THE VIKING WORLD AND THE VINLAND QUESTION

Course at Harvard University

Stephen Mitchell

This course, "The Viking World and the Vinland Question," is the successor to a slightly different course I used to teach here at Harvard that focussed more strictly on the period 800 to 1100. As you will see on the syllabus, in addition to the more obvious issues associated with the Viking Age, this course looks to examine the "ongoing reinterpretation of this era in later periods.

Course syllabus

Scandinavian 151: "The Viking World and the Vinland Question"

Prof. Stephen Mitchell 69 Dunster Street; 5-4788

I. Description:

"Reviews the historical events in northern Europe A.D. 800 to A.D. 1100, and the literary legacy that resulted from these activities; special attention paid to the development of the North Atlantic colonies, particularly those in Greenland. The evidence for 'viking' activity in the New World (e.g., the Vinland sagas, the archaeological record)- and the fabrication of such evidence (e.g., the Kensington rune stone, the 'viking' city of Norumbega)- carefully considered."

II. Objectives:

The period 800-1100 is often characterized in Northern European history as the Age of the Vikings, a title to which ethnic (=Scandinavian) and professional (=pirates, adventurers, explorers) implications have been attached over the centuries, while at the same time, we often refer to all Scandinavians of this period as "vikings." The tasks before us can be separated into three parts, divisions that reflect the general structure of the course:

1) to reconstruct the social, literary, and religious worlds of Scandinavia in this period;

2) to understand the character of "viking" (in fact, mostly Norse) activities through the examination of historical and archaeological materials, including not only Scandinavian sources, but also documentation from other areas of Northern Europe; and

3) to explore the ongoing reinterpretation of this era in later periods: How, for example, is this epoch treated in the saga literature of medieval Iceland? What purposes does it serve in Renaissance Scandinavia? How is it received and reshaped in 19th-century and 20th-century Scandinavia, England, Germany, and America, and what roles did it play in nationalist movements and within ethnic groups?

Reading list:

Texts ordered for Scan 151-

Edda. Snorri Sturluson. Transl. Anthony Faulkes, Everyman's Library. Rutland, VT: C.E. Tuttle.

King Harald's Saga. Transl. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson. Hammondsworth: Penguin.

The Poetic Edda. Transl. Lee M. Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press..

Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. Transl. Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams. Hammondsworth: Penguin.

Sawyer, P. H. Kings and Vikings: Scandinavia and Europe AD 700-1100. London and New York: Routledge.

Seven Viking Romances. Transl. Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards. Hammondsworth: Penguin.

The Vinland Sagas. The Norse Discovery of America. Graenlendinga Saga and Eirik's Saga. Transl. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson. Hammondsworth: Penguin.

Sourcebook (available at F&M, 69 Dunster Street)

Additional required readings on reserve-

Byock, Jesse. Medieval Iceland. Society, Sagas, and Power. Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press.

Hallberg, Peter. The Icelandic Saga. Transl. Paul Schach. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mitchell, Stephen A. Heroic Sagas and Ballads. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Skelton, R. A. et al., The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation. New Haven: Yale University Press.

The Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's Saga and Eymund's Saga. Transl. Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Williams, Stephen. Fantastic Archaeology. The Wild Side of North American Prehistory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Course responsibilities

In addition to regular preparation and participation, course grades will be assigned based on the following requirements:

1. Research Project (40%)
2. Final Exam (60%)

Course outline:

Tu 9/19: Organizational & Informational Meeting

Th 9/21: Introduction: Pre-Viking Age Scandinavia

Tu 9/26: Old Norse Society and Religion: Social Organization

Th 9/28: Old Norse Society and Religion: Pagan Religion

Tu 10/3: Old Norse Society and Religion: Pagan Religion (cont'd)

Th 10/5: Old Norse Society and Religion: Runes

Tu 10/10: Old Norse Society and Religion: Heroic Literature

Th 10/12: Film: When the Raven Flies- Modern Icelandic Interpretations of the Past

Tu 10/17: Viking Raids and Anglo-Saxon England

Th 10/19: Viking Raids, the Celtic World, and the Continent

Tu 10/24: The North Atlantic Colonies: Shetland, Orkney, Scotland, and the Hebrides

