The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Issue 1

Front Cover
Knut Helle
Cambridge University Press, Sep 4, 2003 - History - 892 pages
This volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Scandinavian landscape and its resources
15
The Stone and Bronze Ages
43
The Iron Age
60
Languages and ethnic groups
94
The Viking expansion
105
Viking culture
121
Scandinavia enters Christian Europe
147
PART V
463
Literature
487
Art and architecture
521
Music
550
Population and settlement
559
The condition of the rural population
581
The towns
611
The nobility of the late Middle Ages
635

Early political organisation
160
PART III
235
Rural conditions
250
Urbanisation
312
Towards nationally organised systems of government
345
e Growing interScandinavian entanglement
411
Church and society
421
Church and clergy
653
SCANDINAVIAN UNIONS 13191520
677
InterScandinavian relations
710
Conclusion
771
primary sources general surveys and secondary works
801
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2003)

Knut Helle is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Bergen.