Colonial Entanglements and the Medieval Nordic World: Norse Colonies and Indigenous Peoples

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Colonial Entanglements and the Medieval Nordic World

Norse Colonies and Indigenous Peoples

Edited by: Cordelia Heß , Solveig Marie Wang and Erik Wolf
Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Universitätsbibliothek Greifswald

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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This book is in the series

Volume 8 | Religious Minorities in the North

About this book

Open Access

The book investigates the multifaceted entanglements between the many pasts and presents of the Nordic medieval period and colonialism. The edited volume contributes to the untangling of questions concerning how present, recent, and past structures of colonialism affect historiography on the medieval Nordic past. Consisting of thematically diverse chapters, the book brings together a range of approaches related to medieval colonialism in a Nordic context, touching both on medieval and medievalist factors. The editors and contributors understand their project as part of the growing conversation about colonialism and its reverberations in academia, and as a contribution to decolonization efforts. The volume will offer an interdisciplinary approach to oft-neglected aspects of the medieval world through an incorporation of more inclusive methodologies and re-readings of both medieval texts and previous scholarship.

Author / Editor information

Prof. Dr Cordelia Heß, Nordische Geschichte, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany; Dr Solveig Marie Wang, Nordische Geschichte, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany; Erik Wolf, Nordische Geschichte, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Cordelia Heß, Solveig Marie Wang and Erik Wolf Open Access Download PDF	V
Contents Open Access Download PDF	VII
Contributors Open Access Download PDF	IX
List of Figures Open Access Download PDF	XIII
Colonial Entanglements and the Medieval Nordic World: An Introduction Cordelia Heß Open Access Download PDF	1
Part 1: The Medieval Nordic World
Chapter 1 Medieval Saami Imaginaries: Colonial Encounters as Memorialized in Traditional Legend Cycles Tim Frandy Open Access Download PDF	19
Chapter 2 Can We Access a Counter-Narrative to the Vínland Sagas through Kalaallit Oqaluttualiaat? Timothy Bourns Open Access Download PDF	49
Part 2: Religious Change and Religious Minorities
Chapter 3 Far from Rome? Exploring Religion and Syncretism in Medieval Norse Greenland Christian Koch Madsen Open Access Download PDF	77
Chapter 4 Saami Conversion and Identity Negotiation in the Medieval Period Solveig Marie Wang Open Access Download PDF	109
Part 3: Colonialism
Chapter 5 The Gulf of Bothnia, c. 1300–1600, as a “Third Space”: A Postcolonial Interpretation of the Written Sources Thomas Wallerström Open Access Download PDF	135
Chapter 6 Honey, Bones, and Furs: The Saami and the Bjarmians as Brokers in the Early Medieval Trade between Scandinavia and the Islamic World Carina Damm Open Access Download PDF	181
Chapter 7 Close Encounters of the Northern Kind: External Impacts and Indigenous Saami Reindeer-Herding Responses in Northernmost Europe, c. 700–1600 CE Oula Seitsonen Open Access Download PDF	201
Part 4: Entanglements
Chapter 8 “There Is a Strong Leaven of the Old Norse Blood in Nearly All of Us”: Settler Colonialism and the Vínland Mythology on the East Coast of North America Jay L. Lalonde Open Access Download PDF	235
Chapter 9 Colonialism 2.0? Medieval Saami–Norse History in Norwegian Upper Secondary School Textbooks Christina Lentz Open Access Download PDF	257
A Way Forward? Discussing Colonial Entanglements and Medieval Studies: Postphase Cordelia Heß, Timothy Bourns, Maya Sialuk Jacobsen and Christian Koch Madsen Open Access Download PDF	289
Index Open Access Download PDF	307

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

December 16, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9783111386676

Hardcover published on:

December 16, 2024

Hardcover ISBN:

9783111386560

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

15

Main content:

313

Illustrations:

20

Coloured Illustrations:

18

Tables:

1

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111386676

eBook ISBN: 9783111386676

Hardcover ISBN: 9783111386560

Keywords for this book

Medieval history; colonialism; Nordic region; medieval studies

Audience(s) for this book

Historians, archaeologists, medievalists, anticolonialists, students of History and Archaeology, indigenous studies scholars

Creative Commons

BY-NC-ND 4.0

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Colonial Entanglements and the Medieval Nordic World

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About this book

Author / Editor information

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