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 A History of the Vikings

mMMUNlTY : OF DENVER
COMM m?us
I. A SWEDISH VIKING
 COMMUNITY CC F DENVER
RED ROCKS CAMPUS

Gwyn Jones

A History of the

VIKINGS
oxford university press NewTork Toronto
 Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W.i

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON

CAPE TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA
KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE HONG KONG TOKYO

14125-2. \
Q

_-. © Oxford University Press 1968

ok
I nk& First published 1968
Reprinted 1969

COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF DENVER

RED ROCKS CAMPUS

Printed in Great Britain

by W & J Mackay & Co Ltd, Chatham

 .

Contents

Acknowledgements XV
Introduction I

I.THE NORTHERN PEOPLES TO A.D. 700

1. From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 17
2. The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 34

THE VIKING KINGDOMS TO THE CLOSE

II.
OF THE TENTH CENTURY
1. The Scandinavian Community, I: Diversity and Unity 59
2. The Historical Traditions of Norway to 950 78
3. Denmark to the Death of Gorm the Old 97
4. Denmark and Norway from the Accession of Harald
Bluetooth to the Death of Olaf Tryggvason (c. 950-1000) 11S

III. THE VIKING MOVEMENT OVERSEAS

1. The Scandinavian Community, H Aspects of Society
:
145
2. Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 182
3. The Movement South and South- West to 954: the British
Isles, the Frankish Empire, the Mediterranean 204
4. The Movement East The Baltic Lands, Russia, Byzantium
: 241
5. The Movement West: Iceland, Greenland, America 269

IV. THE VIKING AGE ENDS

1 The Scandinavian Community, LH : Culture and Image 315
2. Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 3 54
3 The Viking Kingdoms to the Death of Harald Hardradi,
1066 387

COMMUI
RED R .0
vi Contents

Appendixes

I. Runes 4*9
II. The Danelaw 4^1
HI. A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga 4^5

Select Bibliography 43 1

Index 445

COL. : OF D
RED ROCKS CAMPUS
Illustrations

PLATES
1. A Viking. Head carved in elk-horn, as top of a stick, from
Sigtuna, Sweden. Photo Antikvarisk-Topografska Arkivet (ATA),
Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm. frontispiece

2. Pre-Viking Dragon Head. Terminal of the wooden stem-

post of a Migration Age ship, from the river Scheldt. Post c. 57
in. long. Photo British Museum. facing page 32

3. Warriors attacking a house. Lid of the Frank's Casket

(whalebone), c. 9 in. long. Viking Age. Photo British Museum. 33

4. Saga Scene. Carving in wood from the Oseberg wagon,

ninth century, Norway. Photo Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 33
5. Norse Tools, Viking Age, from a grave-find at Bygland,
Telemark, Norway. Photo Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 48
6. Norse Weapons, ninth and tenth centuries, Norway. Photo
Ernst Schwitters, Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 49
7.Baptism ofHarald Bluetooth. From the twelfth-century altar
ofTamdrup Church, East Jutland. Photo Nationalmuseet,
Copenhagen. 96
8. Smith's mould for casting Thor's Hammer and Christ's
Cross, together with hammer-amulets. Tenth century. Photo
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. 96
9. Jelling. Gorm's Stone and Harald Bluetooth's Stone standing
beside the (later) Romanesque church. Photo Nationalmuseet,
Copenhagen. (Cf. text figure, no. 15.) 97
10. Lindholm Hoje, the settlement and cemetery from the air.
Photo H. Stiesdal, Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. 112
viii Illustrations

11. Gamla Uppsala, the mounds from the air. Photo by kindper-
mission of Uppsala-Bild, Uppsala. facing page 113

12. The oldest Danish coins from the Viking Age. Photo
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. 113

13. Carved and pictured stone from Larbro, Gotland. Photo

Nils Lagergren, A TA, Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm. 224
14. The Gokstad Ship, ninth century, Norway. Photo Univer-
sitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 225
15. Treasure of silver found at Grimestad, Stokke, Vestfold,
Norway. Tenth century. Photo Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 240
16. Necklace and arm-ring from Birka, Grave 632. Photo ATA,
Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm. 241
17. Viking Age memorial stone, Kirkastigen, Ed, Uppland,
Sweden. Photo ATA, Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm. 272
18. The Piraeus Lion, Venice. Photo ATA, Statens Historiska
Museum, Stockholm. 273
19. Thingvellir, Iceland. Photo Thorkild Ramskou, by kind per-
mission ofthe artist. 288
20. Flateyjarbok, Gks 1005, part of col. 283. Print supplied
by Kiimmerly & Frey AG, Bern. Photo Det Kongelige Bibliotek,
Copenhagen. 289
21. Tapestry from the Oseberg find (restored; actual breadth
c. 23 cm.). After an aquarelle by Mary Storm. Photo Univer-
sitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 320
22. Frey. Bronze image of a god, probably Frey, 7 cm. high,
from Rallinge, Sodermanland, Sweden. Photo ATA, Statens
Historiska Museum, Stockholm. 321
23. Thor. Bronze image of a god, probably Thor, 6-j cm. high,
from Eyrarland, EyjafjorQur, Iceland. Photo Hans Reich, Thjod-
minjasafn islands, Reykjavik. 321

24. A Viking. Carving in wood from the Oseberg wagon,

ninth century, Norway. Photo Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 336
25. Animal head from Shetelig's sleigh, Oseberg. Photo Ernst
Schwitters, Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 337
26. Articles ofPeace. Pins and combs from Trelleborg, Slagelse,
Zealand, Denmark. Photo Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. 384
 Illustrations ix

27. Articles of War. Axe, stirrup, sword. Photo Nationalmuseet,

Copenhagen. facing page 3 84
28. Sigurd Story on the twelfth-century carved wooden
portals of Hylestad Stave-Church, Setesdal, Norway. Photo
Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. 385
29. Trelleborg, from the air. Photo Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. 400
30. Flateyjarbok, Gks 1005, part ofcol. 3 10. Photo Det Kongelige
Bibliotek, Copenhagen. 401

TEXT FIGURES
1. The Island Countries of the North. A map to accompany
Ptolemy. Adapted from G. Schutte, and reproduced by kind
permission from E. Munksgaard, Jernalderen, Turistforeningen
for Danmark, Arbog, 1961, Odense, 1961. page 24
2. Lapps hunting on skis. Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus
Septentrionalibus, 1555. 27
3.Human mask from a mount, Valsgarde, Grave 6. Gustavia-
num, Uppsala. From D. M. Wilson and O. Klindt-Jensen,
Viking Art, by kind permission of Mrs. Eva Wilson. 36
4. Pictured stone from Alstad, Toten, Norway. Universitetets
Oldsaksamling, Oslo. From D. M. Wilson and O. Klindt-
Jensen, Viking Art, by kind permission of Mrs. Eva Wilson.
The legend is from Lise Jacobsen, 'Evje-Stenen og Alstad-
Stenen', Norske Oldfunn, VI, Oslo, 1933, as quoted in Viking
Art, p. 130. 40
5. Lejre. Olaus Wormius, Danicorum Monumentorum Libri Sex,
1643. 47
6. The Battle of Bravellir. A composition based upon motifs
from Gotland pictured stones, by R. W. H. in Skalk, 1964, nr. 4.
By kind permission of the artist and Dr. Harald Andersen. 54
7. The Island Countries of the North. A map to accompany
Adam of Bremen. After A. A. Bjornbo, Cartographia Groenlend-
inga, Meddelelserom Gronland, 48, Copenhagen, 1912. By
kind permission of Dr. Helge Larsen. 64
8. Herring Harvest off Skane. Olaus Magnus, Historia. 66
9. Gold bracteate of the early Germanic Iron Age, with an in-
scribed runic alphabet, from Vadstena, Ostergotland, Sweden.
Diameter 3 •! cm. Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm. 70
 .

x Illustrations

10. Pictured stones and runestones in Skane. Olaus Wormius,

Danicorum Monumentorum Libri Sex. pages 14 and 72
11. Viking Ships in Tunsbergsfjord. A drawing by Erik Wer-
enskiold for Heimskringla, by kind permission of Gyldendal
Norsk Forlag, Oslo. 81
12. Seal Hunters. Olaus Magnus, Historia. 88
13. Ninth-century Norseman. Carving in wood from the
Oseberg Wagon. By kind permission of Universitetets Old-
saksamling, Oslo. 95
14. The Danevirke. A pictorial reconstruction of the walls by
J.
Aarup Jensen, Skalk, 1963, nr. 2. By kind permission of the
artist and Dr. Harald Andersen. 104-5
15. Jelling c. 1590. An engraving on copper after Lindeburg,
Hypotyposis arcium, 1592, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen. 115
16. Farmanshaugen by Tunsbergsfjord. A
drawing by Erik
Werenskiold for Heimskringla, by kind permission of Gyldendal
Norsk Forlag, Oslo. 120
17. A
Hero enters Valhalla. Motif from a Gotland pictured
stone. Reproduced from Oxenstierna, Die IVikinger, Stuttgart,
I 959> by kind permission of W. Kohlhammer Verlag. And

so 34. 56 and 123

18. After Svold. A drawing by Erik Werenskiold for Heims-
kringla, by kind permission of Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo. 139
19. The World Circle of the Norsemen. After A. A. Bjornbo,
Cartographia Groenlendinga (see no. 7). By kind permission of
Dr. Helge Larsen 158
20. Birka, Grave 581. From Birka Untersuchungen und Studien I,

Die Grd'ber, Stockholm (KVHAA, 1940-3), by kind permis-

sion of Professor Holger Arbman. 170
21. Hedeby c. 800. A map of the town by Helmuth Schleder-
mann, from Slesvig-Hedebys tilblivelse, I, 1966. 175
22. Hedeby in the Tenth Century. A pictorial reconstruction
by J. Aarup Jensen. This and figures 23 and 24 are reproduced
from Skalk 1963, nr. 2, by kind permission of the artist and Dr.
,

Harald Andersen. 178

23. Hedeby: the Town and Rampart. A pictorial reconstruc-
tion. 179
24. Houses at Hedeby. A pictorial reconstruction. 180
 .

Illustrations xi

25. The Gokstad Ship. Plans and sections, from Thorleif

Sjovold, The Oseberg Find, Oslo, 1959, by permission of Univer-
sitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo. pages 184-5

26. A Norse Bearing-Dial. A wooden half-disc found by C. L.

Vebaek at Unartoq (Siglufjord), Eastern Settlement, Green-
land. Reconstructed by Carl Solver, Vestervejen. Om vikingernes
Sejlads, Copenhagen, 1954. 193
27. Perils of the Northern Seas, 1 : The Devouring Whale.
Olaus Magnus, Historia. 195
28. Perils of the Northern Seas, 2 : The Devouring Whirlpool.
Olaus Magnus, Historia. 197
29. Perils of the Northern Seas, 3 : Polar Ice and Polar Bears.
Olaus Magnus, Historia. 200
30. Perils of the Northern Seas, 4: Wreckage and Driftwood
off Greenland. Olaus Magnus. Historia. 201
31. Vikings at Lindisfarne. From a cross-slab from Lindisfarne
monastery, Viking Age. 208
32. The Martyrdom of St. Edmund by the Danes. From a
drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, by kind per-
mission of the Society. 220
33. A Norse Ship. The Town Seal of Bergen, c. 1300. From a
photograph supplied by Asbjorn E. Herteig, by permission of
HistoriskMuseum, Universitetet i Bergen. 227
34. 'The seamen stood ready, many vikings eager for battle.'
Motif from a Gotland pictured stone. By kind permission of
W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart. 142-3 and 237
35. Portage on the Russian River-routes, 1. Olaus Magnus,
Historia. 251
36. Portage on the Russian River-routes, 2: Olaus Magnus,
Historia. 253
37. The Fur Trade, 1 : Martens and Sables. Olaus Magnus,
Historia. 258
38. The Fur Trade, 2 : Squirrels. Olaus Magnus, Historia. 261
39. Whale-flensing, Faroes. Olaus Magnus, Historia. 272
40. Land of Fire and Ice. Olaus Magnus, Historia. 276
41 Early Eleventh-century Farm at Gjaskogar, Thjorsardalur,
Iceland. From Kristjan Eldjarn,
c
Two Medieval Farm sites in
 .

xii Illustrations

Iceland and some Remarks on Tephrochronology', in Fourth

Viking Congress, 1 965 , by kind permi s sion of the author. page 2 80
42. Brattahlid, the North Farm Dwelling, Tunugdliarfik
(Eiriksfjord), Eastern Settlement, Greenland. By kind per-
mission of Dr. Aage Roussell and Nationalmuseet, Copen-
hagen. 291
43. Thjodhild's Church, Brattahlid. A pictorial reconstruction
by Knud J. Krogh, Skalk, 1964, nr. 4, by kind permission of the
artist and Dr. Harald Andersen. 294
44. The Norse Settlement at Gardar (Igaliko), Eastern Settle-
ment, Greenland. By kind permission of Dr. Aage Roussell and
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. The legend is from Knud
Krogh, Viking Greenland, 1967, p. 102. 296
45. The Cathedral and Bishop's Residence at Gardar. A re-
construction by Aage Roussell. By kind permission of the
artist. The legend is from Viking Greenland, p. 103 297
46. The Skalholt Map of SigurQur Stefansson, Gks 2881,
f. iov By kind permission of Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copen-
.

hagen. 305
47. The Farm at HofstaQir, Myvatnssveit, Iceland. After
Daniel Bruun and Finnur Jonsson, in Aarboger for Nordisk
Oldkyndigbet og Historie, Copenhagen, 1909. 329
48. Man's Grave, SilastaQir, KraeklingahliQ, Iceland. From
Kristjan Eldjarn, Kuml og Haugfe ur Heidnum Sid i Islandi,
Akureyri, 1956, by kind permission of the author. And so 49. 331

49. Woman's Grave, Hafurbjarnarsta3ir, Gullbringusysla,

Iceland. 333
50. Gripping Beast. Ornament from a brooch from Lisbjerg,
Jutland, Denmark. Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. Drawing by
C. R. Musson. 338
51. Great Beast and smaller Great Beast. Ornament of the
Heggen Vane, from Heggen Church, Modum, Akershus
(earlier a ship'svane or standard). Universitetets Oldsak-
samling, Oslo. From D. M. Wilson and O. Klindt-Jensen, Viking
Art, by kind permission of Mrs. Eva Wilson. 340
52. Urnes Beast, with serpentine motifs. Ornament of the
west gable of Urnes Church, Norway. From Viking Art, by
kind permission of Mrs. Eva Wilson. 342
 . .

Illustrations xiii

53 A Worker in Stone. A self-portrait from the south portal of

Gjol Church, North Jutland. From a rubbing made by Soren
Krogh. By kind permission of the artist and Dr. Harald
Andersen. page 344

54. Trelleborg.Ground plan based on J. Brondsted, Danmarks

Oldtid,Copenhagen, i960, by kind permission of National-
museet, Copenhagen. 361

55. Barrack house at Fyrkat. A reconstruction by Holger

Schmidt, Skalk, 1965, nr. 4, by kind permission of the artist
and Dr. Harald Andersen 3 64

56. A Norse Ship. From an inscribed piece of wood c. 17-18

cm. long (first half of the thirteenth century) found at Bergen
during excavations conducted by Asbjorn E. Herteig, Re-
produced by kind permission of Historisk Museum, Univer-
sitetet i Bergen. And so 57. 399
57.A Norse Fleet. Reverse side of the piece of wood described
under 56. 31 2-3 and 408-9

58.
c
The riders sleep, heroes in the grave.' A pictorial re-
construction by
J. Aarup Jensen of the boat chamber-grave
south of the rampart at Hedeby, Skalk, 1963, nr. 2. By kind
permission of the artist and Dr. Harald Andersen. 415

MAPS
1. Viking Scandinavia page 61
2. Norway: Vestfold and the Oslofjord Provinces 80
3. The Viking World and Trade Routes 160-1 and front and
(After H. Jankuhn, H. Arbman, and B. Almgren) rear end papers

4. Sweden: The East Central Provinces 172

5. Hedeby and Neighbourhood 176
(From H. Schledermann, 'Slesvig-Hedebys
tilblivelse', Sonderjyske Arboger, 1966)
6. Ireland and the Irish Sea 205
7. Viking Attacks on England, 793-860
(From R. H. Hodgkin, A
History ofthe Anglo-Saxons') 209
8. The Scandinavian Settlement in England 222
(A. H. Smith)
xiv Illustrations

9. France and Normandy page 230

(From T. D. Kendrick, A History ofthe Vikings)
10. The Russian Rivers and the Movements of the Rus 254
(After N. V. Riasanovsky, A History ofRussia)
11. The Western Voyages of the Norsemen 271
12. Iceland 278
(From Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga)
13. Greenland, the Eastern Settlement 292
(After C. L. Vebaek, 'Topografisk Kort over 0ster-
bygden. Med Nordbonavne for Kirker og Vigtigste
Fjorde', 1952)

14. Markland and Vinland 299

(After Jorgen Meldgard, 'Fra Brattalid til Vinland',
Naturens Verden^ 1961)

15. Denmark in the Viking Age 362

(After Thorkild Ramskou, Danmarks Historie, Norman-
nertiden, 600-1060)
Acknowledgements

I have received much help and kindness during the writing of this
book, and wish I could find new words to express my gratitude. As

with my Norse Atlantic Saga, I have received hospitality, gifts of

published and unpublished material, a wealth of reference (some-
times to sources of information beyond my linguistic means), grants
of time, money, and my friends' learning. I owe thanks to several
institutions : the British Broadcasting Corporation for a commission
which took me to Iceland and Greenland in 1964; the Dansk-
Engelsk Selskab for asking me to Copenhagen in 1965 the Smith- ;

sonian Institution for inviting me to take part in its Symposium on

the Vinland Map in Washington in the autumn of 1966; my College
for a grant which allowed me to visit various Scandinavian museums
and libraries in the summer of 1967. 1 have three major obligations
to individuals. My friends Dr. Olaf Olsen of the National Museum of
Denmark and Dr. Henry Loyn, Reader in History at the University
College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, have read and com-
mented closely on my manuscript; and Mr. Helmuth Schledermann
has read through my Hedeby material and what I have to say about
ninth- and tenth-century kings and kingship in Denmark and
Norway. All three have saved me from error in fields where they are
expert, and such faults or misjudgements as survive their amend-
ment may be charged to me alone. Others who have shown me
courtesies of different kinds include Antikvar Harald Andersen,
Mr. D. G. Brydson, Mr. and Mrs. Sigurjon Einarsson, Dr. Kristjan
Eldjarn,my colleagues Professor Thomas Jones and Dr. R. G.
Thomas, Professor Julia McGrew, Froken Elisabeth Munksgaard,
Mr. C. R. Musson (to whom I owe many of my maps), Mr. P. H.
Sawyer, Professor H. M. Smyser, Professor Erik Tengstrand, Mu-
seumsinspektor C. L. Vebaek, Mrs. Eva Wilson, and Mr. Michael
xvi Acknowledgements

Wolfe. My obligations in respect of illustrations are in general ex-

pressed where the plates, text figures, and maps are listed.
Of two of my helpers I should like to make a separate mention.
With characteristic goodwill Professor G. N. Garmonsway gave me
permission to use his translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as
extensively as I wished, and Professor A. H. Smith as generously

supplied me
with an improved version of his indispensable place-
name map. It is a sorrow to me that neither scholar lives to read my
thanks for this last in a series of acts of friendship covering a full
quarter of a century.
Again, no one can can write a general history of the Vikings with-
out levying a viking-style tribute on other men's riches. I am con-
scious of my many exactions, and trust that every bibliographical
reference will be held indicative of gratitude and esteem.
I am much indebted to the following for the use of copyright

material : the Columbia University Press in respect of Francis J.

Tschan's translation of Adam of Bremen's History of the Archbishops
of Hamburg-Bremen, 1959; the Medieval Academy of America for
Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor's trans-
lation of The Russian Primary Chronicle, 1953 ; the American-Scandinav-
ian Foundation, the Oxford University Press, and the Times
Literary Supplement for permission to quote or adapt material of my
own first contributed to them. I have failed to find the holder of
copyright in Oliver Elton's translation of The First Nine Books of the
Danish History ofSaxo Grammaticus, David Nutt, 1894. I nave there-
fore quoted from it in good faith, and would willingly declare my
obligation.
To the Librarians and their staffs at the University College of
Wales, Aberystwyth, where began my book, and the University
I

College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, where I

finished it, I offer my warm appreciation of their efficient and
friendly services. Mrs. Irene Fawcett has typed my material with
exemplary skill and patience. And, as always, my wife Alice has
been my best and entirely indispensable helpmeet.

University College GWYN JONES

Cardiff
 —

Introduction

Ihe subject of this book is the viking realms,

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, their emergence and develop-
ment, civilization and culture, and their many-sided achievement
at home and abroad. It is an extensive field to survey. For even
when we set aside the almost trackless millennia of my opening
pages, there remain a thousand years of history to be charted in an
area of Norse activity extending from the North Cape and White
Sea to the Pillars of Hercules, from Newfoundland and Baffin Island
to the Volga Bend and Byzantium. However, my concern is prim-
arilywith the 'Viking Age' proper, equated as this generally is with
—
the three-hundred-year period c. 780-1070 the period, that is, of
the so-called 'Viking Movement' overseas. The Viking Movement
is that manifestation of the Viking Age which most powerfully,

because most painfully, impressed itself upon non-Scandinavian

chroniclers abroad. By their emphasis on the destructive effects of
the Movement in western Europe, and their neglect of its con-
tributions to trade, discovery, colonization, and the political and
cultural institutions of the countries affected, these chroniclers
produced for the contemporary world and posterity alike a picture
at once incomplete, lurid, and distorted. They made little inquiry
into the lands, peoples, beliefs, and civilizations from which (as they
saw it) these priest-murderers and robbers of churches emerged
a lack of dispassionate comment made more serious by the shortage
of contemporary records in Scandinavia itself, with its attendant
problem of an abundance of late, unreliable written sources, mainly
from the hands of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Icelandic anti-
quaries and historians. Consequently, to see the Viking Age in
terms of the Viking Movement, and this last through the eyes of
west European Christian annalists and chroniclers, is to see it, in
 Introduction

every sense of the word, partially. It turns a many-faceted and

durably important contribution to our European heritage into a
sensational tale of raid, rapine, and conquest, and an interplay of
complementary aspects of the European genius into a brutal saga.
Not least, it gives the Age beginning and
a sudden, inexplicable
offers inadequate reasons for its end, whereas on examination it will
be found to evolve out of the centuries preceding it and merge with
the years which followed.
Who were the vikings (yikingar), whose name is used descript-
ively for this significant period of European history? They were
men of the North, the inhabitants of Scandinavia, and it is import-
ant to see them in fair perspective. The Nordmenn or Nordmanni,
despite southern witness and the image-making of their own
authors and were, one almost apologizes for saying, first and
artists,
foremost men. Second, they were the men of Rogaland, Vestfold,
Zealand, Skane, Sodermanland, or whatever other region or patria
gave them life and nurture. As time went on and the northern
kingdoms took vague, prophetic shape, no doubt a proportion of
them felt themselves to be subjects of the king of the Danes,
Swedes, or Norwegians. But though they had many ties, including
those of language and religion, to remind them of a shared northern-
ness, they had but little sense of a separate Danish, Swedish, or
Norwegian nationality. For the rest, they were neither super-
human nor sub-human; but precisely and generically human in —
their greed, treachery, cruelty, and violence,- 'as in their energy,
generosity, loyalty, and familial kindnes?, and recognizably one and
the same species as their neighbours, whether Franks and Germans,
Petchenegs and English, Wends and Bulgars, Bretons and Irish,
Eskimos and American Indians, Muslims atjd Greeks, whenever and
wherever encountered. It was the pressures'^ history, geography,
and economics, and their religion and seafaring arts, which made
them distinctive in their day, not original sin or primal virtue.
Being men, they lived under a compulsion to make life bearable and
if possible good. In an agrarian world they needed land for their
children and grass for their stock; in an era of opening trade-routes
they craved silver and the chattels silver could provide; in a
hierarchical, warlike, and still part-tribal society their leaders
sought fame, power, wealth, and sustenance through action. Thus
it was chiefly land-hunger which led them to the windy sheep-runs

of the Faroes, the butter-laden grass of habitable Iceland, and the

 J
Introduction 3

good and fragrant pasture of the west Greenland fjords. It was an

ambition to distinguish themselves, win land and wealth to reward
and enlarge their armed following, which impelled generation after
generation of northern kings, jarls, and sea-captains to assault the
territories of their southern and south-western neighbours. It was a

desire for profitand material goods which encouraged the vikings

to trade and carry in the Baltic and North Seas, the Black Sea and
Caspian, across the Atlantic Ocean and along the great Russian
rivers. They were particularly well placed to meet the inexhaustible
European and Muslim demand for furs and slaves, but turned their
hand to any saleable commodity: grain, fish, timber, hides, salt,
wine, glass, glue, horses and cattle, white bears and falcons, walrus
ivory and seal oil, honey, wax, malt, silks and woollens, amber and
hazel nuts, soapstone dishes and basalt millstones, wrought weapons,
ornaments, and silver. For this alone the viking peoples would be
worthy of fame, for to this end they built ships and established market
towns, developed trade routes and maintained spheres of influence,
and fortified mercantile practice with piracy and conquest abroad.
To go viking was a trade or profession, a means to the good life,

or at least to a living. Its three main elements, trade, piracy, and

land-taking, often closely blended, had been northern activities long
before the Viking Age, and would long outlast One moves back
it.

with no sense of dislocation from the commencement of the Viking

Movement shortly before 800 to the purposeful mastery of sea-
going techniques by the Scandinavian peoples and the eastward
expansion of the Swedes into the Baltic lands soon after the year
700. Behind these lay the movements of the Angles, Jutes, Geats,
and Eruli associated with the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, and
still farther back the Folk Wanderings or Migrations of so many

northern tribes or peoples. Flistorians have long debated whether

we should see more than superficial resemblances between the late
and early manifestations of northern unrest, and that there were
substantial intermissions is evident, but though we shall be wise to
reserve the word 'viking' for its agreed post-780 context, there are
convincing reasons for seeing northern history, however diversified,
as a unity, and the northern excursus as a continuing rather than a
fortuitously repetitive or coincidental process.
Our three main sources of information about the viking and
pre-viking north are archaeology,numismatics, and written
records. Ideally they should complement and illuminate each other,
4 Introduction

so that hardly a corner of doubt or ignorance remains to us; in fact,

all three are imperfect instruments to knowledge and understand-
ing. For a start, there is no contrast here between the exactitude of
science (archaeology and numismatics) and the subjectivity of the
written word. Archaeologists, like other men, are not always free
from nationalism, mysticism, or overconfidence, as is shown by the
long debate over the extent and significance ofScandinavian material
in Russian graves, the sad story of viking finds in America, the
continuing argument over the origin and chronology of viking art
styles, and the uncertainty as to what objects came out of what layer
in so many nineteenth-century archaeological investigations. Even
when the material evidence is agreed on it must be interpreted, and
here again scholars of deserved reputation do not always see eye to
eye. The dating of objects and sites is often difficult, and closer
approximations than a century or half-century are hard to come by.
Nature, which has been so prodigal of disasters, has even so been a
little niggardly of such terminatory phenomena as a flow of lava,
a drift of sand, or a river's change of course. Again, as we see at
Hedeby, the archaeologists may have so huge a task in hand that
they can do little more than issue interim reports, of great interest
and importance, but disconcertingly open to revision in the light of
next year's dig.
Yet, for all this, the contribution of archaeology to our know-
ledge of the viking world immense. Investigators, grown more
is

and more masters of their art, and drawing increasingly on scientific

aids, have uncovered thousands of graves and many hundreds of
dwellings; they have identified and sometimes explored Viking
Age towns; and can inform us with confidence of ploughed fields,
cattle byres, middens, drainage systems, farmsteads and smithies.
They have found warriors with their weapons, boats and horses;
merchants with scales and weights; great ladies furnished and
provisioned out of this world for the next. They have found sleighs,
carts, chests, spades and picks, horse-harness, dog-collars and leads;
spinning weights and scraps of silk and woollen; garments,
brooches, combs and other toiletry. We have a good idea of what
people wore, and what tools they used from broad-axe to eating-
knife, from spear to needle. We are sufficiently well informed about
the viking ship to build a replica and cross the Atlantic in it. We
know something of Norse religion and much of Norse funerary
practice. We can study the viking at home, and accompany him
 Introduction 5

abroad with his distinctive personal ornaments and ship-burials.

We know his house patterns in Iceland and Greenland, can assess
his grasp of constructional principles at the big military camps of
Trelleborg and Fyrkat, as well as at centres of trade like Birka and
Hedeby. A carbon-14 dating of c. 1000 for some of the artefacts
discovered at L'Anse-aux-Meadows in Newfoundland is crucial for
the Norse discovery of North America; the examination and
dating of buried treasure in Scandinavia one key to the warlike
is

or peaceful nature of particular decades back home. And not least,

everything brought to light by the archaeologists is a check on the
written records.
That is no less true of numismatics, the study of coins and
coinage. Much northern history is characterized by chronological
imprecision, and here, eventually, numismatics will solve many
problems. Thus it is the record of the coins struck by various rulers
in the Norse kingdom of York in the middle decades of the tenth
century which does most to bring sense and order into the whirligig
of change there; and by analogy, the close connection between
coinage and royal power, or at least royal pretensions, holds out
hope for a closer understanding of how royal power developed in the
Scandinavian countries during the Viking Age. Coin-making was a
beginning with copies of coins
late introduction into all three lands,
from the mint at Dorestad, the famous silver coinage of the emperor
Charlemagne, with its obverse legend CARO-LUS and its reverse
DOR-STAT, both highly stylized in Scandinavia over the years,
and at times replaced by animal, bird, or human motifs (Plate 12).
Where such copies were minted has been much argued: Hedeby
and Birka appear the likeliest places, in that order. But the first
royal coinages of northern kings owed much to England. Towards
the end of his reign, possibly c. 888, the Danish king Guthrum of
East Anglia had coins struck bearing his baptismal name Edelia or
Edeltan (^Ethelstan); between 890 and 895 East Anglia saw an
extensive coinage associated with the name of king Edmund the
Martyr, important evidence incidentally for the Conversion of the
southern Danelaw; an unidentifiable Halfdan-Halfdene has left his
name on three coins of the 890s; and during the same decade there
was a lightweight coinage in the Five Boroughs which did not
scruple to use the name of an English not a Danish king. It was a
hundred years later, in the 990s, that the Irish vikings began to
produce a local coinage, again in close imitation of English models.
 —

6 Introduction

The royal currencies of Scandinavia itself start late. In Denmark

coins with a king's name begin with Svein Forkbeard, c. 985-1014;
in Sweden with Olaf Skottkonung, c. 994-1022; and in Norway
either with Olaf Tryggvason, 995-1000, or St. Olaf, 1015-30
probably the latter. English influence is strong. Svein is the first
Scandinavian king to appear in some kind of portraiture, by way of
a bust on a coin inscribed partly in Latin, partly in rough-and-
ready Old English, Rex Addener, 'Svein king of the Danes'. The
reverse has an Old English legend naming 'Godwine (moneyer) of
the Danes', but no mint. The first Norwegian coins were copies of
Old English pennies, made by Old English moneyers for the 'king
of Norway'; we must wait for the second half of the century for a
clear indication of Norwegian mints
at Nidarnes, Hamar, and
Kaupang Harald Hardradi, as befitted a strong,
in the Trondelag.
ambitious king who had seen the civilization of the Byzantine,
Muslim, and Mediterranean worlds, did much to develop a
Norwegian currency, manage it in his own interest, and give it
permanence. The Swedish coinage of Olaf Skottkonung and his
successor Onund Jacob was likewise strongly influenced from
England, and much of it was produced by English moneyers at
Sigtuna. After Onund Jacob's time (he reigned till 1050) this

Swedish coinage failed to maintain itself, either because there was

too much silver about for a coinage to have much meaning, or
because of a pagan reaction against Christian innovations, of which
coins with their religious symbols and legends might appear one of
the more obvious. In Denmark, on the other hand, Svein's successor
Knut managed his coinage well, and we have an impressive list of
mints working for him: Ribe and Viborg in Jutland, Odense on
Fyn, Slagelse, Roskilde, and Ringsted in Zealand, and Lund in
Skane. Coins were minted likewise at Hedeby, Arhus, Alborg, and
Randers. After Knut's death we observe the same Byzantine
influences on the designs of Danish coins as on Norwegian.
Like archaeology, numismatics is a check on the written word.
The period of conquest and unrest in eastern and southern England
is attested by no fewer than eighteen hoards from the decade c.

865-75, containing between them almost 2,500 English coins.

In the same way, the numismatist knows of a total of twenty hoards
with more than 2,000 English pennies deposited round the shores of
the Irish Sea during the decade 970-80, while from England east of the
Pennines the tally is a solitary hoard of fewer than 400 pennies from
 Introduction 7

Tetney in Lincolnshireand two pennies of Eadgar from a rubbish-pit

impact was felt in England from the resurgence
at York. Clearly little
of the power of the southern O'Neil which in 980 scotched the power
of the Dublin Norse and of their allies from Man and the Isles, and in
this way coin-hoards may be said to mirror the contrast between the
disorder of the Hiberno-Norse world in the heyday of Maelsechlainn
('Malachy of the Collar of Gold') and of Anlaf Quaran ('Olaf of the
Sandal') and the calm progress of the Anglo-Danish rapprochement
which culminated in the reign of Eadgar the Peaceful. 1
No the incidence of kufic coins throughout Scandin-
less striking is

avia, with the heavy concentrations in eastern Sweden and Gotland

indicative of the military and mercantile roles of those peoples in
Russia and the Caliphate. The drying-up of the flow of kufic silver
northwards helps explain the collapse of Birka c. 970, and the ensu-
ing shortage of this precious and coveted metal throughout
Scandinavia makes significant the heavy exactions of tribute and,
later, soldiers' wages from eleventh-century England, and the
acquisition of German silver by loot and trade after c. 950.
It is no severe criticism of the numismatist to recognize that like
archaeology his science is less than perfect as a guide to early

chronology and viking conquest, colonization, and trade. Like

books, coins have their fates, and these are often obscure. To take
an extreme example, the discovery of three Roman copper coins
from the period 270-305 in the south-eastern corner of Iceland does
not prove that the Romans visited that country. They are far more
likely to have been carried there by a Norseman after 870. Dated
coins supply for the most part one terminal date only: that before
which they could not have arrived in a country, been used in trade
or stolen as loot, or had their career suspended by being buried in a
grave or hoard. Ideally it is their conjunction with other objects
which allows a fair degree of chronological exactitude. 2
1
Michael Dolley, Viking Coins of the Danelaw and of Dublin, 1965, pp. 9-10.
2 Readers of Sture Bolin, 'Mohammed, Charlemagne and Ruric', in Scandin-
avian Economic History Review, I, I, Copenhagen, 1953, pp. 5-39; Ur penningens
bistoria, Lund, 1962; and Studier over Mynt och Myntfynd i Ostra ocb Norra
Europa under Vikingatiden (unpublished in 1962, but excerpted by P. H.
Sawyer); A. R. Lewis, The Northern Seas, Princeton, 1958; and P. H. Sawyer,
The Age of the Vikings, 1962, will find a somewhat different viewpoint
expressed in K. F. Morrison, 'Numismatics and Carolingian Trade: A
Critique of the Evidence', in Speculum, 38, 3, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, pp.
403-32, and Brita Maimer, Nordiska mynt fore dr 1000, Acta Archaeologica
Lundensia, Lund, 1966.
8 Introduction

But probably the most important decision facing today's

historian of the viking and pre-viking north is his use of written
sources. While archaeology and numismatics, for all their imperfec-
tions, give him more and more, the written sources give him less
and less. To be brief, our confidence in saga and chronicle, poem
and inscription, has been deeply shaken. Well-trusted narratives,
long-cherished beliefs, familiar personages, and celebrated events
have been re-examined, re-assessed, and not infrequently dis-
carded. In the dark backward and abysm of time before c. 750 we
must expect to see all things darkly, their edges blurred, their
content obscure, their shapes distorted. I have therefore entitled
two of my early chapters 'The Legendary History of the Swedes and
the Danes' and 'The Historical Traditions of Norway to 950', titles
which mean exactly what they say. But northern written sources
stay richly embroidered with legend, tradition, folktale, and
invention to the end of our period, as the life story of Harald
Hardradi from Stiklarstadir to Byzantium, from the Nissa to
Stamford Bridge, amply demonstrates. This legendary material,
both early and late, is part of Scandinavian historiography, highly
important to the history of northern history, and for many still
not fully differentiated from history; and it seems to me that in the
interest of the English reader I should make a traverse through it,
erecting as I go such monitory signposts as 'Here be Monsters',
'Myth-Makers at Work: Proceed with Caution', and 'Bravic War
—
Department Property: Danger Keep Out!' For it is not a
historical landscape which here surrounds us, and should not be
regarded as such.
There is difficulty enough in the sheer bulk of the material.
Documents exist in many languages, but preponderantly in Old
Norse (and there mainly in Old Icelandic), in Old English, Early
and Early Welsh, in Latin and Greek, Arabic and Persian, and
Irish
in Russian. In kind they include annals, chronicles, sagas, travel-
books, geographical treatises, laws, charters, treaties, entertain-
ments, panegyrics, defamations, wills, tracts, ecclesiastical and
royal missives, homilies, saints' lives, legends, folktales, myths,
elegies, heroic lays, skaldic verses, and commemorative inscriptions.
They even include works which within inverted commas may be
described as 'histories', like Adam of Bremen's History of the
Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesia
Pontifcum, c. 1080), Ari Thorgilsson's Book of the Icelanders
 Introduction 9

(tslendingabok, c. 1122), the Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagien-

sium, c. 1 1 80, of Theodoricus Monachus, the synoptic histories of
the Norwegian kings written by Icelanders, of which Snorri
Sturluson's Heimskringla, c. 1225, is the best-known exemplar, and
the Danish History (Gesta Danorum, c. 11 85-1223) of Saxo Gram-
maticus. There are substantial compilations of a purposeful and
responsible nature, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Annates
Bertiniani, and the Annals of Ulster, to which the epithet indispen-
sable may
be forthrightly applied, and lucky interpolations like the
narratives concerning Ohthere and Wulfstan inserted in king
Alfred's translation of Orosius's History of the World, or the
account of Harald Hardradi's war service in Byzantium to be found
in the anonymous 'Book of Advice', known in our day by reason of
its late nineteenth-century publication with the Cecaumeni Strategi-
con of c. 1070-80. There are runic inscriptions to Swedes who died
in Russia and the Muslim countries, and Muslim accounts of the
Rus who descended the Volga and Dnieper in search of silks and
silver. There are inscriptions to men who received Danegeld in the

west, gave meat to eagles in the east, cleared roads or built cause-
ways at home, did not flee at Uppsala while they held sword in
hand, or died while the drengs besieged Hedeby; inscriptions to
fathers, mothers, wives and husbands, and many a mourned-for
son; inscriptions to comrades. A whole saga of viking endeavour
stares back at us from a standing stone like that at Hogby in Oster-
gotland. 'Thorgerd raised this stone to her mother's brother Ozur.
He died in the east in the land of the Greeks. Five sons had the good
bondi Gulli. The brave soldier Asmund fell at Fyris Ozur died in ;

the east in the land of the Greeks; Halfdan was slain on Bornholm,
Kariat(. ?); Bui too is dead.' In short, if we have the necessary
. .

languages and the will to read, we possess at a first uncritical glance

the material for a dozen books about the vikings in the written
sources alone, ranging as these do from far horizons and the
honoured names of heroes and peoples to the quiet intimacies of
family and home.
But the reliability and helpfulness of these sources varies a good
deal. Only a few deserve a full confidence, most demand caution,
and many a bleak distrust. It was all of half a century ago that
the brothers Curt and Lauritz Weibull in Sweden and Halvdan
Koht in Norway began their devastating examination of northern
written sources. As a result vast quantities of unhistorical tradition
10 Introduction

have been swept from northern history books and can never be
reinstated. This remains the most fundamental contribution to
viking history made from any quarter during this century. 1 We
place far less reliance than we did on the faithfulness of oral trans-
mission, and are increasingly conscious of the limited or partisan
aims of many chroniclers. Indeed, the historical validity of the sagas
is today less well regarded than it was even a decade ago. 2 The

most significant change is in respect of Snorri Sturluson's Heims-

kringla, which can no longer be held to give coherence to early
Norwegian history; but all the Icelandic historians and sagamen
are under suspicion and scrutiny. (The sagas relating to Greenland
and Vinland are exceptional in that their general thesis is receiving
confirmation from archaeology and, possibly, cartography.) East-
wards, the Muslim sources descriptive of the Rus clearly require a
new evaluation. But our awareness of all this is gain not loss, in that
it frees us from error and conducts to truth. For when the heaviest

discount has been made on grounds of error, confusion, origin,

transmission, invention, bias, propaganda, sources, influences,
analogues, and dating; when entire works are jettisoned, like
Jomsvikinga Saga, or sunk in historical estimation, like Landndmabok;
or subjected to the higher criticism, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
Heimskringla, the Primary or Nestorian Chronicle, the Irish and Muslim
sources, northern lausavhur and skaldic verse, and the Latin
chronicles of the Empire —when all this is done, a not too dis-
appointing residue of acceptable material remains. In the pages that
follow I offer what must be scores of observations on the accept-
ability of the sources dealt with in particular contexts. Here I shall

be content to emphasize, then re-emphasize, the rigour with which

all written sources must be tested and refer the inquiring, or

possibly the relieved, reader to the recent books of Theodore M.

Anderson, Fr. P. Walsh, P. H. Sawyer, and Lucien Musset listed in
my Bibliography; and to the decisive studies of Curt and Lauritz
Weibull and Halvdan Koht already referred to.
A related problem is the enormous modern literature bearing
not only on the written sources but on every aspect of the subject.
This, too, is to be found in a wide variety of languages, and he must

1 Their more important essays and collections are listed in the Bibliography,

PP-433,434>444-
2 A representative bibliography of the long debate on the historicity of the
sagas will be found in the main Bibliography, pp. 441-2.
 Introduction n
be a veritable Tongue-Master who has them all at command. There
is a long-standing theory that by the time an actress is equipped to
play Juliet she is too old for the part. The viking historian may
equally fear that before he acquires all the languages, reads all the
books, and flushes all the coverts of all the periodicals, he will have
reached the blameless haven of senility without a word rendered.
Patently, to wait on definitive knowledge is to wait on eternity.
But in view of the marked advances of the last forty years, the need
for a fresh explication, and one would hope, synthesis, and the
spectacular increase of interest in the vikings during recent decades
(currently reinforcedby Mr. Helge Ingstad's discovery of Norse
remains in Newfoundland, the publicity attendant on the discovery
and publication of the Vinland Man, and the celebration of the nine
hundredth anniversary of the Norman Conquest, with its Norse
preliminaries at Gate Fulford and Stamford Bridge), this seems a
better time than most to offer the student and general reader a
view of the subject's present state and lasting value.
A substantial part of my History is by intention narrative, a
progress through time, and deals with the growth and continuing
political history of the three viking kingdoms at home and their
warlike, mercantile, and colonizing activities abroad. I believe this
to be essential in what is only the second viking history to be
written for the English reader. It follows that I give fair space to the
main These were not always, or at any time the
figures of the Age.
only, makers of power, but they were, or appear representative of,
those who acquired and employed it. We must be careful not to
think of even the best-known northern kings as rulers of nations in
a modern sense. The kingdoms established in Denmark at the
beginning of the ninth century, in Sweden some fifty years later,
and in Norway a little before the year 900, were obviously more
extensive, powerful, and more indicative of national possibilities
than the petty kingdoms and independent lordships which pre-
ceded them, but there was nothing truly 'national' about them.
They were personal aggrandisements of territory and wealth, based
on sea-power, unstable in nature, eccentric of duration. In other
words, the 'marauders of the great international trade-routes',
as Lonnroth them, wore much the same colours at home as
calls

abroad. As of Knut or his regent in Denmark, Olof

late as the reigns
Skottkonung and Onund Jacob in Sweden, and Harald Hardradi
in Norway, there were at best only the most rudimentary notions
12 Introduction

of nationality current in the north, and practically nothing (many

scholars would say nothing whatever) in the way of national
institutions, national administration, or a national policy. A king-
dom was what belonged to a king, and it is in this confined sense
only that we can speak of the kingdom of the Danes, the king of the
Swedes, and the Norwegian realm. 1
However, if not shapers of kingdoms and moulders of events (a
case can be made out men as Godfred and
that they were), such
Harald Fairhair, Harald Bluetooth, Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf
Haraldsson, Svein Forkbeard and king Knut, were significant
catalysts in their day and place. The enduring realities which lay
behind them, of geography, race, language, social order, livelihood,
trade, town, countryside, and the of land and water,
vital harvests
along with religion, and law I have brought under
art, literature,
review in three chapters on 'The Scandinavian Community',
though some of them recur more or less continuously throughout.
To that other ultimate reality of the viking situation, ships and
seafaring, I have devoted half a chapter, for these and their end-
product, power along coasts and sea-lanes, are fundamental to an
understanding of the nature of northern kingship, the political
vicissitudes of the northern realms, and viking trade and piracy,
colonization and war overseas. Parts of the narrative are necessarily
signposted with a maybe, a we-presume, or an aiunt, and much of
the detail is obscure —including detail as considerable as the identity
of the Geats and the mixture of peoples in the Danelaw, the
administrative measures of Harald Fairhair and the legal improve-
ments of Hakon the Good, the dynastic, political, and economic
background of the early tenth-century Swedish domination in
southern Jutland, the situation in Denmark which earned disfavour
for Harald Bluetooth and led to the accession of his son Svein, and
those events in Norway which ensured the overthrow ofjarl Hakon
and the downfall of Olaf Tryggvason. But when every difficulty has
been acknowledged, and every doubt confessed, we know that the
period under discussion saw the first shaping, admittedly incom-
plete, still largely personal, and subject to harsh vicissitude, of the

1 There are brief summaries of present Scandinavian opinion on these matters

in Erik Lonnroth, 'Probleme der Wikingerzeit', in Visby-symposiet for historiska
vetenskaper, Visby (Gotland), 1965, and the same author's 'Government in
Medieval Scandinavia', in Recueils de la Societe Jean Bodin, Brussels, 1966 (this
latter with an 'Orientation Bibliographique').
 Introduction 13

three northern kingdoms at home, the creation and development of

the island-republic of Iceland and the duchy of Normandy abroad,
and the occupation of the lesser Atlantic isles. It saw a firm Norse
lodgement in Greenland, and the discovery and exploration of part
of the Atlantic coast of North America. Eastwards there was a
military and commercial presence carried by way of the Baltic lands
and Lake Ladoga to the Russian rivers, the maintenance on their
banks of armed trading posts, of which Novgorod and Kiev had the
most notable history, the contact with Islam and Byzantium, and
the Rus share in bringing into being the great Slav kingdom whose
name perpetuates their own. There was the significant Danish
contribution to the making of the English people, and the infusion
of Danish and Norwegian blood, thought, and practice into the
whole of the British Isles and much of western Europe. There was
the important viking contribution to European trade, and the
equally important religious, artistic, mercantile, and institutional
borrowings from Europe, which ensured the northward expansion
of the bounds of Christian European civilization. Finally there was
the clear demonstration that because of dissension at home, the
superior resources of their neighbours, an inability to evolve an
all a lack of man-
exportable political and social system, and above
power, no Scandinavian king in viking times would achieve a
durable empire held together by the North Sea and Baltic, or even
a purely Scandinavian hegemony.
These are the matters which we must now seek to cover in a
more or less chronological order.
I. THE NORTHERN
PEOPLES TOAD. 700
1. From the Beginnings to the Age of
Migrations

iHE THREE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES KNOWN FOR

more than a thousand years as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have
had a long if not continuously recorded history, and every stage of
it helped mould the lands, peoples, and kingdoms as we behold
them in the Viking Age. Twelve thousand years ago, in the earliest
post-glacial period in Scandinavia, men were moving over its

habitable areas, food-gathering, hunting, fowling, and fishing,

leaving their mark on a flint here, an antler there, in Denmark by
Bromme north-west of Soro in Zealand, in Sweden in Skane and
Halland, in Norway in 0stfold on the eastern side of the Oslofjord
and, as now appears certain, in the south-western coastal region,
and along the west coast from Bergen to Trondheim. These last
were the Fosna folk, who had probably entered Norway from the
south. Northwards again, facing the Arctic Ocean, were to be found
people of the Komsa culture, their place of origin unknown. It is
meaningless to talk of nationality in those distant times, and idle to
speak of race; but these hunters, fishermen, and food-gatherers
from the south who knew, or over the centuries came to know, the
bow and arrow, knife, scraper, harpoon, and spear, who developed
the skin-boat, would possess the first known tamed animals, the
big wolflike dogs of Maglemose and Sva^rdborg, and buried their
—
dead in shallow graves in close proximity to the living these were
the parent 'Scandinavians', and their way of life, closely adapted to
their surroundings, persisted for many thousands of years. Indeed,
Norwegian scholars in particular have found survivals or parallels
of this ancient hunting culture of Scandinavia not only among the
Lapps of Finnmark but among the Norse population of Norway
almost to our own day.
 8

1 A History of the Vikings

Yet of these half-glimpsed wanderers in the northern wilderness,
with every allowance for the piety which would have men look
to the rock from which they are hewn, it is their remoteness from
the viking scene which most impresses. Nor need we trace even in
broad outline those developments in climate, environment, social
practice, and cultural influence which made human progress possible
in Scandinavia, or count the unreliable generations of hunters and
fishers, workers in flint and clearers of forest, stock-minders, crop-
raisers, builders of dolmen and dysse, the artificers, traders, and
colonizers who fill ten thousand years of northern prehistory till
c. 1500 B.C. By then, with the Bronze Age under way, there is

evidence from physical anthropology that the people of the far north
dwelling in the village settlements of the Varangerfjord were of the
same 'nordic' racial type as the inhabitants of the Oslofjord in the
south; while Denmark and the more southerly regions of the
Scandinavian peninsula were entering upon a period of comparative
wealth, social change, modes of belief, and artistic achievement
informative in themselves and prophetic of developments to come.
To pay for tin and copper, and also gold from the peoples farther
south, Denmark had the high-priced amber of Jutland, and soon
native smiths and artists were rivalling and at times excelling their
southern masters in the working of bronze. We see the Bronze Age
handsome and clear in its weapons and personal ornaments, in such
religious offerings as the sun-image of Trundholm, where the sun's
disc stands with a bronze horse within a six-wheeled bronze chariot,
so that worshippers might see their god in effigy make a progress
across the northern heavens, and in the long, slender, gracefully
curved lurs or trumpets, masterpieces beyond which the casters'
art could hardly hope to progress. We see it, too, in the contempor-
ary rock-carvings to be found almost everywhere in Scandinavia
south of a line Trondheim-Swedish Uppland. For the carved rock-
faces of Bohuslan and the pictured slabs of the Kivik barrow show
these splendid artefacts in use, along with their users swords and
:

axes, spears, bows and arrows; ships beaked at both ends, with
rowers (never with sails); sun-images ship-borne, man-borne,
drawn by horses; chariots and wagons; there are men fighting,
dancing, and turning somersaults, sharing in religious ceremonies,
and almost every man of them with an immense erected phallus.
Sometimes they depict gods and priests, occasionally a female
figure, and a profusion of horses, cows, dogs, snakes, deer, birds,
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 19

and fish. For today's student these rock-carvings are the picture-
galleries of their age. Finally we see the Age in its funerary ritual,
the thousands of graceful tumuli covering and enlarging a burial
chamber proper, the wealth of grave goods, including not only
weapons and adornments but, uniquely spared by time and
corruption, garments and fabrics, boxes and pails, cups, beakers,
and stools. Knee-length kirtles, overcloaks of woollen, shoes of
cloth or leather and caps round and shaggy, blouses and jackets and
woven fringed skirts, all are to be found, and most moving of all,
c
miraculously preserved by the tannin of the oak cists' of Denmark,
the very flesh and fell of the wearers, the bodies, faces, features, of
the men and women themselves.
The Bronze Age came to an end some five hundred years B.C.,
not suddenly, but by gradual transition to a period characterized
by the use of iron. The lap-over of the late Bronze and early Iron
Age provides us with an evocative change in burial practice. Boat-
shaped graves outlined with stones, and often with taller stones at
either extremity to represent prow and stern (skibs£tninger, 'ship-
settings', sing, skibsatning), and inhumation are found together in
Gotland and on Bornholm. The dead were now thought of as having
to make a voyage, or at least as having need of a boat. The skibsat-
ninger direct our thoughts back to the formalized rock-carvings of
the early Bronze Age, with their religious or ritualistic significance;
outwards to the contemporary religions of the mediterranean
civilizations ; and a millennium and a half forward to the boat-
shaped viking graves of Lindholm Hoje, the boat-shaped viking
barracks of Trelleborg, Aggersborg, and Fyrkat in Denmark, the
viking ship-burials of Norway, the pictorial stones of the Swedish
mainland and Gotland, and the convex walls of the first Christian
church in Greenland, at the Norse settlement of Brattahlid in
Eiriksfjord.
The opening centuries of the Iron Age were a depressed period
for most of Scandinavia. The wealth and liveliness of the Bronze Age
dulled and contracted; there was little gold and as yet no silver;
grave offerings became fewer and poorer, field and bog offerings
came almost to an end. And whereas bronze and bronze artefacts
had found their way as far north as latitude 68°, early iron fails at
latitude 6o°, approximately that of present-day Oslo and Uppsala.
And everywhere artistic standards were in decline. Why should
this be so? What impoverished the northern countries and
20 A History of the Fi kings

for a time interrupted their lines of communication south? First

there is the compelling fact of European history which has labelled

these centuries the 'Celtic' Iron Age. This was an epoch of Celtic
power and expansion, when the Celtic peoples who occupied the
Upper Rhine and Danube basins and much of eastern France, spilled
over into Spain, Italy, Hungary, the Balkans, and even Asia Minor,
and westward pressed on to the Atlantic seacoast and into the
British Isles. The core of their society was a military, but not
heedlessly militant, aristocracy with a need for chariots and harness,
weapons and personal adornments, and therefore the pragmatically
minded patrons of artists and craftsmen who alone could make
these splendid accoutrements for them. Their empire was military
and cultural, based on the warrior with his two-edged iron sword,
in turn based on the peasant with his plough and sickle, but with
no enduring political structure which could make it a permanent
threat to the urbanized mediterranean world. But the unrest into
which they threw so much of Europe worked unhappily upon the
north. Trade routes and cultural channels between Scandinavia and
the Etruscan and Greek civilizations were in large measure blocked,
and for a while the northern countries fell into that backwardness
and isolation to which their geographical position and southern
ignorance from time to time exposed them. By this time, too,
Jutland had lost its lead in the amber trade, and the amber of
Prussia was of no benefit to Zealand and the isles.
More serious was the climatic change which took place in
Europe just as the Iron Age began. During the Bronze Age condi-
tions in Scandinavia had been favourable to economic and cultural
progress. A comparatively warm dry climate had made life easier
for man and his domestic animals, and also for the animals he hunted
and ate. The area of cultivation and pasture was enlarged, and
agricultural skills improved. Deterioration when it came was quick
and sharp, and was severest in the northerly parts of the peninsula,
where the margin of existence throughout recorded history has been
narrower than in Denmark and the southern portions of Norway
and Sweden. The main problem everywhere would be the winter
feeding of stock; but cold and wet are maimers of most features of
civilized life. If we accept the identification of the mysterious Thule
mentioned by the Greek geographer Pytheas of Massalia with some
part of the west coast of Norway, it was during these unpropitious
yet challenging times, when northern man was adjusting to harder
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 21

grain, heavier ploughs, more lethal weapons, and longer trousers,

that Scandinavia first appears in European historical and geo-
graphical records. In 330-300 B.C. Pytheas made a remarkable
voyage west and north as part of his survey of the coasts of Europe
from Cadiz to the Don. But the work which recorded this, his Of the
Ocean, has not survived, and all too much is uncertain. Six days' sail
north of Britain, he tells us (or, more accurately, later geographers
rich in ignorance, confusion, and prejudice tell us), he came to a
land which appears to lie close under the Arctic Circle. It was
inhabited by barbarians who lived by agriculture. They were
poorly off for domestic animals, but had millet and herbs, roots and
fruit. From grain and honey they made a fermented drink, and this

grain they threshed indoors, because the rain and sunlessness made
outdoor threshing impossible. This dank, uncordial region, wherever
it lay, was not Pytheas's only acquaintance with the north. He

speaks of the amber island of Abalus (Heligoland?), whose inhabit-

ants sold the sea's gift to a people called the Teutones. He speaks,
too, of the Ingvaeones and almost certainly of the Goths or Gutones.
The Teutones were possibly the inhabitants of the Danish district
of Thy, bounded east and south by the Limfjord and north by the
Jammerbugt, in north-western Jutland. To the east of them,
between the Limfjord, Manager Fjord, and the Kattegat, was
Himmerland, the presumed home of the Cimbri, and these two
names usher in a second phase of personal contact between the
peoples of early Iron Age Scandinavia and the sophisticated cultures
of the Mediterranean. For Teutones and Cimbri were in hostile and
often victorious contact with Roman armies in Gaul, Spain, and
northern Italy in the decades immediately preceding 100 B.C. The
bloody and destructive ceremonies which followed the heavy
Roman defeat at Orange c. 105 are thus described by Orosius in his
History ofthe World:

The enemy [the Cimbri] captured both camps and acquired an

enormous quantity of booty. In accordance with a strange and
unusual vow, they set about destroying everything which they had
taken. Clothing was cut to pieces and cast away, gold and silver was
thrown into the river, the breastplates of the men were hacked to
pieces, the trappings of the horses were broken up, the horses them-
selves drowned in whirlpools, and men with nooses round their
necks were hanged from trees. Thus there was no booty for the
victors and no mercy for the vanquished.
22 A History of the Vikings
An earlier witness to the victory-rites of the Cimbri is supplied
by the geographer Strabo, of the first century Their priestesses,
B.C.
ancient women robed in white clothing, decked their captives with
garlands before leading them to a huge bronze cauldron. Here one
of their number, sword in hand and mounted on a step or ladder,
cut each man's throat after he had first been suspended over the
cauldron's edge, so that his blood, which served both for sacrifice
and augury, flowed down into it. This is very much the scene
portrayed on one of the panels of the silver bowl of Gundestrup,
found in the Danish home of the Cimbri, Himmerland in Jutland,
and itself in all its loveliness (it is Celtic work of the second or first
century B.C., brought up maybe from northern France or further
south-east) possibly just such a grisly receptacle. There are other
passages in classical writers to confirm the alarming impression
made in parts of continental Europe by this first documented
eruption of warlike men from Scandinavia. Others besides the
Teutones and Cimbri were now on the move. As though to set a
long-enduring pattern, trouble in the northern homelands was
found to mean trouble for lands further south. Driven in part by
stringent changes in their economy, the Langobards set off from
Skane on the journey that would by the late sixth century carry
them by way of the lower Elbe and middle Danube into Italy. The
Burgundians, deriving by a most shaky tradition from Bornholm
(Borgundarholm), would look for a better future in north-eastern
Germany, while the Rugii of Rogaland in south-western Norway
(the identification is a long way from certain) sought a better
present on the south Baltic coast. Most famous of all were the Goths,
inhabitants of the modern Oster- and Vastergotland in Sweden
(though a case for the island of Gotland as their original habitat can
still be argued), who also found new lands in north Germany. The

power of the Celts was on the wane; the peoples called Germani by
Poseidonios of Apamea (c. 130 B.c-5 B.C.) were pressing southwards
for land, wealth, conquest, trade, plunder or glory; and Scandinavia,
the 'big island Scandza', was establishing a reputation, which
Jordanes would later confirm, as the factory (officina) of peoples and
matrix (vagina) of nations.

