‎Charlotta Hillerdal, Kristin Ilves (eds)‎
‎Harvesting the Margins of the Viking World. Decentralizing Economies in Late Iron Age Fennoscandia‎

‎, Brepols, 2026 Hardback, Pages: 246, Size:216 x 280 mm, Illustrations:32 b/w, 37 col., 9 tables b/w., Language: English. ISBN 9782503620183.‎

Reference : 70439

‎Summary Viking Age research has long been shaped by an 'agricultural paradigm' - a framework that centres economic and social development in the fertile plains of southern and central Scandinavia. This dominant model has marginalized alternative subsistence strategies and rendered northern regions peripheral, both geographically and conceptually. This volume challenges that orthodoxy through a new focus on the economic and cultural significance of Late Iron Age Fennoscandia. Gathering fifteen chapters from established scholars in the field, this work explores how environmentally diverse and often-overlooked northern areas were not passive peripheries. Instead they were active arenas of innovation, connectivity, and identity formation. Contributors examine mixed economies and subsistence strategies, and the movement of people, materials, and ideas across forested outlands, coastal zones, and inland trade networks. From indigenous agency to interregional exchange, this volume decentres traditional narratives to offer a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of economic life in the Late Iron Age. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations 1. Setting the Scene: Shifting Late Iron Age Geography Kristin Ilves and Charlotta Hillerdal 2. Challenging Marginality: Nuancing the Agricultural Paradigm of Viking Age Fennoscandia Charlotta Hillerdal Conceptualizing a New Viking Age North 3. Fuzzy Boundaries: Defining the Wilderness in Finnish Scholarship Tuija Kirkinen 4. Historical and Mythical Northern Land: Dialoguing between the Viking Age and the Present in Northern Finland Vesa-Pekka Herva and Risto Nurmi 5. The Rise of an Economic Elite - Societal Changes in the North Induced by Viking Age Trade Networks Jari-Matti Kuusela 6. Maritime Transformations in Northern Norway during the Viking Age and Medieval Period: Innovation and Independence on the Edge of Europe Stephen Wickler 7. S mi in the North - Central Actors in Viking Age Trade Ingela Bergman 8. Trade and Subsistence in Northeastern Fennoscandia: The Northern River Routes and the White Sea Coast Hanna-Leena Puolakka 9. The Outland as an Economic Resource Base: Exploitation in the Norse Periphery Irene Baug Diversifying Economy and Connectivity 10. Hunters and Combmakers, Mountains and Markets: Problematizing the Movement of Reindeer Antler in Viking-Age Norway Steven P. Ashby 11. The Riches behind the Langeid Sword: Viking Age Iron Production and Trade Kjetil Loftsgarden 12. From Quarry to Pot: Soapstone in Local and Regional Networks Eva Svensson, Lena Grandin, Erik Ogenhall, Stefan Nilsson, Ellinor Larsson, Hans Olsson, and Annie Johansson 13. Shears and Frontiers: Pastoral Grave Goods in Viking Age Sweden and their Implications Samanta Rose 14. Was it for Iron? Andreas Hennius 15. Clandestine Clay? Explorations into Late Iron Age Religious Identity Creation in an Island Setting Kristin Ilves, Kim Darmark, and Elisabeth Holmqvist‎