Medieval Book Club Preview: Viking Age Iceland by Jesse L. Byock

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History, Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Book Club, Viking Age Iceland, Vikings

The popular image of the Viking Age is of warlords and marauding bands pillaging their way along the shores of Northern Europe. In this fascinating history, Jesse Byock shows that Norse society in Iceland was actually an independent one-almost a republican Free State, without warlords or kings. Combining history with anthropology and archaeology, this remarkable study serves as a valuable companion to the Icelandic sagas, exploring all aspects of Viking Age life: feasting, farming, the power of chieftains and the church, marriage, and the role of women. With masterful interpretations of the blood feuds and the sagas, Byock reveals how the law courts favored compromise over violence, and how the society grappled with proto-democratic tendencies. A work with broad social and historical implications for our modern institutions, Byock’s history will alter long-held perceptions of the Viking Age.

This is the seventh entry into the monthly Medieval Book Club, and we are shifting gears for two months and looking at Medieval Iceland. This month we’re immersing ourselves into Viking Age Iceland itself, learning a bit more about it historically. In August we’ll be reading on of the Icelandic Sagas, which should be a great deal of fun. I’ve held a pretty strong interest in this period for a few years now, and I have actually written a few stories that took place in the Viking era. So these two months should be a huge treat for me, at least, and I hope you enjoy joining along with them as well.

Here is the breakdown of chapters:

• Introduction
• An Immigrant Society
  • Language and the Term “Viking”
  • Leadership
  • Mord the Fiddle: A Leader and the Law
  • The Sagas: An Ethnography of Medieval Iceland
• Resources and Subsistence: Life on a Northern Island
  • Turf Housing
• Curdled Milk and Calamities: An Inward-Looking Farming Society
  • Provisions, Subsistence Strategies, and Population
  • Bad Year Economics: Difficulties of Life in the North Atlantic
• A Devolving and Evolving Social Order
  • Ranking, Hierarchy and Wealth
  • Complex Culture and Simple Economy
  • Privatization of Power in the Tenth Century
  • A Proto-democratic Community?
  • Icelandic Feud: Conflict Management
• The Founding of a New Society and the Historical Sources
  • The Effect of Emigrating from Europe
  • Land-taking and Establishing Order
  • Dating the Settlement: Volcanic Ash Layers
  • Closing the Frontier and Establishing Governing Principles
  • Written Sources: The Book of Settlements and The Book of the Icelanders
• Limitations on a Chieftain’s Ambitions, and Strategies of Feud and Law: Eyrbyggja Saga
  • Arnkel’s Quest for Wealth and Power
  • Ulfar’s Land Shifts to Arnkel
  • Thorolf’s Land Shifts to Snorri Gothi
  • Ulfar Claims Orlyg’s Land
  • Ulfar’s Demise
  • The End of Arnkel’s Ambitions
• Chieftain-Thingmen Relationships and Advocacy
  • The Nature of the Gothorth
  • Advocacy
  • Arbitration and Legalistic Feuding
  • The Flexibility of the Gothi-Thingman Relationship
  • The Social Effects of Concubinage
  • Distinctions of Rank
  • Hreppar: Communal Units
  • The Orkneys: A Comparison
  • Freedmen
• The Family and Sturlunga Sagas: Medieval Narratives and Modern Nationalism
  • The Family Sagas
  • The Sturlunga Compilation
  • The Sagas as Sources
  • Modern Nationalism and the Medieval Sagas
  • Conclusions
  • The Locations of the Family Sagas
• The Legislative and Judicial System
  • Thing: Assemblies
  • Options
• Systems of Power: Advocates, Friendship, and Family Networks
  • Advocacy
  • The Role of Kinship
  • A Balancing Act
  • Friendship (Vinfengi and Vinatta)
  • Women and Choices of Violence and Compromise
    • Vengeance and Feud: Goading in Laxdaela Saga
    • A Goading Woman from Sturlunga saga
    • Retraint Within a Major Chieftain’s Household in the Sturlung Age
• Aspects of Blood Feud
  • Territory
  • Marriage and Confused Loyalties
  • Some Conclusions
• Feud and Vendetta in a ‘Great Village’ Community
  • The Language of Feud
  • Norms of Restraint
  • Bluffing and Violence
  • Outlawry
• Friendship, Blood Feud, and Power: The Saga of the People of Weapon’s Fjord
  • Inheriting a Foreigner’s Goods
  • Brodd-Helgi’s Revenge against Thorleif
  • Struggle to Claim a Dowry
  • Skirmishes over a Woodland
  • Seeking a Thingman’s Allegiance
  • Brodd-Helgi Breaks Vinfengi
  • Geitir Establishes Vinfengi
• The Obvious Sources of Wealth
  • Sources of Income Available Only to Chieftains
    • Early Taxes
    • Price-Setting
    • Additional Privileged Sources of Wealth
    • The Sheep Tax
  • Sources of Income Available to All Freemen
    • Trade
    • Slavery and the Rental of Land and Livestock
• Lucrative Sources of Wealth for Chieftains
  • The Acquisition of Property in the Family Sagas
    • Disputed Property in the East Fjords: The Saga of the People of Weapon’s Fjord
    • Disputed Property in the Salmon River Valley: Laxdaela Saga
  • Inheritance Claims in the Sturlunga Sagas
    • The Struggle to Inherit Helgastathir: The Saga of Gudmund the Worthy
    • Inheritance Rights to Heinaberg: The Saga of Hvamm-Sturla
    • Resurgence of the Dispute over Heinaberg: The Saga of the Icelanders
• A Peaceful Conversion: The Viking Age Church
  • Pagan Observance
  • A Viking Age Conversion
  • Geography and the Church
  • Early Bishops, Priests and Nuns
  • The Beginnings of a Formal Church Structure
• Gragas: The ‘Grey Goose’ Law
  • Manuscripts and Legal Origins
  • Women and the Law
  • Marriage and the Church
• Bishops and Secular Authority: The Later Church
  • Bishops
  • The Tithe and Church Farmsteads
  • Bishops and Priests in the Later Free State
  • The Church’s Struggle for Power in the Later Free State
  • Priests
  • Monasteries
• Big Chieftains, Big Farmers and their Sagas at the End of the Free State
  • Big Farmers and the Family Sagas
  • Advantages Enjoyed by the Storbaendr
  • The Saga of the Icelanders in the Sturlunga Compilation
  • The Storgothar, Not Quite Rulers
  • Iceland’s Jarl
  • 1262-4: The Covenant with Norway’s King and the End of the Free State
• Appendix I: The Law-speakers
• Appendix 2: Bishops During the Free State
• Appendix 3: Turf Construction
• Appendix 4: A Woman Who Travelled from Vinland to Rome

