Kings and warriors in early north-west Europe

Jan Erik Rekdal & Charles Doherty, editors

This book explores the representation of the warrior in relation to the king in early north-west Europe. These essays, by scholars from the areas of Norse, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon studies, examine how medieval writers highlighted the role of the warrior in relation to kings, or to authority, and to society as a whole. The warrior who fought for his people was also a danger to them. How was such a destructive force to be controlled? The Christian church sought to challenge the ethos of the pagan tribal warrior and to reduce the barbarism of warfare (at least its worst excesses). We can follow this struggle in the medieval literature produced in the areas under study.

Contributors: Marged Haycock (Aberystwyth U), Charles Doherty (UCD), Jan Erik Rekdal (U Olso), Ralph O’Connor (U Aberdeen), Morgan Thomas Davies (Colgate U), Ian Beuermann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Jon Gunnar Jørgensen (U Oslo), Stefka G. Eriksen (U Oslo).

Jan Erik Rekdal is Professor of Irish at the Department of Linguistic and Nordic Studies, University of Oslo. Charles Doherty is retired from the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin.