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THE VIKINGS
Professor Fleming

Stokes South 325

robin.fleming@bc.edu
Office Hours: M 11:00-112:00
W 1:15-2:15
0r by appointment

Topic 1: Europe before the Vikings

M 1/13 Introduction
W 1/15 Britain and Ireland on the Eve
F 1/17 Francia on the Eve
M 1/20 M artin Luther King Day
W 1/22 Discussion One: Who Do We Think These People Were?
NB: “Twenty-first century Vikings” paper due

Topic 2: The Norse at Home

F 1/24 The Norse before History: Contacts and Change
M 1/27 The Norse before History: Identity
W 1/29 Discussion Two: Who Did They Think They Were?

Topic 3: Early Raids: The Scourge of Europe or Tourists on the Rampage?

F 1/31 Boats
M 2/3 Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Vikings
W 2/5 How to Think with Treasure
F 2/7 Discussion Three: Victims, Victimizers and Motivations
M 2/10 Reading Runes
W 2/12 Reading Annals
F 2/14 Discussion Four: Critiquing Annals, Using Runestones

Topic 4: Britain Fights Back

M 2/17 Alfred the Great and the Kingdom of England
W 2/19 Ireland, Scotland and Wales Transformed
F 2/21 Discussion Five: Fighting Back/Settling In

Topic 5: Settling Down

M 2/24 Urban Communities in Britain and Ireland
NB: “Material Culture” paper due
W 2/26 Urban Communities in Scandinavia and the Baltic
F 2/28 Time off for good behavior
M 3/3 Spring Break
W 3/5 Spring Break
F 3/7 Spring Break
M 3/10 Norse Settlement: Language, Metalwork and Stone Monuments
W 3/12 Discussion Six: Material Culture & the Social History of Towns

Topic 6: Religion, Gender and Family

F 3/14 Piecing together Pagan Rituals and Beliefs
M 3/17 Piecing together a History of Conversion
W 3/19 Discussion Seven: Making Sense of Paganism and Conversion
F 3/21 Women, Power, and Powerlessness
M 3/24 Families, Households and Halls

Topic 7: The W ild, W ild W est (and East)

W 3/26 Environmental Disaster and the Remaking of Norse Society in Iceland
F 3/28 Midterm
M 3/31 Discussion Eight: Sagas and Social History
W 4/2 Discussion Nine: Life on the Edge
F 4/4 Greenland: Secrets of the Dead
M 4/7 Brave New World
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W 4/9 Discussion Ten: New Worlds

F 4/11 Mobility, Migration, Isotopes, and DNA

Topic 8: The End of the Vikings

M 4/14 Discussion Twelve: Making Sense of Dead Vikings (group presentations)
W 4/16 Discussion Twelve: Making Sense of Dead Vikings (group presentations)
F 4/18 Easter Break
M 4/21 Easter Break
W 4/23 The Swedes Go East
F 4/25 Scandinavian Kingship
M 4/28 Discussion Eleven: Vikings on Crusade
W 4/30 From Saga to Romance

R EQUIRED R EADING :

Purchase from BC Bookstore or On-line

fitzHugh (ed.), Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga
Kodansha, Viking Saga, vol. 1
Keynes and Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great
Njal’s Saga
Byock (ed.), Saga of the Volsungs
Other Required Readings:
On GoogleDrive
On WorldWideWeb
Class handouts

A Note about the Readings:

The readings are organized by discussion, and all reading must be done before the discussion.
Some weeks have more reading than others, but there is nothing to stop you from finishing
readings ahead, especially the textbook (fitzHugh), in the first couple of weeks of class. Some
reading assignments are quite lengthy and others are quite short, but many contain difficult
primary source material or archaeological reports that can be slow going. In short, the amount of
reading is not overwhelming as long as you keep up. It can, however, be deadly if you fall behind.
The lectures are thematic rather than chronological, and without reading the textbook, you will
not have the background to understand the lectures. Without reading the primary sources or the
interpretive secondary sources you cannot participate in class discussion, which is an important
component of your grade; and if you don’t do the assigned readings you will not be able to write
the three required papers.

D ISCUSSIONS AND R EADING A SSIGNMENTS :

A Note about the Discussions:

Every second or third class I will not lecture, but instead will listen to what you have to say
about readings assigned for discussion. Here you will learn how to interpret the primary texts
and secondary sources assigned in this class, see how they can be used, and ascertain different
sources’ strengths and weaknesses. You will also learn how to think about material culture, and
to use it to think about and critique the writings of twentieth- and twenty-first century
historians. Since these are skills you will need for all of your written assignments, you should
consider these discussions as important as the lectures. Attendance is required as is the assigned
reading.

