Publications
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Allport, Benjamin & Żmudzki, Paweł
(2025).
When the Knight Won His Spurs. Elite Military Ideology in Poland and Norway, c. 965–1300.
In Jezierski, Wojciech; Orning, Hans Jacob & Pac, Grzegorz (Ed.),
Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway: Comparative Studies.
Brepols.
ISSN 9782503611617.
p. 131–162.
doi:
10.1484/m.cpmh-eb.5.144709.
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Between the years 1000 and 1300, the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe, both joined Latin Christendom — and with it, the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium, and both, by the end of the thirteenth century, had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines, it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context, and studied via comparison with events elsewhere.
This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule, what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status, and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history, this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities, but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.
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Allport, Benjamin & Rutkowski, Rafał
(2024).
TRIMMING THE TANGLE OF LEGEND: HEROIC HAIRCUTS, MATERIALISING MEALS, AND THE LEGITIMISATION OF DYNASTIC SUCCESSION IN NORWEGIAN AND POLISH FOUNDATION NARRATIVES.
Acta Poloniae Historica.
ISSN 0001-6829.
129,
p. 31–63.
doi:
10.12775/APH.2024.129.02.
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The medieval origin narratives of both Poland and Norway feature dynastic founders who came to power following a ritualistic haircut. In the Polish tradition, Siemowit of the Piast dynasty is anointed duke after his coming-of-age haircut, which is administered by two mysterious strangers; in the Norwegian version, Harald Fairhair vows to only cut his hair after he has united the realm. In both traditions, the transfer of power to these new rulers is also symbolised by a feast that vanishes from the table of a previous ruler and materialises before the dynastic founder. This chapter examines these narratives and compares their use of haircutting and feasting motifs to explore the transmission of royal authority both within and between ruling dynasties. Two traditions are explored from each arena: Gallus Anonymus’s Gesta principum Polonorum and Kadłubek’s Chronica Polonorum from Poland; and Fagrskinna and Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla from Norway. In comparing how the haircutting tradition in each polity evolved, we gain profound insights into their authors’ approach towards the development of dynastic power and the structure of dynastic history. In particular, we consider how these authors rationalised the concept of dynastic fragmentation and the rise of rival claimants as these elements came to dominate the political struggles of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Broadly speaking, we conclude that Polish historiography sought to cut away rival dynasts, whereas Norwegian traditions visualised competing dynastic branches as locks of hair cascading from one head.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2022).
The Prehistory of Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum: Connections with the Chronicon Lethrense and their Consequences.
Neophilologus: An International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature.
ISSN 0028-2677.
106(3),
p. 513–532.
doi:
10.1007/s11061-021-09723-4.
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The Old Norse origin myth known as Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum, which claims that Norway was founded by a pair of brothers named Nórr and Górr, is preserved in two distinct variants in the late fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscript known as Flateyjarbók. One variant, Fundinn Noregr, forms the preface to Orkneyinga saga and had therefore come into existence by c. 1230, whereas the other, Hversu Noregr byggðist, is not attested before c. 1290. Most scholars have argued that Hversu Noregr byggðist is a derivative of Fundinn Noregr, which was created to preface Orkneyinga saga by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson. This article draws attention to hitherto-undocumented parallels between both variants of Frá Fornjóti and a twelfth-century Latin text known as the Chronicon Lethrense or Lejre Chronicle. To explain these parallels, a new hypothesis for the pre-history of Frá Fornjóti is formulated: that both variants are independent witnesses to an earlier version of the myth which drew upon the Chronicon Lethrense or a shared model. This hypothesis is tested against arguments supporting the consensus that regards Fundinn Noregr as the original, taking the myth’s ideological underpinnings and analogues in Old Norse literature into account. It is suggested that the hypothesis best explains patterns of shared wording revealed by close comparative readings of passages in both variants, Orkneyinga saga, and other contemporary Old Norse texts. The article concludes with speculation about the context in which a previous version of the myth might have been composed.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2022).
Eastward and northward: a geographical conception of ‘Norðmannaland’ in Ohthere’s Voyage and its analogues in old Norse/Icelandic literature.
Scandinavian Journal of History.
ISSN 0346-8755.
doi:
10.1080/03468755.2022.2123036.
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The Old English account known as Ohthere’s Voyage preserves a ninth-century description of ‘Norðmannaland’ (the land of the Northmen) given by Ohthere, a sailor from northern Norway, at the court of Alfred the Great. In a little-discussed quirk of terminology, Ohthere’s description of the dimensions of Norðmannaland juxtaposes its north (OE norðeweard) with its east (OE easteweard), rather than its south. In this article, the phenomenon is compared with similar juxtapositions of east and north in Old Norse skaldic verses and sagas from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, demonstrating that this was not simply an error that crept in with the report’s transmission in an Old English context; instead, it is evidence of an Old Norse colloquialism which characterized northwestern Scandinavia in terms of its perceived northern and eastern extremities. This colloquialism is compared to similar geographical conceptions found in late- and post-medieval Norwegian texts, such as the division between nordafjells (north of the mountains) and sønnafjells (south of the mountains); however, it is concluded that the juxtaposition of east and north did not originate in the dividing line of Norway’s central mountain ranges, but in the shape of its southern coast.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2022).
Genealogical Stratigraphy: Excavating an Expansion Phase in Hversu Noregr Byggðist and the Flateyjarbók Ættartölur.
Viking and Medieval Scandinavia.
ISSN 1782-7183.
18,
p. 9–50.
doi:
10.1484/J.VMS.5.132121.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2021).
Unearthing St Edmund: A Source for Edmund's Martyrdom in Íslendingabók.
Gripla.
