and identities
6 Networks and identities
	Networks
		Raiding, trading, settlement
		Diasporic networks
		Case study – Mousa Broch
		Runic networks
		Skaldic networks
		Case study – poets of Orkney
	Identities
		Viking identities
		Case study – Scandinavian identities in northern England
		Case study – migration, diaspora and Icelandic identity
	Conclusion
Bibliography
	Primary sources
	Standard reference works
	Secondary sources
Index