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The Normans have long been recognised as one of the most dynamic
forces within medieval western Europe. With a reputation for
aggression and conquest, they rapidly expanded their powerbase from
Normandy, and by the end of the twelfth century had established
themselves in positions of strength from England to Sicily, Antioch
to Dublin. Yet, despite this success recent scholarship has begun
to question the 'Norman Achievement' and look again at the degree
to which a single Norman cultural identity existed across so
diverse a territory. To explore this idea further, all the essays
in this volume look at questions of Norman traditions in some of
the peripheral Norman dominions. In response to recent developments
in cultural studies the volume uses the concepts of 'tradition' and
'heritage' to question the notion of a stable pan-European Norman
culture or identity, and instead reveals the degrees to which
Normans adopted and adapted to local conditions, customs and
requirements in order to form their own localised cultural
heritage. Divided into two sections, the volume begins with eight
chapters focusing on Norman Sicily. These essays demonstrate both
the degree of cultural intermingling that made this kingdom an
extraordinary paradigm in this regard, and how the Normans began to
develop their own distinct origin myths that diverged from those of
Norman France and England. The second section of the volume
provides four essays that explore Norman ethnicity and identity
more broadly, including two looking at Norman communities on the
opposite side of Europe to the Kingdom of Sicily: Ireland and the
Scandinavian settlements in the Kievan Rus. Taken as a whole the
volume provides a fascinating assessment of the construction and
malleability of Norman identities in transcultural settings. By
exploring these issues through the tradition and heritage of the
Norman's 'peripheral' dominions, a much more sophisticated
understanding can be gained, not only of th
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