Course Syllabus

Scandinavia in the Middle Ages: from Viking Warriors to Christian Knights

Semester & Location:	Fall 2024 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Major Discipline:	History
Related Discipline:	Literature
Faculty Member:	Kim Bergqvist (current students please use the Canvas Inbox)
Time & Place:	Monday & Thursday 11:40-13:00 Classroom: 1D-509

 

Course Description

This course focuses on the development of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as kingdoms in the Middle Ages, both in terms of internal relations and contact, conflict, and exchanges with continental Europe and the wider world. We examine state building and law-making, Christianization and church organization, feuds, rebellions, and warfare, the Baltic crusades and forced conversion of pagans, literary and cultural developments, as well as migration and border-crossing. The aim of the course is to consider these phenomena in the intersection between cultural adaptation and domestic creativity; to what extent does Scandinavia adapt to wider European trends, and to what extent are they independently formed?

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of the course, students are expected to have acquired:

Knowledge and understanding of

• Political, social, and legal developments within the Scandinavian kingdoms in the Middle Ages
• Religious dimensions of the transformation of Scandinavian societies during the medieval period
• Europeanization and cultural change
• Literary developments in medieval Scandinavia, in Latin as well as the Nordic vernaculars

Skills in

• Medieval historical research
• Historiography
• Source criticism
• Historical analysis of literary texts
• Comparative history

Faculty

Kim Bergqvist PhD Candidate in History, Department of History/Centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm University. MA (2010) and BA (2008) Stockholm University, both with a major in History, minors in Comparative Literature and Spanish. Visiting Scholar to Columbia University (2016), Cornell University (2014) and the University of Navarra, Spain (2012–13). Taught medieval history at Stockholm University 2012–2023. ​Publications have appeared in The Medieval Chronicle and Collegium Medievale. ​Areas of specialization: medieval Scandinavia; medieval Iberia; comparative history; medieval literature, genre and fiction; political culture; gender history; the history of emotions. With DIS since 2018.

Readings

Textbooks

• Bagge, Sverre (2014). Cross & scepter: the rise of the Scandinavian kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Christiansen, Eric (1997). The northern Crusades. 2nd, new ed. London, England: Penguin.

Sources in translation (Excerpts)

• Carlquist, Erik & Peter C. Hogg (trans.) (2012). The Chronicle of Duke Erik: A Verse Epic from Medieval Sweden. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
• Kalinke, Marianne (ed.) (2012). Norse Romance. Arthurian Archives. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer.
• Morris, Bridget (ed.) (2006). The revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden, Vol. 1: Liber Caelestis. Books 1-3. Trans. Denis Searby. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Rosenwein, Barbara H. (ed.) (2018). Reading the Middle Ages:  Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World. 3rd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 
• Saxo Grammaticus (1998). The history of the Danes: books I-IX. Ed. Hilda Ellis Davidson. Trans. Peter Fisher. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer.
• Snorri Sturluson (2015). Heimskringla, Vol. 3: Magnús Óláfsson to Magnús Erlingsson. Trans. Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.

