ME3418 THE VIKINGS: INVASION, SETTLEMENT AND CONVERSION, C. 750-1050
   
Lecturer Dr Elina Screen
   
Credits 30
   
Availability Not available 2011-12
   
Class Hour  
   
Description This module deals with the Viking expansion in Europe between the 8th and 11th centuries.  The course has a broad geographical and thematic scope, and will entail the study of a diverse range of sources, including archaeology, runic inscriptions, contemporary written texts and later sagas.  Topics covered include: society in early mediaeval Scandinavia; causes of the Viking expansion; conflict, conquest and settlement in Anglo-Saxon England and on the continent; Scandinavians in the East and the origins of Russia; paganism and conversion; towns and trade; settlement and society in the Viking North Atlantic.
   
Basic Reading
  • E. Roesdahl, The Vikings (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1999)
  • R. I. Page, Chronicles of the Vikings  (London, 1996)
  • P. Sawyer (ed.), Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (Oxford and New York, 1998)
   

Course Structure

One two-hour meeting per week
   
Assessment

60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework - 3 pieces of work one of which may be an oral assessment
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Appreciation of the role of the Vikings in European history
  • Develop confidence in engaging with current scholarly debates
  • Develop skills in analysing a variety of types of primary source
 
   
Restrictions None