The Norse perception of the world: A mapping and analysis of foreign place names in medieval Swedish and Danish texts
East Norse (Old Swedish and Old Danish) literature is a mine of information on how foreign lands were visualised in the Middle Ages: What places were written about and where? Are some places more popular in certain text types or at certain times? How do place names link different texts? Is there a shared concept of spatiality? How is space gendered?
Geohumanities, the spatialisation of literary studies and cognitive mapping are growing fields within digital humanities, but the study of spatial thinking and knowledge in medieval Scandinavia and its development as an area of enquiry are hampered by a dearth of information on place names in literary texts. Any research aiming to uncover what pre-modern Scandinavians understood about places abroad requires as a minimum an index of foreign place names in East Norse literature. Yet to-date no such index exists.
The three-year project will:
1) compile a detailed index of foreign place names in East Norse texts until 1530 by extracting the data from editions and manuscripts through close-reading;
2) publish the index as a searchable online database;
3) create interactive online digital maps that visualise these spatial data using geographic information system technology and allow place names to be sorted by chronology, text, manuscript and genre.
Thus, for the first time, an important infrastructure will be created to enable the investigation of pre-modern Scandinavians' perception of the world.
Geohumanities, the spatialisation of literary studies and cognitive mapping are growing fields within digital humanities, but the study of spatial thinking and knowledge in medieval Scandinavia and its development as an area of enquiry are hampered by a dearth of information on place names in literary texts. Any research aiming to uncover what pre-modern Scandinavians understood about places abroad requires as a minimum an index of foreign place names in East Norse literature. Yet to-date no such index exists.
The three-year project will:
1) compile a detailed index of foreign place names in East Norse texts until 1530 by extracting the data from editions and manuscripts through close-reading;
2) publish the index as a searchable online database;
3) create interactive online digital maps that visualise these spatial data using geographic information system technology and allow place names to be sorted by chronology, text, manuscript and genre.
Thus, for the first time, an important infrastructure will be created to enable the investigation of pre-modern Scandinavians' perception of the world.
Final report
• Purpose and development
The overall aim of the project (2017–2022: The Norse Perception of the World) is to create “Norse World”, an online, open access searchable index and interactive mapping of the foreign place names found in East Norse (medieval Danish and Swedish) works. The corpus of texts investigated comprises fictional, non-biblical medieval texts from manuscripts and early prints (before 1515), including romances, travel stories, pilgrim guides, devotional literature, didactic works, and sermons as well as encyclopaedic works.
The project was developed and undertaken by colleagues based at the Dept. of Scandinavian Language in collaboration with the System Development Unit of the University IT Services at Uppsala. University.
• Project results
The project’s principal result is the creation of the Norse World database and interactive map that provides information on place names and other spatial references. The database includes 6,622 attestations (2,495 in Old Danish and 4,127 in Old Swedish), that are taken from 45 manuscripts and early books (25 in Old Danish and 20 in Old Swedish), three runic inscriptions, and 45 different works (26 in Old Danish and 19 in Old Swedish). Each place name is fully described and catalogued with linguistic, onomastic, cultural, historical and material-philological information as well as with geographical data and coordinates, where possible. Searches in the database can be refined using a whole set of filters enabling investigations on specific place names, name types, genres, languages, and chronological periods. All source texts and manuscripts that have been used in the project are also described. The result is the only detailed database and mapping of its kind for place-name information in any Scandinavian literature from any period.
Thorough documentation that describes the project’s definitions, material and methodology as well as user instructions are freely available online at https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld/.
• Use of the infrastructure
The Norse World site has approximately over a hundred users worldwide.
The project elucidates the extent of knowledge about foreign places during the Middle Ages; enables investigations of the development (through time and space) of this knowledge; shows how foreign places are used in different texts, manuscripts, and genres; encourages close readings of East Norse texts that investigate aspects of their interspatiality (the common spaces they reference), through geospatial network analysis; and promotes experimentation with visualising spatial clusters and patterns.
Published investigations undertaken by members of the project team have demonstrated int.al. how “Norse World” can be used to investigate the geography of the so-called Eufemiaviser (Simon Skovgaard Boeck) and the construction of spatial relationships in Old Danish as well as rhymed chronicles in Old Swedish (Alexandra Petrulevich).
Norse World is also the focal point of the forthcoming volume Digital Spatial Infrastructures in the Humanities (see under publications), where it is used in several case studies and contributions.
