General information about the course and examination

  Viking and Medieval Scandinavian History

Welcome to the course HI1430 Viking and Medieval Scandinavian History!

This course offers a broad survey of the political, social, and cultural history of Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia, 700-1500. It explores the Vikings—who they were, how they lived and made a living, what they believed in, how they sought to organize their society, what regions they explored, whom they loved, fought with, and befriended. We study macro developments such as religious change, Christianization, and the expansion of state or royal power as well as everyday life, including beliefs and rituals, relations between women and men, violence, and emotions. Developments in Viking society is examined and analyzed against the backdrop of Scandinavia successively becoming integrated into Europe. In the course of the semester, students gain a hands-on experience with material objects such as archeological finds and runic stones as well as Old Norse sagas, miracle stories, and chivalric literature that make it possible to reconstruct this critical and fascinating period in Scandinavian history. Moreover, we explore contemporary images and the legacy of Vikings in popular culture.

Course information

The first class is on 31 January 2024, 10:00-12:00 in room J310 at Humanisten (Renströmsgatan 6, 412 55 Göteborg)

Wojtek Jezierski is the responsible for this course and your main instructor. In case you have any questions please contact him at wojtek.jezierski@gu.se

Course plan/Syllabus.

Course schedule

The course consists of 7 obligatory seminars and 5 elective lectures (incl. an excursion to the Viking exhibition at the City Museum and a one-day trip on coach across Western Sweden).

Course literature

Course literature.

Basic handbooks

• Stefan Brink, Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (Abingdon 2008)
• Neil Price, Ben Raffield, The Vikings (Abingdon 2023)
• Kirsi Salonen, Kurt Villads Jensen, Scandinavia in the Middle Ages 900-1550: Between Two Oceans (Abingdon 2023)

These books are available as e-books from Gothenburg University Library. Additional texts (articles, chapters, and source texts) are listed under each seminar. They are all available (unless specified otherwise) through the services of the University of Gothenburg library (https://www.ub.gu.se/en) or uploaded directly on CANVAS.

Examination forms

Your work in the course is evaluated in three main forms which impact the final grade in the following manner:

• Seminar participation (worth 20% of the final grade)
• Two short in-class exams (worth 2 x 15%)
• Final home essay (worth 50%)

During the seminars you will be divided into smaller discussion groups. One person in each group will be asked to lead and moderate the discussion and one will be asked to prepare a protocol the group’s discussion and upload it on Canvas by the end of the class (there’s a discussion module under each seminar in which you can paste in your notes). Please remember to write down everyone’s names in the protocol. Please keep in mind that both the moderator and the person taking care of the protocol should be given ample opportunity to contribute to the discussion. After the group discussion we will discuss the question on the class forum.

The two short in-class exams (15mins each) during the term will consist of simple questions like definitions of terms, providing dates, who-is-who’s, explanation of phenomena etc.

The final home essay is an individual examination and as such should reflect your own work and effort. As such, it should be written in your own words avoiding long direct quotations from literature and supported with footnotes and references to literature. Use of AI generated text is strictly forbidden. Reference to works on the reading list require footnotes (or in-text citations), while direct quotations must be marked by quotation marks and footnotes (or in-text citations). References in the footnotes must include the page/pages/page-range of the work cited (see the reference style guide). You are free to refer to literature that is not included on the course, but the evaluation of your answer (i.e. your mark) depends primarily on your usage of the required reading.

Each essay is worth 5 marks, for a total of 10 marks for the exam.  In order to achieve a pass, it is essential that the applicable themes are thoroughly explained in a well-structured answer in which you demonstrate an understanding of the question.  A simple compilation of facts is not acceptable.  It is also important to reflect upon the literature and its interpretations of the relevant themes.