ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the sociopolitical and economic conditions that enabled the viking phenomenon to take shape in southern Scandinavia, highlighting the continued consolidation of political power during the late Nordic Iron Age, as well as the increasing influence of long-distance trade on regional economic landscapes. It examines how, alongside established networks of reciprocal gift-exchange, a nodal market economy began to manifest itself through successive waves of regional urbanisation between the eighth and tenth centuries – representing the Scandinavian component of the proposed conceptual development model. In addition, the chapter outlines the concept of ‘hydrarchy’ as an organisational framework for the self-governance and self-sustenance of itinerant viking hosts.
