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2 results

  • 18 - Population and settlement

  • from PART VI - LATE MEDIEVAL SOCIETY (c. 1350–1520)
  • Edited by Knut Helle, Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Scandinavia
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    04 September 2003, pp 557-580

  • Summary

    In the early and high Middle Ages there was a considerable expansion of population, settlement and production in Scandinavia. The medieval population in Scandinavia can best be calculated on the basis of the numbers of farms and holdings and the estimated average numbers of people living on them. In northern Sweden, the population presumably continued to grow throughout the late Middle Ages, mainly as the result of colonisation. In Norway, the absence of suitable sources makes it difficult to grasp the chronology of depopulation and settlement contraction. The crisis has left early traces in the form of a sudden drop in farm and land prices over much of the country immediately after 1350. The chapter also deals with the less dramatic settlement development in the rest of western and southern Scandinavia. Abandonment of settlements was a clear feature of the late medieval development of Danish society.

  • (a) - The Scandinavian kingdoms

  • from 23 - Scandinavia and the Baltic frontier
  • David Abulafia, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    21 October 1999, pp 720-742

  • Summary

    By the Scandinavian kingdoms are understood the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The three Scandinavian kingdoms were established long before 1200, as were also, with some exceptions, the borders that were to remain until the great changes of the seventeenth century. The old military system in the Scandinavian countries was the popular levy, Norse leidang, Danish leding, Swedish ledung, primarily intended for sea warfare. Its origin can probably be traced back to the Viking age in Denmark and Norway. Earlier generations of scholars often described social change in the Scandinavian countries during our period as a transition from a 'society of kindred' to a 'society of the state'. The formation of an elite can be traced in the cultural field as well as in the social, economic and political ones. The growth of public justice is contributed to divisions and competition within the elite.