ROMAN CATHOLIC SCANDINAVIA

Course at University of Minnesota

Departements of Geography and History, Spring 1996

Professor Michael F. Metcalf

Department of History

and

Professor John G. Rice

Department of Geography

This course will be conducted as a lecture course, but students will be given ample opportunity to demonstrate their innovative abilities. For us, Roman Catholic Scandinavia will be approached from the vantage point of the Diocese of Linköping, which encompassed the Swedish land of Östergötland, some of the small land to its south (Småland), the island of Öland, and the island of Gotland. The specific vantage point is the Cathedral Chapter of Linköping, and the specific point in time is the spring of 1398.

Grading Procedures: With the exception of certified medical emergencies, assignments sub-mitted after the published deadlines will be graded one full grade lower than assignments submitted on time. No unnegotiated Incompletes will be given, and no completion of Incompletes will be allowed after September 30, 1996.

Article Review (required but not graded ) - Due April 4

All students are required to submit a typed or wordprocessed, double-spaced, two-page review of an articles in a scholarly journals or in the proceedings of a scholarly conference.

Midquarter Exam (20% of grade) - May 2 (9:45-11:00)

Written Assignment (20% of grade) - Due May 7

All students are to write reports on their home parishes or towns (dealing with occupations, the economy, the landscape, etc.), or on their experiences abroad as university students or pilgrims.

Term Paper (30% of grade ) - Due May 30

All students are required to submit a double-spaced, typed or wordprocessed term paper (undergraduates six to seven pages, graduate students twelve to fifteen pages) on a topic approved by one of the instructors. Papers may be written on any appropriate topic upon which a student at the Cathedral School in Linkšping might conceivably have been in a position to write in the spring of 1398. Term paper topics and preliminary bibliographies are to be submitted for approval by April 16.

Final Examination (30% of grade) - June 5 (1:30-3:30)

Reading Assignments: All students will be required to read a small number of common texts for this course, but the bulk of student readings will selected independently from a rich bibliography. Undergraduates are expected to read approximately 80 and graduate students approximately 120 pages per week. Undergraduates are asked to submit a list of their readings for the course at the time of the final examination, graduate students a journal listing, briefly describing, and commenting on their readings.

Course Expectations: All assignments submitted are to reflect students' individual efforts. Particular attention is drawn to CLA's statement on scholastic dishonesty: Scholastic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating on assignments or examinations; plagiarizing (misrepresenting as one's own anything done by another individual, whether another student or a published author); submitting the same or substantially similar papers for more than one course without consent of all instructors concerned; depriving another of necessary course materials; or sabotaging another's work.

Order of Lectures and Examinations:

Important resources:

Historical Abstracts (available in Wilson Library Reference Section and on CD rom)

LUMINA and, through it, Wilson Library's rich Scandinavian collections.

Byron Nordstrom, ed., Dictionary of Scandinavian History (Westport, CT & London: Greenwood Press, 1986).

Phillip Pulsiano, ed., Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York & London: Garland, 1993).

Birgit & Peter Sawyer, Mediaeval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation circa 800-1500 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).

Important journals (all available in Wilson Library Periodicals Section):

Mediæval Scandinavia

Scandinavian Economic History Review

Scandinavian Journal of History

Geografiska Annaler

Scandinavian Studies

Geog 5178/Hist 5118 Roman Catholic Scandinavia

Essay Questions

You are to write two essays, selecting 1.a. or 1.b and 2.a. or 2.b. You have twenty minutes for each essay, each of which will count for 26% of your midquarter exam grade:

1.a. What is meant by the term "world view"? What functions does it perform in the lives of human beings? Discuss the world view of our pre-Christian forefathers and that of our own Christian society. Cite some ways in which these shape our thinking.

1.b. Discuss the political, cultural and population geography of Christendom in 1398. Which countries are the main actors on the political stage? What are the main religious and linguistic patterns? What is the state of Church politics? Where are the main centers of population? How does Scandinavia fit into this picture?

2.a. Towns in medieval Scandinavia owe their existence to many developments in society. Discuss the various factors that contributed to the development of towns in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and discuss what characteristics set these towns off from the predominantly rural societies that surrounded them.

2.b. The economic foundations of Scandinavian life in the Middle Ages lie firmly imbedded in farming, livestock raising, and fishing, although other economic activities are also present. Discuss the social structure that is supported by the proceeds from these activities and the way in which the various social groups are distinguished from one another in their relation to the land and the law.

Short Answer Questions

1. Write on five of the following questions, allotting approximately four minutes per question. Each of your five answers will count for 5% of your midquarter exam grade:

2. Compare the one-, two- and three-field systems of farm management used in our day. Name one area in which you would find each.

3. Judging from the example of Möre, how is the relative age of rural settlements related to their size, their centrality and the ownership of their constituent farms?

4. Why is agriculture in Denmark so much better than that in our other two realms? What kinds of soils support agriculture in Mälardalen, western Östergötland, the Finnish and Småland lake plateaus, Gotland and the East Country of Norway? Where is settlement concentrated in Norway's West Country? What makes Iceland so very different?

