Agency and Renegotiated Identities in the North Atlantic Isles

Abstract

Humans, as agents, played an active role in the creation and communication of new identities during the Viking period in the Orkney Islands and Iceland. The authors argue that environments are not merely passive backdrops to societal and identity formation but are dynamic contributors in the negotiations that take place when humans settle into new lands. The chapter will focus on the maneuvering and balancing of traditional burial rituals and beliefs within new political, economic, and cosmological landscapes. The comparison of interdisciplinary data from burials, ancient texts, archaeological excavations, and landscape surveys from both regions during the time period of the study will show how the environment aided in the creation and performance of the burial ritual and how the agents’ reshaping of the land helped to form their new identities