Franks and Northmen explores the full spectrum of Franco-Scandinavian interaction, examining not just violence but also less well-known relationships centered on acts of diplomacy, commerce, and mission and demonstrating the transformative nature of cross-cultural encounter during the Viking Age.
In the year 777, the Frankish sources mention the Northmen, better known to most as the Vikings, for the first time. By the tenth century these Northmen, once a mysterious people on the borders of the Carolingian Empire, would be a familiar presence in the Frankish world. As raiders and pillagers, the Vikings would fill the pages of Frankish authors, leaving a legacy that continues to fascinate even to the twenty-first century. But a closer look at sources, both textual and material, reveals that the relationships between Franks and Northmen were far more complex and multifaceted than a rigid focus on Viking violence might suggest. Merchants carried goods across the North Sea, missionaries encouraged new ways of understanding the world, and Franks and Northmen formed relationships and bonds even amidst conflict and violence.
This study is a useful resource for both students and specialists of central and northern Europe in the early medieval period.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. First Meetings and Shared Borders 2. Commercial Connections 3. The Reign of Louis the Pious: New Designs, New Dangers 4. Untangling Narratives: 843 and Beyond 5. Continuity and Change in a Post-partition World 6. The End of an Era: Franks and Northmen at the End of the Ninth Century 7. Coda: A Changed World
About the Author :
Daniel Melleno is Assistant Professor of pre-modern history at the University of Denver, USA, with a PhD in medieval history from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on early medieval cross-cultural interaction with a particular focus on the Carolingian Empire and the Viking World.
Review :
“By running the gamut of Franco-Scandinavian interaction, Melleno shines a clear and effective light on the multifaceted ways in which these respective peoples encountered, engaged, and exploited one another over the course of the decades – punctuating that, for Francia, there had always been considerably more to the Viking Age than mere violence.”
Christian Cooijmans, Early Medieval Europe 2025 33 (3)
