We were recently invited to speak at the University of Connecticut's Annual Medieval Studies/ECE Outreach Seminar on a variety of subjects related to the Viking Age. We prepared and recorded our morning presentation on Slavery in the Viking Age as a Saga Brief so that everyone in our listening audience could enjoy. It's a subject Andy's been thinking about a lot as we've been working our way through Laxdaela Saga, which is why he took the lead on this topic. Later in the day, John presented on Viking Age board games, focusing on Nine Men's Morris and Hneftafl. We then led a conversation on the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and his Sons among other topics. Sadly, these afternoon sessions were workshops and thus not recorded.
We hope you enjoy this little attempt at a live Saga Brief. The audio is not pristine, but it is pretty decent for a live recording. The questions from Q&A are a bit difficult to hear and had to be edited slightly. Apologies for the poor quality there. We'll use two mics next time.
For those interested in learning more, here is a list of valuable research on the subject Andy used to prepare the Saga Brief:
Brink, Stefan. "Slavery in the Viking Age." In The Viking World, edited by Stefan Brink and Neil Price, 246-257. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Brink, Stefan. Thraldom: The Viking Age Slave Trade. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press, 2018.
Byock, Jesse L. Viking Age Iceland. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
Gelsinger, Paul. Icelandic Enterprise: Commerce and Economy in the Middle Ages. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.
Gustin, Ingrid, and Sven Kalmring (eds.). Viking Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2013.
Heebøll-Holm, Thomas. "Piratical Slave-Raiding: A New Perspective on Viking Age Maritime Violence." In Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland, edited by Ingrid Gustin and Sven Kalmring, 219-240. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2013.
Jarman, Cat. River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.
Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. "Concubinage and Slavery in the Viking Age." Scandinavian Studies 79, no. 4 (2007): 403-422.
Naumann, Elise, Maja Krzewińska, Anders Götherström, and Gunilla Eriksson. "Slaves as Burial Gifts in Viking Age Norway? Evidence from Stable Isotope and Ancient DNA Analyses." Journal of Archaeological Science 41, (2014): 533-540.
Price, Neil. Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. London: Allen Lane, 2020.
Raffield, Ben. "The Slave Markets of the Viking World." History Today 66, no. 4 (2016): 12-19.
Music Credits
Opening song – Icelandic Folk Music: Tröllaslagur
Outro – Ólafur Liljurós
Episode 34c - The Saga of Gunnar of Keldugnup (Judgments)
Episode 34b - The Saga of Gunnar the Fool of Keldugnup
Episode 34a - The Saga of Gunnar the Fool of Keldugnup (chapters 1-5)
’Twas the Night Before Christmas - A Visit from Glam
Saga Short 10 - The Tales of Thormod and Thorarin the Overbearing
Episode 33g - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (Judgments)
Episode 33f - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (chapters 23-24)
Episode 33e - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (chapters 18-23)
Episode 33d - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (chapters 13-18)
Episode 33c - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (chapters 7-13 with Thormod)
Episode 33b - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers (chapters 7-13 with Thorgeir)
Episode 33a - The Saga of the Sworn Brothers
Saga Short 9 - The Tale of Gisl Illugason
Saga Brief 21 - Interpreting the Past Series (Part I) - Modern Perceptions of the Viking Age with Verena Hoefig and Zachary Melton
Episode 32d - The Saga of Thord Menace (Judgments)
Episode 32c - The Saga of Thord Menace (chapters 10-14)
Episode 32b - The Saga of Thord Menace (chapters 6-9)
Episode 32a - The Saga of Thord Menace (chapters 1-5)
The Saga of Gudmund the Grunch
Saga Short 8: The Tale of Audun and the Bear
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