Simon Trafford | School of Advanced Study, University of London (original) (raw)

Papers by Simon Trafford

Research paper thumbnail of Reinterpreting the Middle Ages

Brepols Publishers eBooks, Apr 20, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Viking Metal

<p>Hardly any traces survive of the music of the Vikings, but considerable effort has been ... more <p>Hardly any traces survive of the music of the Vikings, but considerable effort has been expended in the modern period in attempting to construct music that can represent the Vikings and their age for audiences attracted by the stirring and romantic role delineated for them by popular culture. Since the 1990s, "Viking metal", a sub-genre of heavy metal originating in Scandinavia, has achieved lasting popularity and spawned its own sub-culture and concert circuit. This chapter traces the development of Viking metal from its origins to the present, exploring how music, lyrics, language and the visual imagery of bands have been deployed to fabricate a music that can successfully evoke a desired "Viking" Other. Band and audience members typically contrast a Viking Age depicted as exotic, authentic and exciting with a modern world stigmatized as dull, compromised and constrained. Beyond straightforward escapism, however, Viking metal also serves as a site for the exploration of a variety of other ideas. It has, for instance, been a focus for religious instincts: many scene members avow adherence to revived Norse paganism. More troublingly, a number of bands have framed their enthusiasm for the Vikings in terms that are explicitly nationalist or racist, extolling the superiority of a supposedly 'pure' primordial Scandinavian culture. In this way, Viking metal represents a telling reflex of the ongoing politically-charged appropriation of the medieval past across popular culture as a whole.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of 3) Amon amarth make mead! Alcohol consumption, masculinity, and the modern Viking

Middle Ages without borders: a conversation on medievalism

Research paper thumbnail of Nata vimpi curmi da: Dead Languages and Primordial Nationalisms in Folk Metal Music

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical approaches to early medieval migration

This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the effect upon culture of the movements o... more This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the effect upon culture of the movements of people. It is concerned in particular with comparing the ways in which the migrations of the early medieval period in England the `Anglo-Saxon Settlements', the `Viking Settlement' and the `Norman Conquest'have been studied by antiquarians, historians, archaeologists and philologists. The topic is addressed in two ways: by a theoretical discussion of the history and development of thought on early medieval migrations in general, and by detailed case-studies of the ways in which each migration has been approached in a single English region: the county of Yorkshire. The introduction considers the ways in which population movement has been studied by other academic discourses, and demonstrates that consideration of the subject by early medievalists is complicated by the varying, and sometimes conflicting, theoretical standpoints on migration of the three disciplines involved i...

Research paper thumbnail of Blood, Fire, Death: Bathory and the Birth of Viking Metal

Research paper thumbnail of Swimming in Anglo-Saxon England

Studies in the Early Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Runar munt þu finna’: rock and pop songs in Old Norse

A short summary of a paper on usage of Old Norse language in rock music

Research paper thumbnail of Blood, Fire, Death: Bathory and the Birth of Viking Metal

Gathering of the Tribe: Music and Heavy Conscious Creation, Feb 1, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Antichrist Superstars: The Vikings in hard rock and heavy metal

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, migration theory, and the historiography of the Scandinavian settlement of England

Hadley and Richards, Jan 1, 2000

Ethnicity, Migration Theory, and the Historiography of the Scandinavian Settlement of England T S... more Ethnicity, Migration Theory, and the Historiography of the Scandinavian Settlement of England T SIMON TRAFFORD his chapter considers the attitudes of historians, archaeologists, and linguists over the past forty years to problems of the settlement of eastern England by ...

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical approaches to early medieval migration

Books by Simon Trafford

Research paper thumbnail of Middle Ages without borders: a conversation on medievalism/Medioevo senza frontiere : una conversazione  sul medievalismo/Moyen Âge sans frontières: une conversation sur le médiévalisme, eds T. di Carpegna Falconieri, P. Savy, L. Yawn, Rome, École française de Rome, 2021 (Collection de l’ÉFR, 586)

by Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, Francesca Roversi Monaco, giulia panzanelli, Bruno Varennes, Fani Gargova, Federico Stella, Riccardo Facchini, Simon Trafford, Fabiana Fraulini, Marion Bertholet, Corrado Zedda, Berit Kjærulff, Heather Grossman, Andrea Tomedi, Sarah Linford, Anna Czarnowus, Danko Kamcevski, Umberto Longo, Mariella Nuzzo, Claire Pascolini-Campbell, Fabio Cusimano, Dusan Zupka, Ruth Barratt-Peacock, Luca Polidoro, Sonia Merli, Tess Watterson, Antonio Tagliente, and Martina Corona

This book presents the proceedings of the international conference “The Middle Ages in the Modern... more This book presents the proceedings of the international conference “The Middle Ages in the Modern World,” held in Rome November 21-24, 2018. Attended by more than a hundred participants of different ages, educational backgrounds, and places of origin, the conference constituted a landmark in the study of medievalism: the historical discipline, now in full bloom, that investigates the ways in which the thousand-year period between 500 and 1500 was, and continues to be, presented, reconstructed, and imagined in successive eras. The book opens with a substantial bibliography drawn from all of its components, followed by the seven keynote lectures and ninety-three shorter texts - abstracts of the individual conference papers - organized along eight thematic pathways, which together provide a vivid image of the current state of the field.
The electronic version of this book – https://books.openedition.org/efr/18397 – contains the complete proceedings of the conference, including the numerous abstracts of papers delivered in the various sessions. The printed version consists of the introduction, the bibliography, and the seven plenary lectures.

