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Liber Vitae from Reichenau. From Zürich Zentralbibliothek. MS Rh Hist 27 fol89r. CCBYSA

How were the names of Scandinavian Pilgrims recorded?

From ca. 1000, Scandinavian pilgrims travelled south to reach the large centres. Registered in the Confraternity Book from Reichenau, we know the names of more than 700 Scandinavian pilgrims from the 11th and 12th centuries. A new research project aims to determine what these people were called back home and abroad.

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Sheep grazing in Iceland. © Pisit Rapuitpunt/Dreamstime 122080619

Viking Women Spinning the Yarn of History

In the Old Norse poem “Darraðarljoð” from Njál’s Saga we hear of the Valkyries—Óðin’s female warrior spirits—weaving the cloth of history and deciding the fates of men and nations. New book explores the very real and practical role of women played in the North Atlantic culture and economy 

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The archaeological site from Tanais. Source Wikipedia

Embargoes and Grain Exports: The Missing Link in the Story of the Black Death

Embargo of the trade in grain in the Black Sea in 1345-06 tells the story of how this kept the plague from spreading from port to port in the Mediterranean

Source:

Laying the Corpses to Rest: Grain, Embargoes, and Yersinia pestis in the Black Sea, 1346–48
By Hannah Barker
In: Speculum (2021), Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 97–127

When, how, and why did the Black Death reach Europe, and why were the results so devastating? Recent phylogenetic studies of the bacterium Yersinia pestis have demonstrated that the specific strain responsible for the catastrophe developed in China in the first half of the thirteenth century. The bacterium then took approximately 150 years to reach the area near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, where tombs dated to 1338–1339 bear witness to an outbreak. From there, it took approximately seven years to reach the Venetian colony of Tana, near the Sea of Azov, and Solgat in the Crimea. From these locations, it spread to Constantinople and then to the major ports and trading hubs of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Alexandria, Messina, Genoa, Marseille, Ragusa, and Venice. Finally, the disease spread inland as well as northwards.

This leads to a specific question: why did the pestilence gain such gravitas at this particular moment? Why did it “suddenly” erupt with such violence? And, if at all, to what extent was this caused by endemic reservoirs that had survived from the Justinianic plague of the sixth century? Archaeologists and scientists are currently studying the different strains of the bacterium and how they shaped the course of the European catastrophe.

Sources produced by people present in the Black Sea region during the Second Pandemic—including Genoese colonial administrators, Venetian diplomats, Byzantine chroniclers, and Mamluk merchants—offer an important perspective. They show that the Venetian community at Tana played a significant role in plague transmission; that it took over a year (from spring 1346 to autumn 1347) for the plague to cross the Black Sea to Constantinople; that people crossed the Black Sea in 1346, but commodities did not, owing to a series of trade embargoes; that grain was one of the most important Black Sea commodities in both volume and strategic value; and therefore that the embargoes of 1346 delayed plague transmission by temporarily halting the movement of grain, along with its accompanying rats, fleas, and bacteria.

When Venice, Genoa, and the Golden Horde made peace and lifted their embargoes in 1347, both the grain trade and the spread of plague resumed, precipitating the later European disaster and devastation.

In a brilliant and detailed exposé of the evidence provided by letters, diplomatic reports, legal documents, and chronicles, the historian Hannah Barker lifts the veil on these crucial political manoeuvres, which delayed the spread of the pestilence.

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Recent studies from 2025 supplements this study by demonstrating how a forced volcanic climatic cooling-off of the Mediterranean region in the year 1346 led to a significant drop in average temperatures of between 1.5º and 2º, which caused widespread famine. Although not as harsh as the downturn caused by the Samala eruption in 1256, this led to an invigorated diplomatic effort to have the embargo lifted so that cities in Italy might lessen the strain by importing grain. Ultimately this is claimed to be the last missing piece. However, the question still remainss, to which extent and how, bacterial reservoirs and other rodents than the black rats played a role in the north of Europe.

