Unpredictability and Presence: Norwegian Kingship in the High Middle Ages . By Hans Jacob Orning. Pp. xiv, 378. ISBN: 9789004166615. Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2008. €116.00.

This book analyses the way in which Norwegian kings exercised and legitimised their power in the period 1100–1300, paying particular attention to the period 1172–1263. The author examines political culture in Norway in terms of obedience and fidelity by examining how the words for fealty and subordination were used in contemporary, mainly old Norse, normative and descriptive sources. Inspired by late twentieth-century research into literacy he draws a distinction between absolute and textual fidelity, i.e. how fidelity manifested itself in concrete political situations. This distinction between absolute and textual fidelity provides an important analytical prop for his further discussion. In the first part of his book he investigates the ideal subordination contained in the terms of obedience and service. Orning utilises a selection of old Norse sources to posit a transition from ideal to practical submission to royal authority – a transition which affected the relationship between the Norwegian king and the Church, the king and his peasants, and the king and his hird. In the second part of the book, the author examines the implications of subordination in practical terms: the interactions between the king and royal supporters, his relationship with his magnates, and the political ebb and flow between powerful free men and the king. In a long and thorough conclusion the author surveys his results and comes to conclusions about Norway's consolidation as an independent state.