Time and Location
M, T, W, R, F Period 3 (11:00 to 12:15)
Room: TBA
Description
“In the year of our Lord 845, the vast army of Northmen breached the frontiers of the Christians. This was something that we never heard or read of happening before.” This is how a Frankish monk from the monastery of St. Germain-des-Près near Paris described one of the first attacks of those whom we now call Vikings. Ever since that attack, the Vikings have fascinated European and American audiences of many persuasions. Visions of the Vikings as racial forebears and role models helped glorify Nazi territorial demands and the construction of the “Aryan” culture. Scandinavian immigrants of Wisconsin and Minnesota identified with the Viking farmers mentioned in old sagas as having settled in Vinland. To many, Leif Eriksson, not Cristopher Columbus, is the true hero in the saga of the New World. As plunderers, hooligans, but also mercenaries and soldiers of fortune, the Vikings populate the American imagination with dragon ships and horned helmets, from a Minnesota football team to Hoggetown’s medieval fair. But who were the Vikings? What made them so difficult to represent by the traditional means of Western historiography and so easy to manipulate in contemporary culture? What were the historical conditions in which this name, Vikings, was first used and for what purpose? How was Viking ethnicity formed and under what circumstances did the Vikings come into being? Above all, this course aims to provide answers to some of these questions. We will explore social and political issues of Scandinavian medieval history and examine various aspects of daily life and Church organization. Following a chronological order, we will look, each week, at the questions and problems raised by the study of this region, and at some of the primary sources from which historians draw their analysis.
Textbooks
- Birgit and Peter Sawyer, Medieval Scandinavia. From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993 [hereafter Sawyer]; the readings for each class meeting below are also available in pdf format on Canvas
- Russel Andrew McDonald and Angus A. Sommervillle, The Viking Age. A Reader. 2nd edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014 [hereafter McDonald]; available in pdf format on Canvas
- The Viking World. Ed. by Stefan Brink. London/New York: Routledge, 2008 [hereafter Brink]; available in pdf format on Canvas
- (optional) Medieval Scandinavia. An Encyclopedia. Ed. by Phillip Pulsiano. New York: Garland, 1993.
Assignments and grading policies
Since this is an online course, you are responsible for watching all lectures and reading the required texts. The basis for evaluation of performance will be a reading journal and a research paper.
Below is a detailed description of these assignments and the corresponding percentages of your final grade. You are otherwise encouraged to keep in touch with me by e-mail, if you have any questions: I check my mailbox regularly, and promise to answer quickly.
Reading journal. A quick glimpse at the list of weekly topics (see below) will no doubt convince you that this is a course with serious readings. You will be expected to digest a substantial amount of information in a fairly short period of time. The best way to do this is to keep a journal. The day before every class meeting, you will post an e-mail message on my address (on top of this syllabus), in which you will discuss briefly the readings for the coming meeting, ask questions and/or make comments, raise issues that need clarification, etc. All e-mails should arrive at least 15 hours before class meetings. Be sure to keep your postings to a reasonable length (175 to 250 words long). I do not want you to spend too much time on them, but I expect you to give an articulate presentation of your thoughts. Needless to say, I also expect you to check on correct grammar and spelling before clicking on “Send.” Because the journal is designed to demonstrate your efforts towards an initial understanding of the readings, I must have in time one report for each class meeting, every day. There are only 26 class meetings with required readings (textbook readings are indicated in brackets, followed by online readings, if any, in the weekly topic list below), so journal entries for these days represent 70 percent of your final grade, 2.69 percent for each entry. You can make up a reading report only in extraordinary circumstances such as absence due to sickness, observance of a religious holiday, performance of a military duty, or any other conflict (e.g., jury duty), about which you know in advance of the scheduled assignment. In such cases, you are required to notify me of the conflict before the assignment is due, and, if possible, at the start of the term. Be aware that missed reports may result in a substantially lower grade. For further information, consult the attendance policies of the University of Florida.
In-class assignments. The remaining 30 percent of your final grade will be based on five short assignments “in class.” All five will consist of multiple-choice, matching, short-essay questions, or a combination thereof. Besides material covered in class lectures, these in-class assignments will focus primarily on primary source readings from your McDonald book. A careful study of these texts is necessary for a good performance at the test. Because in-class assignments are announced, I do not intend to grant any make-ups, except for emergencies (e.g., illness), in which case I may ask for official justification.
Grades. The following scale will be used in determining your final grade.
| Points | Grade |
| 97-100 | A |
| 93-96 | A- |
| 88-92 | B+ |
| 81-87 | B |
| 75-80 | B- |
| 68-74 | C+ |
| 61-67 | C |
| 55-60 | C- |
| 48-54 | D+ |
| 41-47 | D |
| 35-40 | D- |
| under 30 | E |
Weekly Topics
Click here to view the weekly topics for this course.