Research paper thumbnail of Reinterpreting the Middle Ages

Brepols Publishers eBooks, Apr 20, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Viking Metal

<p>Hardly any traces survive of the music of the Vikings, but considerable effort has been ... more <p>Hardly any traces survive of the music of the Vikings, but considerable effort has been expended in the modern period in attempting to construct music that can represent the Vikings and their age for audiences attracted by the stirring and romantic role delineated for them by popular culture. Since the 1990s, "Viking metal", a sub-genre of heavy metal originating in Scandinavia, has achieved lasting popularity and spawned its own sub-culture and concert circuit. This chapter traces the development of Viking metal from its origins to the present, exploring how music, lyrics, language and the visual imagery of bands have been deployed to fabricate a music that can successfully evoke a desired "Viking" Other. Band and audience members typically contrast a Viking Age depicted as exotic, authentic and exciting with a modern world stigmatized as dull, compromised and constrained. Beyond straightforward escapism, however, Viking metal also serves as a site for the exploration of a variety of other ideas. It has, for instance, been a focus for religious instincts: many scene members avow adherence to revived Norse paganism. More troublingly, a number of bands have framed their enthusiasm for the Vikings in terms that are explicitly nationalist or racist, extolling the superiority of a supposedly 'pure' primordial Scandinavian culture. In this way, Viking metal represents a telling reflex of the ongoing politically-charged appropriation of the medieval past across popular culture as a whole.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of 3) Amon amarth make mead! Alcohol consumption, masculinity, and the modern Viking

Middle Ages without borders: a conversation on medievalism

Research paper thumbnail of Nata vimpi curmi da: Dead Languages and Primordial Nationalisms in Folk Metal Music

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical approaches to early medieval migration

This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the effect upon culture of the movements o... more This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the effect upon culture of the movements of people. It is concerned in particular with comparing the ways in which the migrations of the early medieval period in England the `Anglo-Saxon Settlements', the `Viking Settlement' and the `Norman Conquest'have been studied by antiquarians, historians, archaeologists and philologists. The topic is addressed in two ways: by a theoretical discussion of the history and development of thought on early medieval migrations in general, and by detailed case-studies of the ways in which each migration has been approached in a single English region: the county of Yorkshire. The introduction considers the ways in which population movement has been studied by other academic discourses, and demonstrates that consideration of the subject by early medievalists is complicated by the varying, and sometimes conflicting, theoretical standpoints on migration of the three disciplines involved i...

Research paper thumbnail of Blood, Fire, Death: Bathory and the Birth of Viking Metal

Research paper thumbnail of Swimming in Anglo-Saxon England

Studies in the Early Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Runar munt þu finna’: rock and pop songs in Old Norse

A short summary of a paper on usage of Old Norse language in rock music

Research paper thumbnail of Blood, Fire, Death: Bathory and the Birth of Viking Metal

Gathering of the Tribe: Music and Heavy Conscious Creation, Feb 1, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Antichrist Superstars: The Vikings in hard rock and heavy metal

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, migration theory, and the historiography of the Scandinavian settlement of England

Hadley and Richards, Jan 1, 2000

Ethnicity, Migration Theory, and the Historiography of the Scandinavian Settlement of England T S... more Ethnicity, Migration Theory, and the Historiography of the Scandinavian Settlement of England T SIMON TRAFFORD his chapter considers the attitudes of historians, archaeologists, and linguists over the past forty years to problems of the settlement of eastern England by ...

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical approaches to early medieval migration

Research paper thumbnail of Middle Ages without borders: a conversation on medievalism/Medioevo senza frontiere : una conversazione  sul medievalismo/Moyen Âge sans frontières: une conversation sur le médiévalisme, eds T. di Carpegna Falconieri, P. Savy, L. Yawn, Rome, École française de Rome, 2021 (Collection de l’ÉFR, 586)

by Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, Francesca Roversi Monaco, giulia panzanelli, Bruno Varennes, Fani Gargova, Federico Stella, Riccardo Facchini, Simon Trafford, Fabiana Fraulini, Marion Bertholet, Corrado Zedda, Berit Kjærulff, Heather Grossman, Andrea Tomedi, Sarah Linford, Anna Czarnowus, Danko Kamcevski, Umberto Longo, Mariella Nuzzo, Claire Pascolini-Campbell, Fabio Cusimano, Dusan Zupka, Ruth Barratt-Peacock, Luca Polidoro, Sonia Merli, Tess Watterson, Antonio Tagliente, and Martina Corona

This book presents the proceedings of the international conference “The Middle Ages in the Modern... more This book presents the proceedings of the international conference “The Middle Ages in the Modern World,” held in Rome November 21-24, 2018. Attended by more than a hundred participants of different ages, educational backgrounds, and places of origin, the conference constituted a landmark in the study of medievalism: the historical discipline, now in full bloom, that investigates the ways in which the thousand-year period between 500 and 1500 was, and continues to be, presented, reconstructed, and imagined in successive eras. The book opens with a substantial bibliography drawn from all of its components, followed by the seven keynote lectures and ninety-three shorter texts - abstracts of the individual conference papers - organized along eight thematic pathways, which together provide a vivid image of the current state of the field.
The electronic version of this book – https://books.openedition.org/efr/18397 – contains the complete proceedings of the conference, including the numerous abstracts of papers delivered in the various sessions. The printed version consists of the introduction, the bibliography, and the seven plenary lectures.