Following the raven banner : an inclusive, multi-disciplinary look at the Scandinavian mercenary in the Viking Age

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Authors
Shaw, Hayden C.
Advisor
Seefeldt, Douglas, 1964-
Suppe, Frederick C., 1947-
Issue Date
2017-12-16
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.A.)
Department
Department of History
Other Identifiers
Abstract

This project aims to create a new history of the Scandinavian mercenary that implements classic primary source research alongside digital scholarship and a multi-disciplinary approach to secondary sources that relies on ecology, geology and climatology, as much as it does the social sciences to synthesize the most inclusive history of these unexplored individuals as possible. In the academic past, the Scandinavian mercenary has been largely overlooked, a peripheral actor in their own stories. It is the primary goal of this digital thesis to correct this problem by creating a website that will provide a little-big history of the Scandinavian sellsword. This project seeks to show that the Nordic mercenary was an important historical figure through the exploration of influential environmental factors, as well as intriguing case studies conducted in places like the Early-Medieval British Isles, the Kingdom of the Franks, the Byzantine Empire, and Eastern Europe.