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SuMMARy
Arnold toynbee’s concept of the “nordic civilization” added a historiosophic
dimension to the already popular idea of a common “viking Age culture”
throughout Northern Europe. However, the study of local and regional diversities
that may lie hidden behind the attractive products of the elitist “cosmopolitan”
culture, must be seen as a necessary element of future research. there is also a
need to question the easy separation between the “pagan” and “Christian” periods,
by which all the problems of religious transition are avoided. Equally dubious
is the tendency to view state formation in Scandinavia merely as the political
unification of previously ethnoculturally uniform lands instead of as the ruthless
competition of “egoistic” dynasties. And different conversion processes should be
recognised in the different parts of the nordic area involving various strategies of
direct challenge, but also compromise, adaptation and acceptance.
DeConStRuCtInG tHe “noRDIC CIvILIZAtIon”