The next phase of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, the Roman, is

roughly coeval with the first four centuries of the Christian era.
Once again southern influences proved stimulating, and the
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 23

northern nations recovered strongly from their material and cultural

impoverishment. The Celtic peoples found themselves no enduring
match for Roman arms and discipline, and as these new masters of
the Mediterranean extended their boundaries northwards and out-
wards, and the tribes of Germania continued their wandering south,
Roman and German must soon confront each other, sometimes in
peace, sometimes in war, on the Danube and the Rhine. The cultural
contacts were particularly close in the kingdom of the Marcomanni
in Bohemia, from whence two great trade-routes proceeded north-
wards, one by way of the Elbe to Jutland, the other by way of the
Vistula to the Baltic islands and Sweden. Flanking these was an
eastern route coming up from the Black Sea, or perhaps more
routes than one, including that through Russia, which would prove
of the first importance after a.d. 200, when the Goths would be the
chief transmitters of goods and culture northwards; also a western
sea-route from Gaul by way of the mouth of the Rhine and the
Frisian islands to Holstein and so to Scandinavia. Not surprisingly,
Zealand and its neighbouring islands stood to benefit most, and it
was here and in Fyn that the choicest vessels of silver and bronze,
like the decorated wine-service from a chieftain's grave at Hoby on
Lolland, and painted cylindrical glass beakers as handsome as those
from Nordrup, Varpelev, and Himlingoje, found their resting-place;
but lovely and costly treasures from Rome reached Norway and
Sweden, too, and its trade-nomenclature of values and weights was
to leave a lasting and in the case of the ore (aureus) a permanent
mark on the Old Norse reckoning system. Once more, and as
always significantly, there was a shift in burial customs, too.
Cremation can be found persisting almost everywhere, but inhuma-
tion on the Roman model is also widespread, men and women
buried in splendour, with wine and meat and the bowls and dishes
and beakers and flagons of a costly banquet about them. Silver and
gold poured north, masses of coin into Gotland, Skane, Bornholm,
and the Danish isles; and everything they saw of swords and
brooches, rings and filigrees, hairpins and pots, was a challenge to
native workmen. Southwards in exchange went skins and furs,
amber, sea-ivory, and slaves. And with the profits of trade were
combined the profits of war.
Slowly but surely the northern lands revealed their secrets to
At the very begin-
the geographers and ethnologists of the south.
ning of the Christian era the emperor Augustus had dispatched a
24 A History of the Vikings
fleet beyond the Rhine up the north German coast, then round
Jutland as far as the Kattegat, and as a consequence the Cimbri,
Charudes, Semnones, and other Germanic peoples in this land 'sent
ambassadors to ask for friendship with me [Augustus] and the
Roman people'. In Nero's reign, c. a.d. 60, another fleet entered the
Baltic; and soon Pliny the Elder was writing somewhat haphazardly
in his Natural History of the bay Codanus beyond Jutland, which is

full of islands, the largest of which is Scadinavia, which we may

reasonably identify as the southern part of the Scandinavian penin-

sula. By first century A.D. Tacitus has firm and
the end of the
credible news of Scandinavia's most notable inhabitants, the
Suiones, distinguished not only for arms and men but for their
powerful fleets ('though the style of their ships is unusual in that
there is a prow at each end'), who have high regard for wealth and
accept one of theirnumber as supreme, so that there is no limit to
his power and no question of the obedience paid him. These can be
none but the Svea (Sviar or Svear), the Swedes of Uppland in
central Sweden, already stronger and closer knit than their
neighbours. Next to them dwelt the Sitones, resembling the
Suiones in every respect save that they were so far degenerate as to
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 25

take a woman as ruler. Most likely these were the Kainulaiset, the
Kvenir or Kvasnir of EgUs Saga, the Cwenas of Oh there (Ottar) and
king Alfred, whose tribal name, whether Finnish or Lapp, lent itself
to confusion with an Old Norse word for woman, kvan, han, gen. pi.
henna, so that Kvenland, on the western shore of the Gulf of
Bothnia, north of Uppland, became mistakenly a land of amazons,
Adam of Bremen's terra feminarum. In another fifty years' time the
tale has been carried further by the geographer Ptolemy. East of
Jutland, he informs us, are four islands called Scandia. Three of
them, presumably three of the Danish islands, are small, Scandiai
nesoi, but the one lying furthest east, Scandia proper, opposite the

mouth of the Vistula, is big. This must be the Scandinavian

peninsula, and among the tribes inhabiting it are the Goutoi, in
whom we seem to recognize the Gautar, and the Chaideinoi, whom
we tempted to identify with the Heidnir of Hedemark in
are
Norway. Vast areas of the north are left unremarked, but several
important regions are beginning to receive a clearer light. And we
now glimpse beyond the Germanic peoples the primitive wondrous
Finns and Lapps who enclosed them to the north.
Then, dismayingly, comes an almost unbroken silence of four
hundred years before southern writers again attempt to enlarge our
knowledge of the Scandinavian homelands. But in the sixth century
the Roman Cassiodorus, minister and counsellor of Theodoric,
king of the Ostrogoths in Italy (493-526), compiled a substantial
historical work called The Origin and Exploits of the Goths, and the
Gothic consciousness of a Scandinavian origin ensured from
Cassiodorus a well-intentioned though at times puzzled northward
glance. His book has not survived, but we have a summary of it in
the Getica of Jordanes, writtensome thirty years later. Once again
we read of the great island Scandza and its many and various
peoples. Not all of them can be identified, but the advance in
knowledge is considerable. Farthest north dwelt the Adogit, in a
region where for two score days there was unbroken daylight in
summer and in winter darkness unrelieved. Up there, too, were the
Screrefennae, who live without benefit of grain, on the flesh of
animals and birds' eggs. We hear of the Suehans or Swedes, with
their fine horses and the prized dark furs they sent down to the
markets of Rome, and of other tribes whose names are commemor-
ated in Swedish provinces, the Hallin (Halland), Liothida (the
medieval Lyuthgud, modern Luggude, near Halsingborg), Bergio
26 A History of the Vikings
(maybe the more important, the Gautigoths (Vaster-
Bjare), and,
gotland?), and the Swedes again,now called the Suetidi. There are
the peoples of Raumarike and Ranrike, now Bohuslan, and specific-
ally of Norway the Granni of Grenland, the Augandzi of Agder,
the Harothi of Hordaland and the Rugi of Rogaland, 'over whom
not many years since Roduulf was king who, despising his own
kingdom, hastened to king Theodoric of the Goths and found what
he sought'. These nations, says Jordanes, fought with the ferocity of
wild animals, and were stronger than the Germans in both body and
spirit. This view of the peoples of Sweden and Norway is more

revealing than any glimpsed before, and consonant with the

modern archaeological picture. And this is not the end of our debt
to Jordanes. As Tacitus c. A.D. ioo had been the first to speak of the
Swedes as an emergent kingdom, so it is Jordanes in the sixth century
who first speaks of the Dani, the Danes, then settled in Denmark,
from which they had driven the Eruli, its former occupants or
recent usurpers.
The Swedes,Jordanes informs us, were famous for being taller
than other northern peoples. Yet it was the Danes, of the same race
as the Swedes, who claimed pre-eminence in this respect. The
Norwegian tribes of Hordaland and Rogaland were likewise notably
tall.

There remains Procopius, the Byzantine historian who accom-

panied Belisarius on his campaigns against the Vandals and Ostro-
goths and shortly after the year 550 commemorated the wars of
Justinian in his Histories of the Wars. In tracing the fortunes of the
Eruli after their shattering defeat by the Lombards c. 505, Procopius
had occasion to mention the northern lands from which the Eruli
had come and to which some of them were destined to return. He
speaks of the land of the Danes and of the island Thule, which must
be the Scandinavian peninsula. Here the Eruli found a new home
close to the Gautoi, one of its most numerous peoples, presumably
the Gautar dwelling somewhere south of the Swedes of Uppland.
Much of Thule was barren and desolate, but the rest of it found
room for thirteen nations, each with its king. Procopius is eloquent
on the subject of the midnight sun, but his most striking informa-
tion relates to the Scrithifinoi, Jordanes' Screrefennae, the Lapps
whose way of life was like to that of beasts. They were a hunting
people who drank no wine and raised no crops. They had no gar-
ments of cloth and nothing that he recognized as shoes; their
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 27

body's covering derived like its sustenance from the animals they
hunted and slew, whose skins they fastened together with sinews.
Even their children were nursed differently from the rest of man-
kind. They knew nothing of the milk of women nor ever touched
their mother's breast, but were nourished on marrow from the
bones of beasts. As soon as a woman had given birth she thrust the
child into a skin which she afterwards hung from a tree. Then having
put marrow in the child's mouth she went off with her husband
a-hunting. The other inhabitants of Thule, Procopius judged, were
not much different from the normality of men, though he found it
worth recording that they had great numbers of gods and demons,
to whom they offered human sacrifice in various cruel ways.

2.LAPPS HUNTING ON SKIS (OLAUS MAGNUS)

The presence of the woman is likely to be due to Olaus's reading
in classical authors.

With Jordanes and Procopius we come clear by more than a

century of the Roman Iron Age and move forward into that so-
called Germanic Iron Age which leads to the Viking Age itself.
Conveniently bridging these last two phases of the Iron Age, which
occupy the first four and the second four centuries of the Christian
era respectively, is the period of the Great Migrations, reminiscent
28 A History of the Vikings
of the outpouring of the Cimbri and Teutones just before the first

century a.d. and the subsequent movements of the Langobards,

Goths and Burgundians, though what took place now, under the
impulse of the Hunnish invasion farther south in the second half of
the fourth century and the diminution of Roman power first in her
provinces, and eventually in Italy, was on a much bigger scale. The
details of these migrations, with which medieval history may be
said to begin, hardly concern us, neither the fictions of an imperial
alliancewhich gave the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Burgundians
their footholds on Roman territory, nor the more open assaults of
the Langobards and Eruli, Alamanns and Franks. In fact, all these
peoples were assailants, not sustainers. The Visigoths, Eruli,
Ostrogoths, and Langobards forced their way into Italy; the Franks,
Visigoths, Alamanns, Bavarians, and Burgundians partitioned and
repartitioned Gaul; from Gaul the Visigoths swung south to
conquer Spain, and the Vandals moved on by way of Andalusia to
North Africa; in the mid-fifth century Angles and Saxons, some
Jutes and Frisians, left their homes in and near the Danish part of
Scandinavia to transform Roman Britain into Germanic England.
To trace even the specifically Scandinavian share in these migrations
would be a huge and is no part of this book but a quick glance
task, ;

at three aspects of the subject will show that there was little new
and nothing out of character for the Scandinavian peoples in the
raids, campaigns, and colonial ventures which we shall find
distinguishing the Viking Age proper, some three or four centuries
ahead.
First, the Eruli, or as the classical authors tend to spell their
name, Heruli. Their original home appears to have been some-
where in the Danish islands or southern Jutland, or maybe some-
where in both. It is not beyond belief that they had holdings in
Skane in Sweden. By reputation they were at all times a fighting
tribe bent on exaction and piracy. In the third century a.d. their
activities were receiving uncordial notice in the Black Sea area,
whither a substantial body of them had removed themselves in the
wake of the Goths. In 289 they are mentioned as having invaded
Gaul along with the Chabiones, of whom little else is known. In the
fourth century part of their race was subjugated by Ermanaric,
famed king of the Ostrogoths, and not long afterwards they were
defeated by the oncoming Huns. In the middle of the fifth century
we hear of them plundering the coast of Spain, but whether these
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 29

were wandering Eruli or Eruli raiding out of some northern home

we do not know. For another hundred years wherever there was
fighting and plunder there would be Erulian mercenaries, with their
blue eyes and azured cheek-guards. Their defeats by Ermanaric c.
350, Theodoric c. 490, and the eunuch Narses in 556, set them
among the most illustrious losers in early Germanic history.
Procopius is notably severe on those that had fared south. Faithless,
greedy, violent, shameless, beastly, and fanatical, he calls them, the
vilest and most abandoned of men. Among other trenchant bad
habits they cured the ills of old age by stabbing their ancients to
death. Jordanes, as we shall see (p. 45 below), says that the Eruli
were driven out of Denmark by the Danes, and if we accept that the
disputed egsode eorle (MS. eorl) of Beowulf 6 means that Scyld Scefing,
the eponymous ancestor of the Danish Scylding (Skjoldung)
dynasty, 'terrified the Eruli' ('erul' is possibly the same word as
eorl, jarl, a warrior of noble birth), we have testimony that their

reputation for martial violence was well established in and around

their own northern territories as well as abroad, for it would be
Scyld's distinction not that he had terrified some puny collection
of peace-lovers but a people of whom the whole north stood in
fear. When this terrorization and expulsion of the Eruli took place

we cannot say, perhaps toward the close of the fifth century. Where
the dispossessed Eruli went we do not know, perhaps to join their
compatriots in the general region of Hungary. But just as strong
(or weak) a case, with growing archaeological and anthropological
support, can be made out for a Danish expulsion of the Eruli around
the year 200 or a little later, which would help account for their
movements down through Europe in the third century. In either
case, and whether the lapse of time was brief or long, eventually
they would head back north, after their defeat by the Lombards
c. 505, make their way through Slavic tribes and the lands of the

Danes, and find a new home near the Gautar in southern Sweden.
Perhaps, however, their most memorable contribution to northern
history was not this unblest turbulence and commotion but their
connection with the runic alphabet and runic inscription. Through-
out Scandinavia there are inscriptions containing the word erilaR
(eirilaK), which appears to mean 'Erulian', suggesting that the
Eruli had such a reputation as rune-masters that their name became
a descriptive title for such.
At roughly the time when the Eruli, according to Jordanes,
30 A History of the Vikings
returned to live alongside the Gautoi or Gautar, this latter people,
or a people whose name for some unknown reason was confounded
with theirs, 1was making its own much-chronicled contribution to
the long list of Scandinavian sallies south. Their king at the time is

bestknown by the Old English form of his name, Hygelac. The Old
English epic poem Beowulf records how he was king of the Geatas,
how he planned hard fighting against the Franks (Hugos) and
brought his ships of war to Frisia, where he met his death in battle.
'That was not the least of close encounters in which Hygelac was
slain, when the Geats' king, loving lord of peoples, Hrethel's son,
died of the sword-drink in Friesland, hewn down by the blade in
the rush of battle.' It was the Hetware of the lower Rhine who
vanquished him, brought it about by their superior strength that
the corsleted warrior must bow to the ground before them. This
disastrous foray of Hygelac's which according to Beowulf (11.
1202-14, 2354-68, 2910-21) cost him the lives of all save one of his
followers, took place c. 521, and is vouched for by two Frankish
sources, the Historia Francorum of Bishop Gregory of Tours (d. 594)
and the anonymous eighth-century Liber Historic Francorum, and
also by an English work of the eighth century about monsters and
strange beasts, Liber Monstrorum (De Monstris et de Belluis Liber).
From these we learn how a king named Ch(l)ochilaicus-Huiglaucus-
Hyglac(us) made a piratical naval raid upon the land of the At-
tuarii, a Frisian people living within the Merovingian empire be-

tween the lower Rhine and the Zuyder Zee. Here he plundered a
village and carried the booty out to his ships. The king himself
remained ashore, where he was caught and slain by an army led by
Theudobert, son of the Frankish king Theudoric. Next his fleet was
routed and the booty restored to its owners. The skeleton (ossa) of
king Huiglaucus, who ruled the Geats {qui imperavit Getis\ a man so
huge that from the age of 12 no horse could carry him, was pre-
served on an island at the mouth of the Rhine, and for a long time
displayed there to the curious as a marvel of the human creation.
That the two Frankish chronicles refer to Ch(l)ochilaicus as a king
of the Danes not the Geats need not surprise us. Unless Gregory of
Tours and his two successors had a more precise knowledge of
1 The much-debated identity of the Geats of Beowulf will be touched on later
(see pp. 34-44). For the moment we are concerned with the event itself, and
whether the expedition of 521 was mounted by the Gauts of southern
c.

Sweden or the Jutes of Jutland is of secondary significance.

 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 31

events and peoples in early sixth-century Denmark and Sweden

than we have, any confusion of Danes and Geats, especially as to
habitat, is understandable enough. The Danes they knew of, and
c
the use of their name for various peoples up there' is well attested
over many centuries.
The aduentus Saxonum,
the entry of the Anglo-Saxon peoples into
Britain,and their centuries-long successful struggle to establish
Germanic kingdoms there, is among the most famous ventures of the
Age of Migrations, but like other historical events of the time it is
obscure in much of its detail: the identity and place of origin of the
peoples taking part, the needs or desires that moved them to entry
and conquest, the lines of invasion, the quality and duration of
native resistance, the role of Hengest the Dane, the historicity of
the British Arthur. Fortunately, in a brief survey of Viking ante-
cedents these are points which do not bear too sharply at us. For
even if we remain uncertain of the 'Jutish' connection with Jutland,
the precise limits of Bede's Angulw, and of the country 'now called
the land of the Old Saxons', 1 we know that the majority of the
migrating peoples (who and foremost were seeking land to
first

live on) came from the general area of the lesser Danish islands; from
southern Jutland (i.e. Slesvig), which according to Bede was left
—
denuded of its inhabitants a circumstance, if we can trust to it,
highly significant for the westward progress of the Danes from the
islands to Jutland; from the neck of the Cimbric peninsula (i.e.
Holstein); and from the neighbouring territories of the upper Elbe,
Weser and Ems rivers as far west then south as the Zuyder Zee and
the mouths of the Rhine. Our earliest authority for the post-Con-
quest inhabitants of Britain is Procopius, who is thought to have

1 The references are to Bede's famous statement in the Historia Ecclesiastica,

I, 15: '(Thenewcomers) came from three most powerful nations of the
Germans, the Saxons (Saxoties), Angles (Anglf), and Jutes (Jutae). From the
Jutes are descended the people of Kent (Cantuarii) and the Uictuarii, that is,
the people which holds the Isle of Wight, and that which to this day is called
lutarum natio in the province of the West Saxons, situated opposite the Isle of
Wight. From the Saxons, that is, from the country which is now called the
land of the Old Saxons, came the East Saxons, South Saxons, and West
Saxons. From the Angles, that is, from the country which is called Angulus,
and is said to have remained uninhabited from that day to this, between the
provinces of the Jutes and Saxons, are sprung the East Angles, Middle Angles,
—
Mercians, the entire Northumbrian stock the people, that is, who live
—
north of the river Humber and the other peoples of the Angles.'
32 A History of the Vikings
talked with some Englishmen (Angilo'i) sent shortly after the
middle of the sixth century to the emperor Justinian in Constanti-
nople as part of an embassy from king Theudobert of the Franks.
They were a curious miscellany, these inhabitants, for among them
Procopius numbered the souls of the dead ferried to Britain across
the Channel from Gaul. More tangible were the Angles, Frisians
(Frissones), and Britons, each ruled by their own king and each so
fluently fertile that every year they sent large numbers of men,
women, and children overseas to the land of the Franks. That many
Britons emigrated in the first half of the sixth century to Armorica
(Brittany) is an attested circumstance; that waves of the Germanic
invaders of Britain flowed back to the Continent when temporarily
checked and baffled seems to be confirmed by the independent
Fulda tradition of the Translatio Sancti Alexandria and for an earlier
period by Gildas. Significantly enough, according to the monk of
Fulda, the sixth-century migrants returned to the mouth of the
Elbe, from whence some of them had sprung.
That the Angles were a Scandinavian people is vouched for by

Bede and king Alfred, and their continental home was probably in
Slesvig and those islands near by mentioned by the Norwegian
Ottar to king Alfred and by him regarded as the home of the
English (Engle) before they came to this country. The Old English
poem Widsith placed Angel and its king Offa north of the river
Eider (Fifeldor). The Saxons, however we interpret their name,
whether as the title of one people or, as is more likely, the group
title of the related peoples from Holstein to the Ems (or still more

widely as a general description of all peoples given to piratical

activity in these and the contiguous parts of Europe), were as
certainly not a Scandinavian people, but their geographical position
helped shape the history of south-west Scandinavia for at least seven
hundred years. They were a restless, stirring folk, these Men of the
Sax, skilled clearers of swamp and forestand practised in war, and
in the three centuries following c. A.D. 150 had elbowed their way
into a considerable territory. In particular it is their arrival in the
terpen area of Frisia in the period 400-50 which invites our attention.
'God made the but the Frisians made the coast', says the old
sea,
proverb. The terpen were man-made mounds built over many
centuries against the sea's invasion of the Frisian coast between the
Weser and the Zuyder Zee, small but later big enough to
at first,
support sizeable agricultural communities. This Saxon influx of the
!H
^ o w < w
* z c«
O HHP < w
H ^ O en O
Z U =
3 2 <
 From the Beginnings to the Age of Migrations 33

early fifth century into Frisia explains why Procopius speaks of the
Frissones in Britain, while for other early authorities they were lost
sight of under the name ofSaxones. Later all separate titles of tribal
origin, nationhood, and language would fall together under Angli,
Angelcynn, and Englisc, and these in their turn under English, though
by an interesting survival the Welsh and Gaelic speakers of the
Island of Britain have preserved to our own day their ancient
usage, Saesneg and Sassenach, words not entirely without savour of
Teutonic piracy and barbarism.
2.The Legendary History of the Swedes
and the Danes

-L ROM THESE WANDERINGS ABROAD BY ROAD AND

flood we return to Scandinavia and the emergent kingdoms of
the Swedes and Danes. Initially the progress of Norway towards
nationhood was slower, and with the possible exception of the
conquests of Halfdan Whiteleg we shall see scant approach to any-
thing more than regional kingdoms in that long, narrow, sea-and-
mountain-boundaried, northward-running eel-stripe of a country
till the Viking Age has dawned and Halfdan the Black, father of

Harald Fairhair, is fighting his way to the overlordship of the south

and west. Nor have we much in the way of firm historical fact for
the developing supremacy of the Swedes of Uppland and the
—
Danes mainly signs and pointers in poetry and legend, the story
of the graves and other archaeological finds, and the unarguable
circumstance that it was these two peoples, and no others, who after
many shifts and balances of power imposed their rule on the areas
which still bear their names.
The two cardinal facts of homeland Swedish history during the
first millennium of our era are, first, that about the year ioo they

were, on the testimony of Tacitus, more powerful and better

organized in their Uppland province than any of the tribes that sur-
rounded them, and second, that at a date which still remains
bewilderingly uncertain (it might be as early as post-550 or as late
as c. 1000) they would so impair the strength of their southern
neighbours in Vaster- and Ostergotland that thereafter, apart from
some forced interchanges of territory with Denmark, they would
prove masters in their own part of Scandinavia. The most significant
written source of information for the benighted sixth and early
seventh centuries in Sweden is the Old English heroic elegy
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 35

Beowulf in its several passages relating to Swedish-Geat affairs.

These have been the subject of whole libraries of disquisition, most
of it seeking to answer the question, Significant of what?
Wherever we end we must begin with the classical synthesis of
our greatest English Beowulf scholar, R. W. Chambers, outlined
and sustained by him in his Introduction to this greatest of Old
English poems. 1 It proceeds from an identification of the Geats
(OE. Geatas) of the poem with the Gauts (OI. Gautar, OSw. Gotar)
resident, as we have just said, in the provinces south of the Swedes.
Unfortunately we have still less knowledge of the Gauts at this
time than of the Swedes, and outside Beowulf and Widsith no
knowledge at all of the Geats. But it would beovergloomy to con-
clude that we therefore survey the problem out of two blind eyes.
It helps that the tone of the Beowulf passages is always serious and
thoughtful, sometimes brooding and melancholy. In this respect
there is no difference between the poem's account of the wars
between the Swedes and Geats and its account, retailed above,
of Hygelac's expedition to Frisia. Both are offered to an intelligent
and informed audience in good faith as a record of deeds wrought
and destiny endured. It is not history in our modern sense, we shall
look in vain for political and economic causation: deeds are done,
and their consequences borne, by great men, kings and leaders the :

motives to action are pride, greed, revenge, though these are usually
presented in conventional disguises, the defence or enriching of a
people, loyalty to a king or kinsman, the inexorable demands of
feud, the workings of Wyrd. But Beowulf in its Geat-Swedish
passages is, we believe, more than a tale of who killed whom, and
why.
Soon after the sixth century opened the Swedes of Uppland were
ruled by an aged but formidable monarch, the anglicized form of
whose name was Ongentheow. In Old Norse this should be repre-
sented by a form like Angantyr (Angantyr, Angan^er), but this is
not found in the two essential enumerations of the kings of Sweden,

1
R. W. Chambers, Beowulf, an Introduction to the Study of the Poem, etc., 1921,
1932, and with a Supplement by C. L. Wrenn, 1959. The Supplement
includes a chapter on the significance of the Sutton Hoo finds for Beowulf
but does not otherwise concern itself with dissentient Scandinavian opinion
about Swedish-Geat relations. See, too, Ritchie Girvan, Beowulf and the
Seventh Century, 1935, especially the chapter 'Folk-Tale and History'; and
Birger Nerman, Det Svenska rikets Uppkomst, Stockholm, edition of 1941.
36 A History of the Vikings
the verse Tnglinga Tal composed at an early date by the ninth-century
poet Thjodolf of Hvin, and the prose TnglingaSaga of c. 1225, in both
of which his place in the list is occupied by king Egill. Nor have we
outside documentary confirmation of any save one of the contem-
porary kings of the Geats. The earliest mentioned of these was
Hrethel, whose three sons were Herebeald, Hsethcyn, and Hygelac.
By an unlucky accident Hasthcyn killed his elder brother Herebeald
with an arrow from his bow, and such was Hrethel's grief that he
died, leaving the kingdom to Hasthcyn. The Swedes and Geats
were natural enemies, and Hsethcyn, in answer to the onslaughts and
ambushes of Ongentheow's sons, led a raid into Swedish territory
c
and carried off Ongentheow's aged wife. But the Swede, old and
terrible', gave pursuit, killed Hxthcyn, and rescued the lady,
though stripped of her ornaments of gold. The Geat survivors
escaped to an unidentified Ravenswood, where he surrounded and
throughout the night taunted them with a prospect of the gallows
in the morning. But before first light they heard the warhorns of

3. HUMAN MASK FROM VALSGARDE

Hygelac ashe came hastening along their bloody track with the
was the Swede's turn to seek a fastness, but
chivalry of the Geats. It
in vain; Hygelac's warriors overran his entrenchments and brought
him to bay: he died under the protecting shield. Then the Geats
withdrew to their own country, and Hygelac was their ruler till
he was killed south among the Hetware. His successor was Heard-
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 37

red, his son. There was no long peace between the peoples. Ongen-
theow had been succeeded by his son Ohthere (the poem does not
tell us this, but it is a fair assumption), but on Ohthere's death the

throne was usurped by his younger brother Onela, and Ohthere's

sons Eanmund and Eadgils fled for help to the traditional enemies of
the Swedish royal house, the Geats. Onela, 'best of those sea-kings
who gave out treasure in Sweden', went after them, killed his
nephew Eanmund, and with him Heardred king of the Geats, then
once more sought his own country, 'and let Beowulf hold the throne,
rule the Geats'. But the chain of family, dynastic, and national feud
was not yet run out. The Geats supported Ohthere's surviving son
with an army either 'across the wide sea' or 'across the wide lake'
(ofer sa side'), and after a campaign' described as cold and grievous
Onela was slain and Eadgils became king of the Swedes. And still
nothing was compounded, for it is implicit in the ending of Beowulf
that disaster will wait upon the Geat people, that their maidens
shall tread a path of exile, and the raven and wolf contend over their
warrior-dead.
West Norse sources, more particularly Tnglinga Tal, Tnglinga
Saga, 1 and Arngrimur Jonsson's late sixteenth-century Latin abstract

1 'Thjodolf
the Learned of Hvin was a poet of king Harald Fairhair [of Nor-
way]. He made a poem about king Rognvald the Glorious which is called
Tnglinga Tal, the List or Count of the Ynglings. Rognvald was the son of
Olaf Geirstada-Alf, brother of Halfdan the Black [Harald Fairhair's father].
In this poem are named thirty of his forebears, with a word about the death
and burial-place of each . . [My] Lives of the Ynglings are written in the
.

first place from Thjodolf's poem and augmented from the accounts of

learned men.' (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Prologus.') Twenty-seven of

Thjodolf's stanzas, wholly or in part, have been preserved in Tnglinga Saga, a
prose account of the Ynglings with which Snorri opened his Heimskringla or
compendium of the Lives of the kings of Norway. They were called Ynglings
because they traced their line from Frey, God of the World and Sovereign of
the Swedes, who established the holy place at Uppsala and made his chief
residence there. Another name of Frey was Yngvi, 'and the name of Yngvi
was kept for a long while thereafter in his line as a royal name, and the men
of his line were thereafter called Ynglings'. Historically speaking, no reliance
is to be placed on the first seventeen of these. Even in terms of fiction,

nothing in their lives became them like the leaving of it. King Fjolnir rose in
the night to make water, fell into a vat of mead and drowned instead;
Sveigdir ran after a dwarf when drunk and vanished into a boulder; Vanlandi
was trampled to death by a nightmare; Domaldi was sacrificed for good
seasons; Dag was struck on the head with a pitchfork when seeking revenge
for his sparrow; and so on down to the fifth century.
38 A History of the Vikings
or version of the lost Skjoldunga Saga (presumably of c. 1 180-1200),
in general confirm though in places they vary this Old English
account of Geat-Swedish relations. For a start there is no Beowulf
in the Norse sources, yet paradoxically he is the person we can best
spare from the roll-call of the Geat kings. His fifty-year reign must
be accounted a fiction he is the occasion of the historical passages,
:

but no true part of them. And there are further difficulties posed by
the West Norse sources. Instead of a war between Swedes and
Gautar Tnglinga Saga makes the antagonists Swedes and Danes,
even Jutes. Ottar (Ohthere) the Swede took a fleet to Denmark and
devastated Vendil in Jutland, but was overwhelmed in a naval battle
in the Limfjord. The victorious Danes carried his body ashore and
exposed it on a mound for beasts and birds to ravage. They took a
tree-crow (or a crow of wood) and sent it to Sweden with the taunt
that Ottar their king was of no more account than that. However,
it has been argued that this part of Tnglinga Saga is a chapter of

error. Ottar was nicknamed not from Vendil in Jutland but from
Vendil (modern Vendel) in Uppland in Sweden, where the chief
burial mound has traditionally been known as Ottars Hog, King
Ottar's Howe, or the mound of Ottar Vendel-crow. It is Ottar's

father Egill who is called vendilkraka, Vendel-crow, by such com-

paratively reputable authorities as the twelfth-century Icelandic
historian Ari Thorgilsson and the Historia Norwegi£, which appears
to derive from an original of about 1170. Inevitably there has been
speculation whether Egill the father of Ottar and Ongentheow (i.e.

Angantyr) father of Ohthere are one and the same man, and the
possibility is surprisingly strong. 1 But first let us note that Tnglinga
Saga has also managed to distort the Eadgils-Onela story. In
Tnglinga Saga Athils is Ottar's son and immediately succeeds him.
That Ali (Onela) was his uncle and a Swede had been forgotten.
Ali was still described as a king, but over Uppland in Norway,
erroneously, not Uppland in Sweden. However, the issue of their
contest was the same:

1 The philological progression, it has been suggested, is a form of Angantyr

> *Angila (an affectionate diminutive) > *AgilaR > Egill. This is less

convincing than the genealogical coincidence taken in conjunction with

Beowulf's account of Ongentheow's death at the hand of Eofor ('Boar') and
Tnglinga Tal's reference to Egill's blood reddening the boar's snout, farra
triSno. Though Snorri Sturluson in his Tnglinga Saga certainly read farra as
'bull'.
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 39
King Athils had great quarrels with the king called Ali the Upp-
lander: he was from Norway. They had a battle on the ice of [Lake]
Vaner, where king Ali fell and Athils had the victory. There is a long
account of this battle in Skjoldunga Saga [Tnglinga Saga, 27].

Skjoldunga Saga, however, is as strong in error as Tnglinga Saga con-

cerning the nationality of Ali, whom it describes as Opplandorum
[rex] in Norvegia. The Athils of Tnglinga Saga was a true Swede in
his love of fine horses, but the poets and sagamen have not dealt
kindly with him it is a grotesque and baffled mischief-maker who
:

squinnies at us from their pages. Even with horses his touch was not
held to be infallible according to the Kalfsvisa he fell off one, a
:

grey, at Lake Vaner, 'when they rode to the ice,' and according to
Snorri fell off another at a sacrifice and knocked his brains out on a
stone. This happened at Uppsala, and he was buried in a mound
there. 1
Tnglinga Saga records of three Swedish kings of this period that
they were howed at Uppsala: Aun, Egill, and Athils; and it is
hardly a coincidence that there stand at Gamla Uppsala, Old
Uppsala, three mighty grave mounds on a line north-east to south-
west, known Odinn's Howe, Thor's Howe, and Frey's Howe. In
as
the two of these which have been excavated there were found the
charred remains of a man of rank and wealth, without question
Swedish kings, and almost without question two of those named.
The burial mound of Ottar twenty miles to the north at Vendel
completes a roll of kings covering most of the sixth century. The se
superb monuments at Old Uppsala, each thrown up over the place
of a king's burning, are impressive witness to the martial dynasty
which was busy extending the power of the Swedes over their
neighbours in mainland Gotaland and offshore Gotland; while a
succession of Vendel and Valsgarde graves from the sixth to the
ninth centuries show great lords laid to rest without cremation in
boats of 30 feet and upwards, with horse and harness, dog and leash
(and in one case a hunting falcon), fine weapons, bronze plates for
belts and horse-trappings, cooking-pots and food. In other graves
of the same period and region there are glass beakers, ornamentation
in semi-precious stones and enamel, ring-swords whose pommel-
ring is of gold, and magnificent helmets on the Roman cavalry
1
Saxo Grammaticus would have us believe that he died of strong drink,
5
while celebrating 'with immoderate joviality the death of his enemy
Hrolf(Hrothulf).
4- PICTURED STONE FROM ALSTAD, NORWAY
It appears to portray the Sigurd legend. 'Below a large ornament-
—
al bird, possibly of symbolic import, is a man on a horse with a
hawk in his hand and followed by his dogs. The man is possibly
Sigurd setting out on his fateful journey. Beneath this scene is a
horse without a rider: Grani coming home after the death of his
lord. Lastly comes a man riding with a mighty raised weapon:
which could be the murderer, Hogni.' The reverse side with its
tendrils is a good example of the Ringerike style. The pictures
have also been plausibly interpreted as portraying the arrival of
the dead in the Other world.
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 41

pattern. This is the world of Beowulf: graves and poem are parallel
revelations of an age. 1
Taken with those passages of Beowulf which tell
in conjunction
of the Geat attack on Frisia c. 521 (pp. 30-31 above), this is a

coherent and attractive synthesis of Old English poetry, Norse and

Continental documentary sources, and archaeological evidence. But
not everyone believes in it. A great many Danish and Swedish
scholars do not accept the Geat-Gaut equation, and the most
critical school of Swedish historians, led by the Weibulls and speak-

ing from Skane, dismisses all notion of a collapse of the Gautish

kingdom towards the year 600. 2 Their viewpoint may be crudely
1 The same is true of Beowulf and the c. mid-seventh century ship-burial of a
royal personage at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia. The full implications of the
discoveries at Sutton Hoo are as yet not understood, but the correspondence
between the treasures found there and the way of life they represent (the
big ship-cenotaph or mound, the weapons, shield, and banded (*tpalu)
helmet, silver spoons and dish, the man-with-monster(s) motif, the gold-
smith's and jeweller's work, the coins, the harp and royal standard) and those
passages in Beowulf which tell of similar things is extraordinarily close. Some
of the grave goods had travelled far to their long resting-place: the silver dish
bears the hallmark of the emperor Anastasius of Byzantium (ob. 518); the
two-score gold coins from the royal purse are Merovingian tremisses; the
helmet and shield closely resemble Swedish work of the early sixth century.
Professor Birger Nerman speculated whether the warrior-king for whom the
Sutton Hoo ship-burial was planned was a Swede ('Sutton Hoo; en svensk
Kunga- eller hovdinggrav', in Fornvdnnen, 1948), which seems unlikely;
Professor Sune Lindqvist believes that Beowulf'and the Sutton Hoo burial may
both be seen against a background of the Swedish origin of the East Anglian
royal house of the Wuffingas or Wulfingas ('Sutton Hoo and Beowulf', in
Antiquity, 1948). The English reader will be best helped by R. L. S. Bruce-
Mitford, 'The Sutton Hoo R. H. Hodgkin, History of the
Ship-Burial', in
Anglo-Saxons, 3rd ed., 1952, and the same author's The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial,
British Museum, 1966; C. L. Wrenn, 'Sutton Hoo and Beowulf', in R. W.
Chambers, Beowulf, An Introduction, 3rd ed., 1959; and Charles Green,
Sutton Hoo, 1963. In our present context the parallels between Sutton Hoo
and Vendel are hardly less striking than those between either place and
Beowulf.
2 In addition to the books listed in the footnote on p. 35 above the indispens-
able references are C. Weibull, 'Om det svenska och det danska rikets Upp-
komst', Historisktidsskrift for Skdneland, VH, 1921; E. Wadstein, Norden och
Vdsteuropa gammal tid, Stockholm, 1925; Kemp Malone, 'The identity of the
i

Geats', Acta Philologica Scandinavica, IV, 1929; E. Wadstein, 'The Beowulf

poem as an English National Epos', ibid., VIH, 1933; O. Moberg, 'Svenska
rikets Uppkomst', Fornvdnnen, 1944. There is a succint statement in Lucien
Musset, Les Peuples Scandinaves au Moyen Age, Paris, 1951, pp. 23-6, and a
42 A History of the Vi kings
expressed thus : when the statements of a poet who for the most part
deals in legendary and folktale material conflict with what otherwise
may be assumed as to the historical or geopolitical situation in sixth-
century Sweden, those statements should not be allowed an authori-
ty they do not deserve. So first, who were the Geats? Philologically
their name corresponds precisely with that of the Gauts, but can by a
series ofpostulations be made to approximate to that of the Jutes, as
this is preserved in Old English and West Norse sources (luti, lute,
Eote, Tte, and Jotar, Jutar). This pro-Jute philological argument on
the whole commends itself to non-philologists. There is the further
possibility that the Old English poet confused the two peoples,
Jutes and Gauts, whose names were not too dissimilar (the g of
Swedish Gotar, Gotar had the modern y [j] sound), and about whose
location, it is suggested, he was not well informed but this is—
supposition. If the West Norse sources have their errors relating to
Denmark, Jutland, Vendil, Sweden, and Gautland, why, we are
asked, should the Old English sources be held above suspicion or
invariably receive a favourable explication ? None of this is notably
helpful to the Jutish case, but good arguments remain. If the Geats
were the Jutes, their descent upon Frisia seems a likelier occurrence,
especially when we consider the kind of ships at their disposal early
in the sixth century, than that the Gauts of Sweden should be
raiding there. There had been a long period of trade and other con-
tact between the mouths of the Rhine and the Jutland peninsula,
and a clash between their peoples is unsurprising. The Prankish
recorders of it speak of the raiders as Danes, Dani, not Gauts, and the
Liber Momtrorum describes Huiglaucus as king of the Get<e not the
Gauti, though it is difficult to believe that Gette could mean Jutes.
For what it is worth we have a reference in Venantius Fortunatus,
bishop of Poitiers (530-609), to the defeat of a Danish fleet in Frisia
c. 565 ; and Viking Age evidence for close trading and political re-

lationsbetween Denmark (including Jutland) and Frisia is so strong

that encourages us to believe that this was the continuation of
it

relationships already existing. It has even been argued that the

ancient tradingtown of Hollingstedt in Slesvig preserves in the
medieval form of its name (Huglasstath, 1285) reminiscence of a
Huiglaucus-Hugleik-Hygelac who may or may not have been he

looser one summarizing recent Scandinavian opinion in Viggo Starcke,

Denmark in World History, Philadelphia, 1962, pp. 99-107.
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 43

qui imperavit Getis —

though this at best is inconclusive. At this point
one might not unfairly conclude that while the philological evidence
is strong for the Gauts, the historical and economic facts are, in

respect of Hygelac's expedition to Frisia, strong for the Jutes.

But the passages concerning the Geat-Swedish wars remain, and
here it is difficult to believe that by the Geats the English poet

meant any people other than the Gauts. The view that they were
Gauts resident in northern Jutland would reconcile the opposed
arguments, but there is next to no evidence for it. On the whole we
must settle either for a prolonged Jutish-Swedish war during the
sixth century, which is certainly not impossible, or a Gautish-
Swedish war, which is highly probable. The 'facts' can be made to
fit either hypothesis, but go more 'naturally with the second, in

that it would appear wellnigh impossible for our sea-conscious poet

to avoid mention of ships and naval encounters in his account of
three generations of seaborne expeditions between Jutland and
Sweden. Gautish origins are to be sought in Vastergotland, but
they were a strong people and spread steadily into Ostergotland,
Dalsland, Narke, Varmland, and part of Smaland. They were
inevitably rivals of the Swedes, and warfare between the two peoples
could not be avoided. The Chambers thesis, if not surely right, is
more likely to be so than any of its rivals. But what we need not de-
duce from Beowulf is that the Gauts were so decisively overthrown in
the later sixth century that the Swedes then assumed control of their
territories. In Curt Weibull's view they kept their independence till
near the year 1000, and it may well have been Olaf Skottkonung who
first enjoyed the title rex Sveorum Gothorumque. West Norse sources

carry numerous references to the Gauts and Gautland down to that

time, including the well-known but not necessarily reliable ones in
Snorri's Heimskringla to jarl Rognvald's realm in Gautland and Olaf
Tryggvason's hope of enlisting him as an ally against the confeder-
acy including Olaf Skottkonung. 1 Others lay stress on the circum-
stance that whereas early 'authorities' speak of many tribes in

1 But nothing may be taken as certain. We know little more concerning the
early (sixth-century) kings of Gautland than that their claim to rule was
fundamental the Gautish throne stayed empty till a posterior of twice our
:

mortal size was advanced to fill it. We are hardly wiser in respect of the later
jarls. Curt Weibull thinks that Rognvald was a Swedish chieftain ('Sverige
och dess nordiska grannmakter', 1921 pp. 118 ff); he has been placed in
Gardariki (Russia); and he has been seen as a subject of the king of the Danes.
44 A History of the Vikings
Sweden, visitors in the ninth century like Anskar speak only of the
Swedes, thus suggesting that the struggle for power was by then
concluded. 1 In any case it is more reasonable to suppose that the
Gauts became a junior partner in the Swedish realm than that they
were ground out of existence. We hear of their laws and lawspeaker,
their Thing and their jarls, to the end of the viking period. That the
Swedes became more powerful than the Gauts is certain, but we are
unsure of the decisive stages and dates of the process.

If now we turn to the realm of Denmark our first, if spurning, steps

must still be taken on Swedish whether we begin with Jor-
soil,

danes' puzzling statement that the Danes, men of the same stock as
the Swedes, at an unstated time (post A.D. 200 or c. 500), took or
recovered possession of the Erulian lands in Denmark, or whether
we cautiously grope our way into the mirage-strewn hinterland of
legend, to find the eponymous Dan son of Ypper, king of Uppsala
in Sweden, 'from whom [i.e. Dan], so saith antiquity, the pedigrees
of our kings have flowed in glorious series, like channels from some
parent spring'. It was Dan who left Sweden to take possession of
Zealand and its sister isles of Falster, Lolland and M
on. Together
Wide Plain. Later Jutland,
these formed the realm of Vithesleth, the
Fyn and Skane accepted the authority of Dan, and the kingdom was
named Danmork after him. According to Saxo, Dan had a brother
by the name of Angul, who immortalized his name by attaching it
to the people known afterwards as Angles, and in the unprophesied
course of history as English. This is wild and whirling stuff, not to

be pressed to a meaning, much less a conclusion (there is no con-

sistency even in the legend: according to the Chronicle of the Kings
ofLejre the eponymous sons of Ypper were Nori, Osten, and Dan),
yet it may belatedly point to the strength, wealth, and strategic
importance of Zealand, the isles, and Skane on the one hand, and
Jutland (possibly with Fyn) on the other, divided as they are by the
Great Belt, as contributory to the creation of a kingdom of Denmark.
This does not mean that 'Greater Denmark' quickly achieved
definitive boundaries and held them without variation, or that it was

1 The most recent Swedish summary of this phase of native history, M.

Stenberger, Sweden, 1963, pp. 152-7, concludes that the union of Gotaland
with the Svea kingdom in central Sweden probably took place before the
beginning of the ninth century. The Sparlosa stone of c. 800 may be evidence
in favour of this (see p. 79).
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 45

not frequently a prey to war and fragmentation; but some

civil

increasing consciousness there must have been of a Danish identity

and separateness from the Swedes and Norwegians. This was felt
soonest and strongest by leading individuals and families it was to :

these, not to the concept of nationhood, that ordinary folk felt

and gave sendee. Also, with every allowance made for the
allegiance
sometime expulsion of the Eruli, 1 and the emigration of the Angles
and (some) Jutes, we do not know to what extent the Dani filled the
emptied seats of other peoples, or whether their name came to
cover a confederacy of tribes resident in Zealand, the lesser islands,
and Jutland, originally with names of their own. What we do know
is that the people or collection of peoples bearing the name Dani
were dominant in geographical Denmark and Skane soon after the
beginning of the sixth century.
The most celebrated of the legendary kings of Denmark were the
Skjoldungs (Skjoldungar), the Scyldings of Beowulf, Men of the
Shield, descended from Skjold, who according to Tnglinga Saga
was the son of Odinn, according to Saxo the grandson of Dan, and
according to Beowulf either the son of Sheaf, Scyld Scefing, or
distinguished as Scyld 'with the Sheaf'. According to Beowulf too,
he came to the Danish shore a helpless child, no one knew from
where or across what waters, but with a heap of treasures about
1 The passage in Jordanes relating to the Dani and Eruli is as follows: Sunt
et his exteriores Ostrogoths, Raumarici, Aeragnarici [Raumariciae, rag-
naricii], Finni mitissimi, Scandza? cultoribus omnibus mitiores [minores];
nee non et pares eorum Vinoviloth; Suetidi, cogniti in hac gente reliquis
corpore eminentiores: Quamvh et Dani, ex ipsorum stirpe progressi, Herulos
propriis sedibus expulerunt, qui inter omnes Scandix nationes nomen sibi ob
nimis proceritate affectant prsecipium (ed. Mommsen, MGH, V, 58). Much
argument has been concentrated on Jordanes' text, and particularly on the
meaning here of stirps and proprius: whether Jordanes understood the Danes
to be of Swedish descent, or along with the Swedes of Scandinavian descent;
and whether Jordanes is informing us that the Danes expelled the Eruli from
their [i.e. Erulian] dwelling-places, or from their own [Danish] dwelling-
places, which the Eruli had seized or maybe encroached on, as, for example,
they might have done soon after the year 505 on their return by way of the
land of the Danes to the south of Sweden. On the one hand is the continuing
legendary tradition that the Danes came from Sweden; on the other the high
likelihood that the Danes were indigenous in Denmark, above all in Zealand;
in between are the ambiguities (or what in our ignorance we judge to be the
ambiguities) ofJordanes. On the whole the documentary evidence is uncertain
in support of the Swedish hypothesis, and the archaeological evidence can
be offered both for and against it.
46 A History of the Vikings
him ; for when in the fullness of time he died, having succoured the
Danes, terrified their enemies, and established their royal line, his

him on a ship, their glorious lord by the mast, and

subjects placed
having heaped him with no lesser dowry of weapons and treasures
than he had brought with him, and set a golden standard high over
his head, they let the sea take him, gave him to the ocean. Nor
could any man from that day to this, whether hero under heaven or
counsellor in hall, tell who received that load.
For the names of the kings who followed him there are more
authorities than authority: Saxo Grammaticus, shortly after 1200;
Sven Aggeson, c. 1185; the Chronicle of the Kings of Lejre, some time
after 1160 (later incorporated in the fourteenth-century Annals of
Lund); the Chronicle of Roskilde, c. 1146; Langfedgatal, of the eleventh
century; and Beowulf composed probably between 700 and 750; to
which may be added Hrolfs Saga Kraka and the Latin abstract al-
ready referred to of Skjoldunga Saga. Some of these sources, Sven
Aggeson in particular, are spare; some, like Saxo, are voluminous.
All demand circumspection, and most excite disbelief. It is with
Halfdan, the 'high Healfdene' of Beowulf that we reach some slight,
some possible assurance of history, presumably at the beginning of
the second half of the fifth century. His son Hrothgar was an aged
guardian of his people when we read of him in Beowulf an unspeci-
fied while before the death of Hygelac the Geat, c. 520, but pre-
sumably in the first two decades of the sixth century. He lived in a
great hall called Heorot, or Hart, lofty and wide-gabled, at Lejre in
Zealand. Gamle Lejre today is to be found some five miles west-
south-west of the cathedral city of Roskilde, a quiet little village on
a quiet little stream (the Kornerup A; the Lejre A has dried up)
which flows three miles or so to the southern extremity of Roskilde
Fjord. Today's student of Beowulf and. its Norse analogues is likely

to visit it with emotion like many: other places in Denmark, a place

of burial since the Stone Age, so that its ancient approaches are
watched over by many a treed and grassy mound; the site of the
biggest skibs£tning in the country; by Thietmar of Merseburg's
witness a sanguinary shrine of the heathen; royal seat of the
Skjoldungs; and in saga tradition the never-to-be-forgotten scene
of the nurture and destruction of Hrolf Kraki and his champions.
—
He is likely to leave it deeply impressed and baffled. Lejre was
clearly inhabited some time in the tenth century by a chieftain rich
enough to be given a fine burial, but of Hrolf's sixth-century court
 —

The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 47

no trace has been found. It is sad to think of those high lords with-
out a roof to their heads, 1 but in respect of Lejre that is the case, and
likely to remain so. Nor has anything been found of the sacrificial

site described in Thietmar's early eleventh-century Chronicle, where

every ninth year, in the month ofJanuary, ninety-nine men and the
same number of horses, dogs, and cocks, were sacrificed to the gods.
But this last is not surprising.

5. LEJRE FROM THE WEST (OLAUS WORMIUS)

A. Sepulchrum Haraldi Hyldetandi; C. Locus ubi Regia olim erat;
O. The main skibssetning.

Here let us again remind ourselves that while it would be timor-

ous not to draw from such an abundance of legendary and pseudo-
historical material the conclusion that Halfdan-Healfdene,Hroar-
Ro-Hrothgar, Helgi-Halga, and Hrolf-Hrothulf were kings who
existed and ruled in Denmark, we know hardly an unchallengeable
fact about them. We do not even know whether Halfdan's name,
meaning presumably 'Half-Dane', implies that the Skjoldungs were

1 '
en smule bjemfos* is Harald Andersen's phrase, the leader of the excavations
there. See Fra Nationalmuseets Arbeidsmark, i960, and Skalk, 1958, 2 and 4.
48 A History of the Vikings
a dynasty at first part-alien to the inhabitants of Denmark. He
would be a man supremely bold or learned who claimed to know the
exact relationship, habitat, or even identity, of Danes, Jutes, Eruli,
Heathobeards, and Angles. And so with Hrolf: we must sift a
bushel of legend to win a grain of history, and even then have no
minute particulars. In English writings Hrolf is mentioned for the
most part with foreboding. He was a hero, certainly, and prominent
in the defence of Heorot against the attack of Ingeld and his Heatho-
beards. 'For a long, long time', says JVidsith, 'that nephew and
uncle, Hrothulf and Hrothgar, kept the peace together, after they
had driven away the viking race, made Ingeld's vanguard stoop,
cut down at Heorot the Heathobardan host.' But Hrothulf has a
murkier claim to fame: he usurped the Danish throne, and to this
end set aside and probably killed his cousins, Hrothgar's sons.
Icelandic and Danish sources ignore or obscure this grievous deed,
so foreign to Hrolf's later character and reputation, but cannot
dispose of it altogether. Stripped of its grosser accretions of legend
and folktale (and the Icelandic Hrolfs Saga Kraka is a corridored
museum Denmark's early traditions may be
of such), Hrolf's role in
summarized thus. Halfdan, king of Denmark, had two sons, Hroar
and Helgi. Halfdan was basely killed by his brother Frodi, the
monarch of a separate kingdom, and his sons took a bloody ven-
geance. Helgi, the more assertive of the two, then became king of
Denmark. In his dealings with women he was as ill-fated as he was
heavy-handed, which is saying a lot, and his favourite vice bred
instruments to plague him. His son, the glorious Hrolf, was the
issue of his unwittingly incestuous marriage with his daughter
Yrsa. Later Yrsa, her unhappy lot now known, left Helgi and
—
married Athils king of the Swedes none other than that hard-
drinking, horse-loving Athils-Eadgils who slew Ali on the ice of
Lake Vaner, and was buried in the kings' mounds at Old Uppsala.
It was to Uppsala that king Helgi made a journey across the sea, to
fetch Yrsa home again. He went ashore with a hundred men, and
Athils welcomed him to court with open arms. But on his way back
had him ambushed, took him 'between anvil and
to his ships Athils
hammer', and the Danes perished to the last man. So Hrolf in-
herited, and built up a mighty army and mightier kingdom. He
established his chief seat at the place called Lejre (Hlei5argar6r).
'That is in Denmark, a big, powerful stronghold; and in every
aspect of munificence there was more pomp and splendour there
5. xorse tools Including hammers, tongs, shears, moulds, ladle,
wedges, chisel, and anvil. The hammer-shafts and anvil- base are modern.
6. NORSE WEAPONS
Swords, axe-heads, spears, shield boss, and helmet.
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 49
than in any place whatsoever —more indeed than any had ever
heard tell of.' To Lejre came champions from all the northern lands,
among them the bear-begotten Bothvar Bjarki, who married into
HrolPs family and with the freedom proper to a kinsman suggested
it was time to restore the Danish image in Sweden. What followed

was HrolPs Uppsala Ride, in which he carried off a large helping of

treasure from Athils's court, but was forced to abandon it, in a
picturesque delaying tactic, on the plain of Fyrisvellir, before Upp-
sala. A hint in Beowulf allows us to think that HrolPs attack on

Athils was an intervention on behalf of Ali's widow, a kinswoman of

his. If so, it failed, for Athils kept his throne, though Hrolf, with the

connivance of the story-tellers, snatched the glory. This Swedish

expedition was the turning-point of his life, in legend because an
offended Odinn now deserted him, in fact, one suspects, because his
swelling ambition led his enemies to combine against him. Their
leader was his first cousin Hjorvard, according to Skjoldunga Saga
king of the island of Oland off the south-eastern coast of Sweden,
who led an army of Swedes and Gauts to Lejre, and in a night attack
slew him and his entire bodyguard, none of whom chose to survive
his lord. Hjorvard likewise fell, and Lejre perished by 'the hostile
surges of malignant fire'.
Legendary history such as this is a heady brew, and still headier
is to follow with Harald Wartooth, Sigurd Hring, and their bloody

congress at Bravellir. Briefly, then, let us remind ourselves that

heroes' deeds and dynastic struggles, confusedly if excitingly re-
corded, are never the whole of the story. Something real and un-
legendary was going on in Denmark and Sweden during these same
blurred and unlit times. The general area of 'Denmark' was taking
shape, to include Zealand (its heart and centre), Falster, Lolland
and Mon, and then other islands, and the territories immediately
across the 0resund, i.e. Skane and Halland, but, not in all probability,
Bornholm. Later there would be a movement of Danes west into
Jutland north of the Eider, which eventually would play as important
a part in Danish affairs as Zealand. The Great and Little Belts,
together with the 0resund, bound these lands together; the effective
barriers to movement, and therefore to expansion, were the swamp
and forestland at the neck of the Jutland peninsula and the im-
penetrable forests of Smaland in Sweden. Early in the Christian era
Skane (ON. Skaney), bounded by water and wilderness, was to all
intents and purposes itself an island, a circumstance which alone
50 A History of the Vikings

makes its early attachment to the Danish interest intelligible. That

there was considerable political and military vicissitude within this
area between the third and the eighth centuries is a safe assumption,
and archaeology suggests that the third, seventh, and eighth
centuries were particularly important for the future kingdom of the
Danes. But detail is almost completely lacking.
Even so, two assured deductions may be made. While poets and
story-tellers looked to heroes and kings, always spectacular, often
unreal, and at best tangential to truth, life as men live it went
steadily on. Its basis was agrarian, agricultural, and in that sense
one century differed little from another. The setting might vary
somewhat in Denmark, and vastly throughout the three Scandina-
vian countries, with their plain and mountain, heathland, forest and
clearing, coast and interior, rock, sand, and clay; but the means were
recognizable everywhere, and the end was the same, to produce
food: corn and grass for man and beast, and beast for man alone.
In addition there was the endless garner of nature's second bounty,
fish, game, animals; a selection of men travelled and traded, native

goods went out and foreign goods came in, some for daily use, some
for magnificence and pride; yet others plied their crafts, smiths,
woodcarvers, boatbuilders, potters, the makers of cables and
harness, the healers of bodies and builders of howes. All this is
obvious enough, and mentioned only that it may not be forgotten.
Without a worker there can be no hero, without an economy no
kingdom.
Second, the kingdom of Denmark (and those of Sweden and
Norway too) grew from units both modest and ancient, homestead,
hamlet, village, and from the developing institutions of a defined
community, a recognized district, known in Denmark as a herred
(ON. heraS). Our factual knowledge of the herred hardly precedes
the Viking Age, but clearly the social unit then defined was a long-
standing one. The word seems originally to have indicated a body
of mounted men, with a warlike connotation, but came to mean an
area within which men rode to the same Thing (ping), the public
gathering for law and consultation on matters affecting that area.
The topography of Denmark, with the sole exception of western
Jutland, and the Danish parts of what is now southern Sweden, lent
itself to the grouping together of homesteads to form villages, and
some of these last were found to be well placed to provide an area
composed of more than one herred with facilities for law, religion,
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 51

marketing, and the discussion of other matters affecting the well-

being of free men and owners of land and chattels. The importance
of such a centre and of its leading family would grow together. As
in Norway and Sweden, the unrest of the times either removed a
and prestige. The
local chieftain altogether or fostered his strength
community's wealth in land and people had to be defended against
outside aggression, and when occasion offered outside wealth had
to be acquired. In both Zealand and Jutland we can from time to
time assume the existence of a number of 'kingdoms', each with its
'king', and in Jutland we know that some of them survived, fitfully,

till key
at least the time of Gorm in the tenth century. Probably the
to a fullerknowledge of this pattern of small kingdoms lies in the
regional Thing linked with a market-place. A backward glance from
the year 1000 confirms what in any case seems the safe deduction
that such key-places included Hedeby, Ribe, Arhus, Viborg,
Aggersborg, and Lindholm Hoje in Jutland, Roskilde and Ringsted
in Zealand, Odense on Fyn, and no doubt Lund in Skane though —
we know that some of these acquired different characteristics as
the result of political change, or even in course of time removed to a
different site.
Also, the early petty kingdoms, however entitled, were subject
to vicissitude. By
conquest, inheritance, coalescence, or act of god,
their boundaries and fortunes changed. Probably many individual
and dynastic episodes which attain epic, or at least heroic, dimension
in the legendary sources were local and contained. Occasionally a
ruling house had a run of successes which made it overlord of sub-
stantial parts of Denmark. Hrolf Kraki and Harald Wartooth, if we
cannot accept that they were flesh and blood and conquering kings,
may serve as legendary exemplars. Expansion and triumph de-
pended less on shield-biting berserks and the deceptive favour of this
god or that valkyrie than on wealth gained from agriculture and
trade, then used to sustain the process of war. In the legendary
history of Denmark no ruling house established a durable suprem-
acy. This conforms not only to the requirement of heroic literature
that triumph is the prelude to disaster. It conforms also to the broad
facts of the Danish situation.
That said, we return to the heroes and kings, and confess that
the ramifications of Danish history for a hundred and fifty years
death of Hrolf (c. 550?) defeated all medieval inquirers and
after the
continue to defeat us today. We can assume an immediate and
 a

52 A History of the Vikings

by sharp struggles for power within

painful disintegration followed
the country, but the personalities, territories, and procedures
involved are unknown. 1 Even with Ivar Vidfadmi (Far-reacher,
Wide-grasper) in the seventh century we dazzle with fantasies. He
was, we hear, king of Skane when Ingjald, called the Wicked, of the
Yngling line, was king of the Swedes at Uppsala. Ingjald had
widened his kingdom by slaying twelve kings, all of them trea-
cherously. Confronted with the wrath of Ivar he withdrew into his
hall with his daughter and people, and when the company was dead
drunk he had fire laid to it, so that they all perished. According to
Tnglinga Saga, this pyromanic imbecility cost the Ynglings their
realm of Uppsala, and future kings of Sweden and Denmark came of
the line of Ivar, though what Ivar could be except another Yngling is
hard to say. We hear that he now conquered Sweden and came to
possess all Denmark. Also he won for himself a large part of Germany,
the entire Austrriki (presumably the lands east of the Baltic,
including a little of Russia), and the fifth part of England —
traditional description of Northumbria. Much of this is plainly
nonsense. The authors of Skjoldunga Saga and Heimskringla have be-
stowed these conqueror's laurels on the legendary Ivar in precisely
the same way as Geoffrey of Monmouth ascribed to our British Arthur
(and Malgo) the conquest of Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, the Faroes,
Norway and Denmark: it sounded well and who could disprove
him ? Saxo, surprisingly, does not mention Ivar.
But of Ivar's grandson, Harald Hilditonn or Wartooth, he has
much to tell. With Harald, still more than with Ivar, we must prise
a few facts and conclusions from the concreted legend in which we
find them embedded. If he existed at all, he was an ambitious and
1 The Danish kings of the Chronicle of the Kings ofLejre and the Annals of Lund
yield nothing in picturesqueness to the Swedish kings of Tnglinga Saga. Five
in particular are not to be passed over in silence: the little dog Rakkse whom
the Swedes imposed on the Danes as their king for a while, till he grew over-
excited and jumped from table to hall floor, where hounds of lower degree but
taller stature tore him to Hel (the same well-attested folktale is told later of
the Tronds); his successor king Snio who was eaten alive by lice at a Thing
in Jutland; and,most famous of all, Amblothae the Jutlander (Saxo's Amleth,
Amlethus), Horwendil's son, Feng's nephew, husband of a princess of Britain,
paramour of a Scottish queen, Rorik Ringslinger's tributary, Wigleik's
victim, Shakespeare's inspiration,Hamlet prince of Denmark. Rakkae and
Snio preceded Hrolf; Hamlet came somewhat later. Later again came blind
Wermund and his son Offa, who, says JVidsith, 'drew the boundary against
the Myrgings [a people related to the Saxons] at Fifledor [the Eider]'.
 The Legendary History of the Swedes and the Danes 53

warlike king who overcame his rivals in Denmark, including the

islands, Jutland and Skane, and then extended his power over the
ancient kingdom of the Gautar and maybe over Uppland itself. He
lived to a great old age, the ruler of a loose-strung empire or
confederacy rather than a compacted kingdom, in which sub-kings
recognized his authority, and when occasion favoured would be
prepared to challenge it. The challenge that finally undid him came
from his nephew Hring, also styled Sigurd Hring. Early sources are
almost unanimous in describing Hring as Harald's nephew; but
thereafter a tangle of witness makes him a sub-king in Denmark, in
Sweden, in East Gautland, or in Sweden and East Gautland together.
The first of these appears the least likely. If Hring existed at all, he
existed east of the 0resund.
The rivalry of Harald and Hring led to the battle of Bravellir, a
clash as famous in northern story as Hrolf's last stand at Lejre, and
equally embellished with fictions. Harald, we hear, came to earn
the dislike of his subjects for old age and cruelty, and they planned
to get rid of him by some ignoble stratagem. He preferred to die in
battle and sent king Hring. Each monarch collected a
a challenge to
great host, with champions drawn from every northern nation,
including the as yet undiscovered Iceland, with Germans and Slavs,
Kurlanders and Livonians, ironclad amazons and the one-eyed
War-God himself, in the guise of Harald's charioteer. The waters
between Zealand and Skane were so packed with Harald's fleet that

a man could cross dryfoot; while the unfurled sails of the Swedes
obscured all view over the ocean. The armies came formally to the
place of slaughter, probably near Braviken, north of modern
Norrkoping, on the north-eastern boundary of East Gautland. Here
they were drawn up in battle order and harangued by Harald and
Hring. Then the trumpets sounded and the fell incensed points of
mighty opposites bore furiously together. 'The sky seemed to fall
suddenly on the earth, fields and woods to sink into the ground; all
things were confounded, and old Chaos come again; heaven and
earth mingling in one tempestuous turmoil, and the world rushing
to universal ruin.' 1 The carnage ended only when Harald was dead,
tumbled from his chariot and clubbed to death by Odinn, who thus
gathered him to his peers in Valhalla. Hring treated his uncle's
corpse with honour; according to Icelandic sources he was conveyed
1 So Saxo, Book VIII. All my quotations from Saxo are taken from Oliver
Elton's translation, 1894.
54 A History of the Vikings

6. BRAVELLIR

in his chariot into a cairn filled with the donated treasures of the
victors; according to Saxo he was burned on a sumptuous pyre and
his ashes transferred to Lejre. 1
'So ended the Bravic war.' And so ends a chapter. Dead reckoning
places Bravellir in the early eighth century, but guesses hardly
more hazardous have placed back as the seventh and even
it as far

the sixth. All we can be 'it was a famous victory', and

sure of is that
that with the death of Harald Wartooth another Danish-Swedish
confederacy had fallen to pieces. In Norway all this while there were
stirrings, gropings towards the amalgamation of various petty
kingdoms, evidence of European connections, elaborate burials,
splendid works of art in favoured centres of habitation, and perhaps
the first indications that from Vestfold on the western shore of the
Oslofjord would come the chief moulders of the future kingdom of
Norway, and from Halogaland by way of the Trondelag, three
hundred miles north of Vestfold, their most important rivals. But it
is still too early to detect significant political movement north of
the Skagerrak, and Norway's story may be postponed to its place
in our chapter on the ninth- and tenth-century history of the viking
realms.

