The popular notion of social collapse consequent on natural catastrophe is here elegantly disentangled in a study of the dark summer of AD 536. Leaving aside the question of its cause, the authors show there is good scientific evidence for a climatic downturn, contemporary with good archaeological evidence for widespread disruption of settlement and population displacement in the northern latitudes. They then navigate through the shifting shadows of myth, and emerge with a welcome prize: strong circumstantial reasons for recognising that this widespread horror, like so many others, did leave its imprint on Scandinavian poetry and sculpture.

Prehistoric burial rites and burial finds ought to be studied also in the light of primitive soul beliefs. It is argued that the customs of submitting prestige grave goods in northern Europe during the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age consistently reflect a pluralistic soul idea with a free soul aimed for the next existence.

No abstract

The Rök runestone from central middle Sweden, dated to around 800 CE, is famous, among other things, for a supposed reference to the emperor Theodo ric the Great. This study proposes instead that the inscription deals with an anxiety triggered by a son's death and the fear of a new climate crisis similar to the catastrophic one after 536 CE. Combining perspectives and findings from semiotics, philology, archaeology, and history of religion, the study presents a completely new interpretation which follows a unified theme, showing how the monument can be understood in the sociocultural and religious context of early Viking Age Scandinavia. The inscription consists, according to the pro posed interpretation, of nine enigmatic questions. Five of the questions con cern the sun, and four of them, it is argued, ask about issues related to the god Odin. A central finding is that there are relevant parallels to the inscription in early Scandinavian poetry, especially in the Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál.

No abstract