[01/14] Introduction. Who were the Vikings? Vikings in European history [Brink 4-7]; visit the exhibit “Vikings: Beyond the Legend”

[01/16] Myths about the Vikings [McDonald 473-480 and 495-498]; read “Eight Viking Myths Busted” and Brian McMahon’s “The Vikings: myths and misconceptions“

[01/21] Written sources and associated problems; archaeology and numismatics [Brink 350-367, 281-290, and 629-638; Sawyer 1-26]; for an example of Runic inscription, see the rune stone U 194 from Upplands Väsby (Sweden) and the Jelling rune stones (Denmark); browse the Life of Anskar, see a presentation of Snorri Sturluson’s Chronicle of the Kings of Norway; browse Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum; see the five Skuldelev ships and visit Lejre, with the hall of a Scandinavian chieftain

[01/23]  Landscape, resources, communications, and people  [Sawyer 27-48; Brink 57-66 and 274-280; McDonald 2-15]; see shaded relief maps of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland; see also pictures of a fjord and of the Hekla volcano in Iceland

[01/28] People

[01/30] Viking raids: why and how  [Sawyer 51-54; Brink 193-203; McDonald 204-210 and 224-239]; see Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, Charlemagne’s letters and capitularies and Agobard of Lyon on the division of the Empire; read a short biography of Alcuin; see also the on-line map and an example of  Carolingian script; see also three sources on Viking raids in late Carolingian Francia; see also a Carolingian coin (a penny of Charlemagne), the bridge at Pont de l’Arche, the ringfort at Camp de Péran, the two tortoise brooches, such as found at Pîtres;  see also maps of the 843 division of the Empire and of the Viking raids

 

[02/04] England and Ireland [Brink 341-349; McDonald 246-263]; see the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (on the first Viking raid on Wessex) and the Annals of Ulster, liasten to a podcast on the Orkneyinga saga, and the Old English inscription in the Codex Aureus mentioning earldorman Aelfred; visit Jarlshof, Balladoole, Repton, and Dublin; see a brief presentation of Alfred’s Jewel and a picture of the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnoise; see also on-line maps of the ninth- and tenth-century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and of ninth-century Ireland                                    

[02/04] In-class assignment #1. Iceland and Greenland [Brink 562-570; McDonald 306-307 and 311-321]; see a brief history and a map of the Norse settlement in Greenland; see a plan of the Brattahlid settlement and the house said to have been that of Erik the Red; see also a map of Iceland

[02/11] Viking ships and eastern trade [Brink 170-192; McDonald 152-153]; see an example of clinker construction and a depiction of a Viking priare on the Hejnum stone; see also the Skuldelev ships (nos. 2, 5, 3, and 1) and the Krampmacken replica of a Viking ship that travelled from the Baltic to the Black Sea

[02/18] Denmark under the Jelling dynasty [Sawyer 54-57; Brink 652-663; McDonald 425-429]; see the Jelling mounds and church; visit Trelleborg and Fyrkat; see a map and an aerial photograph of the Danevirke

[02/20] Danelaw [Brink 375-384; McDonald 246-252 and 429-431]; visit the Jorvik Viking Center in York; see presentations of the Cuerdale hoard, the Gosforth cross, and the Brompton hogbacks; see the Anglo-Saxon poem about the Battle of Maldon; see also an example of Aethelred’s pennies of the small cross type

[02/25] In-class assignment #2. British Isles [Brink 391-438; McDonald 267-268 and 452-459]; see the Braddan and Kirk Andreas crosses; read about the Viking-Age Isle of Man; visit Clonmacnoise with its monastic towers; read about Viking-Age Dublin, Wexford and Waterford, as well as about the Viking cemeteries excavated in Kilmainham and Islandbridge; see a biographical note for Olaf Cuarán, king of Dublin; visit the archaeological site at Dublin-Temple Bar; see examples of Ringerike and Urnes ornamental styles; see the Cross of Cong and the Clonmacnoise crozier

