Welcome to our official website!

The research project, “Symbolic Resources and Political Structures on the Periphery: Legitimization of the Elites in Poland and Norway, c. 1000-1300” focuses on the forms and means of symbolic power the members of the political elites in Norway and Poland employed to manifest their privilege right to rule to their peers and subjects.

Chronologically, this project focuses on the period 1000-1300, that is, the era between both Poland and Norway formally became Christian polities and the moment both were united as stable monarchies after long periods of civil wars and feudal partitions. Thematically, the project comparatively investigates e.g. dynastic ideologies, cults and venerations of national saints, ruler ideologies, elite graves and symbolic expressions on coins, legitimation of episcopal and abbatial power, ceremonies of coronation and rituals of conviviality, narrations about the past etc.

The project treats Poland and Norway in comparative fashion, as two parallel examples of elites in two peripheral polities similarly and differently dealing with the same type of problems: securing dominance and creating political order within their borders and using their contacts with European centers to boost their standing at home. Norway and Poland are thus seen as examples and representatives of two peripheral regions of Younger Europe, Scandinavia and East-Central Europe that have not been considered on a par so far.

Our project is based on a close cooperation between the Polish and Norwegian medievalists. The team consists of historians, archeologists, and numismatists coordinated by researchers with good experience of working on the two peripheral regions.

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