🔺4A Foreign accounts

Question 1

The Viking Age. What was the time period what were main changes Viking activity caused in Scandinavia?

Answer 1

793-1066 CE.
The conversion to Christianity. New channels of communication with other parts of Europe, bringing knowledge of more developed forms of government, administration, and law.

Question 2

Name 9 authors of Latin sources.

Answer 2

Caesar,
Tacitus,
Paulus Orosius,
Sidonius Apollinaris,
Jordanes,
Paulus Diaconus,
Alcuin of York,
Thietmar of Merseburg,
Adam of Bremen

Question 3

Name 3 authors of Greek sources.

Answer 3

Strabo,
Procopius of Caesarea
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus.

Question 4

Name 2 authors of Arabic sources.

Answer 4

Ibn Rustah and Ibn Fadlan

Question 5

Time period of Caesar?

Answer 5

100-44 BCE

Question 6

Time period of Tacitus?

Answer 6

c. 56-c. 120 CE

Question 7

Time period of Paulus Orosius?

Answer 7

c. 375/385-c. 420 CE

Question 8

Time period of Sidonius Apollinaris?

Answer 8

431/2-c. 485 CE

Question 9

Time period of Jordanes?

Answer 9

6th cent. CE

Question 10

Time period of Paulus Diaconus?

Answer 10

720s-before 800 CE

Question 11

Time period of Alcuin of York?

Answer 11

8th century CE

Question 12

Time period of Thietmar of Merseburg?

Answer 12

975/6-1018 CE

Question 13

Time period of Adam of Bremen?

Answer 13

c. 1050-1081/5 CE

Question 14

Time period of Strabo?

Answer 14

c. 63 BCE-c. 64 CE

Question 15

Time period of Procopius of Caesarea?

Answer 15

c. 500-565 CE

Question 16

Time period of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus?

Answer 16

c. 913-c. 959 CE

Question 17

Time period of Ibn Rustah?

Answer 17

early 10th century CE

Question 18

Time period of Ibn Fadlan?

Answer 18

10th century CE

Question 19

Different perspectives. What is meant by “etic” in foreign accounts?

Answer 19

Outside looking in.

from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied

Question 20

Different perspectives. What is meant by “emic” in foreign accounts?

Answer 20

Inside looking out.

from the perspective of one who participates in the culture being studied

Question 21

Who was Strabo and what did he write?

Answer 21

He was a Greek historian and geographer. He wrote Geographica. Describes the tribes, background and landscape.

Question 22

What is The Gundestrup Cauldron?

Answer 22

A large bowl placed in a peat bog in NW Jylland. Silver plates with pictures broken up into 17 pieces. Shows sign of trade routes and commissions as it originates from Central or South-East Europe.

Question 23

What are the pictures on The Gundestrup Cauldron?

Answer 23

1. Pictures of a large female figure, smaller female figures and details of birds, necklace and animals.
2. Tree/Platform deviding the picture. Lurer and figures with animal helmets.
3. Large female figure who is putting men into a cauldron.

Question 24

What did Ibn Rustah write?

Answer 24

Book of Precious Records. First hand accounts of an outsider. Wrote about a culture having “wizards” who make offerings of women, men and cattle by hanging them.

Question 25

What did Jordanes write?

Answer 25

Getica (The Origin and Deeds of the Goths). It concerns sacrifices and offerings. He wrote about Mars who had captives slain as his victims. To him they devoted the first share of the spoil, and in his honor, arms stripped from the foe were suspended from trees.

Question 26

What did Procopius of Caesaria write?

Answer 26

De Bellis (‘On the Wars’). He wrote about inhabitants of Thule, how those kind of people respect/believe in great numbers gods and demons, both of the heavens and of the air, of the earth and of the sea, and sundry other demons which are said to be in the waters of springs and rivers. A whole host of gods and demons, spirits in a sense.

The book also includes something about sacrificing to Týr whom they regard as the greatest god. Sacrifice by hanging to a tree or throwing among thorns.

Question 27

What did Paulus Orosius write?

Answer 27

Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII.

