Thomas Lindkvist
University of Gothenburg, Dept of historical studies, Faculty Member
La transformation des sociétés scandinaves au cours du haut Moyen Âge (ca 1100-1300) peut être définie à la fois par la christianisation et l’émergence des royaumes et de l’État; elle a été interprétée comme une forme d’européanisation,... more
La transformation des sociétés scandinaves au cours du haut Moyen Âge (ca 1100-1300) peut être définie à la fois par la christianisation et l’émergence des royaumes et de l’État; elle a été interprétée comme une forme d’européanisation, c’est-à-dire comme une adaptation aux modèles européens. La fonction de lagman (littéralement : « celui qui dit la loi »), une des plus importantes de la Suède médiévale, apparaît dans les lois provinciales à partir de la fin du xiiie et du début du xivesiècle. Dans les intéressantes listes ajoutées à l’unique codex préservé de la première version de la loi du Västergötland (Äldre Västgötalagen) se trouve le plus ancien exemple suédois d’écriture de l’histoire, qui est loin d’être un chef d’œuvre littéraire : il s’agit de trois listes, plutôt maigres, des rois de Suède, des évêques de Skara et des lagmän du Västergötland. La liste royale a attiré très tôt l’attention des chercheurs, notamment de Sture Bolin. L’éminent historien suédois a montré que cette liste avait tendance à favoriser les rois de la dynastie des Sverker et aussi que de brèves notations évoquaient leurs relations avec la province du Västergötland. Alors que l’histoire royale commence seulement avec le premier roi chrétien, la liste des lagmän, qui peuvent être considérés comme une élite régionale, fait remonter l’origine de ces derniers à l’époque païenne. Les récits de la loi du Västergötland sont en effet beaucoup plus détaillés en ce qui concerne les offices provinciaux, celui de l’évêque et celui du lagman. Les lagmän sont décrits comme les régisseurs de l’ordre légal et social, formulant la loi qu’ils transmettaient d’abord, suppose-t-on, oralement; puis ils la mirent par écrit et introduisirent de nouvelles règles en accord avec le droit canonique. Il arrivait parfois que l’office passât en héritage du père au fils. Dans la loi du Västergötland, «ceux qui disaient la loi» étaient à l’évidence élus par la communauté provinciale. Ceci contraste avec les règlements des codes provinciaux de l’est de la Suède, où l’influence royale sur l’élection était importante. À l’exception d’une référence à un lagman païen probablement mythique et de Torgny, le lagman idéal mentionné par Snorri Sturluson, on n’en connaît aucun en Uppland avant la fin du xiiie siècle. On doit par conséquent se demander si la fonction ne fut pas dans certaines parties de la Suède une création liée aux transformations politiques du xiiie siècle. Les lagmän connus de la fin de ce siècle comme, par exemple, Birger Persson en Uppland, paraissent avoir été les représentants d’une nouvelle élite sociale.The transformation of the Scandinavian societies during the High Middle Ages (c. 1100–1300) could be described as Christianization, the emergence of kingdoms and state and has been interpreted as a form of Europeanization, i. e. an adaptation to European models. The office of the lagman (law-speaker) was one of the most prominent offices in medieval Sweden. The lagman appears in the Swedish provincial law codes from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The earliest example of history-writing in medieval Sweden is the interesting lists appended to the only surviving law code of the first version of Västgötalagen (Äldre Västgötalagen). It is far from a literary masterpiece. We find three rather meagre lists of the kings of Sweden, the bishops of Skara and the lagmän of Västergötland. Most earlier research, notably that of Sture Bolin, has focused on the list of kings. This prominent Swedish historian has shown that was a tendency to favour the kings of the Sverkerian dynasty, and also that there the kings were briefly mentioned in their relations to the province of Västergötland. Concerning the lagmän, which could be understood as the regional elite, their origins are dated back to pagan origins. The history of kings starts with the first Christian one. The histories of Västgötalagen are much more detailed concerning the provincial offices of bishops and law-speakers. The law-speakers are described as the organizers of the legal and social order, those who are thought to have formulated and transmitted the law orally, then drafted the written law and introduced new regulations in accordance with canon law. Sometimes the office was passed on from father to son. In the law code of Västergötland the law-speakers were evidently elected by the regional community. This is in contrast with the regulations of the provincial law codes of eastern Sweden, where royal influence in the election was substantial. With the exception of references to a probably mythical pagan law-speaker and the ideal law-speaker Torgny mentioned by Snorri Sturluson, there are no known law-speakers in Uppland before the late thirteenth century. The question is whether the office was created in certain parts of Sweden during the political transformations of the thirteenth century. The lagmän known from the late thirteenth century, e. g. Birger Persson of Uppland,…
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SwePub titelinformation: The Hälsingelag and Hälsingland as a Political Periphery.
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SwePub titelinformation: The Making of a European Society: The Example of Sweden.
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SwePub titelinformation: Droit et genèse de l'État dans la Suède médiévale: Royauté et communautés.
Cultural encounters can be described as both events and processes, and can have different meanings for different groups. Studies of such encounters attract the interest of scholars from a range of ...
