“A Bloody Maelstrom”:This article investigates the Norwegian Civil Wars between 1130 and 1240. Politics, Religion and Violence in The Norwegian Civil Wars 1130–1240

Kjaer, Lars (2026) “A Bloody Maelstrom”:This article investigates the Norwegian Civil Wars between 1130 and 1240. Politics, Religion and Violence in The Norwegian Civil Wars 1130–1240. Historisk Tidsskrift, 105 (1). pp. 1504-2944. ISSN 1504-2944 (In Press)

Abstract

This article investigates the Norwegian Civil Wars between 1130 and 1240. Recent research, developing the so called “legal anthropological turn”, has suggested that the wars only led to very limited destruction and featured little radical othering of the opposition. This article, however, argues that a closer investigation of the sources offers a very different picture of the wars. The article examines first the political language of the period, arguing that accusations of heresy, witchcraft and even demonic allegiance were a central and effective part of the conflicts. It then examines the evidence for, firstly, losses in battles and skirmishes and, secondly, for civilian casualties, arguing that both have been underestimated in recent scholarship. The article concludes that future research into the Scandinavian civil wars should pay much more attention to the political and religious ideas that shaped the conflicts.

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