Steffen Andre Birkeland Hope

• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland; Bogucki, Mateusz & Gullbekk, Svein Harald (2025). Coinage, the Cult of Saints, and the Legitimization of Elites in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Poland and Norway. In Jezierski, Wojciech; Orning, Hans Jacob & Pac, Grzegorz (Ed.), Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway: Comparative Studies. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611617. p. 289–319. doi: 10.1484/m.cpmh-eb.5.144713. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Between the years 1000 and 1300, the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe, both joined Latin Christendom — and with it, the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium, and both, by the end of the thirteenth century, had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines, it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context, and studied via comparison with events elsewhere. This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule, what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status, and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history, this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities, but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.

• Pac, Grzegorz & Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland (2025). Saints and Legitimization of Bishoprics in Poland and Norway until c. 1200. In Jezierski, Wojciech; Orning, Hans Jacob & Pac, Grzegorz (Ed.), Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway: Comparative Studies. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611617. p. 205–249. doi: 10.1484/m.cpmh-eb.5.144711. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Between the years 1000 and 1300, the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe, both joined Latin Christendom — and with it, the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium, and both, by the end of the thirteenth century, had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines, it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context, and studied via comparison with events elsewhere. This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule, what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status, and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history, this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities, but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.

• Dryblak, Anna Agnieszka & Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland (2025). Sacral Strongholds. Nunneries as Sources of Legitimacy in Twelfth-Century Poland and Norway. In Jezierski, Wojciech; Orning, Hans Jacob & Pac, Grzegorz (Ed.), Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway: Comparative Studies. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611617. p. 165–204. doi: 10.1484/m.cpmh-eb.5.144710. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Between the years 1000 and 1300, the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe, both joined Latin Christendom — and with it, the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium, and both, by the end of the thirteenth century, had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines, it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context, and studied via comparison with events elsewhere. This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule, what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status, and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history, this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities, but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.

• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland; Pac, Grzegorz & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (2024). Saints and Elites on the Periphery: An Introduction. In Pac, Grzegorz; Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (Ed.), The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611082. p. 15–48. Full text in Research Archive
• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland; Pac, Grzegorz & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (2024). Non-Native saints: Introduction. In Pac, Grzegorz; Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (Ed.), The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611082. p. 51–54. Full text in Research Archive
• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland; Pac, Grzegorz & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (2024). The Cult of Saints and the Legitimization of Ecclesiastical and Secular Elites on the Periphery: Conclusion. In Pac, Grzegorz; Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (Ed.), The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611082. p. 439–448. Full text in Research Archive
• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland; Pac, Grzegorz & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (2024). Native saints: Introduction. In Pac, Grzegorz; Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (Ed.), The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. Brepols. ISSN 9782503611082. p. 211–215. Full text in Research Archive
• Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Pac, Grzegorz (2024). HOLY BISHOPS, PAPAL CANONISATION AND THE LEGITIMISATION OF POWER IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY NORWAY AND POLAND: THE CASES OF EYSTEIN ERLENDSSON OF NIDAROS AND STANISLAUS OF KRAKÓW. Acta Poloniae Historica. ISSN 0001-6829. 129, p. 143–184. doi: 10.12775/APH.2024.129.05. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article explores two mid-thirteenth-century attempts to canonise holy bishops from the so-called peripheries of Latin Christendom. That two ecclesiastical centres – the metropolitan see of the Nidaros Church Province and the episcopal see of Kraków – both sought to attain papal acknowledgement of the veneration of a holy episcopal predecessor and did so in the same historical period, is understood to be a response to a general trend in the Latin Church. More specifically, we interpret these attempts in light of the paradigm of the holy episcopal champion fighting for the freedom of the Church, a recalibration of the idea of the holy bishop that emerged as a result of the canonisation of Thomas of Canterbury in 1173, and which was promoted throughout the Latin Church from that point onward. Due to the popularity of the new type of the holy bishop, the episcopal champion became a form of symbolic capital that conferred greater prestige onto the saints, their cult centres, and the guardians of those cult centres, i.e., the clergy. Through a comparative study of two unconnected cases, we see how peripheral agents could actively adopt central trends to strengthen their own legitimisation of power vis-à-vis both rulers and other ecclesiastical institutions.

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• Pac, Grzegorz; Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland & Sigurdsson, Jon Vidar (2024). The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. Brepols. ISBN 9782503611082. 472 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Landro, Torgeir & Hope, Steffen Andre Birkeland (2024). Biskop Grimkjell - Anno 1024. [Internet]. Podcast Spotify. Full text in Research Archive

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