Course Syllabus

World of Vikings: Facts, Fiction, and Fantasy

 

Semester & Location:	Summer 2025, Session 2, DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Study Tours:	Iceland
Major Disciplines:	History, Literature
Faculty Member:	Lena Norrman (current students please use the Canvas Inbox)
Time & Place:	1:00-4:00, room: E-510 Tuesday, June 17, 12-3 pm, E-510

 

Course Description

This is a course on the world of the Vikings – past and present. We study the history, religion, and worldview of pre-Christian Scandinavians as reflected in primary medieval texts and poems from the Viking Age (ca 750-1100). The course offers insights into the Viking Age in Scandinavia, both by reading original sources and by examining modern representations and pop-cultural echoes of the Viking world in the fiction and fantasy of today.

We will examine the origins of the Viking world, its society and culture along with its religion and mythology. We will look at the reasons for Viking expansion and settlement abroad – especially the settlement of Iceland. We will examine the Icelandic sagas in preparation for our study tour.

Finally, we will examine how Vikings and Viking lore are echoed in popular culture of fiction and fantasy of today. In addition to lectures and discussions, class time will include the viewing of films about or influenced by the Vikings.

 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students should have knowledge and understanding of:

• sources to the Viking Age and how scholars in different disciplines use these
• the social, political, and cultural world of the Norsemen in the Viking Age
• Viking Age mythology and religion, and conversion to Christianity
• the Icelandic sagas and Viking literature
• the influence of the Viking Age on public history, in contemporary Icelandic consciousness, and in contemporary popular culture

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• apply historical source criticism
• describe the form and function of medieval Icelandic literature
• use literary analysis and theory in interpreting Icelandic sagas
• critically reflect on the legacy of the Vikings in present-day society and popular culture

Faculty

Lena Norrman

Lena E. Norrman Ph.D. in Older Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 2006. Taught Scandinavian languages, history, and literature at Harvard University, Brown University, and University of Minnesota. Academic Staff at University of Minnesota since 2005. Visiting Faculty at Harvard University, Spring 2009. Faculty representative for UofM´s Intensive Summer Course in Modern Icelandic, In Minneapolis and Reykjavík, 2008-2015: Publications: Viking Women: The Narrative Voice in Woven Tapestires, Cambria Press, 2008, and book chapters, articles, and book reviews.

 

Readings

Textbooks

• Snorri Sturlusson, The Prose Edda, translated by Jean I. Young (U of California P, 1954).
• The Poetic Edda, Translated by Carolyn Larrington
• The Vinland Sagas
• Winroth, Anders, The Age of the Vikings. 

Articles and excerpts

• Blanck, Dag, "The Transnational Viking: The Role of the Viking in Sweden, the United States, and Swedish America," Journal of Transnational American Studies 7:1 (2016): 1–19.
• Brown, Harry, "Plastic Pagans: Viking Human Sacrifice in Film and Television", Studies in Medievalism 23 (2014): 107-122.
• Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte & Anna Kjellström, "The urban woman: on the role and identity of women in Birka," in Kvinner i vikingtid, edited by N. L. Coleman & N. Løkka, pp. 187–208 (Scandinavian Academic P, 2014).
• Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte et al. "A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 164:4 (2017): 853–860.
• Höfig, Verena, "Vinland and White Nationalism," in From Iceland to the Americas: Vinland and Historical Imagination, ed. Tim W. Machan and Jón Karl Helgason (Manchester UP, 2019), pp. 77-100.
• Jesch, Judith, The Viking Diaspora (Routledge, 2015). [Excerpt]
• Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, "Gender", in The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, edited by Ármann Jakobsson and Sverrir Jakobsson (Routledge, 2017).
• Kim, Dorothy, “White Supremacists Have Weaponized an Imaginary Viking Past”, TIME April 12 2019.
• Raninen, Sami, "Queer Vikings? Transgression of gender and same-sex encounters in Late Iron Age and early medieval Scandinavia",  SQS – Suomen Queer-Tutkimuksen Seuran Lehti 3, no. 2 (2008), 20–29.

Field Studies

There will be field study visits to sites close by - like the world's largest Viking exhibit at the Swedish History Museum (Historiska museet), the Viking Museum (Vikingaliv) and the Museum of Wrecks (Vrak) on Djurgården, Stockholm's museum island – and farther afield – including an all-day trip to the late Viking-Age, Christian royal town of Sigtuna.

Approach to Teaching

I want to transmit and stimulate an enthusiastic approach to the history, literature, and culture of the Viking Age from a wide and multidisciplinary perspective, and above all curiosity and a thirst for learning. I will not expect students to have prior knowledge of the subject at hand. However, I do anticipate students’ active engagement with the material in classroom discussions, group discussions, debates, and presentations. We will tackle the readings and the sources together in a collective and interactive learning experience, advancing our knowledge of the Viking Age.

Expectations of the Students

Students are expected to read the materials for each class and actively participate in discussions. Students should come prepared to class with questions and points for discussion. When posing questions or participating in discussions, students should strive to refer to the readings to support the points they are making, and be respectful of fellow students. Engaged participation will be rewarded, as it represents a substantial portion of the grading; add to this presentations undertaken in class, which are essential assignments.

Academic Honor Code

All members of the academic community are expected to behave with respect toward each other and abide by the highest standards of intellectual honesty and integrity in all academic work. As a student at DIS, you pledge to:

• Do your own work at all times, without using unauthorized material or resources
• Refrain from allowing others (including Chat GPT or other AI) to write any part of our papers or assessments unless explicitly authorized by your faculty/syllabi
• Not submit or present words or ideas that are fabricated
• Credit all work or ideas from others using standard forms of citation
• Not share details about an assessment (tests, exams etc.) with others who have not yet taken the assessment
• Not submit duplicate work, even if it’s your own work
• Not violate the intention or spirit of the DIS Academic Honor Code in any way
• Clarify any questions with faculty in advance as it is our own responsibility to understand what constitute academic honesty

Evaluation

In order to receive a passing grade, you must complete all the assignments.

“Engagement” (worth 25% of your grade) is your responsibility, so it is up to you what grade you receive in this area. Consider how often you discuss, comment or ask questions in class; how many absences you have during the course, how often you complete all the readings for class; how often you check your phone or Facebook or other non-class related media during a single class meeting. The use of laptops in class will be allowed, provided they are used for taking notes during lectures or presentations, or for essential coursework during group assignment or presentation preparation.

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Engagement (classroom and study tour participation)	25%
Presentations: Norse mythology + Icelandic sagas	40%
Final paper (research paper or debate article)	35%

Description of Assignments

Presentations

You will make two graded presentations in the course (worth 20% each for a total of 40% of your grade), one of these individually and the other as part of a small group. More details will be provided in class.

Final research paper

For the final paper (worth 35% of your grade), you may choose to do one of the following,

• An academic essay or research paper on an Icelandic saga, using a theoretical approach or perspective of your choice.
• An academic research paper on a theme of your choice.
• A debate article, discussing the uses and abuses of the Vikings in contemporary society (popular culture and/or public history).
• A museum exhibition review and reflection.

A wide range of topics are possible for the paper, as long as it is related to Viking Age studies. They can be associated with history, literature, or the history of religion. More details to be found under the "Assignments" page.

You are welcome to discuss possible topics with your instructor at any point during the course.

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

 

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