Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Norse-Saami Relations in the Medieval Period

Solveig Marie Wang

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Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia

An Interdisciplinary Study of Norse-Saami Relations in the Medieval Period

Solveig Marie Wang

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2023

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This book is in the series

Volume 5 | Religious Minorities in the North

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The interdisciplinary study investigates the relationship between Norse and Saami peoples in the medieval period and focuses on the multifaceted portrayal of Saami peoples in medieval texts. The investigative analysis is anchored in postcolonial methodologies and argues for the inherent need to decolonise the medieval source-material as well as recent historiography. This is achieved by presenting the historiographic and political background of research into Norse-Saami relations, before introducing an overview of textual sources discussing Saami peoples from the classical period to the late 1400s, an analysis of the textual motifs associated with the Saami in medieval literature (their relevance and prevalence), geo-political affairs, trading relations, personal relations and Saami presence in the south. By using decolonising tools to read Norse-Saami relations in medieval texts, influenced by archaeological material and postcolonial frameworks, the study challenges lingering colonial assumptions about the role of the Saami in Norse society. The current research episteme is re-adjusted to offer alternative readings of Saami characters and emphasis is put on agency, fluidity and the dynamic realities of the Saami medieval pasts.

Author / Editor information

Solveig Marie Wang, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.

Reviews

"Wang successfully demonstrates that medieval Fennoscandia was a culturally diverse region characterized by cultural discourse, exchange, and fluidity, and that the Indigenous Saami played an integral role in the sociocultural and political activities of this time. As such, Wang has provided a much-needed work on the cultural landscape of this region, one that not only challenges assumptions and scholarly norms about the past, but also illustrates the important role that scholars of seemingly distant pasts play in the experiences of modern cultural groups and the responsibility that falls to us to give them the fair, nuanced, and complex representation that is their right." Arwen Thyssen, in: Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études Scandinaves au Canada, Vol. 31 (2023) pp. 1-4.

"Insgesamt leistet die rezensierte Studie damit einen produktiven Beitrag zur Erforschung der mittelalterlichen Geschichte der Samen. [...] Einen besonderen Vorzug bildet zudem der Umstand, dass durch die gesamte Monographie hindurch bestehende Forschungspositionen nicht nur dekonstruiert, sondern auch forschungsgeschichtlich eingeordnet werden, sodass die Studie auch unter diesem Gesichtspunkt eine lohnenswerte Lektüre darstellt." Simon Hauke in: H-Soz-Kult, 11.09.2024, www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-134866 (12.09.2024).

"Nach dieser Arbeit ist eine Revision der allgemeinen Geschichtsschreibung Skandinaviens unumgänglich, so unbequem und so politisch inopportun es zur Zeit auch sein mag. Es ist nicht mehr möglich, diesen einmal gedachten Gedanken wieder rückgängig zu machen. Und das kann man als den größten Erfolg der Geschichtsschreibung und größtes Kompliment, das man einer Arbeit machen kann, auffassen." Carsten Jahnke, in: Das Historisch-Politische Buch, Vol. 71 (2023), pp. 407-408.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
Conventions Publicly Available Download PDF	XIX
Chapter 1: Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
Chapter 2: Classical and Medieval Written Sources on the Saami Open Access Download PDF	34
Chapter 3: The Saami Motif-Cluster Open Access Download PDF	73
Chapter 4: Northern Fennoscandian Politics and Spatial Belonging Open Access Download PDF	119
Chapter 5: The Saami Trade Open Access Download PDF	151
Chapter 6: Liminal Identities and Fluid Spaces? Norse-Saami Personal Relationships Open Access Download PDF	178
Chapter 7: Saami in the South: Sources and Societies Open Access Download PDF	212
Reassessing Norse-Saami Relations in the Medieval Period: Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	247
List of References Open Access Download PDF	253
Index Open Access Download PDF	273

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

March 20, 2023

eBook ISBN:

9783110784305

Hardcover published on:

March 20, 2023

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110784169

Paperback published on:

November 4, 2024

Paperback ISBN:

9783111624778

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

18

Main content:

278

Illustrations:

3

Coloured Illustrations:

4

Maps:

0

Coloured Maps:

0

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784305

eBook ISBN: 9783110784305

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110784169

Paperback ISBN: 9783111624778

Keywords for this book

Saami; Scandinavia; Middle Ages; Northern Literature; postcolonialism

Audience(s) for this book

Historians, medievalists, sholars of Postcolonial studies, literary scholars of Northern Literature

Creative Commons

BY-NC-ND 4.0

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Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia

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About this book

Author / Editor information

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