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Abstract: Before Christianity came to the societies and communities of Central and Northern Europe between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, there were numerous different 'pagan' religions and beliefs. Little is known about some of these, particularly with regard to details such as ritual practices, human-animal relations, conversion, ideas of the afterlife, or the place or religion in the landscape, largely due to a lack of archaeological and historical evidence. To gain new information, it is essential to draw on sources and methodologies from different disciplines.

This  volume brings together a collection of case-studies that apply interdisciplinary approaches to various aspects of traditional religion. Together, they shine a new light on the multi-faceted variety of expressions of belief in Central and Northern Europe, from sacrifice and burial customs to sacred objects and iconography, and to the changes and continuations in the face of coming Christianity. Arranged in four categories – space and landscape, death and burial, objects and images, and people and violence – these twelve chapters by international researchers combine archaeological studies with the input of history and literature, cultural anthropology, history of religion, and archaeozoology, to offer a valuable resource to all those interested in pre-Christian religion, and in prehistoric and early medieval spiritual culture in Europe.

Contents:

1. Dirk H. Steinforth, Paweł Szczepanik, and Olof Sundqvist: Introduction: Artefacts, Landscapes, and Images. Pre-Christian Religions in Central and Northern Europe.

2. Rachel Cartwright: The Cross and the Hammer: Evidence for the Continuance of Paganism in Christanized Iceland. 

3. Håkon Reiersen: 'Five Foolish Virgins'. A Persistent Monument at the Gateway to Avaldsnes.

4. Gordon Noble and Nicholas Evans: Defining the Sacred: Pre-Christian Belief in Early Medieval Pictland.

5. Karolina Czonstke-Świątkowska and Bartosz Świątkowski: In the Embrace of Old Gods. Preliminary Reflections of Excavations at Sorte Muld on Bornholm.

6. Dirk H. Steinforth: The Vikings, the Bones, and the Afterlife. The Burial Custom of the Boat Grave at Balladoole, Isle of Man.

7. Abigail Górkiewicz Downer: Finding Evidence of Plural Beliefs in Early Medieval Inhumation Graves. A Donarkeule Case Study.

8. Angie Padilla: The Journey of the Soul to Sessrúmnir. Reinterpreting the Meaning of the Viking Age Chair Pendant.

9. Nancy L. Wicker: Material Culture as Marker of Public and Private Beliefs in Viking Age Scandinavia: 'Pocket Deities' and Iconic Images.

10. Sigmund Oehrl: ...oc láti svá Ódinn flein fliúga... The 'Spear of Death' in the Iconography of the Gotland Picture Stones.

11. Matthew J. Walsh, Marianne Moen, Sean O'Neill, Svein H. Gullbekk, and Rane Willerslev: From Obligation and Oblation to Subliminated Violence? Transformation of Human Sacrifice in the Prehistory of Northern Europe.

12. Klas Wikström af Edholm: Tracing Ritual Killings. Using Archaeological Material as Sources for the Study of Human Sacrifices in Old Norse Religion.

13. László Bartosiewicz: Rates of Conversion. Traces of Pre-Christian Beliefs in Animal Remains from Medieval Hungary.

Abstract: Britain and its Neighbours explores instances and periods of cultural contact and exchanges between communities in Britain with those in other parts of Europe between c.500–1700. Collectively, the twelve case studies highlight certain aspects of cultural contact and exchange, present neglected factors, previously overlooked evidence, and new methodological approaches. The discussions draw from a broad range of disciplines including archaeology, history, art history, iconography, literature, linguistics, and legal history in order to shine new light on a multi-faceted variety of expressions of the equally diverse and long-standing relations between Britain and its neighbours. Organised chronologically, the volume accentuates the consistency and continuity of social, cultural, and intellectual connections between Britain and Continental Europe in a period that spans over a millennium. With its range of specialised topics, Britain and its Neighbours is a useful resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in cultural and intellectual studies and the history of Britain's long-standing connections to Europe.

Contents:

– Dirk H. Steinforth, Bryony Coombs, and Charles C. Rozier: Britain and its neighbours: Contacts, exchanges, influences. An introduction

1. Sigmund Oehrl: Wayland the Smith and the Massacre of the Innocents. Pagan-Christian 'amalgamation' on the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket

2. Danica Ramsey-Brimberg: The permeating presence of practices: Northwest English and Manx ecclesiastical sites with Viking-Age furnished burials and sculpture

3. Dirk H. Steinforth: Between Continental models, a Christian message, and a Scandinavian audience: Early examples of the images of 'Christ trampling the Beasts' in the British Isles

4. Tom J. Horne: Silver threads – How Scandinavian Scotland connected with a wider economic world

5. Rod McDonald: The problem of Manx: Norse linguistic evidence for the survival of Manx Gaelic in the Scandinavian period

6. Keith Ruiter: Legal custom and Lex Castrensis? Using law and literature to navigate the North-Sea neighbourhood in the late Viking Age

7. Rachel E. Swallow: Ring-fencing the gardinum? European romance to British reality of the thirteenth-century Caernarfon Castle garden and park

8. Bryony Coombs: Albany and the poets: John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and the transfer of ideas between Scotland and the Continent, 1509–1536

9. Vivienne Larminie: Anglo-Swiss relations in the seventeenth century: Religion, refuge, and relief

10. Alistair Maeer: Fashioning an expanding English world: Commerce, curiosities, and coastal profiles from Edward Barlow's 1668 voyage to Italian port cities

11. Linnea Bring Larsson: 'England is not a kingdom located on the Moon': Use and usefulness of English knowledge in early Modern Swedish agricultural literature

12. Matteo Moro: An honoured Guest: The 1764 Journeys across Piedmont of Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany

Abstract: The re-use of building materials, the practice broadly characterised as 'spoliation', has long been known from Roman and Medieval contexts, particularly in the construction of early stone churches. However, the re-use of decorated materials, including stone fashioned into sculpture, bearing carved symbols, or featuring inscriptions, is also a recognised phenomenon during later prehistory, such as in Irish, French, and Iberian passage tombs or the building of Bronze-Age stone cists in Iberia, Britain, Ireland, Sweden, and Norway. Explanations for this practicein scholarly discourse have been varied: from the convenience of availing onself of easily accessible and pre-shaped material to complex symbolic and religious messages conveyed by the relocation and repurposing of formerly significant imagery carved in stone. In this volume, we agree with the view of archaeologists that it is not tenable to regard the use of 'spolia' in terms of expediency only; but that the selection, manipulation, and placement of previously decorated or carved stones more often than not was deliberate and prompted by motives beyond mere convenience. The presence of presumably mysterious symbols, images, and inscriptions on the stones, it is argued, often must have provoked a reaction in later beholders and inspired or even actuated their re-use.