Horses of the Dead (original) (raw)
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The Horse and the Norse: Reconstructing the Equine in Viking Iceland (MLitt Dissertation)
By analyzing the historical texts and the archaeological record, the horse’s role in Icelandic Viking society was investigated. Studying horses in order to understand Icelandic Vikings is necessary due to the extraordinary abundance of faunal, artifactual, and textual remains pertaining to the animal – an abundance that is unique within the Norse expansion. Through the analysis and discussion of the available literature and archaeological evidence, it was determined that the horse was vital to maintaining Icelandic society – providing the crucial transport that ships could not offer on the island. Icelandic Vikings even adapted their way of life to accommodate and maintain their large herds – a feat that the island’s ecosystem could not sustain without sacrifice from its settlers. Through this adaptation and dedication to sustain their horse herds the Vikings integrated the horse so fully into their society that the animal can be seen in the island’s entertainment, ritual, religion, myth, and burial practices. With this evidence, a reconstruction of the horse and its tack was also completed, revealing gaps in the archaeological knowledge concerning the Vikings and their steeds.
Herding horses: a model of prehistoric horsemanship in Scandinavia - and elsewhere?
B. Santillo Frizell (ed)., 2004. PECUS. Man and animal in antiquity. Rome.
This article discusses a possible system of horse keeping, used in prehistoric Scandinavia, with focus on the Late Iron Age. The system, here referred to as that of free-roaming horses (Sw. utegångshästar ästar ä ), are still in use in several parts of the world and known from historic Scandinavian sources. The idea of the free-roaming horse system is to keep a surplus of horses under natural conditions, which means that the animals are left to themselves during the major part of the year, and in most cases, their lives. The systems leaves few, if any, traces in the archaeological record, but different sources indicate that there are many horses hidden behind the few stalls in Iron Age byres. However, there is ample evidence in archaeological and written sources that, when put together and illuminated by modern examples from different cultures, provide fruitful information about how great men and women kept their horses c. 1500 years ago. 1
The Vikings: New Inquiries into an Age-Old Theme, 2017
The aim of this paper is to present some aspects of the image of Northern Norway in the Viking period. The article first sketches the Viking Age and its underlying causes, by also defining, in brief, the specificity of the Vikings. It continues with considerations on the creation of Norway, so as to finally outline the country’s image in the Viking Age. Aspects of navigation, language and trade are also presented in short. This entire portrayal of Northern Norway in Viking times is based on Ottar’s account about Northern Norway at the court of King Alfred. From a literary perspective, Harald Hårfagrets Saga (The Saga of Harald Fairhair) from about 850 was analysed. This saga tells the story of a Danish princess being transformed into a Norwegian woman. Thus, one encounters the myth of Northern women. All these aspects lead to a comprehensive image of Northern Norway in the Viking Age.
Viking, 2021
In continental and north-western Europe armed cavalry – aided by the introduction of the stirrup – was closely linked to the emergence of feudalism but was this also the case in Scandinavia? Were the resulting military specialists linked to the growing national kingdoms, or to local and regional power spheres ruled by petty kings? I will investigate this in the historical region of Upplǫnd – the last Norse area to be integrated into the Kingdom of Norway by Óláfr Haraldsson around AD 1020. Two thirds of Norway’s 51 known equestrian graves are located in this inland area and I will employ a novel way of investigating their relationship to local administrative units, such as þriðjungar (thirds), herǫð (hundreds), and not least fjórðungar (fourths), as well as travel routes and settlements. There is little that suggests that these graves were linked to an early national aristocracy, and its ruling Scandinavian dynasty – Ynglingene – as has been argued in previous research. Equestrian grave traditions survived longer in Upplǫnd than elsewhere in Scandinavia, which was not Christianised until the 11th century, and it is unlikely that the buried had served the uniting and converting King Óláfr. It is also difficult to establish links between historically known lendr menn (the most prominent retainers of the king) families, and such graves. However, a new revelation is that the farms where such graves were located, were situated along the boundaries between local fjórðungar, which were judicial districts, as well as subsidiaries of local military administration in the herǫð. This suggests that these locations had important warning and supervision roles in local military systems.
Murphy and Nygaard 2023, Processions and Ritual Movement in Viking Age Scandinavia
"Processions and Ritual Movement in Viking Age Scandinavia." In The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World, 2023
In this chapter we survey and analyse evidence for processions and their possible functions in Viking Age Scandinavia. We propose two forms of processional movement, and examine forms of ritual transport and their likely venues. Although older studies of ‘procession’ as part of human ritual activity defined it as purely linear – that is, a ritual movement from Point A to Point B (and occasionally back again) – we also incorporate evidence for circulatory movements around a particular place, which seems to have played a significant role in pre-Christian Nordic culture. Indeed, what we term circulatory processions are arguably more numerous in our written source material than their linear counterparts, although the ever-growing archaeological record may nuance this picture in years to come. Linear processions are mostly found in funerary contexts, and consist of ritual movement from one place to another, potentially also including a non-ritual return to the starting point via the same route. Circulatory processions, on the other hand, seem to have typically begun and ended at a particularly sacred place (such as a sacral building, grove, or lake), and to have been conducted by one or more representations of a deity and their ritual specialist(s), who progressed around local or regional landscapes. In at least some cases there is evidence to suggest that ritual activities were conducted at stops along the way, and it is possible that linear processions formed subsidiary parts of a larger circulatory procession at the latter’s stopping points.
The paper presents some aspects of transportation and trade in Viking Age Denmark. The navigability of the shallow fjords and narrow streams and rivers with the types of ships available in the Viking Age is discussed, and the archaeological evidence of external contacts and trade is presented. It is suggested that the extent of trade and sailing along the waterways of Denmark was limited, due to the general economic level of Viking Age society before the end of the 10th century AD and the fact that the natural conditions along the streams and narrow rivers made them unsuitable for navigation more than a few kilometres upstream from the sea.
This is the manucript of a chapter in Vinland Revisited; the Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium, ed. Shannon Lewis-Simpson, [Selected papers from the Viking Millennium International Symposium Sept. 15-24, 2000, New Foundland and Labrador], St. John's 2003, pp. 51-64.
Archäologische Informationen, 2020
During the Viking Age, the Trondheimsfjorden in Central Norway emerges as a hub of maritime communication and exchange, supported by an advanced ship-building technology which offered excellent conditions for water-bound traffic on both local and supra-regional levels. Literary and archaeological sources indicate a high number of central farms situated around the fjord or at waterways leading to it, all of them closely connected by water. This paper explores the role of these central farms as gateways and nodes between waterscapes and landscapes within an amphibious network, exemplified by matters of trade and exchange. By analysing a number of case studies, their locations and resource bases, the partly different functions of these sites within the frames of local and supra-regional exchange networks become obvious. Moreover, new archaeological finds from private metal detecting from recent years indicate that bullion-based trivial transactions seem to have taken place at a large range of littoral farms around the Trondheimsfjorden, and not, as could be expected, only in the most important central farms or a small number of major trading places.