1 The Sepulchrum Haraldi Hyldetandi of OleWorm's famous 'prospect' of

Lejre, 1643, theHyldetandshoje whose mangled remains are visible today, is
not a burial mound of the seventh or eighth century but zlangdysseot the Stone
Age.
II. THE VIKING KINGDOMS
TO THE CLOSE OF
THE TENTH CENTURY
1. The Scandinavian Community /

i: Diversity and Unity

LJO FAR IN OUR ACCOUNT OF THE SCANDINAVIAN PEOPLES

we have assumed that despite a threefold division into Danes,
Swedes, and Norwegians, and the internal division of each of these
into tribes and regions, with amore or less constant pattern of
neighbourly aggression, dynastic struggle, extra-territorial con-
quest, and folk migration—-despite these things we have assumed
that Scandinavia an entity and have talked of it as such. Before
is

proceeding with the political history of the peoples we had better

ask ourselves why.
First there is the geographical position of the three countries in
the north of Europe. They are grouped together, it is true; but the
grouping is less neighbourly than that of the countries of the
British Isles or the city states of Italy. The old Cimbric peninsula,
modern Jutland, is an extension of the north German plain, and a
long run of wars from the beginning of the ninth century to the
middle of the twentieth has draw what nature left undrawn,
failed to
The
a definitive frontier. and fertile
flat countryside of the Danish
isles from Fyn to Zealand, of Bornholm, and Skane in Sweden, has

more in common with lands south of the Fehmarn Belt and the
Baltic than with Norway and Swedish Norrland. On the peninsula
itself, the upturned keel of mountains running south from Finn-

mark almost to Stavanger and Varmland made vast areas of eastern

and western Scandinavia almost inaccessible to each other through-
out the Middle Ages. 1 Eastwards there is no natural division

1The two best lines of land communication between Norway and Sweden
were the Trondheim gap and the area south of Lake Mjesa. There are two
well-known accounts of the hardships to be encountered from both natives and
60 A History of the Vi kings
between Sweden and Finland the chief virtue of the Muonio and
:

Torne rivers as a frontier is that they happen to flow into the head
of the Gulf of Bothnia. It is arguable that in terms of mass the
Scandinavian peninsula without Denmark but with the Kola
peninsula and the territory west of a line drawn from the head of
Kandalaks Bay to the head of the Gulf of Finland would be more
coherent and form a more logical entity than the three-nationed
Scandinavia we know. But logic counts for little in the affairs of men,
and it is unlikely that a grouping of Baltic nations rather than
Scandinavian would have presented the medieval world or posterity
with a tidier or more genial spectacle. And if there is little obviously
compulsive to unity in the geographical situation of the viking
nations, neither is the nature of their countries notably similar. The
following account of how it looked to a near contemporary is taken
from Saxo's Preface to his Danish History, written shortly after the
year 1200.

The extremes, then, of this country [Denmark] are partly bounded

by and partly enclosed by the waters of the
a frontier of another land,
adjacent sea. The interior is washed and encompassed by the Ocean;
and this, through the circuitous winds of the interstices, now
straitens into the narrows of a firth,now advances into ampler bays,
forming a number of islands. Hence Denmark is cut in pieces by the
intervening waves of ocean, and has but few portions of firm and
continuous territory; these being divided by the mass of waters that
break them up, in ways varying with the different angle of the bend
of the sea. Of all these Jutland, being the largest and first settled, holds
the chief place in the Danish kingdom. It both lies foremost and
stretches furthest, reaching to the frontiers of Teutonland, from
contact with which it is severed by the bed of the river Eyder.
Northwards it swells somewhat in breadth, and runs out to the shore
of the Noric Channel [Skagerrak]. In this part is to be found the

terrain on the southern route from Norway by way of Eid forest to Sweden.
The Saga, 70-6, the second is the Austrfararvisur, or Eastern
first is in Egils

Journey Verses, of the poet Sighvat Thordarson, preserved in Oldfs Saga

Helga, 71 and 79. Sighvat was zestfully appreciative of his experiences, which
included blisters, sores, weariness, hunger, inhospitality, and heathendom.
Egill, whose sense of humour was more formidable, made a troll-like journey
through the great snows, and suffered cold, hunger, ambush, and perfidy.
Both accounts are literary set-pieces, beautifully done, and to be taken with
a grain of salt.
MAPI. VIKING SCANDINAVIA
62 A History of the Vikings
fjord called Lim, which is so full of fish that it seems to yield the
natives as much food as the whole soil . . .

Eastwards, after Jutland, comes the Isle of Funen [Fyn], cut off
from the mainland by a very narrow sound of sea. This faces Jutland
on the west, and on the east Zealand, which is famed for its remark-
able richness in the necessaries of life. This latter island, being by far
the most delightful of all the provinces of our country, is held to
occupy the heart of Denmark, being divided by equal distances from
the extreme frontier; on its eastern side the sea breaks through and
cuts off the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields
each year an abundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the
whole sound is apt to be so thronged with fish that any craft which
strikes on them is with difficulty got off by hard rowing, and the
prize is captured no longer by tackle, but by simple use of the
hands . . .

But since this country, by its closeness of language as much as of

position, includes Sweden and Norway, I will record their divisions
and their climates also as I have those of Denmark. These territories,
lying under the northern pole, and facing Bootes and the Great Bear,
reach with their utmost outlying parts the latitude of the freezing
zone; and beyond these the extraordinary sharpness of the cold
suffers not human habitation. Of these two, Norway has been
allotted by the choice of nature a forbidding rocky site. Craggy and
barren, it is beset all around by cliffs, and the huge desolate boulders
give it the aspect of a rugged and a gloomy land; in its furthest part
the day-star is not hidden even by night; so that the sun, scorning the
vicissitudes of day and night, ministers in unbroken presence an equal
share of his radiance to either season . . .

And now to unfold somewhat more thoroughly our delineation of

Norway. It should be known that on the east it iscoterminous with
Sweden and Gothland, and is bounded on both sides by the waters
of the neighbouring ocean. Also on the north it faces a region whose
position and name are unknown, and which but lacks all civilization,
teems with peoples of monstrous strangeness; and a vast interspace of
flowing sea severs it from the portion of Norway opposite. This sea
is found hazardous for navigation, and suffers few that venture

thereon to return in peace.

Moreover, the upper bend of the ocean [i.e. the Baltic and the
Gulf of Bothnia], which cuts through Denmark and flows past it,
washes the southern side of Gothland with a gulf of some width;
while its lower channel [i.e. the Arctic Ocean], passing the northern
sides of Gothland and Norway, turns eastwards, widening much in
breadth, and is bounded by a curve of firm land. This limit of the sea
the elders of our race called Gandvik [i.e. The White Sea]. Thus
 The Scandinavian Community, I 63

between Gandvik and the Southern Sea there lies a short span of
mainland, facing the seas that wash on either shore; and but that
nature had set this as a boundary where the billows almost meet, the
tides of the two seas would have flowed into one, and cut off Sweden
and Norway into an island. The regions on the east of these lands are
inhabited by the Skrit-Finns [Lapps]. This people is used to an
extraordinary kind of carriage [ski? sledge? the Lappish akja'i] and
in its passion for the chase strives to climb untrodden mountains,
and attains the coveted ground at the cost of a slippery circuit. For
no crag juts out so high, but they can reach its crest by fetching a
cunning compass. For when they first leave the deep valleys, they
glide twisting and circling among the bases of the rocks, thus making
the route very roundabout by dint of continually swerving aside,
until, passing along the winding curves of the tracks, they conquer
the appointed summit. This same people is wont to use the skins of
certain beasts for merchandise with its neighbours.
Now Sweden faces Denmark and Norway on the west, but on the
south and on much of its eastern side it is skirted by the ocean. Past
this eastward is to be found a vast accumulation of motley barbarism. 1

Three comments seem called for. In terms of human geography

the Scandinavian axis lies north-south (physically it is nearer
north-east by south-west). The more fertile and level areas are all
in the south, most abundantly in Denmark and the Swedish
provinces south of Uppsala, in Bornholm, Oland, and Gotland, but
also on both sides of the Oslofjord and from there round the sea's
edge to Stavanger, and by way of the great fjords northwards to the
Trondelag. The northern half of the peninsula is generally moun-
tainous, often inhospitable, and cold. Distances are formidable. It is
salutary to be reminded in Malmo that one is nearer as the crow
flies to Turkey than to the North Cape, and in Oslo that Rome is

more accessible than Kirkenes. The coastline of Norway, not

counting fjords and bays, is more than 1,600 miles long. Denmark
begins at c. 55°N., and Norway ends at c. ji°N. Such great distances,
1 Gesta
Danorum: Preface (the translation is by Oliver Elton, but I have
emended some of the proper names). Geographical information of an allied
kind has been preserved by, inter alia, Adam of Bremen in the eleventh
century and Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth. Einhard, writing in the 820s
(Vita Karoli Magni, cap. 12), speaks of the Danes and Swedes, 'whom we call
Nordmanni' , occupying the northern shores of the Baltic and all the islands,
while Slavs and others occupied the southern —most prominent among them
the Wilzi.
o
JO
c
Q
ST
 The Scandinavian Community) I 65

together with a marked variation of appearance, nature, climate,

wild life, and vegetation, would seem designed to prevent a sense of
belonging rather than promote it. Even today's traveller, cosseted
and encapsuled, feels himself move out of one world into another if
he starts his journey at the ancient Hedeby near the old south
Danish border, 1 goes by road or rail to Hirtshals in north Jutland,
from there takes ship across the Skagerrak to Kristiansand, sails
west then north to Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, past the Arctic
Circle to Malangen and Tromso, so onwards to the huge brown
block of the North Cape, and from there by Ohthere's route west-
wards to Vadso and the White Sea. The sensation of change is
hardly less marked if he entrains at Malmo in Sweden for Stock-
holm and Uppsala, thence to Ostersund and by the inland railway
to the iron mountain of Kiruna, just south of latitude 68°N. 2
Beyond lie Lappland and Finnmark, less forbidding than might be
expected, but even so too formidable to be occupied by Norwegians
or Swedes during the viking period. North of the line Oslo-
Stockholm we are in a belt of latitude which contains Greenland
south of Disco, Baffin Island, and the Bering Strait. Most of the
peninsula lies farther north than Kamchatka. What differentiates
Scandinavia from these cruel lands is that the western coast of
Norway is laved sea never freezes, and
by the Gulf Stream; the
communication need never cease. The Baltic, too, is not normally
to be compared for winter rigour with the ice-bound waters of
Greenland, Arctic Canada, and Siberia. And Nature has been kind
in a second way. The coastline of Norway (mutatis mutandis, this is
true of Baltic-laved Sweden and Bohuslan, too) is protected by a
strong fence of islands, some 150,000 in number, which secure
shipping at almost every point from the heaviest Atlantic weather.
It is as though Nature, having made communication by water
compulsory, relented and made it possible. And finally she made
these waters teem with fish. The harvest of the land varied from
the corn and stock-bearing farms of the franklins of the south to

1 Nowadays, of course, in the German province of Schleswig.

2 This is little more than a twentieth-century paraphrase of Adam of Bremen
in the eleventh. 'When one sails past the Danish islands a new world opens
up in Sweden and Norway, two vast northern countries still very little
known to our world. The well-informed king of Denmark [Svein Estridsson]
has told me that it takes a month ormore to travel through Norway, and
that one can hardly journey through Sweden in two.' (Trans. Tschan.)
66 A History of the Vikings

the reindeer herds and fur-bearers of the northern plateaux on which

the Lapps paid tribute, but the harvest of the waters was constant.
The retardive effect of high latitude, long winters, severing
distance, and a barriered landscape upon the development of the
northern kingdoms was considerable. The exertion of kingly
authority was easiest in Denmark, where Jutland and the isles,

Zealand and Skane, even Vestfold in the north, could from time to
time be held on a more or less loose rein by a Danish king with
command of the sea. The southern and western sea-fringe of
Norway offered parallel but more limited opportunities to the sea-
going progeny of Yngvi; and in Sweden the Baltic islands and
coastal provinces proved assimilable by the king who controlled
Uppland and the waterways of Lake Malar. But this left much
unaccounted for. In early times Denmark was at best a loose and
straining confederation; considerable tracts of inland Norway by
reason of their inaccessibility were more or less permanently
divorced from the policies and economies of the Trondelag, Roga-
land, and the Vik; and large regions of Sweden, notably Vaster-
gotland, Ostergotland, and Uppland, were held apart by dense
forests. The trend to separatism was marked to the end of the
Viking Age. Farmer communities, remote and inward-looking, and
resistant to change, persisted throughout Harald Hardradi's time

8. HERRING HARVEST OFF SKANE (OLAUS MAGNUS)

 : : —
The Scandinavian Community, I 6j

in Norway and Onund Jacob's in Sweden; and the old viking

aristocracy, blest with estates, privileges, and ships, was slow to
break up. No king in the north could survive except by force. It
sounds less than flattering to describe Godfred the Dane, Olaf
Tryggvason, Svein Forkbeard, and Eirik the Victorious as mere
top-dogs in their separate domains, but it falls short of a libel. Their
almost-peers were a hard-jawed pack. Such was the nature of the
northern realms.
The viking peoples who between the neck of Jutland and
lived
the Lofotens, Sogn and Uppsala, were not all alike, and emphatically

not of one 'pure' nordic race. But two main types of Scandinavian
have always been recognizable: the one tall of stature, fair or ruddy
complexioned, light-haired, blue-eyed, long of face and skull; the
other shorter, dark-complexioned, brown- or dark-haired, brown-
eyed, broad-faced and round of skull. The earliest evidence comes
in uncertain and arguable form from the megalith graves; during
Roman times Danish skeletons show a preponderance of long-
skulled types; the earliest documentary evidence, apart from
comment by classical authors on the tall stature of the Swedes,
Danes, Gauts, and Burgundians, is Icelandic. The poem Rigspula,
probably of the first half of the tenth century, and showing signs of
Celtic influence, describes in folktale fashion the origin of three
main classes of viking society, the serfs, free peasants, and warrior-
chieftains, and in so doing offers telling if exaggerated pictures of
the types. Rig's son by Edda (Great-Grandmother) was black-
haired and ugly, the skin of his hands wrinkled and rough, with
lumpy knuckles and thick fingers, his back gnarled, his heels long
the image of that enduring toiler on the land who through most of
history has carried the world on his back. Rig's son by Amma
(Grandmother) was ruddy-faced, with sparkling eyes. But it is his
son by Mothir (Mother) who fulfils the nordic dream. Of Mothir
we read
Her brows were bright, her breast was shining,
Whiter her neck than new-fallen snow.

And of her son

Blond was his hair, and bright his cheeks,

Grim as a snake's were his glowing eyes. 1
1 The translations are by Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda, New York,
1923. For Rfgspula see, too, pp. 145-7 below.
68 A History of the Vikings

Fortunately these picturesque notions never became the system-

atized and malignant myth that race has become in our own day.
At the time when Rigspula was being written there is no evidence of
prejudice or dissension between the two types. Harald Fairhair was
the first king of all Norway; his father was Halfdan the Black
(svarti), and two of his sons were likewise called Halfdan, one

nicknamed the White (bwlti), the other, reminiscently, the Black.

According to Egils Saga, of the two famous sons of Kveldulf, Thorolf
was tall and handsome like his mother's people, but Grim took after
his father and was black and ugly. Grim's sons, Thorolf and Egill,
born out Thorolf was the image of
in Iceland, repeated the pattern:
handsome, and sunny-natured; Egill was black, even
his uncle, tall,
uglier than his father, tortuous and incalculable. He became the
greatest poet of his age, and many a hard-hewn line of verse testifies
to his pride in his craggy head, broad nose, heavy jaw and swart
visage. In the next generation Egill's eldest son would be styled
Thorstein the White. These colour nicknames were purely descrip-
tive, like the Short, the Tall, the Fat, the Slender, the Bald or the
Hairy-breeked, and contain nothing of obloquy. Much has been
written about the differences of temperament between these blond
and dark types. The dolichocephalic, we are instructed, is an
innovator and adventurer, not easily discouraged and steady under
pressure. His view of life, rational and hopeful, sees things much as
they are.He can command others and drive himself. He can also
relax. The brachycephalic is conservative, distrustful not only of
change but of himself, quick to enthusiasm, prompt to despair,
emotional in politics, personal relationships, and religion. And on
him, like moonlight on water, or phosphorescence on a rotten log
(the image goes with one's own cephalic index), will be found the
gleam of poetry and music. The classification is too glib, but if
we allow generously for exceptions not unhelpful. The percentage
of tall, long-skulled, blue-eyed peopletoday highest in Sweden
is

and lowest in Denmark, which probably reflects their degree of

intercourse with other European peoples over a long period of time.
Certainly a community which combines the practical with the
visionary, intellectual curiosity with emotional fervour, the power
to innovate with the will to endure, and which can embrace the
future without forsaking the past, need not complain of its inherit-
ance. The Scandinavian peoples were fortunate in their ancestral
stock; they received helpful, undistorting contributions from
 The Scandinavian Community ', I 69

abroad; and the hard demands made by proved as

different regions
beneficial as they were unending. The long,
wind-swept wastes
flat,

of Jutland, the axe-resisting, isolative forests of central Sweden, the

sundered Bothnian archipelago, the mountain wildernesses of the
Keel, the hostile frozen tundra of the north, and perhaps most of all
the fjords, islands, and skerried waterways of the west Norwegian
coast —when we add to these distance, cold, and the intimidating
darkness of winter, when we add, too, the dreams of power and
delusions of grandeur which built and rebuilt and shattered and
reshattered the northern realms from long before the Viking Age
till long after it, we see that Scandinavia could never be the nursery

of weaklings. In 1047, so the Icelander Saemund the Learned tells us,

in a year of wondrous cold wolves ran the ice between Norway and
Denmark. Six centuries later it was men not wolves who crossed the
frozen Belts to ravage Copenhagen. But the Scandinavian peoples
were a well-tempered instrument of survival: they survived the
ice, they survived the wolves, and, not least, survived each other
and themselves.
c
So far it may appear that the concept of Scandinavian one-ness'
is not too strongly based. But land and people are not the whole
story. In many decisive respects the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians
were closely bound together. They shared the same language,
religion, law, social organization, art, and general culture. And they
shared the same heroic tradition, the same legendary and part-
historical past. That their language was common may be proved in
the first place from a comparative study of the languages of modern
Scandinavia. As Wessen says, at the beginning of his history of the
Swedish language

Even to this day there is a great and obvious resemblance between

the languages of the Northern countries : this applies to the dialects
evolved in the course of centuries.
as well as to the literary standards
If we trace these languages backwards in time by exploring the
written record, as well as forms of living colloquial speech, this
resemblance grows increasingly apparent. Gradually the differences
diminish up to a point where they disappear altogether. We have
then come to the Primitive Nordic language, the parent tongue of the
present Nordic vernaculars, common to the Scandinavian countries
down to the beginnings of the Viking Age. 1

1 Wessen, Svemk
Elias Sprdkbistoria, Stockholm, 1943-5.
9-EARLY GERMANIC IRON AGE GOLD BRACTEATE
WITH AN INSCRIBED FUTHARK
Swedish, used as a personal ornament. The central design shows
a man (head only) on a horned horse, and a large bird. Around
this is inscribed a runic alphabet, the older futhark, starting mid-
left and ending at the hasp, with a further group of runic letters

in the upper left quarter.

 The Scandinavian Community, I 71

Likewise such information as can be assembled from early sources

about the oldest form of the Old Norse language suggests that it

was used by all the Norse Scandinavians. The earliest runic

on the Stabu spearhead (Norway), the
inscriptions, such as that
Mos comb and
spearhead (Gotland), the scabbard, belt-buckle,
plane from Vimose (Fyn), the shield-boss and chape from Thors-
bjserg (Slesvig), all of the period A.D. 200-300, are evidence of this,
as are the memorial-stone (bautasteirm) inscriptions which began in
the fourth century at Einang in Valdres (Norway) and flourished
early in Sweden as well. These laconic written evidences of Old
Norse are exciting, baffling, and precious. The Stabu spearhead
bears one pointed word, raunija(R), 'the tester'; the fibula from
the noble lady's grave at Himlingoje in Zealand preserves a name
(presumably the lady's), WiduhudaR\ on the Einang stone may be
read, DagaR paR runo faihido, '[I], Dag, fashioned these runes'; on
the Mojebro stone in Uppland, Sweden, above a warrior on a horse
and accompanied by his two dogs is the inscription, FrawaradaR
ana hahai slaginaR, 'FrawaradaR slain on his horse' or 'FrawaradaR
[scil. lies here]. Ani the one-eyed is slain'; the Thorsbjazrg chape

commemorates a man and a sword, OmlfjupewaR ni wajemariR,

'Ullj^er may Marr [the sword] spare no one' ; and the magnificent
:

golden drinking horn of Gallehus in south Jutland, now lost,

recorded the name of its maker: ek hlewagastiR holtijaR (or holtingaR)
horna tawido, 'I, HlewagastiR (Hlegest) of Holt (Holstein? son of
Holt?), fashioned the horn.' Hundreds of years later runic inscrip-
tions of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries are eloquent in the
same fashion. The men who lettered the stones at Eggjum in
Norway (c. 700? c. 800?), Glavendrup on Fyn in Denmark (c. 900-
25), and Rok in Ostergotland in Sweden {c. 900), were working
within one convention and one language, and the circumstance that
their inscriptions are of different date and represent various degrees
of development of the primitive Old Norse tongue emphasizes their
overall similarity. 1
Throughout the viking period the nordic peoples continued to
speak a mutually intelligible language. The familiar division
between West Norse, the tongue spoken in Norway (more specific-
ally western Norway), Iceland, and the other Norwegian colonies
overseas, and East Norse, the tongue spoken by the Danes and

1 For a note on runes see pp. 419-20 below.

72 A History of the Vikings
Swedes, was becoming defined about the year iooo. Subsequently
dialectaland even language distinctions would sharpen, and
linguistically the nations would go their own way. Donsk tunga,
norrm tunga, norrant mal, would become a fiction and a sentiment.
But this 'Danish tongue' or, more rarely, 'Norse tongue' had proved

10. PICTURED STONES AND RUNESTONES IN SKANE

(OLAUS WORMIUS)
Of these stones portrayed by Ole Worm in the 1640s only 1, 2,
and 4 are now to be found (at Lund). Nos. 1 and 2 are memorial
stones to brothers; no. 4 appears to be a representation of the
giantess Hyrrokin riding on her wolf with a serpent for reins.

a noble instrument, not only for intercourse and intelligibility

among home-staying and outward-bound Scandinavians of all

regions and origins, but for every mode of human expression. It

catered for the affections and emotions, for history and literature,
the formulae of law and religion, and the everyday needs of men and
women busied with land, sea, war, trade, animals, home, and all

aspects of life and death in the four seasons of the year. Again, and
 The Scandinavian Community, I 73

highly important, the language frontier was clearly defined. The

'Danish tongue' began at the Eider and ended where the Norsemen
ended. It was a world apart from most of the languages surrounding
it,whether Lappish, Finnish, or Slavonic; and clearly differentiated
from Germanic languages neighbouring it to the south. By historical
design or geographical accident it became the language of Iceland,
Greenland, and the Atlantic isles, and in the mouths of traders,
warriors, rulers, would spread into countries east of the Baltic, and
down the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and Constantinople; it
would be known in the British Iskajj^aensely, and echoed faintly in
verses written east over Jordan and west in Labrador-Newfound-
land. Much of this was transient, though by a nice irony it was
Iceland which saw the most splendid flowering of the Norse tongue
in literature and preserved the bulk of Scandinavian tradition on
vellum. In Scandinavia itself the glory of the 'Danish tongue' was
that it served as a shield-wall to the cultural unity of Sweden,
Denmark, and Norway, and encouraged them to think of them-
selves as members of one family, however unruly.
It was the same with the Old Norse religion, its modes of wor-
ship, and apparatus of myth. Since we shall discuss these matters in
some detail later (pp. 315-33 below), one comment will for the
moment be sufficient. This religion was a powerful unifying force in
the minds of the northern nations for two reasons: it was their only
religion, and before the Viking Age opens it was theirs alone. Many
of the Germanic peoples had embraced Christianity early. Some of
them had even embraced its heresies. Visigoths, Ostrogoths,
Burgundians, Lombards, Alamanni, all abandoned the faith of their
fathers; and in 496 Clovis king of Tournai called on the Lord and
the Lord called on Clovis, with imperial consequences for the
Franks. The European boundaries of Catholicism steadily widened.
The peoples the vikings would encounter in and around the
Mediterranean were Christians, with the exception of the Arabs,
who like the Christians were monotheists. The Germanic and Celtic
peoples they encountered in the British Isles were Christians; and
with the forceful conversion of the Saxons by Charlemagne after the
campaigns of 772-85, Christianity reached the Eider. But the three
northern nations were slow to change. Harald Bluetooth of Den-
mark underwent conversion c. 965, and before he was driven from
the throne by his son Svein c. 986 he claimed to have 'made the
Danes Christians', which is after a fashion true. At the death of Olaf
74 A History of the Vikings
Tryggvason in the year iooo Christianity was the titular, and after
the death of Saint Olaf in 1035 the actual, religion of most of
Norway. The Swedish royal house was the last to accept Christian
baptism, and though Olaf Skottkonung did so accept it with his
court in 1008, it was a hundred years later that the renowned centre
of heathen worship at Uppsala was razed to the ground. But for a
long while before these definitive changes took place Scandinavia
had been isolated in her heathendom, and, by those whose business
it was to hate, hated for For many northerners, that they were
it.

not Christians was bond than that they were worshippers

a stronger
of Odinn, Thor, or Frey. If the Old Norse tongue was the shield-
wall, the Old Norse religion was the byrnie of the peoples.
Again, there is a remarkable homogeneity about the arts and
culture of the three nations. As with religion, the more relevant
matters will be treated in a later place (pp. 333-45 below), and here
it is enough to mention the identity, resemblance, or parallelism

characteristic of personal ornaments and weapons of war, ships and

furnishings, the techniques of poetry and the substance of saga (the
Icelandic family histories, Islendingasogur, excepted), the methods of
woodcarving, metalwork, and incision on stone, the similarities of
costume and architecture, and shared standards of quality and
design. This is not to brand Scandinavian culture and art with tame
uniformity; nothing could be farther from the truth. Artists
differed in skill and vision; whole regions were open to special
influences, both native and foreign; there was not just a Scandin-
avian style, but styles. But viking culture and viking art are
legitimate terms, in poetry from Bragi to the end of the skaldic
tradition, in the plastic arts from Oseberg to Urnes. And if we allow
the word culture to include habits, practices, the entire complex of
social belief and organization, here, too, the resemblances heavily
outnumber the differences. Even the art of war was a common
art, and different in various features from that of other peoples;
and their sea-lore was unique to them for at least three hundred
years.
In addition, the pattern of possession and dominion in many
parts of Scandinavia was an Leaving aside all legend-
intricate one.
ary and half-historical kings, many Danish monarchs, among them
Harald Bluetooth, his son Svein Forkbeard, and the great Knut,
ruled over extensive areas of southern Norway and southern
Sweden. Skane in particular and the eastern shore of the Oslofjord
 The Scandinavian Community, I 75

were part of Denmark throughout the Viking Age. There was a

Swedish reigning house at Hedeby in south Jutland during the first
third of the tenth century, and for what it is worth Adam of
Bremen reports renewed Swedish influence in Svein Forkbeard's
Danish kingdom before the century ended. Towards the middle
of the eleventh century Denmark would be ruled over by king
Magnus the Good of Norway. The leading families of Scandinavia
were much intermarried for sound business reasons, and their estates
were far-spread. Great ones do not ride alone: there was a leaven
of Danes in Norway and Sweden, Norwegians in Sweden and
Denmark, Swedes in Denmark and Norway, ruling, serving, fight-
ing, buying and selling, toiling and moiling, mating and marrying,
—
seeking or losing the world's good in short, comporting them-
selves after the immemorial habit of mankind and the particular
customs of time, place, and circumstance. Neither host nor guest
appears to have found anything unnatural about this, and the ties of
consanguinity were endlessly reinforced by the contacts and
common interests of individuals. 1 Most of this human commerce
took place in the coastal regions with their marts and manors, their
centres of wealth and power. Large areas in the Scandinavian
interior would, of course, remain isolated, conservative, and want-
ing nothing so much as to be left alone to the end of the Viking
period.
The rest of Europe had little doubt that the Scandinavian peoples
had more in common than they had apart. Occasionally they
distinguished them with some sort of accuracy by their regional or
national title, like the Norwegians from Hordaland who killed the
king's reeve at Dorchester c. 789, or the men from Vestfold (West-
faldingi) who attacked Aquitaine in the 840s; but the accuracy is
more apparent than real. Thus the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, after
speaking of the three ships of the Norwegians of Hordaland, goes
on to say that these were the first ships of the Danes to come to
England. Sometimes southern chroniclers gave their tormentors
a common title, Norsemen or vikings, Nordmanni, mcingas

1
One recalls Hroar Tungu-Godi of Skogahverfi in Iceland. His father was
Uni the Dane, son of Gardar the Swede (the discoverer of Iceland). Uni
served king Harald Fairhair of Norway. Hroar's mother was Thorunn,
daughter of Leidolf Kappi, a Norwegian settler in Iceland. Thus Hroar
belonged to all four Scandinavian lands and had kinsfolk everywhere (Land-
namabok, St. 284).
j6 A History of the Vi kings

(Nordmenn, vikingar), 1 or as with the Arabs of Spain, majus (al-majus,

incestuous fire-worshippers, warlocks, heathen), with the Germans
ascomanni, ashmen or shipmen, and with the authors of Byzantium,
Rhos (pcD?, Slavonic Ru? and Muslim Rus), or fiapayyoL. But they
made no scruple of describing all by the name of one: Nordmanni
and Dani are convertible terms, as anyone will quickly realize who
reads the arguments of Norwegian and Danish scholars as to who
among their forefathers established the duchy of Normandy. Even
northern chroniclers showed the same tendency. Adam of Bremen
could hardly be more specific. 'The Danes and the Swedes, whom
we call Norsemen, Northmen [Nordmanni] The Danes and the
. . .

Swedes and the other peoples beyond Denmark are all called Norse-
men by the historians of the Franks [ab historicis Francorum omnes
Nordmanni vocantur^ (IV, xii). 2 According to the two Icelandic
authorities, lslendingabok, the Book of the Icelanders, and Land-
namabok, the Book of the Settlements, it was Nordmenn who colonized
the island, which almost certainly means Norwegians, for the Danes
who came there by way of south-west Norway and the admittedly
few Swedes were lumped under the name of the majority. English
records are overwhelmingly concerned with the Dene, the Danes,
and them include Norwegians and Swedes, save when the
let
Chronicledrew a distinction between them in its entry for 924 (see
p. 236 below). The Norsemen in Kiev in 1018, despite their
unquestioned Swedish origin, were described by Thietmar of
Merseburg as being for the most part Danes. The Irish annalists
were a lesson to all with their division of Norse invaders into White
Foreigners, Norwegians (Finn-gaill), and Black Foreigners, Danes
1
There is still less than full agreement as to the original meaning of the two
Norse nouns viking and vikingr. In the written sources they certainly mean,
viking, piracy or a pirate raid, and vikingr, a pirate or raider. The first element
of the words, vik-, has been explained in various ways. A viking was one who
lay up or lurked in or came from a bay, fjord, or creek (vik); he was a man of
the camp (O.E. wic, wiring), i.e. a soldier or fighter; or a man of the town
(wic, Latin vicus), i.e. a seafaring man or trader. Reference to the ON. verb
vi'kja made him a fast mover, or one who turned, receded into the distance,

made a detour or a tour away from home. The association with piracy makes
it something of a misnomer to call an entire period of Scandinavian history

and civilization the Viking Age, but it has proved too convenient to be
abandoned.
2 The reference is primarily to Einhard, who in his Vita Karoli Magni, cap

12, referred in almost the same words to the Danes and Swedes, 'whom we
call Nordmanni' See p. 63, n.
. 1.
 The Scandinavian Community, I 77

(Dubb-gailf),but it was a lesson no one heeded; nor do we know

why they distinguished them by colour. 1 Cartographical know-
ledge of the North was still imprecise; the Norsemen came from
'up there' ; and the best-known name was good enough for them alt.

The Irish monk grateful in his cold cell for the gale which kept the
vikings off the sea; the merchant of Dorestad or Quentowic survey-
ing the blackened ruins of his once flourishing town; the Frankish
fighting man who saw five score and eleven of his fellows dangling
like rooks from an island-gallows in the Seine; the outraged wife of
a thousand homesteads from Sutherland to Sicily; the mourners for
menfolk and daughters snatched away to slavery; and the chroniclers
—
of these and similar ills, seething with grief and fury these could
not be expected to inquire too nicely into which island or promon-
tory, what fjord or mountainside, had sloughed these monsters
southwards. 'From the fury of the Norsemen, O Lord, deliver us!'
was a litany without need of vellum. It was graven on the hearts of
men wherever and for as long as that fury fell.

1 The Welsh chroniclers, for example, made no such clear distinction. The
Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland
were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles (j Kenedloed Duori), Black Norsemen
(j Nor manyeit Duon), Black Host, Pagans, Devils, and the like. The History of
Gruffydd ap Cynan mentions both Danes and Norwegians, and the unknown
author of Breuddwyt Rhonabwy makes brilliant if fantastic play with the 'pure
white troop' of Llychlyn (Lochlan) and the 'pure black troop' of Denmark,
but even so the generalization carries truth. See B. G. Charles, Old Norse
Relations with Wales, Cardiff, 1934, pp. ix-x.
2. The Historical Traditions of Norway
to 950

V7UR FIRST SECTION ON THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

concluded with the legendary victory of Sigurd Hring at Bravellir,
the improbable obsequies of the Dane Harald Wartooth, and a
prospect of confusion and obscurity in the immediate fortunes of
Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. In the case of Sweden our know-
ledge of what was happening at home, as distinct from the exploits
of Swedes abroad, stays meagre till the beginning of the tenth
century. There is the evidence supplied by archaeology that from
the sixth century onwards Swedish power and influence grew
stronger in the eastern and central provinces, and that there was
close connection at times between Sweden and the more accessible
regions of Norway. There is evidence, too, of Norwegian cultural in-
fluences spreading east by way of Sweden to Finland. The Swedes
throve continuously if not without vicissitude. The mart on Helgo in
Lake Malar seems to have been operating from at least the fifth cen-
tury, with much profit to the king of the Svea, and in Birka, close by,
they possessed by the year 800 the most famous of all Scandinavian
marts trading with the eastern Baltic and the Volga region. It was at
Birka that the missionary Anskar was received by king Bjorn in
829. Bjorn, we are asked to believe (though few things are less
believable), had sent messengers to Louis the Pious, inviting him to
dispatch a Christian mission to the Swedes, which he did, though
its success, foreseeably, was limited. About 850 Anskar returned to

Birka, whose king was now that Olaf who reconquered Kurland and
made the Chori pay him tribute. He may not have been the only
king in Sweden at this time.
As for the political nature and geographical extent of his king-
dom, the precise relationship between the ancient Uppland realm
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to g$o 79
and mainland Gotaland on the one hand and the island Gotland on
the other, we are gravely underinformed. An inscription on the
Sparldsa stone of c. 800 has been interpreted to mean that a king
Alrik, son of king Eirik of Uppsala, ruled over Vastergotland at that
time, which would suggest an Uppland dominance, and Wulfs tan's
testimony in the 890s (it is quoted on page no below) would seem

to confirm this. Presumably it was in Olaf Skottkonung's time, c.

1000, that the non-Danish regions of central and southern Sweden
were drawn closely together in one Swedish kingdom; but well
before this the power of Uppland, its wealth, and progress in trade
and war, had given it a clear lead over its rivals. Swedes, Gauts, and
Gotlanders were active in the Gulf of Bothnia and the eastern Baltic;
they had pressed beyond the area of Lake Ladoga to the Russian
rivers Dnieper and Volga, and by the year 839 emissaries of the
'Rus' had reached the Black Sea and Constantinople. Swedes were
not unknown in the British Isles, and it was a Swede who first
circumnavigated Iceland in the 860s; shortly before the year 900
the Swedes 'seized royal power in Denmark by force of arms', and
held sway in southern Jutland for not less than a third of the century
but this helps us little in respect of the Swedes at home. Even the
creative imagination of Snorri Sturluson does not reach beyond
mention of a king Eirik at Uppsala not long after 850, and yet another
Bjorn, who is said to have ruled for fifty years.
In respect of Norway, thanks to archaeological research, the
study of ancient farms and their holdings, our knowledge of trade-
routes, the different economic characteristics of various parts of
the country, and a few winnowable grains of information in the
written sources, both verse and prose, we are a little better placed
to watch the centuries-long coalescence of a considerable number of
small communities into overlordships, republics, and petty king-
ships, and the resolution of various of those last into an extensive
though incomplete and loose-girt kingdom north of the Skagerrak
during the long and forceful career of Harald Fairhair, c. 870-945.
The far-reaching fragmentation of pre-viking and early viking
Norway (and the tendency to fragmentation persisted into the
eleventh century) was to be expected from the country's historical
and geographical heritage. There were three major divisions, and
farmore minor ones. Most important of all for the political destinies
of Norway in the Viking Age was the so-called 0stland or Eastern
region, consisting of the settlements, aggregations, republics,
 RANRIKEL

MAP 2. NORWAY: VESTFOLD AND THE OSLOFJORD

PROVINCES
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to 950 81

kingdoms, either lying alongside the Oslofjord or culturally,

economically, and in the long run politically, bound up with it, i.e.
Vestfold, Raumarike, Hedemark, 0stfold. Much of the best farming
land in Norway was to be found here, crop and animal husbandry
could be profitably pursued, and in viking times a succession of
market towns, Kaupang-Skiringssal, Tunsberg, Oslo, throve on the
region's attraction for merchants native and foreign. Wealth
accumulated, especially in Vestfold, so that the farmer had his axe
and plough, the estate-owner his tenants and slaves, the royal
progeny of Frey its martial following, and the artist-craftsman his
patron. It followed that of all the petty kingdoms of Norway Vest-
fold was likeliest to produce a Norwegian royal house, the most
notable monuments of Norwegian viking art, and prove in other
ways the heartland of the slowly and intermittently developing
Norwegian realm. At the same time it was in close touch with
Denmark and Sweden, and through them with the quickening
influences of central European civilization.

II. VIKING SHIPS IN TUNSBERGSFJORD

The second main region of Norway lay well to the north. This
was the Trondelag, with its natural centre on the southern shore of
the Trondheimsfjord (Hladir, Nidaros, Trondheim). Here, and east
of the fjord and past Snasavatn, lies an extensive tract of good
82 A History of the Vikings
farming land, and the whole area north of Trollheimen and west of
the Keel, while testing, is not inimical to man. On the higher
ground and in favoured spots even on quite high mountains there
were stretches of excellent grass, and the local inhabitants (not
only in the Trondelag, but everywhere in Norway) had early
learned to make use of such. Throughout the summer their flocks
and herds grazed these pastures, were driven up in the spring, and
back down in the autumn. In places the pasture was common to all,
but increasingly the husbandman came to have his own upland
grazing, his seter (seter, Swedish safer). Sometimes the seter was of
a permanent nature, but whether permanent or seasonal it was a
factor of high significance for the economic, social, and political
development of district, region, and nation. Equally important,
perhaps, the Trondelag had maintained trade with the Frisians
over many centuries. Trade and agriculture together led to the
emergence of a class of well-to-do landowning farmers whose
interests were best served by social stability and the rule of law.
It was a decisive moment for this great northern region of Norway

when the men of the coast and the men of the inland farms and seter
took steps to secure these benefits.
The third distinctive region of Norway was the coastal region of
the west between the Jaeder and the southern Trondelag, whose
districts bore the famous viking-time names of Rogaland, Horda-
land, Sogn, Firthafylki, Sunnmoer, and Raumsdal. The area is
generally mountainous, its coasts rocky and penetrated by narrow
and often precipitous fjords. Good farming land is scarce in propor-
tion to the size of the area, and the possibilities of expansion east-
wards and northwards limited. It would be quick to feel the pinch
of an increasing population, and quick to do something about it.
Holmsen rightly speaks of the Vestland's 'spartansk kultur' in
Merovingian times; 1 there was a significant change of weapons
there c. 600 from the old two-edged sword to the short one-edged
frankish scramasax, and from the old-style comparatively light types
of spear to the heavy, broadbladed lance. These were weapons
unfavoured by the rest of Scandinavia, and show that the Vestland
had interests and contacts which were not those of their neighbours
to the north and east. Generalizations are never the whole truth,
but while the Oslofjord appeared cast for the task of national
unification, and the Trondelag for advances in law and administra-
1
Norges Historie, Oslo-Bergen, 1961, pp. 85-6.
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to 950 83

tion, theVestland appears the destined breeding-ground of viking

individualism from the Age of Migrations to the mid-eleventh
century. Robbing your richer neighbours was a simple way of
redressing the injustices of nature. If we can trust to heroic story and
lay, the men of Rogaland, Hordaland, and Sogn were foraying
among the Danes and eastwards in the Baltic during the seventh
and eighth centuries; their scramasaxes have been found on
Bornholm and in Finland; they were well placed to prey on the
Frisian traffic in hides and furs and sea-ivory with the Trondelag,
Halogaland, and Finnmark. They were skilled shipbuilders and
sailors and naturally productive of a warlike aristocracy.
When the Age of Migrations drew to a close towards the end of
the fifth century there was a substantial number of independent
units south of Halogaland, each based on self-interest, a need for
religion and law, and the power of a ruler, whatever his style and
title. The numerous hill-forts built throughout the inhabited areas

of Norway and Sweden during the period 400-600 testify to a need

for military defence which must have led to the growth of a local
leader's power. The profits of trade and a plenitude of iron which
could be made into tools, agricultural implements, and weapons,
brought wealth into strong, greedy, and purposeful hands. Every-
where there would be found individuals or families distinguished
for riches, landed possessions, skill in war or piracy or general
acquisitiveness, who by consent, election, or force, claimed support
and obedience from their neighbours, and in return offered authority,
protection, public ceremony, and law. Thus there were eventually
many kings and still more jarls, or earls, in Norway. Sometimes they
joined together to make and obey a code of custom and law helpful
to a wider community. At its humblest level a number of families
living in the same neighbourhood formed a settlement or bygd
(Danish by), and to regulate conduct within the bygd there was
need of some kind of consultative assembly. This was the Thing
(ping), one of the most typical of Scandinavian institutions, which
maintained customary law, safeguarded the rights of free men,
controlled the blood-feud by apportioning penalties and compensa-
tions, and knit its bygd more closely together. In the same way there
was frequently a grouping of bygdir for law and defence, and these
larger units (sing, herad, fjordungr, fylki, and the like) were in turn
the constituents of the 'kingdoms', many of their names ending in
the significant territorial suffixes -rike, -land, or -mark, from which
84 A History of the Vikings

during the Viking Age the rulers of Vestfold would shape a more
identifiable though still far from complete Norway.
This would be a long, hard process, for there was small prospect
that the chieftains, jarls, kings who cluttered Norway would lightly
curtail their authority in the interest of a cause they knew nothing
about, and would disapprove of strongly when they did. So, many
of these fought for trade, plunder and land, glory and revenge, or
because their fathers had fought before them; a kingdom here grew
bigger, a kingdom there disappeared. These are the men whose
masks and reflections are mirrored in the pages of Snorri's Tnglinga
Saga, engage our attention by some amiable or ferocious eccentricity,
then grimace and disappear. Their world is that of tradition and
folktale rather than history, and everything related of them in the
written sources of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries must be
regarded with scepticism or downright disbelief. Olaf the Wood-
cutter, who cleared the forest north of Lake Vaner with axe and
fire and called it Varmland, before his subjects sacrificed him to

Odinn for good seasons; Halfdan Whiteleg, who is said to have

established a mighty kingdom including Raumarike, Hadaland,
much of Hedemark and Vestfold, and Varmland in Sweden, before
he died of old age and was buried in a mound at Skiringssal in Vest-
fold; Eystein Fart, who became king of all Vestfold before, a warlock
helping, he was knocked overboard by a ship's boom and howed
at Borre; Halfdan the Generous with Money but Stingy with Food,
—
likewise howed at Borre all these inhabit that morning world of
half-remembered dreams which precedes the light of historical day.
Gudrod the Hunting King looms closer to the frontiers of history,
in that he was the father of Halfdan the Black and grandfather of
Harald Fairhair, but can hardly be said to have crossed them.
According to his story, he was a high-handed man who after the
death of his first wife asked for Asa daughter of the king of Agdir.
She was refused him, so he made a sudden descent on Agdir, killed
Asa's father and brother, and carried her off with much booty. They
had a son whom they called Halfdan. When Halfdan was one year
old king Gudrod perished of a spear-thrust one dark evening, gross
and full of beer. The slayer was a servant lad of queen Asa's, and the
queen never denied responsibility for the deed, which if it took place
at all took place c. 840. Neither of Gudrod' s sons, Olaf Geirstada-Alf
by his first marriage, and Halfdan the Black by his second, made any
move against her, and it has been conjectured (though conjecture
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to g$o 85

is all that it is) that it was this resolute and imperious lady who was
buried so splendidly in the Oseberg ship-mound, with sleigh and
wagon, her slave woman, four dogs, fifteen horses, combs, pins,
eating-knife, apple- or water-bucket, spindle, scissors, loom, spades
and dung-fork, and all things else meet and requisite for a ninth-
century northern queen in the afterworld. Olaf, who was twenty
years older than his half-brother Halfdan, succeeded his father to the
kingdom, but is reputed to have suffered such setbacks that finally
only Vestfold was left to him. He had a son, king Rognvald, who
acquired the nickname heidumhar, -bari, the Glorious or High-
honoured, concerning whom the skald Thjodolf composed Tnglinga
Tal, but oddly enough he is the one Yngling king about whom
Thjodolf tells us nothing, neither how he won his honorific title
nor the manner of his death and interment. The usually resourceful
Snorri and his sources are equally silent, and we are left to infer that
the future of Norway lay with one man only, Asa's son Halfdan,
nicknamed the Black.
With him, too, we remain knocking at the door of verifiable fact.
Like many a folktale hero, he had been raised by his mother for
safety's sake in her father's realm in Agdir. He became ruler there at
the age of 18, and later received the eastern half of Vestfold from his
half-brother Olaf. If we believe in him at all we must believe in his
ambition, too, for he immediately embarked on a long series of
campaigns against his fellow kings in Vingulmark, Raumarike,
Hedemark, Gudbrandsdal, Toten, and Hadaland. His second mar-
riage was to Ragnhild, daughter of Sigurd Hart, a king in Ringerike,
but its manner and telling in late sources are heavy with the
accoutrement of fictional saga. She had, says Heimskringla, been
abducted by her father's slayer, the berserk Haki, who planned to
marry her; but before he died in an ambush the lordly Sigurd
killed twelve men, wounded Haki in three important places, and
cut off one of his arms. He lay abed the winter through, healing his
wounds and savouring his bridal-to-be, but one fine morning Half-
dan the Black, who was informed of all these happenings, summoned
his retainer Harek Gand and told him to get after Haki 'and bring
—
me Ragnhild, Sigurd Hart's daughter'. Harek set off, surrounded
Haki's hall, rescued Ragnhild and her brother Guthorm with all
the valuables they found there, then fired the building. Haki was
still alive and gave chase. The rescued pair had been lifted into a

magnificent tented wagon, and raced away across an ice-covered

86 A History of the Vikings

lake. When Haki reached the lakeside, shorn of glory, bride, arm,
and all hope of revenge, he turned down the hilt of his sword, fell
on its point and died. Halfdan saw the tented wagon from afar,
spread a great banquet and invited the neighbours, and that same
day, in the highest tradition of the Sagas of Old Time, wedded and
bedded the rescued princess. Whence sprang Harald, to the glory of
Norway.
According to Halfdan's saga in Heimskringla, Ragnhild was a
niece of queen Thyri of Denmark, Gorm the Old's wife, but sense
and chronology speak against it. Halfdan is the first royal person to
get a saga to himself in Heimskringla and likewise in Fagrskinna. The
saga is short, and if our regard is for history unadorned, could well
be shorter; for its second half Snorri relies almost exclusively on
legend, folktale, and dreams. But we can accept that Halfdan was a
warlike, acquisitive, intelligent, and powerful ruler over the Vest-
fold territories. That he was more powerful than some of his half-
glimpsed predecessors is incapable of proof, but Snorri, our main
source of information, was looking ahead to Harald Fairhair, and
the father profited by the son. He was 40 years old, we are advised,
when he died accidently by drowning.
Harald, his son, was 10. His, too, was a life's span heavily
embroidered with folktale and legend, but he is so dominating a
figure in Norwegian history that we must seek to find how much of
truth, and where that fails of likelihood, lies under Heimskringla' s
draperies. We start conventionally enough. It had been revealed to
his mother in a dream 1 that her progeny would flourish like a great
tree with blood-red roots, green trunk, and snow-white branches
which would cover the whole of Norway and lands farther afield.
Yet the opening years of Harald' s reign must have been heavy with
danger. His first task, or rather that of his mother's brother Guth-
orm, who acted as regent for a while, was to repel various of his
father's old enemies who saw in a boy's accession their opportunity

1 Dreamed by the begetters of other conquering heroes, from Cyrus the

Persian down King Halfdan, normally no dreamer,
to Sigurd Jerusalem-farer.
likewise had a dream, in a pigsty. It seemed to him that he had the longest
hair of any man on earth, and that it hung down in ringlets, some to the
ground, some to his thigh, some to his waist, some merely to his neck, while
the shortest curls came sprouting out as nothing more than little horns of
hair. The strands were of all colours, but one excelled the rest in beauty,
brightness, and length. Thorleif the Wise, who had recommended the
pigsty, identified this particular lock as St. Olaf.
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to g^O 87

to throw off dependence and recover their former territories. Battles

were fought, kings slain, realms subjugated, till eventually Harald
was master of a much enlarged Vestfold, possibly including Ring-
erike, Hedemark, Gudbrandsdal, Hadaland, Toten, Raumarike,
and northern Vingulmark.
Whatever his motive so far, a great and continuing ambition
must have bred in him now. Norway, after all, was one country, its
long coastline traversed over many centuries by the laden ships of
the Frisians and Halogalanders. Southwards, in close and often
embarrassing relationship with the Vik, was Denmark, and more
with its lesson in kingdom-making for a man as
especially Jutland,
ready to look beyond his nose as Harald. West over sea Norwegians,
including members of Harald' s own family like Olaf or Amlaibh, had
won or were winning kingdoms in the British Isles. At home there
was the example set by his father Halfdan, and farther north that of
the Trondheim jarls. In their original home by the Malangenfjord
(modern Tromso), in latitude 69°N, these last had entered the race
for power with fewer advantages than the rulers of Vestfold. But
they had read the times correctly: Europe needed furs, hides,
cables, sea-ivory and down, and these they possessed, or could
obtain, in abundance. What was required was that they should be
safe on the long haul from Bjarmaland and Halogaland to Skiringssal,
Hedeby, and marts beyond. The best way of ensuring this was to
control the sea-route; so with the backing of their northern neigh-
bours this active and far-sighted family extended its influence
southwards and in the ninth century reached the mouth of the
Trondheimsfjord. Here they found communities whose interests
were similar to their own, and without too much disturbance became
dominant over them. It followed that they would next explore the
possibilities of taking over the entire Trondelag, and base their
further plans for safeguarding the trade-route south on two main
bases of power, the land animals and sea-mammals of the remote
north and the self-sufficient farming and trading community of the
Tronds. How successful Hakon Grjotgardsson would have been in
his inevitablemove against the sea-kings of the Vestland we cannot
say. The two greatest men in Norway came to terms; Hakon
strengthened his grip on the Trondelag and settled in as jarl of
Hladir. In return he recognized Harald's overlordship, an unirksome
and not overmeaningful gesture, and Harald found himself free to
marry Hakon's daughter, enlarge his father-in-law's already large
88 A History of the Vikings

patrimony, and wage war on the viking kingdoms in the west. On a

longer view Harald had bolstered up the strongest challengers to
the Yngling line, set a barrier across his descendants' way to the
unification of Norway, and ensured a more or less independent
status for the Tronds, who would long remain the most rebellious
and uncooperative section of the Norwegian realm.

