Welcome to the project!
Bears and bearskins in the medieval North: Human-bear relationships at the intersection between Old Norse literature, laws, place names and archaeology in Fennoscandia, is generously funded by the Lars Hellberg Memorial Fund at the Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur.
The aim of this project is to gain a wider understanding of the range of human-bear interactions and relationships indicated in the textual, place name, and archaeological record of early medieval Norse Scandinavia and the North Atlantic, especially in possible contrast to interpretations of human-bear relations as characterised by conflict (hunter and warrior identities).
It seeks answers to the following questions:
How did experiences of living alongside bears translate into medieval Scandinavian texts and later oral tales?
What role might place names play in our understanding of historic human-bear relationships?
How were bear remains used in mortuary practice, and how might these be re-interpreted with a wider range of data?
And these research questions will (hopefully!) be addressed by meeting the following objectives:
Completing a review of references to bears in medieval Scandinavian textual sources, including sagas, poetry and provincial laws.
Investigating the nature and range of place names with ‘bear’ elements (initially in Sweden, using the medieval place names in the TORA database).
Completing a review of bear remains on archaeological sites, 400-1100 AD from both Sami and Norse sites.
It is important to me that I report regularly on my progress on this project, so keep an eye out for future posts on all areas of the research!
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