Annotated Bibliography – Ross Davidson

The outline of my dissertation topic idea is: How significant was the warrior youth ideology in fueling Viking activity in the initial phase of the Viking Age (c.780-880)?

1. Jakobsson, Ármann. ‘Snorri and His Death: Youth, Violence, and Autobiography in Medieval Iceland’. Scandinavian Studies 75, no. 3 (2003): 317-340. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40920453

I found this article through JSTOR by searching for sources relating to violence and youth in Medieval Iceland. This article became the main inspiration for examining this dissertation topic as it alludes to the warrior youth ideology; being one of the few sources to even suggest this topic. This article will provide a classic example of the warrior youth ideology in use, in the later phases of the Viking Age (around 1229), through the deeds of Snorri Porvaldsson. It addresses the spread of daring and heroic deeds (by epics, sagas, poetry, etc.) in relation to violence and death amongst the young.

2. Barrett James, ‘What caused the Viking Age?’ Antiquity 82, no. 317 (2008): 671-685.

I found this article by simply searching the library catalogue for the causes of the Viking Age. This article will be important in engaging with the question of why the Viking Age started; providing Barnett’s view alongside other historians will allow me to do so. This article will be instrumental as it concludes by arguing that the Viking Age began because young men went to seek ‘bride-wealth’ and political power to prevail in Scandinavia; these motives evidently align with the debates of this dissertation.

3. Pedersen, Anne. “Late Viking and Early Medieval Ornaments: A Question of Faith.” In Conversion and Identity in the Viking Age, edited by Ildar Garipzanov, 195-223. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2014.

This second last chapter would be particularly useful to discover whether the conversion to Christianity from Paganism had a connection with the move towards a less destructive and violent period in the Viking Age. Thus, this would either support, or discount/weaken, the importance of religion in fueling the warrior youth ideology in the first hundred years of the Viking Age. This chapter also conveys male violence within Norse religion via religious symbols often including weaponry (e.g. Thor’s hammer); thus, perhaps, sub-consciously encouraging the warrior youth ideology in religion.

4. Somerville, Angus., and McDonald, Andrew. The Viking Age: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2014.

I found this source from previous use in the HISU9V5 module, remembering the significance of this source in providing primary source-based evidence. This reader is the main way of accessing various primary sources from the Viking Age in an accessible form (translated and presented clearly). The reader details numerous aspects of Viking life – in the cultural, political, and religious sense – thus it will be extremely important in understanding the societal influences in the Viking Age that drove the ideology of warrior youth.

5. Smiley, Jane. The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection. London: Penguin Books Limited, 2005.

This is also an excellent collection of primary sources, which details life in medieval Iceland. The Egil’s Saga will be of particular use in identifying the societal influences of violence and death in relation to the warrior youth ideology; the promotion of violence from powerful figures and family members.