With the wagon-guider, a word do I seek: Examining gender, myth, ceremony, and interment in the social history of wagons in the Viking Age

Abstract

This thesis examines the social history of wagons from the Viking Age with a focus upon connections to gender, mythology, ceremonial purposes, and interment contexts. The aim is explore examples from the archaeological, visual, and textual sources that describe wagons in different contexts in order to reconsider and further develop these connections in a comparative perspective. Earlier theories on the social history of wagons are reexamined and problematized. The aim is to further investigate and illuminate an important piece of material culture that offers interesting insight into social practices in the realm of Viking Age studies.