Participation in Discussion:
You must attend and participate in our discussions. You are allowed a single, no-excuses-asked
absence from one discussion. If you have to miss more than one, you must make arrangements
ahead of time to make the discussion up in my office. (In other words, if you decide to blow
more than one discussion off at the last minute, tough!) For each discussion you miss (except
for the one no-excuses-asked one, and except for those you have made arrangements about in
advance), your discussion grade will fall by a whole grade. Coming to all of our discussion, but
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not contributing earns you a “C-” participation grade. If you are shy and have difficulty talking in
class, you need to see me in the first couple of weeks of class, and we will figure something out.

You are responsible for bringing copies of the readings to our discussions:
You need to bring a hard copy of whatever reading is assigned to class on the days we have
discussions (except for the fitzHugh volume). I strongly suggest that you print off everything I
have put on GoogleDrive early in the semester, punch binder holes in it, and put it in a notebook.
Since you will be using this material not only in discussion, but for your papers, you will want to
be able to take notes and mark up your readings.

Discussion One: Who do We Think These People Were?

Books:
North Atlantic Saga, 354–84
Kodansha, Viking Saga, vol. 1
Or, if this books is unavailable watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHG__1uQj5k

WorldWideWeb:
Read about “Viking Metal:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_metal
listen to some Viking metal:
go to YouTube and search “Viking Metal”
watch Christopher Lee, “The Blood of the Saxon Men” (worst musical video ever!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvKRbi2ovDY
watch “The Vikings” 1958 movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-B_Hrz5qXo
watch “The Vikings” season two sneak peek.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHVr_Eg8qA
listen to Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned podcast:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2009/apr/09/books-podcast-wells-
tower-short-story

Discussion Two : Who Did They Think They Were?

Books:
• North Atlantic Saga, 27–54, 72–85
GoogleDrive:
• Fredrik Svanberg, Decolonizing the Viking Age, vol. 1 (Stockholm, 2003), 66–98
• Lesley Abrams, “Diaspora and Identity in the Viking Age,” Early Medieval Europe, 20
(2012), 17–38

Discussion Three: Victims, Victimizers & Motivations

Books:
• North Atlantic Saga, 86–97
GoogleDrive:
• Andrew Curry, “The First Vikings,” Archaeology Magazine (2013)
• Allmäe et al, “The Salme I Ship Burial: An Osteological View of a Unique Burial in
Northern Europe,” Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica, 2 (2011), 109–124
• The Life of St Philobert
• Simon Coupland, “Boom and Bust at 9th-Century Dorestad” in A. Willemsen et al, eds.,
Dorestad in an International Framework (Turnhout, 2010), 95–103
Discussion Four: Critiquing Annals, Using Runestones
Books:
• North Atlantic Saga, 116–141
GoogleDrive:
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
In-class Handout
• Runic Inscriptions Handout

Discussion Five: Fighting Back/Settling In

Books:
• Asser, Life of King Alfred, 66–110, 123–172
GoogleDrive:
• Robin Fleming, “Norse and Natives,” in Britain After Rome (London, 2010), 213–40
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• Speed and Rogers, “A Burial of a Viking Woman at Aldwick-le-Street, South Yorkshire,”

Medieval Archaeology, 40 (2004), 51–90
Discussion Six: Material Culture and the Social History of Towns
Books:
GoogleDrive:
• “Wulfstan’s Voyage and his Description of Estlan,” 14–17
• Robin Fleming, “The New Towns,” in Britain After Rome (London, 2010), 241–68
• Steven P. Ashby, “A Study in Regionality: Hair Combs and Bone/Antler Craft in North-
East England c. AD 800–1100,” in David Petts and Sam Turner, eds., Early Medieval
Northumbria (Turnhout, 2011), 303–20
Assignments for 3/21: To be read for that day’s lecture
Class Handout:
• Rigsthula

Discussion Seven: Making Sense of Paganism and Conversion

Books:
• North Atlantic Saga, 55–71
• Saga of the Volsungs
GoogleDrive:
• J.E. Montgomery, “Ibn Fadlan’s and the Rusiyyah,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic
Studies, 3 (2000), 1–25
• Fedir Androshchuk, “Symbols of Faith or Symbols of Status? Christian Objects in
Tenth-Century Rus,” in Ildar H. Garipzanov, ed., Early Christianity on the Way from the
Varangians to the Greeks (Kiev, 2011), 70–89
Discussion Eight: Sagas and Social History
Books:
• Njal’s Saga

