The Viking Age in Åland: Insights into Identity and Remnants of Culture

The Viking Age in Åland presents a mystery. Some disciplines see a (near-) complete discontinuity of language and culture from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, which produces challenging riddles concerning the people who lived there, the societies that they created, and indeed why there would be such discontinuity at all. An equally puzzling question concerns who those people were. The Aland Islands were positioned on the frontier between Scandinavian and Finnic cultural areas, in a key location along the so-called Eastern Route that connected them. Even though Åland was not a significant political or economic center during the Viking Age, its cultural and geopolitical situation makes it extremely significant to understanding the networks spanning the Baltic Sea and how these networks related to the identities of cultures, polities and individuals. At the same time, the position between Sweden and Finland has politicized the reconstruction of history as heritage, which is inevitably bound up with current identities and conflicts. The present volume introduces the topic of Aland in the Viking Age and discusses it from the perspectives of a number of different disciplines with emphasis on questions of identities. The chapters review earlier interpretations, present current views, and also offer exploratory investigations that will stimulate future discussion and will certainly be of interest to specialist and non-specialist alike. Preface: Identity, Identification and Remnants of Culture 7 Map of Åland with Major Locations Mentioned in This Book 16 Acknowledgements 17 Introduction 19 Jan-Erik Tomtlund / The Viking Age in Åland: An Introduction 21 Part I: Interpreting Evidence of the Past 37 Interpreting Evidence of the Past: An Introduction 39 Jenni Lucenius / In Search of Identities: A Look at Interpretations of the Viking Age on the Åland Islands 41 Joonas Ahola / The Other Island: Kalevalaic Epic and History 55 Per Olof Sjöstrand / History Gone Wrong: Interpretations of the Transition from the Viking Age to the Medieval Period in Åland 83 Part II: Between Sources and Their Lack 153 Between Sources and Their Lack: An Introduction 155 Rudolf Gustavsson, Jan-Erik Tomtlund, Josefina Kennebjörk & Jan Storå / Identities in Transition in Viking Age Åland? 159 Teija Alenius / Viking Age Landscapes and Livelihoods in the Åland Islands: A Review of the Pollen Evidence 187 Sirpa Aalto / The "Finnar" in Old Norse Sources 199 Joonas Ahola, Frog & Johan Schalin / Language(s) of Viking Age Åland: An Irresolvable Riddle? 227 Part III: Contexts, Contacts and Perceptions 267 Contexts, Contacts and Perceptions: An Introduction 269 Johan Schalin with Frog / Toponymy and Seafaring: Indications and Implications of Navigation along the Åland Islands 273 Mikko Heikkilä / The Changing Language Situation in the Åland Islands and Southwest Finland during the Late Iron Age 303 Lassi Heininen, Jan Storå, Frog & Joonas Ahola / Geopolitical Perspectives on Åland in the Viking Age 323 Frog / From Mythology to Identity and Imaginal Experience: An Exploratory Approach to the Symbolic Matrix in Viking Age Åland 349 Indices 415 The Viking Age in Åland' presents a mystery. There was a (near- )complete discontinuity of language and culture from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, which produces challenging riddles concerning the people who lived there, the societies that they created, and indeed why there would be such discontinuity at all. An equally puzzling question concerns who these people were. The Åland Islands were positioned on the frontier between Scandinavian and Finnic cultural areas, in a key location along the so-called Eastern Route that connected them. Even though Åland was not a significant political or economic center during the Viking Age, its cultural and geopolitical situation makes it extremely significant to understanding the networks spanning the Baltic Sea and how these networks related to the identities of cultures, polities and individuals. At the same time, the position between Sweden and Finland has politicized the reconstruction of history as heritage, which is inevitably bound up with current identities and conflicts. The present volume introduces the topic of Åland in the Viking Age and discusses it from the perspectives of a number of different disciplines with emphasis on questions of identities. The chapters review earlier interpretations, present current views, and also offer exploratory investigations that will stimulate future discussion and will certainly be of interest to specialist and non-specialist alike Edited By Joonas Ahola, Frog, Jenni Lucenius. International Conference Proceedings. Academy Publication. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.