Crown, Church, and Convent

The Medieval Cultural History of Norway

Kirsi Salonen, Irene Baug, Åslaug Ommundsen (eds)

Pages: approx. 364 p.
Size:156 x 234 mm
Illustrations:4 b/w, 39 col., 5 tables b/w.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2026

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ISBN: 978-2-503-62413-6
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This volume offers a new interdisciplinary knowledge about Norway’s medieval history and focuses on the role of the central medieval institutions – church, monasteries and royal administration – in the formation of the Norwegian medieval culture and society from the late Viking Ages to the late Middle Ages.

Subject(s)

BIO

Dr. Kirsi Salonen is professor of medieval history at the University of Bergen and specialist in medieval ecclesiastical history.
Dr. Irene Baug is researcher in archaeology at the University of Bergen and specialist in landscapes and resource utilization in rural areas and in early church structure in western Norway.
Dr. Åslaug Ommundsen is professor of medieval Latin philology at the University of Bergen and specialist in the study of medieval manuscript fragments.

Summary

This volume brings together the recent findings of an interdisciplinary group of scholars investigating the intertwined roles of the Catholic Church and secular rulership in medieval Norwegian culture. The eleven contributions gathered here offer new perspectives on Norway’s history and illuminate how central medieval institutions — church, monasteries, and the royal household — shaped culture and society. Moving beyond a focus on bishops and rulers alone, the articles also bring to the fore the roles played by monks, nuns, parish priests, and scribes, whose activities and agency have hitherto received little scholarly attention.

Covering the period from the late Viking Age to the late Middle Ages (eleventh to sixteenth centuries), this volume places particular emphasis on western Norway (Vestlandet) and on Bergen as a key medieval administrative centre. The contributors draw on approaches from archaeology, history, art history, and philology, and their analyses are grounded in a wide range of sources, including manuscripts, archaeological material, charters, and artefacts. Together, the studies provide a nuanced and richly documented account of medieval Norwegian culture and society through the lens of institutional and individual interaction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Kirsi Salonen, Irene Baug, and Åslaug Ommundsen

The Crown and the Hospitals of Medieval Bergen
Alf Tore Hommedal

The Meeting of Christianity and Old Norse Heathen Religion
Else Mundal

The Earliest Churches in Western Norway
Irene Baug, Halldis Hobæk, and Kjartan Hauglid

An Early Christian Burial Site and a Missing Church in Borgund, Sunnmøre, Western Norway: What Can the Archeological Data Unvail?
Gitte Hansen

Bishops and Benedictines – the First Norwegian Bishops’ Sees and the Influence of Lanfreanc
Åslaug Ommundsen

Episcopal Oversight through Conciliar Governance: Monasteries in the Medieval Diocese of Bergen
Anna-Elisa Tryti

Papal Appointments to Ecclesiastical Positions in the Diocese of Bergen in the Middle Ages
Kirsi Salonen

Art for Fish in Trondenes: Medieval Church Furnishings beyond the Arctic Circle
Justin Kroesen

‘Nos Haquinus signauimus’: Kongsbókin, Håkon Magnusson, and the Royal Chanceller
Stefan Drechsler

The Treaty of Roxburgh (1281) and the Prospect of Female Royal Succession in Norway
Anaïs Waag

Administration of Aspirations for the Afterlife: Reassessing the Legal Implications of the Concordat of Tønsberg
Embla Aae