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The Viking Diaspora
The Viking Diaspora presents the early medieval migrations of people, language and culture from mainland Scandinavia to new homes in the British Isles, the North Atlantic, the Baltic and the East as a form of 'diaspora'. It discusses the ways in which migrants from Russia in the east to Greenland in the west were conscious of being connected not only to the people and traditions of their homelands, but also to other migrants of Scandinavian origin in many other locations.
Rather than the movements of armies, this book concentrates on the movements of people and the shared heritage and culture that connected them. This on-going contact throughout half a millennium can be traced in the laws, literatures, material culture and even environment of the various regions of the Viking diaspora. Judith Jesch considers all of these connections, and highlights in detail significant forms of cultural contact including gender, beliefs and identities.
Beginning with an overview of Vikings and the Viking Age, the nature of the evidence available, and a full exploration of the concept of 'diaspora', the book then provides a detailed demonstration of the appropriateness of the term to the world peopled by Scandinavians. This book is the first to explain Scandinavian expansion using this model, and presents the Viking Age in a new and exciting way for students of Vikings and medieval history.
Rather than the movements of armies, this book concentrates on the movements of people and the shared heritage and culture that connected them. This on-going contact throughout half a millennium can be traced in the laws, literatures, material culture and even environment of the various regions of the Viking diaspora. Judith Jesch considers all of these connections, and highlights in detail significant forms of cultural contact including gender, beliefs and identities.
Beginning with an overview of Vikings and the Viking Age, the nature of the evidence available, and a full exploration of the concept of 'diaspora', the book then provides a detailed demonstration of the appropriateness of the term to the world peopled by Scandinavians. This book is the first to explain Scandinavian expansion using this model, and presents the Viking Age in a new and exciting way for students of Vikings and medieval history.
244 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2015
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About the author
Judith Jesch
16 books19 followersJudith Jesch is Reader in Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham, and author of Women in the Viking Age.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2020
This academic book is a case study in good scholarship.
Often the term 'the Viking world' is used to describe Scandinavians within and outside the Scandinavian countries in the period 800-1100. While there is nothing wrong with this term, Jesch makes a compelling argument for the widespread settlements in Iceland, Greenland, England, Scotland, the Faeroes, Shetland, Orkney, etc. being considered as a diaspora. Simply put, a diaspora is the migration of a distinctive people group to various places outside its homeland, where the people maintain a connection with their original homeland and compatriots who have migrated elsewhere, while also assimilating to some degree in their new countries.
Jesch gathers information from a variety of fields including archaeology, history, and onomastics to provide a wide-angle view of this diaspora. As she is a literary scholar, she emphasizes language as one of the distinctive cultural elements that continued to tie the Viking diaspora together for generations. As many books on the Vikings tend to emphasize material culture, I believe the linguistic and literary perspective gives a welcome added dimension to the picture.
Here is one of the things I most appreciated about this book: Jesch includes 'case studies' in each chapter to illustrate general principles. These are brief in-depth examinations of how the Viking diaspora functioned at a particular place and time. Usually they focus on a particular settlement location or historical source. By the end of the book, a reader will be familiar with all the different areas of Viking studies and how they complement one another.
Overall, Jesch is systematic, balanced, and thorough. Her prose, though necessarily technical, is clear and free of jargon. This book is a useful read for scholars in the field of Viking studies as well as being accessible to scholars from other fields and interested non-academic readers.
Often the term 'the Viking world' is used to describe Scandinavians within and outside the Scandinavian countries in the period 800-1100. While there is nothing wrong with this term, Jesch makes a compelling argument for the widespread settlements in Iceland, Greenland, England, Scotland, the Faeroes, Shetland, Orkney, etc. being considered as a diaspora. Simply put, a diaspora is the migration of a distinctive people group to various places outside its homeland, where the people maintain a connection with their original homeland and compatriots who have migrated elsewhere, while also assimilating to some degree in their new countries.
Jesch gathers information from a variety of fields including archaeology, history, and onomastics to provide a wide-angle view of this diaspora. As she is a literary scholar, she emphasizes language as one of the distinctive cultural elements that continued to tie the Viking diaspora together for generations. As many books on the Vikings tend to emphasize material culture, I believe the linguistic and literary perspective gives a welcome added dimension to the picture.
Here is one of the things I most appreciated about this book: Jesch includes 'case studies' in each chapter to illustrate general principles. These are brief in-depth examinations of how the Viking diaspora functioned at a particular place and time. Usually they focus on a particular settlement location or historical source. By the end of the book, a reader will be familiar with all the different areas of Viking studies and how they complement one another.
Overall, Jesch is systematic, balanced, and thorough. Her prose, though necessarily technical, is clear and free of jargon. This book is a useful read for scholars in the field of Viking studies as well as being accessible to scholars from other fields and interested non-academic readers.
November 18, 2021
A detailed look at the migration of Scandanavians - primarily Norwegian and Danish - as they expanded their trading and settlement out from the homelands to establish trading links from N. America to Constantinople and settlements in Vinland, Greenland, Faroe, Shetland, Orkney, Britain and Ireland. The author is academically rigorous, resulting in a book that is comprehensive and sometimes makes for heavy going. It seems to me like an authoritative text on the subject.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews