Why choose this programme?

This two-year English-taught interdisciplinary programme offers insights into the Viking Age and the Nordic Middle Ages, with special focus on Norway. Source criticsm is an important part of the programme, i.e. how to interpret sources, and how to deal with different sources that complement and contradict each other: What do a poem of the Edda, a runestone and the Oseberg grave tell us about pre-Christian religion? Was Snorri Sturluson a historian or just a good storyteller? The proramme does not adhere to a strict division into (sub-) disciplines but instead prioritises problemsolving: What might the study of holy places tell us about cultural and social conditions in the Viking and Middle Ages? How justified are we to say that Norway was ’europeanised’ in the Middle Ages? The programme is directed at overseas and Norwegian students who are interested in taking an interdisciplinerary approach to the Viking and Middle Ages, in an international environment.

In the course of the programme overseas students are expected to acquire the necessary skills to read Scandinavian specialist literature.