HIST 5516 The Vikings

Despite the popular image of axe-wielding raiders, the medieval Scandinavians were equally consequential as traders, settlers, and state-builders whose reach stretched from Newfoundland to Constantinople, and this graduate seminar treats them as a lens onto how a decentralized society reshaped the political and cultural map of 800-1100 Europe. You'll work directly with historical chronicles, sagas, and archaeological evidence, pick up enough Old Norse to read short passages, give an oral presentation, and produce a term project alongside the midterm. It's source-driven medieval history rather than a survey, so expect to argue from primary material and treat the "Viking Age" as a problem to be interpreted, not a story to be retold.