HST 382/383: The First Viking Age

Taught
Level 3: semesters 1 and 2

email : Professor Sarah Foot, Module Leader

Pre-requisites

A pass in at least two history modules from HST200 - HST299.

Module Summary

The vikings have always captured the popular imagination with their reputation for piracy, rapine and pillage, although recent revisionist literature has tried to present a more measured interpretation of the impact of the Danes on early medieval western Europe. This module will use contemporary literature and archaeological evidence to explore the validity of modern reassessments of the First Viking Age, the period between the first reported Scandinavian attacks on western Europe in the 780s and the expulsion of the Danes from Wessex by King Alfred in the late ninth century and the Danish settlement of northern and eastern England and Normandy. Students will pursue three parallel strands of investigation: analysis of western European accounts of Danish military activity and the evidence this provides for contemporary Christian attitudes to the pagan Danes; study of the responses made by the English and the Franks to this threat both military and ideological including the effect of the Danish wars on ideas about kingship and identity in the ninth century; and investigation of the effects of Danish warfare and settlement on English and Frankish society and culture.

Central to the module will be the study of the writing of history and biography in the ninth century; students will be expected to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of a body of prescribed sources (in translation) relating to the activities of the Danes in England. They will also be expected to show familiarity with a comparative body of Frankish material and use this to illustrate their essays, although not to write commentaries in the examination. Further, they will be encouraged to explore archaeological evidence for Scandinavian material culture and the impact of Danish and Norse settlers in western Europe; the evidence of place-names, personal names and of coins will also be introduced.

Students will have been introduced to the difficulties presented by a variety of English and Frankish sources, ranging from contemporary chronicles and letters, to royal biography, and from material artefacts and coins to place-names; seminars will equip students with the skills necessary to evaluate these sources critically. They will also have been introduced to recent controversies in the secondary literature, and will have been required to articulate their own responses to the revisionist interpretations currently in fashion.

Teaching

There will be two seminars a week over both semesters in which specific themes will be studied through the primary sources.

Module Content

Semester 1

Context

1. The Vikings in history
2. Danish raids on ninth-century England
3. Danish raiding in the Carolingian Empire

Texts

4. Annals and Chronicles
5. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
6. Asser's Life of King Alfred
7. The writings of King Alfred
8. Ninth-century Letters
9. Frankish annals

Impact

10. Settlement
11. Material culture

Semester 2

Impact

1. Religion
2. Law and administration
3. Political change

Responses

4. Military and defensive
5. Religious
6. Political
7. Co-operation or conflict
8. Who, what, why, how many?

Texts

9. Biography
10. Historical writing
11. Constructing the past

Selected Reading

Students are strongly advised to buy the inexpensive Penguin volume on Alfred that contains many of the prescribed primary sources, and would also find it helpful to buy the paperbacks marked * below.


***Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great, Asser's Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, (Penguin, 1983)

Elsa Roesdahl, The Vikings, (1991)

Peter Sawyer, Kings and Vikings, (1982)

*Peter Sawyer, ed. The The Oxford Ilustrated History of the Vikings, (Oxford, 1997)

*James Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, (1991)

R. Abels, Alfred the Great. War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo Saxon England, (1998)

David Dumville, Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar, (1992)

Janet Nelson, Charles the Bald, (1992)

*Paul Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: a Reader, (1993)

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students completing this module will have developed their ability:

• To manipulate, evaluate, and analyse closely a substantial body of primary source material, and to use it to support independent arguments.
  
• To recognise a variety of literary and documentary genres and discuss problems in their interpretation.
  
• To demonstrate an awareness of current research issues in the field of early medieval history extending beyond the published literature.
  
• To use their understanding of written and non-written sources to evaluate and criticise the opinions of historians and contribute to current historiographical debate about the Vikings.
  
• To chair discussions, present complex arguments, and exchange views with fellow-students in a constructive and mutually-supportive manner.
  
• To write informed and cogent essays and commentaries on primary source extracts under pressure of time.