Bibliographie complète

This thesis explores feasting in Norway and Iceland during the 12th and 13th centuries. The subject of this work, often only merely mentioned by historiography, aims to fill this need by painting a general picture of banquets during the chosen time period. We aim to specifically address the topic by garnering exceptional details present in historical documents. This study also wishes to establish the various roles played by banquets by following two main axes. The first one sees the feast serving as a conveyer of social cohesion and friendships and also as a building tool for relationships. Inversely, the second exposes how feasts could serve more hostile purposes, notably distinguishing every attendee and underlining social inequalities among a given group. We also aim to categorize feasts, to identify their uses and their breadth. Through these efforts, we also identify unique traits that define this practice around western Scandinavia, but also the differences it entertains against other European regions. Finally, this study aims to touch on the transmission of customs surrounding feasting from Norway to Iceland incidental to increasing political relationships. To achieve the aforementioned goals, we solicited the use legal texts from both regions, king sagas, contemporary sagas, as well as documents coming from the Norwegian court.

Accepted: 2023-12-01T19:08:43Z