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The notion of sovereignty remains one of the most scholarly and historically contested concepts. In this article we argue that historians’ absorption of sovereignty’s spatiality needs to be complemented by an investigation of its... more
The notion of sovereignty remains one of the most scholarly and historically contested concepts. In this article we argue that historians’ absorption of sovereignty’s spatiality needs to be complemented by an investigation of its temporality. By tracing the late medieval and early modern connections between political theology and economic teleology—between the permanence of political incorporation and perpetuation of the administrative apparatus —this article outlines a new research agenda and a novel vantage point for investigating state formation in Sweden. The article scrutinizes the following four areas: (1) The ideas of incorporation and representation of the realm and the Swedish people in late medieval historiography; (2) the transformation of political loyalty from personal oaths of and to the monarchs to popular, national loyalty; (3) the transformation of tax-collection from occasional to perpetual; and (4) the transition from personal debts of monarchs to state debt.
Research Interests: History, Early Modern History, Medieval Historiography, Modernity, Political Theology, and 15 moreFutures Studies, Carl Schmitt, Claude Lefort, Public Debt, History of Sweden, Incorporation, Loyalty Oath, Oaths, Loyalty, Gothicism, Eternity, Ernst Kantorowicz, Change and continuity, Early modern Sweden, and History of taxation
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in Kültepe present an image of a population with many health problems, as might be expected in this period. Osteological data show only a few people over the age of 50. Arguably, the senior population discussed in this book belonged to... more
in Kültepe present an image of a population with many health problems, as might be expected in this period. Osteological data show only a few people over the age of 50. Arguably, the senior population discussed in this book belonged to the elite population living in Aššur, and the discrepancy between the health of these elites and that of the actual merchants may be large. Concerning the mortality of the traders, Chapter 16 describes how a plague killed a large number of traders just in this particular year. One side effect of these deaths was that many houses became available on the otherwise difficult estate market of Aššur. Pūšu-kēn was in the business of buying some of these properties as investments, and Šalimaḫum helped him with this endeavor (Ch. 13). The fourth and final part of the book deals with the volume of the trade (Ch. 18) and the large quantity of tablets relating to the year of vengeance in the Pūšu-kēn archive (Ch. 19). The year of vengeance accounts for nearly a ...
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This book provides the fi rst global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation around 3000 BC until the modern era around AD 1600. Encompassing the various networks including the Silk... more
This book provides the fi rst global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation around 3000 BC until the modern era around AD 1600. Encompassing the various networks
including the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean trade, Near Eastern family traders of the Bronze Age, and the Medieval Hanseatic League, it examines the role of the individual merchant, the products of trade, the role of the state, and the technical conditions for land and sea transport that created diverging systems of trade and developed global trade networks. Trade networks, however, were not durable. The contributors discuss the establishment and decline of great trading network systems, and how they related
to the expansion of civilisation, and to diff erent forms of social and economic exploitation. Case studies focus on local conditions as well as global networks until the sixteenth century when the whole globe was connected
by trade.
including the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean trade, Near Eastern family traders of the Bronze Age, and the Medieval Hanseatic League, it examines the role of the individual merchant, the products of trade, the role of the state, and the technical conditions for land and sea transport that created diverging systems of trade and developed global trade networks. Trade networks, however, were not durable. The contributors discuss the establishment and decline of great trading network systems, and how they related
to the expansion of civilisation, and to diff erent forms of social and economic exploitation. Case studies focus on local conditions as well as global networks until the sixteenth century when the whole globe was connected
by trade.
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Prior to the high Middle Ages, the Baltic Rim was largely terra incognita-but by the late Middle Ages, it was home to diverse small and large communities. But the Baltic Rim was not simply the place those people lived-it was also an... more
Prior to the high Middle Ages, the Baltic Rim was largely terra incognita-but by the late Middle Ages, it was home to diverse small and large communities. But the Baltic Rim was not simply the place those people lived-it was also an imagined space through which they defined themselves and their identities. This book traces the transformation of the Baltic Rim in this period through a focus on the self-image of a number of communities: urban and regional, cultic, missionary, legal, and political. Contributors look at the ways these communities defined themselves in relationship to other groups, how they constructed their identities and customs, and what held them together or tore them apart.
THE BOOK IS OPEN ACCESS, AVAILABLE through JSTOR services.
THE BOOK IS OPEN ACCESS, AVAILABLE through JSTOR services.
Research Interests: Baltic Studies, Baltic Sea Region Studies, Imagined Community, Baltic Crusade, Imagined Communities, and 9 moreMedieval saints, Benedict Anderson, Christianisation of Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages, Christianisation and Crusades in Baltic rim, Medieval Legal History, Christianisation of Scandinavia, Medieval Conflicts, Medieval Saints Cult, Medieval Religion and Mentality History, Sermon Studies, and Medieval Communities
The notion of sovereignty remains one of the most scholarly and historically contested concepts. In this article we argue that historians’ absorption of sovereignty’s spatiality needs to be complemented by an investigation of its... more
The notion of sovereignty remains one of the most scholarly and historically contested concepts. In this article we argue that historians’ absorption of sovereignty’s spatiality needs to be complemented by an investigation of its temporality. By tracing the late medieval and early modern connections between political theology and economic teleology—between the permanence of political incorporation and perpetuation of the administrative apparatus —this article outlines a new research agenda and a novel vantage point for investigating state formation in Sweden. The article scrutinizes the following four areas: (1) The ideas of incorporation and representation of the realm and the Swedish people in late medieval historiography; (2) the transformation of political loyalty from personal oaths of and to the monarchs to popular, national loyalty; (3) the transformation of tax-collection from occasional to perpetual; and (4) the transition from personal debts of monarchs to state debt.