HI3023 From Viking raiders to Crusader warriors: Scandinavia and Europe, 800-1200

Course Organiser: Professor Terry Barry
Duration: Hilary Term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 5 ECTS
Assessment: 100% essay

We will investigate the history and archaeology of Scandinavia and its European connections from the Viking Age until the period in which Scandinavia became part of Christian Europe. Our focus of interest will concentrate on how a review of the surviving original sources allied to new archaeological and historical evidence has led to a re-interpretation of the ideology and the ethnicity of the earliest Viking raiders, and how they successfully re-interpreted themselves as Normans by the eleventh century. It has also assisted in informing us of the major developments that led to the creation of national states in Scandinavia, and the beginnings of the so-called ‘Norman Empire’ in the eleventh century.

Module Guide (2013) (PDF, 3.4mb)

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

• Identify the main features of historical, archaeological and popular writing about Vikings
• Explain the different ways in which professional historians and archaeologists have approached the subject and why such differences have come about
• Analyze the principal debates between different schools of historical and archaeological thought on Vikings
• Assess the contribution of Vikings to the development of Scandinavian and European society
• Compare the strengths and weaknesses of written and archaeological evidence about Vikings
• Supply an individual synthesis based on critical reading of the secondary literature dealing with Vikings
• Write essays and make oral presentations defending such a synthesis