Everyday Life in Viking-Age Towns: Social Approaches to Towns in England and Ireland, C. 800-1100 by ten Harkel Letty Hadley D. M

Author:ten Harkel, Letty,Hadley, D. M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2013-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

7

WHITHER THE WARRIOR

IN VIKING-AGE TOWNS?

D. M. Hadley

Analysis of the construction and articulation of gender identities has become fundamental to historical and archaeological studies of early medieval society (e.g. Nelson 1997; van Houts 1999; Stoodley 1999; Brubaker and Smith 2004; Coon 2010). However, the gendered dimensions of the Scandinavian raiding and settlement in Britain and Ireland remain under-explored. A handful of studies have addressed the experiences and identities of women in the areas of Scandinavian settlement (Fell 1984; Jesch 1991; Kershaw 2009; see also Boyd, this volume), but the explicit discussion of masculinity has scarcely begun (for an isolated exception see Hadley 2008). This scholarly neglect is surprising on three counts. First, there is now an extensive body of scholarship on early medieval masculinity, which provides a context for understanding masculinity in the Viking Age (e.g. the various contributions to Lees 1994; Hadley 1999; Murray 1999; Cullum and Lewis 2004). Second, there have been a number of studies by literary scholars of the Scandinavian sources for the Viking Age – including sagas, poetry and runic inscriptions – in which masculinity is central (e.g. Jesch 2001; Jakobsson 2007; Phelpstead 2007). Third, the study of much of the Scandinavian impact on the British Isles has long been about the activities and behaviour of men, even if the construction of masculinity has not been explicitly articulated. This chapter draws on written, archaeological and material culture evidence to explore the construction and renegotiation of masculinity in urban settlements in England and Ireland in the wake of Scandinavian settlement. The focus is on the manner in which masculine warrior identities and ideals were transformed in the wake of settlement, and, in particular, on the contexts in which the symbolism of warfare remained relevant during the processes of settlement and acculturation.

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