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For the first time, this volume presents a geographically and phenomenologically broad range of case studies on late medieval changes of rule, from dynastic succession to conquest by force. The focus will be on the border regions of Latin Europe, political and cultural contact zones with distinctive dynamics. By presenting examples from the Canaries to Moscow and from Sicily to Norway, late medieval Europe will be covered in all its diversity.
This volume presents a range of new perspectives on the Nordic region, as well as its myriad of influences on its surroundings. The fifteen chapters in this publication showcase some of the best research being conducted by emerging researchers in Britain on Nordic topics.
Volumes 1 and 2 in the SKALD series present the large and important body of skaldic poetry preserved in sagas about the kings of Norway and other Scandinavian rulers. Vol. 1 is dedicated mainly to court poetry in praise of rulers from the legendary Yngling kings to Olafr Haraldsson (St. Olav) and Knutr Sveinsson (Cnut the Great). Alongside formal commemoration of raids and battles there are dialogues with valkyries, lively travelogue, accounts of miracles, and freestanding stanzas capturing frustrated love and moments of humour. This volume also contains the General Introduction to the series.
The Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cosmological framework and towns were formed. This book examines a central backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia. With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of woodlands and alpine regions and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing standardization of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural areas and central markets. Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and e...
Coinciding with the diffusion of cubism and with the arrival of artists fleeing war to the Iberian Peninsula, such as Gleizes, Picabia, and the Delaunays, Spanish dance emerges as a model for abstract and decorative rhythm. Numerous artists used the dancers image to disarrange the figure, traveling from figuration to stylization or abstraction: among them, Picasso, Severini and Lipchitz. The same follows for the guitar, an element in numerous compositions, which is not foreign for its identification to the feminine body. Culturally Spanish subject matters, or castizo themes, were turned into a successful genre, between the advertising and tourist gaze, studies on folklore and reflections on identity. They were also years of fiestas and excesses, and flamenco made its appearance in many of these. Costumes and cross-dressing often acquire a Spanish character.
The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of ...
This volume presents twenty essays by leading scholars of Old Norse which bring into focus the nature of learned traditions - both oral and written - in medieval Scandinavia and the interpretation and re-interpretation of them over time. Theoretical frameworks for understanding Old Norse literature is the initial topic of the collection, which then moves on to present recent work on Old Norse myth and society; current perspectives on oral traditions in performance and text; and reflections on medieval ideas about language, both vernacular and Latin. The collection is rounded off by a section on prolonged traditions - the transformation of local and imported traditions into new literary forms...
Viking raids, and the subsequent Scandinavian settlements in the ninth and tenth centuries, had a major effect on many parts of Britain and Ireland. These impacts can best be seen in a wide variety of archaeological discoveries, primarily from distinctive pre-Christian burials, which contain weapons, tools, jewellery and metal, wood and bone artefacts. Written by an expert in the field of Viking and Norse archaeology, this book examines the distinctive archaeology of each phase, aspect or area of Norse impact in turn, with sufficient historical background to put the archaeological discoveries into context.