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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 145: Borders and Borderlands in Medieval Scandinavia

Monday 6 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Projekt (MSCA), 'GENTES', Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Organiser:Paul Gazzoli, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Moderator/Chair:Caitlin Ellis, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Paper 145-aFrom 'Wilde Moras' to the 'Zona Mediterranea': Norwegian Borders and Border Regions in the Geographical Accounts of Viking and Medieval Scandinavians
(Language: English)
Benjamin Allport, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 145-bVisionaries without Borders: The 'Sámi Saint' Margareta and Margareta I
(Language: English)
Cordelia Hess, Institutionen för historiska studier, Göteborgs Universitet
Index terms: Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life, Women's Studies
Paper 145-cDenmark and Norway, Danes and Norwegians before c. 1000: Borders and Identities
(Language: English)
Paul Gazzoli, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Abstract

Together these papers deal with aspects of borders, borderlands, and identities in Scandinavia. The first paper will track the development of Norse perceptions of the ethnic, economic, and political boundaries of Northwestern Scandinavia from Ohthere's Voyage to the 12th-century Historia Norwegie and beyond. The second one will question the nature of borders in what is now southwestern Sweden, and ask to what extent these can be defined. The third will look at the complicated relationship between Denmark and Norway and the associated issues with defining territories and identities before c. 1000.