Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In this short note I query not so much the use of the word ‘vikings’ or the fraught question of whether it should be capitalised, but rather whether ‘the Vikings’ is a useful concept that helps us understand history, or whether it creates an inaccurate essentialist category for which there is no historical evidence. The piece argues for more nuance and specificity when dealing with Scandinavia and the Scandinavian diaspora in our period, and argues that the variety of phenomena across times and space warrants more serious consideration. The time has come to ditch this twentieth-century concept and to return to the sources.
DOI: 10.1017/ean.2024.3
Author: Alex Woolf
Institution: University of St Andrews
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W4405694166