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Knut Helle, ed. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia. Volume 1: Prehistory to 1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Pp. i-xx + 872.
The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Volume I: Prehistory to 1520, is the first of three planned volumes. The entire work is intended to present "the current state of historical knowledge about Scandinavia from the beginnings to the present"(xvii). As used in this volume, "Scandinavia" refers to the area which "the Scandinavians themselves call Norden/ Pohjola/Norourlond"(4-) : Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faeroes. Rather than ending with 1536-37, which is a more customary breaking point between the Middle Ages and Early Modern period for Norway and Denmark, this volume ends in 1520, with the "Stockholm Massacre." The editor hopes that the second volume will thus be able to deal with the Protestant Reformation and the growth of territorial kingdoms more coherently than would be the case if the division were made at the later date, and those subjects were addressed in both volumes. The two volumes in preparation will cover 1520-1870 and 1870-1990.
There are twenty-four separate chapters in volume I, which are grouped into seven broad Parts: I. The Geography and Prehistory of Scandinavia; n. From Vikings to Kings; III. Material Growth (to c. 1350); IV. The High Medieval Kingdoms;...