Cnut the Great and Edmund ironside at the Battle of Assandun. Source: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 26, fol. 80v/Wikipedia (Open Domain)

The Lifeworlds of Cnut the Great and William the Conqueror

In 2016, when the English decided to leave the EU, several international conferences were organised to shed light on the conquests of Medieval England by Cnut the Great and William the Conqueror. New books present some of these papers and new perspectives.

In 2016, several conferences were organised in the heady days of the election leading up to Brexit. Now, the papers have been published from several of these conferences, presenting us with a cultural history of the events, which took place a thousand years ago. In particular, three recently published books offer different perspectives on the events which took place a thousand years ago. Do read the three books in following order.

The Cambridge Companion to the Ages of William the Conqueror
Ed. By Benjamin Pohl
Cambridge University Press 2022

In the 19th century, biographies of great men flooded the market for books on history. Great men mattered until the Annales School presented a new and refreshing paradigm pushing the cultural and social history of the life and times of ordinary people.

However, in the 21st century, when social media has fostered a new preoccupation with our neighbours as well as persons like Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping, we see many more biographies published. One of these might have been the new companion to William the Conqueror. By contrast, this companion introduces us more to the world of William and less to the man himself.

Accordingly, this book offers a fine introduction to not just the three realms – Normandy, England, and Scandinavia – but also the landscapes and settlements, the social strata and their institutions, as well as the lifeworld and mentality. As such, the companion proactively states in the introduction that it is not intended to be a companion to William the Conqueror but the companion to his “the age”. Thus, the present book does not offer an introduction to the conqueror’s life and career, nor are we treated to the minutiae of his invasion or the Battle of Hastings. Instead, we get a proper stage-setting or sounding board, which can be used as an introduction to the two books mentioned above.

Emphatically, this is also the intention of the editor, who writes that “his” companion is intended to “buck the trend” of students collecting exam results and grade points. Instead, this book aims to offer “contextual information and guidance” to students who wish to embark on the exciting journey of discovering a corner of the history of the Middle Ages.

Anglo-Danish Empire: A Companion to the Reign of Cnut the Great
Ed. By Richard North, Erin Goeres, and Alison Finlay
De Gruyter 2022

Anglo-Danish Empire: A Companion to the Reign of Cnut the Great has come out of a conference titled “Æthelred II and Cnut the Great: The Siege of London in 2016”. Jointly organised at the University College of London and the University of Winchester, the conference was part of a research project intended to explore the change of regime in 1016 in not just England but Europe as a whole.

The book does speak to the themes of immigration, government and Europe, but it also presents us with a cultural history of the life and times of Cnut the Great, which is both intriguing and vastly entertaining. Thus, we encounter Cnut as a latter-day Aeneas, a Viking tomb-raider in high spirits, a youngster bent on enjoying the good life, and a king attracting the best and the most skilled artists and poets to his court. And we follow him archaeologically to his coronations in both Winchester and Viborg and join him on his tour of Europe, ending up as a pilgrim in Rome. A man of all times, in short. Highly entertaining and hence recommended.

Conquests in Eleventh-century England 1016,1066
Ed by Laura Ashe and Emily Joan Ward
The Boydell Press 2020

“Conquest: 1016,1066” was the title of a conference held in Oxford in July 2016 to mark the millennial anniversary of Cnut’s conquest of England and the 950th anniversary of the Norman conquest. The aim was explicitly to do comparative history. Out of this event grew the publication of some papers from this conference, which were paired with separately commissioned papers widening the scope of the original programme.

While focusing on the high politics, the leading players, and the legal and bureaucratic practices surrounding the events, a cultural history of different persons and perspectives takes the scene. With splendid articles on the social, ideological, and artistic framework, a proper cultural history is sketched in this wide-ranging book.

 

 

FEATURED PHOTO:

Cnut the Great and Edmund ironside at the Battle of Assandun. Source: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 26, fol. 80v/Wikipedia (Open Domain)