Dr. Sally Vaughn History Lecture Series

The Viking Age began in the 8th century, and by the 11th century, the Vikings had Scandinavianzed most of the Northern Hemisphere while leaving many questions behind in the process. Why did they leave their home? What were their main tools of expansion, exploration, and discovery? Ships? Masts? Sails? Was this time a Diaspora based on the model of the spread of Jewish 1st century dispersion and settlements? Or an Age of Discovery that shares similarities to 15th century Portuguese and Spanish explorers, as well as the merchants and settlers who followed them? Who were these people, anyway? Raiders? Traders? Farmers? Did the Viking Age really end with the death of Magnus Barelegs, the last Viking king, in 1103? Or was it just the beginning?

Sally N. Vaughn is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Houston, Central Campus. Her main research is on St. Anselm of Canterbury’s political career as abbot of Bec in Normandy and archbishop of Canterbury in England, a story which spans the Norman Conquest of 1066, and as part of this study she explores the Viking background of the Normans in Northern France. She spends summers and Decembers in Copenhagen with her husband Michael H. Gelting, a Danish scholar of medieval Scandinavia.

This lecture is generously sponsored by Frost Bank