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V iking stranger‐kings: the foreign as a source of power in V iking A ge S candinavia, or, why there was a peacock in the G okstad ship burial?
Author(s) -
Dobat Andres Siegfried
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/emed.12096
Subject(s) - archetype , narrative , mythology , power (physics) , possession (linguistics) , history , presupposition , politics , ancient history , literature , art , classics , philosophy , law , linguistics , political science , physics , quantum mechanics
Drawing on both written and archaeological evidence, this paper investigates the significance of the foreign, and in particular the concept of the ‘stranger‐king’, in V iking A ge S candinavia. Focusing on the case of the D anish J elling dynasty, the monumental complex at J elling is reinterpreted as a materialization of a stranger‐king myth: the ship‐setting reproduces the narrative of the founding of the dynasty by an immigrant forefather, and the earthen burial mounds convey the idea of the foreign king taking possession of the locals' land. In a broader perspective, the stranger‐king concept and the special association of the king with the foreign is identified as an integral element of O ld N orse myth and a S candinavian archetype of rulership. The embracing of the foreign in many different forms is seen as a political strategy whose aim is to illustrate a king's special connection to the forces of the distant and unknown world beyond direct human control, and which clothes him with an aura of the strange and the exotic. In this way, and closely related to the concept of sacral rulership, the foreign emerges as a source of power and a presupposition for the formation of early states in S candinavia.