THE HIES OPEN LIBRARY

Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Mary Wilhelmine Williams • 1920

Category: HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP

About This Work

Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age is a historical study of Scandinavian society and daily life during the Viking Age by historian Mary Wilhelmine Williams. The work examines the social institutions, customs, relationships, occupations, material culture, and religious practices of Scandinavian communities.

Its subjects include kinship and social organization, childhood and family life, marriage, the position of women, homesteads, agriculture, travel, trade, warfare, government, law and justice, social gatherings, runes, learning, religious practice, and death and burial.

About This Edition

This Open Library entry uses the 1920 edition of Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age, published in New York by The Macmillan Company.

As a work of early twentieth-century historical scholarship, its terminology, interpretations, assumptions, and conclusions reflect the scholarship and available evidence of its period. HIES therefore approaches the work critically and in conversation with primary sources, archaeological evidence, and later scholarship.

Areas of Study

Scandinavian Society

Kinship & Family

Law & Government

Household & Daily Life

Trade & Economy

Religion & Custom

Material Culture

Viking-Age History

Use at HIES

Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age provides a broad historical resource for the study of Scandinavian society, institutions, and daily life at Hákonarætt Institute of Eddic Studies.

It is especially relevant to courses addressing Old Norse history and society, saga literature, law and governance, household and kinship structures, religious practice, leadership, cultural context, and the interpretation of historical scholarship.

Because this work was published in 1920, students should distinguish Williams's historical interpretations from primary evidence and from conclusions reached through later historical, archaeological, linguistic, and religious-studies scholarship.

Inclusion in the Open Library does not mean that every chapter or section is assigned in every HIES course. Specific required readings are identified within individual courses on the HIES Learning Platform.

Access the Text

This edition is available online through Open Library.

Bibliographic Information

Title: Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Author: Mary Wilhelmine Williams

Publication Year: 1920

Publisher: The Macmillan Company

Publication Place: New York

Resource Type: Historical Scholarship

Language: English