Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	235
Title	The North in Transition, I: Opportunities and Conflicts in the Disputed Arctic in the Nordic Late Middle Ages
Date/Time	Monday 4 July 2022: 14.15-15.45
Sponsor	'Creating the New North' Research Programme, Universitetet i Tromsø / Norges Arktiske Universitet
Organiser	Sigrun Høgetveit Berg, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap og teologi, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet
Moderator/Chair	John McNicol, Fakultet for humaniora, samfunnsvitenskap og lærerutdanning, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet
Paper 235-a	Ecclesiastical Incomes and Political Control in the Fishing Communities of Arctic Norway in the Late Middle Ages (Language: English) Richard Holt, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap og teologi, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet Index Terms: Administration; Ecclesiastical History; Economics - Rural; Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 235-b	Northern Norway as a Border Area in the Middle Ages: Ethnicity, Economy, and the Expansion of the Medieval Norwegian Kingdom before 1400 (Language: English) Astrid Mellem Johnsen, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap og teologi, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet Index Terms: Geography and Settlement Studies; Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 235-c	Sorcery Trials against the Arctic Sami: Cross-Border Legal Conflicts in the Nordic Late Middle Ages (Language: English) Rune Blix Hagen, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap og teologi, Universitetet i Tromsø - Norges arktiske universitet Index Terms: Law; Mentalities; Social History
Abstract	The first paper explores how stockfish exports provided opportunities that the vast archbishopric of Trondheim exploited effectively when northern Norway experienced the consequences of population decline in the later Middle Ages. An aspect of the region was that it was characterized by ethnic, religious, and economic heterogeneity - both an incentive and a challenge for the processes of incorporation into the Norwegian kingdom. The second paper takes as its focus different boundaries in an area lacking defined national borders. The late medieval Scandinavian kingdoms struggled for territorial control over the borderless Arctic north, through taxation, trade, and jurisdiction over the Sámi who lived there, and the third paper shows how pursuing sorcery charges against Sámi men was an issue that provoked border conflicts between the states.