Online Public Seminars

The Kings’ Sagas are a collection of Old Norse texts that provide incredible insight into the history of mediaeval Norway. These sagas have long been studied and scrutinised for their royal biographies, accounts of great battles, and sophisticated skaldic verse. However, these literary works also contain numerous references to, and descriptions of, legal assemblies.

The legal assembly, held at set locations and times, was fundamental to the exercise of power in this society. Although assembly sites they have been the subject of historical and archaeological research, questions remain concerning their changing role as the Kingdom of Norway experienced civil war and later consolidation during the thirteenth century. By drawing on an extensive catalogue of legal assemblies in the kings’ sagas, this paper addresses a fundamental question concerning these assemblies: who held power?

The research to be presented is ongoing, but a complex picture emerges from the catalogued material. Both Norwegian kings and rural communities were able to exercise authority at the assembly, but the assembly’s location seems to have been critical in determining the extent of that authority. While the picture that emerges is complex, it may also help explain the shifting predominance of certain assembly sites in the Norwegian realm.

Peter Randall is a PhD student at the Institute for Northern Studies, University of the Highlands & Islands. His academic interests generally revolve around Scandinavia and Scotland during the Middle Ages. He has a particular interest in places of assembly and decision-making in the Norse-speaking world and advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to researching these sites. Consequently, his doctoral project involves a combination of text-based research, toponymy and landscape archaeology. This project will provide the first comprehensive study of legal assemblies and assembly sites recorded in a collection of Old Norse texts called the kings’ sagas. In addition to this research, Peter is currently the secretary of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies, a scholarly organisation that promotes historical research into Scandinavia, Scotland, and the ties between the two.

Between 865 and 879 CE, the great Viking army campaigned extensively across England, eventually conquering three of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. As different members of the army permanently settled these kingdoms, their leaders became its kings. Yet before this, the leaders of the army were sometimes named as kings in the written sources, suggesting that the great army was recognised by its adversaries as a mobile kingdom led by one or more kings. This paper explores the validity of this notion through an examination of the written sources, the use of client kings, the evidence for the non-combative aspects of the army’s activities, and the highly symbolic monumental burial at Repton. Despite acknowledging that scholars are correct in saying that the great army was made up of a collection of liðs, or military retinues, it is argued that these units operated under strong central command that worked towards a consistent goal by following consistent policies.

Following on from the successful Our Islands, Our Future campaign led by island local authorities who were instrumental in stimulating the passing of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 (the Act) enshrining the rights of islanders in Scots law. This has resulted in a variety of provisions for island proofing policy being created by public bodies in Scotland and a framework for delivery that is the Scottish National Islands Plan (the Plan) published a year after the Act in 2019 in an attempt to tackle ‘wicked problems’ in the Scottish islands that remain resistant to interventions. Despite the ground up origins of the inception of islands specific policy and a broad agreeance on the principles declared in both the Act and the Plan, implementation of the Plan has been variable. With new strategies being explored from the top down and novel linkages between actors being trialled can drawing on the principles of complex evaluation and investigating the role that context plays in the islands support implementation? Appraisal of key policy actors in addition to the shape and orientation of social networks in the Scottish island context may help uncover insights into the governance network in this progressive policy application. In turn this can support more meaningful engagement island specific governance discourses leading to better policy outcomes transforming the way in which policy interacts with the islands and vice-versa.

Of Viking Ships and Harbours: Aspects of the 'Maritime Cultural Landscape'' with Dr Sven Kalmring, National Historical Museums. Recorded on 30 November 2023.

Maritime Archaeology, especially for the Viking Age, has always been regarded as some kind of supreme discipline, which dealt with the remains of slender and elegant ships forming the very key and catalysts for the whole of the period as such. When Christer Westerdahl published his ground breaking ideas on a Maritime Cultural Landscape in 1992, however, it caused a scientific earthquake among scholars: In analogy to settlement and landscape archaeology, he offered an entire analytical concept, which should evolve maritime archaeology into much more than the study of boats and ships alone. This lecture will present the different categories of Westerdahl’s Maritime Cultural Landscape ranging from shipwrecks, remains on land, the tradition of usage, the study of natural topography and maritime place names, with a wide range of examples from the Baltic Sea. At the end of the talk, as an outlook, the practical application of the concept is illustrated by the example of the Scottish Westcoast and by preliminary results gained within the current research project The Norse and the Sea: The Maritime Cultural Landscape of Scandinavian Scotland.

'Beyond the Raid: Researching Viking Long-Term Presence in Iberia' with Dr Irene Garcia.

Recorded 26 October 2023. Part of the INS Online Public Seminars Series.

For over 200 years, the Iberian Peninsula was a frequent destination for Norse groups, who famously raided the coast —and inland territories— of the peninsula. The raids were habitual, at times yearly, sometimes of a lesser magnitude but on several occasions undertaken by large armies involved in complex campaigns. While the knowledge of this persistent raiding is well-established, what interaction took place beyond the raids is less well-known: was there long-term presence in different regions? Was there settlement? Is there evidence for prolonged interaction of a non-violent nature? This talk will evaluate the evidence for such interactions and draw conclusions on the long-term presence of Vikings in Iberia.

