What is it about?
Crime and rule-breaking happen in every society, but different cultures have very different ways of dealing with people who cross the line. This was especially true during the Viking Age, a time when many different groups of people were coming together, religions were shifting, and new laws were being created. Here we synthesise a range oftextual and archaeological sources to take a closer look at how people were punished in early-medieval England and Scandinavia, to see how these systems compared to one another.
Featured Image
Photo by Jason Abdilla on Unsplash
Why is it important?
It looks at a number of themes, but aims to show that understanding how a culture punishes people tells us what they (or their leaders) value most. It considers how punishment was framed in different times and places, and how contact and communication affected it. We aim to look at the macroscopic 'big picture' rather than focusing at the level of individual stories.
Perspectives
This was a great piece of work led by Keith, a student of mine at the time. He's since gone on to be an important new voice in the study of Viking-Age law!
Dr Steven P Ashby
University of York
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Different Strokes: Judicial Violence in Viking-Age England and Scandinavia, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, January 2018, Brepols Publishers NV,
DOI: 10.1484/j.vms.5.116393.
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