• Unforeseen problems
There were a few staffing issues that were all resolved thanks to RJ’s flexibility and understanding. Jonathan Adams was required to cut down on his project participation due to employment commitments in Copenhagen and illness. With the agreement of RJ, we brought Simon Skovgaard Boeck with his vast expertise in Old Danish language and literature onto the project to cover this shortfall, while Alexandra Petrulevich took over the day-to-day management of the project. Agnieszka Backman left the project after two years to take up a post-doc position in USA. Again, with RJ’s agreement, we were able to employ two part-time assistants – Jessica Holmlund and Felix Marklund – who were able to take over some of Backman’s work in excerpting spatial references. Thus, an unexpected – but very positive – result of this unforeseen problem was the introduction of two master students to the methods and practices of fundamental philological and onomastic research. Both students wish to pursue PhDs in the future.
The team came to be based in Uppsala and Copenhagen and met at weekly online meetings and workshops and seminars every few months. However, the pandemic made physical visits between colleagues as well as to libraries and archives difficult and at times impossible. Furthermore, even acquiring digital images of manuscripts that one could no longer consult in person became very difficult as library and archive staff responsible for photography and digitalization were furloughed. The full closure of the Royal Library in Copenhagen also made ordering editions of texts impossible for several weeks.
• Integration into the agency
All project work has taken place within the framework of employment at the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University. In 2017, Petrulevich received funding from the Faculty of Languages to establish the two-year research environment “GIS for Language Study” together with Marc Tang (Dept. of Linguistics and Philology) which further integrated the project within the Faculty. This included a two-day introductory workshop on GIS for Language Study which showcased the project to staff and students. Moreover, the infrastructure has already been used within the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages for teaching and by students preparing coursework.
The resource is entirely online and freely accessible. Its future maintenance is the responsibility of the onomastics researchers at the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages in collaboration with the University IT Services. Further development of the infrastructure has also been made possible by a NOS-HS Exploratory Workshop grant from the Academy of Finland for Petrulevich who is still employed at the Department. One of the aims of the NOS-HS project is to link Norse World (East Norse material) and the Icelandic Saga Map (West Norse material). Petrulevich’s commitment to the project and the fact that the system is “open” means that data can be continually contributed to it via other projects; for example, the data contributed from the new editions of medieval Danish literature (Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 2021–) will help complete the Old Danish data.
• Accessibility
The Norse World infrastructure is freely available online and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The project’s data and other material is free to share.
• International collaboration
The project’s advisory board comprised scholars from Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Collaborative work is also being started now with the Icelandic Saga Map in Iceland as well as other research infrastructure projects with spatial focus in Scandinavia. The project team have been active in taking part in international conferences and meetings and working with philologists abroad.
The Norse World infrastructure has been the focus of several publications, blog entries and press releases (see publications list), on Twitter (NorseWorldGazetteer, @NorseWorld), and on its own website (https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld). Furthermore, it has formed the basis of papers and lectures presented at national and international conferences and meetings:
2017: 5 papers (Uppsala, Copenhagen, Debrecen)
2018: 8 papers (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Malmö, Uppsala, Reykjavík, Lund, Mainz)
2019: 3 papers (Uppsala, Leeds, Utrecht)
2021: 1 paper (Stockholm)
• Links
Norse World: https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld/ https://nordiska.uu.se/research/project/norseworld/project-description/
Jonathan Adams: https://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N12-370
Agnieszka Backman: https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N10-1933
Simon Skovgaard Boeck: https://dsl.dk/medarbejdere/ss
Alexandra Petrulevich: https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N7-1207
The overall aim of the project (2017–2022: The Norse Perception of the World) is to create “Norse World”, an online, open access searchable index and interactive mapping of the foreign place names found in East Norse (medieval Danish and Swedish) works. The corpus of texts investigated comprises fictional, non-biblical medieval texts from manuscripts and early prints (before 1515), including romances, travel stories, pilgrim guides, devotional literature, didactic works, and sermons as well as encyclopaedic works.
The project was developed and undertaken by colleagues based at the Dept. of Scandinavian Language in collaboration with the System Development Unit of the University IT Services at Uppsala. University.
• Project results
The project’s principal result is the creation of the Norse World database and interactive map that provides information on place names and other spatial references. The database includes 6,622 attestations (2,495 in Old Danish and 4,127 in Old Swedish), that are taken from 45 manuscripts and early books (25 in Old Danish and 20 in Old Swedish), three runic inscriptions, and 45 different works (26 in Old Danish and 19 in Old Swedish). Each place name is fully described and catalogued with linguistic, onomastic, cultural, historical and material-philological information as well as with geographical data and coordinates, where possible. Searches in the database can be refined using a whole set of filters enabling investigations on specific place names, name types, genres, languages, and chronological periods. All source texts and manuscripts that have been used in the project are also described. The result is the only detailed database and mapping of its kind for place-name information in any Scandinavian literature from any period.
