- Department: History
- Module co-ordinator: Dr. Pragya Vohra
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2019-20
Setting out in impressive ships on seas uncharted to lands unknown, the romance of the Vikings has long been part of historical and popular culture. Initially reviled as viscious raiders and plunderers; later rehabilitated as traders and settlers, the Vikings are a complex early medieval cultural group and left a lasting impact across the world, from Vínland in North America to Samarkand in the Middle East. In recent years, historians have begun to understand the Viking world as a diaspora: a world of shared origins, language and cultural elements.
In this module, we will sally forth with the Vikings, charting their expansion to the west and east of their Scandinavian homelands. We will explore their settlements and interactions with their host societies by looking at a variety of interdisciplinary (sometimes contradictory) evidence: material culture, runic inscriptions, coins and hoards, and even genetics. We will uncover the voices of the Vikings and their hosts through sources originally written in Latin, Old English and Arabic, as well as Old Norse. Through this, we will aim to understand the political, economic, social and cultural impact of the Vikings and how they shaped the period of history to which they gave their name. Finally, we will evaluate the concept of diaspora and how it is applied to the world of the Vikings.
Occurrence | Teaching cycle |
---|---|
A | Autumn Term 2019-20 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Teaching Programme:
Teaching will be in weekly 2-hour seminars taught over eight weeks. Each week students will do reading and preparation in order to be able to contribute to discussion.
The provisional outline for the module is as follows:
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework 2000 word essay |
N/A | 100 |
None
During the autumn term students will be tasked with finding and researching their own primary source or sources in pairs or small groups, on which they will give a group presentation for formative assessment in one or more sessions during weeks 4-7.
Students will then submit 2,000-word assessed essay for summative assessment in week 10.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework 2000 word essay |
N/A | 100 |
The formative assessment is a group presentation and verbal feedback will be provided by the tutor in class followed by a written summary to each student within 10 working days. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Should you wish to do any preliminary reading, you could look at the following:
Jesch, Judith. The Viking Diaspora. London: Routledge, 2015.
Sawyer, Peter. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings, 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Coronavirus (COVID-19): changes to courses
The 2020/21 academic year will start in September. We aim to deliver as much face-to-face teaching as we can, supported by high quality online alternatives where we must.
Find details of the measures we're planning to protect our community.