Eric Christiansen

• 1. Introduction

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  Eric Christiansen was born on the 15th of September 1937 and died on the 31st of October 2016. By the end of his life, he was a fellow emeritus of New College, Oxford University, remembered as a historian of the medieval world.

  Getting there was not a straight academic climb. Before he ever specialised in the Middle Ages, he stood in uniform as part of a British army regiment. He also completed a doctoral thesis on modern Spanish history rather than anything Nordic or Viking.

  What turned a soldier with an interest in Spain into a scholar known for chronicles of Denmark and the Baltic? And which specific books trace that unlikely turn?

• 2. From Soldier To Scholar

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  Cheshunt, Hertfordshire was the town where Christiansen was born, a detail easy to overlook next to his later life at Oxford. He was educated at Charterhouse School before his time in the army began. From there his path took an unexpected turn. He joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and served as an ordinary soldier rather than an officer. Only afterward did he return to academic study.

  A thesis on modern Spanish history, not medieval Europe, is what won Christiansen his fellowship at New College, Oxford. That project focused on modern Spain, a subject far removed from the Vikings and Normans he later studied. Once he held the fellowship, though, he shifted his specialism toward medieval history and never returned to Spain as his main focus. That redirection set up a body of work stretching from the Baltic to Denmark's earliest chronicles.

• 3. From Spain To The Sagas

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  The Origins of Military Power in Spain, 1800-1854 appeared through Oxford University Press in 1967. It was Christiansen's first book, and it stayed close to the modern Spanish history subject of his university thesis.

  Not until 1980 did his next book follow. The Northern Crusades, the Baltic and the Catholic Frontier, 1100-1525 was published by Macmillan as part of its New Studies in Medieval History series. That step marked his full turn from Spanish history toward the frontier wars of medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic.

  The Works of Sven Aggesen: Twelfth-century Danish Historian followed in 1992, issued by the Viking Society for Northern Research. In 1998, Christiansen published Dudo of St Quentin: History of the Normans through Boydell Press. The book was his own translation of the medieval text, complete with an introduction and notes. His final listed book was The Norsemen in the Viking Age, released through Wiley Blackwell in 2002. It appeared as part of a series called The Peoples of Europe.

  That translation of Dudo of St Quentin, released with Christiansen's own introduction and notes, gave English-speaking readers direct access to a medieval chronicle they might not otherwise have reached.