IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 115: Scandinavia in Europe, I: An Imagined 'Other'?
Monday 3 July 2017, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | 'Creating the New North' Research Programme, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet |
|---|---|
| Organiser: | Lars Ivar Hansen, Institutt for historie og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitetet |
| Moderator/Chair: | Miriam Tveit, Fakultetet for Samfunnsvitenskap, Nord universitet |
| Paper 115-a | Another Look the Other Way: 'Viking' Ships on the Russian Rivers (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Economics - Trade, Geography and Settlement Studies, Technology |
| Paper 115-b | 'Scandinavia? Poor but honest - and King's Lynn is nicer': A Venetian View of the North from 1432 (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - Trade, Geography and Settlement Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies, Mentalities |
| Paper 115-c | Far Out to Unknown Lands: The Medieval Background to the Writing and Map Drawing of Olaus Magnus (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Maritime and Naval Studies, Mentalities |
| Abstract | Scandinavia could be perceived as quite 'other' than the rest of Europe. Descriptions of Norway and Sweden from Venetians shipwrecked in the Arctic in 1432 highlight material, social and cultural differences that led the Italians to present the whole of Scandinavia as a place outside their experience and understanding. An examination of the medieval conceptual premises underlying the description and cartography of the northern areas made by Bishop Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) reveals expectations of 'otherness'. The sources for communication between the Nordic countries and Byzantium show a variation beyond travel in 'Viking' ships on the eastern European rivers, and simultaneously may demonstrate the conceptual limitations of otherness as implying an-other. |