SSNS Seminar – Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm – ‘Frisia and the Viking Age’

The SSNS Seminar Series continues on Thursday 16 January 2025 with a talk by Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (Fryske Akademy), titled ‘Frisia and the Viking Age‘. This is a free, ticketed event; please register below.

Abstract:

In November 2024, the find of a Viking sword pommel fragment along the Frisian coast made a big splash in the news. As a ‘first’, this find adds new insight into the history of Frisia and the Viking Age, and for many people raised the question: what happened in Frisia in the Viking Age?

According to the Frankish Annals and the Scandinavian sagas, Vikings knew how to find Frisia extremely well throughout the Viking Age. As northern rim of the Continent, as largely the northernmost part of Francia, Frisia was hit by Viking attacks ever since 810 and thus a victim of the seafaring pirates like the rest of Francia. At the same time, traces of exchange and of other types of contact, show that there was also another relationship between Frisia and the Viking world which has been less-well documented, understood, and researched.

In this talk, I would like to take you along on my research journey into Frisia and the Viking Age, by looking at what exactly is meant by Frisia, how can we understand what happened in the Viking Age, and how research into metal-detected finds and non-traditional historic sources has changed our view?

Bio:

Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm is Director of the Fryske Akademy (including Mercator European Research Centre). In 2017, she received her PhD for the thesis Central because Liminal: Frisia in a Viking Age North Sea World. She has previously worked as Curator for the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden and for the National Trust in Cornwall.

Her interdisciplinary research is focused on the history of Frisia and related regions, on the Viking World, on intercultural contact and on the role of coastal areas, through the lens of history, archaeology, language, and culture. She is highly fascinated by areas that are seen as liminal and that had oral cultural transmission in the Early Medieval and Viking Age.

Nelleke is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London and Member of the Coordinating Committee of the Internationales Sachsensymposion.

Registration below. Details for the Zoom meeting will be emailed in advance of the seminar.