Elites and Social Bonds: How Nordic were the Nordic Medieval Elites?

The Afterword has a twofold aim: to sum up some main results of the studies in the volume, and to expand the scope of the endeavor by drawing on a wider European context, partly by discussing interaction between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, and partly through comparison of similarities and differences between Scandinavia and wider Europe, including intra-Scandinavian variations. It does so by discussing the key themes of elite networks and social resources, the “Nordicness” of the Nordic elites, and, finally, the issue of historical transformation. In the section “Fuzzy Families, Flexible Friendships: The Strength of Social Networks,” it discusses and compares kinship and horizontal and vertical bonds in both the Nordic world and Western Europe. Next, it deals with the question of how interconnected Nordic elites were with one another, and to what degree we can draw a division between the Nordic elites and elites outside Scandinavia. Lastly, the Afterword assesses and compares transformation in Scandinavia and Western Europe in the High Middle Ages, here defined as a gradual development towards more institutionalized (impersonal, routinized) forms of lordship on the one hand, and Verrechtlichung of social relations on the other.