Overview

This pioneering work offers a meticulous exploration of Scandinavian presence in Viking Age Poland. Unveiling the complexities and controversies of past research and delving into the nuances of reciprocal interactions between Western Slavic and Scandinavian populations as revealed through archaeology and medieval texts, the book casts genuinely new light on a previously overlooked part of the Viking world. In setting the stage for these investigations, the monograph traces the evolution of Viking and Old Norse studies in Poland. It covers the romanticisation of Norse culture and literature, the dark days of the Second World War when archaeology was strongly driven by violent ideologies, and the profound changes that occurred in academia after the fall of communism and Poland’s accession to the European Union. At the core of this book are thorough investigations into cross-cultural interactions along the shores of the southern Baltic as well as in the interior of Poland. Using first-hand analyses of archaeological evidence from bustling ports of trade, settlement sites, silver hoards, and burial grounds, it is argued that the relationship between the local Western Slavic population and the Scandinavian migrants was highly complex but overall very symmetrical. Crucial notions such as the construction of identity in diasporic communities, ritual behaviour, and the symbolic content of Viking Age material culture are also discussed at length, offering new insights into Scandinavian and Slavic minds. Enriched with high-quality illustrations, photographs, as well as artistic reconstructions, this book fills many blank spaces in the field of Viking studies and is intended both for professional audiences and general readers interested in the intricacies of our shared past.

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9781138349391

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Leszek Gardeła is an expert on Scandinavian–Slavic interactions in the Viking Age and leader of a Gerda Henkel Foundation project entitled Slavs in the North: Foreign Elites in Viking Age Scandinavia. With a Habilitation from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich (2023) and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Aberdeen (2012), his research encompasses early medieval funerary practices, cult and magic, gender studies, and twentieth-century art.

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