Byzantium and the Viking World (Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia, #16)

Byzantium needed the military service of foreigners as much as the Scandinavians needed the empire as a foil for constructing their own cultural identity. 'Byzantium and the Viking World' brings together scholars from the very different worlds of Byzantine and Scandinavian studies, and from the different academic disciplines of archaeology, history and literature. They offer a snapshot of recent findings on the material evidence and the reasons for contacts between Byzantium and the Viking world, and on Byzantium's image in the Old Norse sagas and Rus chronicles, while presenting new interpretative models of cultural transfer between these worlds. Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Notes on contributors xiii Abbreviations xix General maps xxiii PART I: CONTACTS AND CULTURAL TRANSFER BETWEEN BYZANTIUM AND THE VIKING WORLD 1. Jonathan Shepard / Small worlds, the general synopsis, and the British ‘way from the Varangians to the Greeks’ 3 2. Lesley Abrams / Connections and exchange in the Viking world 37 3. Roland Scheel / Concepts of cultural transfer between Byzantium and the north 53 PART II: CONTACTS REFLECTED IN THE MATERIAL CULTURE 4. Fedir Androshchuk / What does material evidence tell us about contacts between Byzantium and the Viking world c. 800–1000? 91 5. Marek Jankowiak / Byzantine coins in Viking-Age northern lands 117 6. Florent Audy / How were Byzantine coins used in Viking-Age Scandinavia? 141 7. Magnus Källström / Byzantium reflected in the runic inscriptions of Scandinavia 169 8. Thorgunn Snædal / Runes from Byzantium: reconsidering the Piraeus lion 187 9. Fedir Androshchuk & Gülgün Köroğlu / A Viking sword-bearing resident of southern Asia Minor? 215 10. Valeri Yotov / Traces of the presence of Scandinavian warriors in the Balkans 241 11. Mathias Bäck / Birka and the archaeology of remotion: early medieval pottery from Byzantium and beyond in eastern Scandinavia 255 12. Inga Hägg / Silks at Birka 281 13. Valentina S. Shandrovskaia / The seal of Michael, Grand Interpreter of the Varangians 305 PART III: CONTACTS REFLECTED IN THE WRITTEN SOURCES 14. Elena Mel’nikova / Rhosia and the Rus in Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’ 'De administrando imperio' 315 15. Anna Litvina & Fjodor Uspenskij / Contempt for Byzantine gold: common plot elements in Rus chronicles and Scandinavian sagas 337 16. Sverrir Jakobsson / The Varangian legend: testimony from the Old Norse sources 345 17. Scott Ashley / Global worlds, local worlds: connections and transformations in the Viking Age 363 PART IV: CHRISTIANITY AND THE INTENSIFICATION OF CONTACTS 18. Monica White / Relics and the princely clan in Rus 391 19. John H. Lind / Christianity on the move: the role of the Varangians in Rus and Scandinavia 409 Glossary 443 List of illustrations and acknowledgements 447 Index 455 This Interdisciplinary Volume, The First On The Subject To Appear Since 1981, Brings Together Work On Subjects As Diverse As Archaeology, History, Art History And Literature Relating To Byzantium And The Nordic, Baltic And East Slavonic Lands Between The Ninth And Thirteenth Centuries. Edited By Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, Monica White. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This interdisciplinary volume, the first on the subject to appear since 1981, brings together work on subjects as diverse as archaeology, history, art history and literature relating to Byzantium and the Nordic, Baltic and East Slavonic lands between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries.