Rulership in 1st to 14th Century Scandinavia: Royal Graves and Sites at Avaldsnes and Beyond

This book discusses the 3rd–11th century developments that led to the formation of the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the Viking Age. Wide-ranging studies of communication routes, regional identities, judicial territories, and royal sites and graves trace a complex trajectory of rulership in these pagan Germanic societies. In the final section, new light is shed on the pinnacle and demise of the Norwegian kingdom in the 13th–14th centuries.
The two chapters in Section A maintain the original geographic scope of the project: Einar Østmo (Ch. 1) explores the long history of the sailing route along the west-Scandinavian coast, the Norvegr, and Mari Arentz Østmo (Ch. 2) conducts a regional study of socio-political structure and change in Rogaland and southern Hordaland, where Avaldsnes is situated. All three chapters in Section B, however, take a Scandinavian perspective on, respectively, rulership and ruler’s sites (Dagfinn Skre, Ch. 3), the role of law regions in the transformation from tribe to kingdoms (Frode Iversen, Ch. 4), and the role of ship graves and ship settings in reproducing the divine origin myth of deceased kings (Jan Bill, Ch. 5). Finally, in Section C, the 2017 excavation of the high medieval complex provided the opportunity to include certain aspects of the late 13th–14th-century Norwegian kingdom in this volume. Anette Sand-Eriksen and Erlend Nordlie (Ch. 6) present the results from the excavation of the masonry royal manor complex, Alf Tore Hommedal (Ch. 7) sets the complex into the context of the period’s royal masonry architecture, and Erik Opsahl (Ch. 8) discusses the complex in the context of the period’s royal ambitions and politics.
Thus, in this volume, the reader will find discussions of conditions and developments that led to the formation of the Scandinavian kingdoms as well as the pinnacle of the medieval Norwegian kingdom in the mid–late 13th century and the start of the 434-year union of Denmark-Norway in 1380.