12. SEAL HUNTERS (OLAUS MAGNUS)

Harald's campaign against the Vestland was a long, arduous, and

interrupted He had a more or less unified Vik and a more or
affair.

less pacifiedTrondelag behind him, but he was now confronted by a

warlike aristocracy and a breed of sea-going pirates who had long
been raiding west over sea and taking toll of their Norwegian
neighbours, too. It would be a minority of them who were not pre-
pared to fight for stakes of all or nothing. There was much bitter
fighting as Harald attacked and removed his many obstacles on the
west coast on the way to the final reckoning at Hafrsfjord. The sea-
battle fought there was among the most decisive in medieval
Scandinavian history. A confederacy of disaffected kings and jarls
throughout the south-west drew a host together and encountered
Harald's fleet where it lay ready for battle in a little fjord west of
Stavanger. Not for the first time Harald had moved faster than his
foes. The fight was long, hard, and costly on both sides, but Harald
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to Q50 89

emerged the unquestioned victor. Heimskringla, Egils Saga, (probably

from the same hand), and the poem Haraldskvadi, the Lay of Harald,
sometimes called Hrafnsmdl, the Raven's Sayings, supply many
details of the fray, how Thorir Haklang was killed and his ship
cleared, how Kjotvi the Rich fled to an island stronghold, and the
men of his host slung their shields on their backs and fled helter-
skelter through the Jaeder. There have been many attempts to
determine the year of the battle. Traditionally the three principal
dates of Harald' s life were long held to be c. 850 for his birth, c. 872
for Hafrsfjord, and c. 932 for his death. These were the dates to be
drawn from Ari's Islendingabok, which Snorri Sturluson accepted in
the early thirteenth century, and GuQbrandur Vigfiisson sought to
confirm in the mid-nineteenth. They are now judged to be too
early.Koht suggests 865-70 for Harald's birth, 900 for Hafrsfjord,
and 945 for the accession of Hakon Athelstan's fosterling to the
throne left empty by Harald's death and the misfortunes of his
chosen heir, Eirik Bloodaxe. A consensus of recent opinion would
place Hafrsfjord earlier than 900, but not before 885 ; that is, during
the second half of the reign of king Alfred in England. 1
1 first big contribution to saga chronology was his Urn Timatal
Vigfusson's
Sogum, Copenhagen, 1855, and while various of the assumptions
i Islendinga

on which it was based are now abandoned or severely questioned, this was a
fundamental work of scholarship. Almost thirty years later he challenged his
own almost universally accepted conclusions in Corpus Poeticum Boreale, II,
487-500, but such was the authority of the earlier work that his emendations
went largely unheeded. The new landmark was Halvdan Koht's 'Um eit
nytt grunnlag for tidrekninga i den elste historia var', Innbogg og Utsyn,
Oslo, 1 921. The dates relating to Harald, Eirik, and Hakon are essential to

the chronology of Egils Saga, which has been elaborately studied by Per
Wieselgren, Forfatterskapet til Eigla, Stockholm, 1927, and SigurQur Nordal,
EgilsSaga Skalla-Grimssonar (Islenzk Fornrit), Reykjavik, 1933. They agree on
c.885 for Hafrsfjord and 947 for the expulsion of Eirik Bloodaxe in favour of
Hakon. There are excellent brief statements for the English reader in T. D.
Kendrick, A
History of the Vikings, 1930, pp. 108-9 an d m(with its footnotes
I and 2); G. Turville-Petre, Viga-Glums Saga, 1940 (2nd ed. i960), pp. xliii
ff., and The Heroic Age of Scandinavia, 195 1, pp. 1 15-17. This last also offers an

explanation of the discrepancy of a decade or more between the actual and the
early Icelandic dating: Icelandic tradition held that the country was settled
by men in flight from the tyranny of Harald Fairhair; the first and most
famous settler was Ingolf Arnarson, c. 870; Ingolf had fled from oppression in
Norway; the battle of Hafrsfjord caused men to flee from Norway; therefore
it must have been fought about 870. There is an elaborate summary of the

chronological argument by Bjarni AQalbjarnason in his Heimskringla, I,

Formali, pp. lxxi-lxxxi.
90 A History of the J'ikings

But though after Hafrsfjord so many of his worst enemies were

dead or in flight, the time was not yet ripe for Harald to trim his hair
and take his royal ease. For at least fifty years before Hafrsfjord there
had been considerable viking activity in western Europe, and the
Norwegians had established colonies in the British Isles, but north-
ern tradition is insistent that it was in the years after Hafrsfjord
that considerable numbers of Norwegians fled from the tyranny of
king Harald to Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, and from
there practised viking in reverse. Instead of spending their winters
in Norway and their summers raiding in the British and Atlantic
islands, they now lived out west and did their raiding back in
Norway. For a while Harald tried to control this by a naval patrol
of the islands and skerries of Vestland, but against fast-moving foes
who had no intention of being brought to battle these measures
proved ineffective. True to his nature and his lifelong strategy he now
used his command of the sea-lanes to tackle the trouble at its source,
sailed with his fleet to the Atlantic islands, and put all he caught to
the sword in Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides. He is reported to
have harried on the mainland of Scotland, and to have sailed south
to Man; but Norse accounts of this western expedition are hard to
reconcile, and the Celtic hard to credit. 1 Having extirpated his
enemies, Harald laid claim to both Shetland and Orkney, then
bestowed them on the family of jarl Rognvald of Moer. The first
earl of Orkney was Rognvald's brother Sigurd, notorious for his
assaults on Scotland, the second Rognvald's base-born son Einar,
ruthless, capable, one-eyed, an archetypal turf-cutter and middling
poet, who is said (incorrectly, as we think) to have acquired the
same kind of rights over odal land in Orkney as Harald in Norway.
To early historians Harald Fairhair was now 'king of Norway',
but the title is a misleading one. Up north it made no odds who was
king over various of the regions down south, and Harald's tokens of
authority would produce little deference in the eastern hinterland.
But certainly he was a king in Norway such as the land had not
known before, and his personal authority in the coastal regions of
the west was unrivalled. The very length of his loosely defined
c
reign', which on the most niggardly count lasted more than half a
century, added to his stature and subsequent reputation. About his
1 The account of Harald Fairhair in the thirteenth-century Welsh Hanes
Gruffydd ap Cynan (ed. A. Jones, Manchester, 1910), including what is said
of his family and his two expeditions to Ireland, invites a profound distrust.
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to g$o 91

methods of rule and government we hear comparatively little, and

most of that requires a cautious interpretation. Thus we are told by
Snorri that wherever in the course of his conquests Harald gained
power he appropriated the hereditary estates, and all farmers had to
pay him dues. In every shire (fylkf) he appointed a. jarI whose duty it
was to administer law and justice and collect the king's fines and
dues, one-third of which he kept for his own expenses. Every jarl
had four or more hersar under him, and while each jarl provided sixty
men for the royal army, every hersir provided twenty. Further,
king Harald increased all taxes so swingeingly that his jarls were
richer than the petty kings of old, and for this reason many great
ones threw in with him.
But we cannot believe that Harald evolved a system of govern-
ment and revenue as tidy as this. Snorri is arguing back from his
knowledge of the jarls and fylkir of Norway in the early thirteenth
century, and offers a misleading picture of the less systematized
situation c. 900. Certainly king Harald needed wealth and would not
be overscrupulous how he raised it. That he took a profit from
everyone and everything he could may be counted sure, but it is
hard to believe that the hostile words of later Icelandic tradition
mean what they say : 'All husbandmen should become his tenants,
and those too who worked in the forests, and saltmen, and all takers
—
of prey by sea and by land all these were now made subject to
him' (Egils Saga, 4). There could be mulctings without this kind of
tenure. Similarly: 'King Harald seized possession in every district
of all odal rights [i.e. hereditary rights to land], and the whole land,
1
settled and unsettled, and equally the sea and the waters.' That
he would dispossess and confiscate, impose redemptive fines on foes
left in possession of their estates, and top and tail the resources of

potential enemies, was to be expected, and his unrivalled conquests

allowed him to do this on an unparallelled scale; but it is un-
believable that the great landowners of the ninth century would
compromise much less abandon their odal. Harald was strong-willed
and energetic, with a need and desire for riches; but he had sense
and judgement, too. Once the initial and deliberately punitive
exactions were over he would not be short of means. The lucrative
fur trade of the north and all imports from Iceland paid him a toll;
his private holdings were large, and the sequestrated estates of the
Vestland vikings on which he lived in later life presented him not
1
For a comment on this aspect oflate Icelandic tradition, see p. 279 below, n. 1
92 A History of the Vikings
only with land and tenants but with the material profits of genera-
tions spent in piracy at home and overseas.
He would in any case be tempted to remove from Vestfold in the
Oslofjord to the famed viking territories of the south-west, because
it was they that most needed and steadying hand.
to feel his hard
He lived in style there, with his headquarters at Avaldsnes on
Karmoy, but making royal progresses by land or water to other
main farmsteads of his. His court moved with him, whose skalds
and warriors and material splendour would quickly become part of
his legend. The government of other regions he entrusted to friends,
kinsmen, or local chieftains who for a variety of reasons recognized
his personal overlordship. Between some of these and Harald the
ties were slender and would not outlast his life. The most notable of

contemporary jarls were Hakon Grjotgardsson, who retained control

of the Trondelag, and his reconciled foe Rognvald of Moer, three of
whose sons made their mark on Norse history, Thorir succeeding to
the jarldom of Moer, Einar to the jarldom of the Orkneys, and
according to Icelandic tradition the in-every-sense-great Hrolf
(Gongu-Hrolfr) becoming the first duke of Normandy. In most of
these more or less dependent states life went on much as usual.
Farmers farmed and traders traded, smiths forged tools and weapons,
women spun and wove. Norwegians for the most part continued to
liveunder the rule of local custom and Thing-law, and the Things
continued in usefulness and advanced in importance. By now, we
think, there were possibly three lagthings or supra-Things in
Norway. The small states about Lake Mjosa in the eastern Nor-
wegian Uppland recognized the laws of the Eidsivathing as binding
upon them all. The many shires of the Trondelag congregated for
law every June at the Eyrathing near the mouth of the river Nid;
and most famous of all, if only because it provided a model for the
law of Iceland in 930, was the Gulathing, held just south of the
mouth of the Sognfjord, and serving the three great shires of Sogn,
Hordaland, and the Fjords. At least two of these had been establish-
ed before Harald Fairhair's time, and possibly all three, but the
Gulathing owed much to his determination to control and pacify the
Vestland. 'With law shall the kingdom be built up, and with law-
lessness wasted away.' And, 'If we break the law we break the peace.'
Harald was appreciative of the stability brought into everyday
affairs by the supra-Things, and confirmed their standing and
authority. The right of the assembled congregation to approve a
 The Historical Traditions of Norway to g^o 93

ruler by public acclamation would be an asset of the Ynglings till

the end of the viking period.

There was another sphere of negotiated agreement between king
and freeman, provision for which was built into the later codes of
law, and whose regulations would grow steadily more elaborate till
Harald's successor Hakon the Good formulated them for the Gula-
thing Law and the Frostathing Law. This was coastal defence. It
had always been the right of a local chieftain to call on his people to
resist attack from without. When states were small this w as not too
T

difficult. At news or sight of a marauder the summons went forth,

men took up their weapons and rations, and hastened to the place of
assembly. But Harald's situation was less easy. He must arrange for
a wide-ranging not a local muster; ideally he should prepare his
defence measures in advance; and he needed a fleet more or less
instantly at command. His personal retainers were not enough. For
political as well as military reasons, for the stronger assertion of his
personal and royal authority, the king wanted all he could get in
terms of manpower, arms, and length of service. But the peace-
little as he could of these com-
loving farmer sought to give as
modities. It could be agreed that for defence purposes the land, or
such part of it as a king like Harald Fairhair controlled, fell into
regions and districts, and that it would be
each district to
fair for

furnish a ship and a crew. But how big a ship? How large a crew?
How choose the men? Who gives the orders? 1 In short, the world-
over groan of the conscripted man: Why me? Details for Harald's
time are scanty or non-existent, but in the later Gulathing Law we
read that three families of free farmers must put up one man between
them, and that he must be supplied with rations of meal and meat
for two months. When he stood down from service he was given
provisions for a fortnight, presumably to get him back home hale
and hearty. It is reasonable to suppose that the sea-going, viking-
ridden, and turbulent Vestland took more kindly to ship-service
than the more settled agrarian divisions elsewhere.
During his long life (he lived into his eighties) Harald fathered
many sons, some of them to Norway's bane. Some sources say there
were twenty of them, the Historia Norwegia names sixteen, Eyvind
Skaldaspillir (Despoiler of Skalds or Plagiarist) in his panegyric on
Hakon the Good calls him one of nine, and this is likely to be right.

1 These and other questions are part of Holmsen's lively and precise discus-
sion in Norges Historie, pp. 146-8.
94 A History of the Vikings

They were by several mothers. The two who bore most immediately
upon Norway's story were Eirik, nicknamed Bloodaxe, and the
child of Harald's old age,Hakon, called the Good, who was fostered
in England with king Athelstan. By the time Harald was forty we
hear that many of his sons were self-seeking and turbulent, than
which nothing could be more natural. To enforce one's rights to
land and title was part of the business of being a king's son. Eirik's
mother was Ragnhild, daughter of a king Eirik in Jutland; we can
believe that he was the son on whom Harald set his highest hopes,
if only because of the Danish connection, which was strengthened

when Eirik married Gunnhild, daughter of Gorm the Old, king of

Denmark. Some such attempt to safeguard the ancestral lands in the
Vik was common prudence. What we need not believe is that when
Harald was 80 and prepared to slough his royal cares, he led Eirik to
his high-seat in the Vestland and gave him power over his entire
kingdom. We may be confident that Harald would not make such
an anachronistic gesture, and that if he did it would prove meaning-
less. The rest of Harald's sons would look for their rightful in-
—
heritance in this petty kingdom and that and if they did not, there
would be other claimants in plenty. Then Harald died, and was
buried in a mound on Karmoy or by Haugasund in Rogaland, where
he had long chosen to live, the greatest king that Norway had ever
known. The personal nature of his rule was immediately apparent,
the former petty kingdoms spurned the authority of the Ynglings,
and leading men everywhere looked to their separate advantage.
Harald left behind him no system of government to preserve his
achievement, and from the closing of his howe the race was to the
swift and the battle to the strong. As always, this meant the man
with sea-power.
Eirik, with most at stake, and the soubriquet of a man of action,
seems to have moved briskly. But 'For a short while only hand is fain
of blow'. In England the 15 year-old Hakon heard of his father's death,
and presumably with his fosterers' support sailed for Norway. 1
He arrived in Trondheim, no doubt by prior agreement with jarl
Sigurd of Hladir. We have only late and biased written sources to
go on : them the enterprise appears a model of political man-
in
oeuvre, backed by force, but so exact in its timing that force was not
1 Heimskringla is unreliable as to chronology here. Like Egils Saga (in all

probability from the same hand), it sees Athelstan as reigning till the late
940s, whereas he died in 939.
 The Historical Traditions of Normay to g$o 95

used. With no battle joined, Eirik, for reasons we do not know,

recognized the weakness of his position and sailed west over sea
with any that cared to follow him. With all his faults (and they have
been greatly exaggerated by Icelandic tradition) he was his father's
son, strong-willed, valiant, resourceful. By 948 he was a king in
York in England. Within the year his subjects drove him out to
placate the English king Eadred. In 952 he was back again, but was
once more driven forth in 954, and soon afterwards he died with

13. NINTH-CENTURY NORSEMAN

A carving in wood from the Oseberg wagon.

five other Norse kings in the skirmish at Stainmore in the kingdom

of Northumbria. He left behind him his wife and a wolf-pack of sons
who would resume with skill and daring that power-game in Nor-
way which their father had somewhat inexplicably abandoned. The
winners' prize was becoming bigger. It would be a serious exag-
geration to say that therewas by this time any concept of a united
nation, or even kingdom, in Norway. But Harald's achievement
could not be lost sight of, andjQ t he en d of the Viking Age the
glittering prize in Norway would not be a kingdom of Vestfold, the
Upplandsj.,the Vik, a shire or shires in the fjord-indented west, or
a jarldom of the Trondelag, but the overlordship of all those regions
whose control ensured agrarian wealth, the profits of trade, and a
dominant sea-power. It was a prize, sometimes only half glimpsed,
andnever achieved, for which Harald Greycloak and his banesman
Gold-Harald the Dane, jarl Hakon, Olaf Tryggvason, and St. Olaf
would one after the other yield up their lives. For Harald had made
Norway more than the North Way (*Nordrvegr, Noregr), the route
g6 A History of the Vi kings

to the north as seen from the south. Yet wars and counter-wars,
native jealousies and foreign aggressionwould all too frequently set
Norwegians at each other's throats hardly a province but would
;

again have its petty king, and the jarls of Hladir would wax as
never before; the Danes in particular would not cease to have local
or dynastic ambitions north of the Skagerrak. It is to the Danes after
Bravellir that we now return.
 2
co o

H
. •
3. Denmark to the Death of Gorm the Old

Whatever place we accord the 'bravic war'

in history as opposed to legend our knowledge of Danish affairs
in the eighth century stays meagre. We are near the century's
end when in the pages of Frankish chroniclers we meet with Danish
kings whose names and policies invite confidence and permit us to
draw reasonable if wary conclusions about the Danish realm. The
death of Carloman in 771 made his brother Charles, or Charlemagne,
sole king of the Franks, and it was the territorial ambitions of this
resplendent monarch in respect of his northern neighbours which
brought Sigfred king of the Danes and thereafter Godfred into the
light of recorded history. In 772 Charlemagne launched against the
Saxons the first of a series of campaigns which would be pressed hard
for more than thirty years before they ended in complete victory.
Saxonia was bounded by the rivers Elbe and Saale to the east and by
the Rhine to the west. Northwards its frontier ran flush with that
of the Danes along the river Eider; but southwards it was less de-
fined, and relations with the Franks had been consistently bad since
the days of Charles Martel. It could be expected that an empire-
builder like Charlemagne would, in modern phrase, seek to settle
the Saxon question once and for all. It was an ugly war. In general the
Saxons had no one ruler who could speak on their behalf, and they
were heathens who believed in Thunaer or Woden. It became more
and more difficult to distinguish tribal resistance from rebellion
or treachery, with the inevitable reprisals; and the forcible con-
version of the Saxons to Christianity was as brutal and shameless as
such operations seem fated to be. The war which began with the
destruction of the Irminsul, the World Pillar or Column of the
Universe, upholding all things, sacred to the Saxon nation, proceeded
inexorably to the pronouncement at Quierzy that extermination
waited on every Saxon who did not embrace the faith of the Franks.
98 A History of the Vi kings

The massacre at Verden on the Aller in 782, the transportation of

every third Saxon from his native soil which was begun in 794-5,
and the uprooting of whole settlements of the Nordalbingians in
804, showed that in matters civilizing and evangelical Charle-
magne was a man of his word.
These events could not pass unnoticed among the Saxons'
northern neighbours. In 777 the Saxon chieftain Widukind had fled
for shelter to king Sigfred in Nordmannia (i.e. Denmark). It was a
moment for diplomatic overtures, and Charlemagne invited Paul
the Deacon to make them in person. But Paul demurred. He had no
wish, he said, to contemplate that ferocious northern visage.
Besides, king Sigfred was a bumpkin who knew no Latin. Diaconal
urbanity would be wasted on him. So Paul was excused. Which is a
pity, for the description of a contemporary Scandinavian court by a
mildly malicious and well-trained southern historian would be both
helpful and entertaining.
Sigfred died about 800 and then or a little later was succeeded
by the famous Godfred, an energetic and audacious man, keenly
alive to the southern threat to his kingdom's welfare. Charle-
magne's dedicated conquest of the heathen Germanic Saxons and
his politically expedient alliance with the heathen Slavonic Abodrits,
whom he encouraged to move into East Holstein, disposed the
Danish monarch to utter a warning. In the year 804 he demon-
strated with a fleet and army at Sliesthorp, on the frontier between
his kingdom and Saxony. South of the Elbe stood Charlemagne.
Maybe their available forces were too evenly matched, for there was
no battle. Proposals for a personal meeting between the kings came
to nothing for fear of treachery, but there was a resort to negotia-
tion, which if it achieved nothing else at least kept the peace. Four
years later Godfred acted more decisively, invaded the land of the
Abodrits, and so ravaged it that they sued for peace and agreed to
pay him tribute. Their chieftain Drosuk (Drasco) he carried back
with him into captivity, and their commercial centre, the town of
Reric, he destroyed. His campaigns, we are told, were not con-
cluded until he had brought other Slavonic communities of the
western section of the south Baltic coast under tribute, including
the Wilzi.
His action against Reric is By an extension of their
significant.
power over Frisia and their alliance with the Abodrits the Franks
were at a point to control all trade between the Baltic and the west
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 99
European coasts. But this trade was of the highest importance to
Denmark, which had enjoyed prosperity for more than two
thousand years by virtue of her position on two main European
trade routes, that leading east by west across the base of the Jutland
peninsula, and that leading northwards from western and southern
Europe up the peninsula The first of these, from Hollingstedt
itself
to the Schlei, linked Frisiaand the west with Birka, Wollin, Truso,
the eastern Baltic and Russia; the second, the so-called Army Road,
led on to Norway and the Kattegat. They intersected by the
emporium of Hedeby, and it was to Hedeby that Godfred now
sacrificed the Abodrits' chief mart, Reric, of whose precise location
we are still uncertain, though it was probably either at Alt Gaarz in
the Bay of Wismar or modern Lubeck. The last
in the vicinity of
thing Godfred wanted to do was to injure the movement or volume
of wealth and. goods: he just wanted them to be by way of his own
territories. At Hedeby geography was already on his side, and he
determinedly fortified its natural advantages. The Annates Regni
Francorum record how in 808 after the destruction of Reric he sailed
with his entire force to that same harbour of Sliesthorp from which
he had glowered threateningly at Charlemagne in 804. Here he gave
orders that to protect the northern bank of the Eider the frontier
between Danes and Saxons should be fortified with a rampart reach-
ing from the eastern bay which the Danes called 0stersalt (the
Baltic) to the western ocean. It should have but one gate for the
ingress and egress of horsemen and wagons. This was the origin of
the Danevirke, a defensive system of earthworks covering the base
of the Jutland peninsula, which with the development of the town of
Hedeby, just south of Sliesthorp, is Godfred's chief claim to be
considered a far-sighted as well as a forceful king of Denmark in
the Viking Age. By a stroke of policy and action, goods and ships
could avoid the long and inhospitable west coast of Jutland and the
waters of the Skagerrak in favour of an eight-mile portage and quick
—
access to the Belts and the Baltic and all on Danish territory. 1

1 The Danevirke as it now exists or is traceable does not extend from the
Baltic to the North Sea, nor does it protect the entire northern bank of the
river Eider. Even so it is a considerable work, in that a series of ramparts
built over a long period of time (c. 810- c. 1160) served to defend against
invasion the vulnerable part of the frontier of Jutland, i.e. the narrow neck
between Hollingstedt on the river Treene in the west and the head of the
Sliefjord in the east. Four main ramparts may be distinguished (see pp. 104-5).
ioo A History of the Vi kings

Godfred and Charlemagne were now in open confrontation, the

stirring king of a small northern realm and the emperor of a
dominion extending from the Eider to Ebro and Tiber, and from the
Atlantic to Elbe and Raab. On the whole, Charlemagne's reaction
was less vigorous than Godfred might have expected, for he had
much to attend to, what with wars in Spain and Italy, negotiations
with Nicephorus in Constantinople and Harun-el-Rashid in Bagh-
dad, support for the exiled Eardwulf of Northumbria, problems of
succession at home, and the thousand and one cares of a vast im-
perial administration. But the Abodrits had been his allies, he had
to do something, so he sent an expedition northwards under the
command of his son Charles to chastise the Danes and the Wilzi, but
the prudent Charles sought easier game on the south Baltic coast,
and left these hard-hitting enemies in peace. Godfred now suggested
a Danish-Frankish conference at Beidenfleth on the river Stor in
Holstein, whose main result was that Drosuk was permitted to
return to his own people, a concession nullified a short while later
when Godfred had him executed. But there was still no set trial of

The first (the Hovedvold or Main Rampart) begins near Gottorp, runs for

almost three miles south-west to Kurburg, and from Kurburg roughly six
miles west to Hollingstedt (the Krum- or Krummevold, the Crooked or
Curved Rampart). The second starts near Thyraburg and the dried-up
Danevirke So, and runs almost two miles west to the ramparts of Hedeby
town (the Forbindelsesvold, or Connecting Rampart). The third starts at the
head of Selker Noor, Selk Cove, a mile or more south of Hedeby, and follows a
straight line for three and three-quarter miles west, to end about a mile
short of Kurburg (the Kovirke). Part of the ramparts was demolished during
the Second World War when the Germans needed airfields and defences
against an anticipated but in the event undelivered British attack. The
fourth rampart, the 0stervold, or Eastern Rampart, about two miles long,
of which few traces remain, protected the base of the Schwansen peninsula,
and may therefore be said to reach the Baltic at Windeby Noor. Supple-
menting these four ramparts were a number of minor walls, outworks,
strong-points, and some substantial moats and dikes. The main walls varied
in height and width: the Kovirke was perhaps 6 feet high, the middle
section of the Hovedvold about 18 feet — and 95 feet wide. This same middle
section was strengthened on perhaps as many as ten occasions, most notably
by a stone parapet 9 feet by 9 feet, and by king Valdemar the Great's
buttressed brick wall, 6 feet thick and some 20 feet high, built in the 1160s.
Undoubtedly the completed Danevirke was a formidable obstacle to invasion
from the south and closed the gap between the natural defence line of the
Sliefjord and the swamps and water meadows of the rivers Rheide and Treene.
It is more difficult to assess its deterrent value in its early stages, i.e. in
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 101

strength between the two monarchs, and it is clear that Charlemagne

had no thought of conquering the Danes. When Godfred made his
next demonstration it was by sea. In 810 with a strong fleet he
scoured the Frisian coast, won minor victories over small local forces
and returned home with a tribute of one hundred pounds of silver.
According to Einhard, his swollen head now demanded a bigger
crown. He talked of conquering all Germany: Frisia and Saxony
were but provinces of Denmark, and the Abodrits his scat-men;
soon he would be coming to Aix-la-Chapelle itself, to beard the
emperor in his court and water his horses at the palace well.
Charlemagne had earlier styled his adversary a crazy king, and this
may appear the proof of it. The emperor promptly gave orders for a
fleet to be built, and meantime saw that his coastal defences were in
trim. In 811 he reviewed his naval forces in the Scheldt and off
Boulogne, but the emergency was already over. Godfred had been
murdered by one of his retainers in 810, and his nephew Hemming,
who succeeded him, agreed to terms of peace which confirmed
Denmark's southern frontier on the Eider. His reign lasted just one

Godfred's time. But though our doubts are encouraged by our ignorance, we
can conclude that Godfred's Danevirke was a meaningful undertaking, and
that the meaning was not wasted on his southern neighbours.
About Godfred's contribution to the Danevirke there is still a difference
of opinion. The author of the Annates Regni Francorum had certainly not seen
the Danevirke for himself, and we cannot conclude from his generalized
statement which part of it was constructed first. The Dane Vilh. la Cour in
his Danevirkestudier (Copenhagen, 195 1) argued that the Kovirke could not
have been built by Godfred, but belongs to the period c. 1000 when Svein
Forkbeard ordered the construction of the camps at Trelleborg, Fyrkat, and
Aggersborg. This would leave Godfred with what we may call the first
version of the Hovedvold or Main Rampart. The German H. Jankuhn in his
mighty Haithabu, ein Handelsplatz der Wikinger-zeit (Neumiinster, 4 ed., 1963)
argues that since the town of Hedeby quite certainly existed in Godfred's
day, and since Godfred wished to protect it and bar the Army Road, Godfred
built the Kovirke. The Hovedvold in Jankuhn's opinion was probably built
later, some time in the tenth century, when in an interval between Swedish
and Danish (Svein Forkbeard) dominion there Hedeby fell into German
hands. A valuable recent discussion of the archaeological problems involved
in dating the earlier portions of the Danevirke, and the allied political and
economic considerations, is in Helmuth Schledermann, 'Danevirke-under-
sogelser ved Bustrup 1962-3', in Offa, vol. 21-22, Neumiinster, 1964-5,
pp. 80-126 (and more particularly 108-16). Most ramparts from the Viking
Age were of earth strengthened with timber. The more elaborate works
belong to later periods.
102 A History of the Vi kings
year; his two would-be successors died in battle, and their two suc-
cessors were driven out by the sons of Godfred returning home from
Sweden. Charlemagne died in January 814, and in 815 his son Louis
the Pious undertook a campaign into Jutland. The Danevirke was
no bar, but Godfred's sons withdrew to the island of Fyn and found
shelter behind their formidable fleet. The invading army was glad to
depart back south, whereupon the Danes under a leader named
Glum attacked in their turn, failed to take Itzehoe, an administrative
centre of the Franks north of the Elbe, and were as glad to depart
back north. This was the situation shortly before 820.
An important and difficult problem now presents itself, perhaps
more for discussion than answer. How real was Danish royal power
at this time? What was Godfred's status? Was he, as we have as-
sumed, ruler over a kingdom which can, not unfairly, be called
Denmark, or was he one among many small and circumscribed
kings, albeit the strongest and best known of them. Curt Weibull
was of the opinion that Denmark was not a united kingdom in any
acceptable sense of the term till the time of Harald Bluetooth, i.e.
post-950; and in this he has been followed by many scholars,
including Erik Arup and H. Jankuhn. Indeed, it was Arup's
belief that there was no true royal power in Denmark to the very
end of the viking period, not even under Svein Forkbeard and his
son Knut. 1 By implication this is a matter of importance for the
other Scandinavian realms, too, and for many of their rulers. But, to
stay with Godfred, there are strong reasons for thinking him a king
in more than name of a more than regional kingdom. His actions and
policies, so far as we can trace or reconstruct them, appear to be those
of a man possessed of real power. He made war east against the Slavs,
and west into the region of the Elbe and Frisia, and in each case was
concerned with more than a quick profit. Of the two great north-
south trade routes, the eastern one, running from the Baltic by way

1
C. Weibull, 'Om
det svenska och det danska rikets Uppkomst', in Hist,
tidsk. Kdllkritik och bistoria, Stockholm, 1964; E. Arup,
Skanelandy 1921;
f.
Danrnarks Historic, I, Copenhagen, 1925; H. Jankuhn, Haithabu, Neumiinster,
1963. The subject is well ventilated, with extensive bibliographical reference,
by Helmuth Schledermann, 'Slesvig-Hedebys tilblivelse, I, Stednavne og
fund', in Sonderjyske Arboger, I, 1966, pp. 1-65; 'II, Historiske meddelelser om
kongemagten og byen', ibid., 1, 1967, pp. 1-73 ; to which I am much indebted.
The historical sources are conveniently assembled in O. Scheel and P.
Paulsen, jfruellen zur Frage Schleswig-Haithabu im Rahmen der frdtikischen,
sdchsischen und nordischen Beziebutigen, Kiel, 1930.
 Denmark to the Death of Gorm the Old 103

of Oder or Vistula to the Danube, North Italy and the Balkans, had
experienced disturbance ever since the sixth century; this increased
the importance of the western, by way of the Rhine or Scheldt to
the North Sea, and so along the coast northwards. From the mouth
of the Scheldt up to and including the neck of Jutland was a pro-
fitable, strategicallyimportant, and therefore sensitive area, and
unmistakably Godfred was aware of this, and strong enough to act
on his convictions. His move against Reric, his patronage of Hedeby,
his inception of the Danevirke, his provision of asylum for the
Saxons, his prolonged and successful opposition to Charlemagne,
and his trust in sea-power to check Charlemagne's superiority on
land, are not the thoughts and actions of a minor king.
His resort to non-military measures and negotiation as between
one state and another (the same is true, if to a lesser degree, of his
predecessor Sigfred, and abundantly so of his successor Hemming) is
not less revealing of his royal status. It may be too much to say that
he maintained diplomatic relations with the emperor, but there is
no doubt that the two monarchs established diplomatic contact,
with its apparatus of overture, embassy, negotiation, bluff, and
demarche. In today's language, Godfred had vital interests in
Frisia, Saxony, and Wendland. There were trade-routes to be safe-
guarded, and tribute to be collected from the Slavs. Frankish
ambitions threatened both, and clearly the Danish kings had a
foreign policy in respect of Holstein, the Abodrits and Slavs
generally, and the Franks. There was considerable negotiation with
the Franks in 782, 784, 804, and 809, because Charlemagne, too,
had problems south of the Danish border. He wanted Slavonic
proteges or not too prone to give the Danes trouble and so
allies

provoke them on the other hand, he did not want them

to action;
overfriendly with the Danes. The culmination of Godfred's skilful
policy of talk and blows came after his death, in the peace treaty
between Hemming and Charlemagne in 811. This written trans-
action was the first of its kind to which any Scandinavian political
unit is known to have been a party. Finally we may note that in
Godfred's time German and Frankish sources speak of Denmark as a
kingdom, though at times it might have more than one holder of
power and be subject to civil war. If Godfred held sway over Jut-
land and Skane, and maintained an interest in the Norwegian Vik,
as southern sources record, for these reasons, too, we may with pro-
—
priety style him king of Denmark but with equal propriety note
104 ^ History of the Vikings

what must have been in various places the personal nature of his
rule.
But after his and Hemming's death we know surprisingly little
about events and persons within Denmark. Surprisingly, because
Danish activities outside Denmark were becoming well documented
in the annals and chronicles of many lands south and west of her,
England, Ireland, France, and Germany in particular. But the com-
piling of medieval European historical records was a by-product of
Christianity, and Denmark would remain heathen for at least another
century. Certainly there were internal wars in Denmark as the sons

14. THE DANEVIRKE (A PICTORIAL RECONSTRUCTION)

The main picture shows the various ramparts, with two cuts
illustrative of the construction of the Hovedvold (Main Rampart)
and the Kovirke. It is now thought unlikely that there was a
passage at the place called Kalegat (Kahlegatt); it was rather
where the Hzervej or Army Road meets the rampart. The inset
shows the position of the Danevirke in relation to the base of the
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 105

of Godfred fought descendants of an earlier king Harald for supre-

macy there, and as certainly Louis the Pious tried to take advantage
of this.Two names emerge, Horik son of Godfred and Harald Klak
son of Harald, each with the title of king. To engage the emperor's
more favourable attention Harald not only fought against Horik,
but became a Christian. Briefly he was some kind of co-king with
Horik, but was driven out for good in 827. The Franks had already
considered the possibility of using disaffected Danes to guard the
coast of Frisia against attack from the north, and in 826 Harald
Klak had received a substantial territory there in fee from the

Jutland peninsula between the North Sea (Vesterhav) and the

Baltic (Osterso).
(Krumvold, Crooked or Curved Rampart; Nordvold, North
Rampart; Forbindelsesvold, Connecting Rampart; Forvold, Outer
Rampart; Borghojde, Hill Fort. The names are the Danish ones
throughout.)
106 A History of the likings

emperor. It was here, either in Nordalbingia or Rustringen, that

Harald lived out his and various kinsmen of his, including his
life,

brother Rorik, held highoffice in Frisia down through the ninth

century. At home Horik maintained his power as a viking king till

his death in battle in 853-4.
His reign was notable for something more than civil wars, terri-
torial ambitions, and viking raids south, searing though these last
were. Most of his recorded actions show him to have been a strong
and martial monarch, determined and unscrupulous; and that he
was no stranger to the pragmatic view appears in his dealings with
the Christian missionary Anskar. The first recorded Christian
mission to the Danes had taken place early in the eighth century,
when the Northumbrian Willibrord visited king Ongendus
(Angantyr), described by Alcuin as 'fiercer than a wild beast and
harder than any stone'. In the event the king's tolerance and re-
straint under provocation contrasted favourably with the high-
minded boorishness of his visitor. For a century thereafter contacts
between Denmark and Christianity were less direct. Merchants and
raiders south were bound to learn something of the religion practised
there and report it along with other curiosities back home; mer-
chants from abroad brought their Christian observances to various
northern marts; it seems unlikely that the Norsemen at any time
forced their Christian slaves to pick a god from the Norse pantheon
and Norse ornament and decorative patterns were markedly influ-
enced by the work ofChristian artists in England and France. Bye. 804
Charlemagne brought the frontier of Christianity up to the Eider
itself, but it was his son Louis the Pious who encouraged the second

mission to the Danes when in 823 he sped the papal legate, Ebo
archbishop of Rheims, in search of souls there. Ebo made a few
converts, and maybe it was due to him that in 826 Harald Klak and
four hundred of his followers were, in the picturesque phrase of the
wave of holy baptism' at Ingelheim,
Vita Hludovici, 'drenched in the
near Mainz. When Harald returned to Denmark with the emperor's
backing it was part of the deal that a Christian missionary should go
with him. This was Anskar, the monk of Corbey, then a young man
of 25, whose sweetness and light were probably much lightened and
sweetened by his biographer Rimbert, but whose zeal and courage
are undoubted. As baptism assuredly owed
for his patron, Harald's
more to mortal ambition than to hopes of eternal heal.Anskar was in
Denmark for a short time only. With his brother monk Autbert he
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 107

established a small school for the instruction of a dozen or more

youths, probably at Hedeby, and probably already Christians, but
few Danes loved Harald, the emperor's man, and when he was driven
out the monks perforce with him. Anskar's next mission was to
left

Sweden in 829. With a new

helper, Witmar, he made the perilous
journey; at sea they were attacked by vikings, lost their holy books
and very nearly their lives, and eventually arrived in Birka on Lake
Malar on foot. Birka, like Hedeby, was an important mart, and
among its mixed population and numerous visitors they were certain
to find some Christians. If only from a desire not to offend the
Empire king Bjorn made him not unwelcome. His best gain for
Christianity was Herigar (Hergeir), who was prefect of the town
he built and maintained a church on his own land, and after Anskar
returned to Germany, bearing letters from king Bjorn to Louis,
continued, we are told, to labour for the faith in Sweden.
In 831 Anskar was consecrated archbishop of the new arch-
diocese at Hamburg, and when he went to Rome pope Gregory IV
named him, jointly with Ebo of Rheims, papal legate to all the
northern peoples, Swedes, Danes, Slavs, and such others, named or
nameless, as dwelt in those regions. There is an Icelandic saying that
no boy becomes a bishop without beating. In the ninth century no
man of the northern mission became an archbishop without beating
others. Anskar was clearly a shrewd and unflinching servant of the
Church. But both in Denmark and in Sweden there were reverses to
be endured. Gautbert's mission to Birka was moderately successful
for a while, but suddenly the heathens prevailed, his companion
Nithard was killed, and he himself expelled. In Denmark king Horik
turned hostile for other than religious reasons. When Anskar's
friend and patron the emperor Louis died in 840 the Empire became
a stage for bloody faction among his three sons. The northern
defences were left to their own devices while Lothar, Charles the
Bald, and Louis the German fought with brotherly ferocity among
themselves. Nothing could be more pleasing to the Danes. They at
once intensified their attacks south, and among other depredations
carried out the sack of Hamburg in 845 with a fleet reputedly of six
hundred ships. Anskar escaped with his life and some of the sacred
relics, but church, school, and library were destroyed with the rest

of the city. 1 Louis the German's administrative remedy for the

1A greatly increased knowledge of ninth- and tenth-century Hamburg was
an unforeseen consequence of the destruction wrought there in the Second
io8 A History of the Vi kings

was to combine the two sees of

resultant ecclesiastical disorder
Hamburg and Bremen, and was as archbishop of Bremen that
it

Anskar undertook his next mission to Denmark in 849. It was un-

doubtedly an awareness of political pressures and the hope of
reciprocal benefits which made Horik in 850 give Anskar per-
mission to build a church at Hedeby. In the same year Anskar re-
sumed the mission to the Swedes, first sending the hermit Ardgar
to make contact with Herigar in Birka, then after the death of
Herigar and the return of Ardgar, travelling there himself. There
was opposition to be faced, but yet another Swedish king, this time
Olaf, proved generous and forbearing. When Anskar returned to
Bremen he left the missionary Erimbert behind him.
Meantime Horik's long and vigorous reign in Denmark was
approaching its violent end. Various members of his family rose
against him and may even have wrested away part of his kingdom;
after an assortment of murderous encounters their numbers thinned,
and tradition has it that it was the one and only survivor, Horik
the Younger, who came to the throne in 853-4. He was at once
under pressure to do away with the church in Hedeby, and for a
time it was closed, but presumably political or economic considera-
tions saved from destruction, and a visit from Anskar did the rest.
it

—
In 854 the church was reopened, furnished with a bell and a bell it
was permitted to ring, which hitherto had been as a scandal to the
heathen. Over in Ribe a site was earmarked for a second church,
and in time that, too, was built and opened. The three churches at
Birka, Hedeby, and Ribe, modest though they must have been, were
landmarks on the road which brought Christianity to Scandinavia. 1

World War. It appears that the fortress proper, the Hammaburg, and every-

thing inside its big loosely quadrangular wall, including Anskar's church,
was indeed destroyed by fire; but the merchants' quarters situated outside
the fortress along the Reichenstrassenfleet, survived the assault. It was
clearly a rich and prosperous town. See R. Schindler, Ausgrabungen in Alt-
Hamburg, Verlag Gesellschaft der Freunde des vaterlandischen Schul- und
Erziehungswesens, Hamburg, 1957.

1 It is noticeable that these early missions to the north concentrated their

effort upon market-places open to foreign trade, where there would at any
time be a small number of Christians temporarily resident. Their spiritual
needs were a natural concern of the Church and would take precedence over
the conversion of the disbeliever, especially the disbeliever in the large
benighted hinterlands. The turn of many of these last would not come for
another hundred and fifty years (Olaf Olsen, Horg, Hov og Kirke, p. 116).
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 109

From the accession of Horik the Younger till well into the tenth
century we stay much in the dark as to political conditions in

Denmark. In the 850s a viking leader named Rorik, probably a

brother of Harald Klak, who had received Walcheren in fee from
Lothar, made a lodgement in South Jutland, the part lying between
the Eider and the sea. By 873 Denmark had at least two kings of
name and repute, the brothers Sigfred and Halfdan, and according to
Adam of Bremen there were yet other kings among the Danes at this
time who practised piracy by sea upon their southern neighbours. It
looks as though some kings could manage without a kingdom,
though none could manage without a fleet and an armed following,
call it what we will. The two Danish kings who perished on the

Dyle in 891 were named Sigfred and Godfred, but nothing is known
of their realm or status back home. Anskar's successor (and bio-
grapher) Rimbert continued his missionary work in Denmark for a
—
time we hear of his ransoming Christian slaves in the market at
—
Hedeby but after his death in 888 the connection between Bremen
and the north was broken, and we lack even the exiguous and
tendentious information about native events to be gleaned from the
recorded activities of earlier workers for the faith. Thus we do not

know to what extent Denmark was now one dominion, whether

any monarch between the elder Horik, c. 850, and Gorm the Old,
c.936, ruled it as an undivided realm, or where the boundaries
between the smaller kingdoms into which Denmark was periodically
divided were drawn. And we would give much to know the pattern
of relationship between North and South Jutland on the one hand and
between Jutland and the islands, especially those east of the Great
Belt, on the other. The witness of the Norwegian Ottar (OE.
Ohthere) in his report on west Scandinavian geography and trade-
routes to king Alfred, and incorporated by the king in his transla-
tion of Orosius's History of the World'in the 890s, is less decisive than
at first appears. He outlines his voyage from Skiringssal (Sciringes-
heal, i.e. Kaupang) on the western shore of the Oslofjord to Hedeby
thus:

From which
Skiringssal he said that he sailed in five days to the port
is called Hedeby Hapum), which stands between the Wends, the
(at
Saxons, and Angeln, and belongs to the Danes. While he sailed thither
from Skiringssal, he had Denmark (Denemearc, i.e. the Danish lands
in Sweden) to port and the open sea to starboard for three days ; and
then for two days before he reached Hedeby he had Jutland (Gotland)
no A History of the Vikings
and South Jutland (Sillende) and many islands to starboard. And
those two days he had to port the islands which belong to Denmark.

A second who spoke of Hedeby to king Alfred was the

traveller
Englishman (or Norwegian?) Wulfstan, who made a voyage from
there to Truso at the mouth of the Vistula.

Wulfstan said that he left Hedeby and reached Truso in seven days
and nights, and that the ship was under sail the whole way. To star-
board lay Wendland; and to port he had Langeland and Lolland,
Falster and Skane, and all these lands belong to Denmark. Then to
1

port we had Bornholm, where the people have a king of their own.
Then after Bornholm we had to port those lands which are called,
first, Blekinge, and More, Oland and Gotland, and these lands

belong to the Swedes. And we had Wendland to starboard the whole

way to the mouth of the Vistula.

The more relevant remarks in the accompanying description of

Europe are these:

West of the Old Saxons is the mouth of the river Elbe, and Frisia;
and north-west from there is the land which is called Angeln (Ongle),
and south Jutland (Sillende), and part of Denmark (Dene) West . . .

of the South-Danes is that arm of the ocean which surrounds the land
of Britain; and north of them is the arm of the sea which is called the
Baltic (Ostsse); and to the east and to the north of them are the
North-Danes, both in the mainlands and in the islands; and east of
them are the Afdrede, and south of them is the mouth of the river
Elbe and part of the Old Saxons. To the north of them the North-
Danes have that same arm of the sea which is called the Ostsse, and
east of them is the people of the Osti, and the Afdrede to the
south.

In these passages the term Denmark clearly signifies a geo-

graphical unit including Jutland and the islands together with the
banish territories in what is now Sweden, i.e. Skane, but excluding
Bornholm and Blekinge. It was probably a political unit, too, in the
sense that its inhabitants thought of themselves as Danes subject

1 Thephrases translated 'belong(s) to' are hyrb in on Dene; pe in Denemearce

byrad; hyrab to Demmearcan (of Langeland, etc.); and (to come) byrad to

Sweon. Whether the first two should be differentiated from the straight-
forward byrad to, and if so how ('belong with', 'are associated with', 'go
together with', or even 'are the same people as'), I cannot say.
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old in
to some variety of Danish rule. Ottar, it is true, leaves the political
situation of Jutland tantalizinglyopen to speculation, and it seems
safe toassume that at times of general dissension and disunity,
which were not infrequent, it had, like Bornholm and no doubt other
areas, rulers of its own over some fair-sized portion of the peninsula.
But North-Danes or South-Danes or Danes whatsoever, the Danes
were a people, and had a country. What they must still await, and
for a very long time, was a last licking into shape as a kingdom.
This was demonstrated at almost exactly the time of king
Alfred's witness. In the 890s Danish armies abroad had suffered
many defeats and heavy losses. After the carnage on the Dyle in 891,
there was a king in Denmark named Helgi (Heiligo), to whom Adam
of Bremen, following his authority king Svein Estridsson, devotes
precisely one sentence, informing us that he was well beloved for his
justice and piety. But he must have reigned over a shaken, almost a
broken, kingdom, for, adds Adam, 'To him succeeded Olaf who
came from Sweden and seized royal power in Denmark by force of
arms.' Olaf had many sons, two of whom, Chnob and Gurd,
possessed the realm after their father's death. Finally, says the same
source, a king named Sigerich ruled over Olaf's kingdom; but after a
short while Hardegon Sveinsson, who came from Nortmannia, took
it from him. The sequence of events seems to have been as baffling

to king Svein Estridsson as it is to us; for whether some of these

many kings, more correctly styled tyrannic ruled in due succession
or at one and the same time, he confessed he did not know.
This Swedish interlude in Denmark is curious but explicable. At
its simplest it would appear to be a well-executed coup designed to

lay hands on a region, South Jutland and Hedeby, famous for the
influence and profit it brought its rulers. We know that at this time,
c. 900, the Swedish kings disposed of much power and wealth, and

were well able to take advantage of Danish weakness. As Wulfstan

informs, us, the big islands Gotland and Oland belonged to the
Swedes, as did the mainland province of Blekinge. Swedish military
and merchant venturers were exploiting the East Baltic lands, con-
trolled profitable trading-routes along the Russian rivers, and had
established the kingdom or khaganate of Kiev. Maybe then, by
extending their influence, or conquests, as far as South Jutland and
its mart at Hedeby, the great men of the Swedes could ensure their

participation in the flow of wealth and goods between Byzantium,

the Arab world, and Russia on the one hand, and western Europe as
112 A History of the Ft kings

well as Scandinavia on the other. It would be a curiously modern

concept some of the foremost Swedish vikings and merchants
if
thought how then their main trade-routes would He in the great
ring of waterways surrounding Europe as the Midgard Snake of their
mythology lay in the ocean encompassing the Middle World of
Men, and like him might hope to He there till the northern crack of
doom. 1 Either way, as a domination of the trade through South
Jutland, or an extension of Swedish influence as carriers on what we
may call 'world-routes', it was an attractive prospect to strong,
venturesome, profit-seeking chieftains.
The extent of Olaf's kingdom is not known, but it certainly
included the all-important region of Hedeby, and probably a
number of areas linked by and controlling the important sea-routes
of southern Denmark. Two memorial stones with runic inscriptions
found in the Hedeby area help confirm Svein Estridsson's tenuous
recollections. The
first of these, from between Selker Noor and

Haddeby Noor (and by some considered to show significant traces

of Swedish runic practice), says 'Asfrid made this memorial after
:

Sigtrygg, her son and Gnupa's.' The second, discovered in one of

the bastions of Gottorp Slot, north of Hedeby, says: 'Asfrid,
Odinkar's daughter, made this memorial after king Sigtrygg, her
son and Gnupa's. Gorm carved the runes.' Gnupa is a satisfactory
Norse form of Chnob, and Sigtrygg will serve for Sigerich. So we
have supporting evidence for at least three kings of 'Swedish' origin,
Olaf, Gnupa, and Sigtrygg. Gnupa's wife Asfrid, judging by her
father's name, was a Danish lady —
than which nothing could be
more natural. Finally, there is the testimony of Widukind's late
tenth-century Res gestte Saxonica and other German chronicles, that
to punish the 'Danes' for harrying in Frisia Henry the Fowler in-
vaded their territory in 934, chastised them soundly and forced
them to pay him tribute, and made their king Chnuba submit to
baptism.
1See the passage from the Russian Primary Chronicle quoted on p. 163 below.
It was the genius of Pirenne which in modern times drew attention to the
profound effects of the assertion of Arab power in North Africa, Sicily, and
Spain upon the old and, by implication, new trade-routes between the
Levant and northern and western Europe. (See his Economic and Social History
of Medieval Europe, 1937, and Mohammed and Charlemagne, 1939). For the view
that he overstated a good case, see R. Latouche, The Birth of Western Economy,
(1961, chapter IV, 'The so-called Grand Commerce of the Merovingian
Period', and pp. 165-7.)
N&i
<4

10. LINDHOLM H0JE

An view of the cemetery when cleared of its protecting sand-
aerial

drift. Theoldest section, of the seventh and eighth centuries, is

to the left. On the sloping ground centre and right are viking
graves, of which the skikcetninger are the most striking. Upper
right is the outline large of arectangular farm of the eleventh
century.
II. GAMLA UPPSALA
Aerial view of the three great burial mounds and, in line to the
right, the smaller 'Tingshog' or Thing-mound.

12. THE OLDEST DANISH COINS FROM THE VIKING AGE

Farthest left is a copy of Charlemagne's coinage minted at

(Dor)stat. The others are more independent adaptations.

 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 113

Just how, when, and why the Swedish kingdom in southern

Jutland ended are among the all too many things we do not know.
But end it did. When archbishop Unni renewed the long-inter-
rupted mission of Hamburg and Bremen to the Danes in 935 he
encountered, according to Adam, not a submissive king Gnupa
but an obdurate heathen, king Gorm, whose appearance on the
scene, whatever Unni thought of it, must be warmly welcomed
by students today, for he can hardly be other than Gorm the Old,
husband of Thyri, and father of the renowned Harald Blatonn, or
Bluetooth, and of Gunnhild Mother of Kings, the wife and widow of
Eirik Bloodaxe of Norway. Even so Adam is an inaccurate witness
in that he puts Gorm on the throne too early, and a cantankerous
or biased one in that he describes him as a malignant persecutor of
Christians. Again, it is hard to reconcile Adam's story of a Hardegon
Sveinsson from Nortmannia (Normandy? Norway?) overcoming
Sigerich-Sigtrygg, and so ending the Swedish line in Hedeby, with
the tradition recorded in the Greater Oldfi Saga Tryggvasonar of
how Gorm Hardaknutsson invaded Jutland, slew its king Gnupa,
then another king Silfraskalli, and finally destroyed or routed all

the kings as far as the river Slie in the south. Still,somewhere in

these fecund waters swims the minnow of truth, and we may not
unreasonably conclude that during the years 935-50 Olaf's kin was
supplanted by a father and son, Hardegon-Hardaknut Sveinsson
and Gorm, North Jutland Danes with holdings in Norway, who
made Jelling in Jutland their royal seat, and established that
mighty line of kings, Harald Bluetooth, Svein Forkbeard, Knut the
Great, Hardaknut and Svein Estridsson, whose span of dominion
carries us beyond the Viking Age.
As for Gorm himself, his realm and rule, once we set aside the
dreams and folktales of Jomsvikinga Saga, the bias of Adam, and the
misconceptions of Saxo and Sven Aggeson, who thought him old
and slothful, we are left with very little: he was a king, he was a
pagan, he had offspring, and he raised a memorial stone to his wife
Thyri, who predeceased him. 1 The Greater Oldfi Saga Tryggvasonar
informs us that not only did he clear Jutland of a rash of kinglings
butwon himself a realm in Wendland, too. The 'Hardecnudth
Wrm' of Adam of Bremen ('a savage worm, I say'), perhaps Gorm,
1 The reader is referred to the excellent articles of Asgaut Steinnes, 'Gorm og
Hardegon' in Afhandlinger tilegnedeAxel Linvald, Copenhagen, 1956,
. . .

pp. 327-42; and Bent Ousager, 'Gorm Konge', in Skalk, 1957, nr. 2, pp. 19-30.
 H4 ^ History of the Vikings
son of Hardaknut, was a heathen persecutor of Christian men, who
so angered Henry the Fowler that he invaded Denmark and made
his unheroic adversary sue for peace, whereupon Henry 'drew his
kingdom's boundary at Slesvig, which is now called Hedeby,
established a march [i.e. a borderland], and ordered that a colony of
Saxons should become resident there'. In the light of Henry's
invasion of the same area in 934, when he humbled the heathen
Gnupa, and his own death soon afterwards in 936, there must be a
substantial confusion of events and persons here; but German
pressure was strong upon Denmark at this time, and, to continue
with Gorm, it is unlikely that he was strong enough to resist it

entirely.
Among the best-known and most-discussed runic inscriptions of
Denmark that cut on the smaller of the two memorial stones
is

which stand by the church ofJelling in central Jutland. It reads thus

'King Gorm made this memorial to his wife Thyri, amender [or
glory or adornment] of Denmark.' The historical Thyri (or Thyra)
stands far back in the murk which surrounds her husband; she may
have been the daughter of a jarl of Jutland, she may have been
descended from an English royal house; but later tradition made
much of her beauty, chastity, wisdom, and saintliness, and in the
most literal sense her great works on behalf of Denmark, in that she
was credited, erroneously, with the construction of the Danevirke.
It has been argued that the phrase 'amender (or however else we

translate it) of Denmark' (tanmarkaR but, or in conventional Old

Norse, Danmarkar hot) applies not to Thyri but to Gorm himself,
his welding of minor kingdoms into one, or almost one Denmark,
and his re-establishment of the old southern frontier; but this is
unlikely. In either case this is the first use in native sources of the

term Danmark. 1
But this is not all we learn from the antiquities at Jelling about
Gorm. Still to be seen are the two large mounds or barrows
associated with Gorm and his son Harald Bluetooth, which stand
north and south of the twelfth-century romanesque church; also
the two runic stones raised by the same monarchs, and referred to
in the first sentence of our preceding paragraph. These alone make

1
It had been used in the English form Denemearc in king Alfred's preface to his
translation of Orosius in the 890s. Denimarca occurs in the Chronicle of
Regino of Priim, which was concluded in 908 (ed. Kurze, SSRG, Hanover,
1890).
o "
« 8

O w
o o
3 |

. c

-ST3
n6 A History of the Vikings

an impressive complex, but they are not the whole story. Under
the square choir of the present church have been found the remains
of two wooden buildings, one an oak-built stave church at some
time destroyed by fire, the other a demolished structure which by
virtue of its age and position in front of the north barrow has in the
past not unreasonably been assumed to be a heathen temple, but is,

in fact, likelier to be a post-heathen, i.e. Christian foundation.

Finally, excavation has revealed the outlines of an enclosure, marked
out by large standing stones set in the form of an open-ended tri-
angle enclosing one quarter of the quadrant of a circle, its axis some
two hundred metres long, running north by south from the burial
chamber in the north barrow to the sharp point of the triangle.
There were evidently two main stages in the construction of
Viking Age Jelling. The first was the work of the heathen Gorm,
and includes the triangular enclosure, the northern mound, and the
inscribed memorial stone which he raised after queen Thyri. This
mound contained a large burial chamber lined with wood, intended
for two persons, but when opened in modern times it was empty of
bodies and almost everything else of significance. The second stage
was the work of the Christian Harald, who so to speak took over the
site from his father. It looks as though he built a first wooden church

on what, if not the site of an utterly vanished heathen shrine, may

well have been a place of ancient religious significance, and raised
his southern mound, some seventy metres long and eleven metres
high, where it must obliterate a substantial area of the triangular
enclosure. 1

1The precise nature of the enclosure eludes us. It has been argued by Ejnar
Dyggve in a number of publications (a convenient summary in 'Three
Sanctuaries of Jelling Type', Scripta Minora: Studier utg. av Rung. Humanistiska
Vetemkapssamfundet i Lund, 1959-60: 1) that it was a particular kind of heathen
sanctuary. He believed he had discovered similar V-shaped enclosures at
Tibirke and Tingsted, each with a church near the open northern end. More
recent excavations by Olaf Olsen run counter to Dyggve's conclusions and
dispose of Tibirke and Tingsted. This leaves the triangular stemxtning at
Jelling without parallel, unless we
it as part of a huge boat-shaped grave,
see
or skibsiettring. In any not 'the slightest doubt that it is an
case, there is
illusion to suppose that a V-shaped enclosure, with apex pointing south,
represents a particular type of pagan cult site. This leaves the impressive
enclosure by the north barrow at Jelling, but whether this is a boat-shaped
burial or not, it is above all a monument to the dead and not a ritual place for
the living.' (Olaf Olsen, Horg, Hop og Kirke, Copenhagen, 1966, p. 288.)
For the unlikelihood of a wooden heathen temple on the site of the
 Denmark to the Death ofGorm the Old 117

Presumably he would remove his parents' bodies from the double

burial chamber in the northern mound to his new church. For
his Christian mother he would find this a compulsive duty; while
as for his father, there is good analogy for moving a well-loved
pagan into holy ground. The southern mound was not built as a
grave but as a memorial or cenotaph, to whom we do not know. 1
On its summit there may possibly have been a watch-tower. One
thing still remained to do: to match, or rather outmatch, Gorm's
runic stone. So near the church, and between the mounds, he had
raised a magnificent stone carved and inscribed on three sides ; one of
them with a figure of Christ, the oldest such representation in Den-
mark; the second portraying a great beast locked in struggle with a
snake; and the third carrying the bulk of an inscription which
reads in its entirety: 'King Harald had this memorial made for
Gorm his father and Thyri his mother: that Harald who won for
himself all Denmark and Norway, and made the Danes Christian.'
It is the background of these expansive claims to glory which we
must next consider.

same work. 'In Denmark the excavation carried out by

Jelling church, see the
Ejnar Dyggve from 1947-195 1 at Jelling Church revealed faint traces of two
wooden buildings on the site, the earlier of which was claimed by Dyggve
to be a temple from the Viking period. More recent excavations in Danish
churches have established that two wooden churches frequently preceded a
Romanesque church on the site, and in view of this it seems more reasonable
to assume that the earlier wooden building at Jelling was in fact the first
church on this site. A complementary excavation carried out in 1965 by
Knud. J. Krogh has substantiated this assumption.' (English Summary, p.
286.) Mr. Krogh has now summarized his views in 'Kirken Mellem Hojene',
Skalk, 1966, nr. 2, pp. 5-10.