It’s about fate of prisoners and booty after a battle in which a confederation of Gallic and German tribes defeated the Romans. Clothing was cut to pieces and strewn about, gold and silver were thrown into the river, the breastplates of the men were hacked to pieces, the horses themselves were drowned in whirlpools, and men, with nooses fastened around their necks, were hanged from trees

Question 28

What did Gaius Julias Caesar write?

Answer 28

De Bello Gallico (e. Commentaries on the Gallic War)

Includes: To Mars (=Týr), when they have determined on a decisive battle, they dedicate as a rule whatever spoil they may take. After a victory, they sacrifice such living things as they have taken. People fight and whoever is taken as a prisoner is being sacrificed to Mars.

Question 29

What did Publius Cornelius Tacitus write?

Answer 29

Annales (e. Annals).

Hermunduri and Chatti fought a great battle. In the event of victory, had vowed their enemies to Mars [=Týr] and Mercury [=Óðinn], a vow which consigns horses, men, everything indeed on the vanquished side to destruction.

(So here we have two germanic tribes that say if one of them wins, everything they loot from the battle field, they sacrifice in honor of Mars and Mercury)

Question 30

Who do we understand as Mars?

Answer 30

Týr

Question 31

Who do we understand as Mercury?

Answer 31

Óðinn

Question 32

Publius Cornelius Tacitus did not only write Annales, but something else too. What is his other work/book called? And what does it say?

Answer 32

Germania.

It says that Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship. They sacrifice living beings to him. Mercury is getting human sacrifices. Hercules and Týr are getting animals but no humans. Suevi sacrifice to a female deity. Whoever Isis is, she is meant to be a light ship. Like a rowing ship for rivers and such.

Question 33

What did Ibn Fadlan write?

Answer 33

Risāla (e. Journal, Account).

Someone getting gifts. Betakes himself to a long upright piece of wood that has a face like a man’s and is surrounded by little figures, behind which are long stakes in the ground. The one giving his gifts lays down what he has brought with him.

Question 34

What did Sidonius Apollinaris write?

Answer 34

Sidonius Apollinaris (e. Correspondence of letters)

Saxons when sailing abandon every tenth captive to the slow agony of a watery end, casting lots. These men are bound by vows which have to be paid in victims. A religious act, an absolving sacrifice, by the Saxons.

Question 35

What did Thietmar of Merseburg write?

Answer 35

Chronicon Thietmari (e. Chronicle)

The centre of the kingdom is a place called Lederun.. Every nine years, in the month of January, after the day on which we celebrate the appearance of the Lord, they all convene here and offer their gods a burnt offering of 99 human beings and as many horses, along with dogs and cocks

Question 36

What did Adam von Bremen write?

Answer 36

Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (e. History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen)

Wrote about Þórr main god, with Óðinn (Wotan) and Freyr (Fricco). A famous temple called Uppsala entirely decked out in gold and in there the people worship the statues of three gods. The people also worship heroes made gods, whom they endow with immortality.

Question 37

In the context of sacred Groves, which author and work say: [The Suebi], moreover, do not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship.

Answer 37

Germania by Tacitus

Question 38

What does Tacitus say about Nerthus in his work Germania?

Answer 38

they universally join in the worship of Nerthus; that is to say, the Mother Earth.
the divinity herself (guðdómleiki), are purified in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed up by its waters.

Question 39

Wagons (vagnar) in Dejbjerg, Jylland.. What time period, sacrificed into what, and made by what people?

Answer 39

2nd cent. BCE. 2 wagons dismantled & sacrificed into peat bog. Made by Celtic people further south & sent up North.

Question 40

Wagons (vagnar) in Rappendam, N. Sjæland. What time period, parts of what, and what type of body was found there?

Answer 40

2nd-1st cent. BCE. Parts of an undercarriage and solid disc wheels. Skeleton of a woman.

Question 41

Wagons (vagnar) in Oseberg, Vestfold, NOR. What bodies and type of goods were found there?

Answer 41

2 female bodies were found. Grave goods were found consisting of various animals, rattle, a bucket made form yew, precious metals & garments, a sleigh, a small longship, and a wagon.

Question 42

Research has been done into the legends of gold wagons (rich wagons) buried in lakes/marshes which survived into modern times. What does the gold wagons suggest?

Answer 42

Suggests how long folklore can last.