“For a few months in 2018, CAS was to medieval conflict studies what Abbey Road Studios was to rock music”
A previous CAS project, 'The Nordic ‘Civil Wars’ in the High Middle Ages in a Comparative Perspective', has received high praise in a recent international review that compares the centre’s villa to the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
In The Medieval Review, historian Joel D. Anderson (University of Maine) writes that “for a few months in the spring of 2018, the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo was to medieval conflict studies what Abbey Road Studios was to rock music.”
The occasion is his review of New Perspectives on the “Civil Wars” in Medieval Scandinavia (Brepols, 2024), edited by Hans Jacob Orning, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, and Kim Esmark. The volume is a direct outcome of the 2017/2018 CAS project The Nordic ‘Civil Wars’ in the High Middle Ages in a Comparative Perspective, led by Orning and Sigurðsson.
“The book’s genesis at Centre for Advanced Study, an independent research foundation sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Education, also warrants praise,” Anderson writes.
“In the bleak funding climate of the present, the Centre’s model of state-sponsored humanistic inquiry should be celebrated, and, one can dare to dream, emulated elsewhere.”
A new take on medieval power and politics
The 448-page volume gathers leading scholars from across Europe to explore power, conflict, and cooperation in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scandinavia. It challenges earlier interpretations of the Nordic civil wars as chaotic preludes to state formation and instead portrays violence as an integral – and sometimes stabilising – part of medieval political life.
Anderson calls the collection “engaging and impressively cohesive”, praising its conceptual innovation and international scope.
Lasting impact
During their year at CAS, the project members created what Anderson describes as an “enviable environment”, where scholars “cut off from ordinary obligations” could devote themselves entirely to research. The book bears the marks of that close collaboration, with nearly all contributors having spent at least a month at CAS.
The review highlights how the CAS model continues to produce long-term results in the humanities – years after the initial project period ended.
Have a look at our Alumni Spotlight interview with Hans Jacob Orning here >