Th 10/26 The North Atlantic Colonies: The Faroes and Iceland

Tu 10/31: The North Atlantic Colonies: Greenland

Th 11/2: The North Atlantic Colonies: Greenland (cont'd)

Tu 11/7: The North Atlantic Colonies: Greenland (cont'd)

Th 11/9: The North Atlantic Colonies: Vinland

Tu 11/14: The Vikings in the East: Russia

Th 11/16: The Vikings in the East: Byzantium

Tu 11/21: A Viking Biography: Harald Hardruler

Th 11/23: Thanksgiving

Tu 11/28: Further Medieval Interpretations of the Viking Age: The fornaldarsoegur

Th 11/30: Romantic Interpretations: Scandinavia, England, and the Continent in the 17th and early 19th centuries

Tu 12/5: Vinland and the Imagination: Dighton Rock, The Kensington 'runestone,' Norumbega, and other Inventions

Th 12/7: Vinland and the Imagination: Dighton Rock, The Kensington 'runestone,' Norumbega, and other Inventions (cont'd)

Tu 12/12: Vinland and the Imagination: Dighton Rock, The Kensington 'runestone,' Norumbega, and other Inventions (cont'd)

Th 12/14: Vinland and the Imagination: Dighton Rock, The Kensington 'runestone,' Norumbega, and other Inventions (cont'd)

Concluding Remarks

FILMS: Please view the following films, primarily in the Magnus Magnusson/BBC series "Vikings!"

Hammer of the North
Bolt from the Blue
England at Bay
Bitter Is the Wind
>From the Fury of the Northmen
An Island Called Thule
The Empire of the Northern Shores
Here King Harold Is Killed
Halfdan Was Here
The Ultimate Outpost
The Vinland Mystery

Table of Contents of the Source-Book

General

Time-line

On the Concept of 'Germanic' and on the Germanic Dialects

The Pater noster in the Germanic Dialects

Germanic Versification (Alliteration, Kennings, Eddic and Scaldic Meters)

Scandinavian Materials

Runic inscriptions

The Gripsholm Runestone.

The Ramsund Inscription and Carving.

Pseudo-histories

From 'The Legendary History of Gotland.' Transl. by Stephen Mitchell.

A Greenlandic Miscellany

Selections from the Icelandic Annals. Transl. by Stephen Mitchell.

From The Book of the Icelanders (Chap. 6). Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

From Floamanna saga. Transl. by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell. Rev.. version by Stephen Mitchell.

Graenlendinga Thattr. Transl. by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell. Rev. version by Stephen Mitchell.

'The Tale of Bjoern.' Transl. by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell. Rev. version by Stephen Mitchell.

From Pals saga. Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

From Guthmundar saga Arasonar. Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

'A Description of the Churches in Greenland.' Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

From The King's Mirror. Transl. by L. Larson.

'Concerning the Wedding at Hvalsey, 1408.' Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

'The Travels of the Farmer Bjoern Einarrsson, sometimes known as Vatnfjoerthr's-Bjoern, sometimes as Bjoern-Jerusalem-farer.' Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

'Concerning the Greenlanders and the Eskimoes' (ca. 1379)

'Concerning Bjoern Thorleifsson and his wife and their shipwreck in Greenland' (ca. 1450) - written ca. 1550. Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

'The Story of Jon Greenlander' (ca. 1540). Transl by Stephen Mitchell.

'Story told to Dithmar Blesken in Iceland' (1563).' Transl by Stephen Mitchell from the precis given in Groenlands historiske Mindesmerker, III, 509.

Stories about the Ancient Kavdlunait. Transl. by Henry Rink.

'Ungortok, the Chief of Kakortok'

'The First Meeting of the Kaladlit with the Ancient Kavdlunait in Greenland'

'The Ancient Kavdlunait's Ruin near Arsut'

'Encounter of Kaladlit with the Ancient Kavdlunait on the Ice'

'Pisagsak and the Kivigtok'

Anglo-Saxon Materials

Excerpts from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Transl. C. Faust and S. Thompson.

'The Battle of Brunnanburg.' Transl. C. Faust and S. Thompson.

'The Battle of Maldon.' Transl. C. Faust and S. Thompson.

'The Voyages of Othere and Wulfstan.' Transl. C. Faust and S. Thompson.

