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 31d - The Saga of Bard the God of Snowfell (Judgments)
Saga Brief 20 - On Bard's Saga, Medieval Literature, and Dungeons and Dragons with Will Biel
Episode 31c - The Saga of Bard the God of Snowfell (Chapters 17-22)
Episode 31b - The Saga of Bard the God of Snowfell (Chapters 12-16)
1 Million Downloads (A Celebratory Chat with John and Andy)
Episode 31a - The Saga of Bard the God of Snowfell (chapters 1-11)
Saga Brief 19 - Sailing in the Viking Age Interview with Dana Dalicsak
Episode 30d - The Saga of Hord and the Holm-Dwellers (Judgments)
Episode 30c - The Saga of Hord and the Holm-Dwellers (chapters 29-41)
Episode 30b - The Saga of Hord and the Holm-Dwellers (chapters 16-28)
Saga Brief 18 - Women of the Viking World Interview with Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
Episode 30a - The Saga of Hord and the Island-Dwellers (Chapters 1-15)
Saga Short 7 - The Tale of the Volsi
Saga Short 6 - The Tale of Thidrandi and Thorhall
Saga Short 5 - The Tale of Thorarin Nefjolsson
Saga Short 4 - The Tale of Thorstein Shiver
Saga Brief 17 - Vinland and the Vikings in the New World (Live at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in West Newton, MA)
Episode 29p - Egil's Saga (Judgments)
Episode 29o - Egil's Saga (Part 15)
Episode 29n - Egil's Saga (Part 14)
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