Insulære gjenstander i norske vikingtidsgraver: på sporet av kristen misjon i Norge

Abstract

For a long time the interpretation of insular artefacts found in the context of Norwegian Viking Age has been that these resulted from plundering in the British Isles. To investigate this further, I have reviewed the Annals of Ulster for the period 795 to 1066 to see what they say about the Viking plundering in Ireland. Captives, sold as slaves, were most common, along with livestock, especially cattle. From churches and monasteries is mentioned a few times that the relics and relic caskets of Irish saints and book shrines were stolen and partially destroyed. Gold and silver were plundered from the rich monasteries of Clonmacnoise and Kells, but probably as raw materials. With references to my 2019 monograph "Looting or Missioning", I alternatively claim that the insular material has mainly come with Irish and other British missionaries to Norway. Such presence is documented in places like Selja and Kinn and the place names “Pape Fioerd” and “S Brigid”. From written sources we know that monks and bishops repeatedly directed their missionary activities towards central places in Scandinavia, but that they were often chased away or killed. The sacral objects they brought with them were then confiscated and ended up in pagan Viking Age graves in a local community, as more or less fixed sets of object types.