Bodies and Beings of Viking Worlds

Module code: AR3092

This optional module examines the fascinating and strange bodies and beings that populated the Viking worlds. The module will consider themes of the Viking Age in light of current theoretical discourse, including topics like slavery, sexuality, human-animal transformation, the body and the life-course, and personhood. We will draw on evidence such as architecture, burials, human remains, and material culture, as well as (to a lesser extent) runic inscriptions, medieval poetry, and sagas. We will confront some of the stereotypical notions of the Vikings and their contemporaries, and explore well-known aspects of the period (raids, trade, rising kingdoms) in the context of a world that was made up of diverse experiences and a criss-crossing of human and non-human beings.