Discussion Nine: Life on the Edge

Books:
• North Atlantic Saga 164–187
E-book from O’Neill Library:
• Book of Settlements: Landnamabok, 1–27 (this book can be found at
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095735338;view=1up;seq=12
GoogleDrive:
• Gavin Lucas et al, “Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display at the Viking
Settlement of Hofsta∂ir, Iceland,” European Journal of Archaeology, 10 (2007), 7–30

Discussion Ten: New Worlds

Book:
• The North Atlantic Saga, 193–217, 225–256, 270–279, 304–317
GoogleDrive:
• Eric the Red’s Saga and Karlsefni’s Voyage to Vinland
• Jette Arnborg, “Norse Greenland: Reflections on Settlement and Depopulation,” in
Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, ed. J.H.
Barrett (Turnhout, 2003), 163–177
• Andrew Dugmore et al, “Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change,
Trade, and the Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands,
Arctic Anthropology, 44 (2007), 12–36
Discussion Eleven: Vikings on Crusade
GoogleDrive:
• Heimskringla: Saga of Sigurd the Crusader and his Brothers Eystein and Olaf

Discussion Twelve: Making Sense of Dead Vikings (Group Oral Presentations)

Group I: The Norse Abroad
• Paul Budd et al, “Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: a
Report from Britain,” Antiquity, 78 (2004), 127–41

• J. Montgomery et al, “Immigrants on the Isle of Lewis––Combining Traditional Funerary

and Modern Isotope Evidence to Investigate Social Differentiation, Migration and
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Dietary Change in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland,” in R. Gowland and C. Knüsel, eds.,
Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains (Oxford, 2006), 122–42
• J. Montgomery et al, “Sr Isotope Evidence for Population Movement within the
Hebridean Norse Community of NW Scotland,” Journal of the Geological Society, 160
(2003), 649–53
• Kelly J. Knudson et al, “Migration and Viking Dublin: Paleomobility and Paleodiet
through Isotopic Analyses,” Journal of Archaeological Science, 39 (2012), 308–20

Group II: Armies

• Paul Budd et al, “Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: a
Report from Britain,” Antiquity, 78 (2004), 127–41

• T. Douglas Price et al, “Who was in Harold Bluetooth’s Army? Strontium Isotope
Investigation of the Cemetery at the Viking Age Fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark,”
Antiquity, 85 (2011), 476–89
• A.M. Pollard et al, “Sprouting like Cockles Amongst the Wheat’: The St Brice’s Day
Massacre and the Isotopic Analysis of Human Bones from St John’s College, Oxford,”
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 31 (2012), 83–102
• Ridgeway burials: http://www.archeurope.com/index.php?page=decapitated-vikings

Group III: Individuals

• Paul Budd et al, “Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: a
Report from Britain,” Antiquity, 78 (2004), 127–41

• Per Holck, “The Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway: New Thoughts on the Skeletons from the
Grave Mound,” European Journal of Archaeology, 9 (2006), 185–210
• Per Holck, “The Skeleton from the Gokstad Ship: New Evaluation of an Old Find,”
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 42 (2009), 40–9
• P.L. Walker et al., “The Axed Man of Mosfell: Skeletal Evidence of a Viking Age
Homicide, the Icelandic Sagas, and Feud,” in Ann L. W. Stodder, et al, eds., The
Bioarchaeology of Individuals (Gainesville, 2012), 1–15
• Theya Molleson, “A Norse Age Boatman from Newark Bay,” Papers and Pictures in honor
of Daphne Home Lorimer,”
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/dhl/papers/tm/index.html

Group IV: Pagan and Christian Cemeteries

• Paul Budd et al, “Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: a
Report from Britain,” Antiquity, 78 (2004), 127–41

• T. Douglas Price et al, “Isotopic Investigations of Human Provenience at the Eleventh

Century Cemetery of Ndr. Grødbygård, Bornholm, Denmark,” Danish Journal of
Archaeology (2013), 1–20
• Andrezej Buko et al, “A Unique Medieval Cemetery from the 10th/11th Century with
Chamber-Like Graves from Bodzia (Central Poland),” Archäologisches
Korrespondenzblatt, 3 (2013), 423–40
• Elise Naumann et al, “Slaves as Burial Gifts in Viking Age Norway? Evidence from Stable
Isotope and Ancient DNA Analyses, Journal of Archaeological Science, 41 (2014), 533–
40

