TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stefka G. Eriksen
PY  - 2024
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
JF  - Mediaevistik
IS  - 1
VL  - 36
SN  - 2199-806X
TI  - Solveig Marie Wang, Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Norse-Saami Relations in the Medieval Period. Religious Minorities in the North: History, Politics and Culture, 5. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2023, 278 pp.
DO  - 10.3726/med.2023.01.62
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1517790
N2  - The main aim of the book is to reassess Norse-Saami relations from the early to the late medieval period (ca. 750–1500), in Fennoscandinavia, i.e., Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Kola peninsula of Russia, and Russian Karelia (6). The geographical area of the investigation encompasses primarily the north of Scandinavia, but also areas as far south as Hadeland (and even Oslo) in Norway, and Jämtland and potentially Värmland in Sweden. The book takes a stand against the prevailing emphasis in the secondary literature on the negative and ‘othered’ image of the Saami and demonstrates through numerous and varied examples that not only are the Saami often portrayed positively, but also that they are essential and resourceful agents in their own relationships and interactions. The book convincingly established that medieval Fennoscandinavia was much less monocultural and that the Norse-Saami socio-political, economic, and geographical boundaries were much less rigid than previously assumed.
ER  -