Fear and Loathing in the North ― Jews and Muslims in Medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region

Based on papers presented at the conference of the same name, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2013, the 17 articles in this volume examine Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations in medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic region. History, language, and other scholars from Scandinavian, Baltic and other European countries, Israel, and the US describe source materials, new readings of well-known sources, and other research related to economic and cultural exchange between Christians and members of other religions in the regions, including trade with Muslims and the Sami in Norway, the influence of Islamic scientific works on medieval Iceland, Muslim perceptions of Norsemen, and the travel route of Dutchman Jost van Giselen to the Holy Land and Northern Africa, and evidence of Muslims and Jews along the Baltic Rim, including Jews as scapegoats for spreading the Black Death in Prussia, Jewish doctors in Prussia, Muslim prisoners of war in Prussia, and the Karaite settlement in Troki, Lithuania. They examine images and stereotypes of the other in the regions, including Peter the Venerable as a model of medieval Christian anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim theological thought and rhetoric; descriptions of Muslims, Islam, and Muhammad in Old Danish and Old Swedish literature; depictions of Jews in Old Norse literature; anti-Jewish sentiment in the Ludus Prophetarum; visual representations of Muslims and Jews in the Kalanti altarpiece; evidence of non-Christians in the early historiographical works of the Teutonic Order, focusing on the chronicle by Peter of Dusburg; the development of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatred in early modern Lithuania; and the adaptation of the stereotype of the Turks to the Russians in Livonia. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Cordelia Hes, Gothenburg, and Jonathan Adams, Uppsala, Sweden.