CfSS seminar 20/2: Dr Frederik Pedersen (Aberdeen), 'Education, Education, Education: Danish Clergy and a French Immigrant in 12th-Century Denmark’

[Burrows, Hannah]

Dear All,

Please join us on Thursday, 20 February at 5pm when our own Dr Frederik Pederson will present 'Education, Education, Education: Danish Clergy and a French Immigrant in 12th-Century Denmark’ as part of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies seminar series.

If you would like to attend in person, please join us in room CB009, 50-52 College Bounds.

If you are not able to join us in Aberdeen, please register here for the Teams link.

Abstract: The terms "Viking" and "Viking Age" are frequently employed to distinguish the period from approximately 800 to the late eleventh century from the Middle Ages. The designation "Viking Age" also suggests that there was something fundamentally distinct about Scandinavians and Scandinavian culture—that "Viking Age" Scandinavian kings and magnates were different from their contemporary European counterparts. However, this notion is difficult to reconcile with the fact that within one or two generations following the end of the "Viking Age," Scandinavians had evidently become well-integrated into European culture. Although Danes, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes may have exhibited differences amongst themselves, Scandinavian societies and their leaders functioned politically, economically, and militarily in similar manners and under comparable conditions as their peers across the rest of the continent.

This assimilation is particularly evident when examining the level of academic and legal scholarship demonstrated by the educated prelates and nobles residing in the Danish kingdom during the 12th century. In this paper, I will provide evidence that 12th-century Danish clergy and nobility traveled extensively, received education across Europe, and maintained intellectual connections with their former teachers and fellow students who were often at the very pinnacle of European learning. This will be illustrated through examples of several clerics and nobles who not only pursued studies abroad but also corresponded internationally and participated in global fora. Moreover, having concluded studies abroad, Danish scholars transported their textbooks back to Denmark and imparted contemporary breakthroughs in law and theology to ‘those unable to access higher learning’. My main focus will be on the life and circle of St. William of Æbelholt (1105(?) - 1202), a French immigrant, who, after having been severely punished for having publicly opposed the appointment of an unworthy prelate in Paris, was invited by his friend and fellow student, bishop Absalon of Roskilde to join him in Denmark in the 1160s. I will explore the first 23 letters in his collection, compiled in the late 1100s, potentially in response to the disastrous  marriage between Philip II of France and Ingeborg, the sister of the Danish king Canute VI.

Best wishes,

Hannah

Dr Hannah Burrows, FRHistS
Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies

Director, Centre for Scandinavian Studies

University of Aberdeen · Crombie Annexe (CA102) · Meston Walk · Aberdeen · AB24 3FX

Honorary Secretary, Viking Society for Northern Research

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The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.