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Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. By Thomas A. DuBois. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. x + 271 pp. $45.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.
It is the contention of the author, who is trained as a folklorist with research specialization in the Finnish and Sami (Lapp) cultures, that the Germanic-- speaking Scandinavians did not live in isolation from other Nordic peoples as so many other scholars have contended in the past. He examines all the pre-Christian religions of the Nordic region and bases his conclusion on the emerging consensus of contemporary archaeology and his folkloristic and anthropological examination of mythology and religion.
DuBois sees the pagan religions of Nordic Europe as "decentralized communities of belief, framing local relations with specific deities, interacting with the religious systems of neighboring peoples economically and geographically linked, and contributing to the social and political workings of the region as a whole" (4-5). Within the scope of his examination are the religions of the Scandinavians, the Sami, and the Balto-Finn peoples. The Viking Age encompasses the pre-Christian era from 800 C.E., through the period of Viking expansion, to 1300 C.E., when Christianity had become consolidated in northern Europe and the Icelandic sagas committed to writing.
The author makes extensive use of the Icelandic sagas, especially those of Snorri...