Global challenges, local impacts

The Fimbulwinter hypothesis refers to the idea of a sudden 6th-century climate crisis heavily affecting Scandinavian societies, causing widespread depopulation and societal upheaval. However, a critical examination of the climatic, paleo-botanical, and archaeological data reveals a complex pattern of different regional trajectories that contest the idea of a uniform crisis. In this paper I present a novel socionatural approach that might progress our understanding of the 6th century and bridge between ideas of crisis and continuity. Central to my approach is the need to integrate human and environmental datasets and explore their interrelationship, in which «vulnerability» becomes a vital analytical tool. By the help of GIS analyses of cereal growth conditions, vegetation records, and archaeological data, I argue that disaster impact is likely to have varied between and within regions, thus opening for considerable diversity in social consequences.