Thorir Jonsson Hraundal

Doctoral fellowship (2008-2010)

Project title:

Cultural Contacts and Identity in Times of Conversion: Northmen in the East

Project summary:

My doctoral project aims to examine the identity of those Northmen (Scandinavians) who travelled and/or settled for many reasons in what is sometimes referred to as Austurvegr in the Old Icelandic literature, what is now the north-western part of European Russia and Ukraine. This part of the Viking age history is unfortunately much less documented than the Viking expeditions westwards. By combining, however, evidence from textual sources such as the contemporary Arabic and Byzantine sources, and the later Russian and Icelandic writings with archaeological and numismatic data I hope to provide a clearer image of these east-faring Nordic men and women. Secondly, I will examine whether there is a perceivable change in how they are described in these sources at different times and in different locations and whether this description are compatible with archaeological evidence.

The advance of Christianity northwards, where a key moment is the adoption of Byzantine Orthodox Christianity in Kievan Rus´ in 988-989, provides the background for this study of cultural contacts and identities of these east-faring Northmen. A more general context is also important for my project: many of the peoples inhabiting this area, in fact the western regions of the vast Eurasian steppe, were coming into contact with and/or adopting the monotheistic faiths, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The exploration of these contexts allows for a comparison which may enable us to better understand the factors, i.e. the cultural contacts, that were most decisive in shaping the identity of these Northmen at that place and time.

I graduated as B.A. in general linguistics at the University of Iceland, mainly focussing on comparative grammar and etymological studies. I studied semitics (Arabic, Hebrew among other) at the University of Salamanca, Spain, from 1998-2001. In 2005 I graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies (now the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) at Cambridge with M.Litt. in Middle Eastern Studies examining the northwards expansion of Islam, specifically the conversion of the Volga Bulghars.