1 There is nothing strange in this. The mightiest of all northern howes,

Raknehaugen in the well-knit Raumarike, twenty-two miles north-east of
Oslo, over a hundred metres in diameter and some eighteen metres high, is
an empty cenotaph. Farmanshaugen by Jarlsberg near the Tunsbergsfjord,
and Sutton Hoo in East Anglia likewise appear to be cenotaphs, not burial
mounds.
4. Denmark and Norway from the
Accession of Harald Bluetooth to the
Death of Olaf Tryggvason (c. 950-1000)

iHE EXTENT OF DANISH INFLUENCE IN NORWAY,

considerable though it hard to define in any detail right down
was, is

to the middle of the tenth century, when it grows clearer, or at any

rate more demonstrative, in part through Harald Bluetooth's
strongly incised claim to have won Norway as well as all Denmark
for himself, in part through certain sparse winnowings from the
copious but late and untrustworthy West Norse and more specific-
ally Icelandic written sources. For the Danish part of Harald's
claim, we judge that his father Gorm was dead by 950 at the latest,
and that Harald may have enjoyed a good deal of authority during
his father's later years. With an eye to the Empire and political
reality, he seems to have weighed the advantages to himself and to
Denmark of the Christianity to which Gorm was unresponsive, and
authorized Christians to worship publicly in Jutland. His prestige
was high from the moment of his accession. Other kings, like
Godfred and Horik the Elder during the ninth century, may have
enjoyed sole dominion over the Danish realm, but to some extent
their claim must be based on fair assumption and the absence of a
named rival. In Harald Bluetooth's case there is no room for doubt.
He ruled alone, and an attack upon Jutland, the islands or Skane,
by anybody and from any direction, was an attack upon Harald and
dealt with by him as such.
But his power was not without check, and his boundaries were
less than inviolate. In 954 or a little later Hakon the Good of
Norway ravaged the coasts of Jutland, Zealand, and the Danish
lands in Sweden; and to the end of his reign Harald was subject to
diplomatic, ecclesiastical, and military pressures from the German
 Denmark and Norway c. Q50-1000 119

emperors ruling south of him. But Norwegian and German were

foes from outside, not of his own people; and when much later, in
the years of his decline, power was wrenched from his hand, the
inheritor was once again a sole king, his son Svein Forkbeard, the
conqueror of England.
When Hakon the Good, son of Harald Fairhair and foster-son
of Athelstan king of England, by sea-power, good timing, and the
support ofjarl Sigurd of Hladir seized power in south-west Norway
in the 940s and drove out his brother Eirik Bloodaxe, the Yngling
interest was strongly reaffirmed. His change of religion
there
might be expected to ensure his denigration by later and Christian
historians; but, in fact, Hakon's reputation is that of a purposeful
but humane king, attached to the principles of law, and desirous of
peace and order. He had a strong sense of what was practicable, and
could trim his ambitions to match his prospects. Thus he confirmed
Sigurd in his overlordship of the Trondelag, and allowed two of his
own nephews, Tryggvi Olafsson and Gudrod Bjarnarson, to rule as
sub-kings over part of eastern Norway. His power was based on the
royal lands of the south-west and an amicable arrangement with
jarl Sigurd of the Trondelag. His grasp of political reality was

shown not least in respect of religion. Hakon was a Christian, come

from Christian England, and desirous of introducing Christianity
into his kingdom. But once he found the new religion obnoxious to
the great majority of his subjects he promptly embraced the old.
No king acquires, and still less retains, the title of 'Good' with-
out merit, and on the evidence of the Bersoglivisur or Plainspeaking
Verses of Sighvat Thordarson (c. 1038) Hakon acquired it early.
Flis fame with posterity rests traditionally on his prowess as a law-

giver and the land's defender. Agrip, Fagrskinna, and Heimskringla

credit him with devising the Gulathing Law for the fylkir of
Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn, and the Firths, and with the help of
jarlSigurd of Hladir establishing the Frostathing Law for the fylkir
of the Trondelag together with those of Nordmoer, Naumudal, and,
later, Raumsdal, too. The Plainspeaking Verses praise him for both
law and justice. These are large claims, and not all verifiable, but it
is likely that he fostered and made use of the old supra-Things,

making them consultative and representative bodies with which

the monarchy could treat in their several regions, and so seek both
legal and popular acceptance for measures of national as well as
local purport. The closer integration of the fylkir to form large
120 A History of the Vikings
 Denmark and Norway c. g$o-iooo 121

Danger was to be looked for from the south, from Denmark; to

meet it he reorganized his coastal defences, in part by a system of
beacons, in part by dividing the coastal districts and 'as far inland
as the salmon swims farthest upstream' into skipreidur, ship levies,
comparable to the Danish skipcen and the Swedish skipslag, and
organized shire by shire. What we are not clear about is how
systematized this was, and to what extent it had a legal and
political sanction. The right to levy men, ships, provisions, and
money for war must be sought by any northern king whose
ambitions extended beyond his patrimony, but it was a right won
very slowly in Scandinavia, and we have to wait till the beginning
of the eleventh century (some would say much later), and the
military and naval dispositions of Svein and Knut, so significantly
related to England, before it grew effective. We must either interpret
the term 'leidang' (leidangr, Danish letting), naval levy, in a very
general way in late written sources dealing with the Viking Age or,
preferably, consider it an anachronism foisted in by analogy with
much later times. The same may be true of the 'hird' (bird), the
private army maintained by a king or other great man.
But Danish ambitions in Norway were not to be foiled by laws,
beacons, or levies. In the nature of things Harald Bluetooth had
territorial claims there, and by 955 was under compulsion to
implement them. When Eirik Bloodaxe met his death in battle at
Stainmore in Northumberland in 954, his widow Gunnhild fled
with her sons to find succour at her brother Harald' s court in
Jutland. The recovery of a kingdom in Norway for these same sons
was a justifiable project for a mother and a prudent for an uncle.
About Gunnhild, unfortunately, we know next to nothing, her
image is so consistently distorted by the written sources, which
show her clear-headed, hard-hearted, retentive of personal loves and
hates, and as wife and widow wedded to policies of disaster; while
her sons were turbulent, self-seeking, treacherous, and brave. The
harsher of these adjectives arise out of the picture of Eirik, Gunn-
hild, and their sons supplied by twelfth- and thirteenth-century
Icelandic historians, more especially by Snorri Sturluson in his
Heimskringla and Egih Saga, and are most profitably regarded as the
penalty paid by those who are not of the poets' party. 1 The eldest

1 The and growth of the hostile Icelandic tradition relating to Gunn-

origin
hild, Eirik Bloodaxe, and their sons cannot be fully determined, but it
reached full flower with Snorri Sturluson in the two works named. Instead
122 A History of the Vikings
of Eirik's sons, Harald Greycloak or Greypelt (grdfeldr), was clearly
a man of character and authority. In any case, Harald Bluetooth's
support for his nephews was easily secured: it would suit him to
see the strong, sagacious, and at times militant Hakon dispossessed
by any rival whatsoever. And the mere act of restoring the sons of
Eirikwould assert his overlordship of them and their territories
alike.
The opening rounds of the Danish-Norwegian conflict went to
Hakon. He repelled Danish attacks on the Vik, set up strong vice-
roys, and carried the war to Denmark itself, with raids on Jutland
and Zealand and an exaction of tribute from Skane. Three times
thereafter the sons of Eirik made assaults on Norway. 1 The third
time they came was to the island of Stord, off the mouth of the
Hardangerfjord, and here at Fitjar Hakon's luck ran out. He
suffered a mortal wound and lost his kingdom to those who were
at once his bitterest foes and closest kinsmen. His court poet,

of a Danish princess nurtured in courts, he made her the daughter of Ozur

Toti of Halogaland, and had Eirik find her up in Finnmark, where she was
the beautiful neophyte of two Lapp magicians. She helped him murder them
and became his queen. Thereafter her ambitions for him, and in turn for their
sons, made her the evil genius of them all, and of Norway, too. Like most
beautiful sorceresses, she was beautifully amorous, especially (according to
Icelandic sources) of handsome young Icelanders, and her favours as she grew
older were liable to cost them their happiness, hopes, heads, or some other
significant trifle. How this can be reconciled with her loyalty to her husband
no saga attempts to explain. Yet for all his slanders Snorri was clearly
fascinated by what his imagination made of her. Wicked she might be, but
it is a regal lady who lives in his pages. In Egi/s Saga, we assume, he had need

of strong, unscrupulous, and at times spell- weaving rulers in Norway and at

York, to explain the defeats and expulsions of his own heroic ancestors, and
from a few hints in history and tradition he created them. One wonders who
among his relations or acquaintance supplied him with a model for the Kings'
Mother? In fact, there is no evidence that Eirik, Gunnhild, and their royal
brood were greedier, crueller, more devious or ambitious than their fellow
contenders for rank and riches in Norway.

1 Early historians see this train of events in different ways. The Ilistoria of
Theodoricus tells of a five-year war but only one battle; the Historia Norwegiae
A
and Fagrskinna speak of two battles; grip and Heimskringla of three; Saxo of
one. But all agree on the outcome of the struggle, the death of Hakon, and
the accession of Harald Greycloak. See A. Campbell, 'Saxo Grammaticus and
Scandinavian Historical Tradition', Saga-Book, XIII, I (1946), pp. 5-7, and
Bjarni AQalbjarnarson (ed.), Heimskringla, Reykjavik, 1946, I, lxxxv-vii.
 Denmark and Norway c. g^o-iooo 123

Eyvind the Plagiarist (Skdldaspllir), sounded more than official

notes of grief, praise, and foreboding in his Hdkonarmal, whose last

verses are these:

Unbound
Against the world of men
The Fenris-wolf shall fare,
Before a king so good and true
Shall fill his empty place.

Cattle die,
Kinsmen die,
Land and realm lie waste;
Since Hakon's sped to the heathen gods
Many a man's in thrall.

The king's body was borne to Saeheim in North Hordaland, where

he was laid to rest in a howe, in full armour and his richest array.
With splendid rites his people sped him on his way to Odinn, and
the once-Christian king, now praised as the defender of temples,
and welcome to the ^Esir, joined his eight heathen brothers, the
sons of Harald Fairhair, in Valhalla.
This was c. 960-5. The five sons of Eirik returned to Norway,
together with their mother Gunnhild, now fairly to be entitled
konungamodir, Mother of Kings. Hakon's nephew Tryggvi Olafsson
still held his eastern territories and Gudrod Bjarnarson ruled over

Vestfold. North, in Trondheim province, jarl Sigurd held sway.

17. A HERO ENTERS VALHALLA

Motif from a Gotland pictured stone.
124 A History of the Fi kings

Harald Greycloak was paramount in the central and south-western

provinces only, and with four royal brothers to be provided for it

might well have looked as though Norway must revert to what it

had been before the unifying campaigns of Harald Fairhair. In fact,
this did not happen. Greycloak was bent on conquest not bargain-
ings, on growth not dismemberment, and in this he received the
support of his brothers and, we are invited to believe, the encourage-
ment and advice of his mother. But he would not succeed in
emulating his grandfather's feats in Norway, and in reputation has
paid the full price of failure like Eirik, his father, he was short on
:

luck or judgement, and after a good start the joint power of Harald
Bluetooth and the Hladir jarls took him in a vice, at a time when he
had grown too strong for their good and not strong enough for his
own. His gifts and accomplishments were many; he is thought to
have been the first king of Norway to lead an expedition to the fur-
bearing areas north of northern Halogaland and onwards to the
waters of the White Sea, a region and enterprise hitherto usurped
by or delegated to the chieftains of the north; and after a few years'
campaigning he appeared to have destroyed his chief enemies in
western and southern Norway. Why then did he fail?
We can only speculate. He and his brothers had won their
kingdoms with the help of the Danes, and for some Norwegians the
shadow of Harald Bluetooth maybe hung over and disfigured them.
Then, like Hakon the Good, Greycloak was a Christian, and like
him unable to make much impression on his heathen subjects; but
whereas Hakon bowed to the inevitable Greycloak persisted in well-
doing, and with his brothers broke up the sacrifices and despoiled
the sacred places, thus angering both gods and men. Men could do
little except grumble and hope for a change, but the ^Esir defended

themselves with bad harvests, bad fishing, bad weather. The snow
lay through midsummer and cows stayed in stall as north among
—
the Lapps which may be a poetic way of saying that the all-
important farmer class felt itself pinched and alienated. There were
still some attached to the memory of the good Hakon, and far more

devoted to the cause of the jarls of Hladir up in the traditionally

separatist Trondelag — to Sigurd till the Eirikssons slew him, and
thereafter to his son jarl Hakon. Nor was the sudden destruction of
the regional kings Tryggvi and Gudrod down in the Vik as clever
as the brothers thought it. The Danish king was sensitive to every
happening in that Danish sphere of influence, and after its sequestra-
 Denmark and Norway c. g$o-iooo 125

tion his love for Greycloak grew cooler. Soon we findJiiiiljQrJLterms

of friendship or alliance with none other than jarl Hakon of Hladir,
whichlecT in its turn to the death of Greycloak, who was caught
(the written sources say betrayed) off Hals at the narrow eastern
entrance of the Jjmfjord. in north-east Jutland, overborne by superior
force, and killed. j$ %V -
,"

e
The more profitable areas of Norwavwerenow divided between
HlaHiVs jarl ancTtrie king of Denmarkffiakon Vaj^hold the seyen^
western provinces of Norway from Ropifanato Nordmoer as the
kihgfsliege, and be sole master of the Trondelag, while king Harald
took the eastern provinces, the Vik and Uppland. This we assume,
together with Hakon's pledge of allegiance, was the basis of his
claim toJiave made Norway his. There was tribute to be paid we —
have a kenning for Norway as 'Harald' s hawk-isle', a picturesque
—
acknowledgement of his overlordship there but in the matter of
revenues Hakon was to fare handsomely. Gunnhild and her two
surviving sons fled to the Orkneys; for a while they plagued the
Norwegian coasts (it was some twenty-five years later, in the days
of Olaf Tryggvason, that Gudrod the last of them was killed while
raiding there), but they got no footing. Hakon never took the title
of king; he was jarl Hakon for the rest of his life, and for most of it
the effective ruler of western Norway. It is uncertain how long he
continued to pay tribute to king Harald, and the fact that Hakon
was a heathen devoted to the old gods was as a hair on the tongue
of the Dane. He restored the sacred places the sons of Eirik had
plundered, and maintained the sacrifices. The yEsir were not
ungrateful; they sent him fine weather and good crops, and in the
first winter of his rule the herrings came in shoals everywhere along

the coasts.
For a while he gave king Harald military service. From the
beginning of his reign, as we have noticed, the king was subject to
German pressure. Like Henry the Fowler before him, Otto I was
an active champion of Christianity, and when in 948 pope Agapetus
addressed a bull to Adaldag archbishop of Hamburg confirming that
he was head of the Church in Denmark, with a right to appoint
bishops there, we have it on the authority of Adam of Bremen that
Otto was much to the fore in defining the first three Danish dioceses
of Hedeby, Ribe, and Arhus, all in Jutland. Their bishops, Hored,
Liafdag, and Reginbrand, attended the ecclesiastical conference held
at Ingelheim that same year. Judging by their names, they were not
126 A History of the Vikings
all three Danes. In 965 Otto exempted the three churches from
imperial taxes on their lands, in a missive which like so many church
documents of the time may be a forgery, may be a recognition of the
fact that the taxes had anyhow proved impossible to collect, or may
be a tactical assertion that Otto regarded these lands (and by
implication Jutland, if not the whole of Denmark) as being under
his suzerainty. To find a reason for this last we must look back to
the year 960 or so, when Harald formally received the Christian
faith. The circumstances in which he did so are confused by bad

history and good legend, but the conversion itself is not in doubt.
According to a confused Adam (II, in), it was part of the price
paid for an unsuccessful war against the emperor; according to
Widukind's Chronicle (HI, 65) it arose out of a debate at Harald's
court as to the nature and worship of gods. The Danes agreed that
Christ was a god, but a god less powerful and manifest than the
^Esir, whereas the missionary Poppo maintained that there was but
one God, the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and
that the yEsir were a pack of demons. Harald challenged him to
prove his faith by ordeal, to which the bishop, confident of his non-
combustibility, assented. The next day he underwent ordeal by
white-hot iron glove, and when the king saw that his hand was
undamaged, not surprisingly he conceded that Christ was the one
true God, and he alone should be worshipped in Denmark. Yet on
the whole it was a wasteful miracle, for by this time there must have
been many Christians in Denmark, especially in the marts and
havens, partly through the influx of traders and travellers, partly as
a result of the missions from Hamburg-Bremen, partly by virtue of
the Christianized Danes of the Danelaw with their substantial
influence on the Danish homeland.
However, the Danish king had ambitions and spheres of interest
which made a degree of conflict between Denmark and the Empire
unavoidable. It is fairly certain that bishop Poppo came to Denmark
at the instigation of Otto, and more than likely that when Harald
accepted the Christian faith this was interpreted in Germany as an
acknowledgement of Otto's authority, if not his overlordship. About
the year 960 Harald was busied with Norway, was by no means
without plans to extend his domains in Sweden, and was active in
Wendland. It was important for him to secure his southern frontier
with the Empire; and to embrace Christianity and avoid contention
with the emperor was the simplest and most efficacious way of
 Denmark and Norway c. 950-1000 127

doing so, since it deprived Otto of his two best excuses for aggres-
sion. For at least a decade Harald showed himself adept at forward-
ing his own schemes without too overtly upsetting those of Otto.
The Slavonic Wends, holding sway along the south Baltic coast from
Denmark to the Vistula, offered him prospects both peaceful and
profitable. They were hunters, farmers, and pastoralists, on terms
of mutual detestation with their German neighbours, who more or
less thought of them as animals to be hunted and slaves to be sold.
Harald appears to have married at least twice, and the last of his
wives, wed probably after 965, was a Wendish princess. A runic
stone found in the west wall of Sender Vissing church, in mid-
eastern Jutland, bears the inscription, 'Tovi [or Tova], Mistivoj's
daughter, wife of Harald the Good, Gorm's son, had this memorial
made for her mother'. A further twofold tradition associates Harald
with Wendland: it was to Wendland that he fled for shelter from
his son Svein near the end of his life, and it was in Wendland that he
is credited with establishing the viking fortress of Jomsborg, the

home of the legendary Jomsvikings. This if it stood anywhere

stood at the mouth of the Oder, probably on its eastern outlet, the
Dievenov, on the site of the little town now known as Wollin, the
Jumne of Adam of Bremen. Pace Adam, it was not 'the largest town
in Europe', and no trace has been found there of its artificial harbour
for 360 warships, or of a citadel, unless the near-by hill of Silberberg
is accepted as the site of such; but there were Norsemen there

around the year 1000, and the archaeological finds reveal a mixed
population of vikings and Slavs. It is difficult, indeed impossible, to
accept saga notions of Jomsborg as a warrior community of men
between the ages of 18 and 50, their services for sale to the highest
bidder, bound by iron laws to keep peace among themselves and
avenge each other's death, with a fortress of their own holding
inside which no woman was ever allowed; but that Harald Blue-
tooth by persuasion or force imposed a market-place with its Danish
garrison on the Wends in the interests of trade and an expansionist
policy is credible enough. Misconceptions and pseudo-heroic
(which means romantic) embroidery of a later age would do the
rest. 1

1 The best account of the town is that of the excavators, O. Kunkel and K. A.
t
Wilde, Jumne, Vineta\ Jomsburg, Julin: Wollin, Stettin, 1941. There is a
brief summary for the English reader in N. F. Blake, The Saga of the Joms-
vikings, 1962, pp. xii-xv. There is no doubting the fictional nature of Joms-
128 A History of the Vikings
A tenuous tradition preserves remembrance of a Danish exploit
in Sweden during Harald's reign. Styrbjorn Starki, nephew of the
Swedish king Eirik Sigrsadl (the Victorious), and husband of Thyri,
Harald's daughter, led an expedition in which vikings from Joms-
borg-Wollin or Danes generally were involved, against his uncle
and sought to deprive him of his kingdom. He advanced as far as
Uppsala, where he was routed with heavy losses. He seems to have
been badly let down by his Danish auxiliaries. Several runic stones
from Skane, the Danish part of Sweden, commemorate men who
did not flee at Uppsala, but fought so long as they held weapon in
hand, and may (or on the other hand may not) 1 refer to this disaster.
Disaster to the Danes, that is, for it was from this encounter that
king Eirik of Sweden earned his nickname, 'the Victorious'.
Harald's relations with the emperor Otto I, though less than
whole-heartedly obedient, had all this while stayed peaceful. When
the emperor returned from Italy to Germany in 972-3, Harald was
one of a number of monarchs who did him homage at Quedlinburg.
A few months later Otto was dead, and Harald wasted no time in
testing the mettle of his successor Otto II by some raids on Holstein.
This was a mistake. Otto drew together a big army, including
Saxons, Franks, Frisians, even Wends, and advanced upon Hedeby
and the ramparts of the Danevirke. Harald invoked his rights with
jarl Hakon, who came swiftly south with his Norwegians and

manned a portion of the walls. Norse poetry and saga record their
unbreakable defence, but the contemporary German chroniclers
seem not to have heard of it. What they record is that the emperor
broke through the Danevirke, pursued his enemies far into Jutland,
imposed his own terms of peace, and built a fortress to secure the
'mark' or march established almost fifty years earlier by Henry the
Fowler. In addition we may conclude that it was under German
pressure that king Harald now took steps to evangelize Norway.
But the unnatural honeymoon between Denmark and Norway was
already over, the heathen Hakon was back in the heathen Trondelag,

vlkinga Saga, but Lauritz Weibull's denial that Jomsborg and the Jomsvikings
ever existed {Kritiska undersiikningar, pp. 178-95, Historisk-kritisk metod, pp.
79-88; see the reprints in Nordisk Historia, I, 349-58, 432-55) has not univers-
ally commended itself. But it has induced a proper caution and prudence.
There are some good comments in Bjarni AQalbjarnarson, Heimskringla, I,

cxi-ii and 272 ff.

1 L. Weibull, Nordisk Historia, I, pp. 293-300, 411-16, 436.

 Denmark and Norway c. Q50-1000 129

and in the west and north of Norway Christianity made no head-

way. Though no doubt there were converts in king Harald's lands
in the south and east.
Almost a decade passed and Harald Bluetooth was growing blunt
of fang. One more triumph lay ahead of him before he would be
driven to his corner like some broken-toothed old dog. In the 980s
the emperor Otto was involved on behalf of Christendom against
the Saracens in Italy, and in 982 was severely defeated at Cap
Colonne in Calabria. The opportunity was too good to miss. Maybe
it was a Christian scruple which inhibited Harald from conducting

the campaign in person, maybe his authority was now on the wane,
but in 983 the Danes under Svein Forkbeard, his son, captured and
destroyed Otto's fortress in Slesvig and drove the Germans south.
Concurrently his father-in-law, king Mistivoj of Wendland,
invaded Brandenburg, and then or later Holstein, and sent Ham-
burg up in flames. The Germans had no counter for Dane or Wend,
and now, if not before, Harald had won all Denmark for himself.
Within a year or two he had lost it, and sought refuge from his son,
Svein, in Wendland. The likeliest explanation of this astonishing
reversal is that he had by now alienated a significant proportion of
the landowning aristocracy by his policies in respect of religion,
land, and monarchical power. Church and monarchy were the
immediate beneficiaries of their mutual alliance, and there must
have been many men disfavourable to and adversely affected by
Harald's insistence on Christianizing Denmark. Not all of these
could find themselves a new life overseas. They must bide their time
at home, till Harald's declining powers and the increasing stature
of the warlike Svein offered them their opportunity of change. It is
likely, too, that various great lords found their ancient rights in
land threatened and in some cases diminished. As in Norway, a
king must eat, and the bigger the king the bigger his appetite.
Harald may also have been called upon to pay, undeservedly, for the
long-continued German pressure upon Denmark, whose worst effects
he seems, in fact, to have evaded by tact, gesture, and occasional
concession. Patience under duress is rarely appreciated by the
politically immature. It did not help that the Church in Denmark
had been foisted on her from Germany and continued to look to
Germany and serve German interests. Finally Harald had lost face
in his dealings with Norway and jarl Hakon. Even so, his flight to
Wendland surprises. According to Adam of Bremen and the
130 A History of the Vikings
Encomium Emmae, he was wounded in battle against his son Svein,
fled to the Slavs (Adam: ad civitatem Sclavorum quae lumne dicitur),
and died within a few days. His body was carried home to Denmark
and buried in his church of Roskilde. The fictitious Jomsvikinga
Saga gives him a less credible and the erratic Saxo a more gruesome
end.
Some time in the latter part of his reign Harald, a late tradition
would have us had made a last and famous effort to dash
believe,
down his former confederateand present enemy jarl Hakon. 1 A
naval expedition left the south presumably for Hladir, and the
result was the battle of Hjorungavag. The attacking force consisted
of Danes with some Wends, but late tradition as overwhelmingly
as inaccurately attributed the exploit to Jomsborg vikings from
Wendland. A fleet said to be of sixty ships reached or was assembled
at the Limfjord, and from there sailed north to Horundarfjord in
Norway, just south of the modern Alesund. There, at Hjorungavag,
they blundered into the prepared position of a far more powerful
fleet commanded by Hakon, with the help of his son, the valiant
Eirik. Whatever the fictions that soon engirt it, and they were
many, the sea-fight that followed was a crushing defeat for the
Danes, and jarlHakon seems not to have been under serious threat
from that quarter again.
1
Just when is uncertain. Snorri, who devoted to this event one of the most
elaborate set-pieces of his Heimskringla, ascribes it to the winter of 994-5, in
the reign of king Svein, but this is probably too late. Saxo, not that he is
over-reliable, places it in the reign of king Harald, and the historian P. A.
Munch, Det 1852-63, I
norske Folks Historie, Christiania, 2, 103-6, found
:

reasons why we should accept this. But it is not possible to find a date less
generalized than 974-83. As for the campaign itself, the flamboyant narrative
of Jomsvikinga Saga must be set aside, Heimskringla treated with distrust, and
most reliance placed upon the skaldic verses incorporated in Snorri's narrative.
Lauritz Weibull, Nordisk Historia, I, 349-58, 432-3, 450-5, allows neither the
(to his mind Jomsborg and Jomsvikings, nor Harald Bluetooth, any
fictional)
share in the encounter, and it is true that the skaldic verses mention none of

them, nor any other Danish king. In WeibulPs opinion, expressed in uncom-
promising terms, Harald's connection with Hjorungavag was first put about
by Saxo and P. A. Munch. It does, however, require a highly debatable
textual emendation of Vinda sinni, 'band of Wends' (verse 141) to eliminate
that people. Nor is Eydonum, 'Danes of the isles', acceptable for eydondum,
'destroyers, vikings' (verse 139). Hjorungavag was a fight between jarl
Hakon and the Danes, who received some help from the Wends. Bjarni
Aftalbjarnarson, Heimskringla, I, cix-xii, 278-86, offers his usual clear and
unheated summary.
 Denmark and Norway c. g 50-1000 131

But it was not in Hakon's stars to die old and honoured, at

peace with the gods and men. Yet the reasons for the decline in his
popularity and authority offered by written sources are plainly
inadequate. According to Snorri, a great change took place in him;
like some cautionary figure in old legend, an Ermanaric or Heremod,
he grew arrogant and careless of good name; the Trond farmers
found him harsh and greedy, and the great men felt themselves
under threat; he began to break the laws he should have main-
tained, and his appetite for women, by monkish reckoning always
excessive, was now grown inordinate. Everywhere there was dis-
content at his various oppressions. Even the Trends, loyal but never
subservient, were muttering in each other's ear. Men's minds were
turning from the jarl to the race of Harald Fairhair, from an ugly
present to a golden past. 'And now things took an ill turn for the
jarl, in that a great leader arrived in the land just as the farmers fell

out with him.'

This was the most spectacular viking of the age, Harald's great-
grandson, Olaf Tryggvason. He was the son of that Tryggvi
Olafsson, king over part of the Oslofjord in Hakon the Good's day,
who had been tricked and killed by the sons of Eirik shortly before
Olaf was born. His mother Astrid, like some fair, distressed heroine
of folktale, escaped the massacre and fled to a small island in a lake
where she gave birth to her son, traditionally in the year 968-9. 1
None desired her death more ardently than that wicked ogress of
folktale, Gunnhild Mother of Kings, but with her infant son, her
foster-father Thorolf Lousebeard, and a couple of her women, she
found various hiding-places in eastern Norway and Sweden till the
boy was three years old. Her brother Sigurd was a man of rank at the
court of Valdimar 'king of Holmgard', i.e. that Valdimar (Vladimir)

who achieved power at Novgorod in 972 and in 980 became Grand

Duke (Great Prince) of Kiev and of all Russia. The hard-pressed
band of fugitives set off to find him, but as they sailed east across the
Baltic were captured by pirates from Esthonia, and sold into slavery.
Astrid's (and Olaf 's) foster-father they killed because he looked too
old for work. Six years later Sigurd, in Esthonia on his royal master's
business, saw this handsome young foreigner in a market-place,
inquired who he was, ransomed him, and took him back to Holm-
1 Agrip tells us that Olaf was 3 years old when his father was killed. That he
was named Olaf after his grandfather suggests that his father was still alive
at the time of his birth.
132 A History of the Vikings
gard, Novgorod. Here he had the good fortune one day to recognize
the man who had killed his foster-father, and promptly sank his
hand-axe into the slaver's brain, a deed which secured him the brief
displeasure of a populace inclined to fair trade and the lasting regard
of a queen inclined to fair men. Soon she and Sigurd brought him
into the king's good books; he throve in all manly accomplishments,
and was prominent in the king's battles. When he was 18 he began
his viking career with a cruise in the Baltic. First he attacked the
island of Bornholm and was then storm-driven to Wendland, where
he engaged the favourable attention of another noble lady, Geira
daughter of king Boleslav (Miesco?), who married him. Three years
later she died of a sickness, and Olaf went back to viking. So far,
clearly, Olaf's story owes almost everything to the patterns of
legend and his biographers' notions of the kind of youth they would
wish so gallant and colourful a man to have had, but that he grew
to manhood in Russia, was early a Baltic viking, and visited Wend-
land, is all likely to be right. More certainly, he was fighting in the
British Isles in the early 990s, possibly at Maldon in 991, assuredly
as an ally or follower of the Danish king Svein Forkbeard in 994.
According to Snorri his raids were as widespread as Northumbria,
Scotland, the Hebrides, Man, Ireland, Wales, and Cumberland, with
France (Valland) thrown in for good measure. We lack the details, but
in his early twenties Olafwas already a leader of rank and reputation,
and his men shared in some huge Danegelds. Shortly before 995 he
adopted the Christian religion. A hard-worked legend informs us
that he was converted by a wise hermit in the Scillies; the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle^ more credibly, reports that he received baptism
shortly after the unsuccessful attack on London in 994 and the
subsequent Danegeld of 16,000 pounds of silver. 'Then the king
sent bishop ^Elfeah and ealdorman iEthelweard to fetch king Anlaf
[Olaf], and hostages were sent meanwhile to the ships. They
conducted king Anlaf with great ceremony to the king at Andover,
and the king stood sponsor for him at confirmation, and gave him
royal gifts ; whereupon Anlaf gave him his word, and kept it to
boot, that he would never come to England as an enemy again.'
This was the moment which the triumphant viking chose for
his return to Norway. He was rich, successful, and popular, fortified
with a twofold sense of mission to recover the kingdom of his
:

forebears and convert it to Christianity. Also he had intelligence of

Hakon's weakening position at home, and that catastrophic decline
 Denmark and Norway c. Q50-1000 133

in his prestige among the Tronds which with all his named faults,
and bad press from Christian sagamen, we still find it hard to
his
account for. Yet the explanation may be a simple one, and in accord
with the central facts of Norwegian tenth-century history. The long
rivalry between the northern jarls and the Ynglings, and the con-
stantly assertive power of the Vestland and the Vik, are likelier
reasons for Hakon's overthrow than lechery and lawlessness. We are
almost completely in the dark regarding the political permutations
—
of his later years, but one thing seems clear he received no help
from anywhere against Olaf's bid for power. With a strong fleet,
which gave him the power to strike when and where he liked, and a
following of war-hardened vikings, as well as a complement of
English or English-trained priests, Olaf is said to have sailed for
home by way of the Orkneys. He came to land at Moster, on one
of the southern entrances to the Hardangerfjord, and from there
moved north with speed. Either Hakon was by now in dishonoured
flight, or (more likely) he was taken completely by surprise.
Opposition was slight and quickly brushed aside, and the local
landowners and farmers came to meet Olaf and offer him allegiance.
Late sources record that Hakon and his thrall Kark had sought
refuge in Gaulardal with his mistress Thora of Rimul, and there is
an enduring tradition that during a night of horror the thrall cut

his master's throat. Soon, at the ThingTrondheim, Olaf was

in
proclaimed king, as his great-grandfather Harald Fairhair had been.
Later, the Uppland districts and the shires down in the Oslofjord,
so long under the overlordship of the king of Denmark, are said to
have recognized his sovereignty.
But there was to be no golden age. For all the panegyrics of his
thirteenth-century admirers, the reign of Olaf Tryggvason was
short and filled with stresses. We are freely informed as to his
handsome person, gallant spirit, physical strength, and bodily feats;
his labours for Norway and achievements for the Faith are generously
expounded; and the events of his life, from his folktale birth to his
legendary death, have been brilliantly recorded. It is the greater
shock, then, to consider how little we really know about him. For
good and bad, he was the stuff legends are made of— and legends can
be heedless of truth. 1
Even in the matter of his Christianity there is a head-on clash
1 For an extended treatment of this theme see my 'The Legendary History
of Olaf Tryggvason', the W. P. Ker lecture for 1967-8, University of Glasgow.
134 -A History of the Vikings

between Adam of Bremen writing c. 1080 and the Icelandic histor-

ians who wrote a hundred and fifty Adam, more than
years later.
normally atrabilious when writing about Olaf, says, 'Some relate
that Olaf had been a Christian, some that he had forsaken Christian-
ity; however, affirm that he was skilled in divination, was an
all,

observer of the lots, and had placed all his hope in the prognostica-

tion of birds. Wherefore, also, did he receive a byname, so that he

was called Craccaben (Crowbone). In fact, as they say, he was also
given to the practice of the magic art and supported as his house-
hold companions all the magicians with whom that land was
overrun, and, deceived by their error, perished' (II, xl (38)).
Norwegian and Icelandic sources say the exact opposite, and are
likely to be right. We need not assume that Olaf had much aware-
ness of the doctrinal aspects of the Christian faith, and on the most
favourable witness he appears little touched by its spiritual values.
But like Hakon the Good and the sons of Eirik Bloodaxe in Norway,
and Harald Bluetooth and Svein Forkbeard in Denmark, he was
alive to the advantages of being part of the Christian community of
Europe; and like other travelled vikings he had observed at first
hand the dignity, wealth, and ceremonial of the Church in other
countries. Here was a splendour, an enrichment and fellowship, from
which the northern barbarian stood excluded. To stand by Thor
and Odinn in these late days was to be a dog howling in the wilder-
ness. To bring the Norwegians to Christ would be followed by
realizable benefits to Norway and Norway's king, and in particular
it put a weapon in his hand against the less accessible and more

unruly parts of the kingdom.

He could expect to meet with most success down in the Vik,
where Harald Bluetooth had already done spade work for the faith.
In the western provinces, the ancient lairs of vikings from Rogaland
to the Firthafylki, men were aware of Christianity from their raids
on Christian countries and the proselytizing of Harald Greycloak;
but in the Trondelag heathendom was stubborn, even rampant,
and farther to the north in Halogaland it was as yet undisturbed. It
is probable that Icelandic historians, having accepted the doubtful

tradition that their own country's conversion was brought about

by Olaf Tryggvason, transferred to him some of the zeal and
achievement of the other Olaf, Haraldsson, king and saint. Thus
they report that the south and south-west both felt his heavy hand,
and that in Trondheim he broke up the altars and knocked down
 Denmark and Norway c. g50-1000 135

the idols. At much the same time he established a small market-

town near the mouth of the river Nid, for he did not fancy Hladir,
with its odour of jarls and stench of graven images. Over the years
this would grow into the royal town of Nidaros, and at length be
renamed Trondheim. Also he strove mightily with the heathen of
Halogaland. And as though this was not enough, we read of him
drawing traders, voyagers, visiting poets, willy-nilly into the ranks
of Christ's army, then packing them off home to spread the glad
tidings. In the course of time he was given credit for Christianizing
Norway (which is an exaggeration), the Shetlands and Faroes
(about which little is known), Iceland (which is overgenerous), and
Greenland (which is wrong). He who
stands before posterity as one
in his day and place was Christ's best hatchet-man, and the
Icelandic retailers of his life approved the role.

By the year 1000 his position could hardly be worse. He was first
and foremost a sea-king, and it was the coastal provinces of the west
and south-west which engaged his attention. The inland regions
saw little of him, and the leading men there, many of them self-
styled kings, still peddled their local ambitions. But the intimidated
west had no love for him either, and a veneer of Christianity did
nothing to bind ruler and ruled in common purpose. The situation
was worst in the Trondelag. To make the Tronds Christian and
obedient he had to live among them, and the longer he did so the
less they liked it. In five short years this splendidly dowered leader
of men, whose reign in its beginning seemed the answer to Norway's
needs, lacked real support throughout his kingdom. In valour a
lion, in wit and resource he was now as a squirrel on the ground.
Meantime his enemies had been busy. These were his former
comrade-in-arms, Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, covetous not only
of his lost provinces in the Oslofjord but of all Norway; Olaf
Skottkonung, the first Swedish king named as overlord of the
Gauts, and greedy to develop realm and trade in a westward
direction; and the dispossessed son of jarl Hakon, the clever and
valiant jarl Eirik. The development of this menacing confederacy
forced Olaf of Norway to act when his power of manoeuvre had
become small. He had to find allies.
About king Svein of Denmark we would be willing to know more
than we do. He was, we believe, foremost in destroying Olaf
Tryggvason; the great camps at Trelleborg, Fyrkat, Odense, and
probably Aggersborg are attributed to him; and he conquered
136 A History of the Viking

England and was accepted as 'full king' there. But at home he

appears something of a northern Laocoon entwined by unfriendly
exempla. Thietmar of Merseburg describes him as rex tyrannus;
Adam of Bremen, unctuously but with venom, presents him as the
central figure in an Old Testament tale of sin, punishment, peni-
tence, redemption the Chronicle of Roskilde supplies him with a
;

forked beard and quotes from Adam; Sven Aggeson polemicizes

against the Chronicle, but is heedless as to sources; Jomsvikinga Saga
is as baseless and furious as ever; and Saxo attempts the grand

consummation of all these, with Svein illustrating the ancient theme

of mutatio morum aut fortunae. The Gesta Cnutonis (c. 1040), while
admirably filled with admiration, is unadmirably short on fact. 1 We
hear of his being kidnapped by Jomsborg vikings, driven from his
kingdom by Eirik (Hericus) the Victorious of Sweden, skulking in
exile in England and Scotland, and marrying the non-existent
Sigrid the Haughty, 2 and can believe none of it. What we can
believe is that he was a man of outstanding quality, and that unlike
Olaf Tryggvason he was tolerant and sensible. He fostered Christian-
ity, to which he was personally not much drawn, in a pragmatic and
effective way; achieved the conquest of England by the classic
procedure of making fewer and less important mistakes than his
enemy; and finally, again unlike Olaf Try ggvason, left a son greater
than himself to continue his policies.
The ruling families of Scandinavia had many close relationships.
Olaf Skottkonung of Sweden was S vein's stepson; Olaf Tryggvason
of Norway was his brother-in-law. Svein's sister Thyri had first
been married to Styrbjorn Starki, the unsuccessful invader of
Sweden, and after his death was bestowed on Boleslav (Burizleif)
the Pole, king of Wendland, whom she detested, first because he was
aheathen and second because he was old. In her distress she fled to
Norway and married Olaf Tryggvason, who was neither. Two other
1
All the above is in Inge Skovgaard-Petersen, 'Sven Tveskxg i den addste
danske historiografi', in Middelalderstudie tileguede Aksel E. Cbristensen, Copen-
hagen, 1966, pp. 1-38.
2 Itwas this same non-existent lady whose face the consort-seeking Olaf
Tryggvason had once slapped, on the curious afterthought, 'And why should
I want marry you, you heathen bitch?' It is noticeable that Snorri Sturlu-
to
son, who life had an understandable liking for women who were pliant,
in
in Heimskringla portrayed many who were masterful: Gunnhild Mother of
Kings, Thyri the wife of Olaf Tryggvason, Astrid his mother, Sigrid the
wife of Kalf Arnarson, and Sigrid the Haughty among them.
 Denmark and Norway c. g 50-1000 137

marriages deserve mention, the first that of Olaf Tryggvason's sister

to Rognvald earl of Vastergotland, a natural enemy of the king of
Sweden, who was thus pushed further in king Svein's direction;
and second the marriage of Svein's daughter Gyda to his ally jarl
Eirik, the exiled son of jarl Hakon of Norway. The pieces were now
on the board, the players confronting each other, and it was the
king of Norway's move.
We are surer of its direction than its purpose. In Oiafs Saga
Tryggvasonar we read that in the summer of the year 1000 Olaf set
sail from Nidaros down the west coast of Norway, collecting
strength on the way, so that he left Norway with a fleet of sixty

warships, including the Crane, the Short Serpent, and the Long
Serpent, this last the most powerful ship in northern waters. With
an attendant train of auxiliaries this brilliant armada crossed the
Kattegat, then entered the 0resund, passed the island of Hven, and
with the low green shores of Zealand and Skane temptingly in
view held south for the opening Baltic, and came by way of Riigen
to the mouth of the Oder. According to Snorri, his business was
with Boleslav the Pole, the father of his first wife Geira and brief
husband of his present wife Thyri. It was at Thyri's instigation he
had come there at all, to recover the property she had left with
Boleslav when she fled his unwelcome embraces. It was a friendly
meeting, and Boleslav paid over the property in full. But it is likely
that Olaf and Thyri had more in mind than this. Olaf needed an ally
more than Thyri a dowry. Thietmar of Merseburg speaks of enmity
between Boleslav and Svein, while the Baltic vikings were always
potential allies for a man who could pay. By Snorri's account the
Danes of Jomsborg-Wollin would betray the returning Olaf and a
mere handful of his ships into an ambush laid by the kings of
Denmark and Sweden and jarl Eirik by the island of Svold off
Riigen. But Adam of Bremen, writing within seventy-five years of
the battle, sees it differently. According to him Olaf Tryggvason
(whose memory he detested for his adherence to the half-hatched
clergy of England rather than to the pure elect of Hamburg-
Bremen) learned at home that the kings of Denmark and Sweden
were in league against him; his ever-ready anger was whetted by his
wife Thyri, so that he assembled a fleet wherewith to chastise the
Danes, and sailed south into the Oresund, where the sound is so
narrow 'that Zealand is in sight from Skane'. In this favourite resort
of pirates the Norwegians were heavily defeated, and king Olaf,
138 A History of the Vikings
unable to get away, plunged into the sea 'and met the death his life
deserved'. The battle took place not far from the modern Halsing-
borg. However, the skaldic verse which celebrates the event helps
convince us that the sea-fight occurred when Olaf was returning
home to Norway from somewhere in the south (presumably Wend-
land). An attractive reconstruction, still leaving much unexplained,
is that Olaf tried to counter the Danish-Swedish-jarl Eirik confeder-
acy by an alliance with a natural enemy of the Danes, Boleslav the
Pole, ruler of Wendland; that the Norwegian ship-levy, or perhaps
his disaffected ships' captains, did not obey his summons to muster;
and that he sailed for his rendezvous with Boleslav with a mere
eleven ships. What followed conformed to the hard rule of viking
politics: a sea-king without sea-power was doomed. Boleslav's
fleet numbered sixty ships, and the viking jarl Sigvaldi may have
been its commander. Either it was this joint fleet of seventy-one
ships which was defeated by the confederates, or Sigvaldi treacher-
ously or in prudence avoided battle, pulled out his ships (he was
reputed to have done much the same thing at Hjorungavag), and
left Olaf to his fate. But the treachery of Sigvaldi may well be an

embroidery on the story. In any case the result was the same after :

a heroic resistance against odds Olaf lost his life and kingdom.
Where the fight took place is uncertain; there are good arguments
for 'by an island' in the Oresund, either Hven or in the old Armager
complex off (the later) Copenhagen, and for an unidentified island of
Svold off Rugen. Earlier tradition favours the Oresund, later
tradition Rugen. 1
For Snorri Sturluson, never servile to fact, the glory of the day,
in victory and defeat, lay with Norway. 2 Danes and Swedes are but
1
Lauritz Weibull's searching study of these problems in his Kritiska under-
sokningar and Historisk-kritisk metod is conveniently assembled in Nordisk
Historia, pp. 313-30 and 440-8.
2 The details of the battle, as they are recounted in Snorri's brilliantly
compulsive narrative, are entirely or in large measure fictitious. For whereas
Adam of Bremen was concerned to denigrate Olaf, Snorri's aim was to glorify
him, to which end he employed what suited him in Scandinavian tradition,
the lore of other lands, and his own powers of literary composition. Thus, the
long-sustained crescendo of interest and suspense as the two kings and jarl
Eirik stand on the island and watch ship after ship come into sight, and the
kings think each one the Long Serpent till jarl Eirik identifies it differently, was
taken immediately from Odd Snorrason and ultimately from the late ninth-
century De Gestis Karoli Magni of the Monk of St. Gall, who tells how
Desiderius king of the Langobards stood with Otkar on a high tower in
 Denmark and Norway c. g$o-iooo 139

18. AFTER SVOLD

the instruments of her fame. Adam, we recall, bestowed all the

laurels upon the Danes. Still, the upshot was the same. The hard-
pressed king, in his scarlet cloak, leapt overboard and was never
seen again. He was wondrous swimmer, and in time there would
a
be tales that he had drawn off his mail-shirt under water and been
rescued by a Wendish ship and carried safe to land. Many men were
held to have encountered him in numerous countries, the Holy
Land among them, but 'Be that as it may,' concluded Snorri, in a
sentence which has so far eluded the correction of the severest
critics of his veracity, 'king Olaf never again returned to his king-
dom in Norway'.

Pavia watching the approach of Charlemagne's army, thought each new-

comer the emperor, and was rhetorically corrected by Otkar. Likewise, Olaf
resorts to epic and saga formula to establish the identity of his adversaries,
the cowardly Danes in the centre, the bowl-licking heathen Swedes on
their right, and the valiant Norwegians under jarl Eirik in the big ships to
port. Even the last unforgettable stroke of dialogue between the desperate
Olaf and his archer Einar Thambarskelfir ('What broke there so loudly?':
'Norway, from your hand, king!') belongs not to history, but with similar
saga laconicisms and famous last words to heroic convention. And, alas,
Einar's late-acquired nickname has nothing to do with ptimb, a bowstring; it
refers to his pendulous and quaggy belly.
140 A History of the Vikings
Not even this was the whole truth. For he would return. Future-
generations would see in him an incarnation of the Norwegian ideal.
But this was and yet to come. The immediate consequences
policy,
of Svold were a renewal of the Danish overlordship in Norway and
S vein's direct acquisition of the Vik; the award to Olaf Skott-
konung of Sweden of territory in the south-east and in the eastern
provinces of Trondheim, part of which he delegated to jarl Eirik's
brother Svein; and the bestowal upon jarl Eirik of all the western
coastal districts. It looked like the familiar pattern of territorial
disintegration, and the reassertion of regional interests, and would
persist till when a new Olaf would arrive in Norway from
1015,
England, and by virtue of his fifteen-year reign, his death, and
sanctification, refurbish the notion of a separate Norwegian kingdom.
III. THE VIKING
MOVEMENT OVERSEAS
1. The Scandinavian Community,
ii: Aspects of Society

-Ln an earlier chapter under this same title we

examined the notion that for all their differences of circumstance
and habitat, their wars, dissensions and rivalries, the Danes, Swedes,
and Norwegians were a meaningful community of peoples. With
the political and dynastic history of the Scandinavian homelands
c. 750-1000 recounted, and the military, economic, and colonial

history of the vikings overseas to be told, this seems the place to

consider certain aspects of Scandinavian life and society which help
correct what otherwise can be too violent or romantic a view of the
viking north.
Viking society conformed to the Indo-European pattern. It was
a class society, carefully organized as such, and the number of
classes was three. There were the unfree, the free, and their rulers.
A tenth-century poem, 1 Rtgspula, the Song of Rig, provides us with a
stylized and memorable account of the origin of these three divinely
ordained classes. In the poem's prose introduction Rig (Rigr, Irish
r/, king, gen. rig) is identified with the god Heimdall, the father of

all mankind. One day (and for the story that follows the poet
invokes ancient tradition) this traveller-god came to a poorish
habitation where dwelt an ancient couple Ai and Edda, Great-
Grandfather and Great-Grandmother. He entered and introduced
himself as Rig. They fed him on coarse, husky bread, and for three
nights he lay down in bed between them. Then he departed. Nine
months later Edda bore a son whose description we have already
noted (see p. 67 above): black-skinned and ugly, with lumpy
knuckles and thick fingers, his back gnarled and his heels long.
They called him Thrall ( J?ra//), and in time he mated with the bandy-
1
This dating is not universally agreed.
146 A History of the Vikings

legged, sunburnt Slavey (Jw) and begat on her litters of children,

among them the boys Noisy, Byreboy, Roughneck, Horsefly, and
the girls Lazybones, Beanpole, Fatty, and their like. Between them

Thrall, Slavey, and their brood do the dirty work, carry loads, lug
firewood, dung fields, feed pigs, cut peat, and from them are
descended the race and varieties of thralls.
Meantime Rig had gone his ways and reached a second, more
commodious home, where dwelt another couple, An" and Amma,
Grandfather and Grandmother. The man was making a loom, the
woman spinning and weaving. Rig gave them good advice, and for
three nights lay down in bed between them. Then he departed.
Nine months later Amma bore a son, ruddy, fresh-faced, and with
sparkling eyes. They called him Freeman or Peasant {Karl) and in
time he married Daughter-in-law (Snor), and by her had many
children, among them the boys Strongbeard, Husbandman, Holder,
and Smith, and the girls Prettyface, Maiden, Capable, and their like.
Karl's work was to tame oxen, build houses, barns and wagons,
make and handle the plough; his wife managed the household,
carried keys, and held the purse-strings; it was she who provided
meals and clothes for her family. From them are descended the race
and varieties of free men.
Once more Rig had gone his ways, this time to reach a splendid
hall where dwelt a third couple, Father and Mother (Fadir and
Mobir). The master was twisting a bowstring, bending his bow,
fashioning arrows; the mistress, gaily attired, blonde and lovely,
gave thought to her arms, smoothed her kirtle, pleated her sleeves.
Rig gave them good advice, and soon Mother spread the table with
a cloth of bright linen, white wheaten bread, pork and game, a
wine-jug and drinking bowls of silver. They drank and talked
together till the day ended. Three nights he lay down in bed
between them. Then he departed. Nine months later Mother bore a
son, fair-haired, bright of cheek, his eye piercing as a snake's. They
called him grew up to use bow and
Earl or Warrior (JarF), and he
arrow, shield and spear, to hunt with horse and ride with hound,
practise swordsmanship and swimming. In course of time Rig
returned to greet this special son of his, gave him his own name,
taught him the magic art of runes, urged him to take possession of
his hereditary estates. So Jarl went out into the world and stirred up
war: he rode furiously, slew foes, reddened pastures, brought woe
to earth. He came to own eighteen dwellings, and in true lord's
 The Scandinavian Community, II 147

fashion dealt out treasure to his friends andHe married

followers.
a lady as well-born as himself, Lively (Erna), daughter of Lord
(Hersir), fair and wise, slim-fingered, and by her had twelve sons,
skilled and valiant, and no doubt daughters, too. Most notable of
the sons was Kon the Young (Konr Ungr, konungr, King); 1 they
grew up to tame horses, wield weapons, but in addition Kon the
Young, Royal Scion, so mastered runes that with their aid he could
save life, blunt sword, quell fire, soothe sea, and excel Rig himself
in the mysteries. He had the strength and energy of eight men,
knew the language of birds, hunted and slew them in the copses,
till one day a crow said to him 'Young Kon, why should you silence
:

birds? Better for you to bestride steed, draw sword, fell a host. Danr
and Danpr have finer halls and better lands than you. You should go
viking, let them feel your blade, deal wounds. .' On which
. .

bloodthirsty advice both crow and poem (Ormsbok, AM

242 fol) fall
silent for evermore.
The social order thus picturesquely presented by a well-born
and socially secure poet is the one we observe, with minor local
variation, in all the viking countries throughout the Viking Age.
In the petty kingdoms of Norway before Halfdan the Black's day;
Denmark till the time of Godfred, and
in the confusion of realms in
maybe of Gorm; and in Sweden by way of the Vendel monarchs
down to Ivar Wide-Grasper and Bjorn, Olaf, Eirik, and Bjorn again,
who held considerable but undefined sway in the ninth century,
there was a ruling caste, a community of free men, and a sub-
stratum of Such was the situation in the more
thralls or slaves.
unified kingdoms of Harald Fairhair, Hakon the Good and Olaf
Tryggvason in Norway, Harald Bluetooth and Svein Forkbeard in
Denmark, and Eirik Sigrsadl and Olaf Skottkonung in Sweden; and
there would be no essential change in the days of Harald Hardradi
(Norway), Svein Estridsson (Denmark), Onund Jacob and his
brother Emund (Sweden), with whose reigns the Viking Age con-
cluded. In Iceland and Greenland there was one significant dif-
ference they were free there of the authority of 'kings and criminals'
:

from abroad; but in every other essential they, too, had a ruling
caste, free farmers, and slaves.
At the bottom of the social order crouched the thrall. Because
1The etymology is popular, not scientific. Konungr is properly a patronymic,
of common Germanic ancestry, with the meaning 'scion of a (noble) kin', or
'scion of a man of (noble) birth'.
148 A History of the Vikings
the laws of the Scandinavian peoples were unrecorded till after the
end of the Viking Age we know less about the slave's life and status
than we could wish, but a long succession of English laws and a
considerable number of references to thralls in Icelandic literature
provide us with information which if cautiously interpreted will
serve for homeland Scandinavia, too. The
thrall might be an undis-
charged debtor or a man otherwise condemned to death; he might
be the son (or a woman slave the daughter) of slaves, as much his
master's property as the calf from his master's cow or the colt from
his mare; but the great recruiting grounds for slaves were war,
piracy, and trade. They came in great numbers from the British
Isles, either caught in the dragnet of the viking raids and invasions

or as straightforward objects of commerce; they came from all

other countries where viking power reached; and above all they
came from slave-hunts among the Slavonic peoples whose countries
bordered on the Baltic. The very name Slav (Sclavus) became con-
fused with the medieval Latin sclavus, a slave. Droves of human cattle
came to the pens of Magdeburg, ready for their transfer west; there
was a big clearing-house later at Regensburg on the Danube; and
Hedeby in southern Jutland was well sited for its share of this
northern traffic in men. Southwards the burghers of Lyons grew fat
on slaves. The demand from Spain and the remoter Muslim world
was insatiable: men and girls for labour and lust, eunuchs for sad
service. By 850 the Swedes had opened up the Volga and Dnieper
as slave-routes to the eastern market. And just as the slave-trade was
essential to viking commerce, the slave himself was the foundation-
stone of viking life at home. The Frostathing Law thought three
thralls the proper complement for a Norwegian farm of twelve cows
and two horses; a lord's estate might well require thirty or more.
In the eyes of the law-makers a thrall counted as a superior kind of
cow or horse. He commanded no wergeld, but in England if you
killed him you had normally to pay his owner the worth of eight
cows in Iceland you paid eight ounces of silver (one and a half
;

marks), and if this was paid within three days his master took no
further action. He could be bought and sold like any other chattel.
Hoskuld Dala-Kolsson of Laxardal in Iceland is said to have paid
three marks of silver, thrice the price of a common concubine, for
the Irish girl he purchased from a trader in a Russian hat in the
Brenneyjar (Laxdda Saga, 12). She was one of twelve on sale in the
slaver's booth. In theory, and sometimes in practice, the thrall
 The Scandinavian Community, II 149

could be put down dog once his usefulness was past.

like a horse or a
The male, and still more frequently the female, thrall could be
sacrificed orexecuted to follow a dead owner, as we know from the
most famous of all Norwegian graves, that at Oseberg, where a
slave woman was buried with her mistress, from Birka in Sweden and
Ballateare on Man, 1 from the 'beheaded slave's grave' at Lejre in
Zealand, and as we read in Ibn Fadlan's account of a Rus burial
ceremony on the Volga (see pp. 425-30 below). Rights he had none.
Since he had no property he was exempt from fines instead he was ;

beaten, maimed, or killed. The mutineer or runaway could expect

no quarter: the owning class would as soon tolerate a wolf on the
foldwall as a slave on the run, and his end was a wolf's end, quick
and bloody. For the slave born and bred life was hard. For a freeborn
warrior taken in the wars, or a well-nurturedgirl ravished from her
burned home, it could be hell itself, and Icelandic sources record
many a doom-laden attempt to wrest an impossible release from
unbearable circumstance.
And yet the northern thrall was better off than his fellow in
mediterranean and eastern lands. Where a master was bad or a thrall
irreconcilable little could be hoped for; but there is evidence to
suggest that most masters were reasonable and most thralls pre-
pared to make the best of their lot. The ill-treatment of thralls was at
least as bad a mark as the neglect of stock, and in so far as he was a
member of a household the thrall could expect to benefit from the
kindlier impulses of humanity. As the Viking Age wore on, and
under the influence of Christianity, an increasing disquietude was
felt about the ownership and sale of men. It operated most strongly

on behalf of those of one's own nationality, and then those of one's

own religion, but was a leaven in the whole situation. Sometimes
we see economic pressures working on his behalf, as in the Icelandic
hreppar. The slave, in fact, was not left devoid of means, possessions,
and free time during which he could do work for himself. He had his
peculium, and in favourable circumstances might hope to purchase,
earn, or be rewarded with his freedom. Also, he was allowed to
marry, though his children would be slaves.

1 H. Shetelig, 'Traces of the custom of Suttee in Norway during the Viking

Age', in Saga-Book, VI, 1910, pp. 180-208; H. Arbman, Birka, Sveriges aldsta
handelstad, Stockholm, 1939, pp. 77 and 87; G. Bersu and D. M. Wilson,
Three Viking Graves in the Isle of Man, Society for Medieval Archaeology,

Monograph Series, I, 1966, pp. 51 and 90-1.

