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In Frontiers for Peace in the Medieval North. The Norwegian-Scottish Frontier c. 1260-1470, Ian Peter Grohse examines social and political interactions in Orkney, a Norwegian-held province with long and intimate ties to the Scottish mainland. Commonly portrayed as the epicentre of political tension between Norwegian and Scottish fronts, Orkney appears here as a medium for diplomacy between monarchies and as an avenue for interface and cooperation between neighbouring communities. Removed from the national heartlands of Scandinavia and Britain, Orcadians fostered a distinctly local identity that, although rooted in Norwegian law and civic organization, featured a unique cultural accent engendered through Scottish immigration. This study of Orcadian experiences encourages greater appreciation of the peaceful dimensions of pre-modern European frontiers.
This book examines the experiences and interconnections of the Reformations, principally in Denmark-Norway and Britain and Ireland (but with an eye to the broader Scandinavian landscape as well), and also discusses instances of similarities between the Reformations in both realms. The volume features a comprehensive introduction, and provides a broad survey of the beginnings and progress of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations in Northern Europe, while also highlighting themes of comparison that are common to all of the bloc under consideration, which will be of interest to Reformation scholars across this geographical region.
Pre-modern long-distance trade was fraught with risks which often created conflicts of interest. The ensuing disputes and the ways the actors involved dealt with them belong to the field of conflict management. How did victims of maritime conflicts claim compensation? How did individual actors and public institutions negotiate disputes which transcended jurisdictional boundaries? What strategies, arrangements and agreements could contribute to achieve the resolution of such conflicts, and to what effect? These and other questions have mainly been studied separately for the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions. Here, the two seascapes are connected, allowing for a comparative long-term perspective. The different contributions enhance our understanding in the complexity of various approaches to conflict management. Thierry Allain, Cátia Antunes, Eduardo Aznar Vallejo, Catarina Cotic Belloube, Kate Ekama, Tiago Viúla de Faria, Ana Belem Fernández Castro, Jessica Goldberg, Roberto J. González Zalacain, Ian Peter Grohse, Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm, Laurence Jean-Marie, Daphne Penna, Pierrick Pourchasse, Pierre Prétou, Ana María Rivera Medina, Carlo Taviani, and Dominique Valérian.
The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. The essays collected here continue the Journal's wide-ranging and eclectic tradition. Topics include literary evidence for linen armour; serial production in late medieval silks; the inventory of Isabella Bruce's bridal goods; the depiction of women textile workers in the frescoes of the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua, Italy; ideal female beauty in the Middle Ages and the means used to attain and assess it; and social status as evidenced by clothing and textiles in the Scottish royal treasurer's accounts of the mid-sixteenth century.
Nordic Inheritance Law through the Ages – Spaces of Action and Legal Strategies explores the significance of inheritance law from medieval times to the present through topical and in-depth studies that bring life to historical and contemporary inheritance practices. The contributions cover three themes: status of persons and options in the process of property devolution; wills, gift-giving and legal disputes as means to shape the working of the law; processes of inheritance legislation. The authors focus on instances where legal strategies of various actors particularly reveal inheritance law as a contested and yet constrained space of action, and somewhat surprisingly show similar solutions to family law issues dealt with in other Western European countries. Contributors are: Simone Abram, Gitte Meldgaard Abrahamsen, Per Andersen, Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir, John Asland, Knut Dørum, Thomas Eeg, Ian Peter Grohse, Marianne Holdgaard, Astrid Mellem Johnsen, Már Jónsson, Mia Korpiola, Gabriela Bjarne Larsson, Auður Magnúsdóttir, Bodil Selmer, Helle I. M. Sigh, and Miriam Tveit.
Medieval and Modern Civil Wars: A Comparative Perspective offers a comparison of the civil wars in Scandinavia in High Middle Ages with those fought in contemporary Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau.
In this first comprehensive study of women as economic actors in medieval Norway, Susann Anett Pedersen analyses the economic agency of unmarried heiresses, wives and widows c.1400-1550. Drawing on sources such as sales contracts and private letter correspondence, the book investigates elite women’s formal and informal roles in decision making processes and their ability to make independent economic choices. In particular, the book stresses the importance of looking beyond the legal regulation of women’s economic activities and rather analyses women’s own actions, in order to better grasp the complexity of their economic agency.
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.
Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050-1250, Volume II explores the structures and workings of social networks within the elites of medieval Scandinavia to reveal the intricate relationship between power and status. Section one of this volume categorizes basic types of personal bonds, both vertical and horizontal, while section two charts patterns of local, regional and transnational elite networks from wide-scope, longitudinal perspectives. Finally, the third section turns to case-studies of networks in action, analyzing strategies and transactions implied by uses of social resources in specific micro-political settings. A concluding chapter discusses how social power in the North compare...
Ever since the publication of Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum at the beginning of the thirteenth century, scholars and laymen have grappled with the complex and marvellous chronicle. As much specialized scholarship has been published in Danish, this companion breaks new ground by giving a comprehensive and up-to-date tour of the work for a global audience. Attention is given to the unity of Saxo’s massive chronicle, whether he is dealing with a legendary pagan past or events from his own time. Saxo’s world and views are explored in ways that shed new light on all of northern Europe. Contributors are Bjørn Bandlien, Karsten Friis-Jensen, Michael H. Gelting, Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm, Lars Hermanson, Lars Kjær, Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen, Annette Lassen, Anders Leegaard Knudsen, Lars Boje Mortensen, Mia Münster-Swendsen, Erik Niblaeus, Roland Scheel, Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, Kurt Villads Jensen, and Helle Vogt.