Byzantium and Scandinavia

Forging the medieval on Wikipedia

“…27 The article was divided into headings, including, in the following order: 'Historical context,' 'Historical background,' 'Probable causes of Norse expansion,' 'Historic overview,' 'Northern Europe,' 'Eastern Europe,' 'Central Europe,' 'Western and Southern Europe,' 'North America,' 'Technology,' 'Religion,' 'Trade centres,' 'Genetics,' 'Scandinavia,' 'Settlements outside Scandinavia,' 'Old Norse influences on the English language,' 'Notes,' 'Cited sources,' and 'Further reading.' A glance at these headings demonstrates that there are significant gaps in how a global Viking world is represented, with no headings for Asia or Africa, despite the fact that Vikings were a significant presence in Byzantium and a Viking raid on Morocco is historically attested (Christys 2015;Fo ¨ller 2021). This absence is further compounded by sections that have further subheadings: 'Northern Europe' nests over the subheadings of 'England,' 'Ireland,' 'Scotland,' 'Wales,' 'Iceland,' 'Kvenland,' and 'Estonia and Curonians;' 'Western and southern Europe' nests over 'Frisia,' 'France,' 'Italy,' 'Spain,' and 'Portugal;' and 'North America' over 'Greenland' and 'Mainland North America'. Listing countries as they exist today as locations for Viking activity adds national borders to a history that had little to do with them, naturalising ideas of ethno-genesis and the nation-state as organising principles (Geary 2002).…”