The Viking: Ideal and Reality

The Viking Age is the most famous period in Scandinavian prehistory and references to it abound in popular culture. The course gives access to ideas and results in the most ambitious research project about Vikings ever launched in Sweden - the Viking Phenomenon. With a varied focus on issues such as identity, mobility, religion, violence, slavery and gender, and with the use of all available sources, the Viking-Age is peopled with individuals both familiar and disconcertingly different. A historiographical perspective is also used to dissect the Viking image, that has often been shaped to serve a variety of purposes through a mixing of reality and idealised reconstruction. The participant's knowledge and understanding of the Viking period enables a comparison between current research and its reflections in popular culture.