The Sociolinguistics of Urbanization.

Grainy CCTV footage shows a man walking into a bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells her to count to twenty-five. When he doesn't get his money in time, she is executed. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case. While Harry's girlfriend is away in Russia, an old flame gets in touch. He goes to dinner at her house and wakes up at home with no memory of the past twelve hours. The same morning the girl is found shot dead in her bed. Harry begins to receive threatening e-mails. Is someone trying to frame him for this unexplained death? Meanwhile the bank robberies continue with unparalleled savagery. Gripping and surprising, Nemesis is the new thriller by one of the biggest stars of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Explore Europe's most prosperous corner: a smorgasbord of Viking ships, brooding castles, and emerald fjords. With Rick Steves on your side, Scandinavia can be yours! Inside Rick Steves Scandinavia you'll find: Comprehensive coverage for spending a week or more exploring Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from the Tivoli Gardens, the Viking Ship Museum, and Hans Christian Andersen's house, to prehistoric monoliths and sleepy fjord villages How to connect with local culture: Take a dip in the fjords on a summer day, bask in the hygge of a cozy cabin café, grab a picnic of Nordic cheese and smoked fish from a farmers market, and chat with friendly locals over a glass of avkvavit Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a cup of coffee Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and incredible museums Detailed maps for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, phrase books for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Estonian, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 400 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Complete, up-to-date information on Copenhagen, Roskilde, Æro, Odense, Justland, Oslo, Flåm, Aurland, undredal, Sognejord, Gudbrandsdal Valley, the Jotunheimen Mountains, Bergen, Stavanger, The Setesdal Valley, Kristiansand, Stockholm, Sigtuna, Uppsala, Vaxholm, Grinda, Svartsö, Sandhamn, Växjö, Glass Country, Kalmar, Öland, Helsinki, Tallinn, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Scandinavia. Cruising Scandinavia instead? Try Rick Steves Scandinavian and Northern European Cruise Ports.

Popular music has come to play a significant role in the political and cultural history of the Nordic countries. Research on the region's culture has largely followed national narratives created by political and economic institutions, even as cultural life in the region--which spans a large area of northern Europe and the North Atlantic--displays more complex geographies and evolving global dynamics. As the first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries offers a series of exemplary studies of music in these transnational dynamics in the specific context of the region's cultures and natural environments, written by the foremost experts in the field. Chapters highlight and challenge music's place in exotic images of the North and in transnational environmentalism, tourism, racism, and media industries. The Handbook illustrates how transnational dynamics evolve and shape musical life and the institutional spheres of policy, education, and research.

Until now insular and continental material, mostly metal-work, found in pagan Viking Age graves in Norway, has been interpreted as looted material from churches and monasteries on the British Isles and the Continent. The raiding Vikings brought these objects back to their homeland where they were often broken up and used as jewellery or got alternative functions. Looting or Missioning looks at the use and functions of these sacred objects in their original Christian contexts. Based on such an analysis the author proposes an alternative interpretation of these objects: they were brought by Christian missionaries from different parts of the British Isles and the Continent to Norway. The objects were either personal (crosses, croziers, portable reliquaries etc.), objects used for baptism (hanging bowls), equipment to officiate a mass (mountings from books or reading equipment, altars or crosses) or to give the communion (pitchers, glass vessels, chalices, paten). We know from contemporary sources (Ansgar in Birka, Sweden in the ninth century) that missionaries brought this sort of equipment on their mission journeys. We also hear that missionaries were robbed, killed or chased off. Mikkelson interprets the sacred objects found in Viking Age pagan graves as objects that originate from the many unsuccessful mission attempts in Norway throughout the Viking Age. They changed function and were integrated in the pagan tradition. The conversion and Christianisation of Norway can thus be seen as a long-lasting process, at least from about 800 (but probably earlier) to the beginning of the eleventh century. As we must assume that the written sources on the subject are incomplete, the archaeological evidences are the main source. In addition to metal work and written sources, the dating and interpretation of stone crosses, rune stones, manuscript fragments and early Christian graves and churches are discussed. The main part of the manuscript regards the context of all these sources, studied in each part of Norway separately: Where do we find concentrations of objects that could support the interpretation of these being the result of mission attempts, and where can we combine archaeological and written sources to tentatively create more complete stories related to mission? One analysis is of special interest to British and Norwegian scholars and even a broader audience. It refers to the chieftain Ohthere from Northern Norway, who visited King Alfred the Great in Winchester in 890. The author finds a link between Alfred´s court and Ohthere´s farm which, it is argued, for was Borg at Vestvågøy, Lofoten, where the biggest Viking Age house in Northern Europe has been excavated. In the hall of this house were found a rare glass beaker with gold cross decorations, a Continental or British made pitcher, pieces of a bronze bowl and an æstel of gold. This last piece is only found in Northern Norway and in England, with Wessex and Mercia as the core areas. “The Alfred Jewel” (Ashmolean Museum) is also an æstel of the same main type, but much more splendid and with an inscription relating it to King Alfred. Mikkelson argues for a bishop being sent from Wessex and Alfred´s court on Ohthere´s ship back to Northern Norway as a missionary.