In recent years, the influence of Muslims and Islam on developments in medieval Europe has captured the attention of scholars and the general public alike. Nevertheless, 'conversion' to Islam remains a challenging subject for historical research and demands more transdisciplinary collaborations. This article examines early medieval interactions between Muslim Arabs and Northern and Eastern Europeans as a case study for whether some individuals in Northern Eurasia 'converted' to Islam. More importantly, we address some key examples and lines of evidence that demonstrate why the process of 'conversion' to Islam is not more visible in the historical and archaeological records of Northern Eurasia. We find that, despite the well-established evidence for economic exchanges between the Islamic World and Northern Eurasia, the historical and material records are much more complex, but not entirely silent, on the issue of religious change. We also conclude that religious connectivity and exchanges, including with Islam, were common in early medieval Northern Eurasia, even if it is difficult in most cases to identify conclusive instances of 'conversion' to Islam.

The Vikings are an excellent example of the significance of cultural memory: from post-Viking-Age sources to their rediscovery in the Victorian period to their popular appeal in current times. Ancestry is a key dimension as vikings could be dynasty founders or imbue a region with Scandinavian heritage. The importance of settlements remaining connected with Iceland and the Old Norse cultural milieu is highlighted. Archaeological evidence and non-Scandinavian sources can highlight the gaps in Norse memory, where specific events have been forgotten and some regions of the Viking world have received less attention than others. Stretching from America to Russia, the impact of postmedieval political events, of modern marketisation and of different scholarly approaches is also considered.

The Vikings maintain a fearsome and violent reputation to this day. This perspective on vikings was shaped by monastic chroniclers and dynastic propaganda. But are vikings the victims of history because their history has been written by their victims? Viking violence has been contextualised using comparative history but also as the result of a socialised warrior mentality. To church historians, vikings could explain the lack of memory in their own institutions; gaps in historical records are still attributed to viking devastation. Sometimes viewed as the instruments of God in the medieval period, now vikings are the instruments of history, either as convenient explanations or catalysts for change.

According to the Latin life of a Welsh saint, Orcadian fleets had been used by an eleventh-century Welsh ruler on his raids in other parts of Wales. The date of the Life of St Gwynllyw’s composition is unknown, perhaps the early twelfth century or later; John Reuben Davies suggests 1156.¹ The Life of St Gwynllyw relates that a king Gruffudd nauigauit ad Orcades insulas ‘sailed to the Orkney Islands’ and gathered twenty-four ships there that plunder along the river Usk, including the saint’s church, and begin ad Orcades insulas et ad Hiberniam remeare (‘to return to the Orkney Islands and to Ireland’).² This supposed brief alliance is significant as perhaps the only piece of evidence for direct interactions...