150 A History of the Vikings

Throughout our period the freedman (leysingi, libertui) was not a

freeman. He was only half free, still dependent for a number of
generations upon that former owner who was now his protector,
and against whom he was not permitted to institute legal pro-
ceedings. There was much commonsense in this. The freedman had
his human value, but this would protect him only as long as he had
someone to champion it, and inevitably a great many freedmen had no
free kinsman to do so. So he needed a patron or lawful master, and
custom and law allowed for this. In a social sense the freedman had
not quite arrived.
The overriding thing was to be free. The free peasant, peasant-
proprietor, smallholder, farmer, call him what we will, was the
realm's backbone. This class of free men was extensive; it ranged
from impoverished and humble peasants at one extreme to men of
wealth and authority (especially local authority) at the other; but
what they had in common were legal and political rights, a wergeld,
and land. As to this last there was much variation. Ideally a man
had a farm, even a cot, of his own; in practice young men must
often live with their parents, or farm land at the hand of a big
proprietor. Even so their status was clear, and these were the men
who tilled land and raised stock, bore witness and produced verdicts,
said aye or no on matters of public concern at the Thing (including
matters as important as the election or approval of a king or a
change of religion), attended religious and lay ceremonies, worked
in metal, made and wore weapons, manned ships, served
wood and
were conscious of their dues and worth, and so impressed
in levies,
these upon others that as a free peasantry they stood in a class of
their own for Europe. Were so superior, for example, to their English
counterpart that king Alfred's treaty with the Norse king Guthrum
(Guthorm), c. 886, set the wergeld of a rent-paying English peasant
and that of a Danish freedman at the same figure of two hundred
shillings. The free Danish peasant of whatsoever kind was equated
with the English peasant farming his own land, and his wergeld set
with that of Danish and English noblemen at the high figure of
eight half-marks of pure gold. 1
Above the free men was the ruling caste, the aristocracy, most
of it king-allied or god-descended. Here belonged the families with
wealth, land, and rank. At different times during the Viking Age,
1The significance of, and reasons for, these equations have been much argued,
but the higher standard accorded to the free Danish peasant is undoubted.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 151

and in different parts of Scandinavia, we observe some of these

families partly or fully independent of other authority, so that they
enjoyed the rank of king or jarl over a defined territory. But we
should not conclude that because the aristocracy existed by virtue
of rank and descent and the recognition of degree it felt any auto-
matic respect for a supreme monarch. Ideally a king to whom all the
nation owed allegiance would head the hierarchy. But during most
of the Viking Age Scandinavia presents us with a picture of too few
supreme monarchs. In the case of Sweden we are ill-informed, but
till at least the early tenth century we read that Danish Jutland bore

its crop of kinglings, while in Norway the situation was w orse.

r

True, by the time Harald Fairhair felt the pressures of old age a
great many petty kings had been tumbled out of their kingdoms,
but he re-created almost as many in the persons of his sons. As
late as the reign of Olaf the Stout, renamed the Saint, there were
plenty calling themselves kings in none too remote stretches of the
country, and it was not to be expected that a king in Heidmark or
Raumarike, knowing himself to be lordly and of the seed of Frey,
would readily give allegiance to a brother Yngling who planned to
destroy his high-seat and his altars. Pride, piety, and self-interest
bore weightily against it. The power of a Norwegian king had
always been circumscribed, and not only by the exertions of those
of his fellow countrymen with a claim to the same title. He depended
heavily on the loyalty of the leaders of provinces, the farmer
republics, and the jarls, the greatest of whom ruled the Trondelag,
and Hakon and jarl Eirik, held authority over most
at times, like jarl
of the provinces of Norway which were not controlled by Danes or
Swedes. He depended, too, on the approval of his free subjects. His
very election depended upon their favourable voice at those public
assemblies where he first presented himself to them. He had to carry
them with him on all important decisions. We have already noted
Hakon the Good's deferment to his subjects' preference for the old
religion (see page 119 above), and reversals as spectacular are re-
ported from Sweden. Snorri Sturluson is guilty of an anachronism
when he portrays the victory of the Swedish farmers and Thorgny
the Lawspeaker over king Olaf Eiriksson at the Uppsala Thing, c.
1020, but there is no doubting the limitation of royal power by the
suffrage of the supra-regional Things. The king of the Swedes must
make a progress (the so-called Eiriksgatd) through his dominions and
present himself for popular acclaim at all the Things. 'The Swedes,'
152 A History of the Vi kings

says the ancient West Gautish law, 'have the right to elect and like-
wise reject a king. The Thing of all the Gotar must receive him
. .

formally. When he comes to the Thing he must swear to be faithful

to all the Gotar, and he shall not break the true laws of our land.' 1
During the eleventh century the northern kingdoms grew stronger
and more integrated, which meant that the power of the aristocracy
vis-a-vis the king was diminished. In Norway particularly the status

of the old-style turbulent and self-seeking viking aristocracy

declined, and in large measure its place was usurped by landowners
emergent from and representing the elite of the bondi class. It is
therefore possible that the smaller farmer, too, was strengthened in
relation to the aristocracy. Certainly they helped change the
character of the Scandinavian kingdoms after 1035, and helped
bring the Viking Age to a close.
In what, then, did the king's prestige consist in these northern
lands, apart from his divine ancestry, his connection with shrine,
sacrifice,and sanctuary, and those personal qualities which com-
mand respect and obedience? Most of all it consisted in sea-power
and the ability to employ this for conquest and profit. Command of
the sea-lanes ensured exaction and tribute, and these in their turn
bought loyalty and service, without which a northern king im-
mediately stood helpless, as the reigns and disasters of the Nor-
wegian kings from Eirik Bloodaxe to St. Olaf confirm. Such startling
vicissitudes as the Swedish presence at Hedeby c. 900-35, the ups
and downs of Svein Forkbeard's early career, the overthrow of Olaf
Tryggvason, and the success of Magnus the Good in respect of
Denmark are all evidence of the striking power attendant on control
of the seas. A king's prestige consisted, too, in his wealth and
territory, for he could hardly be other than one of the greatest
landowners in a kingdom, and much of the profit of a successful war
went into his personal chest. With no capital city or town he moved
from one estate to another, he and his following more or less eating
their way through the countryside, sometimes receiving hospitality
from subjects great and small, but for the most part providing his
own sustenance in his own farms. With him travelled his bird or
bodyguard, composed of hirdmen or retainers who had knelt and
set their right hands to his sword-hilt, so pledging him loyalty, if
need be to the death. In war these were the core of his army, in
peace the executants of his authority, and without them he was
1 Corpus Juris Sueogotorum Antiqui, ed. C.J. Schlyter, Stockholm, 1834, 1, 36.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 153

nothing. Most would be men of his own country, drawn from the
length and breadth of the land by report of a king's valour, good
faith, and generosity; but some would be professional fighters
plying their trade where the rewards looked best, Danes loyal to an
English king, Norwegians and Swedes in Knut's ThingmannaliQ.
The hirdmen were the king's elect —
or it might be better to say
their lord's elect, forany great man with wealth, power, and fame
could maintain a retinue, though here as elsewhere a king would
seek pre-eminence. From them most was demanded, to them most
was given. Swords, helmets and battle-harness flowed from the
king, arm-rings and torques; he clothed their bodies with tunics of
silk and cloaks of squirrelskin and sable, and their bellies he filled
with choice foods and mead from the horn. For those who earned
them there were axes inlaid with silver, and for those who wanted
them women. And friendship with their own kind, and music and
merriment in hall, with minstrels, jugglers, collared dogs, and skalds
whose wrists were gold-haltered. And when the need arose, friendly
embassies and punitive forays, the exaction of scat and recovery of
dues, service at home and overseas, war and wounds, hard deeds
—
and sometimes death. 'Sweet is mead Bitter when paid for!' These
were the two sides of the medal, service and reward, and kings
throve best when both were unstinted. 1
The royal revenues derived in large measure from the royal
estates. It is uncertain what, if any, dues connected with religion
and its practices might come the king's way, as is reported of
Uppsala in respect of the king of the Swedes; but in any case his
outgoing expenses would not be light either. He received a share
of the confiscated property of outlaws and felons, and while the
kingdoms were in the making the conquest of a neighbour or rival
implied sequestration. He could make limited demands on his
subjects for national works and instruments of defence; when his
kingdom was at war he took command of its fighting forces. The
1 These generalizations may seem to do less than justice to Hans Kuhn's
researches on the bird in 'Die Grenzen der germanischen Gefolgschaft',
Zeitscbrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Recbtsgeschichte, Germaniscbe Abteilung,
LXXHI, 1956, pp. 1-83. Kuhn's thesis is that there was a decisive break of

some three and a half centuriesbetween the abandoned comitatus of early

Germanic times and the revived bird of the late Viking Age. The new-style
bird should in that case be considered a product of Anglo-Danish civilization,
welcomed and adopted at home in Scandinavia. I owe the reference to L.
Musset, Les Invasions: le second assaut, pp. 251-2.
154 A History of the likings

royal prerogative connected with the patronage of merchants and

the safe conduct of goods, the very circumstance that trade could
not take place except under a helm of power, was a considerable
source of wealth to him. Of national taxes in the modern sense the
viking world knew nothing, but clearly a king benefits by the
prosperity of his subjects, whether this comes from good use of the
soil, a developing trade, or the seizure of wealth abroad. Kings and
kings' sons could take part in all these activities; Svein Forkbeard of
Denmark and Olaf Tryggvason of Norway collected huge danegelds
in England, and Olaf Eiriksson of Sweden earned the title Skott-
konung, Scat-king, for his extra-territorial exactions; Islendingabok
(of the 1120s) records that the kings of Norway from Harald Fair-
hair to St. Olaf levied a tax on emigrants from that land to Iceland;
while the interest of the first of these monarchs in the trade out of
Finnmark, and his stake in its profits, though rather freely presented
by Snorri Sturluson in his Egih Saga (1220-5), is confirmed by his
subjugation of the famed viking provinces of the south-west, whose
inhabitants had long taken toll of the Frisian handlers of the
northern trade in furs, hides, ivory, and down. Of Harald's son
Bjorn we hear that he had merchant ships voyaging to other lands,
acquiring thereby costly wares and such other goods as he needed.
His brothers called him the Trafficker (Jarmadr) or Chapman
(kaupmadr) (Haralds Saga Harfagra, 35), and though the witness is
late there is no reason for not believing it to be true in kind. Of the
solicitude shown by Danish monarchs for the maintenance of trade
we have already had occasion to speak in the case of Godfred and
the Danevirke, Harald Bluetooth and the Wends, and king Svein,
and we shall soon be observing the benevolent and profitable
patronage bestowed on Helgo and Birka by the kings of central
Sweden. Further, the right of a king to strike coins and control
currency, though exerted comparatively late in Scandinavia, was a
fruitful source of power. Part of the process whereby many kings
became few, and the northern kingdoms achieved greater unity,
we have already outlined in our Book Two, and the subject will be
pursued in Book Four. In the later reaches of the Viking Period the
power of a Christian king would be powerfully sustained by the
Christian Church, with its learned clerks, diplomatic skills, and
administrative experience. 'Men of prayer, men of war, men of
work,' said our English Alfred. 'Without these [a king] cannot
perform any of the tasks entrusted to him.' But with them, and a
 The Scandinavian Community, II 155

'well-peopled land', he was a king indeed In any case, the sense of

!

dynasty was strong in the three northern countries, so much so that

on the occasions when power in Norway was transferred to the lords
of Hladir they never took the royal title, but were content, by will
or perforce, to perpetuate their ancestral dignity of jarl.

The free man in possession of land and stock, the bondi (ON. bondi,
earlier buandi, from bua, to live, dwell, bide, have a household)
ranging from smallholder to franklin, was, we have said, the back-
bone of a Scandinavia which, like the rest of Europe, was over-
whelmingly pastoral and agrarian. Few such lived far or long from
soil, seasons, crops, and beasts. Where arable land and pasture were

extensive there would be many farms, and often small villages, as in

much of Denmark, and southern and central Sweden; elsewhere the
population would be thin and scattered, as almost everywhere in
Norway and Iceland, northwards in Sweden, and in many of the
Baltic islands. The bondi might be many things besides, such as
sailor, trader, viking overseas, and in the northern areas hunter and

fisher, but almost certainly he would still be a farmer, even if his

absences or acres were extensive enough to require the labour of
other men, free or thrall. There was a rough and ready (and
persistent) classification of the Norse colonists of the Atlantic
islands as farmers with a fishing-boat or fishermen with a farm, both
categories being ploughers of land and sea; and it serves none too
badly for dwellers on the prodigious litoral of the Scandinavian
peninsulas and islands. The feeling for land of one's own was
intense; in Icelandic tradition one of Harald Fairhair's chief
enormities was his (reputed) infringement of the hereditary right to
land of the odalsmadr or owner of an allodium. 1 Such love for one's

1 The most famous written expression of this feelingis to be found in the

Icelandic Njdls Saga, of the late thirteenth century, and owes much to art and
nature. It tells how the saga-hero Gunnar of Lithend was riding off to exile
when he was thrown by his horse and so alighted that he stood with his face
looking back to his home. 'Lovely is the hillside,' he said, 'so that it has never
looked lovelier to me, the cornfields white, and the new-mown hay. I shall
ride back home and not leave it.' And so he did, knowing that death was the
price of his return.
In the main the cornfields at Lithend would be of barley, which yielded
both flour and malt and was of the first importance as a means to food and
drink. Barley was the typical Scandinavian korn, though rye, oats, and (in the
southern regions only) a little wheat were grown. Bread was made, and
156 A History of the Vikings
patrimony was natural in those whose fathers felled trees, drained
marshes, cleared fields of stones, tamed heath and mountain
pastures, broke iron furrows, and when the frost-giants fought
against them brought their little worlds through winters so cruel
that in the spring the enfeebled animals had to be carried in arms
from the barns on to the life-giving feeding-grounds. It was the
same need and craving which carried Norwegians to the Atlantic
islands and to America; while in England in the ninth century the
Danes not only conquered land but are held by some to have
purchased it with the price of conquest. A varying number of farms
and cots with their ground, plus a varying amount of common land
and grazing, constituted the minimal local unity, with varying
title, but bound together by common interest, eleemosynary

function, dues and services, law and religion. Aggregations of such

units constituted a province, however entitled. And it was the
aggregation of provinces which could lead to a boundaried king-

prized, but a great deal o\~kom was consumed in the shape of grautr, porridge
or gruel.
Other foods grown in the Scandinavian lands, including the Atlantic
were beans and peas, turnips and cabbage. ('Does he intend to be
colonies,
sole ruler over all the lands of the North?' asked the indignant St. Olaf
concerning king Knut; 'Does he mean to eat up all the cabbage of England
himself?') Garlic and angelica were culled and in places cultivated. Where
nuts grew nuts were eaten; where berries were found berries were gathered,
to be enjoyed fresh, strained for their juices, or employed in the manufacture
of a winy drink. The Icelanders made moderate use of edible seaweed.
A most impressive piece of viking ploughland has been found at Lindholm
Hoje, where had been preserved under a sudden sand-drift. Not only a
it

'washboard' of wide furrows is visible, but even the wheel-tracks of the

viking farmer's last carting (Oscar Marseen, Lindholm Hoje, Beskrivehe af
udgravninger og fund, Alborg Historiske Museum, n.d. (1962?)). There is a
set of plough-marks on the floor of the grave at Gronk Moar, Isle of Man
(See Plate XHI, G. Bersu and D. M. Wilson, Three Viking Graves in the Isle of
Man, Society for Med. Arch., 1966).
For completeness' sake we mention meat and fish, much of this last dried,
as staples of northern diet, and milk and its products, butter, cheese, and
ambrosial skyr.
Grass was of immense importance as the basis of animal husbandry.
Among Icelanders of one's own generation one still encounters a passionate
love of green growth, at times approaching a mystique. This, rather than a
dubious philological argument, lends support to the notion that Vlnland
(Wineland, North America) began life as Vinland (Grassland), though the
saga-writers and the land-naming practice of Eirik the Red's family speak
against it.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 157

dom. Thus the bondi, with a stake in the land and a voice in the
law, the right of approval or dissent at a public assembly, was the
key figure at all these levels, farm, parish, province, kingdom.
But throughout the viking period in Scandinavia we are aware of
a second peaceful, or almost peaceful, activity hardly less important
than husbandly. This was trade. Since the beginning of the second
millennium B.C. Scandinavia had experienced the successive phases
of the European culture existing south of it, and this could not have
happened without trade and traders. There had to be goods up
north which the south wanted, and wares down south which the
north needed. Thus copper and tin came up the river routes from
central and south-eastern Europe, notably by way of the Elbe to the
sea, and thence along the west coast of Slesvig to Jutland, where he
will be an unlucky searcher today who cannot garner some small
blunted fragments to remind him of the brown and yellow amber-
hoards of the past. It was amber, lovely, magical, prophylactic,
which ensured that Jutland would be the starting-point of Bronze
Age culture in the northern lands, and from Jutland the treasure
was transferred by sea and land to Britain, France and the Iberian
Peninsula, to Italy, the Mediterranean, Mycene itself. And as the
centuries slid into the past, and Stone yielded to Bronze, and
Bronze to Iron, always the north needed gold and silver, ceramics
and filigrees, glassware, fine fabrics, jewels and wine; and the south
was greedy for the winter harvest of bearskins and sables, squirrel
and marten, for walrus ivory and reindeer hides, wax and ship's
cables, and always slaves, and a little amber. Dealings in these or
similar commodities would continue to the end of the Viking Age.
Admittedly it is at times difficult to know whether certain goods
and coin from abroad accumulated in the north as a result of war-
fare, piracy, or honest trade. Irish bronzes and the western European

so-called 'Buddha bucket' of Oseberg; Scandinavian and Slavonic

pottery at Wollin; Arabic, German, and Anglo-Saxon coins on
Gotland; kufic silver, Arabic and Rhenish glassware, Frisian cloth,
and Frankish weapons at Birka; Swedish iron ore and slag at Hedeby
these are not to be explained without some reference to trade. Or
that entire rollcall of valuables we have listed before and will need
to list again: slaves, weapons, furs, malt, wine, fruit, sea-ivory,
cables, ornaments, silks, woollens, fish and fish products, timber,
nuts, reindeer antlers, salt, millstones, livestock, combs, pots, fats,
coins, hacksilver, even European hoods and gowns in Greenland.
158 A History of the Vikings

19. THE WORLD CIRCLE OF THE NORSEMEN

After A. A. Bjornbo.

Also, the frequent occurrence of weights and scales, with bars of

silver, in Scandinavian graves is substantive evidence of the
mercantile calling. The
weight of trade is not calculable, but
total
must have been considerable, and we have frequent mentions of
trade goods and trading voyages in the written sources, too.
The best known of these to the English reader is Ottar (Ohthere)
the Halogalander's account of his economy and travels, inserted by
king Alfred of Wessex in his translation of Orosius, probably in the
early 890s.

Ohthere said to his lord, king Alfred, that he lived farthest north of
allNorwegians. 1 He lived, he said, in the north of the country along-
side the Norwegian Sea. He said, though, that the land extended a

1 There is general agreement that he lived somewhere in the Malangenfjord-

Senja-Kvaloy area, c. 6o°N.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 159

very long way north from there; but all of it is uninhabited, except
that in a few places here and there Lapps make their camps, hunting
in winter, and in summer fishing by the sea.
He said that on one occasion he wished to find out how far the
land extended due north, and whether any one lived north of the
uninhabited land. He proceeded then due north along the land (or
coast). He kept the uninhabited land to starboard the whole way,
and the open sea to port for three days. By then he was as far north
as the whale-hunters go furthest. He then kept going still due north
as far as he could sail in a second three days, whereupon the land
veered due east, or the sea into the land, he knew not which 1 save —
that he did know that he waited there for a wind from the west and
a little from the north, and then sailed east along the land as far as he
could sail in four days. At that point he had to wait for a wind from
due north, because the land veered due south there, or the sea into
the land, he knew not which. From there he sailed due south along
the land as far as he could sail in five days. There a big river went up
into the land. They turned up into the river, because they dared not
sail on past the river for fear of hostilities, because the land on the

other side of the river was all cultivated (or inhabited). Before this he
had not met with any cultivated land since he left his own home; but
he had had uninhabited land to starboard the whole way, save for
fishers and fowlers and hunters (and these were all Lapps), and at all
times to port the open sea. . . .

Chiefly he went there, apart from exploring the land, for the
walruses, for they have very fine ivory in their tusks (they brought
some of these tusks to the king), and their hide is very good for ship's
cables. This whale is much smaller than other whales: it is not
longer than seven ells long. But in his [Ottar's] own country is the
best whale-hunting; they are eight and forty ells long, those, and the
biggest fifty ells long. He said that in company with five other crews
he killed sixty of these in two days. He was a very wealthy man in
those possessions in which their wealth consists, that is, in wild
animals. He had still when he visited the king six hundred tame
unsold beasts. These beasts they call reindeer; six of them were
decoy reindeer. These are very costly among the Lapps (Finnum), for
with them they capture the wild reindeer. He was among the foremost
men in the land; even so, he had not more than twenty head of cattle
and twenty sheep and twenty pigs, and the little that he ploughed he
ploughed with horses. But their wealth consists for the most part in
the tribute which the Lapps pay them. The tribute consists in

1Ottar had reached the North Cape. He would thereafter proceed as far as
the White Sea and Kandalaks Bay.
 w
WESTERN [£ Walrus Ivory,

SETTLEMENT^ gg"^
Woollens

EASTERN
SETTLEMENT)

1 i i i i
500
[

MILES
i i i ——
1000
l

—Sea routes Inland routes

MAP 3. THE VIKING WORLD AND TRADE ROUTES

 1 62 A History of the Vikings

animals' skins and birds' feathers [i.e. down], in whalebone and the
ships' cables which are made of whale's [i.e. walrus] hide or of seal's.
Each pays according to his rank. The highest in rank must pay
fifteen martens' skins, and five of reindeer, and one bearskin, and ten
measures of feathers, a kirtle of bearskin or otterskin, and two ship's
cables; each must be sixty ells long, the one to be made of whale's
hide, the other of seal's. . . .

The land of the Norwegians, he said, was very long and very
narrow. All of it that can be grazed or ploughed lies alongside the
sea, and that moreover is in some parts very rocky. And wild moun-
tains (moras) lie to the east, above and parallel to the cultivated land.
On these mountains dwell Lapps.
Obviously Ottar did not require this abundance of ivory, furs,
TuHes, and down for his own consumption. Some of it, maybe, he
rendered up as scat to the king of Norway (at this time king Harald
Fairhair), but the disposal of part of it was the reason for his month-
long journey by the immemorial trade-route down the protected
west coast of Norway, and so to Kaupang (Sciringesheal) on the
western shore of the Oslofjord, thereafter to Danish Hedeby, and
on occasion still farther to Alfred's court in England.
This was trade from the north. The reaching out after wealth
from the west is indicated by these sailing directions preserved in
the Sturla Thordarson and Hauk Erlendsson [H] versions of the
Icelandic Landndmabok (Book of the Settlements).

Learned men state that from Stad in Norway it is seven days' sail
west to Horn in the east of Iceland; and from Snsefellsnes, where the
distance is shortest, it is four days' sea west to Greenland. And it is
said if one sails from Bergen due west to Hvarf in Greenland that one's
course will lie some seventy or more miles south of Iceland [H. From
Hernar in Norway one must sail a direct course west to Hvarf in
Greenland, in which case one sails north of Shetland so that one sights
land in clear weather only, then south of the Faroes so that the sea
looks half-way up the mountainsides, then south of Iceland so that
one gets sight of birds and whales from there.] From Reykjanes in the
south of Iceland there is five days' sea to Jolduhlaup in Ireland [H.
adds in the south; and from Langanes in the north of Iceland] it is
four days' sea north to Svalbard in the Polar Gulf. [H. adds And it is a
day's sail to the unlived-in parts of Greenland from Kolbeinsey (i.e.
Mevenklint) in the north.]

The great serpent-ring of Rus and Swedish trade is outlined thus

by the author of the Russian Primary Chronicle :
 The Scandinavian Community, II 163

A trade route connected the Varangians with the Greeks. Starting

from the Greeks, this route proceeds along the Dnieper, above which
a portage leads to the Lovat. By following the Lovat, the great Lake
Ilmen is reached. The river Volkhov flows out of this lake and enters
the great Lake Nevo [Lake Ladoga]. The mouth of this lake (i.e. the
Neva River) opens into the Varangian Sea [the Baltic]. Over this sea
goes the route to Rome, and on from Rome overseas to Tsargard
[Constantinople]. The Pontus, into which flows the river Dnieper,
may be reached from that point. The Dnieper itself rises in the up-
land forest, and flows southward. The Dvina has its source in this
same forest, but flows northward and empties into the Varangian
Sea. The Volga rises in this same forest but flows to the east, and
discharges through seventy mouths into the Caspian Sea. It is possible
by this route to the eastward to reach the Bulgars and the Caspians,
and thus attain the region of Shem. Along the Dvina runs the route
to the Varangians, whence one may reach Rome, and go from there
to the race of Ham. 1

The documentary evidence could be deployed at considerable

length. Anskar travels to Birka in the company of merchants who
forfeit most of their goods to pirates, while the saint himself loses
almost forty books. The Norwegians supply timber to Iceland,
Icelanders supply Eirik the Red in Greenland with meal and corn,
and Greenlanders supply coloured cloth to the broad-cheeked
inhabitants of America. From America come unblemished pelts and
timber to Greenland and Iceland, and from those countries woollens,
seal-oil, sea-ivory, fats, falcons and (save for floe-riders, from

Greenland only) white bears, back to the marts of Scandinavia,

whence they were dispersed southwards through Europe. Across
the Irish Sea Norse merchants maintained a brisk trade in Welsh
slaves, horses, honey, malt and wheat, and Irish or Irish-imported
wine, furs, hides, whale-oil, butter, and coarse woollen cloth. 2 A
treaty of 991 between Olaf Tryggvason and king Ethelred aims to
secure the safety of foreign merchant ships, together with their
crews and cargoes, in English estuaries, and a full respect for
English ships encountered abroad by vikings. That Danes and
Norwegians were frequent traders into London (the Danes with a
'more-favoured nation' clause) may be deduced from a twelfth-
century city custumal which appears to refer to conditions during
1English translation S. H. Cross and O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, The Russian
Primary Chronicle, Cambridge, Mass., 1953, p. 53.
2 A. H. Williams, An Introduction to the History of Wales, Cardiff, 1941, 1, 157.
164 A History of the Vikings
the reigns of Knut and Edward the Confessor. 1
Meanwhile the
Church strove humanity and sometimes theology into the
to bring
slave-trade. We read of the Rus from Kiev buying silk in Byzantium
and horses and slaves in Regensburg. 'Pereiaslav on the Dnieper,'
said Svyatoslav their lord, 'where all riches are concentrated: gold,
silks, wine and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from
Hungary and Bohemia, and from Russia furs, wax, honey, and
slaves.' We read of the Arab merchant of Cordoba, Al-Tartushi,
visiting Hedeby in the mid-tenth century, from whence the
(English?) merchant Wulfstan had sailed to Truso some fifty years
earlier. Al-Musadi and Muqqadasi report on the wares of the Rus at
Bulgar on the Volga bend, just below the confluence of that river
and the Kama: sables, squirrel, ermine, black and white foxes,
marten, beaver, arrows and swords, wax and birchbark, fish-teeth
and fish-lime, amber, honey, goatskins and horsehides, hawks,
acorns, hazel nuts, cattle and Slavonic slaves. Some of these the Rus
had brought a prodigious distance out of the cold and spectred
north, by a three-months journey from a dark and sunless land
facing the northern ocean. Ibn Fadlan describes the merchants
themselves, as he saw them on the Volga in 922

Ihave seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and
encamped by the Atil (Itil, Volga). I have never seen more perfect
physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear
neither qurtaqs (tunics) nor caftans, but themen wear a garment which
covers one side of the body and hand free. Each man has an
leaves a
axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The
swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort. Each woman
. . .

wears on either breast a box of iron, silver, copper, or gold; the value
of the box indicates the wealth of the husband. Each box has a ring
from which depends a knife. The women wear neck-rings of gold and
silver. . Their most prized ornaments are green glass beads.
. . . . .

They string them as necklaces for their women. 2

1Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 533.

2Amin Razi's version of Ibn Fadlan's Risala, of 1593 but maybe based on a
good early MS., has the following interesting details: 'In place of gold the
Rus use sable skins. . .The Rus are a great host, all of them red-haired;
.

they are big men with white bodies.' I have by kind permission used the
version of H. M. Smyser, 'Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus with Some
Commentary and Some Allusions to Beowulf, in Medieval and Linguistic
Studies in Honour of Francis Peabody Magoun, New York, 1965, pp. 92-119. Other
recent renderings will be found in Brondsted, The Vikings, 1965; A. Zeki
 The Scandinavian Community, II 165

. . . When
they have come from their land and anchored on, or
tied up which is a great river, they build big
at the shore of, the Volga,
houses of wood on the shore, each holding ten to twenty persons more
or less. Each man has a couch on which he sits. With them are pretty
slave girls destined for sale to merchants. A man will have sexual
intercourse with his slave girl while his companion looks on. Some-
times whole groups will come together in this fashion, each in the
presence of the others. A merchant who arrives to buy a slave girl
from them may have to wait and look on while a Rus completes the
act of intercourse with a slave girl.
. When the ships come to this mooring place, everybody goes
. .

ashore with bread, meat, onions, milk and nabid [an intoxicating
drink, perhaps beer] and betakes himself to a long upright piece of
wood that has a face like a man's and is surrounded by little figures
[idols], behind which are long stakes in the ground. The Rus pro-
strates himself before the big carving and says, 'O my Lord, I have
come from and have with me such and such a number of girls
a far land
and such and such a number of sables,' and he proceeds to enumerate
all his other wares. Then he says, 'I have brought you these gifts,'
C
and lays down what he has brought with him, and continues, I wish
that you would send me a merchant with many dinars and dirhems,
who will buy from me whatever I wish and will not dispute anything
I say.'

Contemplating this picture (which might be considerably

enlarged) of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Gotlanders, and Alanders
driving trade with peoples as varied and distant as the Lapps of
Finnmark and the Baltic Fenns, the Greeks and Arabs of the East
and Spain, Slavs and Germans, Franks and Frisians, Irish and
English, and the Atlantic island-dwellers from Faroes to Labrador,
we must not forget that there was much trade both between and
within the Scandinavian countries themselves. Trade often allied to
manufacture, in soapstone pots and iron goods, for example. The
twelve rough-finished axe-heads found near Grenaa in eastern
Jutland, threaded on a stave of spruce, were a Norwegian or possibly

Validi Togan, Ibn Fadlarfs Reisebericbt, Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des
Morgenlandes, xxiv, 3, Leipzig, 1939; M. Canard, 'La relation du voyage
d'Ibn Fadlan chez les Bulgares de la Volga', in Annates de I'Institut d'Etudes
Orientates, Algiers, 1958, xvi, pp. 41-6. I have not seen A. P. Kovalevsky's
translation into Russian of 1939 and 1956. A new and direct translation from
Arabic into English is needed, if only to reassure those who like myself know
no Arabic.
166 A History of the Vikings
a Swedish export to Denmark. We have already remarked on Swedish
iron-ore and slag at Hedeby. But our pressing task now is to look
briefly at the growth of the Scandinavian merchant towns.
The Viking Age was a period remarkable for the rise, develop-
ment, and sometimes decline, of towns and market-places. The
Norseman abroad, whether as invader, settler, or merchant, needed
havens and bases. Sometimes he took into his use towns already in
existence, sometimes he established them for his convenience, from
Limerick on the Shannon to Kiev on the Dnieper. Many of these we
have had, or shall have, occasion to mention in other contexts, and
the same is true of certain of the Scandinavian home marts also.
Most of the towns they established at home were shaped by two
considerations: accessibility for the merchants who needed to use
them, and protection from the pirates who wanted to prey on them.
For the ampler the volume of trade the stronger the temptation to
privateering. 1 Over long periods the south-west coast of Norway,
the 0resund passage, and the Baltic were infested with pirates.
Adam of Bremen is endlessly indignant on this theme. There is
much gold in Zealand, says he, accumulated by pirates who ravage
the coasts of southern Norway; between Zealand and Funen (Fyn)
lies a pirate den, a place of terror for all who pass by; Fehmarn and

Riigen are the haunts of robbers who spare none that pass that way;
it is the distinction of the Sembi, or Pruzzi, that they succour
mariners attacked by pirates; 2 even the natives of Greenland, green-
ish from the sea-water whence the country derives its name, trouble
seafarers by their piratical attacks. Scores of references in the
Icelandic sagas, and almost as many in Snorri's Heimskringla, relate
to pirate haunts, ships' crews out viking in Skagerrak, Kattegat,
and Baltic, raids on coastal and sometimes inland towns, and the

1
And the ampler the volume of wealth secured from viking raids abroad the
stronger the compulsion to trade at home. It is the merchant's immemorial
privilege to redistribute the superfluous coin of wealthy clients. (See P.
Grierson, 'Commerce in the Dark Ages', in Tram. Royal Hist. Society, 5th
Series, IX, 1959, pp. 123-40.)
2This occasions a useful note on the fur trade. 'They (the Sembi) have an
abundance of strange furs, the odour of which has innoculated our world with
the deadly poison of pride. But these furs they regard, indeed, as dung, to our
shame, I believe, for right or wrong we hanker after a martenskin robe as
much as for supreme happiness. Therefore, they offer their very precious
marten furs for the woollen garments called faldones' (IV, 18). Trans. F. J.
Tschan.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 167

taking of merchant ships in Scandinavian waters. That cool reposi-

tory of Norse worldly wisdom, the Hdvamdl, advises the farmer not
to move far from his weapons when out in the fields; the crew of a
merchantman needed no such warning, for every sail was read as
hostile till it proved friendly. Even as the merchant ship or ferry
carried arms, so the towns between which they plied were protected
by being sited away from the sea, inside narrow fjords like Hedeby
and Lindholm Hoje, on inland lakes like Birka and spray-free
Sigtuna, on rivers leading from such lakes like Aldeigjuborg, Old
Ladoga, or within bays where islands, shoals, and complicated
channels made the approach slow and observable, as at Wiskiauten,
Kaupang and, presumably, Truso. In addition many of the towns
were given strong man-made defences, like the northern fort and
look-out station and the semicircular rampart at Hedeby, the rock-
fortress and town wall of Birka, and the earthwork stronghold of
Grobin. Even so, the emergence of towns, and especially of towns
with mints, was clearly consequential upon the growth of royal
power and an increased social stability. Their number was sub-
stantial. 'Along the North Sea and the Baltic coasts, like blind eyes,
lie the vanished towns of the Vikings, the sites of Northern

Europe's oldest trading centres, following the winding route from

the mouth of the Rhine along the coast of Jutland right up to Lake
Malar in the north. If you think of the traders of those times
—
wherever they came from or wherever they were bound a picture
of trading towns, once swarming with life, but now dead, springs
to mind: the Frisian town of Dorestad; Hedeby in the south of
Denmark; farther north, still in Denmark, Lindholm Hoje, on the
Limfjord; the Latvian Grobin; the Norse-Slav Wollin ; the Estonian
Truso; the Swedish Birka; and, in southern Norway, Skiringssal
[Kaupang].' 1 And these were by no means all. By the end of the
Viking Age Norway had seen the birth of Trondheim-Nidaros,
Bergen, and Oslo; Sweden knew Skara, Lund, and Sigtuna; Den-
mark had well-established centres of population at Ribe, Viborg,
Arhus and Alborg, Odense and Roskilde, some of them centres of
mercantile and religious life, some royal creations. On the other
hand, Old Uppsala and Helgo were much or entirely fallen away,
and Lindholm Hoje was about to disappear under its mantle of
blown sand, so leaving the way open to the development of
Alborg at the same eastern end of the Limfjord.
1 Brondsted, The Vikings, pp. 149-50.
1 68 A History of the Vikings
Many of the old market towns have been excavated and studied,
Birka by the Swedes Hjalmar Stolpe and Holger Arbman, Hedeby
by the German Professor Jankuhn, and Kaupang by the Norwegian
Charlotte Blindheim. As a result we know a good and increasing
deal about their structure and history, their daily life, and their role
in the manufacture and distribution of goods. Kaupang, it appears,
was a summer market only (the name means 'market-place'). The
permanent settlement was strung out and without man-made
defence-works. Many merchants died there and were buried in
boats, together with their instruments for weighing gold and
silver. The connection with England and Ireland was strong;
ornaments and weapons from those countries have been found
there, as well as Rhenish pottery and western glassware, and half a
dozen assorted coins come from Mercia, the kingdom of Louis the
Pious, the Arab world, and, possibly, Birka. Mrs. Blindheim thinks
that large quantities of down were exported from Kaupang. There
is evidence of metalworking, weaving, and manufacture in soap-

stone. The mart stood adjacent to the wealthy region of Vestfold,

and presumably supplied many of its needs and luxuries. It would
also appear to be a good point of assembly for merchants sailing
south to Hedeby or proceeding by way of the 0resund to the
Baltic. We know that merchant ships were glad to sail in company
as a safeguard against piracy in those waters.
Security from enemies and accessibility to friends were con-
siderations much in the minds of those who founded the trading
town of Birka on the island of Bjorko in Lake Malar. The incoming
merchant, having traversed the thirty labyrinthine miles of islands
and skerries east of Stockholm, must complete a further eighteen
miles of observed navigation through the island-studded lake
before reaching Bjorko. The island is so lonely and quiet under its

birch glades today, its remains so mouldered in grassy earth, that it

requires a strong effort of the imagination to see it as it was, a hub

of traffic whose spokes reached out to England and Frisia in the
west, Lake Ladoga and the Middle Volga in the east, Uppsala and
the fur-bearing lands in the north, Gotland, Truso, Wollin, Hedeby,
and all that lay beyond them, to the south. But such it was, one of
the most important marts of viking Scandinavia. Its site is identifi-

ably the so-called Black Earth area in the north-west of the island,
darkenedas this was by human habitation. It is difficult to deter-
mine when the town was established, but it was thriving and well
 The Scandinavian Community, II 169

known when Anskar made his visits there about 830 and 850. At
first it appears to have been undefended, but in course of time its

landward approaches were safeguarded by an earthen rampart, a

550-yard section of which, some 6 feet high and 20-40 feet wide, still
runs along a low ridge east of the town. It is a fair assumption that
this earthen rampart was surmounted by a wooden wall or palisade,
and that its frequent gaps or openings were protected by formid-
able but now vanished wooden towers. The surviving eastern
rampart was probably constructed shortly after 925. Close to the
Black Earth, between south and south-west, on a low but in
relation to the site commanding hill stood an oval-shaped fort,
protected on the land side by a rampart of earth and stones, with
three gateways, and seawards by steepdown 100-foot cliffs. Between
town, and lake there appears to have been a beacon site, which
fort,

was later levelled off as the defences were strengthened and the
need for garrison houses increased. The town was heavily built up
between waterfront and rampart, save that a house-free boundary
was running inside the latter, possibly as a safeguard against
left

assault fire. Most of the houses were of wattle-and-daub con-

by
struction, but there were a number of what their excavator Holger
Arbman calls blockhouses, constructed of big vertical baulks of
timber caulked with clay and moss. The abundance of weapons
found in the area between fort and town, together with the absence
of women's goods, suggests that the bulk of the garrison lived there,
but a ring of blockhouses seems to have been built between the
town and the town wall.
A seaside mart must cater for ships. The foreshore at Birka is
gently sloping and was entirely convenient to the shallow ships of
the time. In addition there is evidence of oaken jetties and break-
waters at several places inside the fortified area. Immediately to the
north, and outside the rampart, are two natural harbours, Kugg-
hamn, presumably named after the Frisian cog, and Korshamn,
'cross-harbour', or conceivably an earlier Kornhamn, 'corn-harbour'.
Farther away, east of the town, is the artificial basin of Salviks-
gropen, which opened off a small lagoon which has now disappeared
because of the slow rising of the land out of the water. This change
of water-level has affected Kugghamn and Korshamn, too, which in
viking times were more impressive and commodious than now.
North, east, and south of the Black Earth area, and south of the
fort, are the main cemeteries of Birka, containing more than 2,000
 h /Foot

20. BIRKA GRAVE, NO. 5 8 I.

 The Scandinavian Community, II 171

graves, most of them grassy barrows, large and small, but including
many finechamber graves also. The wealth of recoverable grave
goods here is unparalleled in any other viking settlement. The
richly furnished graves of chieftains, warriors, merchants, and their
womenfolk have been excavated, to reveal the high standard of
living here in the ninth and tenth centuries. In the grave illustrated
(Birka 581) a fighting man has been laid to rest with everything he
could require in the next world two shields (one at his feet, one above
:

his head), axe, sword, dagger, knife, two dozen arrows (we presume
with a wooden bow), two spears, stirrups, and two horses, as well
as a comb and bowl and other objects. A silver dirhem (a) found
under the skeleton, which must have been minted 913-33, allows us
to date the interment in the period 913-c 980. Less splendid but
equally revealing are the graves of merchants with their fine
balances and weights, and the graves of men and women containing
goods and coins indicative of the town's trade. Rimbert writes of its
connection with Dorestad, and trade with the west is confirmed by
the presence in Birka of handsome Rhineland pottery and glassware,
scraps of high-quality woollen cloth almost certainly from Frisia,
and coins from western Europe used for personal adornment. Holger
Arbman has suggested that Birka had markets in winter as well as
summer. There are men buried with ice-crampons on their feet,
ice-picks are not infrequent, and skates made of bone are numerous.
Progress into the north after furs may well have been easier in the
winter, and certainly the pelts of bear, fox, marten, squirrel, beaver
and otter, would then be in prime condition. Traces of all these,
together with reindeer horn and walrus ivory, have been found in
the town.
There seems to have been no very extensive manufactory in
Birka —
-just indications that metal was worked for ornament or

coins, and that objects of bone and glass (most likely beads) were
—
produced so with little agricultural land close by, the town's
prosperity, indeed its existence, depended on the sale and transfer
of goods, from any quarter and at all seasons of the year. But in
practice Birka depended more on her eastern connection than any
other, and more specifically on trade with the surprisingly accessible
regions of the Volga. Graves containing Muslim coins are seven
times more numerous than those containing currency from the
west. Silver and silk came in by this same route, ornamented glass,
rings and necklaces, and other luxurious appurtenances of a flourish-
172 A History of the Vi kings

ing society. The Birka necklace of Plate 16 is a microcosm of the

town's business interests. It is composed for the most part of beads
of glass, crystal, and carnelian, but it is the additions, the inserted
souvenirs or 'charms', which most excite our interest. Top left is a
silver coinof the emperor Theophilus (829-42) from Byzantium;
then two pendants culled from the Khazars of the lower Volga; after
that come two silver wires threading one bead and five beads
respectively, probably Scandinavian, followed by a fragment from
an Arab silver bowl; then two more silver wires, each with one bead,
and thereafter another silver wire coiled to make a disc, again
probably Scandinavian, and yet another silver wire, this time strung
with three beads; the next object, still bottom left, is an oblong
book-mount brought from England, by what agency we cannot
say; then come two round pendants, their centres hollowed, and
finally a miniature silver chair.
But Birka's witness to the variety and extent of Viking Age

MAP 4. SWEDEN: THE EAST CENTRAL PROVINCES

 The Scandinavian Community, II 173

trade is not its only claim to attention. We have earlier noted the
significance of a combination of military power, an assembly for
law, and a meeting-place for trade, in making possible the develop-
ment of petty kingdoms in dark-age Denmark, and by implication
elsewhere in Scandinavia. Birka is an example of this at a later stage
of history. It is clear that it could not have come into being without
royal approval. The island is small and thinly populated, and
situated between the great royal estates of Uppland and Soderman-
land. It could be reached only by traversing the royal lands and
waters, and safeguarded by none but the royal power. Hardly less
significant, the island lay at the meeting-point of three different
herreds or hundreds, so that the problem of what law would be
observed on Bjorko was quickly an urgent one. The slender
evidence provided by the old Vastergotland law suggests that the
various regions of Sweden were accustomed to look after their own
folk better than the outsider. It was cheaper to compound the slay-
ing of a man from another province, while men from abroad had no
assured atonement at all. But if Birka was to attract merchants it

must unequivocally guarantee and property. We cannot

their lives
doubt that the necessary changes in customary law came about on
the initiative of the king of the Svea, though the laws themselves
would be maintained by the Birka Thing. And, indeed, Rimbert
informs us that at the time of Anskar's visits Birka was governed
by a Thing under the leadership ofaprafectus regis. There must have
been a delimitation of authority as between king and townspeople,
but a firm rule of law had such advantages for both parties that they
may be assumed to have worked in harmony. We cannot feel
assured that the so-called Bjarkeyjarrettr, the Law of Bjarkey or
Bjorko, was the law of Birka on Lake Malar, but it is a likely
supposition. The Frisian, Dane, German, Englishman, Finn,
Swede, Bait, Greek or Arab (if he ever showed up) was offered
safety and fair play; the townsmen and local traders could look to
the peaceful pursuit of riches; and the king who safeguarded these
processes enjoyed esteem, privilege, and profit. This personal hold
on the Birka market brought much wealth to the Swedish king, and
helps account for the strengthening of the monarchy and kingdom
of central Sweden during the ninth and tenth centuries.
When Birka declined it declined rapidly. Its falling away may
have been helped by the change in the water-level of Lake Malar
and its southern entrance in the late tenth century, but a more
174 A History of the Vi kings
convincing explanation is the break in eastern trade which took
place about 970 as a result of Svyatoslav's assaults on the Bulgars of
the Volga Bend. There was no more kufic silver, no more coin from
Islam. The men of Birka failed to adapt, and the indefatigable
Gotlanders took over. There was no recovery, and at the beginning
of the eleventh century trade moved northwards to Sigtuna. 1
For Hedeby we are quite remarkably well informed. The town
dates from the eighth century and seems to have developed from the
growing together of maybe three small communities, each with its
cemetery, one associated with the brook running immediately to
the south of the (later) rampart, a second (rather less certain) with
the still smaller stream north of the rampart (but south of the now
tree-covered Hill Fort or Borghojde), and the third with the
rivulet which ran through the middle of the enclosed market-town
and supplied it with fresh water. It grew rapidly in the early ninth
century, and we read of it in connection with the political and
mercantile ambitions of king Godfrey c. 800-10, and the missionary
activities of Anskar in 826, 850, and 854. Thereafter the town is
never out of sight. Seafarers like Ottar and Wulfstan refer to it, an
exotic visitor like Al-Tartushi describes it, it experienced a Swedish
interlude (see pp. 1 1 1-2 above) and a German, and was the scene of a
Danish triumph under Svein Forkbeard in 983. In the mid-eleventh
century its destruction by Harald Hardradi of Norway would be
celebrated in verse exultant and durable. 2 Al-Tartushi was not
1 Thediscovery in 1953 of rich finds covering a period of 600 years from the
fifth (possibly the fourth) to the eleventh century on the island of Helgo,
less than ten miles distant from Birka in Lake Malar, has posed some so far
unanswerable questions about the relationship between the two marts.
Helgo dominates the water routes from the Baltic into central Sweden; it
trafficked in luxury goods, and iron was smelted there. We assume it must
have enjoyed a similar kind of royal patronage as Birka, which it outlasted,
though its importance seems to have waned as that of Birka waxed. It
certainly confirms that the Viking and pre- Viking Ages developed naturally
and by steady process out of the centuries that preceded them.
2 There are two memorial stones in the vicinity of Hedeby which make

mention of a king Svein. The 'Danevirkesten' from Busdorf (Bustrup)

records that 'King Svein raised the stone in memory of his housecarle Skardi,
who had travelled west but death at Hedeby.' The 'Hedebysten'
now met his
records that 'Thorolf, S vein's housecarle, raised this stone in memory of his
comrade Eirik who met his death when the warriors besieged Hedeby. He
was a captain, a man of noble birth.' The likely candidates are king Svein
Forkbeard (c. 983) and king Svein Estridsson (c. 1050), but it is not certain
that both stones refer to the same king Svein.
 The Scandinavian Community, II 175

overimpressed with it, and when we remember the elegance and

splendour of his native Cordoba, there is no reason why he should be.
Slesvig is a large town at the farthest end of the world ocean. Within
it there are wells of fresh water. Its inhabitants worship Sirius, apart

21.HEDEBY C. 800. THE SETTLEMENTS (BoStetteher) AND

THEIR cemeteries (Gravpladser)
The existence of the northern settlement and the dating of the
northern cemetery are somewhat uncertain. The town rampart,
of the early ninth century, is indicated by stipple lines. K. Spring
 1

Ml-

MAP 5. HEDEBY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD

 The Scandinavian Community, II 177

from a few who are christians and have a church there. Al-Tartushi
relates x

They hold a festival where they assemble to honour their god and
eat and drink. Anyone who slaughters an animal by way of sacrifice
has a palisade [or pole] outside his house door and hangs the sacrificed
animal there, whether it be ox or ram, he-goat or boar, so that people
may know that he makes sacrifice in honour of his god. The town is
poorly off for goods and wealth. The people's chief food is fish, for
there is so much of it. If a child is born there it is thrown into the sea
to save bringing it up. Moreoever he relates that women have the
right to declare themselves divorced: they part with their husbands
whenever they like. They also have there an artificial make-up for the
eyes when they use it their beauty never fades, but increases in both
;

man and woman. He said too: I have never heard more horrible
—
singing than the Slesvigers' it is like a growl coming out of their
throats, like the barking of dogs, only much more beastly.

This commentary of an observant Arab allows us an unforced

transition to what we learn of Hedeby from the archaeologists of
Germany. Al-Tartushi was right about the freshwater wells, 2 many
of which have come to light with their skilfully contrived water-
pipes. Once we allow that to worship Sirius means nothing more
than being a heathen, he was right about the mixture of religions
there, for graves both heathen and Christian and written sources
confirm this. He was right in saying that much fish was eaten, the
exposure of infants not forbidden, and that Norse women enjoyed
far more independence than their sisters in the Muslim world.
That both sexes used eye make-up to render themselves attractive
is as open to belief or disbelief as John of Wallingford's complaint

that the Danes in England combed their hair, took a bath on Satur-
days, and changed their woollens at reasonable intervals to ensnare
by these novelties our high-born English ladies. On the Slesvigers'
throat for song and the Arab ear for music it is not for less favoured
nations to comment.

1 Al-Tartushi's relation is preserved in the 'Travel Book' of Ibrahim ibn

Jakub, c. 975. See H. Birkeland, 'Nordens historie i middelalder efter arabiske
kilder', in Norsk Videnskabs-Akademiets Shifter, II, Hist, philol. Klasse, 2, 1954,
Oslo.
2 Arne Ha?gstad, 'Har Al-Tartushi besogt Hedeby (Slesvig)?' Aarbeger for
Copenhagen, 1964, pp. 82-92, suggests that by 'wells of
nordisk Oldk. og Hist.,
sweet water' the Arab meant the local women, and that we cannot be sure
his visit was to Hedeby and not to Wollin.
i 78 A History of the Vikings

HEDEBY IN THE TENTH CENTURY

22. (a PICTORIAL
RECONSTRUCTION)

For its day Hedeby was a well-built and well-organized town.

On three sides, north, west, and south, itwas protected by a ram-
part roughly semicircular in shape and two-thirds of a mile long.
To the east it was bounded by the waters of Haddeby Noor, with
its notably shallow and therefore protective entrance from the
Schlei. This circumvallation had begun modestly enough as a yard-
high rampart with stockade and ditch, but successive developments
raised it feet, with a deep
during the tenth century to well over 30
moat and strong timber revetments. had three gateways or
It

tunnels, one south and one north for the transit of men, horses, and
wagons, and one west at the point where the rivulet came in to run
quietly between its piled and strengthened sides down to the fjord.
The road tunnels were rather more than 6 feet wide, wedge-shaped
and planked, and the roadway beneath paved with stones to ease
the progress of horses' hoofs and cart-wheels. The area enclosed
between rampart and sea was a full 60 acres (Birka was 32), most of
it heavily built up, but with some open spaces left around the

cemeteries and alongside the stream, and an open flattish strip

alongside the water where ships and small boats could be beached.
Here, too, are traces of a slip for shipbuilding or repairing, important
 The Scandinavian Community, II 179

trades in a mercantile and seafaring community. Running in a

Haddeby Noor was a
480-foot arc from north to south-east out into
strongly built wooden mole, which protected the foreshore from
floods and offered ample opportunity for vessels to tie up to its
massive bollards. Judging by the admittedly limited areas so far
excavated, it was a well-made and agreeable place enough, though
we shall not expect to find in a constantly developing town the
constructional exactitude of the military establishments at Fyrkat,
Trelleborg, or Aggersborg. The numerous dwelling-houses, work-
shops, store-houses, barns and stables, at first sight give the im-
pression of being where they are for no better reason than that their
first owners put them there. Even so the town was not too badly

ordered. There were at least two good streets; the circumvallation

never needed to be enlarged or drawn in; the town was well sited
in the first place, and appears to have grown in a tidy progression
westwards and inwards from the first well-developed area of settle-
ment extending northwards from where the rivulet enters the sea.
The 'craftsmen's quarter5 was apparently earmarked as such. The
size of the town's buildings varied from 22 feet by 54 to a mere 10
by 10. Some were stave-built with vertical planking, some with
horizontal, and yet others were frame-built, with wattle-and-daub
panels. The roofing was normally of reed-thatch. The doors were
uniformly low, and the houses dating from the town's later develop-
ment westward often had a sunken floor. When a house was rebuilt
this took place on the old site. In general buildings were placed so
that their gable end faced the street and their attendant outhouses
stood behind them. The enclosures in which the houses stood were

HEDEBY: THE TOWN AND RAMPART

23. (a PICTORIAL
RECONSTRUCTION)
180 A History of the Vikings
fenced or palisaded off, and many such enclosures were furnished with
a well. Some Slesvigers gave house-room to cats and dogs.
The town seems not to have been deeply rooted in its country-
side. Its geographical position at the head of the Schlei, within
easy reach of the Baltic and, by way of Hollingstedt, handy to
Frisia, western Europe, and the North Sea, ensured it a different
destiny. To it, and distribution, came the wares of many
for sale
countries: ceramicsand glassware and perhaps frankish swords
from western Europe; millstones of basalt from the Rhineland, and

HOUSES AT HEDEBY
24. (a PICTORIAL
reconstruction)

from Norway pots and dishes of soapstone. From the Slav hunting-
grounds came slaves, and from the eastern verges of the Baltic furs.
Nor need we doubt that wine and jewellery moved through the
town, with other luxury goods such as garments and fabrics. To this
variety and abundance the town added its home-made quotas. One
part of the town, though one must again emphasize how much
remains to be uncovered, shows such evidence of manufacture that,
as we have seen, its excavators at first called it the 'craftsmen's
quarter', where the potter and weaver, jeweller and worker in
bone and horn, plied their several skills. In the matter of workaday
pots we can speak of something like mass-production. It was not the
intention to rival the best imported goods the Hedeby manufactur-
:

ers aimed at the less wealthy buyer. Bronze and iron were worked
there, and coins struck, but the site of the mint, like the site of
Anskar's church, has not yet been discovered.
By the early eleventh century Hedeby had seen the best of its
time, and it was not in its fortune to show vigour beyond the
 The Scandinavian Community, II 181

Viking Age. Harald Hardradi burned it more or less to the ground

in 1050, and there was a destructive raid by the Slavs in 1066; and
eventually the town called by the Saxons Schleswig, 'the town on the
Schlei', by the Danes Hedeby, 'the town at the heaths', and, on
Ottar's authority, by the English at Hapum, 'at the heaths', fell into
disuse and had itsname and function usurped by a new Slesvig on
the north side of the Sliefjord. But even more than the Swedish
Birka, Hedeby presents the twentieth century with a surprisingly
detailed picture of a viking town and mart from its modest begin-
nings in the eighth century to its brutal extinction in the mid-
eleventh. 1

1 In addition to the fundamental studies of H. Jankuhn and Vilh. la Cour

cited on p. 101 above, the reader is currently well served in respect of Hedeby
by Helmuth Schledermann's two articles, 'Slesvig-Hedebys tilblivelse' in
Sonderjyske Arboger, 1966 and 1967, the first dealing with place-names, trade
and routes, archaeological finds and topography; the second with royal
power and its relevance to the town, the town's surroundings, and other
Danish towns; the same author's 'Fra den Havn plejer skibe at udga', in
Skalk, 1963, nr. 3, pp. 15-26; Kurt Schietzel (recent leader of the excavations
there), 'Neue Ausgrabungen in Haithabu', Praebistoriscbe Zeitscbrift, vol.
XLUI-XLiV, 1965-6, pp. 303-7; the handbook of the Schleswig-Holsteinisches
Landesmuseum fur Vor- und Friihgeschichte, Schloss Gottorp, Danevirke og
Hedeby (German and Danish versions), Neumtinster, 1963; and in English
the summary in Brondsted's The Vikings, pp. 150-5.
For Birka see H. Arbman, Birka, Sveriges aldsta handelstad, Stockholm,
1939, and Birka, Untersuchungen und Studien I, Die Grdber, Stockholm, 1943;
and in English the relevant passages in H. Arbman, The Vikings, 1961;
Brondsted, The Vikings; P. H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, 1962, more
particularly pp. 169-77. There are some good pictures in E. Oxenstierna,
The Norsemen, 1966, and B. Almgren, The Viking, 1966.
Kaupang: Charlotte Blindheim, Kaupang, markedsplassen i Skiringssal, Oslo,
1953, and 'The Market Place in Skiringssal. Early Opinions and Recent
Studies', in Acta Archaeologica, XXXI, Copenhagen, i960. Helgo: W.
Holmkvist, B. Arrhenius, and P. Lundstrom, Excavations at Helgo, I and II,
Stockholm, 1961 and 1964. Lindholm Hoje: Th. Ramskou, 'Lindholm (HojeJ.
Preliminary Reports in Acta Archaeologica, XXTV (1953)5 XXVI (1955)5
XXVTfl (I957)- Jomsborg: O. Kunkel and K. A. Wilde, Jumne, 'Vimta',
Jomsburg, Julin: TVollin, Stettin, 1941. Grobin: B. Nerman, Grobin-Seeburg,
Ausgrabungen und Funde, Stockholm, 1958.
2.Causes of the Viking Movement
Overseas

JDut it was not as farmers or traders, nor

for their arts, industry, and domestic virtues, that the vikings
most impressed the ecclesiastics recording the contemporary scene
elsewhere in Europe. Of the five principal modes of making a
northern living, by agriculture, fishing and hunting, following a
craft, buying and selling, or robbing and fighting, it was the last
which made the most spectacular impact on chroniclers abroad.
And naturally enough, for the pain and grief of war incite the pen
more than the tamer processes of trade. The movement of disturbed,
needy, or merely warlike peoples southwards out of Scandinavia
against their unwelcoming neighbours in what are today the
British Isles, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, had been taking
place intermittently for almost a thousand years before the viking
movement proper began towards the end of the eighth century. In
the second century before Christ the Teutones and Cimbri had
left their homes in Jutland to test the Roman power, and before the

Age of Migrations was over Oster- and Vastergotland, Skane,

Bornholm, and Vendsyssel would spawn with Goths, Langobards,
Burgundians, and Vandals to add to the Empire's troubles. The
southern wanderings of the Eruli during three centuries, the Geat
attack on Frisia, and the Angles' share in the conquest of Britain
have been referred to as illustrations of this northern overspill. But
so far as we can tell, the seventh and most of the eighth century
was a period of respite. For this there must have been good reason,
part of which will be found in the close and unrelenting struggles
for regional and national power both within and between the
Scandinavian countries during this time, some account of which
 Causes of the Piking Movement Overseas 183

has been offered earlier, 1 the easing of their population and land
problems brought about by the Migrations, and their preoccupation
with the Baltic lands and the peoples east and north of them. Even
more important was the question of means. The quick-in quick-out
viking raids which began in the 790s, and still more the voyages of
settlement to the lesser Atlantic islands which began somewhat
earlier, were sea-borne and could hardly be undertaken until
northern shipwrights had brought the sailing-ship to some such
state of excellence as we observe in the vessels found at Gokstad in
Norway and Skuldelev in Denmark. From all the evidence, pictorial
and archaeological, the necessary command of techniques was
attained about the middle of the eighth century. 2 It was then that
northern reaped the benefit of centuries spent traversing the
sailors
leads and fjords of the Norwegian coasts, the belts and sounds and
sandy entries of the Danish mainland and island-archipelago, the
lakes and rivers of Sweden, and the crossing to Aland, Gotland and
Oland, and all such training in seamanship as Skagerrak and Kat-
tegat, Baltic and Baltic Gulfs provide. 3
1
More especially in the chapter on 'The Legendary History of the Swedes
and the Danes' and the 'The Historical Traditions of Norway
earlier part of
to 950'.
2 The
subject has recently been treated in some detail for the English reader
in P.H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, 1962, chapter 4, 'The Ships', which
among its other excellences summarizes the views of Harald Akerlund
('Ass och beitiass', Unda Maris, 1955-6, and 'Vikingatidens skepp och
sjovasen', Svenska Kryssarklubbens drsskrift, 1959); in an elaborately illustrated
chapter (pp. 247-83) in Almgren's The Filing, 1966; and in Jacqueline
Simpson, Everyday Life in the Viking Age, 1967, chapter 4, 'Ships and Seafar-
ing.' The classic account of viking ships and seafaring is that of Brogger and
Shetelig, Vikingeskipene, Deres forjengere og etterfolgere, Oslo, 1950 English
:

—
version, The Viking Ships their Ancestry and Evolution, Oslo, 1953. The chapter
on 'Seafaring' by Hjalmar Falk in Shetelig and Falk, Scandinavian Archaeology,
1937, is a valuable and compact summary, as is Thorleif Sjovold, The Oseberg
Find and the other Viking Ship Finds, Oslo, 1959. Relevant to this chapter are
BertilAlmgren, 'Vikingatag och Vikingsskepp', Tor, Vffl, 1962, 186 ff.;
and 'Vikingatagens hojdpunkt och slut', ibid., LX, 1963, 215 ff. For the
Ladby ship see Knud
Thorvildsen, The Viking Ship ofLadby, Nationalmuseets
Bla Boger, Copenhagen, 1 961; for the Skuldelev-Peberrenden ships, Olaf

Olsen and Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, Vikingskibene i Roskilde Fjord, National-

museet, Copenhagen, 1962-3, and Olaf Olsen, 'Die Kaufschiffe der Wikinger-
zeit im Lichte des Schiffsfundes bei Skuldelev im Roskilde Fjord', in Visby-
symposiet for historiska vetenskaper, 1963, pp. 20-34.
3 It iseasy to overlook the obvious. Scandinavians were travellers by land,
too. Their principal aid to locomotion was the horse, referred to on innumer-
 Section thr

Section C — C.

General arrangemil
Seal

25. THE GOKSTAD SHIP (PLANS AND SECTIONS)

entral line.

-E. Section A —A. Section D —D.

the Gokstad ship.

80.
1 86 A History of the Vikings
If we take the
Gokstad ship as our prototype (a fine vessel of the
mid-ninth century), we might sum up the situation at the time of
the early viking raids thus around the year 800 a leader of rank and
:

means could have at his command for ventures overseas a seaworthy

and manoeuvrable sailing-ship, some 76-^ feet long from stem to
stern, with a beam of 17^ feet, and a little over 6 feet 4 inches from
the bottom of the keel to the gunwale amidships. The Gokstad
ship had a keel of 57 feet 9 inches, made from a single oak timber, 1
and was clinker built of sixteen strakes of differing but carefully
calculated thickness. The waterline strake was if inches thick, the

able occasions in the literary sources, frequently in the historical, and found
in abundance in heathen burials. The
long trails of loose-roped pack-horses
to be observed in the Icelandic countryside almost till the present day
accurately represented the ancient Scandinavian habit. The northern peoples
had a variety of carts and wagons for summer haulage, though few such
workaday conveyances can have approached in splendour the ornate speci-
mens, some of them of religious significance, discovered at Oseberg and
Gokstad. They had sledges of different kinds, mainly but not exclusively for
winter. Some scholars believe that the body of many carts or sledges was
designed to work with wheels or runners according to the season, and could
be transferred to a boat also. They knew the use of skis and skates (a number
of these last, fashioned from pigs' shin-bones, have come to light at Birka
and other places). The building and maintenance of roads, especially in
swampy places or across streams and rivers, was a well-regarded form of
community service. There are a number of runic stones commemorating men
who built bridges or causeways, like that now in Fjenneslev Church in
Zealand: 'Sazur raised the stone and made the bridge'; or that at Kallstorp
in Skane: 'Thorkel Thordarson made this bridge after his brother Vragi.'
Interestingly enough, many of these inscriptions have a Christian flavour,
like that on a rock at Sodertalje: 'Holmfast had the ground cleared and a
bridge built after his father Geir, who lived in Nasby. May God keep his
soul. Holmfast had the ground cleared after his good mother, Ingigerd'; or
the elaborate stone from Dynna in Hadaland, Norway: 'Gunnvor Thidrik's
daughter made this bridge after her daughter Astrid. She was the most
accomplished maiden in Hadaland.' Among the carvings on this stone are
God (or Christ) and the Star of Bethlehem, and the 'journey of the three
Wise Men of the East.

