Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050–1250, Volume III: Legitimacy and Glory

Description

This book explores the practical and symbolic resources of legitimacy which the elites of medieval Scandinavia employed to establish, justify, and reproduce their social and political standing between the end of the Viking Age and the rise of kingdoms in the thirteenth century. Geographically the chapters cover the Scandinavian realms and Free State Iceland. Thematically the authors cover a wide palette of cultural practices and historical sources: hagiography, historiography, spaces and palaces, literature, and international connections, which rulers, magnates or ecclesiastics used to compete for status and to reserve haloing glory for themselves. The volume is divided in three sections. The first looks at the sacral, legal, and acclamatory means through which privilege was conferred onto kings and ruling families. Section Two explores the spaces such as aristocratic halls, palaces, churches in which the social elevation of elites took place. Section Three explores the traditional and novel means of domestic distinction and international cultural capital which different orders of elites – knights, powerful clerics, ruling families etc. – wrought to assure their dominance and set themselves apart vis-à-vis their peers and subjects. A concluding chapter discusses how the use of symbolic capital in the North compared to wider European contexts. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of Figures and Maps List of Abbreviations Preface 1 Introduction Section I Social Bonds, Social Resources 2 Kith and Kin: Ties of Blood and Marriage 3 Lords and Followers: Patron-Client Relationships 4 Friends and Allies: Networks of Horizontal Bonds Section II Patterns of Networks 5 Aristocratic Networks During the Late Viking Age in the Light of Runic Inscriptions 6 Nordic and Eastern Elites. Contacts Across the Baltic Sea: An Exiled Clan 7 Contact and Continuity: England and the Scandinavian Elites in the Early Middle Ages 8 Character Networks of the Íslendinga Sögur and Þættir 9 Angels in Scandinavia: Papal Legates and Networks of Nordic Elites, Twelfth–Thirteenth Centuries 10 Social Friendships Between the Dominican Order and Elite Groups in Thirteenth-Century Scandinavia Section III Networks in Action 11 Friends, Foes, and Followers: Power, Networks, and Intimacy in Medieval Iceland 12 Forming Bonds With Followers in Medieval Iceland: The Cases of Thordr kakali and Thorgils skarði 13 Strength Through Weakness: Regent Elites Under Kings Inge, Sigurd, and Magnus Haraldsson 14 The Politics of Exile in Northern Europe: The Case of Knud V of Denmark 15 Social Power and Conversion of Capital: Sune Ebbesen of Zealand 16 Constructing the Friendships and Hierarchies of the Clerical Elite: A Case Study of the Relationship Between Øm Abbey and Bishop Tyge 17 Elites and Social Bonds – How Nordic Were the Nordic Medieval Elites? List of Contributors Index