Scandinavian Studies 430.
Medieval Studies 430.
The Vikings. (Wolf)
(4 credits) 

The course has a cultural-historical purpose. It presents students with the facts and flavor of everyday life in Scandinavia during the Viking Age and gives them an impression of the mentality of the Viking-Age Scandinavians. What kind of houses did the Scandinavians live in? How stable was the family? Were they literate? What did they eat? How did they view death? What were their sources of income? How did they treat their slaves? What were their attitudes toward women? How did they relax? What kind of clothes did they wear? What were their means of transport and transportation? These are but some of the questions that a considered. We begin by watching The Vikings, the 1954 big-screen adventure starring Kirk Douglas, which remains one of the most influential cinematic works in the formation of the popular conception of the Vikings, and then proceed to "deconstruct" the movie (and the conception) through an examination of the Viking-Age Scandinavian's domestic, economic, intellectual, material, political, recreational, and religious lives. Particular attention is given to the Viking raids and trade routes and to the discovery and settlement of new lands by Norsemen.

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