- Department: History
- Module co-ordinator: Dr. Megan Henvey
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2021-22
In 866, a ‘Great Heathen Army’ of Scandinavian vikings attacked the city of York, armed for conquest. Within a few years, York had become the capital of a viking kingdom that would last for nearly a century, at the centre of a network of courts and family relationships stretching across northern Europe and beyond. The men, women, and children in that viking world transformed early medieval culture, language, politics, and society. Yet, when we read accounts written by their enemies and victims, viking armies can often seem like anonymous hordes. This module looks for the faces behind the (hornless!) helmets and the voices that have rarely left us written testimony. What motivated Scandinavians to leave their homelands and journey somewhere new? Who fought and travelled with viking armies? What was it like to marry, have children, and grow old in a Viking-Age colony?
This module introduces eight vikings as individuals: each week, we’ll meet one man or woman from the Viking Age and attempt to reconstruct their experiences, identities, and actions. We’ll ask what it meant to be male or female in the viking world, and what roles men and women played in the conflicts, conquests, and exploration that defined this period.
Our rich primary sources include contemporary historical texts and later Icelandic sagas, while archaeological evidence of bones and burials allows us to include people who left no written trace. Accompanying our Viking-Age individuals on their travels, we’ll sail from Scandinavia to North America and back to the streets of York itself. By the time we return, we’ll have addressed some of the major historical debates about the Viking Age and developed a deeper understanding of how personal relationships created a newly connected world.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2021-22 |
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 nine weeks, plus an overview and revision session in Week 2 of Summer Term. 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:
Spring Term
1. No teaching
2. Introductory session: Who was a viking?
3. Looking north: Ohthere’s journey
4. Warriors and sea-kings: Ívarr the Boneless
5. Viking warrior women? The case of the Birka burial
6. Viking warrior to Christian duke: Rollo becomes Robert
7. Meet the ancestors: Icelandic memory-keepers
8. ‘Amazons in Vinland’: Freydís and Guðriðr
9. Social roles in hybrid societies: a Scandinavian woman from Coppergate, York
10. Regardless of sex? Men and women in the Viking Age
Summer Term
2. Overview and revision
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) 24-Hour Open Exam |
8 hours | 100 |
None
Formative work:
During the Spring Term students will prepare a presentation in pairs or small groups. Tutors will determine the formative work for the course: all groups will present either on a primary source or on an assigned historiographical question. Formative work will be completed in one or more sessions at the tutor’s discretion.
Summative assessment:
An open exam in the Common Assessment Period, comprising one essay question chosen from five options
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) 24-Hour Open Exam |
8 hours | 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. Students will have a 15 minute one-to-one tutorial to discuss the formative assessment and prepare for the summative assessment. 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 on 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:
Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World (London: Bloomsbury, 2020)
Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014