Viking Worlds: Things, Spaces and Movement by Hem Eriksen Marianne & Pedersen Unn & Rundberget Bernt & Axelsen Irmelin

Author:Hem Eriksen, Marianne & Pedersen, Unn & Rundberget, Bernt & Axelsen, Irmelin [Pedersen, Unn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / General, HISTORY / Medieval
ISBN: 9781782977285
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2014-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

The archaeological evidence, viewed alongside near-contemporary written sources such as laws and the Family Sagas, offers interesting insights into how Icelanders may have used and perceived shielings in the Viking and medieval periods, and how shielings might have played a role in the mediation of gender identities. The archaeological investigations of turf-built boundary walls dating to these periods, contextualized against a review of medieval laws regulating their construction, attest to the clear separation of the infield and outfield, with a substantial effort put into the annual maintenance of the homefield boundary wall. As this boundary would have been very visible in the surrounding landscape, its crossing during the journey to the shieling could have had a psychological impact on the people engaged in transhumance, physically marking their seasonal separation from the affairs of the farm. The laws did not strictly regulate the enclosure walls around shielings, perhaps adding to their perception as different from the clearly demarcated and controlled social space of the farm. However, the estimates for the average distances between shielings and home farms, based on both archaeological survey data and written evidence, do not support the notion of summer pastures as marginal spaces isolated at a great distance from farms. The distances that separated shielings and mother settlements were usually not significant and contact between the two could have been easily maintained on a daily basis, with the shieling being simply an extension of the farm in the summertime. Rather, it is more likely that there have been a lack of intervisibility between the farm and the shieling due to the local topography, combined with the fact that shielings were outside of the homefield boundary walls, which could have propagated the perception of shielings as isolated and unprotected places.

The evidence that can be drawn from the Sagas of Icelanders certainly suggests that shielings were perceived as secluded and isolated in the medieval period. Sagas portray them as places where women stayed during the summer months to carry out the relatively mundane tasks of looking after and milking herds of sheep and cattle, and processing milk products, but in the saga narratives shielings also attracted and facilitated socially unaccepted behaviours. Violence at shielings is a common thread in Íslendingasögur, and those who broke the law often sought shelter at upland pastures. These physical attacks were sometimes directed at women who were working at shielings away from the protection of the male members of their families. Illicit encounters, love affairs, and secret illegitimate births are also common themes in saga narratives about shielings. It is clear that shielings were viewed by the saga writers as good settings for high drama, because their relative seclusion gave people an opportunity to temporarily escape the watchful eyes of neighbours, relatives and social superiors.

It is this perceived isolation from the home farm and the rest of the household, fostered partly by the act of crossing through the homefield boundary wall into an outer liminal space, partly by the distance, and in many cases

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.