Later Interpretations

Thomas Gray, 'The Descent of Odin'

From William Morris, 'The Story of Sigurd the Volsung'

Alfred, Lord Tennyson,'The Battle of Brunanburh'

The Vinland Question

1840?

"The Discovery of America by the Northmen" ['The following short sketch...may be of use for insertion in...Educational Works, Encyclopedias,' etc.]

1847.

Davis, A. Antiquities of America, the First Inhabitants of Central America and the Discovery of New England by the Northmen, Five Hundred Years before Columbus. 17th edition, with important additions. Boston: Coolidge and Wiley, Printers, 1847.

1868.

De Costa, B. F. The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by The Northmen, illustrated by Translations from the Icelandic Sagas. Albany: Joel Munsell, 1868. Also: 3rd rev. ed. Albany: Joel Munsell, 1901.

1870?

W.B. Gardner, "Dighton Rock."

1874.

Anderson, Rasmus B. America not Discovered by Columbus. An Historical Sketch of the Discovery of America by the Norsemen in the Tenth Century....4th rev. ed. with a Bibliography of the Pre-Columbian Discoveries of America by Paul Barron Watson. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co., 1891.

1882.

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. ' The Visit of the Vikings.' Harper's Magazine. September 1882 [on Dighton Rock, Newport Tower, etc.; info. supplied]

1887.

Brown, Marie A. The Icelandic Discoverers of America; or, Honour to Whom Honour is Due. London: Truebner & Co., 1887.

1887.

Haynes, Henry Williamson. "Norse Legends Respecting America." Massachusetts Historical Society, December 1887.

1887.

Haynes, Henry Williamson. "Apocryphal Runic Inscriptions." Massachusetts Historical Society, December 1887.

1889.

Horsford, Eben Norton. The Problem of the Northmen. A Letter to Judge Daly, the President of the American Geographical Society, on the opinion of Justice Winsor, that 'Though Scandinavians may have reached the Shores of Labrador, the Soil of the United States has not one Vestige of their Presence'. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son. University Press, 1889.

1890.

Haynes, Henry Williamson. "Historical Character of the Norse Sagas." Massachusetts Historical Society, December 1887.

1891.

Horsford, Eben Norton. Sketch of the Norse Discovery of America Submitted at the Festival of the Scandinavian Societies assembled May 18, 1891, in Boston on the occasion of presenting a testimonial to Eben Norton Horsford in recognition of the finding of the landfall of Leif, the site of his Vineland home and the ancient Norse city of Norumbega, in Massachusetts, in the 43d degree. n.p.: n.p., n.d.

1891.

Horsford, Eben Norton. The Defences of Norumbega and a Review of the Reconnaissances of Col. T.W. Higginson, Professor Henry W. Haynes, Dr. Justin Winsor, Dr. Francis Parkmen, and Rev. Dr. Edmund F. Slafter. A Letter to Judge Daly, President of the American Geographical Society. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891.

1891.

Olson, Julius E. Review of the Problem of the Northmen and the Site of Norumbega by Professor Olson of Madison University, Wisconsin [sic] and a Reply by Eben Norton Horsford. [privately pub., 1891???]

1891.

Slafter, Edmund F. The Discovery of America by the Northmen. 985-1015. A Discourse Delivered before the New Hampshire Historical society, April 24, 1888. Concord, N.H.: 'Privately Printed,' 1891.

1893.

"Books about...Norway and 'The Vikings' " & title-page from Juul Dieserud, Sagaens Leif Eriksson. En karakteristik af Amerikas foerste opdager.. Chicago: John Anderson Publishing Co., 1893.

1893.

Baxter, James Phinney. "The Present Status of Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by Norseman." Annual Report of the American Historical Society. 1893.

1899.

Shipley, Marie A. [Brown]. The Norse Colonization in America by the Light of the Vatican Finds. Lucerne: H. Keller's Foreign Printing Office, [1899].

1900?

"The First Norman-American Convention. Program," and related newspaper article.

1902.

Fischer, Jos. Die Entdeckungen der Normannen in Amerika. Unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung der kartographischen Darstellungen. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herdersche V., 1902. Transl. Basil H. Soulsby, The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America with their special relation to their early cartographical Representation. London: Henry Stevens, Sons & Stiles, 1903.

1939?

"Norse Case is Summed up for the Jury, etc." The Sault Daily Star, Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.

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