Les Transferts culturels dans les mondes normands médiévaux (viiie–xiie siècle). Objets, acteurs et passeurs ed. by Pierre Bauduin, Simon Lebouteiller and Luc Bourgeois (review)

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

• Les Transferts culturels dans les mondes normands médiévaux (viii^e–xii^e siècle). Objets, acteurs et passeurs ed. by Pierre Bauduin, Simon Lebouteiller and Luc Bourgeois
• Lola Sharon Davidson

Bauduin, Pierre, Simon Lebouteiller, and Luc Bourgeois, eds, Les Transferts culturels dans les mondes normands médiévaux (viii^e–xii^e siècle). Objets, acteurs et passeurs (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 36), Turnhout, Brepols, 2021; hardback; pp. 363; 69 b/w, 7 colour illustrations, 2 b/w tables; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503593661.

This dense and copiously illustrated volume consists of fourteen articles, of which four are in English and the remainder in French. The articles in French are provided with brief abstracts in English, except for the introductory article by Pierre Bauduin and the concluding article by Geneviève Bührer-Thierry. The English articles do not have abstracts in French—it might have been simpler to translate the four English articles. The volume is the product of a 2017 conference, which itself formed part of an ongoing collaboration on cultural transfers in the Norman world begun in 2009. It is a great strength of this project that it brings home the vast geographical extent of Norman, or possibly Viking, influence. The editors’ assumption that Normans are merely rebranded Vikings, though arguably justified, leads to a title that may well mislead prospective readers into neglecting a work with valuable contributions to their field. Most anglophone scholars would be surprised at the idea of Norman, as opposed to Viking, influence extending to Central Asia. The articles in this book, however, go a long way toward supporting the ongoing coherence of the Norman/Viking world.

Section I deals with objects as vehicles of cultural transfer. The first two papers discuss archaeological material recently uncovered by metal detectors. Anne Pedersen traces the gradual adoption of Christian symbols, firstly the cross and crucifix, then Christian animal motifs, on small personal ornaments, generally brooches and pendants in copper alloy or silver. Whereas burials and hordes preserve the possessions of the elite, these ornaments come from the common people. They provide us with evidence for the Christianisation of the Danes, which complements the top-down accounts of our other sources. Continuing with Denmark, Jens Christian Moesgaard examines the introduction of coinage. Originally, foreign coins functioned as bullion, but around 720 locally minted coins appear as standard exchange units at Ribe, then later at Haithabu. Endorsed by a succession of kings, the European model of coinage had imposed itself on the countryside by the mid-eleventh century, though not without resistance.

Jacques Le Maho argues that a funerary slab from Fécamp is that of two young sons of Richard I of Normandy and his wife Emma, daughter of Hugh the Great. [End Page 214] The only similar design is found on an altarpiece from Narbonne. The southern tombstone’s presence in the north may be explained by the presence there of two prominent clerics from Occitania. These sculptural and personal connections supplement those already commented on from the Song of Roland. Alexandra Lester-Makin places the Bayeux Tapestry within the wider context of embroidered hangings used for political purposes throughout the Viking and Norman worlds. She shows that the commissioning of local artisans, in this case Anglo-Saxon and elsewhere Muslim, was a standard Norman strategy for consolidating relations with newly conquered people. She argues that the high status accorded this female work was itself part of a philosophy of unification.

Section II is entitled ‘Translate, Transmit, Adapt’. Oaths were a fundamental aspect of pagan Scandinavian and Germanic society. Simon Lebouteiller looks at how Christianisation shifted the form of oaths, sworn by pagans on their weapons, the temple door ring, and their gods, to those sworn on Christian liturgical objects. Underneath this apparent replacement, however, lurks continuity, shown by the swearing of oaths at the church door and the use of the sword in the swearing of fealty, as well as a continued emphasis on shame and social exclusion rather than divine vengeance as the penalty for oath-breaking. Alban Gautier tackles the Roman tradition of identifying Norse gods with the Greco-Roman...