1 The flexible structure made a powerful one-piece keel

of the Gokstad ship
essential. It must have been oak tree in Norway which yielded a baulk
a rare
of this size. It is a matter of record than when the Gokstad replica was built
for her Atlantic crossing of 1893 a Canadian oak had to be imported for the
purpose. The keel of the Oseberg ship was made of two pieces cut at an angle
so as to overlap and secured with iron rivets.
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 187

nine underwater strakes and the three immediately above the

waterline strake were precisely 1 inch; above this was the oar
strake, 1 J inches, and the two topmost strakes were just J inch.
The gunwale was substantial, \\ inches by i\. The strakes were
joined together by round-headed iron rivets driven through from
the outside and secured inside by means of small square iron plates.
The caulking was of tarred animal hair or wool. The hull was kept
in shape by nineteen frames and cross-beams. The decking of pine,
in this case loose so that the space beneath could be used for storage,
was laid over these beams. The strakes below the waterline were
tied to the frames with spruce root lashings (in the Oseberg ship with
narrow strips of whalebristle, in the Tune ship with bast), a device
which contributed much to the ship's flexibility. This was still
further increasedby a carefully systematized trenailing of the above-
water strakes to wooden knees and cross-beams or, in the case of
the top two, to half-ribs secured to the strakes below and butted
into the underside of the gunwale. The elasticity of this part of the
ship was such that the replica of the Gokstad ship sailed across the
Atlantic in 1893 by Magnus Andersen (a twenty-eight day passage
from Bergen to Newfoundland) showed a gunwale twisting out of
true by as much as 6 inches, yet was safe, fast, and watertight. With
her mighty keel and flexible frame and planking the viking ship
was an inspired combination of strength and elasticity. And this
power to cross seas and oceans did not exhaust her excellence as a
raider. An exceedingly shallow draught, rarely exceeding 3 \ feet,

allowed her to penetrate all save the shallowest rivers, gave her
mastery of harbourless shelving beaches, and facilitated the rapid
disembarkation of men at the point of attack. By turning into the
wind and making off by oar she was almost immune from pursuit
by the clumsier sailing-ships of the lands she preyed on.
The ship was constructed almost entirely of oak. The sixteen
pairs of oars were of pine, so regulated in length that they struck the
water in unison. They were operated not by means of rowlocks but
by closable holes in the fourteenth strake. The mast, too, was of
pine, probably about 35 feet tall, with a big square sail made of
strips of heavy woollen cloth, strengthened, it would appear, by a
rope network, and hoisted on a yard some 37 feet long. The apparatus
for bearing and supporting the mast was massive and strong. First
c
there was the old woman' (kerling) or keelson, a prostrate block of
solid oak resting on the keel over a span of four frames, with a
1 88 A History of the Vi kings
cunningly designed socket to take the boot of the mast and assist
c
its and lowering. Above the kerling, supported by the old
raising
woman' and no less than six cross beams, was another big block of
oak, the mast partner, its forward section massive and closed, to
take on three sides the pressure of the raised mast when the ship was
running under sail and transmit the wind's power to the hull, its
rear grooved to facilitate the mast's lowering. When the mast was
raised this groove was rilled with a fitting oak block or wedge.
From the Gotland pictorial stones it appears that sail could be
effectively shortened by the use of reefing lines, and recent opinion
has inclined to the view that the viking ship could be sailed across
and even near the wind. This was largely due to the use of the
beitidss, a removable pole or tacking boom whose heavy end was

seated in a socket abeam of the mast while its lighter end was fitted
to the forward leech of the sail to keep it taut and drawing when the
ship was sailing on the wind. 1 She was steered by a side-rudder
fastened to the starboard quarter, a singularly effective instrument
pronounced by Magnus Andersen to be one of the clearest proofs of
northern shipbuilding skills and seamanship. On his Atlantic
crossing he found it satisfactory in every way, decidedly superior
to a rudder on the sternpost, and manageable by a single member
of the crew in any weather with just one small line to help him.
Such ships would frequently be furnished with a ship's boat, some-
times stowed on board, sometimes towed behind. Three such were
found with the Gokstad ship, beautifully made and 32, 26, and 21^
feet long respectively, two with masts and all three equipped for
rowing, but it is possible that the two bigger ones are not true
ship's boats but grave goods. Bailing was by bucket and muscle-
power; the anchor was of iron, and in general was served by a rope
and not an iron chain. The ship could be tented for sleeping quarters
by night. Finally it is worth re-emphasizing that the ship which
carried the Norsemen overseas, whether to the British Isles, the
Frankish Empire, or (self-evidently) to the Atlantic Islands, Iceland,
Greenland and America, was a sailing ship her oars were an auxiliary
:

form of power for use when she was becalmed, in some state of

1The beitidss has been reported on favourably by Captain Magnus Andersen,

who crossed the Atlantic in a replica of the Gokstad ship; Captain Folgar,
who in 1932 took a replica of a 60-foot knorr across the Atlantic by one of
Columbus's routes and returned to Norway by way of Newfoundland; and
by Captain C. Solver, after his experience of the Hugin in 1949.
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 189

emergency, or required manoeuvring in narrow waters, fjords, for

example, or rivers. This was true of raiding ships and carriers alike,
though the ratio of men to space would naturally be higher in the
raider. The ship of all work, the true ocean-goer, the hafskip or
knorr, was in its general construction similar to the Gokstad ship,
but broader in the beam, deeper in the water, and of a higher
freeboard. This has always seemed clear from saga evidence, and
was confirmed by the raising of Wreck 1 from the waters of Peber-
renden in Roskilde Fjord, Denmark, in 1962. 1
Even as prototype, the Gokstad ship is not the whole story. The
sagas preserve many names for warships, skuta, snekkja (taken into
French as esneque, the general word for a Norse pirate vessel, and
into Russian as shnekd), skeid, dreki (dragon-head), karfi, as well as

the generic langskip (longship), and these between them represent a

spread of from six to twenty oars a-side. Longships, levy-ships, or
defence ships(leidangrsskip, landvarnarskip), always assuming that

genuine viking term, could be very big indeed and

this last is a
deploy much manpower, sometimes more than a hundred men. Olaf
Tryggvason's Long Serpent is described as having thirty-four oars
a-side, and if we believe Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century
witness carried well over 200 men into OlaPs last battle at Svold.
But caution is With her gilded dragon-head and tail, her
necessary.
strengthened prow, her gunwales 'as high as those on an ocean-
going ship', her heavy provision of fighting men to the bench, and
her named king's champions, she sounds like a floating garrison, a
fortress, designed to dominate the line of battle in home waters,

1 Wreck 3 is also fairly The display of

broad, but not notably high or deep.
these five Peberrenden ships in the museum now
being built for them on the
water's edge at Roskilde will considerably sharpen our awareness of the
variety of northern shipbuilding. The Norsemen, for example, may well have
made use of boats of a Frisian cog-type before their own products became
fully competitive towards 800. They would have been suitable for the passage
of trade through the Limfjord, where archaeological investigation has shown
distinct Frisian influence in pre- viking times, and on the Eider-Treene-
Schlei route, with its evidence of cultural and trade contacts between North
Sea and Baltic in the 700s. A. E. Christensen, 'Birka uden Frisere', in Handels-
og Sofartsmuseet pa Kronborg, Arbog, 1966, pp. 17-38, argues, less than convinc-
ingly, that the Frisians had nothing to do with Birka, and that these waters
were dominated by the Scandinavians. Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, 'Cog-kogge-
kaag', in the same journal, 1965, pp. 81-145, concludes that we cannot be
surewho carried goods between Frisia and Birka at this time, Frisians or
Norsemen, or both (English Summary, pp. 143-5).
190 A History of the Vikings

not for voyages on the open seas. Nothing of these formidable

monsters survives (Knut, we are told, would build a longship of
sixty benches), but in any case the point is incontestable there is :

no record of them on voyages west or south-west, nor could they

have survived the hazards of storm and rough water in the North
Sea, to say nothing of the Atlantic Ocean. The same is true of such
elegant vessels as that from Oseberg. Triumphantly beautiful, she
would have been a deep-water man's nightmare and coffin. —
Neither the Long Serpent nor the Oseberg ship was the kind of new-
comer which spread dismay and ruin over much of the European
continental and island litoral during the ninth and tenth centuries.
So necessarily we are forced back to the Gokstad ship, with such
reinforcing evidence as can be won from the Ladby and Peberrenden
finds on the one hand, and from literary and pictorial sources on the
other. The Gokstad ship and her kind were the culmination of a
long process of experiment which began at least as far back as the
Bronze Age, can be charted with fair accuracy from the fourth to the
seventh century, and found the right answers, particularly in
respect of bow, stern, and keel, and the all-important business of
mast and sail, in the eighth. The Gokstad ship is the perfect example
of her kind of ship, where proportion, construction, purpose, are
fully harmonized. When the Viking Age was over far bigger ships
would be built, and the distinction between warship and merchant-
man would be sharpened, but these are developments which con-
cern us less than directly.
The ship of all work, we have said, was the kn'orr (pi. knerrir), and
if we seek to understand the haven-finding art of the Norsemen it
must be with this sturdy craft in mind. It is generally accepted that
when the great Atlantic voyages of discovery and exploration took
place in the ninth and tenth centuries the North had neither com-
pass nor chart. How then could a Norwegian, Icelandic, or Greenland
skipper in the year 1020 make his way confidently and accurately
from, let us say, Bergen in Norway to L'Anse-aux-Meadows in
northern Newfoundland? Clearly he had his sailing directions,
and some of these have been preserved in the passage from Land-
ndmabok quoted on page 162 above. First and foremost he would
commit himself to a latitude sailing. This was no haphazard affair.
To begin with he would move thirty miles or so north of Bergen to
the landmark of Stad, because this had the same degree of latitude
as his landfall in Greenland. If now he sailed due west he would
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 191

find himself after the right count of days passing north of the
Shetlands, and thereafter south of the Faroes at a recognizable and
prescribed distance from them. On the same course he would next
traverse the ocean well to the south of Iceland and know where he
was not by the later measurement in miles but by observing the
birds and sea-creatures associated with those waters. On a good
passage, in clear weather, and with a following wind, this part of the
voyage would have taken about seven days. It would take him almost
about eighty miles
as long again to sight the east coast of Greenland
north of Cape Farewell. Now
he must head south-west and reach
the west coast of Greenland either by rounding the Cape or by
threading Prins Christians Sund. From here on he would be follow-
ing a well-described coastal route till he reached Herjolfnes (the
modern Ikigait), with its Norse farms and haven. Ahead lay the
landmark of Hvarf, and thereafter many ports of call in the Eastern
Settlement, in the region of the modern Julianehab. He was now in
the warm northward-setting coastal current of West Greenland and
would progress with comparative ease and plenty of directions to
the Western Settlement, in the neighbourhood of the modern
Godthab. From here we assume he would continue north by the
familiar route to the northern hunting grounds, to the modern
Holsteinsborg or the huge island of Disco. If from Disco he turned
south-west for the eastern coast of Canada he would be conforming
to a classic principle of Norse navigation, to make the shortest
practicable ocean passage and use the clearest landmarks. He would
also stand to benefit by the frequent northerly winds of the Davis
Strait. From Disco or Holsteinsborg he would reach the southerly
part of Baffin Island and know what kind of coast to expect there.
He must now follow the land south, for an estimated number of
days, passing the big inlet of Frobisher Bay and the entrance to
Hudson Bay, till he sighted the forest land of Labrador, south of
modern Nain. South of Hamilton Inlet he would be looking for the
white beaches of the Strand and the distinctive keel-shaped Cape
Porcupine (the Furdustrandir and Kjalarnes of the sagas), and so
down past Battle Harbour he sighted Belle Isle and
till in time
thereafter the northernmost tip of Newfoundland and Cape Bauld.
From here to Epaves Bay and the Norse houses by Black Duck
Brook was a defined route without navigational problems.
This, inevitably, is a crude simplification of the sailing directions
a skipper and his crew must carry in their heads as they sailed the
192 A History of the Vikings
coasts of West Greenland and Labrador. The knowledge of land-
marks could be hardly less demanding on a sailor through the
Norwegian skaergaard, or a newcomer threading the western
islands of Scotland, though here the use of local skills might some-
times be relied on. An immense sea-lore was indispensable, the
lessons to be learned from cloud formations and the colour of water,
marine creatures and birds, iceblink, currents, driftwood and weed,
the feel of a wind. These sailors knew the sun and stars, the arts of
rough and dead reckoning, and the use of a line to search the ocean's
bottom. In a good day's sailing of twenty-four hours they could
cover 120 miles and more.
But for the long Atlantic voyages between Norway, Faroes,
Iceland, Greenland, America, the first requisite was the mariner's
ability to fix his latitude. That the Norseman could do this is certain,
though there is still doubt as to his method and instruments. We
read, for example, of a detailed set of tables attributed to the Ice-
lander Star-Oddi, which gave the sun's midday latitude week by
week throughout the year, as he observed this in northern Iceland
towards the end of the tenth century. This or similar information
recorded on so simple an object as a marked stick would give the
mariner an indication of his then latitude as compared with a
known place. Any observation of the midday sun, or if need be of
the Pole Star, even by so crude a method as the measurement of a
shadow noon or the calculation of the Star's height above the
cast at
horizon expressed in terms of one's own arm, hand, or thumb, was a
fair guide to latitude, which on the western voyages was much

more important than longitude. Because if a storm-driven mariner

(and there were many such during the early voyages of discovery
and the ensuing period of trade) could get himself back to his
correct latitude and sail in the desired direction he must, accidents
and disasters apart, reach the place he was aiming for. The extreme
casualness of thirteenth-century saga sources relating to sea-voyages
is possibly thus explained. A ship leaves the Osloijord for Breidafjord
in Iceland, or Breidafjord for the Eastern Settlement in Greenland,
or the Eastern Settlement for Leifsbudir in Vinland, or makes any
such voyage in reverse, and the full extent of our information may
be that it had a following wind, an easy passage, was much delayed,
or blown about, and then arrived at its destination. The casualness
would be more understandable if we could be sure that in the
still

Viking Age the Norsemen had learned to make use of the light-
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 193

NW

26. A NORSE BEARING-DIAL

polarizing qualities of calcite or Iceland spar (solarsteinn, sun-stone),

and could thus make an observation of the sun even when it was
hidden from view. 1 It is reasonable to assume that they had bearing-

1 and other Icelandic sources describe a phenomenon best

Flateyjarbok
explained a use of Iceland spar or something similar to make an
by such
observation of the sun. Flateyjarbok does so with a reference to St. Olaf of
Norway in the first third of the eleventh century. The scientific principle of
the polarization of light by Iceland spar was first formulated by Erasmus
Bartholinus in Denmark in 1669, and in an indirect way led to the invention
of the Kollsman Sky Compass, or 'twilight compass', tusmorkekompas, in use
today by those civil airlines and air forces which ply the polar routes. It is
certain that the Viking Age had no knowledge of the scientific principle
194 -4 History of the Vikings

dials of a simple but effective kind, though the only indication of

this is the half of a round disc of wood marked with equidistant
notches discovered by C. L. Vebaek in 1948 at Siglufjord in the
Eastern Settlement of Greenland. Had it been whole the notches
would number thirty-two, offering a sophisticated division of the
horizon reminiscent of the late Middle Ages rather than viking
times, when an eight-point dial conforming to the eight named
points of the Old Norse horizon would appear more natural. 1
even so cursory an account of the viking ship cannot be
Finally,
leftwithout one substantial qualification. The Gokstad ship would
presumably carry a crew of thirty-two to thirty-five; it is unlikely
that many raiding ships were bigger and carried more; the pro-
bability is that most of them were smaller. It is estimated that the
weight of the Gokstad hull, with all her fittings, was just over 20
metric tons; the Viking replica of 1893 was of just under 32 register
tons. It sounds less than large, but it was enough. Such vessels gave
a seafaring people an unchallengeable instrument of aggression.
The unexpectedness, the swiftness, and the savagery of the viking
raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 came as a bolt from the
blue not only to the monks surprised and slaughtered there but to
Alcuin over in Charlemagne's court. 2 'It is some 350 years that we

involved. On the other hand, it will not take a man handling a piece of
Iceland spar long to hold it up At the moment the question of
to the light.
viking use of the solarsteinn is an open one, and it would be gratifying to have
it answered in the affirmative. See Thorkild Ramskou, 'Solstenen', in Skalk,

1967, nr. 2, pp. 16-17.

1 The was found in a ruin thought to date from c. 1200. It has a hole
half-disc
in its centre which could well be for a shaft, and this shaft might well contain
a shadow-pin and even a course-indicator. Not everyone accepts that the
half-disc is part of a bearing-dial, but it is hard to know what else it could be.
Similar but earlier finds would be useful. Carl. V. Solver has argued convinc-
ingly for its nature and use in Vestervejen. Om vikingerms sejlads, Copenhagen,
1954, but is mistaken in describing it as a solarsteinn. There is a useful descrip-
tion in English in Jacqueline Simpson, Everyday Life in the Viking Age, 1967,
pp. 94-5. The illustration on p. 193 is after Solver.
2 The date of the first Danish raid rather loosely determined as during
is

Beorhtric's reign. He reigned from 786 to 802. The tone of the entry which
deals with it in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is markedly different from that for

793 =

[789, for 787]. In this year Beorhtric took to wife Eadburh, daughter of
king Offa. And in his days came for the first time three ships of Norwegians
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 195

27. PERILS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS, I: THE

DEVOURING WHALE (OLAUS MAGNUS)

and our forefathers have inhabited this lovely land, and never before
in Britain has such a terror appeared as this we have now suffered
at the hands of the heathen. Nor was it thought possible that such
an inroad from the sea could be made.' Fifty years earlier he would
have been right; but now, within a period of five years, Norse free-
booters plundered and slew at Lindisfarne and Jarrow in North-
umbria, Morganwg in South Wales, Lambey Island (Rechru) north
of Dublin in Ireland, in Kintyre and the Isle of Man, and at the
sacred island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland. In 799 they raided
various islands lying offAquitaine in France. All this was a presage
of calamity which the future would not belie.

from Hordaland, and then the king's reeve rode thither and tried to make
them go to the royal manor, for he did not know who or what they were, and
with that they killed him. These were the first ships of the Danes to come to
England.
793. In this year terrible portents appeared over Northumbria and sadly
affrighted the inhabitants: these were exceptional flashes of lightning, and
fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine followed soon upon
these signs, and a little after that in the same year on the ides of January
[r&zijune] the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God's church in
Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughter.
196 A History of the Vi kings
The reasonsfor this fresh stirring of 'tumultuary arms and num-
bers' were many. For Alcuin the sackers of Lindisfarne were God's in-
strument of wrath visited upon the sins of the people, but this, even if
true (and Alcuin quotes Jeremiah 1 :I4 in support), 1 is not enough.
The deeper causes of the viking movement overseas were rooted in
human nature: the northern peoples had needs and ambitions, were
prepared to make demands, and had the will, strength, and techni-
cal means to enforce them. They wanted land to farm, wealth to
make life splendid, or bearable, and some of them wanted dignity
and fame. Trade, colonization, piracy, and war would get them these
things, and such could be practised only at the expense of neigh-
bours near and far. The northern irruption surprised most con-
temporaries, but can surprise no one today.
A long tradition as well as the Migrations themselves testifies to
recurrent overpopulation and land-shortage in Scandinavia. 'Each
of these countries ("those peoples whom the northern pole aspects")
was like amighty hive, which, by the vigour of propagation and
health of climate, growing too full of people, threw out some new
swarm at certain periods of time, that took wing, and sought out
some new abode, expelling or subduing the old inhabitants, and
seating themselves in their rooms.' 2 A case in respect of the Viking
Age proper was deployed by Johannes Steenstrup in his mighty
Normannerne. 3 The limitations imposed on both crop and animal
husbandry in parts of Scandinavia in early times by sea, mountains,

1 'Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.'
2
Sir William Temple, 'Of Heroic Virtue', 1690, quoted from Works, iii, 363,
1 8 14. The quotation, populos quos despicit Arctos, he takes from Lucan. Temple

had canvassed northern matters with men as notable as Count Oxenstern

(Oxenstierna) and Olaus Wormius, and shared their views and at times their
errors. The bees and the hive he found in Jordanes.
3 Normannerm,
4 volumes, Copenhagen, 1876-82. The two best-known
examples of the tradition are Hengest's tale to Vortigern about the expulsion
of surplus 'Saxons', best known through Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia
Regum Britanniae, vi, 10, Wace, and Layamon (the earlier stages of the
tradition are discussed in K. Schreiner, Die Saga von Hengist und Horsa, 1921);
and the emigration of the Gotlanders, as recounted in Guta Saga, ed. Pipping,
Copenhagen, 1905-7. For a trenchant account of the latter, and the similar
stories in Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, Dudo, Dudonis sancti
Quintini de moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, and Saxo Grammaticus,
Gesta Danorum, with a reference back to Herodotus, see L. Weibull, 'En
Forntida Utvandring fran Gottland', in Nordisk Historia, I.
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 197

28. PERILS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS, 2: THE

DEVOURING WHIRLPOOL (OLAUS MAGNUS)

latitude, and cold, especially in respect of Norway and upper

Sweden, were always constrictive, and at times severely so. Domi-
ciled in this circumscribed and vulnerable region was a vigorous and
fast-breeding race whose numbers increased considerably from the
seventh to the tenth century. Their social habits were shaped to
increase, though we must regard with caution the written evidence
for Norse polygamy. That men like girls, concubines, mistresses,
and that those who can afford them frequently acquire them, is not
a very particularized indictment. According to Adam of Bremen,
every Swede whose means allowed had two or three wives, while
the wealthy and high-born set themselves no limit. It sounds ex-
cessive, even for Swedes, while Ibn Fadlan's comments on the crude
sexual arrangements of the Rus in Russia (see p. 165 above) express
along with some truth the satisfaction of a man who manages these
things more elegantly at home. 1 On the most parsimonious count
1 Their king, he says further,
had forty women in his harem, and when he
wished enjoyed them in public, while his hirdmen were supplied with girls
for service and joy exactly like Harald Fairhair's champions back in Norway.
'Glorious is their way of life, those warriors who play chess in Harald's court.
They are made rich with money and fine swords, with metal of Hunaland and
girls from the east.' (Hrafmmdl, 8.)
198 A History of the Vikings
Harald had nine sons who grew to manhood; his son Eirik Bloodaxe
—
had eight and all needed a substantial patrimony. Great men had
wives by marriage-contract and, if they wished, by loose-bridal.
For any save the very poor a quiverful of sons was welcome. They
were proof of a man's virility, the extension of his right arm, and
along with poetry or a standing stone his best memorial to posterity.
They also manned ships and, in viking terms much the same thing,
filled armies. But they had to be provided for. Above all they had to

be fed. There were too many men at home, of chieftains' and farmers'
sons both, and 'Out they must, for the land cannot contain them'.
The tools of empire are younger sons, and throughout Scandinavia
these were in good supply.
It does not, of course, follow that their numbers were enormous,
as is sometimes argued for and sometimes contested. All they had to
be was sufficient. And this, in terms of far-reaching conquest or
permanent colonization, they often failed to be. Peoples can be too
numerous for their own meagre acres, yet not numerous enough
to fill and hold shires, provinces, and realms abroad.
For one particular category of men there was a second reason
why out they must. There must have been periods of violent dis-
turbance in Denmark during the first thirty years of the ninth
century, while Godfred established his realm and cleared its coasts
of sea-kings, and later, when the sons of king Godfred fought the
sons of an earlier king Harald for supremacy; and, equally, a long
process of dynastic strife in the petty kingdoms of Norway during
the hundred years preceding the accession of Halfdan the Black c.

840. In wars of succession losers lose all, making a shift abroad

welcome to all parties. We know very little about the earliest Norse
incursions into the Shetland and Orkneys and thereafter the
Hebrides, but the first settlements, c. 780, appear to have been
peaceful and carried out by men concerned not with plunder but
with a search for pastureland where they could live the life and
reproduce the institutions they were used to. Vikings seeking a base
came later, nearer the middle of the ninth century, in part, one
suspects, because pressure was building up more strongly at home.
The main areas of colonization as opposed to conquest were explored
and taken over after 860. In the case of those dispossessed Danish
princes who found lands in Frisia, and the Norwegian vikings who
found themselves at loggerheads with Harald Fairhair, we have
indicative if not over-reliable information as to names and circum-
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 199

stance, and the record can be extended down through Gold-Harald

in the one kingdom and Olaf Tryggvason in the other. Who led the
first attacks on Northumbria, Scotland, and Ireland, we do not know,

but it is a fair conclusion that many of them were made in a similar

mould, men in trouble with a lord or lords stronger than themselves,
men dispossessed, men banished, men who left their country for
their country's good.
The contribution of pressures from outside Scandinavia to the
viking movement has been variously assessed. So considerable an
authority as Johannes Brondsted will have nothing to do with it, on

the grounds that there is no evidence for it, and that the early
viking raids west and south-west bear no similarity to the great
movements of the migration period. 1 But where no one cause seems
sufficient we must clutch at every straw —
and Charlemagne's
Empire as it expanded northwards after c. 770 probably felt quite a
heavy straw to those it drove against. Clearly this had nothing what-
ever to do with the Norwegian occupation of the Atlantic Isles and
their first raids on the British Isles, but the strong Danish reaction
against the Franks and Frisians and their Abodrit allies was an
important part of the complex of motives and events characteristic
of that first phase of the viking movement which may be held to
have terminated at the end of the second decade of the ninth
century. The disturbing influence of a great power acquisitively on
the move was as marked in early times as in our own, and few
survivors of the 1930s will feel that British and French politicians
acted with more wisdom or courage then than did Godfred between
800 and 810. If Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony did nothing more
to the north, it hardened Denmark militarily and drew its attention
south; while the harm done to Frisia weakened the Empire's
northern defences and established the most natural Danish raiding
route south as the easiest and most assured. Soon, in any case, the
political condition of the Empire, England, and Ireland would exert
not pressure but an irresistible pull on all Norsemen to come down
and exploit their exposed coasts, ill-knit territories, and their
immense and ill-defended treasures.
We have mentioned trade, and trade's dark sister, piracy (pp.
166-7 above). Both were essential to the viking movement, for the
vikings practised both, assiduously. When circumstance favoured
they were happy to be merchants, but when seas were undefended and
1 The Vikings, 1965, p. 25.
200 A History of the Vikings

PERILS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS,

29. 3: POLAR ICE AND
POLAR BEARS (OLAUS MAGNUS)

towns lay open they turned privateer. The first relevant entry in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that dealing with the Hordalanders who
encountered the king's reeve at Dorchester, and the amplified
account of the episode in the Chronicon ALthelweardi, is symbolic.
The unfortunate reeve thought they were merchants and directed
them to the royal manor for the customary preliminaries to trade.
But if merchants, they were rough-dealers, and for reasons which the
Chronicle does not explain they killed him. When Norwegians next
came to England they came to plunder. The process once started,
no mystery remains. Loot is loot in any language, and western
Europe was full of it. Ireland, England, France were the vikings'
Mexico, with learning, arts, wealth, and a civilization superior to
those of their northern conquistadores, and a similar inability to
defend themselves from a numerically inferior but mobile and
energetic foe. Report of the more accessible monasteries and
churches, the coastal marts and riverine towns, the defenceless
manor-houses and well-stocked farms, must have seeped through
the viking world like water through thirsty earth. There was still
a short delay the Norwegians were taking over the sheep-pastures
:

of the Atlantic Isles and the Southreys; the Swedes were facing
east to the rivers and forests of Russia; and the Danes were at grips
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 201

with the Empire and each other. But the storm-bell was tolling and
in 834-5 the breakers would come crashing in.
One other 'cause' of the viking movement invites comment.
The northern peoples as the ninth century drew near had to be
ready for it. Here, too, there is no mystery. Greed, self-interest,
profit, advantage, describe or qualify it as one will, is endemic in

human nature. Yet this is an unflattering way of describing the

viking upsurge. That itwas the expression of a heroic ideal is, on
the other hand, all —
too flattering and misleading. To see the
viking movement in terms of heroic literature is like seeing the
ItalianRisorgimento in terms of grand opera, or the winning of the
American West in terms of its equine equivalent. We have noted
the three viking compulsions of land, wealth, and fame. Naturally
these did not often operate separately or in isolation. They arose
out of the northern way of life, and were pursued in the existing
context of politics, geography, and economics. They indicate a not
unusual way of thinking expressed in appropriate action. It was not
even a matter of bravery, much less a heroic ideal: the vikings were
no braver than the English whom they would eventually subjugate
(with curious consequences for themselves), or the Welsh with
whom they would fail. But by and large they were self-confident;

PERILS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS, 4: DRIFTWOOD

30.
AND WRECKAGE OFF GREENLAND (OLAUS MAGNUS)
202 A History of the Vikings
today, tomorrow, or the day after they knew they had the beating,
or it might be outmanoeuvring, of their enemy. Take
safer to say
selfconfidence and professional skill, add resource, cunning, no
nonsense about fair play, a strong disregard for human life and
suffering, especially the other man's, and you have a good soldier.
Give a ship's crew or a mounted commando of such men a leader in
whose intelligence, tactics, valour, profitability, and record of suc-
cess they can trust, and you have a good unit. Multiply the units,
find them a general like the famed Halfdan or Hastein, Ganga-Hrolf
or Olaf Tryggvason, or a monarch like Svein Forkbeard or Knut, and
you shake kingdoms. It is not surprising that the vikings prospered
overseas as much as they did the surprise is that they did not pros-
:

per more. For this, too, there were reasons, which will be discussed
later. For the moment we may conclude that the viking's trade dove-

tailed well with the state of affairs in Scandinavia as the eighth cen-
tury wore to its close. Fame, profit, change, adventure, land, women,
danger, destruction, service, comradeship, command, irresponsi-
bility, were all made realizable. And the North now had the ships.
As in Scandinavia, so at the receiving end in Europe the times
were favourable to the art and practice of viking. From the be-
ginning access, outrage, and escape were easy for individual and
uncoordinated raiding parties. Till their sails notched the horizon
of Scotland, Ireland, and the kingdoms of England, they moved in
secrecy; in lucky conditions of weather and coastline they were on
their prey with hardly an hour's warning; whether they strand-
hewed for cattle, 1 or plundered a monastery or coastal town, there
would in their own phrase be 'little defence for the land'; and when
the time came for them to row out and take the breeze in their sail
they had soon vanished utterly. They held a comparable advantage
on the national scale. Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales (and still
less Russia in the east) were at no time kingdoms single and
indivisible, and in 840 the Frankish Empire ceased to be such. In
Scotland there was a medley of realms and races Picts north of:

1 whereby vikings provided themselves with cattle,

strandbogg, a shore-raid
alive or slaughtered, and other stores. This was a practice eloquent of the
ancient disunity of Scandinavia, where a man's loyalties were confined to his
own patria, region, or petty kingdom, so that a Zealander would not plunder
in Zealand (or his section of it), or a man of Sogn in Sogn, but felt free to help
himself elsewhere. As the petty kingdoms were welded into larger units the
custom grew displeasing to kings like Harald Fairhair and Harald Bluetooth.
It had always been displeasing to those plundered.
 Causes of the Viking Movement Overseas 203

Argyll and the Forth; Welsh in Strathclyde and Cumberland, and

mingled with the Picts in Galloway north of the Solway Firth;
Scots in their expanding kingdom of Dalriada (Argyllshire, Kintyre,
and the islands of Bute, Arran, Islay and Jura); and Angles in
Bernicia. In Ireland, true, there was a High King in Tara to whom
the seven kingdoms of Connaught, Munster, Leinster, Meath,
Ailech, Ulaidh, and Oriel did homage, but this was a unity more
apparent than real. Between north and south there was the normal
Celtic jealousy which no Golden Age contrives to charm away.
Division in Wales was equally acute, and in England it was worse.
In everything save material possessions Northumbria had long
since declined from eminence and splendour, and the supremacy of
Mercia, established in the eighth century by Ethelbald rex Britan-
niae and Offa rex Anglorum, broke in pieces within thirty years of
Offa's death in 796. East Anglia regained its independence some
time after 825 and Essex and Kent had hankerings of a similar
nature. These two would submit in different degree to the emergent
kingdom of Wessex under Ecgbert, though as late as 856 king Ethel-
wulf could be made to accept a division of Wessex which split off Kent
and the provinces of the south-east. In the south-west the Welsh of
Cornwall remained long unreconciled to an English yoke, and after
835 were briefly misled into thinking to exchange it for a Danish.
Across the English Channel the death of Louis the Pious in 840
played straight into Danish and Norwegian hands. His eldest son
Lothar, who had spent the last decade quarrelling with his father,
now committed himself to quarrelling for another two with his
brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German. They defeated
him heavily at Fontenoy, and the treaty of Verdun in 843 saw the
end of Charlemagne's Empire. Lothar was still emperor, but his
domain shrank to contain Italy, Provence, and Burgundy, and the
lands running northwards to Frisia and the North Sea. All territories
to the east of this Middle Kingdom went to Louis the German.
They included Bavaria, Thuringia, Franconia, and Saxony, and
brought him flush with the southern frontier of the Danes. To
Charles went the territories west, roughly modern France between
the sea and the rivers Rhone, Saone, Meuse and Rhine, and Spain
down to the Ebro. Even here Brittany and Aquitaine had preten-
tions to independence. We may safely regard the increase of viking
activity in the newly partitioned Empire as neither accident nor
coincidence.
3. The Movement South and South-West
to 954: the British Isles / the Frankish
Empire the Mediterranean
/

-Lo FOLLOW IN DETAIL THE VIKING ONSLAUGHT ON

ninth-century Europe, whether nation by nation, decade by decade,
or under the four generally accepted heads of individual raids
for plunder, expeditions of political significance and intention,
colonial ventures seeking new land for settlement, and enterprises
whose main concern was mercantile and commercial, would be a
—
big task and in terms of this book a distorting one. It must be
enough to trace it in general though one hopes indicative outline.
We begin with Ireland in the 830s.
The Irish had suffered sporadically from Norwegian
coast
plunderers ever since the first raid on Lambey in 795, and sometimes

the raiders had penetrated far inland. These were painful depreda-
tions, 1 but bearable, and left the character of country and people
unchanged. But nothing could ever be the same again after the
arrival of the famous Turgeis from Norway shortly before 840. Our
knowledge of him, unfortunately, is at once inflated and diminished
by the legendary material associated with him several hundred years
after his death, when he had become a favourite receptacle for
Christian indignation and alarm. But we can accept that he held
command of a fleet, had ambitions and the energy to put them in
train, came to Ireland at the right moment, and intended a pro-
longed stay. We first hear of him in the north, where he is said to
have assumed the overlordship of all the foreigners in Erin, after
1
And rhetorically recorded as such in the Annals of Ulster for 820 'The sea
:

spewed forth floods of foreigners over Erin, so that no haven, no landing-place,

no stronghold, no fort, no castle might be found, but it was submerged by
5
waves of vikings and pirates.
 The Movement South and South- West to gs4 205

which, helped by a civil war instigated by the priest-king of Mini-

ster, he spread his elbows to good effect throughout Ulster. By the

capture of Armagh, at once a chief town of the north, the most

important ecclesiastical centre of Ireland, and one of the holy places
of western Christendom, he acquired wealth, power, reputation, and
his place in Irish tradition. To him and his kind is attributed the
establishment of harbour-strongholds at Anagassan, Dublin, Wex-
ford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, with important consequences
for the subsequent history of both Norse and Irish Ireland. He is

CUW.BE.aUND

Chasber

MAP 6. IRELAND AND THE IRISH SEA

206 A History of the Vikings
reported to have intervened for gain in the civil war to the south of

him; to have entered the Shannon and reached Lough Ree; the
sack of Clonmacnois and Clonfert has been laid at his door, and the
dispersal of their monks. Various of the Irish are charged with
joining him, opportunists who reneged on Christianity and as
Thor's men trooped into heathen temples which before Turgeis's
time had been monasteries, churches, and abbeys. Few things in
viking history sound less likely. These were the Gall-Gaedhil,
Foreign Gaels or Foreign Irish, of whom the Irish complained that
though the Foreigners were bad enough, the Foreign Gaels were
worse. 1 Christian witness against Turgeis is unsparing for his
desecration of holy places. Having expelled the abbot of Armagh,
he sat himself down in the abbey as its heathen high priest, and at
the altar of Clonmacnois his wife Ota (Aud) chanted spells and
oracles. Possibly this was the way Turgeis chose to present himself
to his people as leader, sustainer of sacrifices, and guarantor of good
seasons, on the Norwegian model. More probably it is monkish
invention. However, for the comfort of the Christian devout, there
had been an ancient prophecy that Gentiles, Foreigners, would come
from across the sea to confound the Irishmen for a period of seven
years, and one of them would be abbot without pater and credo,
without Irish, too, but only a foreign tongue. 2 The seven years
were evidently now up, for in 845 he was taken prisoner by Mael
Seachlainn, king of Meath, and drowned in Lough Owel, Westmeath.
A bad time followed for the Norwegians. By widespread raiding
they still exacted a toll of misery and spoil, but a succession ofdefeats
in the field reduced their strength and smirched their reputation.

1 The Gall-Gaedhil would grow to considerable importance by

850, with their
own social organization and their own armies under their own leaders. They
began as a body of Irishmen who renounced Christianity and threw in their
lot with the heathen Norse; but some are described as having been fostered
in Norse homes and so inducted into a Norse way of life. There can be no
doubt that a proportion of them were of mixed Norse-Irish parentage, sharing
the culture, and blending (or muddling) the beliefs of Viking and Celt. This
mongreldom of race, culture, religion, and political interest endeared them to
nobody. During the 850s they fought battles against the Norwegians, against
the Irish, and against the Norwegians and Irish combined. Expectedly they
were earnest and heartless marauders. Their political power declined after
860, but they continued to contribute to the miseries of Erin. There was a
parallel group of Gall-Gaedhil, Gall-Gael, Foreign Scots, in Scotland later, in
Galloway, which received its name from them.
2
J. H.
Todd, The War of the Gaedhil with the Gael, 1876, p. 1 1.
 The Movement South and South- West to 954 207

Unless Ireland was to be left to the Irish —an unthinkable pro-

position for another thousand years —
was time for renewed
it

foreign intervention. It was made by the Danes, and not out of love
for their brothers the Finngaill, towhom they immediately offered
war. In 850 their fleet put in to Carlingford Lough, on the
c.

southern edge of County Down; the following year they overran

the Norwegian base at Dublin, making a big haul of treasure and
womenfolk. The Irish preferred the newcomers to the old, but with
a plague on both their houses. In 852 the Norwegians mustered for
revenge and attacked the Danish fleet in Carlingford. St. Patrick
favoured the Danes; a mere handful of Norwegians survived the
three-day slaughter. The Danes, prudently, rewarded the saint
with gold and silver; and the Irish, mistakenly, saw piety in the
Danes. If so, it aided them little and not long. In 853 the Norwegians
made a re-entry into Ireland with a royal fleet under the command
of Olaf (Amlaibh), son of the king of Norway (Lochlann), though
which son of what king is hard to determine. 1 Probably he was a
scion of the same family as Turgeis, a kindred dedicated to a tour of
conquest in Ireland. But that he was a leader of men is evident in
everything he did. Danes and Norwegians recognized his authority
and various of the Irish paid him tribute, including wergeld for
Turgeis. Those Danes who had no stomach for a Norwegian master
left for England, whence they had probably come in 850, and Olaf

settled into Dublin. He then returned to Norway for reasons which

can only be guessed at, leaving his brother Ivar in charge in Ireland.
In 856-7 he returned to his Dublin kingdom and ruled it till 871,
when he was again recalled to Norway and died in battle there. It
was a restless reign, marked by shifting alliances, petty wars,

1 He has often, indeed generally, been identified with Olaf the White of
Icelandic saga tradition. The identification is inviting but difficult. It rests
mainly on the circumstance that each Olaf was said to have conquered Dublin
and its neighbouring territory at more or less the same time. Otherwise their
parentage is different, their wives are different, and their deaths are different.
By way of complication Olaf-Amlaibh's brother Ivar-Imhar is sometimes, but
surely mistakenly, equated with Ivar the Boneless, no Norwegian but a
prodigy among the Danes. It makes the best of a bad job to postulate con-
fusion in the Icelandic Landnamabok's account of Olaf the White, to hold
firmly to Olaf-Amlaibh, whether he was at some time nicknamed the White or
not, to accept the recorded outlines of his career, including his return to
Norway and his death there, and to recognize Ivar-Imhar as his brother and a
person distinct from Ivar the Boneless.
208 A History of the Vikings
harryings in Ireland which spared neither the homes of the living
nor the graves of the dead, and in the period 865-70 by profitable
expeditions against the Picts and Strathclyde Welsh in Scotland.
Ivar lord of Limerick supported his brother Olaf in Ireland, and in
871 succeeded him as rex Nordmannorum Totius Hiberrii£ et Britannia,
which suggests that the Dublin kingdom had claims to authority
over the Norwegians who had settled in the north-west of England.
If so, this might explain Ivar's quarrels with the Danes of neigh-
bouring Deira, which were offered as the justification for the attack
on Dublin in 877 by Halfdan (we think) and the Danes of that
kingdom. The attack failed and cost Halfdan his life up in Strangford
Lough. With the principal Norse actors now offstage Ireland grew
quieter, and more Irish. There was a falling-off in reinforcements
from Norway, and Iceland was a new magnet in the west. An Irish
king, Cearbhall of Leinster, Ivar's one-time ally, took what fortune
offered. In 902 he seized Dublin from the Foreigners, and though he
died soon afterwards Ireland enjoyed comparative peace for the
next twelve years.

31. VIKINGS AT LINDISFARNE

Our reference to the Danish kingdom of Northumbria in the last

quarter of the ninth century recalls us to England, the scene of the
first viking raids c. 789 and 793, and even more pressingly to the
Continent. In Celtic Ireland the Norse incomers were predominantly
Norwegian, in Teutonic England they were Danes. Under the year
835 (corrected from the Chronicle's 832) the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
 Lindisfarenaee
VIKING RAIDS
ON
ENGLAND, 793-860

MAP 7. VIKING ATTACKS ON ENGLAND, 793-860

210 A History of the Vikings
ushers in a new phase of English history with the short notice that 'In
this year the heathen devastated Sheppey'. It was in 834 after the
temporary deposition of Louis the Pious by his unfilial sons that the
Danes had moved against Frisia. The most recent Danish attacks
against any part of the Empire had taken place in 820. These were
minor and isolated events, but after 834-5, we appear to observe a
sinister enterprise taken firmly in hand. In England, as in Frisia, the
size and frequency of the raiding parties were stepped up; attacks
present a less haphazard pattern, sometimes concerted, sometimes
alternated, and from time to time the same leaders and fleets were
in action either side of the English Channel. Between 836 and 842
strong Danish flotillas tested the defences, and in the case of
Cornwall the loyalty, of the south-west coast of England with only
moderate success; the next year they switched to Kent and East
Anglia. Across the water they were still busier. In 834 they laid
waste the important trading town of Dorestad, situated at the
junction of the river Lek and an arm of the Rhine. It had the
reputation of being the biggest mart in northern Europe, had a
much-prized mint, coins from which were freely copied in Scandin-
avia, and was protected by water, palisades, and a Carolingian
fortress. None availed. When the hand of the Carolingian grew too
weak or too preoccupied to defend it, the town lay at the mercy of
the Danes, and it was pillaged systematically for a generation before
nature finished what man had begun when the tidal inundations of
864 overwhelmed large areas of the Low Countries, and by divert-
ing the course of the Rhine in the direction of Utrecht destroyed
once and for all the means of Dorestad's survival. After Dorestad it
was the turn of Noirmoutier at the mouth of the Loire, a monastic
site and centre of a flourishing trade in salt and wine; and in 836
Frisia again, and again in 837. In 841 it was the turn of Rouen, when
Asgeir appeared from nowhere off the mouth of the Seine, headed
upriver, sacked and burned the town, took a quick tribute of
destruction and money from the countryside, and had his ships out
and away before the gathering defenders could lay hand on him.
The iollowing year, 842, saw a combined operation against both
England and France. 'In this year there was great slaughter in
London, in Quentowic, and in Rochester.' Quentowic, directly
across the Straits of Dover, rivalled Dorestad as a merchant town,
and like Dorestad it had a mint. Its trade connections with England
were close and profitable, and it was a bold and shrewd stroke of
 The Movement South and South-West to g$4 211

viking policy which sent the same fleet shuttling between them.

Then Norwegians made a well-documented appearance

in 842 the
in French waters. 1 It would not be quickly forgotten. Sixty-seven
ships of Westfaldingi, men from Vestfold, the historic region of
Borre, Oseberg, Gokstad, and Skiringssal, but in all probability-
come now from Ireland, appeared unheralded off the Loire. Its
horrors long past, this raid may be studied as a classic example of
viking tactics and the conditions which ensured their success.
Aquitaine was part of Charles the Bald's West Kingdom, but the
rebel Count Lambert was ambitious to secure Nantes for himself.
It is said that the vikings came at his invitation, and that it was
French pilots who conned them through the sandbanks, shallows,
and uncertain watercourses, which in high summer were judged an
absolute protection from naval assault. The day was 24 June, St.
John's Day, and the town was filled with devout or merry celebrants
of the Baptist's feast. The Norwegian assault was of surpassing
brutality. They slew in the streets, they slew in the houses, they
slew bishop and congregation in the church. They did their will till
nightfall, and the ships they rowed downriver were deep-laden
with plunder and prisoners. This was maybe more than the Count
had bargained for, but he did acquire Nantes. The Westfaldingi
withdrew to Noirmoutier, whose monks had by now abandoned it,
and contrary to Norse practice settled in for the winter. 'As if they
meant to stay for ever', says the annalist ruefully. The island had
much to recommend it. For a start it was an island, and therefore
impervious to assault. It provided shelter for men and a haven for
ships, where they could mend their wounded and ransom their
prisoners. Further, Noirmoutier was a centre of the salt trade for the
whole of western Europe, and to Noirmoutier came merchants for
the good Loire wine. To it therefore, as wasps to honey, came the
Norsemen.
This is the first time we hear of a viking force employing a
winter base. Flitherto the leaders of expeditions had led their men
out in late spring or summer and fetched them home in the autumn.
Viking was seasonal employment the winter did not lend itself so
:

well to war and travel, whether by sea or land. So a man went home
with his earnings to his parents, wife, and children, and if he was
1 Cbronicon Engolismense (Pertz, MGH, SS XVI, 486); Chromcon Aquatanicon
(Pertz, II, 253); both sub anno 843. See F. Lot and L. Halphen, Le Regne de
Charles le Cbauve, Paris, 1909, 1, 79 ff.
212 A History of the Vikings
a bondi or a bondi's son saw to the roof, scratched the boar's back,
whittled a toy sword, begat a new baby, and waited on the next call
to service. But to stay abroad for the winter, as now in France and
in 850 for the first time in England, gave viking a new emphasis.
If one winter, why not two, and if two why not three? The winters
were warmer down south, the seas never froze, the land was good,
and was there to be taken. Why go back home at all? The small
man got a smaller cut than his leader, but in kind it was the same.
The Norwegians sailing west had occupied and farmed from the
beginning. In Denmark where there was more cultivable land the
same desires showed two generations later. Their wintering in
Thanet, 850, and Sheppey, 855, was a portent. The year 845 was
notable for a further development in northern tactics or strategy.
The destruction of Hamburg that year was a royal undertaking
(see p. 107 above), and not by the widest interpretation of the laws
and customs governing international relations to be explained away
as mere piracy or privateering. In the same year the daring of
Ragnar's raid up the Seine to Paris and the helplessness of Charles
the Bald led to a third and hurtful innovation. Ragnar, whom it is
unnecessary to equate with his hairy-breeked namesake Ragnar
Lodbrok (lodbrok), 1 entered the Seine in March, which it is fair to
say was unexpectedly early, and made confidently for Paris. Charles
collected an army against him, which he divided in two to guard
both banks of the river. A viking operating in a partitioned empire
knew how to deal with a divided army. Ragnar attacked the smaller
Frankish force, heavily defeated it, and took in prisoners. These as
a deliberate exercise in 'frightfulness' he hanged on an island in the
Seine in full view of the second Frankish division. Beaten in arms and
spirit, they could make no effective opposition. Ragnar went on

upriver, and with the same cruel timing shown by the Westfaldingi
at Nantes entered and plundered Paris on Easter Sunday, March 28.
He was now more than 200 miles from his element the sea, and it
would not seem past man's devising to have hindered his return.
Instead Charles paid him 7,000 pounds of silver to depart in peace

1 It is difficult
to prove a negative, but there is little evidence of the existence
of a historical Ragnar Lodbrok. True, he suffers more than most from the
numbing disadvantages of a mythical saga and use as a heroic symbol, but
even when these are set aside he is hard to locate in place or time. On a cautious
estimate he must have been at least 150 years old when he died in his snake-
pit and prime at York in the 860s.
 The Movement South and South- West to Q54 213

and take his To anticipate a later term, this was

plunder with him.
the first and Charles has been much castigated for it.
'danegeld',
But he is not without excuse. In theory Charles, like his brothers,
could raise armies, build fleets, garrison towns, fortify coasts, bar
rivers, and manhandle all vikings out of his realm and who can—
doubt that he would have liked to? But theory and fact are different
things. Charles had much to contend with: thrusting foreign foes,
rivalry and enmity from his brothers, the veiled disaffection of
great nobles, and the open rebellion of great provinces. He could be
confident neither of the fighting spirit of his soldiers nor the
patriotism of the counts who hung back from leading them. The
vikings were a squalid nuisance, but their incursions must be seen
in perspective. At times it must have appeared to Charles as though
he was a man with a wolf at his throat and a wasp in his hair, and in
this menagerie of menace the Danes were the wasp. To get rid of
them, theoretically for good, in fact for six years, by payment may
well have looked an act of statesmanship in 845, with trouble in the
north and a Breton war looming in the west. Payment bought time,
and time brought hope of amendment. Little enough time and little
enough hope they seem to us now, but Charles was looking forward,
not back. The sums paid out were weighty, on occasion enormous,
but they came mainly from taxes, and the peasant taxpayer who
carried the heavy end was in no position to protest. Between collec-
tion and payment there could even be a profit for the king. 1
Another development of these same years was the viking contact
with the Moors in Spain. This was ushered in by a raid by a fleet
said to be 150 ships strong which entered the Garonne and plundered
upriver almost as far as Toulouse. The area was in a state of civil
war, the protagonists Charles the Bald and that young Pepin who
sought to make himself an independent king of Aquitaine. Possibly
the raid was made in support of Pepin; at any rate, Pepin's town of
Toulouse was not assaulted, and the intact fleet went back down the
river and is next heard of off the coast of the kingdom of the Asturias,
in northern Spain. Opposition here was resolute and effective, the
invaders were mauled by land and sea, and it was a depleted though
still formidable fleet which escaped round Cape Finisterre and held

1The first recorded English payment was that promised to the Danes by the
men of Kent in 865. Of the thirteen Danegelds levied in France we know the
details of seven.These amounted to almost 40,000 pounds of silver plus, on
occasion, meat and drink for the raiders.
214 A History of the Vikings

south for Lisbon. After a fortnight's skirmishing and piracy there

they pressed on to the Guadalquivir, and with a daring verging on
folly went up the river and attacked the city of Seville. Except for
the citadel it fell into their hands for a week; its men were put to the
sword, its women and children carried off as spoils of war to the
viking base on the island of Qubtil, today's Isla Menor, near the
river's mouth. From here they raided the neighbouring country for
the next six weeks. But the Moorish kingdom of Spain under Abd
al-Rahman II was a different proposition from France under Charles
the Bald, and once the period ofsurprise and unpreparedness was over
the vikings for all their huddle of treasure and captives were in a
position of much peril. To leave their headquarters was to invite
attack by land and water; raiding parties were cut off, and several
of their ships fired by a discharge of naphtha; and worst of all, the
vikings lost thirty ships in a naval engagement at Talayata. The
Moors took so many prisoners that the gallows of Seville did not
suffice for them, and the city's palm trees bore strange fruit. Report
of the Emir's victory was not entrusted to mouth and quill alone:

he sent the severed heads of 200 vikings on a dumb

but eloquent
embassy to his allies in Tangier. However, the vikings had one
asset left, their prisoners. The Moors wished to ransom them, and
the captors struck a bargain. There was to be no more fighting, and
the price should be worked out in food and clothes, not gold.
Evidently the invaders had for some time been sealed off from
sources of supply.
Some less martial conversation than this must have taken place
between Moors and Norsemen, for the next year, 845, Abd al-
Rahman sent an embassy under Al-Ghazal to the king of the Majus,
with choice gifts for him and his queen. If the vikings of the
Guadalquivir were Danes, we judge that the embassy was to Horik
in Denmark, if Norwegians to Turgeis in Ireland. The northern
king, whoever he was, dwelt on a big island in the ocean, gracious
with gardens and flowing waters. Near by were other islands
inhabited by Majus, and three days' journey away was the main-
land or continent, and here, too, the king held power. The king's
wife was named Nod, or Noud, and the gallant, graceful, and 50-
year-old Al-Ghazal was delighted to find his wish for a beautiful
friendship received in the same amiable spirit as it was offered. And
how gratefully there must have fallen on an ear grown wary for an
inrushing husband's unreason Noud's assurance that the Majus
 The Movement South and South- West to Q54 215

were too enlightened and that northern ladies were free

for jealousy
to leave their consorts at will. If the embassy had political or
economic consequences, we are not informed of them, but it seems
safe to assume that its main purpose was to encourage trade, more
particularly in furs and slaves. 1
These decisive years were followed by a long tale of depredation
in Frisia and the West Kingdom, which need not be separately
recorded, but is eloquently recalled by Ermentarius of Noirmoutier
writing in the 860s. He exaggerates, no doubt, but who looks for
measure in the cry of the toad under the harrow?
The number of ships increases, the endless flood of vikings never
ceases to grow bigger. Everywhere Christ's people are the victims
of massacre, burning, and plunder. The vikings over-run all that lies
before them, and none can withstand them. They seize Bordeaux,
Perigueux, Limoges, Angouleme, Toulouse; Angers, Tours, and
Orleans are made deserts. Ships past counting voyage up the Seine,
and throughout the entire region evil grows strong. Rouen is laid
waste, looted and burnt: Paris, Beauvais, Meaux are taken, Melun's
stronghold is razed to the ground, Chartres occupied, Evreux and
Bayeux looted, and every town invested.
From this welter of harassment and destruction we pick one name,
that of Bjorn Ironside, the Bier costae ferreae of William of Jumieges,
son of Lothrocus king of Dacia (Denmark), otherwise Ragnar
Lodbrok. Like his father, he is better known to legend than to
history, but his day of glory (and he must have had one) extended
from the mid-50s to 862. During the years 856-7 he was on the
Seine, and some of the ill deeds listed by Ermentarius can be set to
his credit. His name is associated with the vikings who established
or took over a base on the island of Oissel (Oscellus), where they
were at last strictly beleaguered by Charles the Bald. But as so often,
the treachery of his noblemen, who invited Louis the German to
enter the West Kingdom and 'help' his brother, an invitation too
good to be declined, worked to the vikings' advantage and led to
the raising of the siege after twelve weeks. The next development
was the arrival of another viking band under the command of
Weland, to whom Charles eventually offered 3,000 pounds of silver
to rid him of their Oissel compatriots. For reasons profitable to both
Charles and Weland the sum took a long while collecting. It
1 For a translation of, and commentary upon, Ibn Dihya's account of this
episode, see W. E. D. Allen, The Poet and the Spae-Wife, Viking Society, i960.
216 A History of the Vikings
involved a graduated tax on farms and land, on churches, and on
merchants great and small. Eventually Weland received not 3,000
but 5,000 pounds of silver, and provisions of corn and cattle, too, and
even then the royal accounts showed a balance. Weland kept his
word, and the Oissel vikings were besieged a second time. They
were not short of money, but soon ran out of food and paid Weland
6,000 pounds of silver to let them get away. 1 If they were Bjorn's
men, they were released in time for one of the more spectacular
enterprises of the century, the four-year cruise of Bjorn and Hastein
with sixty-two ships to Spain, North Africa, and Italy, and possibly
still farther into the Mediterranean. That they proposed to be out

so long is unlikely: the two of their ships which were captured by

the Moors off the coast of Spain were already laden with gold,
silver, and prisoners. That the Norsemen would enter the Mediter-
ranean eventually we see to be certain; Bjorn and Hastein were
among the most famous of ninth-century captains and heedful of
reputation; they may for some time have been considering a
penetration of the Middle Sea in terms of glory as well as profit, or
maybe their adventure grew in the undertaking. That they had
—
begun to plunder at the earliest opportunity well, what pirate
ever passed by the prospect of easy gain?
We next hear of them at the Guadalquivir, where they seem not
to have prospered. It is doubtful whether, as some Moorish sources
say, they proceeded upriver as far as Seville. Soon they had passed
through the Straits of Gibraltar, put in at Algeciras, plundered it,
then made for the North African shore in the region of Cabo Tres
Forcas. The local defence force panicked, and the vikings spent an
unharrassed week rounding up prisoners for ransom, though some,
probably negroes, they kept as souvenirs de voyage. These poor
wretches, fir gorm, blue men, bldmenn, black men (or merely men
with dark skins), for the most part ended up in Ireland. The western
Mediterranean was empty of armed Moorish ships, so they crossed
back to Spain and harried the cost of Murcia. Their next landings
1 Weland was not the first viking leader known to turn on his fellow Norse-
men for money, and would not be the last; but he clearly improved the rate
for the job. He was very much a businessman, and made no move against
Oissel till his money was in hand. He filled in the intervening season by
raiding in the south of England, in Wessex. Shortly after getting rid of the
men on Oissel he entered the service of Charles the Bald and was baptized
along with his family. It availed him nothing: he was challenged to fight by
one of his pagan followers and killed.
 The Movement South and South- West to QS4 217

were which for the first time felt the northern

in the Balearics,
scourge.Thence they held for southern France, put ashore at will in
Roussillon and possibly sacked Narbonne. It was getting time to
seek winter quarters, and these they found in accordance with
viking practice on an island in the Camargue in the Rhone delta.
It had been a wonderful summer of sunshine and blue water, of
fabled coasts and storied islands. They had sailed by two great
kingdoms, passed the Pillars of Hercules, and sojourned in classical
Africa. They had a vast booty and many captives, their losses in
men and ships had been light. They had shown the dragon-head
and shield-wall in new havens, and were poised for fresh adventures
Meantime they were en-isled and safe.
Not so their French neighbours. Before they made the country-
side too hot to hold them they had pillaged inland as far as Aries,
Nimes, even Valence, more than a hundred miles to the north. Then
they took a beating from the Franks and judged it prudent to move
on, so sailed east along the Cote d'Azur and Ligurian Riviera. Their
movements from there on are largely unknown, but they found
time to sack Pisa before heading farther south. They are spoken of as
traversing the eastern Mediterranean as far as Alexandria; and
Dudo of St. Quentin and Benoit of St. Maur have preserved the
story of Hastein's 'Sack of Rome'. Naturally enough the man who
regarded himself as the world's foremost viking was ambitious to
sack the world's foremost city. So from the Rhone delta Hastein
sailed on till he came to a city so big, so white, so splendid, so
marbled, that what else could it be but Rome? But its defences were
so strong that Hastein judged it impervious to assault. So the
vikings hit on a ruse: they sent messengers to the city to tell how
Hastein and his following were good men expelled from their own
country and sea-tossed to this distant coast. They were weary and
hungry, needed peace and provisions, and their sick chieftain lay at
death's door. When next they came to town that door was passed;
all he now required of this vale of tears was a Christian burial.