Group V: Iceland & Greenland

• Paul Budd et al, “Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: a
Report from Britain,” Antiquity, 78 (2004), 127–41

• P.L. Walker et al, “Bioarchaeolgical Evidence for the Health Status of an Early Icelandic
Population,” Paper presented at the 73rd meeting of the American Association of
Physical Anthropologists
• T. Douglas Price et al, “The First Settlers of Iceland: an Isotopic Approach to
Colonisation,” Antiquity, 80 (2006), 130–44
• Jette Arneborg et al, “Human Diet and Subsistence Patterns in Norse Greenland AD c.
980–AD c. 1450: Archaeological Interpretations,” Journal of the North Atlantic, 3
(2012), 119–33
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W RITTEN A SSIGNMENTS /P RESENTATIONS :

Twenty-First Century Vikings Paper: (length 2 pages)

You will write a concise, analytical thought piece on the ways in which popular culture ideas
about vikings might stand in the way of our attempts to think historically about the Norse in the
Viking Age. This paper is due on January 22.

The Material Culture Paper: (length 5–6 pages)

Write a paper using material culture as your main body of evidence. As evidence, you can use
any of the objects illustrated in The North Atlantic Saga and The Vikings in England along with
objects found on a list of websites that I will email you early in the semester. The topic of the
paper is material culture and assimilation. The question you will answer is: “What does the
evidence of material culture tell us about the assimilation of the Norse (once they moved
outside of Scandinavia) and their victims in Britain or Ireland? And in what ways does the use of
material culture, when thinking about assimilation, support or challenge the stories found in
early medieval texts?” You will need to append pictures of the objects you discuss in detail to
your papers (these are not included in the page count). This paper is due on February 24.

Isotope Group Presentation:

For “Discussion Twelve” (which will run for two classes) I will be dividing you into small groups,
and assigning each group four of the articles listed for that week, all of which analyze human
skeletal material. Your group will read your assigned the articles, figure out what the takeaways
are, and present a brief set of findings about your articles. We will then have a general
discussion about how this evidence might help us understand who the Norse were and how it
might further complicate our attempts to define them.

Final Project Option One: (length 10–12 pages)

You have all but finished writing a beefy, scholarly book entitled The Norse and the Viking Age.
In order to complete the manuscript, you must write an introduction which is a discussion of the
three most important questions of your subject, the problems involved in answering these
questions, the sources you have used to answer them, and these sources’ strengths and
weaknesses. The paper is due the day of the final.

Final Project Option Two:

Do a group project, which will involve a group presentation in front of all the other people who
have chosen this option. We will talk more about this in class, but if you chose this option
(which in my experience is more work than option one, but also much more fun) you need to be
part of a group (2-3 people), and make a public presentation on an important topic, which must
be approved by the professor by April 14th. The presentations will take place on the day of the
final.

T HE I N - CLASS M ID - TERM :
On the day of the mid-term you will be given a mix and match quiz of quotes from the readings
and a list of possible authors who may have written them. If you have kept up with the reading,
it will be a snap. If you haven’t, you will have a lot of studying to do.

G RADING :
Participation in discussion: 20%
“21st-Century Vikings” paper 10%
Material Culture paper 20%
In-class midterm 10%
Group Isotope project 10%
Final project 30%

S OME H ARD W ORDS AND W ARNINGS :

Do not mistake my affable demeanor as a sign that I am a pushover or the kind of person who is
willing to overlook lapses in honesty and civility.

C HEATING :
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You are responsible for knowing the University’s academic integrity policy. I will turn over A LL
CASES OF PLAGIARISM to the appropriate class dean, even instances found on shorter
assignments. Here is a statement of the standards we follow:
http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/polisci/integrity.html

E LECTRONIC D EVICES :
I do not allow laptops in my classroom (unless, of course, you have a doctor’s or Learning
Resource Center note). I also expect all phones to be turned off (setting them to vibrate is not
enough). The only time I really loose my temper (trust me, something best avoided), is when I
catch a student texting in class. What this says to me is “I have no respect for the people who
are sacrificing to pay my tuition, for the professors who are trying to teach me, and for my
fellow students who find this kind of #$^%$ distracting in class. So I’m going to give my full
attention to my beloved electronic device, and to hell with everyone else. Oh, and P.S., I think
everyone in class is stupid because they can’t tell that I am texting rather than learning.” If I
catch you playing with your phone, I will (noisily and publicly) kick you out of that day’s class.