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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 1249: New Approaches to Viking-Age Identities

Wednesday 3 July 2019, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action GENTES
Organiser:Paul Gazzoli, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Moderator/Chair:Paul Gazzoli, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Paper 1249-aRegional Identity Dynamics between Coast and Interior in Viking Age Norway
(Language: English)
Benjamin Allport, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 1249-b'Greater Nordalbingia?': Danish and Other Identities North of the Elbe in the 9th-10th Centuries
(Language: English)
Paul Gazzoli, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 1249-cShifting Identities in a Medieval Contact Zone: From Corcu Réte to Innse Gall
(Language: English)
Russell Ó Ríagáin, Division of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Abstract

The first paper looks at the difference between the coastal and interior communities in Viking Age Norway and considers the power dynamics which may have shaped them. The second looks at Nordalbingia as a 'melting-pot' of Danish, Frisian, Saxon and Slavic identities and how this affected the formation of Danish political power in the 9th-10th centuries. The final one explores the material, textual and toponymic evidence for the forming and reforming of the complex series of political and social identities in western Scotland AD500-1300; approaching the problem from both an emic and etic perspective, it will attempt to untangle the various process behind the shifts and what elements of society were involved in each instance.