Articles and excerpts

• Bagge, Sverre (2007). 'Aims and Means in the Inter-Nordic Conflicts 1302-1319.' Scandinavian Journal of History 32:1: 5–37.
• Bampi, Massimiliano (2008). 'Translating Courtly Literature and Ideology in Medieval Sweden: Flores och Banzeflor.' Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 4: 1–14.
• Earenfight, Theresa (2017). 'Medieval Queenship.' History Compass 2017;15:e12372. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12372
• Falkeid, Unn (2019). 'The Political Discourse of Birgitta of Sweden.' In A companion to Birgitta of Sweden and her legacy in the later Middle Ages, ed. Maria Husabø Oen, 80-102. Leiden: Brill.
• Ferrari, Fulvio (2008). 'Literature as a Performative Act: Erikskrönikan and the Making of a Nation.' In Lärdomber och skämptan. Medieval Swedish Literature Reconsidered, ed. Massimiliano Bampi & Fulvio Ferrari. Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftssällskapet.
• Ferrer, Marlen (2012). 'State Formation and Courtly Culture in the Scandinavian Kingdoms.' Scandinavian Journal of History 37, no. 1: 1–22.
• Georgieva Eriksen, Stefka. (ed.) (2016). Intellectual culture in medieval Scandinavia, c. 1100–1350. Turnhout: Brepols.
• Gustafsson, Harald (2006). 'A state that failed? On the Union of Kalmar, especially its dissolution.' Scandinavian Journal of History 31, no. 3-4: 205–220.
• Gustafsson, Harald (2017). 'The Forgotten Union: Scandinavian dynastic and territorial politics in the 14th century and the Norwegian-Swedish connection.' Scandinavian Journal of History 42, no. 5: 560–582.
• Helle, Knut (ed.) (2003). The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Vol. 1: Prehistory to 1520. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hermanson, Lars (2005). 'Friendship and Politics in Saxo's Gesta Danorum'. Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 83, no. 2: 261–284.
• Krag, Claus (2008). 'The Creation of Norway.' In The Viking World, ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price. London: Routledge.
• Latham, Andrew (2019). 'The Middle Ages and the Modern State'. Available at: https://www.medievalists.net/2019/08/the-middle-ages-and-the-modern-state/
• Layher, William (2010). Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Excerpts]
• Lindkvist, Thomas (2008). 'The Emergence of Sweden.' In The Viking World, ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price. London: Routledge.
• Line, Philip (2007). Kingship and state formation in Sweden, 1130-1290. Leiden: Brill. [Excerpts]
• Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier (2020). 'Legitimising Royal Power in Medieval Scandinavian Laws.' In Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050–1250, Vol. III: Legitimacy and Glory, edited by Wojtek Jezierski et al., 105–126. London: Routledge.
• Lodén, Sofia (2015). 'The Arthurian Legacy in Sweden.' Scandinavian Studies 87, no. 1: 62-73.
• Nordquist, Margaretha (2017). 'Swedes and Others - Identity Formation in Medieval Sweden.' Frühmittelalterliche Studien 51: 427-448.
• Oen, Maria H. (ed.) (2019). A companion to Birgitta of Sweden and her legacy in the later Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill. [Excerpts]
• Opsahl, Erik (2017). 'Norwegian Identity in the Late Middle Ages, Regnal or National?' Frühmittelalterliche Studien 51: 449-460.
• Orning, Hans Jacob (2008). Unpredictability and presence: Norwegian kingship in the High Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill. [Excerpts]
• Orning, Hans Jacob. (2018). 'Feud in the State: The Conflict between Haakon Haakonson and Skule Baardsson.' In Emotion, Violence, Vengeance and Law in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of William Ian Miller, edited by Kate Gilbert and Stephen D. White, 202–224. Leiden: Brill.
• Øyrehagen Sunde, Jørn (2014). Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, 'Above the Law: Norwegian Constitutionalism and the Code of 1274.' In Constitutionalism before 1789, ed. Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde (ed). Oslo: Pax.
• Sawyer, Birgit (2003). The 'civil wars' revisited. Historisk tidsskrift (Oslo) 82:1: 43-73.
• Skovgaard-Petersen, I. & Damsholt, N. (1994). 'Queenship in medieval Denmark.' In Medieval Queenship, ed. John Carmi Parsons, 25–42. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Vogt, Helle (2008). 'The King's Power to Legislate in Twelfth- and Thirteenth Century Denmark.' In Law and Power in the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the Fourth Carlsberg Academy Conference on Medieval Legal History 2007, ed. Per Andersen; Mia Münster-Swendsen; Helle Vogt. Copenhagen: DJØF.
• Zamore, Gustav (2020). 'A peripheral heretic? An early fourteenth-century heresy trial from Sweden.' Historical Research 93 (Issue 262): 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htaa023

 

Field studies

Wednesday September 18, 1pm–5pm: Field Study 1 - The Battle of Gotland 1361 (Swedish History Museum)

Wednesday October 23, 8.30am–12.30pm: Field Study 2 - Visit to the Manuscript Department, National Library of Sweden (Kungl. biblioteket)

Guest Lecturers

Robin Böckerman, PhD (National Library of Sweden)

Sofia Lodén, PhD (Stockholm University)

Thomas Neijman, PhD Candidate (Stockholm University)

Margaretha Nordquist, PhD (Stockholm University)

 

Approach to Teaching

This course utilizes a project-based approach to learning. Through real experience of conducting a small research project in medieval history, partly conducted in groups. Engaging in activities such as source identification, literature reviews, the formulation of research questions, and analysis of medieval source material, I want to stimulate curiosity and transmit an enthusiastic approach to the history, literature and culture of the Scandinavian Middle Ages. I do not expect nor require students to have prior knowledge of the subject at hand. Nonetheless, I do anticipate and expect students’ active engagement with the material in classroom discussions, group work, debates, presentations, and research. We will tackle the readings and the sources together in a collective and interactive learning experience, advancing our knowledge of the medieval period in Scandinavia, as an example of how doing premodern history, medieval studies, and comparative history can give us transferable skills.

Expectations

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.

Evaluation

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

“Engagement” 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. The use of laptops in class will be allowed, provided they are only used for taking notes during lectures or presentations.

Grading

Assignment	Percentage
Engagement/active participation	25%
Literature review	15%
Source introduction	15%
Group presentation	15%
Final research paper/poster	30%

Description of Assignments

All of the assignments (both those completed individually and those done in groups) feed into the final project. Research will partly be conducted in groups of 3-4 students, but the final outcome is expected to be presented individually by each students.

The proposed themes for research projects include: courtly culture and chivalric romance; crusades and holy war; legislation and changes in legal culture; proto-nationalism, nativism and national identity; women's agency, role, and position in medieval Scandinavian society.

Written assignments should have a title, be double-spaced, 12 font with approximately 350 words per page. Students may refer to the MLA Handbook or a writing manual from their home universities. Just be consistent when using citations, footnoting, etc.

Assignments include:

Literature review (historiographical essay)

You will write a literature review for your final project, in the project groups. The paper should be 5-6 pages in length (i.e. around 1700-2100 words in total).

Source introduction

You will write an introduction to your main source or set of primary sources, in the project groups.  The paper should be 3-4 pages in length (i.e. around 1000-1400 words in total).

Group presentations and student-led discussion

Students will, in their project groups, hold a presentation and lead a discussion in class about the broader theme of their research project. Duration is at least 20-30 minutes.

Peer feedback (ungraded)

You will offer comments (constructive feedback) on the literature review of one of your peers.

Final research paper or poster (Final project output)

For the final project output, you will either write an academic research paper (6-8 pages) or design a research poster. The paper will be around 2100-2800 words in total.

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 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org