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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 849: Who's Naming Whom?: Ethnic Representation and Reality in Medieval Scandinavia

Tuesday 2 July 2019, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:'Creating the New North' Research Programme, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitet
Organiser:Sigrun Høgetveit Berg, Institutt for historie og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitetet
Moderator/Chair:Miriam Tveit, Fakultetet for Samfunnsvitenskap, Nord universitet
Paper 849-aEthnicity as a Factor in Norwegian and Swedish Expansion in Fennoscandia
(Language: English)
Stefan Figenschow, Institutt for historie og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitetet
Index terms: Crusades, Demography, Geography and Settlement Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 849-b'Their intolerable ungodliness will hardly seem credible…': The Norwegian Depiction of Their Pagan Neighbours
(Language: English)
Astrid Mellem Johnsen, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap og teologi, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitet
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Geography and Settlement Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Pagan Religions
Paper 849-cFrozen Norwegians and God-Fearing Sámi: Magic, Religion, and Ethnic Boundaries from a Sámi Point of View
(Language: English)
Siv Rasmussen, Institutt for historie og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges Arktiske Universitetet
Index terms: Folk Studies, Geography and Settlement Studies, Pagan Religions, Religious Life
Abstract

Even though the origins of the different ethnic groups of Medieval Fennoscandia can be traced back into prehistoric times, the shaping and the development of various ethnicities have been ongoing processes. This session will discuss how these processes were reflected in the medieval sources, by looking at how the different groups saw themselves in relation to others, and how ethnicity was a factor in the Scandinavian kingdoms' attitudes, and approaches towards these groups during their expansion to the north and the east. Religion and accusations of paganism and sorcery were also factors.