HIST31362
Heroes and Holy Men: The Irish Sea World in the Viking Age, c. 780-1100
20
Semester 2
Undergraduate
Level 3
Charles Insley
Unit coordinator
1
FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors '
European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0
<p>This course examines the Irish Sea zone during the height of Viking activity and locates that examination in the wider context of Viking activity across northern Europe. It will focus on the impact of Viking activity – trading, slaving, raiding and settlement - across the Irish Sea and the extent that to which historians can talk of the Irish Sea as a ‘cultural zone’ by the eleventh century. The key processes we will be examining are acculturation, assimilation and identity formation.</p>
<p>This course examines the Irish Sea zone during the height of Viking activity and locates that examination in the wider context of Viking activity across northern Europe. It will focus on the impact of Viking activity – trading, slaving, raiding and settlement - across the Irish Sea and the extent that to which historians can talk of the Irish Sea as a ‘cultural zone’ by the eleventh century. The key processes we will be examining are acculturation, assimilation and identity formation.</p>
<ul> <li>Students will be encouraged to engage with different perceptions of Viking activity and identity, using a variety of on-line and library resources.</li> <li>Students will also engage with a range of primary sources, both documentary and material, to garner a greater understanding of the issues and debates around the formation of: (1) cultural provinces (2), the creation of new historical landscapes (e.g. the Viking Wirral) and (3) the emergence of new polities and identities during this period.</li> <li>Students will also engage with the concepts and methodological approaches surrounding identity, acculturative processes (eg assimilation) and diasporas.</li></ul>
<p>Manifest knowledge and understanding of:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Debates around/interpretations of Viking identity</li>
<li>
The political chronology of the Irish Sea area between 780 and 1100</li>
<li>
Historical paradigms around the formation of cultural zones/provinces</li>
<li>
The relationship between history and archaeology in terms of the interpretation of landscapes, settlement and place-names</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Students should be familiar with and be able to use a range of different types of evidence, from documentary to material culture in their writing</li>
<li>
Student should be able to place discussion of source material in a wider understanding of theoretical frameworks used by historians to explore group identity, ethnicity and the emergence of cultural provinces</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Essay writing</li>
<li>
Seminar participation and communication of complex ideas to a wider group</li>
<li>
Document/artefact analysis and commentary</li>
<li>
Identify the major historiographical debates underpinning the topic</li>
<li>
The use of electronic resources for Historians, for instance the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (<a href="http://www.pase.ac.uk/">www.pase.ac.uk</a>)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Present arguments and interpretations through oral and written communication</li>
<li>
Independent research</li>
<li>
Group working/working with peers</li>
<li>
Contextualising data of different types</li>
<li>
Critical thinking and analysis</li>
</ul>
Analytical skills
Critical thinking and analysis
Group/team working
Collaboration in team settings
Leadership
Acting autonomously and take leadership and responsibility (through independent learning, seminar preparation and contribution, assessment activities)
Oral communication
Convey complex ideas concisely via written and verbal communication skills
Research
Data handling
Written communication
Convey complex ideas concisely via written and verbal communication skills
0
Other
100%
<p>Source Analysis Exercise - 40%</p><p>Research Essay - 60%</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:500px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong>Feedback Method</strong></td> <td><strong>Formative or Summative</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Oral feedback on seminar handout, seminar participation, group discussions and presentations</td> <td>Formative</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Written feedback on coursework submissions via Turnitin</td> <td>Summative</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Additional one-to-one feedback (during office hours or by making an appointment)</td> <td>Formative</td> </tr> </tbody></table><p> </p>
<p>This module is only available to students on History-owned programmes; Euro Studies programmes; History joint honours programmes owned by other subject areas; and CAHAE-owned programmes. Available to students on an Erasmus programme subject to VSO approval.</p>
N
<ul> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{130}" paraid="1839960599">S. Brink and N. Price, The Viking World (Routledge, 2008) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{141}" paraid="723889499">C. Downham, The Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland (Edinburgh, 2007) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{152}" paraid="569837899">C. Downham, Medieval Ireland (Cambridge, 2017) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{163}" paraid="805440717">D. Griffiths, Vikings of the Irish Sea (Stroud, 2010) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{178}" paraid="2104240264">D. Hadley, The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society, and Culture (Manchester, 2006) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{204}" paraid="2083773372">D. Hadley and J.D. Richards (eds.), Cultures in contact: Scandinavian settlement in England in the ninth and tenth centuries (Turnhout, 2000) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{215}" paraid="1914392413">S. Mossman (ed.), Debating medieval Europe. The early Middle Ages, 450-1050 (Manchester, 2020) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{226}" paraid="1757266020">P. Stafford (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c. 500 – 1100 (Oxford, 2009) </li> <li paraeid="{d8b2aff1-b174-456f-b6e6-3e0ff6497a4a}{237}" paraid="720110985">A. Woolf, From Pictland to Alba: Scotland 789-1070 (Edinburgh, 2007) </li></ul>
Seminars
33
0
167