5. The name of the land in which we live has two components, each revealing our location with respect to a major physical feature. Explain.

6. Who invented the idea of Europe? Why is the concept long forgotten in our own day?

7. What entities do we commemorate in the names of our days of the week?

8. Briefly describe the Ptolemaic view of the universe, held by most educated people today. In what part of the earth does this view locate the ecumene? Why?

9. When and how was Greenland settled by people from our realm? Where were the settlements located? When and how do we think it came to an end?

10. Later observers of our society will say that we have a storage economy. What do they mean by this? How do they explain it?

Map Questions

Answer each of the eight numbered questions relating to the map of Scandinavia (Map A) and answer the questions concerning Map B. Each of your eight answers concerning Map A will count 2% of the midquarter examination grade, while your responses to the questions concerning Map B will count collectively for 7% of the grade.

Map A

Match the statement with the appropriate location on the map, writing the letter representing the location in the first space, and write the name of the place in the second space. Use each location only once. (No. 8 names the location and asks for an explanation)

1. This city is the site of the Cathedral School you are now attending.

2. The good burghers of this important fishing center live in one of the rainiest environments in our realm.

3. In this area a type of swidden agriculture called huuhta is practiced.

4. This city is the site of the castle where the documents creating our Union were drawn up last year.

5. The copper and iron mined in this regions form the basis of much of our country's wealth.

6. This city is the seat of Scandinavia's first archbishop.

7. Founded after a Swedish "crusade" in the mid-twelfth century, this city is today the seat of a bishop and the effective capital of "Österlandet".

8. Residents of this distant part of our realm (the lower Torne Valley) are aware of an apparent gradual fall in the level of the sea. What explanation will later generations deduce for this phenomenon?

Map B.

What can you say about the course of settlement in the area shown below? What were the original farming cores, and how did settlement progress outward from these cores? What places were especially central in pre-Christian times? Which were central when Christianity began to make inroads in the region. Feel free to draw on the map.

(The map may not be shown correctely by certain HTML browsers)

                            • Säby                           • Höversby               • Ektomta
                                           + Vallerstad                                                        • Kalvsäter
                                                                                   • Forntomta
                  L                    • Folkinge         • Ullevi
                    A                                  • Emmislöv          • Askeby                            • Utsäter
                       K                     • Normlösa
                          E                                             + Flistad                  • Askebytorp
                                               • Västerlösa                 • Ekeby
                                                                  • Råbelöv                     • Nytorp
                                                         • Kättilstad
       W                                                                              + Högby
         O
           O                                                        • Ringstorp                     • Algutsrum
             D                                       • Ringarum
               E                                                                         • Lundaryd           • Svinhult
                 D                                                   • Sälleryd

                     M                                                                      • Edshult                    • Kalboda
                       O                                     • Sunneboda
		 R
                           A                       • Estemåla                                       • Irmåla
                              I                                                   • Kuramåla
                               N                                 • Riseboda                                • Granhult
		         E
                                                                                        • Bosaryd                   • Forserum

                                                                           • Björkhult               • Aspetorp
                                                                                                  • Lammsäter
                                                                                       • Lillsäter
                                                                                                                 • Grimstomta

                                                                      • Högtomta                • Osby         • Bjärby
                                                                                             • Degerby
                                                                                                    + Mykleby       • Mjölby
                                                                                                                     + Våderstad
                                                                                            • Torslund		                   L
                                                                                                             • Odensvi    • Dalhem  A
                                                                                                   + Herrestad      • Ränneslöv    K
                                                                                                             • Bjällösa  • Spärringe     E
                                                                                     • Västra Harg         + Källstad
                                                                                                       • Viby              • Karleby
                          						• Götevi	• Östra Harg
							   • Gesäter
               								      • Vadstorp
								•Yxnerum
										• Tallhult

 

Books on Library Reserve

Byock, Jesse. Medieval Iceland (1988) DL352.B96 1988

Gissel, Svend et al. Desertion and Land Colonization in the Nordic Countries ca. 1300-1600 (1981) HD730.D47 1981

Grágás. Laws of Early Iceland (1980) 349.491 G759 Es

Hastrup, Kirsten, Culture and History in Medieval Iceland (1985) DL328.H34 1985

Jon Johannesson. A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth ( ) 949.1 J597E

Larson, Laurence, trans. The Earliest Norwegian Laws, Being the Gulathing Law. (1935) 349.481 G95E

Larson, Laurence, trans. The King's Mirror . . . (1917) 839.4K83 JL32

Sawyer, P. H. and Bibbi. Mediaeval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reforemation, circa 800-1500 DL61.S29 1993

Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes (2 vols.) ( ) 948.9 Sa9hE

Skyum-Nielsen, Niels, ed. Danish Medieval Historey: New Currents (1981) 948.901D228

Snorri Sturluson. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway ( ) 839.4Sn5 JH71

Västgötalagen. The Law of the Westgoths . . . (1906) 349.485 V156e

Back to the H-Skand Main Page Back to the H-Skand Index Top of this Page Back to H-Net Home Page