This book provides an analysis of the ideology of power in Norway and Iceland as reflected in sources written during the period 1150-1250. The main focus is explaining the way that Kings’ power in Norway, and that of chieftains in Iceland, was idealised in important texts from the 12th and 13th centuries (Sverris saga, Konungs skuggsjá, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, Íslendingabók, Egils saga, Laxdæla saga and Þórðar saga kakala). The originality of this work consists in the fact that it is the first monograph to comparatively analyse the ideology of power in Iceland, looking specifically at representations of king(s) and chieftains during the Civil Wars period, and compare the findings to those pertaining to Norway.

Retaliation of the Cursed: A Historical Investigation of The Origins of Worship, World Religion, Mythology, Paganism, Astrology and Atheism, and Their Contributions Leading to Modern Hinduism is a sweeping look at the ancient cross-cultural flows that worked to shape the long legacies of the major religions, right up to our contemporary moment. Primarily grounded in examining the Sumerian, Akkadian, Greek, Egyptian, Pagan, and biblical origins of various religious figures, practices, and beliefs, but drawing on a wide array of mythologies that stretch beyond this, this book is stunning in its scope and impressive in the rich, fascinating detail in which it presents its findings. Ultimately, author Stephen Martin makes a compelling case for the shared origins of the world’s great religions, arguing that by reincorporating many previously excommunicated spiritualities and atheisms, Hinduism manifested itself as the complex, multi-faceted cosmology it is today. As well-suited to an amateur audience as it would to a professional theologian, this book is sure to make an excellent read for anyone interested in studies of comparative religion or ancient civilizations—or those simply interested in better understanding the roots of the religious beliefs and spiritual practices of themselves and those around them.

Examining literary narratives from the tenth through the fifteenth centuries, this book explores how writers used their craft to voice harsh criticism of the ruling class and unearths a deep distrust of kings and other authority figures during the Middle Ages.

This book, first in a series of three, examines the social elites in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, and which social, political, and cultural resources went into their creation. The elite controlled enormous economic resources and exercised power over people. Power over agrarian production was essential to the elites during this period, although mobile capital was becoming increasingly important. The book focuses on the material resources of the elites, through questions such as: Which types of resources were at play? How did the elites acquire and exchange resources?

A trip to the furthest edgelands of the Viking world via the drama of the Old Norse sagas -- from the Arctic Circle to Constantinople, North America to Kievan Rus.

This book analyses the Nordic pre-Christian ideology of rulership, and its confrontation with, survival into and adaptation to the European Christian ideals during the transition from the Viking to the Middle Ages from the ninth to the thirteenth century.

Haraldur Hreinsson examines the social and political significance of the Christian religion as the Roman Church was taking hold in medieval Iceland in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.

This volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.

Has supplements.