Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sami, the indigenous population of northernmost Europe. Discussing crucial issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding, the book departs from the common trope whereby native encounters with other cultures, state societies, and "modernity," are depicted mainly in negative terms. Far from always victimizing "the other," the interaction with outside societies played a crucial role in generating and maintaining a...

In Kind Neighbours Tom Turpie explores devotion to Scottish saints and their shrines in the later middle ages. He provides fresh insight into the role played by these saints in the legal and historical arguments for Scottish independence, and the process by which first Andrew, and later Ninian, were embraced as patron saints of the Scots. Kind Neighbours also explains the appeal of the most popular Scottish saints of the period and explores the relationship between regional shrines and the Scottish monarchy. Rejecting traditional interpretations based around church-led patriotism or...

The settlement of the Hebrides is usually considered in terms of the state formation agenda. Yet the area was subject to successive attempts at plantation, largely overlooked in historical narrative. Aonghas MacCoinnich's study, Plantation and Civility, explores these plantations against the background of a Lowland-Highland cultural divide and competition over resources. The Macleod of Lewis clan, 'uncivil', Gaelic Highlanders, were dispossessed by the Lowland, 'civil, ' Fife Adventurers, 1598-1609. Despite the collapse of this Lowland Plantation, however, the recourse to the Mackenzie...

In The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland, Erika Sigurdson provides a history of the fourteenth-century Icelandic Church with a focus on the the social status of elite clerics following the introduction of benefices to Iceland. In this period, the elite clergy developed a shared identity based in part on universal clerical values, but also on a shared sense of interdependence, personal networks and connections within the framework of the Church. The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland examines the development of this social group through an analysis of bishops' sagas, annals,...

In Visual Cultures of Death in Central Europe, Aleksandra Koutny-Jones explores the emergence of a remarkable cultural preoccupation with death in Poland-Lithuania (1569-1795). Examining why such interests resonated so strongly in the Baroque art of this Commonwealth, she argues that the printing revolution, the impact of the Counter-Reformation, and multiple afflictions suffered by Poland-Lithuania all contributed to a deep cultural concern with mortality. Introducing readers to a range of art, architecture and material culture, this study considers various visual evocations of death...

In Vox regis: Royal Communication in High Medieval Norway, David Bregaint examines how the Norwegian monarchy gradually managed to infiltrate Norwegian society through the development of a communicative system during the High Middle Ages, from c. 1150 to c. 1300. Drawing on sagas, didactic literature, charters, and laws, the book demonstrates how the Norwegian kings increasingly played a key -role in the promotion of royal ideology in society through rituals and the written word. In particular, the book stresses the interaction between secular and clerical culture, the role of the...

In Identity Formation and Diversity in the Early Medieval Baltic and Beyond, the Viking World in the East is made more heterogeneous. Baltic Finnic groups, Balts and Sami are integrated into the history dominated by Scandinavians and Slavs. Interaction in the region between Eastern Middle Sweden, Finland, Estonia and North Western Russia is set against varied cultural expressions of identities. Ten scholars approach the topic from different angles, with case studies on the roots of diversity, burials with horses, Staraya Ladoga as a nodal point of long-distance routes, Rus warrior...

In Tales of the Iron Bloomery Bernt Rundberget examines the ironmaking in southern Hedmark in Norway in the period AD 700-1300. Excavations show that this method is distinctive and geographically limited; this is expressed by the technology, organization, development and large-scale production. The ironmaking practice had its origins in increasing demands for iron, due to growth in urbanization, church power, kingship and mercantile networks. Rundberget's main hypothesis is that iron became the economic basis for political developments, from chiefdom to kingdom. Iron extraction...

In Conquest and the Law in Swedish Livonia (ca. 1630-1710), Heikki Pihlajamaki offers an exciting account of the law and judiciary in seventeenth-century Livonia. Immediately after Sweden conquered the province in the 1620s, a reorganization of the Livonian judiciary began. Its legal order became largely modelled after Swedish law, which differed in important ways from its Livonian counterpart. While Livonian legal tradition was firmly anchored in the European ius commune, the conquerors law was, by nature, not founded in legal learning. The volume convincingly demonstrates how...

Sturla oroarson is one of only a handful of thirteenth-century Icelandic historians to be known by name, and he is certainly one of the most significant. A number of works may be traced directly to his literary-cultural circle, notably Landnamabok (The Book of Settlements), Islendinga saga (The Saga of Icelanders) and Hakonar saga Hakonarsonar (The Saga of King Hakon). Moreover, it is thought that Sturla was involved in the production of the legal text known as Jarnsioa, as well as annals and, possibly, some of the Islendingasogur (Sagas of Icelanders). In...