Ireland, Scotland, and the Wider Gaelic World: Re-thinking the Paradigms with Dr Simon Egan, Queen's University Belfast

Recorded 27 April 2023

The concept of a ‘wider Gaelic world’ or ‘Greater Gaeldom’ has proven highly controversial within the historiography of later medieval (and early modern) Scotland and Ireland. One strand of scholarship has stressed the cultural homogeneity of the Gaelic peoples of Ireland and Scotland, arguing that a common language, a shared literary heritage, and a collective cult of saints forged strong and enduring connections between both worlds. A separate school of thought has challenged some of these received ideas. This second strand of research has underlined emerging rifts between the Irish and the community of the Highlands and Islands. Scholars have pointed to divergence in language and culture in the later Middle Ages as well as the growing power of Scotland’s Stewart dynasty and the idea that the nobility of the Highlands and Islands viewed themselves as Scots first, Gaels second. Collectively, these debates have shed new light on complex issues of ethnicity and identity in pre-modern Ireland and Scotland. However, both strands have tended to focus on cultural issues, paying but cursory attention to the range of dynastic and political connections spanning the world of the North Channel. Ireland and Scotland, as with most of the pre-modern world, were dynastic societies and power was rooted in the concept of aristocratic lordship. This paper seeks to apply this methodology to the debate on the Greater Gaeldom and considers to what extent these dynastic connections shaped Scotland’s relationship with Ireland.

'The Viking-age Reuse of Insular Metalwork From Northern Britain' with Dr Adrian Maldonado, National Museum of Scotland

Recorded on the 23 February at 7pm

The looting of Christian shrines and reliquaries in the Viking Age is so well-documented that it has been reduced to a cartoonish vision of pillaging heathens. A close look at the evidence for such ‘looting’ tells a different story – or rather a number of different stories. A recent reassessment of Viking-Age objects in National Museums Scotland shows a variety of different ways Insular metalwork was dispersed and reused in the ninth to eleventh centuries, from hacking to careful curation, and from adaptation to emulation. Along the way, we can try and reconstruct the kinds of objects lost to us by looking at survivals in hoards, graves and stray finds.

Dr Adrián Maldonado Galloway Hoard Researcher, National Museums Scotland Adrián is currently Galloway Hoard Researcher at National Museums Scotland. He received his PhD in archaeology at the University of Glasgow in 2011, with a thesis entitled Christianity and Burial in late Iron Age Scotland, AD 400-650. Ha has lectured in archaeology at the universities of Glasgow and Chester, and joined the Museum in 2018 as Glenmorangie Research Fellow. That project involved a reassessment of the museum collections covering the 9-12th C AD, which culminated with the publication Crucible of Nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom (2021). Currently he is a postdoctoral research assistant on the AHRC-funded project Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard, at NMS.

During the British Imperial Century, between 1815-1915, the population of Scotland was one-fifth that of the population of England. Despite these differences, over one-half of the British explorers during this period were Scottish. In addition to the number of explorers disproportionally favoring the Scots, a significant number of these explorers were physicians and surgeons who had received their training at Scottish universities, and the University of Edinburgh graduates within this unique exploring group outnumbered those from other Scottish universities by a ratio of almost 9:1.

This work asserts that a sequence of four particular events placed these Edinburgh doctors in a position to assume leadership at the precise moment when Great Britain needed them most. First, the evolution of the connection between England and Scotland culminating in the Act of Union of 1707, opened careers to Scottish males that had not existed prior to the creation of the United Kingdom. Second, the Act of Union merged the English and Scottish parliaments into a single entity located in London. However, the Act left the Kirk, Scottish law, and the universities untouched. These three entities formed the core of what would be called the Scottish Enlightenment (1740-1820). This was a time in which Scottish intellectual life flourished and produced a socially and intellectually progressive population. Improved education was one of the primary outcomes, especially at the university level. This led to the third unique element. Although there was improvement throughout the Scottish university system, among the most impactful accomplishments was the creation of a new methodology for preparing doctors. Physicians and surgeons were prepared in a completely different way than their English counterparts and the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine became the model emulated by the rest of the world. The final aspect in the development of these doctors is that the British Imperial Century required a new type of explorer. The motivation for exploring during the Age of Discovery (1400-1650) or the First (1497-1763) and Second (1783-1815) British Empires had been to find new lands, establish trade routes and create colonies. Vast numbers of people and large numbers of colonial territories continued to be added during the British Imperial Century, and although trade and profit were still significant considerations, new and never before seen focuses like economic botany and voyages simply for the sake of science replaced or worked in conjunction with the earlier motivations.

The nature of exploration was changing and this transformation required a new league of explorer. These men had to be willing to travel, be physically strong, curious, with the training and knowledge to see what was new, and the intellect and ability to explain their finds and their impact to others upon their return home. The interest in this new approach began to grow and the investigation and understanding of the natural world became integrated within these exploring missions alongside existing efforts related to expanding commerce within the British Empire.

