CULTURAL PATTERNS IN DISCURSIVE PRACTICES OF SCANDINAVIAN SPEECH COMMUNITIES IN THE VIKING AGE

Dr Piotr Chruszczewski's Cultural Patterns in Discursive Practices of Scandinavian Speech Communities in the Viking Age is a study of runestone inscriptions from North-Central Jutland. The author makes use of the analytic tools of linguistic anthropology to show that the inscriptions, few and short as they are, offer some useful insight into the sociocultural patterns of the Scandinavian societes of the Viking Age, their power structures, institutions and rituals. Given the extremely poor written evidence for the early mediaeval history of Scandinavia and its culture, any novel method by which culturally relevant information can be extracted from the available data is not only welcome but priceless. The value of the book is enhanced by the fact that Dr Chruszczewski has visited all the runic monuments in question and has complied a covenient catalogue of the inscriptions, documenting their present-day state. I recommend the book to anyone interested in runic studies, cultural reconstruction and interrelations between culture, communication and language.