ISSN 1018-5011.
32,
p. 57–72.
doi:
10.33112/gripla.32.2.
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In Ari fróði Þorgilsson’s Íslendingabók, the settlement of Iceland is said to have first begun from Norway in 870, the year that “Ívarr, son of Ragnarr loðbrók, had St Edmund, king of the English, killed.” He attributes his knowledge of the date of this martyrdom to a mysterious “saga” of St Edmund, the identity of which has long been debated. This note considers the various alternatives put forth by previous researchers and concludes that the most likely candidate for this saga is in fact a composite of two texts, Abbo of Fleury’s Passio Sancti Eadmundi and Hermannus the Archdeacon’s De miraculis Sancti Eadmundi. These texts are known to have been bound together in at least one manuscript from the early twelfth century. It is argued that a similar manuscript may have circulated in Iceland and was used to inform several other Old Icelandic texts composed over the following two centuries.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2021).
A Family Reunion: "Hversu Noregr byggðist" and the First Chapter of the "Flateyjarbók Ættartölur" as a Textual Unity.
Maal og Minne.
ISSN 0024-855X.
113(2),
p. 45–73.
doi:
10.52145/mom.v113i2.1999.
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Opprinnelseslegenden Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum ‘Om Fornjot og slektningene hans’ er bevart i to versjoner i Flateyjarbók, et kjent islandsk samlehåndskrift fra trettenhundretallet. Legenden følger opprinnelsen til forskjellige norske og orknøyske dynastier tilbake til to brødre som heter Nórr og Górr. Den antatt yngste versjonen, «Nórrversjonen», er representert av en tekst som heter Hversu Noregr byggðist ‘Hvordan Norge ble bygd’. Teksten står i et komplekst forhold til de fem kapitlene med Ættartölur ‘Slektsforskning’ som følger den i manuskriptet. Selv om innhold og tema ligner i alle disse tekstene, er de tydelig avgrenset av initialer som ble satt inn av skriveren Magnús Þórhallsson. Magnús har ofte blitt tillagt en viktig rolle i samlingen av disse kapitlene. Denne artikkelen utforsker forholdet mellom Hversu Noregr byggðist og det første av slektsforskningskapitlene. Det demonstreres hvordan fortelling og temaer er gjennomgående i begge tekstene og at begge tekstene bruker de samme kildene til å identifisere Nórrs etterkommere som fremstående personer. På dette grunnlaget blir det argumentert for å betrakte de to tekstene som en tekstlig enhet, delt i to da manuskriptet ble samlet. Den narrative strukturen til begge tekstene kan sammenlignes med legendens andre versjon, Fundinn Noregr ‘Norge grunnlagt’. Artikkelen viser at en tilsvarende sammenheng som mellom Hversu Noregr byggðist og det første slektsforskningskapittelet, ikke fins mellom disse to tekstene og de siste fire slektsforskningskapitlene. Derfor blir det foreslått at Magnús Þórhallsson neppe er forfatteren av Nórrversjonen slik vi kjenner den.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2020).
Home thoughts of abroad: Ohthere’s Voyage in its Anglo-Saxon context.
Early Medieval Europe.
ISSN 0963-9462.
28(2),
p. 256–288.
doi:
10.1111/emed.12395.
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The Old English text known as Ohthere’s Voyage is regarded as a key source for Norwegian history. Consequently, the context of its composition and inclusion in the Old English Orosius has often been overlooked. This article demonstrates that the text cannot be separated from the processes that shaped it during its early transmission. Continental geographical traditions of the peoples of the north governed the preconceptions of Ohthere’s audience. Furthermore, the individual who included the account in the Orosius edited the latter text to anticipate it and tailored the sailor’s account to support the West Saxon ideological underpinnings of its new context.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2020).
Norwegian or Northern: The Construction and Mythography of Háleygr Identity, c. 800–1050.
In Figenschow, Stefan; Holt, Richard & Tveit, Miriam Jensen (Ed.),
Myths and Magic in the Medieval Far North. Realities and Representations of a Region on the Edge of Europe.
Brepols.
ISSN 9782503588230.
p. 197–214.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2025).
Ottars beretning: Knutepunktet mellom to middelalderverdener.
Spor.
ISSN 0801-5376.
1,
p. 10–12.
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Boros, Mika; Allport, Benjamin; Gullbekk, Svein Harald; Saltnes, Martin; Orning, Hans Jacob & Jezierski, Wojtek
(2024).
Speilbilder: Polen – Norge i middelalderen.
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Utstillingen «Speilbilder — Polen og Norge i middelalderen» ble laget av Kulturhistorisk museum (Universitetet i Oslo), i samarbeid med ELITES-prosjektet. Utstillingen ble offisielt åpnet 21. mars 2024 ved Historisk museum i Oslo vil være åpen fram til 31. desember 2024.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2023).
Å trimme historiens tupper. Hvorfor begynner både norsk og polsk historie med en hårklipp?
Klassekampen.
ISSN 0805-3839.
p. 12–13.
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Allport, Benjamin
(2023).
Det norrøne kompass. Hvordan kunne Olav Tryggvason seile "nord" fra Viken til Agder?
Klassekampen.
ISSN 0805-3839.
p. 12–13.
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Allport, Benjamin & Bonté, Rosalind
(2023).
Introduction – a medieval and modern friend.
In Orning, Hans Jacob; Allport, Benjamin & Bonté, Rosalind (Ed.),
Networks in the North: Studies in Honour of Jon Vidar Sigurdsson.
Brepols.
ISSN 9782503602387.
p. 9–30.
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Published
Feb. 4, 2025 5:42 PM
- Last modified
Feb. 4, 2025 5:42 PM
