, Brepols, 2023 Hardback, 372 pages, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:5 b/w, 12 col., 2 tables b/w., 1 maps b/w, Language: English. ISBN 9782503602387.
Summary By the late thirteenth century, Norgesveldet ? the Norwegian realm ? stretched far beyond its core in western Scandinavia. At its height in 1264, Norgesveldet connected Norse speakers in tributary territories ranging from the Irish Sea to Orkney and across the Atlantic to the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. But what held this disparate realm together? What were the dynamics of power between the men and women of the governing and elite classes of Norgesveldet? And what roles did different bodies play at different levels of society in creating and maintaining these networks ? from kings and bishops to scribes and scholars, traders, and law-makers? This volume aims to expand on and further recent important research into connections between Norway and the wider Norse North Atlantic from the eleventh century, during which the Norwegian kingdom began to emerge, through to the fourteenth-century decline of Norgesveldet with the creation of the Kalmar Union. Each chapter addresses a different facet of the Norgesveldet networks, building a complex picture of both their function and their evolving nature. Taking as its inspiration the research and career of its honorand, J n Vi ar Sigur sson, the volume explores medieval Norway and its wider connections using three key frameworks ? sociopolitical networks, legal and material networks, and literary networks ? with the aim of shedding new light on the people and processes of this North Atlantic polity. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction - A Medieval and Modern Friend Ben Allport, Rosalind Bont , and Hans Jacob Orning I. Sociopolitical Networks 2. A Game of Friends and Networks: Power Dynamics in Early Twelfth-Century Scandinavia Kim Esmark and Lars Hermanson 3. Social Network Analysis and H konar saga H konarsonar Ben Allport 4. Furness Abbey, the Archbishopric of Ni ar ss, and the Diocese of Sodor Fiona Edmonds and Sarah E. Thomas 5. Men, Women, and Friendship in Medieval Iceland: The Absent Female Friend Revisited Au ur Magn sd ttir 6. In potentia? The Political Agency of Elite Women in High Medieval Norway Randi B. W rdahl II. Legal and Material Networks 7. The Sigur sson Hypothesis: Negotiating Silver and Money between the Rhine and Scandinavia, c. 975 to c. 1050 Svein H. Gullbekk 8. Iceland and the Kings of Norway in the Middle Ages Helgi orl ksson 9. Texture in J rns a M r J nsson 10. Inscriptions: The Staging and Making of Networks in Late Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts Lena Rohrbach 11. Pigments and Merchants in the North Sea Network: From Source to Palette No lle L.W. Streeton III. Literary Networks 12. Until Death Do Us Apart ? The Death of Sn fr r and the Mouvance of Narratives of Kings Karl G. Johansson 13. Royal Influence and Icelandic Independence: Conversion and Cultural Memory in Medieval Iceland Rosalind Bont 14. Agnates, Cognates, and the Community of the Realm in Medieval Norway and Iceland Alex Woolf 15. The Network of Gottsk lksann ll Elizabeth Ashman Rowe 16. Networks of Knowledge: The Quest for Northern Greatness in Early Modern Historiography Anne Eriksen J n Vi ar Sigur sson: A Bibliography Index