Scandinavia and the Huns: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Migration Era

The aim of this paper is to discuss the early Migration period as a particular period of ‘short term history’ and its formative impact on the Scandinavian longue durée in the first millenium. During this particular period of time, the object world of Scandinavia demonstrates radical changes in symbolic representation, followed by long term continuity and social/mental resistance to change. It is argued that the Huns, as a historical fact, were present in Scandinavia in the early fifth century. Their impact was to generate an ‘episodic transition’ that opened up a whole new set of social, religious and political strategies, in Scandinavia in particular as well as in Barbarian Europe in general, and gave rise to a new Germanic identity in the aftermath of the Roman Empire.