Exploring Animals As Agents And Objects In Early Medieval Iceland And Scandinavia

Evans Tang, Harriet J.; Ruiter, Keith

Abstract

This chapter offers new explorations of animal-human relationships, specifically but not limited to the human-horse relationship in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavian evidence. Working between literary and legal texts, as well as mortuary archaeology, it asks a key question of these sources: How did medieval Scandinavians conceive of their relationships with certain animals, especially the horse? Taking a post-humanist perspective, the analysis here suggests that animals could occupy a complicated conceptual and legal space that, while not quite 'human', was attributed with its own intricate understanding and expression of personhood.

Citation

Evans Tang, H. J., & Ruiter, K. (2023). Exploring Animals As Agents And Objects In Early Medieval Iceland And Scandinavia. In L. Gardeła, & K. Kajkowski (Eds.), Animals and Animated Objects in the Early Middle Ages (81-101). Turnhoult, Belgium: Brepols Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.NAA-EB.5.132517

• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2024
• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Pages: 81-101
• Series Title: New Approaches in Archaeology
• Series Number: 1
• Book Title: Animals and Animated Objects in the Early Middle Ages
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9782503600901
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.NAA-EB.5.132517
• Keywords: Human-animal relations, Viking Age, early medieval, Iceland, Scandinavia, horses, burials, Sagas of Icelanders, medieval laws
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2346887