Thorough documentation that describes the project’s definitions, material and methodology as well as user instructions are freely available online at https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld/.
• Use of the infrastructure
The Norse World site has approximately over a hundred users worldwide.
The project elucidates the extent of knowledge about foreign places during the Middle Ages; enables investigations of the development (through time and space) of this knowledge; shows how foreign places are used in different texts, manuscripts, and genres; encourages close readings of East Norse texts that investigate aspects of their interspatiality (the common spaces they reference), through geospatial network analysis; and promotes experimentation with visualising spatial clusters and patterns.
Published investigations undertaken by members of the project team have demonstrated int.al. how “Norse World” can be used to investigate the geography of the so-called Eufemiaviser (Simon Skovgaard Boeck) and the construction of spatial relationships in Old Danish as well as rhymed chronicles in Old Swedish (Alexandra Petrulevich).
Norse World is also the focal point of the forthcoming volume Digital Spatial Infrastructures in the Humanities (see under publications), where it is used in several case studies and contributions.
• Unforeseen problems
There were a few staffing issues that were all resolved thanks to RJ’s flexibility and understanding. Jonathan Adams was required to cut down on his project participation due to employment commitments in Copenhagen and illness. With the agreement of RJ, we brought Simon Skovgaard Boeck with his vast expertise in Old Danish language and literature onto the project to cover this shortfall, while Alexandra Petrulevich took over the day-to-day management of the project. Agnieszka Backman left the project after two years to take up a post-doc position in USA. Again, with RJ’s agreement, we were able to employ two part-time assistants – Jessica Holmlund and Felix Marklund – who were able to take over some of Backman’s work in excerpting spatial references. Thus, an unexpected – but very positive – result of this unforeseen problem was the introduction of two master students to the methods and practices of fundamental philological and onomastic research. Both students wish to pursue PhDs in the future.
The team came to be based in Uppsala and Copenhagen and met at weekly online meetings and workshops and seminars every few months. However, the pandemic made physical visits between colleagues as well as to libraries and archives difficult and at times impossible. Furthermore, even acquiring digital images of manuscripts that one could no longer consult in person became very difficult as library and archive staff responsible for photography and digitalization were furloughed. The full closure of the Royal Library in Copenhagen also made ordering editions of texts impossible for several weeks.
• Integration into the agency
All project work has taken place within the framework of employment at the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University. In 2017, Petrulevich received funding from the Faculty of Languages to establish the two-year research environment “GIS for Language Study” together with Marc Tang (Dept. of Linguistics and Philology) which further integrated the project within the Faculty. This included a two-day introductory workshop on GIS for Language Study which showcased the project to staff and students. Moreover, the infrastructure has already been used within the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages for teaching and by students preparing coursework.
The resource is entirely online and freely accessible. Its future maintenance is the responsibility of the onomastics researchers at the Dept. of Scandinavian Languages in collaboration with the University IT Services. Further development of the infrastructure has also been made possible by a NOS-HS Exploratory Workshop grant from the Academy of Finland for Petrulevich who is still employed at the Department. One of the aims of the NOS-HS project is to link Norse World (East Norse material) and the Icelandic Saga Map (West Norse material). Petrulevich’s commitment to the project and the fact that the system is “open” means that data can be continually contributed to it via other projects; for example, the data contributed from the new editions of medieval Danish literature (Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 2021–) will help complete the Old Danish data.
• Accessibility
The Norse World infrastructure is freely available online and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The project’s data and other material is free to share.
• International collaboration
The project’s advisory board comprised scholars from Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Collaborative work is also being started now with the Icelandic Saga Map in Iceland as well as other research infrastructure projects with spatial focus in Scandinavia. The project team have been active in taking part in international conferences and meetings and working with philologists abroad.
The Norse World infrastructure has been the focus of several publications, blog entries and press releases (see publications list), on Twitter (NorseWorldGazetteer, @NorseWorld), and on its own website (https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld). Furthermore, it has formed the basis of papers and lectures presented at national and international conferences and meetings:
2017: 5 papers (Uppsala, Copenhagen, Debrecen)
2018: 8 papers (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Malmö, Uppsala, Reykjavík, Lund, Mainz)
2019: 3 papers (Uppsala, Leeds, Utrecht)
2021: 1 paper (Stockholm)
• Links
Norse World: https://www.uu.se/en/research/infrastructure/norseworld/ https://nordiska.uu.se/research/project/norseworld/project-description/
Jonathan Adams: https://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N12-370
Agnieszka Backman: https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N10-1933
Simon Skovgaard Boeck: https://dsl.dk/medarbejdere/ss
Alexandra Petrulevich: https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N7-1207