Birds and Humans in the Old Norse World, c. 600-1500 AD ...

• Main Author: Haley-Halinski, Kathryn
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2021
• Subjects: Old Norse; Medieval; Human-Animal Studies; History; Literature; Birds; Viking; Norse; Interdisciplinary; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.83496; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336067

The central aim of this thesis is to explore the complexities of human-bird coexistence in Scandinavia and the Norse North Atlantic from 600-1500 AD, primarily focusing on the period c. 800-1400 within this time period. In particular, this thesis explores if and how literary representations of birds correlated in any way with zooarchaeological sources concerning human-bird interactions. To explore this central question, I employ an interdisciplinary methodology that combines literary analysis of textual sources with interpretation of archaeological reports that include bird bones. I also employ the theoretical lens of Human-Animal Studies, as it centres the lives of animals and the interactions of humans and animals, rather than considering animals a ‘blank canvas’ for human desires, needs, and meanings. There are three key sections of this thesis. The first section is in a chapter on folk taxonomies, which explores one possible methodology for studying how medieval Icelanders understood and categorised the ...