Will you join me in reading this book? You can pick up a copy on Amazon at this link. The post for this book’s reading will be on July 20th, which is the third Thursday of that month.

Which of the chapters and/or subsections interest you the most? There is a lot of ground covered in 373 pages of book here, and I expect I’ll find most of it to be quite fascinating!

Check out the full list of books we’re reading this year for the Medieval Book Club.

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Coming in 2017: Medieval Book Club

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Anglo-Saxon, C.S. Lewis, Icelandic Sagas, J.R.R. Tolkien, King Alfred, Medieval Book Club, Medieval Literature, Medieval Poetry, reading, Vikings

Today I thought I would make an announcement that I had been working toward for most of this month. As a reader who is interested in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic period, I wanted to make an effort to read more books about those time periods and work that was written during those time periods. So I have decided to schedule a monthly discussion throughout 2017, alternating between reading a book-length work and reading poetic works. I hope you will consider joining along with me, and I have provided links to the websites and/or Amazon page to where you can find the works that I am planning to read and discuss.

The goal will be to make a post on the 15th of the month previewing the work that we’ll be reading in the following month (so, for instance, on December 15th I will post a preview/reminder about the January book) and then I will be posting the discussion on the third Thursday of each month (so January 19th would be the first discussion post). Don’t sweat it if you didn’t finish the book by that mark, there will be an active homepage for the series so you can jump in at any time on the previous works and join in on the conversations.

So without any further delay, here are the works I plan to read and discuss in 2017 as a part of this series:

January – The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction by John Blair

February – Genesis A&B (https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/genesis-ab/)

March – The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis

April – Exodus & Daniel (https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/exodus/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/daniel/)

May – Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

June – Judith, Dream of the Rood & Juliana (https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/judith/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/dream-of-the-rood/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/juliana/)

July – Viking Age Iceland by Jesse L. Byock

August – Njal’s Saga

September – Finn and Hengest by J.R.R. Tolkien

October – The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Battle of Maldon (https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-wanderer/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-seafarer/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-wifes-lament/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/battle-of-maldon/)

November –  Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources by Simon Keynes

December – Christ I, Christ II, Christ III (https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/christ-i/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/christ-ii/ & https://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/christ-iii/)

Medievalist Monday: Valhalla

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Einherjar, Magnus Chase, Norse Mythology, Odin, Valhalla, Vikings

Welcome to the first official Medievalist Monday. This is the fourth week, which means we’ll be covering something related to Medieval Iceland. Because so much revolves around the idea of Valhalla in Norse mythology it seemed like a good place to begin (next month we’ll follow up with Ragnarok, the other big thing that pops up quite often).

In the Norse mythology, they believed that Valhalla, which means “hall of the fallen”, was the place where the the god Odin would house the dead that are judged worthy of dwelling there. Rather than a selection process of people who were good, the selections were brave and distinguished warriors who are being stored away in order to take part in the eventual coming of Ragnarok. These warriors are known as the Einherjar. And while you might think that Odin would be the one to judge these warriors, they are actually selected by Odin’s team of Valkyries. Yet not all warriors who die will go to Odin at Valhalla (although this is the one many dream of going to), but some are selected to go to Freya’s hall of Folkvang. Which is why many Vikings would go into battle and attempt to accomplish great feats: they wanted to be chosen for Valhalla.

What do they do all day in Valhalla? They are fighting, of course! They are always fighting, as the day of Ragnarok will arrive and they should be in the best fighting-shape, right? And after the battle, the warrior emerge healed and sit together around the tables in the great hall. This is something that was remarkably well-done in Rick Riordan’s first Magnus Chase book (a positively delightful read if you have even the least interest in Norse mythology!)

There are a few descriptions of Valhalla. It is rumored to have five hundred and forty doors. It is decorated with spears and shields and breast-plates (as if anything else would be fitting for a hall of heralded heroes) and is guarded by a wolf and an eagle. The best place to turn to for the source material on Valhalla, and other Norse mythology information, would be either the Poetic Edda or the Prose Edda. But if you are the casual reader who is interested in Norse mythology, I can’t recommend the Magnus Chase book (soon to be books) enough.

The Vikings series on the History channel does a good job of capturing the essence of Valhalla and its importance to the warriors with this scene of dialogue: