Toni Schmid var arkivarie, historiker och tibetolog. Hon var den första kvinnan som disputerade i historia vid Lunds universitet och hennes arbete med de medeltida bokfragmenten i Sverige har varit avgörande för medeltidsforskningen.

This paper explores how local saints were constructed in early medieval Scandinavia. Focussing on the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, it specifically considers how four female saints fit into the new narratives which were created in the process of the Christianization of Scandinavian society. What made female Scandinavian saints unjque? How did they fit into the larger, over-arching Christian narrative? By studying the composition of new, unique liturgical texts, this study suggests that mythopoetic moments can instead be seen as movements. The textual co=unjties which authored these texts and their interconnectivity are thus related to the active and permanent establishment of emerging cults.

This second part of my discussion of Swedish and Finnish medieval Calendars and their place in the project Mapping Lived Religion (or, as we have started to affectionately call it, Mapping Saints) has been delayed in part due to the current pandemic. When I posted the first installment, I thought that I was just at the start of a year of regular trips to Stockholm to transcribe the calendar fragments that do not have photos in the Swedish National Archives Database of Medieval Parchment Cover Fragments (Riksarkivets databas över medeltida pergamentomslag, MPO). Studying these fragments will provide a clearer picture of what is actually extant and what these fragmented calendars can tell us about the medieval veneration of saints. However, the past year has put my plans to travel to the archives on hold. I am not more mobile now, nor have I had the chance to travel to Stockholm. However, our continuing project-work developing the database’s model, as well as re-checking my transcriptions and inputting them into the database has provided me with an opportunity to reflect on what calendars can tell us about the veneration of saints in terms of lived religion, as well as the use of digital methods in studying feast days.

Mirakler och donationer till helgon ger en inblick i vanliga människors liv under medeltiden.

In this blog post, I discuss how we classify information from the calendars for input into the database. An important part of this work involves figuring out how to deal with different systems of dating and how to visualize change over time. Lastly, I conclude with a reflection on my planned analyses of the development of saints’ feasts in medieval Sweden and Finland.

This chapter explores perceptions of historical saintly travel and discusses whether travelling was to convey a precise ideology or to provide an interpretation of a historical situation, highlighting social and communal aspects of travel. It focuses on the groups of saints in terms of their being members of the laity or missionaries, these aspects were shown to have had a bearing only on the type of journey the saint undertook. The chapter aims to explore perceptions of travel in the past and its association with holiness by studying accounts of travel in the hagiographical texts that were composed for a selection of Danish and Swedish saints. Studying sources written for the cults of early local saints in Scandinavia can provide insights into previously neglected aspects of medieval history in the area. Several of the local Scandinavian lay saints are described as having undertaken important journeys during their lifetimes.

Denna introducerande text diskuterar det aktuella temanumret Levd religion i det förmoderna Nordeuropa.

For most of human history, religious beliefs and practices have been fundamental to how people have understood and interacted with the world around them. Religion helped shape the rhythm of life, work, and social relationships, imbibing them with meaning. If historians wish to understand people in the past, it is of utmost importance that we understand their lived religious experiences. Religion is likewise a fundamental part of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Indeed, the aim of this current thematic issue, Lived Religion in Premodern Northern Europe, is to introduce the concept of lived religion as an analytical tool to a wider audience in the hope of seeing more studies of lived religiosity, especially of the premodern Nordic region.

In order to put this thematic issue into context, the development of lived religion as an analytical perspective is introduced and explored in this article. The historiography reveals that the concept originated in the attempt to come to grips with religious variation and move away from studies of the purely dogmatic and theological aspects of religion, as well as the dichotomies which arose from efforts to distinguish popular/elite religion. As a concept, lived religion was introduced by the 1990s as part of this effort, and first used by sociologists and anthropologists to understand contemporary religious expression. Gradually it has also been applied to understand historical contexts. In research published in English, it began to be widely used by the early 2000s, while in Nordic contexts it has mainly been Finnish researchers who have adopted and continued to develop the concept in studies about pre-modern religiosity in the past decade. This article discusses the different ways in which lived religion and its related concepts have been applied in research dealing with pre-modern religious experiences and with an especial focus on research in and about the Nordic countries.

In general, lived religion is seen as something that individuals do by adopting different customs and practices and using them in accordance with their own needs and priorities, not just something they believe. It can be expressed physically in an individual’s interactions with their material surroundings, as well as within social interactions and through language. Lived religion entails studying how people lived their religion, rather than about faith as an articulated internalization of theologically defined belief-systems. The focus is on religiosity anchored in bodily, intellectual, emotional, and everyday practices.

The aim of this article and indeed the thematic issue is to emphasize that research on religiosity thrives best in a climate where many different perspectives are available: lived religion is just one of many useful concepts. We hope that we will see further research in which lived experiences of pre-modern religiosity – in all religious traditions – in the North are highlighted.

The imagined ”Viking” can be found in contexts from the serious to the absurd. The concept has even become almost global in scope. In order to introduce this multifaceted phenomenon, this article presents research on and investigates the many ways in which the ”Viking” and the Viking Age have been interpreted and used from the 19th century to the present day. It presents the different definitions inherent in the concept of ”Viking”, from representing a warrior to referring to the inhabitants of Scandinavia who migrated to areas to the north, west, south and east. The article then delves into two growing international fields of research: medievalism studies and re-enactment studies. In doing so, the article discusses how the Viking and the Viking Age have been created and re-created throughout this period. It shows the links between the study of medievalism and how re-creating and activating the Viking Age fits into this area. Many different interest groups invoke the past in their efforts to justify actions or find answers to present-day circumstances. The Viking Age is no exception, and these groups include both extremists and those simply interested in history. The article also discusses the link between the Viking Age and the rise of the fantasy genre before exploring how re-enactment groups approach the Viking Age. This involves both re-creating objects (clothes, personal items, weapons, etc.) as well as re-enacting scenes from the past, such as battles or domestic tasks. Questions on the importance of authenticity are raised throughout the article, and connected to this aspect, the relationship between experimental archaeology and the re-creation of objects is addressed. Viking Age re-enactment officially organized by cultural heritage institutions or larger groups is presented, as well as a discussion of what exists at the grassroots level. The article also presents an overview of the challenges facing Viking re-enactment groups in terms of available sources, racism and sexism. The article concludes with a discussion on the positive impact of re-enactment and its place in the interpretation of the Viking Age. 

This article describes Mapping Lived Religion, an ongoing research and digitization project based at Linnaeus University and in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg. The project members are building an open access, online database of objects and texts connected to the cults of saints in medieval Sweden and Finland. The database is connected to a digital map and includes a register of medieval places. As part of its work, the project has enabled the digitization and digital publication oftheIconographic Index, housed by the Swedish National Heritage Board. Additionally, the photographs from The World of Medieval Images have been re-digitized as high-resolution images in collaboration with the Swedish National History Museums. By the end of the project, the database will be a major research and educational resource for those working on and teaching this period. As an open access portal published in both Swedish and English, it will offer data on the cults of saints to anyone with an interest in the field in Sweden, Finland, and internationally.