This month’s Third Thursday Virtual Program explores the origins of modern Scandinavia. While many people draw a straight line from the Viking Age to the present, this perspective oversimplifies a much more complex history.
Our guest speaker, Jorgen Flood, will examine how the Viking Age (ca. 800–1000) marked an early stage in the development of Scandinavia, but was vastly different from the region we know today—culturally, politically, and geographically. He will also highlight the dramatic transformations that took place between 1000 and 1500, a period shaped by several major, “cataclysmic” events.
The talk will conclude by exploring how these changes ultimately led to what we can consider modern Scandinavia, which dates back to around 1814.
About the speaker
Jorgen Flood has been a resident of PA since 1997 and currently resides in West Chester. He is a member of several Scandinavian organizations, both PA-based and national. Jorgen served in the Norwegian Army, has an accounting degree from the University of Oslo, and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. History is both a hobby and a passion for him. He is a long-time writer of magazine articles, starting in his high school days. He published his first historical fiction book, “To Live and Die in 1030,” in 2008, and as of today, has published nine historical and three historical fiction books.