[02/27] Iceland, Greenland, America [Brink 571-617; McDonald 322-330]; see the Brattahlid settlement; visit L’Anse aux Meadows (see the smithy found on the site) and the Goddard site in Maine  that produced a coin of King Olaf Kyrre; see two pages of the Jonsbok manuscript of the Grágás

[03/04] Kievan Rus’ [Brink 496-542; McDonald 294-304]                                   

[03/06] Written sources and archaeology [Brink 11-22 and 49-56]; read Ibn Fadlan’s account of a Rus’ ship burial (Risalat); see the rune stone from the island of Berezan’ mentioning a félag

[03/11] Kings and royal retinues [Sawyer 86-89 and 92-94; McDonald 28-37, 157-158, and 434-444]; see one of the mounds  excavated at Borre (Norway) and some artifacts found within the great hall at Slöinge; see the great halls found at Borg (Lofoten Islands, Norway) and Lejre (Sjaelland, Denmark; see also a view of the reconstructed interior); read the Life of Anskar, ch. 26 on the power of the Svea kings                                     

[03/14] Paganism [Brink 235-273; McDonald 65-74 and 173-177]; see the Stora Hammars rune stone, with a depiction of a human sacrifice to Odin; see pictures of Hemlanden, the main cemetery of Birka, and of Lindholm Høje in Denmark

[03/25] Mythology [Brink 212-234 and 291-323; McDonald 44-65]; read Völuspá                                       

[03/27] Early attempts. Denmark and Iceland [Sawyer 57-58 and 100-108; Brink 621-628; McDonald 368-389 and 398-400]; see the cathedrals in Roskilde and Trondheim; see examples of stave churches from Hopperstad, Urnes, and Borgund; see another account of the conversion of Iceland in Njal’s Saga

[04/01] Rus’; see an icon of SS. Boris and Gleb and read the account of their passion

[04/03] In-class assignment #3. Native saints: St. Olav, St. Knud, St. Erik, and St. Birgitta (Bridget) [Sawyer 214-232; McDonald 403-404]; see the St. Olav frontal and visit the Stiklestad National Culture Center; visit the Uppsala Cathedral,  read St. Bridget’s Revelations to the Pope, and visit the Vadstena Abbey

[04/08] The Danish empire and the post-Viking Middle Ages [Sawyer 57-71; Brink 665-667]; see a portrait of Valdemar the Great on one of his coins and a Romantic version of the story about the Dannebrog at the battle at Lyndanis (1219); visit Tallinn, ca. 1300, the Kalmar castle, the medieval city of Abo (Turku), and the Vyborg (Viipuri) castle; read a short biography of Alexander Nevsky                                      

[04/10] Landowners and peasants; family and inheritance; law, kings and things [Sawyer 80-85, 89-92,  129-142 and 166-87; Brink 67-82; McDonald 18-28]; see the itinerary of the Eriksgata, ca. 1200; visit the Kronborg Castle; learn more about the Danish Folketing, the Norwegian Storting, and the Sameting in Sweden

[04/15] Church organization; trading centers and towns  [Sawyer 108-123 and 144-165; Brink 83-149]; see images of the Benedictine Selja Abbey and the Cistercian Hovedøya Abbey in ruins; visit the church of the Augustinian chapter in Vestervig and the Cistercian abbey at Alvastra 

Scandinavian women[

[04/17]  Before conversion [Sawyer 188-196; McDonald 96-104 and 111-120]; see the ship in which the Viking-age woman was buried in Oseberg (Norway)

[04/22] In-class assignment #4. After conversion; Valkyries and the myth of the “shield maiden” [Sawyer 197-213; McDonald 95-96 and 480-484]; watch Éowyn of Rohan fighting like a man and listen to a particularly good version of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries“; see the Hollywood version of Viking history in Eastern Europe and of Viking-Muslim cooperation and Goscinny and Uderzo‘s version of a Viking raid