'Across the 'Fundamental Field' in the European North: Ethnological Perspectives on Indigenous Knowledge and Land-based Learning for Sustainability', Professor Ullrich Kockel, Institute for Northern Studies. Recorded 26 May 2022.

Drawing on a critical reading of Continental philosophy through an exchange between geopoetics (Kenneth White) and topology (Jeff Malpas), the seminar explores the ‘fundamental field’ (Malpas & White 2021) of human ecological relationships in the European North, considering both Indigenous life-worlds and the experience(s) of people who are no longer indigenous to place. From both emic and etic ethnological perspectives, the possibility of becoming Indigenous in a meaningful sense, and the potential of the wisdom that ‘sits in places’ (Keith Basso) to inspire and guide land-based learning for sustainability are explored with reference to examples from Scotland and the Baltic.

As part of the INS Public Seminar Series Professor Mairéad NicCraith will present 'The Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Resistance, Challenge, Opportunity' was on the 11 May 2022.

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is an umbrella term used to describe living or dynamic traditions from stories to songs, from crafts to dances to dry-stone wall construction. It also includes traditional ecological knowledge about the universe. Since it entered into force in 2006, 180 states parties globally have ratified the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. However, the UK Government has failed to do so. This has meant that, to date, government efforts to safeguard heritage at both UK and Scottish levels has focused overwhelmingly on built or tangible heritage. Building on a growing awareness in Scotland - led by the Scottish Government - of the importance of ICH to the cultural life of the nation, this seminar explores the reluctance of Anglophone states to ratify the Convention, as well as the challenges and opportunities that are missed in consequence of this resistance.

Dr Alison Cathcart 'They ‘offered to give what they do not even hope to gain’: Ireland, Orkney and Shetland, and kingship in the reign of James V'

Steve Murdoch: War and Peace: Scotland and Norway as Friends and Foes, 1589-1713

Dr Rebecca Ford: Words & Waves: Power of Stories, Community & Renewable Energy in Orkney

'Women and men of the Viking Age' - an inaugural lecture from Professor Alex Sanmark

Michèle Hayeur Smith: The Valkyries' Loom

Dr Veerle Van den Eynden

People and Plants in Scotland: A contemporary view

Prof Stefan Brink

What’s in a Name Why study Onomastics for the sake of Old Norse Mythology

Dr Colleen Batey: The role of the Jarlshof Site in Norse Archaeology

The World of Orcadian Runecarvers, by Dr Andrea Freund

The Northern Isles of Scotland during the 16th century: archaeological perspectives on proto-global trade connections by Dr Natascha Mehler

David Griffiths Public Seminar: Birsay and Skaill: archaeological landscapes of Orkney

'Nowhere else I’d rather be: A personal view of the archaeology of Orkney and why it is special'.by Caroline Wickham Jones, Visiting Fellow of INS:

Dr Victoria Whitworth from the UHI Centre for Nordic Studies talked to us about using her research in creative writing

Escape from the Coasts - The Great Escape from Estonia and the Shetland Bus

The talk was given in Lerwick on May 6th 2017. The event was a joint project involving the Centre for Nordic Studies UHI and the Estonian War Museum.

Shetland Bus Talk

This talk was originally given at the Escape from the Coasts event on May 6th 2017. This was joint event held by the Centre for Nordic Studies UHI and the Estonian War Museum, at the Shetland Museum and Archives. 75 people attended.

This paper considers how illegal, and to a lesser extent legal, trade was affected by seasonality in the High North Atlantic. Both legal and illegal trade were deeply impacted by seasonality, particularly winter storms, but they were impacted in different ways; in this paper, I will discuss how and why this impact differed and what it can reveal about the connectivity of the North Atlantic during the winter months. The focus will be on the smuggling trade between the Faroe Islands and Scotland, which was endemic from the 1760s to the 1780s. It was brought on by inter-imperial rivalry, war, and domestic dissent and came to have a formative role in the economic life of the northern reaches of the Atlantic. The study draws on a wide range of sources from tax records to autobiographies which enables me to present both quantitative and qualitative data that sheds new light on the enduring interconnections between the islands and the formative power of the subarctic environment. This paper forms part of a new research project that explores the creation and repercussions of illegal trade across the High North Atlantic during the period 1760–1820.

Anna Knutsson is an affiliated postdoctoral researcher at Clare Hall College and a visiting scholar at the Centre for History and Economics and the Faculty of History in Cambridge. After doing an MA at the University of St Andrews and an MPhil at Cambridge University, she pursued a PhD in history at the European University Institute. She graduated in 2019 with a thesis about smuggling in Sweden during the eighteenth century. Since then, she has taken up an international postdoctoral fellowship at Uppsala University in collaboration with Cambridge University and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her current research deals with illegal trade and its impact on northern European peripheries, particularly Greenland and the Faroe Islands, at the dawn of the modern era.