The townsmen agreed to provide one; a long procession of sorrow-

ing vikings followed the coffin to the graveside, where at the
moment of committal the 'dead' Hastein rose in his coffin, drove his
sword through the officiating bishop, and led his men on a riot of
slaughter through the city streets. 1 His exultation knew no bounds,
1 A similar (and similarly unlikely) ruse is recorded of Harald Hardradi and
his Varangians (Haralds Saga Hardrada. 10).
21 A History of the Fi kings
till somewhat late in the day he discovered that the ravished city-

was not Rome at all, but Luna, whereupon he gave orders for the
town to be fired and its menfolk massacred. Its women they spared.
They would, they thought, have use for them elsewhere.
In 861 they were back in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, where
they were defeated by a Moorish fleet. The survivors escaped away
north, their appetite for pillage unsated, and when they reached
Navarre went inland and captured Pamplona. They collected an
immense ransom for its prince, sailed north again, and next year
one-third of their sixty-two ships were safely back in the mouth of
the Loire. In saga-phrase theirs had been an enterprise 'at once
profitable and honourable'. But without political consequence, and
apart from the 'blue men' in Ireland we know nothing of the fate of
their captives. Some had been ransomed, others less lucky had no
doubt been disposed of to the Moors.

This was in 862. We have already seen the nuisance raids of indivi-
dual leaders develop into big, well-organized expeditions which
exploited local divisions and lived off the invaded country for
lengthening periods of time. A new stage, that of conquest and
residence, now followed. In 865 a big heathen host, or horde, 1 at a

1 mycel hteden here. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle customarily designates a viking

raiding party or army as a here. The term was that applied in the Laws of Ine
to a substantial body of thieves. 'We use the term "thieves" if the number of
men does not exceed seven, "band of marauders" (hlof) for a number between
seven and thirty-five. Anything beyond this is a "raid" (here).'' (F. L. Atten-
borough, The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, 1922, pp. 40-1). The term used
for the English forces was usually fyrd(fierd\ army, force, levies.
In the light of this definition a 'big heathen horde' need not be all that big,
and it is probable that contemporary records and modern historians alike have
had inflated ideas of viking numbers. It is improbable that raiding ships ever
carried more than 32-5 men, and the majority of them would carry less. P. H.
Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, pp. 121-2, has compiled a table of the numbers
of ships mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle before the end of the ninth
century, and with his permission I reproduce it here:

789 3 ships of Northmen in Dorset.

836 35 ships; 25 in some versions.
840 33 ships; 34 in one version.
843 35 ships.
851 350 ships; 9 ships captured later that year.
875 Alfred fights 7 ships and captures 1.
877 120 ships lost at Swanage in a storm (or in a mist).
878 23 ships.
 The Movement South and South- JVest to gs4 219

guess of 500-1,000 men, arrived in England to initiate a more

sustained and coherent assault than had yet been attempted. Their
leaders were Ivar (Yngvarr) called the Boneless, Ubbi, and Halfdan.
Legend tells us that they were come from Scandinavia and Ireland

to avenge the death of their father Ragnar, about whom we know

nothing very much after his withdrawal from the Seine in 845 with
7,000 pounds of silver and the seeds of plague in his army, save that
he was reputed to have come to England with two ships' crews and
been defeated by king Ella of Northumbria, who had him thrown
into a pit and stung to death by snakes. 1 Before he died he was
heard to say prophetically: 'The piglings would be grunting if
they knew the plight of the boar!' And suddenly here they were,
snouting and tusking in England. First they got themselves horses
in East Anglia, and the next year marched upon York. Northumbria
was in its customary state of civil war; its people had just driven
out their king Osberht and accepted Ella, a king not of the royal
line. Too late the two kings joined forces, marched on York, which

was by now in Danish hands, and suffered there an overwhelming

defeat (867). Both kings were killed. The same legends which put
Ragnar in the snake-pit now let his sons carve the blood-eagle on
Ella's back. 2 The kingdom of Deira passed into Danish keeping.

882 Alfred fought 4 ships; 2 captured and 2 surrendered.

885 Alfred's fleet encountered and captured 16 ships, but was later
c
defeated by brge force'.
a
892 The here crossed from Boulogne 'in one journey, horses and all,' in
200, 250, or 350 ships according to different versions of the annal.
892 Haesten came with 80 ships.
893 Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes collected 'some hundred
ships and went south round the coast'. One version adds 'and some
40 went north round the coast'.
896 6 ships.
896 20 ships perished along the South Coast.
He fully sustains his argument that the viking armies should be numbered
in hundreds, not thousands, and that even the Great Horde of 892 would
hardly exceed 1,000 in number. Three or four hundred, one judges, would be
a very substantial viking force. It is easy to find medieval exaggerations of

the order often-, thirty-, even fiftyfold; the ninth century armies had to be
kept in the field; and they were recruited from a limited manpower.

1See the footnote on p. 212 above.

2 This inhuman rite of cutting away the victim's ribs from his spine, then
pulling out his lungs and spreading them like wings on his back, probably
220 A History of the Vikings
This was only the beginning. After a sortie into Mercia, whose
king half resisted and then bought peace, Ivar and Ubbi in 869
moved south into East Anglia, defeated the English levies, captured
and cruelly executed king Edmund, a deed which lastingly impres-
sed itself on the English imagination and did not pass unheeded in
the north. The act itself and Edmund's sanctification were a
reproach to the Danes to the end of the Viking Age; but in the
short run nothing saved East Anglia from joining Deira in Danish
hands.

32. THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. EDMUND

'Hungry wolves take big bites.' In 870 Halfdan, accompanied by

a second king and many jarls, led the Danes against Wessex, and
seized and fortified the key town of Reading. 'During the year nine
pitched battles were fought against the host in the kingdom to the
south of the Thames, besides those frequent forays which Alfred
the king's brother, and ealdormen and king's thanes rode on, which
have never been counted.' The men of Wessex won one signal

had a moral or religious as well as a sanguinary significance for its perpetrator.

It —
was unhappily no fiction but owes its eminence in pseudo-lore almost
entirely to fiction, from the exultant Fornaldarsogur to the ^wow-seeking
nineteenth century.
 The Movement South and South- Wert to g$4 221

victory, at Ashdown, and before the year's end nine northern jarls
and one king had died in battle. The Danes, though they won most
of the battles, settled readily for a truce, and switched their effort
to Mercia. But the most important event of the year was neither
battle nor truce.Some time after Easter king Ethelred died and was
succeeded not by his infant sons but by his brother Alfred. Alfred
was Ethelwulf's fourth, or maybe fifth, son, and the fourth in line
to inherit the kingdom. That he did so was the most remarkable
accident in the history of the kingdom of Wessex.
Mercia had collapsed by 874, and now the Danish army, which
had held together since 865, broke into two. Halfdan went back to
Deira and from there made war on the Picts and the Strathclyde
Welsh to secure his northern frontier, while Guthrum and two other
kings departed for Cambridge in East Anglia. The actual occupation
of English territory was about to start. In 876 Halfdan 'shared out
the lands of Northumbria, and they [the Danes] were engaged in
ploughing and in making a living for themselves'. The living seems
to have included the profits of trade. The area partitioned was
approximately that of modern Yorkshire. This decisive step taken,
Halfdan follows his brother Ivar out of the light of history; presum-
ably he set off against the Norwegians of Dublin and died in 877
(see p. 208 above). The autumn of 877 saw the second Danish
distribution of English territory. Three years earlier the Danes had
appointed 'a foolish king's thane' named Ceolwulf to look after the
fallen kingdom of Mercia till they were ready to dismember it.
Ceolwulf now received his wages in the form of half the kingdom
the rest was divided among the Danes who had fought for it. In
short the great shires of Yorkshire, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby,
and Leicester had ceased to be part of the political realm of England,
and maybe a belt of territory south of the river Welland as well.
Danish settlement in this region was probably of two kinds, and did
not involve a systematic displacement of the English. First in time
and consequence there was a military settlement, but this appears
insufficient to account for the number of Danes later to be found in
the Five Boroughs, for example, often on virgin land along the lesser
streams and tributaries and in districts of sandy or gravelly soil
reminiscent of parts of the Danish homeland. It has been urged
therefore that there were immigrants from Denmark quite apart
from the fighting men, and that these colonized available areas
behind the shield of the armies of the Five Boroughs, which for two
222 A History of the Vikings

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generations held Watling Street as the boundary between Danish

and English England. 1 But the degree and intensity of Danish
settlement in Mercia during the last quarter of the ninth century
awaits a full elucidation.
1 The argument and some of its expression are those of K. Cameron,
Scandinavian Settlement in the Territory of the Five Boroughs: the Place-Name
Evidence, University of Nottingham, 1965, pp. 11 ff. and 22.
 The Movement South and South- West to 954 223

Guthrum meanwhile had twice probed at Wessex and been

successfully countered. But in the first weeks of 878 he made a

midwinter attack from his base at Gloucester which took the West
Saxons completely by surprise. He occupied Chippenham without
opposition, and with no West Saxon army anywhere in the field, and
Alfred himself in flight to an island-refuge at Athelney west of
Selwood, the subjection and consequent partition of Wessex
appeared at hand. Extensive areas found it prudent to submit to
Guthrum, and many West Saxons fled beyond the sea. But if Alfred
despaired we do not hear of it. Small as his following was, he showed
a hostile front to the Danes, and as the weeks went by the men of
Somerset, Wiltshire, and part of Hampshire gathered to him. By
valour and good fortune an attack on Devon mounted in South
Wales, and in all probability led by the elusive Ubbi, had already
been crushed. This cleared the threat to Alfred's rear, and seven
weeks after Easter he felt strong enough to engage the Danish army
at Eddington and pursue its defeated remnants to Chippenham.
After a fortnight's siege Alfred and Guthrum came to terms: by
the treaty of Wedmore Guthrum agreed to withdraw his forces
from Wessex and himself accept baptism. On the lowest count he
admitted one god more to his pantheon and allowed Christianity
its full privileges within his dominion. But this is unlikely to be the

whole of the story. He accepted the name Athelstan at his god-

father Alfred's hand, and employed forms of it (Edelia, Edeltan) on
the coins he had struck in the late 880s, and we can assume that his
reign was an important stage in the Christianizing of the Danes in
England. More immediately, in 879 he was back in East Anglia, to
carry out the third Danish partition of English soil. The shires of
Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, together
with Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, and (briefly) London itself, were
to be made as Danish as the former English kingdoms that lay
north of them. This considerable portion of eastern England,
stretching from the Tees to the Thames, was the first delimitation
of the future Danelaw (Denelagu; see Appendix 2, 'The Danelaw'),
a kind of Denmark overseas, conquered, occupied, and organized
by Danes, and clearly distinguishable from the rest of England by
race, law, language, personal names and place-names, and not least
by social custom. This was a political and military situation king
Alfred had to live with; presently he and his successors would seek
to contain and diminish it, then bring it back under English rule;
224 ^ History of the Vikings

but to the close of the viking period Anglo-Danish and Anglo-

Norman monarchs and law-makers would be forced to recognize
the separateness and special circumstances of Danish England.
For the next fourteen years viking pressure on Wessex lightened.
The new settlers ofNorthumbria, East Mercia, and East Anglia were
not yet the men to beat their swords into ploughshares and
pruning-hooks, but Wessex had proved herself a hard adversary,
and had they not now estates to administer, land to farm, stock to
care for, families to transport and settle into their new homes?
The areas of plunder were asking for peaceful conservation, and the
professional raiders, landless men, and members of war-bands must
seek opportunities elsewhere. The Empire was prodigal of such,
and England's respite till 892 marked the heyday of viking activity
along the river-lanes of France and the Low Countries. Charles the
Bald, as much maligned as he was unsuccessful, had died in 877, and
his son and successor Louis the Stammerer survived him a bare
eighteen months. The West Kingdom was thereupon divided
between the Stammerer's two sons, and Provence hived off for
Boso, admittedly a usurper, but the only effective candidate for it.
Both sons were dead by 884, and the West Kingdom was taken
over by Charles the Fat, who already was ruler of most of the so-
called Eastern and Middle Kingdoms. But any hope that a reunited
Empire would now rid itself of the viking nuisance (and Saracen
menace) was illusory. Charles was not the man for the job. He had
already given proof of his ineffectiveness when in 882 he not only
allowed the beleaguered Danish army under Godfred, Sigfred and
Orm, to depart unhindered from Elsloo, with 2,800 pounds of
silver by way of inducement, but tried the dangerous expedient of
establishing Godfred as the semi-independent ruler of part of
Frisia. Godfred's limitations as a thinker saved Charles from the
worst consequences of this blunder, and it even turned to his
advantage after he had arranged for Godfred's murder in 885; but
he had his subjects' confidence even less than his predecessors had.
To list the depredations of these years would be a long business
Scheldt, Meuse, Somme, Marne, Seine, Loire, Maine, Aisne, Vire,
and Oise were viking highways; Cologne, Aix, Trier, Liege, Rouen,
Paris, Soissons, Bayeux, St. Lo were some of the places oppressed.
The most celebrated event of these years was the siege of Paris,
inaugurated in late November 885 and maintained with inter-
mittent fury for a year. It was a year of destiny for Franks and Danes
13- A PICTURED STONE
FROM LARBRO,
GOTLAND
For a description
see page 343.
 14- THE
GOKSTAD SHIP
 The Movement South and South- West to gs4 225

alike. Paris had been the capital neither of Charlemagne's empire

nor Charles the Bald's kingdom, but now its decisive importance
was revealed, both political and geographical. It was the key to
France, and the archbishop of Rheims in his often-quoted letter to
Charles the Fat did not greatly exaggerate when he warned him
that if he lost Paris he would lose everything, for the enemy would
command the Marne, Seine, and Yonne, and northeast the country
would He open as far as Rheims. For the Danes this attempt to force
the passage of the Seine through the Paris bridges began with the
hope of a huge booty, but by force of circumstance they came to
accept it as a trial of strength. For their part the defenders of Paris,
count Odo and abbot Joscelin, brought all the issues, political, religi-
ous, dynastic, under one head they had been charged to bar the
:

Seine against the Norsemen. The Danish offer to leave Paris in peace
in return for a free passage was rejected; their bloody assaults of
January 886 were repelled. By the use of engines of war, and with
the help of the winter floods, the bridges were eventually so damaged
that the river could be passed. Paris was invested and the great host
set itself to plunder the countryside. But the city was now a magnet,
drawing in the eastern Franks to attempt its relief, and eventually
Charles the Fat himself. The Danish king Sigfred grew sick of the
whole business and for the ridiculous sum of sixty pounds of silver
agreed to pull out downriver, but the siege was not lifted. Abbot
Joscelin died of sickness, but Odo stayed unflagging in the city's
defence. He slipped out of the city to implore Charles to act quickly,
then fought his way back in, to buttress the citizens with promises
of the emperor's approach. This last was a clumsy and interrupted
affair,but by October Charles was at Montmartre and in theory at
least poised for the kill. But while Odo and his gallant defenders
waited for the spear to go home Charles opened negotiations with the
Danes, granted them the Seine passage against which the Parisians
had fought so magnificently, gave them carte blanche to harry his not
overloyal subjects in Burgundy, and paid them 700 pounds of
silver to seal the bargain. This may have been the act of a statesman,
but to the Franks it looked the act of a coward; they judged Charles
not fit to rule and at the beginning of 888 deposed him. Once more
Charlemagne's empire was shared out, and the new king of the west
kingdom, Neustria, was Odo the defender of Paris. After a skirmish
in 889 he paid the Danes the money promised them by Charles the
Fat, and Paris never saw an invading fleet of Norsemen again.
226 A History of the Vikings

Other parts of the Empire were not so lucky, but with a whole-
sale change of rulers there was a new spirit of resistance in the land,
and after their defeat on the Dyle near Louvain in 891 by that
vigorous bastard of Carloman's, Arnulf king of the East Franks, the
survivors of the great host got themselves west to Boulogne and
from there crossed to Kent in England in 250 ships, 1 men, women
and children, horses and all. Famine in the devastated areas as well
as defeat in battle helped speed them on their way. Currently our
old acquaintance Hastein, who was finding life difficult in Brittany,
appeared in the mouth of the Thames with eighty ships. On the
surface they found things little changed from when they were in
England whether with the stalemated fleet which visited
last,

Fulham 878-9 or the circumvented army which was driven from

in
Rochester in 884. Yet change there had been, and this to the Danes'
disadvantage. On the evidence of his coinage Ceolwulf had survived
in English Mercia till after 880, but by 883 an uncompromising
ealdorman named Ethelred held power there and threw his weight
behind Alfred in his struggle with the invader. He became Alfred's
son-in-law by his marriage to Ethelflaed, the king's eldest daughter,
and his loyalty to the house of Wessex was unfaltering. In 886, the
year of the siege of Paris, Alfred recovered London from the Danes
and tactfully entrusted this Mercian town to the safe-keeping of
Ethelred. In the words of the Chronicle, 'all the English people
submitted to him [Alfred], except those who were under the
Danish yoke'. That is, Alfred was now not only king of Wessex but
of all free Englishmen. As such he negotiated the treaty of 886 with
Guthrum the Dane, which by an agreed system of wergelds safe-
guarded those Englishmen who were not free. It was a treaty bet-
ween equal and consenting monarchs, but, as Alfred knew, no
treaty on earth would stop the Danelaw helping its kith and kin if
they returned from the Continent and embarked on a new harrying of
England. So in 892 he took oaths for good behaviour from Northum-
bria and East Anglia, and East Anglian hostages, but these, too,
made no difference, and throughout the four-year war which now
began the Danes of those kingdoms aided their compatriots with
asylum and reinforcements, distractions in the field and strong
support at sea. Without these forms of succour the great host and
Hastein would have been sooner tamed. They found the English
army more lively and mobile, for Alfred had gone a good way
1 For P. H. Sawyer's table of ship-numbers see pp. 218-9 above, n. 1.
 The Movement South and South- West to 954 227

towards solving the worst problems of a peasant militia: its unwill-

ingness to operate far from home or stay long on active service.
'The king', says the 'had divided his levies into two
Chronicle,

sections, so that there was always half at home and half on active

Tl it: I
I X
\

33. A NORSE SHIP

(The Town Seal of Bergen, c. 1300).

service, with the exception of those men whose duty it was to man
the fortresses.' It was less than perfect, but made the levies more
effective than they had been before. Second, he established a pattern
of fortresses, strong-points, to protect every part of his realm. In
these the people of a threatened district could take refuge; con-
versely itwas their duty to keep them in repair and man the walls
at need. Four men to a perch of stone-wall or earthwork was his
228 A History of the Vikings

successor Edward's requirement, and each hide of local land must

supply one of them. Third, Alfred was building ships for defence,
big ships, 'on neither the Frisian model nor the Danish, but as it

seemed to the king himself they might be most serviceable'. These

sixty-seaters took no great part in the righting war, but the ability
to hurt an enemy in his own element has always been a raiser of
morale. The general impression left by the Chronicle's and Ethel-
weard's accounts of the campaigns of 892-6 is that the Danes enjoyed
their usual freedom of movement and in a harassed way kept the
initiative, but that the English counter-moves were well planned,
rapid, and cumulatively so effective that the Danes came to know
they could not win. Alfred and his lieutenants Edward and Ethelred
fought a defensive war, but in modern phrase it was the defence of
the counter-puncher who absorbs those of his opponent's leads he
cannot slip, then punishes him hard before he gets away. The
attacker, if not defeated, is usually glad to hear the bell.
So with the Danes. At times their two armies appear to have
acted in concert, sometimes they looked to their own affairs, and
between them they conducted a variety of local and long-range
forays from their various encampments. As always, they lived off
the country and collected booty, but on two occasions this last was
recovered from them, their camp at Benfleet was captured with the
ships, womenfolk, and children they had left in safe-keeping there
an occasion when Alfred showed his great humanity and several—
times they were contained for substantial periods. Alfred was a
thoughtful student of war: in 893 he kept the Chester Danes out of
the Midlands by destroying all corn and cattle in their neighbour-
hood, so that they had perforce to remove into Wales; in 895 he
dislodged the Danes from their camp on the Lea, twenty miles
north of London, by blocking the course of the river, and defending
it with two forts, so that they might not move their ships out;

in 896, when the main fighting was over and the host withdrawn
into the Danelaw or overseas, he sent nine of his new ships after six
ships from Northumbria and East Anglia which were plundering
the coasts of Devon and Wight. In retrospect it appears a small, as it
was certainly a clumsy, engagement, but the Chronicle rightly made
much of it. In the first phase of the encounter the crews of two
Danish ships were annihilated, and only five men escaped on the
third. In the second phase two ships' crews were so crippled that
they failed to row past Sussex and were cast ashore there. When
 The Movement South and South- West to g$4 229

they were brought before the king at Winchester he had them

hanged out of hand, not as soldiers but as thieves and ruffians. A few
badly wounded men on the remaining ship reached East Anglia with
a tale of unmitigated defeat.
Three years later Alfred was dead, one of those who in the world's
history best deserved his title, 'the Great'. From a Scandinavian
point of view it was he who in the 870s denied the Danes the
conquest of all England, with the consequences that must have
flowed from it. He was the most effective opponent the vikings had
met anywhere in Europe since the death of Charlemagne in 810.
And he left a successor to continue his work. This was the energetic
Edward, by-named the Elder, who before his death in 924 brought
the whole of the Danelaw south of the Humber under English rule.
He came to the throne at a time propitious for great deeds. Every-
where the tide of Norse aggression was running slack, in Ireland, in
England, and in the territories of the disrupted Empire, though it
was in this last that the Norsemen were about to achieve a consider-
able unexpected success. This was the cession of Upper Normandy,
in alodo et infundo, to Rollo and his following in 911, the latest and

in its consequences the most impressive example of the intermittent

Frankish device of enlisting one viking as watch-dog against the
rest (and in this case against the Bretons, too). We cannot say for
certain whether Rollo was a Norwegian or a Dane. Icelandic sources,
late in time as usual, and including Snorri's Heimskringla, identify
him with Ganga-Hrolf, Hrolf the Walker (so called because like
Huiglaucus who ruled the Geats he was so big that no horse could
carry him), the son of Rognvald earl of Moer, who in defiance of
Harald Fairhair's ban plundered in the Vik, suffered outlawry, and
after spending some time in Scotland proceeded to France, where he
founded the dukedom of Normandy. Picturesque as this vignette is,
it is probably accurate in its —
main aspect his nationality. But
Norman unaware of any such Norwegian
historical tradition is
Hrolf, save in so far as he gave his daughter a Norwegian name,
Gerloc, i.e. Geirlaug. 1 On the scene of action itself Rollo was
considered to be a Dane. Much of the evidence on both sides is
—
obviously unreliable the main 'Danish' authority is the notorious
Dudo —but the nationality of the leader is less important than that of
1 In accordance with a not uncommon Norman practice she had two names,
Scandinavian and Frankish, Gerloc and Adelis. Similarly, the wife of duke
Richard I was named Gunnor (Gunnvor) and Albereda.
230 A History of the Vikings

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MAP 9. FRANCE AND NORMANDY

hisarmy, which there is every reason to believe was predominantly
Danish. 1 Until 910 we are almost as much in the dark about Rollo's
1 The problems here, and many of the answers, have been much clarified

by the fundamental study of J. Adigard des Gautries, Les noms de personms

i 1066, Lund, 1954. The bulk of Rollo's army
scandinaves en Normandie de 911
was Danish. An appreciable number of them, especially among the settlers
between Bayeux and the Orne, had spent some time in north-eastern England
(for the evidence of an agrarian vocabulary see L. Musset, 'Pour l'etude des
relations entre les colonies scandinaves d'Angleterre et de Normandie', in
Melanges F. Mosse, Paris, 1959, pp. 330-9). Others again had come from Ireland
or Scotland, and were presumably of Norwegian origin or affinity they are —
to be found in the Cotentin. The invaders brought very few women of their
 The Movement South and South- West to g$4 23

movements as his ancestry, but he had evidently been operating in

France for a number of years and had grown to prominence before
the viking outburst of that year. In 911 he commanded the army
which unsuccessfully besieged Chartres, and later is found back
on the lower Seine. By now this was an area which the Danes had
plundered bare and in practice controlled. Its one perdurable asset
was its rich and orcharded soil, and this, after all, was what a
Danish army by this time really wanted. Presumably the king of the
West Franks made the overtures, while Rollo was clear-headed
enough to welcome them. By the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte he was
confirmed in the lordship of the spacious and strategically important
territories whose modern titles are Seine Inferieure, Eure, Calvados,
Manche, and part of Orne. 1
But first Rollo did homage to king Charles the Simple and
promised to defend the land entrusted to him. In 912 he was
baptized, and though his followers must have varied considerably
in their attitude to his new religion, the political wisdom of his
decision undoubted. Also, he had the Norse feeling for law and
is

other men's observance of it, and quickly enunciated those general

principles and specific regulations which ensure regard for a man's
person and possessions. He strengthened the towns' defences and
gave the countryside good peace. On all the evidence he was
devoted to the interests of his fief. Its lands were shared out among
the great ones of the army, and these re-apportioned their estates
among the rank and file; but from the beginning Norman society
had an aristocratic and incipiently feudal character lacking in
Denmark and the Danelaw. Neither Thing nor hundred is heard of
in Normandy. Its rulers early had their eye fixed on domination.
The density of the Norse land-taking is proved not only by what
history and tradition record of the actual turn of events, but by the
hundreds of place-names (for example, with the suffixes -bee (ON.
bekkr), -bu (bu), -digue (dik), -tot (top, toft), and the like), and the
numerous Norse personal names prefixed to the French suffix

own with them (just three northern feminine names as contrasted with more
than eighty masculine), so intermarriage, if sometimes more danico, between
Danes and French must have been common from the beginning. There is an
admirable summary of these and related matters in L. Musset, Les invasions:
le second assaut contre l' Europe chretienne (Vlle-Xle siecles^), Paris, 1965, pp. 253-6.

1 Norman territory would be substantially increased in 924 by the ac-

quisition of Bessin and Maine, and in 933 of the Cotentin and Avranchin.
232 A History of the Vi kings
The settlers held on to their language for a generation or two,
-ville.

but everything was against its survival, and Dudo's interesting

anecdote of Count William Longbeard of Normandy (ob. 942)
sending his son from the court at Rouen to Bayeux to learn the
tongue of his ancestors can be read two ways. But donsk tunga
would leave a residue of mariners' and fishermen's words behind it
to sport in modern French like porpoises 1 in a surrounding ocean.
Not only in language but in institutions and modes of thought
Normandy moved farther and farther away from her Norse origins
during the tenth century. There was a brief attempt to put the
clock back after the death of William Longbeard, but even in
sentiment Normandy was casting off the ties that held her to
Denmark, and the more brilliant exploits of the eleventh century,
the conquest of Sicily and of England, though they arose in some
measure through the same everlasting compulsions of politics,
ambition, greed, national buoyancy, and overpopulation at home,
were not a continuance of the Viking Movement. 2 They belong to
the history not of northern but of western and southern Europe.
The years 910-n which saw Rollo's translation from a viking
chieftaincy to the overlordship of Normandy were significant for
England, too. The first decade of the century had passed not too

1 Fr. tnarsou'm is the ON. marsvbi, sea-swine.

2 Material evidence left in the soil of France by her Norse invaders is scanty.
A pair of oval bronze brooches of common Scandinavian type was found
at Pitres, between Rouen and Paris. We assume they belonged to a soldier's
wife who followed the wars in the late ninth century. There are a few
—
swords and spears surprisingly few. Of three known graves, that on the
lie de Groix, opposite Lorient off the south coast of Brittany, is the most
interesting and puzzling. The burial mound contains a ship-burial with
cremation, certainly of a man, possibly of a woman, too. The man has been
variously ascribed to Norway, Ireland, an army of the Loire, and Normandy.
Grave goods include weapons and smith's tools, ornaments, a finger-ring of
gold and beads of silver, an iron cauldron, gold and silver threads from a piece
of interwoven cloth, various oddments, the rivets and nails of the burnt ship,
and between ten and twenty bosses of the shields that lined her sides. One
relic of the ship is unique
—
'a circular band 2 feet in diameter with movable
leaflike ornaments round the outside and three rings inside. It can have had
no practical purpose, and was evidently meant to be seen from both sides: it
was not nailed on to anything else, for there are no holes. It seems most
likely that this was the "dragon's tail", mentioned in the sagas, which
balanced the figure-head at the bow. One of the Gotland carved stones
. .

(from Smiss in Stenkyrka) shows a very similar stern ornament.' (Holger

Arbman, The Vikings, 1961, pp. 83-4.)
 The Movement South and South-West to Q54 233

badly, though disfigured by the mutinous conduct of Edward's

cousin Ethehvold, which included a defiance of the king, the
abduction of a nun, and a flight to the Danes of East Anglia, whom
he persuaded to go raiding in English Mercia and the north of
Wessex. This cost him his life in 902. That the Danes should be so
easily led to indulge in the old national pastime of destruction and
plunder is a sad judgement on their political good sense. They had
now been in possession of their English estates for over thirty years;
they could be in no doubt as to the formidable nature of the English
leadership in Wessex and Mercia and the kingdoms' strong defences.
Their best policy would be to weld themselves together into a
strong, durable kingdom of their own, accept authority, and
consolidate the Danish interest in England. Could they but see it
(and in time they would), the dual ambition of the English reigning
house and the Norsemen of Ireland in the first quarter of the century
made this their one hope of survival. Without the anchor of
Northumbria the Danes of Mercia and East Anglia must soon be
—
adrift but the Northumbrians were as ill-judging as their southern
neighbours, and in 910, convinced that the fighting strength of
England had congregated with king Edward and his ships in Kent,
they mounted an invasion of English Mercia which brought them
at last to Tettenhall in Staffordshire, where they were overtaken
and destroyed by the levies of Wessex and Mercia. So lightly was the
anchor cast away, and the way opened to the subjection of the
southern Danelaw. The death of the loyal Ethelred in 911 was no
help at all to the Danes ; he was succeeded by his wife, king Edward's
sister, Ethelflaed the 'Lady of the Mercians', in whom the tenacity

of purpose, strategic intelligence, and organizing power of her

father king Alfred, are to be observed in fine flower. Along with
Gunnhild Mother of Kings (Gorm the Old's daughter, sister of
Harald Bluetooth, wife and widow of Eirik Bloodaxe, and mother
of Harald Greycloak), and surely on a stronger foundation, she is
the most remarkable woman we encounter in the western viking
context. No one saw, or was brought to see, so clearly the import-
ance of a well-sited fortress, or more clearly elicited the Danes'
inability to cope with such. Her loyalty to Edward was as absolute
as her husband's — and by this time Edward had a greater reality of
power behind him.
His first move was to take over London, Oxford, and the lands
belonging to them from Mercia into his own safe-keeping, then
 234 -d History of the Vikings

cover them by fortresses at Hertford and Witham. The next two

years were spent in desultory fighting in the Midlands and the
repulse of a powerful fleet of vikings from Brittany which entered
the Severn and plundered extensively in the English border counties
and South Wales before moving on to Ireland. But thereafter English
pressure on the Danelaw was unremitting. By 916 brother and
sister had established a double line of fortresses which not only
secured the English frontier (against the Welsh, incidentally, and
the Irish-Norse of the Wirral, as well as the Danes) but provided a
springboard for the offensive campaigns of 917-18. Along the
general line of Watling Street, from the estuary of the Mersey to
Witham and Maldon in Essex, the army bases of the Danes were
confronted by almost a score of fortresses which they could not
subdue and might venture to pass only at their peril. Ten of these
were Ethelflaed's work, Bremesburh, 910, Scergeat and Bridgnorth,
912, Tamworth and Stafford, 913, Eddisbury and Warwick, 914,
Chirbury, Weardburh, and Runcorn, 915. Behind them stood
Edward's constructions at Hertford, 911 and 912, Witham, 912,
Buckingham (two forts, one each side of the river), 914, Bedford,
915, Maldon, 916. The use of these fortresses was an exercise in the
logic of war. A strongly held fortress was practically irreducible,
and the Danish attacks on Towcester, Bedford, Wigingamere, and
Maldon, were all failures. It was the English good fortune that their
own fortress system so consistently dominated the successive areas
of advance that they could occupy Northampton, Huntingdon,
Cambridge, Leicester, Nottingham, and Lincoln without need for
storm. If the same was not true of Derby, occupied in 917, we may
assume that the absence of the local Danish army on a foray farther
south meant that it was weakly held. The English forces under
Edward and Ethelflaed worked closely together and were following
an agreed plan; the Danes, individualists as ever, had neither a
united leadership nor a unified purpose. The 'raid' was becoming
meaningless in terms of lasting advantage; they had no answer to
fortress strategy, as would be demonstrated in the Western Empire
also, and little heart for a sustained war. Without need for excessive
bloodshed the English dealt them blow upon blow; their armies in
East Anglia and southern Mercia disintegrated; and by the summer
of 918 everything was ready for the final assault on the very heart
of the Mercian Danelaw. By mid-June Edward had reached Stam-
ford. Without delay he built his fortress on high ground south of the
 The Movement South and South-West to g^4 235

Welland, thus dominating the Danish stronghold to the north.

Once more the Danes submitted to the logic of the situation,
Nottingham and Lincoln lay open to an English advance, but it was
then, on 12 June, with the end of a long road in sight, that the Lady
of the Mercians died, and her brother hauled back to secure the
Mercian succession. For half a year he let her daughter Elfwyn hold
a nominal authority before taking Mercia for himself. A minority of
Mercian noblemen might be than fully pleased, but none took
less

action; the Welsh welcomed a monarch more benevolently disposed

towards them than the long-hostile Mercians; and meantime the
English fortresses kept the Danes helpless and unhappy in their
attenuated territories. When Edward next turned in their direction
they were sensible enough not to oppose him. In his triumph
Edward bore himself calmly; he wanted the Christian Danes of the
Danelaw as willing subjects who would find their interest best
served when identical with his own. Besides, there was by now a
new situation to deal with in the north, hardly less inimical to the
Danelaw than to himself.
This had come about by reason of a considerable infiltration, or
indeed invasion, of England north of the Wirral by Norsemen com-
ing in the main from Ireland. The native Irish ascendancy immedi-
ately after the year 900 doubtless encouraged the movement, which
is well attested by the place-names of north-west England and

south-west Scotland and the sculptured stones of much of the area.

Almost all detail is lacking till 915, but the political condition of
north-west England and Northumbria in the 920s is witness to
earlier Norse enterprise. We know of Ingimund (the Igmunt of the
Welsh Bruts and Hingamund of the Irish Three Fragments) that he
left Ireland after the fall of Dublin and sought land in North Wales,

that he was driven away from there, and eventually turned up in

the Wirral and still later attacked Chester. The Rognvald (OE.
Raegnald), whose name is so prominent in Northumbrian history
from c. 914 till his death in 921, and his successor Sigtrygg Gale
(OE. Sihtric), were both immersed for a while in Irish affairs, the
first as a marauder who had graduated from Scotland and Man,

the other as the recoverer of Dublin, slayer of the high-king Njall,

and king of the Liffey Norsemen. Both were of the stirring progeny
of Ragnar, so regarded themselves as having claims on the Danish
kingdom of Northumbria (i.e. the Old English Deira). The Irish-
Norse migration into north-west England, the destruction of the
236 A History of the Vikings
Northumbrian army at Tettenhall in 910, and the preoccupation of
Edward and Ethelflaed with the southern Danelaw (and of the
southern Danelaw with Edward and Ethelflaed), were circumstances
favourable to Rognvald's bid to seize power at York, though he
might count on the hostility of the rulers of the Scots, the Strath-
clyde Welsh, and the English of Bernicia (though some of these last,
robusti bellatores, fought on his side), and, once more, Edward and

Ethelflaed. In 919 he captured York and made himself its king. This
was the resolution of a struggle between Danes and Norwegians
which went back at least fifty years.
Its immediate consequences were not damaging to king Edward.
He was alert to the danger of Irish-Norse incursion by way of the
Mersey, and built or renewed several fortresses to prevent it. This
did not inhibit the appearance of Sigtrygg Gale on the northern
scene in 920, but Edward's subsequent fortification of the river
crossing at Nottingham sounded a warning to Northumbria, while
his new garrison fortress at Bakewell in the Peak of Derbyshire
strengthened his hold on what he had already seized. And now,
according to the Chronicle, his life's work was crowned when 'the
king of the Scots and the whole Scottish nation accepted him as
father and lord, and Rognvald and the sons of Eadulf, and all those
who dwelt in Northumbria, both English, and Danish, and North-
men (Norwegians), and others; and the king of the Strathclyde
Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh likewise'. This recognition of
Edward's overlordship had a different meaning for each of its sub-
scribers. Rognvald, for instance, was confirmed in his recently won
kingdom and spared an Edwardian advance north at a time when the
Danish and Christian part of his realm might wish to rise against
him. In 921 Rognvald died and was succeeded by his kinsman
Sigtrygg. When Edward the Elder died full of honour in 924 and
was succeeded by his son Athelstan, it was Athelstan's wish to
maintain the Northumbrian alliance by marrying his sister to
Sigtrygg. A year or so later Sigtrygg died, and Athelstan was ready
to act. The Northumbrians accepted Olaf, Sigtrygg's son by an
earlier marriage, as his successor, and the boy's uncle Guthfrith,
who had taken the Dublin kingdom after Sigtrygg, came to North-
umbria to act as his regent. Athelstan promptly drove out the pair
of them, Guthfrith to Scotland and Olaf to Ireland. Into the in-
tricacies of the next ten years, and the embroidery of confusion
woven by English and Icelandic historians during the next three
 The Movement South and South-West to g$4 237

hundred, there is no need to enter. The upshot of prolonged

machination was the Norse-Celtic confederacy which faced Athel-
stan at Brunanburh in 937. 1
had not been too hard a-making. Athelstan's seizure of North-
It
umbria was disquieting to many besides the defeated Norwegians
from Ireland. Neither Scot nor Strathclyde Welsh wanted him for
near neighbour, and among the Northumbrians themselves, even
the English there, some held to the view that theirs had always
been an independent kingdom, owing tribute to no southern king

34. 'the seamen stood ready, many vikings eager

for battle 5

Motif from a Gotland pictured stone.

before Athelstan. Guthfrith died in 934, and his son, yet another
Olaf, was an imperious and ambitious viking who mobilized the
considerable naval resources of the Dublin kingdom to regain, as he
saw it, his rightful patrimony at York. So on the unidentified battle-
ground of Brunanburh the army of Wessex and Mercia under
Athelstan and his brother Edmund fought it out with the Norsemen
of Ireland under Olaf, the Scots under Constantine, and the Strath-
clyde Welsh under Eugenius. 2 It was a long and fearful encounter

i-The standard work is A. Campbell, The Battle of Brunanburh >, 1938. We

must accept the identification of the battle of Vinheid (Vinheidr) in Egils
Saga Skallagrimssonar with the battle of Brunanburh in English sources.
However: 'The saga remains unsupported in practically all its details, and,
in view of its frequent gross errors and confusions, cannot be used as a source
for the history of the war of Athelstan and Anlaf [Olaf Guthfrith' s son]. If we
abandon it, and abandon it we must, all hope of localizing Brunanburh is
lost.'(Campbell, p. 80.)
2 The Welshof Wales, despite Egils Saga, took no part in the battle, though
it had been an expressed Welsh hope, since the late 920s, that a Welsh and

Irish-Norse alliance (Kymry a gwyr Dulyn, i.e. the Welsh and the men of
Dublin) should rout the Saxons and drive them from Britain for ever. 'The
Saxon hosts will not return.' See the Armes Prydein, lines 9, 13 1-2, 175.
238 A History of the Vikings

before the northern and western armies broke and fled. Five young
kings and seven of Olaf's jarls, together with Constantine's son and
an unnumbered count of vikings and Scots, lay dead on the field.
No need had that grey-headed scoundrelly Scot or the shamed
Norseman to exult in their war-play with the sons of Edward.
Then the Norsemen departed in their nailed ships (cnearruni),
bloodstained survivors of spears, on Dingesmere over the deep water
to seek Dublin, Ireland once more, sorry of heart. The two brothers
likewise, king and atheling both, sought their own country, the land
of the West Saxons, exulting in war. They left behind them, to joy
in the carrion, the black and horn-beaked raven with his dusky
plumage, and the dun-feathered eagle with his white-tipped tail,
greedy hawk of battle, to take toll of the corpses, and the wolf, grey
beast of the forest. Never until now in this island, as books and
scholars of old inform us, was there greater slaughter of an army with
the sword's edge, since the Angles and Saxons put ashore from the
east, attacked the Britons over the wide seas, proud forgers of war
conquered the Welsh, and fame-eager warriors won them a homeland.

With these traditional embroideries of song the unknown poet of

Brunanburh exulted over the enemy dead, and acclaimed the glory
of proud England's arms. And indeed the flaxen-haired Athelstan
was a glorious king, and his achievement, not only at Brunanburh,
deserving of panegyric. His relations with the Scandinavian world
were not all hostile nor limited to fighting the Irish-Norse claimants
to York. He treated the Danelaw south of the Humber with con-
sideration, many of Scandinavian descent and name attended his
court as regional magnates or witnessed his charters, and, best of all,
regarded themselves as his loyal subjects. He had raised Harald
Fairhair's youngest son Hakon (Adalsteins fostri, Athelstan's foster-
son) in his own court, and with Harald himself was at all times on
cordial terms. His reputation at home, and in western and northern
Europe, stood high. And yet it was so linked with his personal
qualities that within amonth or two of his death in the autumn of
939 Olaf of Dublin with his Irish Norsemen was back in York, and
in 940 was raiding triumphantly through the Midlands. Athelstan's
successor, his brother Edmund, had shown himself a resolute prince,
but he was just 18 years old, and Olaf Guthfrith's son was a man who
always took his chances. Edmund met him with an army at Leicester,
but must have been at some unrecorded disadvantage, for there was
no battle. Instead Olaf gained the whole of the modern shires of
 The Movement South and South- JVest to Q54 239

Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln by a treaty arranged

between the two leaders by the archbishops of Canterbury and
York. This abandonment of the loyal Danes and English of the
Danelaw to their traditional enemies the Norwegians was a humilia-
ting setback for Edmund, and the cock-a-hoop Olaf wasted no time
before turning north to the plunder and conquest of Northumbria
beyond the Tees. A decisive test of strength seemed inevitable, but
before it could take place Olaf died and his kingdom and army
turned to the hand of that other Olaf, nicknamed Kvaran, Sigtrygg's
son, whose destiny in England, brave adventurer though he was,
was always to miss his chances. Within a year he lost to Edmund that
part of the by now English-orientated and anti-heathen Danelaw
which his namesake had just won. The redemption of the Five
Boroughs was celebrated in a poem written not long after the event
and incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 942.

In this year king Edmund, lord of the English, his kinsmen's protector
and loved wreaker of deeds, conquered Mercia as far as Dore divides,
and Whitwell Gap, and the river Humber, broad stream of ocean
the Five Boroughs, Leicester and Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford
too, and Derby. For a long hard time had the Danes been forcibly
subdued in bondage to the heathens, till king Edmund, Edward's son,
protector of warriors, released them again by his valour.

For the next ten years the York kingdom of Northumbria pre-
sents a kaleidoscopic picture of change. Olaf Sigtryggsson was
driven out by his subjects in 943, and a brother of Olaf Guthfrith's
son named Rognvald (Raegnald) became king. In turn these both
visited king Edmund and accepted baptism. Early in 944 Olaf
Sigtryggsson was back again, but before the year was out Edmund
forcibly expelled both Olaf and Rognvald. Till his death in May 946
Edmund was Northumbria's king, and was succeeded by his brother
Eadred, king of England. But by 948, as we have earlier noticed
(page 95), the exiled Eirik Bloodaxe, Harald Fairhair's favourite
and most violent son, arrived in the kingdom of Northumbria, and
by the magic of his name, lineage, and reputation commended
himself to the Norsemen there and was made king. Eadred reacted
strongly, under English pressure the Northumbrians abandoned
Eirik, and in 949 Olaf Sigtryggsson was back yet again. Yet again he
was expelled, and Eirik returned for a comparatively long reign of
two years. Norse rivalries had never looked so senseless. The union
240 A History of the likings
of the kingdoms of Dublin and York was demonstrably an im-
possibility, butpuppets on a string the Dublin contenders came
like
They seem hardly to have had time to
jerking across the Irish Sea.
strike the coins which are so eloquent a testimony to their royal
pretensions, before they were on their way again. The best-known
episode in Eirik's interrupted sojourn at York is in part apocryphal
— the visit to his court of his mortal enemy, the Icelandic poet and
fighting-man Egill Skallagrimsson, who cynically composed a
panegyric on him and so ransomed his head from the Bloodaxe.
Eirik's court at York was an anachronism, pagan and un-English.
He was driven out for the last time in 954. He may well have been
betrayed to his death at Stainmore. Odinn had always had high hopes
of him, and he died gallantly. Valhalla stood open to receive him,
and was the Volsung heroes Sigmund and Sinfjotli who bade him
it

enter. What
heroes, they asked, attend you from the roar of battle?
'There are five kings,' said Eirik. 'I will make known to you the
names of all. I am the sixth myself (EirtksmdP).
With these meaningless permutations of the two Olafs, the
second Rognvald, and the barbaric splendour of Eirik's death and
memorial, a phase of viking history comes to an end. Harassed
Wessex, partitioned Mercia, the subjugated regions which formed
the Danelaw south of the Humber, and now at last that political
quicksand the kingdom of York, had been made one kingdom. That
kingdom would be free of Norwegian and Danish assault for almost
thirty years, and when after the minor raids of the 980s a new threat
to England grew apace, there were new actors on the scene, and a
new sense of destiny in the northern air.
15- THE GRIMESTAD TREASURE, TENTH CENTURY, NORWAY
l6. NECKLACE AND ARM-RING FROM BIRKA, GRAVE 632
For a description of the necklace see p. 172.
4.The Movement East:
The Baltic Lands, Russia, Byzantium

-Lhe early rise to power and continuing sup-

remacy of the kings of central Sweden, lightly attested though
it is by documentary evidence, may well be the most decisive fac-

tor in the homeland history of Scandinavia throughout the pre-

viking and viking periods. In the eighth century the kingdom
based on Uppland, but including territories both north and especi-
ally south of it was unified, strong, and rich, and well placed for
colonial and mercantile ventures overseas. The natural direction
of these was east and south-east, to the island of Gotland and the
shores of the Baltic from the Gulf of Danzig to north of the Gulf of
Finland. Eventually their contacts with these profitable regions
would draw the Swedes further east till they came to the Russian
rivers and so by way of the Black Sea to the Caspian and Con-
stantinople.
It would be hard to determine the date of the first Swedish in-
cursions into the east Baltic lands. But they were certainly pre-
viking. Snorri in his Tnglinga Saga speaks of Swedish and other
northern kings raiding there, more particularly in Estland, the
country south of the Gulf of Finland, not long after the deaths of the
Uppland king Athils and the Dane Hrolf Kraki; and we long since
noted (p. 52 above), in Snorri's brief account of Ivar Vidfadmi
(c.650-700?), the part-legendary Far-reacher or Wide-grasper, how
in addition to his fabled control of Sweden, Denmark, and North-
umbria, he won for himself a large part of Germany and the entire
Austrriki, that unspecified eastern realm which included the coastal
lands of the east Baltic and the nearer parts of Russia in the area of
Lake Ladoga. Elsewhere we learn of Ivar that he drowned while on
an expedition to Russia. This at best comes to very little, and at
242 A History of the Fikings
worst to nothing at all, nor is it significantly augmented by such
other dubious references as can be culled from the Fornaldarsogur,
Snorri's Tnglinga Saga, and Thjodolf's Tnglinga Tal. The documentary
silence is, however, interrupted by Rimbert's Vita Amkarii, written
about 870, which records of the Kurlanders, Chori, that they had
in earlier times been subject to the Swedes, but had thrown off a
yoke they found shameful. The Kurlanders defeated a Danish in-
vasion c. 850, but Olaf, who was king in Birka, led a Swedish force
against them, burned their fortress of Seeburg to the ground, and
received the abject surrender of a second town, Apulia. The
Kurlanders, we understand from Rimbert, who is echoed by Adam
of Bremen, returned to their taxpaying.
The mention of these two towns in Kurland, the modern Latvia,
sharply advances our story. It brings us to two famous sites of
Gotlandic and Swedish settlement in the east Baltic, Grobin and
Apuole, and assures us of Scandinavian interest there as far back as
the mid-eighth century, and maybe a hundred years earlier. Got-
landers and Swedes, it appears, were there as partners, not rivals.
Just when Gotland became auxiliary to or fully co-operative
economically and politically with the kingdom of the Swedes is
unknown; 1 her geographical situation vh-h-vis Denmark, Sweden,
the eastern Baltic, the Slav peoples of the north German coast, and
beyond these Russia and central Europe, had made her immensely
wealthy, and at the same time highly vulnerable; 2 it was to be
1Guta Saga records that the first Gotlander to make a lasting peace with
the Swedes was the legendary king Awair Strabain, who committed the
Gotlanders to an annual tribute of silver. 'Thus the Gotlanders passed of their
own free will under the king of the Swedes, so that they were enabled to visit
any part of Sweden free and uncircumscribed, without toll, without charges.
Similarly the Swedes had the right to visit Gotland freely, without corn-tax
or other prohibitions. The king should give help and assistance to the Got-
landers whenever they needed or asked for it. Both king and jarl should send
delegates to the general assembly of the Gotlanders (Guttialhing), and collect
the tribute there. These delegates had to proclaim the freedom of the Got-
landers to travel overseas to all such places as were subject to the king at

Uppsala, and similarly and in like manner for those who had the right to visit
here in Gotland.' (Ed. Pipping, p. 64.) Who Awair Strawlegs was, and when
he flourished, who shall say? But it is likely that the saga here preserves a
sound tradition.
2 Of approximately 200,000
silver coins of the Viking Age so far discovered
have been found in Gotland Arabic 40,000, German
in Scandinavia, a half :

38,000, Anglo-Saxon 21,000. There is general agreement that the frequent

and widespread burial of treasure indicates troubled times, and that very
 The Movement East 243

expected that a strong and acquisitive Sweden would from early

times have a covetous eye for her offshore neighbour, and eventually
move against her. When king Alfred's informant Wulfstan sailed
past Gotland in the late ninth century it 'belonged to the Swedes',
and presumably had done so for a while. But at the time of the
Grobin and Apuole settlement the Gotlanders, by virtue of their
separateness and wealth, had a culture subtly differentiated from
that of their Swedish neighbours, so that the archaeological remains
of the two peoples are susceptible of distinction. Grobin today is a
small town a few miles east of Libau (Liepaja). The old settlement
is in many ways comparable with Hedeby and Birka. It was sur-

rounded by an earthwork, and protected on three sides by the river

Alande. There are three adjacent cemeteries of considerable size.
Some of the graves are of men from central Sweden, buried with
their weapons and covered over with mounds; others are the graves
of men and women from or at least connected with Gotland. The
Swedish finds from the central cemetery have the unmistakable air
of a military establishment, the Gotlandic of a civil community.
Presumably the Swedes were there to secure an advantage which
—
depended on a show of force the exaction of tribute, for example;
theirs was an arm freed for action. But the Gotlanders, we assume,
sought neither piracy nor war: they had brought their wives with
them, taken land and pursued a peaceful trade. The earliest burials
may go back to c. 650, and cremations continued till c. 800. The
precise relationship of Grobin to Seeburg is not yet established. 1
Twenty-five miles away to the south-east, in north-western
Lithuania, is Apuole, Rimbert's Apulia, another large Scandinavian
settlement, on the river Barte, with its attendant fortress, in whose
ramparts was found a heavy concentration of non-Baltic and pro-
bably Swedish arrow-heads, in which some scholars are tempted to
discern, a shade perilously one would think, a relic of the Swedish
assault of c. 855. In the near-by cemetery is evidence that Gotlanders
were in residence here, too, at roughly the same time as the Grobin
settlement. There have been finds of Swedish material in other
places in the Grobin area.

considerable quantities of money and ornaments were hidden, it was hoped

temporarily, in the soil of Gotland to save them from vikings and pirates.

1The best account is B. Nerman, Gro bin-See burg, Ausgrabungen und Funde,
Stockholm, 1958.
244 A History of the Vikings
Approximately a hundred miles down the coast, safely situated
at the south-western extremity of the long, shallow, sand-barred
lagoon of the Kurisches HafF, stood Wiskiauten. Here we seem to
discern the familiar Scandinavian pattern of a market-town pro-
tected by a garrison. It must have been established more or less

when Grobin ceased from active use, and persisted for another two
hundred years, measure because its position near the river
in large
Memel secured it and tenth-century trading from
a share of ninth-
the Dnieper and the Black Sea. Eighty miles to the south-west,
inside another vast lagoon, the Frisches HafF, and standing in much
the same relationship to the great south- and south-eastern-running
river artery the Vistula as Wiskiauten to the Memel, was Wulfstan's
town of Truso, to be identified with the town of Elbing, now
Elblag. At least we assume so, for to the present no true town has
been found and excavated. Instead there have been finds of Norse
weapons, and there is a large Viking Age cemetery near the modern
town's railway station containing many Scandinavian graves, these,
too, showing a Swedish-Gotlandic pattern. Further west, among the
Slavonic Wends and Abodrits, it was the Danes and not the Swedes
who would exploit the possibilities of trade, tribute, and plunder.
Clearly too much should not be read into the literary and
archaeological record of a Swedish presence among the Letts,
Lithuanians, and Slavs of the east Baltic littoral. There was such a
presence, but it was less than dominant and very much less than
imperial. Still, it was profitable, and wealth from these Slavonic
lands poured first into Helgo, and with that town's waning into
Birkafill near the end of the tenth century. As evidence of Swedish
power and enterprise the Baltic ventures are impressive in them-
selves, and still more so as an introduction to the Swedish entry into
Russia now to be considered.
We begin with the many-times-quoted statement of the Russian
Primary Chronicle (Povesf Fremennykh Let) concerning the 'Calling of
the Varangians'. 1

In the year 852, at the accession of the Emperor Michael, the land of
Rus' was first named. We have determined this date from the fact

1 Ed. E. F. Karsky, 1926, and V. P. Adrianova-Peretts (text prepared for

publication by D. S. Likhachev), 1950; English translation of Karsky's text
by S. H. Cross and O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, The Russian Primary Chronicle,
Cambridge, Mass., 1953. The work is frequently referred to as the Nestorian
Chronicle or Chronicle of Nestor, because of an earlier belief that it was composed
 The Movement East 245

that in the reign of this Emperor Russes attacked Tsar'grad [Con-

stantinople], as written in the Greek Chronicle
is . . .

(859) The Varangians from beyond the sea imposed tribute upon
the Chuds, the Slavs, the Merians, the Ves', and the Krivichians. But
the Khazars imposed it upon the Polyanians, the Severians, and the
Vyatichians, and collected a white squirrel-skin from each hearth.
(860-62) The tributaries of the Varangians drove them back
beyond the sea and, refusing them further tribute, set out to govern
themselves. There was no law among them, but tribe rose against
tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one
against another. They said to themselves, 'Let us seek a prince who
may rule over usand judge us according to the Law.' They accord-
ingly went overseas to the Varangian Russes: these particular
Varangians were known as Russes, just as some are called [Svie],
others [Nurmane], [Angliane], [Gote], 1 for they were thus named. The
Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichians, and the Ves' then said to the people
of Rus', 'Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come
to rule and reign over us.' They thus selected three brothers, with
their kinsfolk, who took with them all the Russes and migrated. The
oldest, Rurik, located himself in Novgorod; the second, Sineus, at
Beloozero and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. On account of these
;

Varangians, the district of Novgorod became known as the land of

by the monk Nestor of the Pechersky cloister in Kiev soon after the year 1100.
It is now more generally held that Nestor was either its first editor or just one

of its compilers, and that the Primary Chronicle (NachaPnaya Letopis^ is based
upon several earlier chronicles. The most important extant codexes are the
Laurentian of the late fourteenth century and the Hypatian of the early or
mid-fifteenth. For a compact account in English see G. Vernadsky, Kievan
Russia, Yale, 1948, pp. 284-6, and for a fuller the Introduction to the Cross and
Sherbowitz-Wetzor translation of the Laurentian text. PovesP Vremennykh Let,
The Tale of Bygone Years, Book of Annals, Chronography, is the title by
which the Primary (or Nestorian) Chronicle is normally referred to in modern
Slavonic critical literature.

1 Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor translate these as Swedes, Normans, English,

and Gotlanders. Similarly they translate Liudprand's Nordmanni as Normans,
meaning Northmen, Scandinavians, a customary Russian usage. How-
ever, in a book written for English readers 'Normans' is best kept for the
inhabitants of Normandy. I would translate, with Vilhelm Thomsen, The
Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia, 1877, p. 13 (reprint in the Burt
Franklin Research and Source Work Series, No. 77, New York, '1964)
'They were called Rus' as others are called Svie (Swedes), others Nurmane
(Northmen, Norwegians), others Angliane (English, or Angles of Sleswick?),
others Gote (probably the inhabitants of the island of Gotland).'
246 A History of the Vikings
Rus'. The Novgorod are descended from the
present inhabitants of
Varangian but aforetime they were Slavs.
race,
After two years, Sineus and his brother Truvor died, and Rurik
assumed the sole authority. He assigned cities to his followers,
Polotsk to one, Rostov to another, and to another Beloozero. 1

This naive, well-meaning, and in its difFerent redactions varied

passage of legendary history relating to the origins of the (later)
royal house of the kingdom of Kiev has been the subject of ency-
clopedic exegesis. Yet for all the whittlings of folklorists, philolo-
gists, historians, and chauvinists, and with full allowance for con-

fusion, misunderstanding, and plain tendentiousness in the Chronicle

itself, one irreducible fact remains the tradition that the founders
:

of the city states of Novgorod and Kiev 2 were men of Scandinavian

stock, and drawn from such of them as were called Varangians or
Rus. 3 We do not have to believe in the detail of three brothers

1Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, pp. 58-60. There is a divergent account

of Rurik's settlement in the Hypatian codex. 'They took with them all the
Russes and came first to the Slavs (Slovene), and they built the city of Ladoga
[the modern Staraja Ladoga], Rurik, the eldest, settled in Ladoga, Sineus, the
second, at Beloozero, and Truvor, the third, in Izborsk. From these Varangians
the land of Rus' receivedits name. After two years Sineus died, as well as his

brother Truvor, and Rurik assumed the sole authority. He then came to
Lake Il'men' and founded on the Volkhov a city which they named Novgorod,
and he settled there as prince, assigning cities . . .', etc. (op. cit., p. 233).
2 The
'Varangian' passage of the Povest' quoted above continues: 'With
Rurik there were two men who did not belong to his kin, but were boyars
[chieftains]. They obtained permission to go to Tsar'grad [Constantinople]
with their families. They thus sailed down the Dnieper, and in the course of
their journey they saw a small city on a hill. Upon their inquiry as to whose
town it was, they were informed that three brothers, Kiy, Shchek, and Khoriv,
had once built the city, but that since their deaths, their descendants were
living there as tributaries of the Khazars. Askold and Dir [Hoskuld and Dyri]
remained in the city, and after gathering together many Varangians, they
established their dominion over the country of the Polyanians at the same
time that Rurik was ruling at Novgorod' (Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, p.
60). Their principality was seized, and they themselves killed, in 880-2, by
Rurik's successor at Novgorod, Oleg. 'Oleg set himself up as prince in Kiev,
and declared that it should be the mother of Russian cities. The Varangians,
Slavs, and others who accompanied him, were called Russes. Oleg began to
build stockaded towns, and imposed tribute on the Slavs, the Krivichians, and
the Merians' (op. cit., p. 61).
3 I add a
brief note on the by no means universally agreed meaning and
derivation of Rus and Varangian. There has developed a consensus of Scandin-
avian opinion, though with distinguished exceptions, that Rus comes from
 The Movement East 247

coming over the sea (the number and relationship are a commonplace
of founding stories), nor in that other commonplace, the invitation
sent them by a troubled and comfort-seeking native people or
peoples it is of no particular importance whether or not we identify
;

Rurik with the Rurik-Rorik who was active in Frisia and South

the Finnish name for Sweden, Ruotsi (cf. Esthonian Rootsi), which in turn goes
back to the word represented in ON. by rodr, a rowing, rowing-way, water-
way (cf. NE. 'roads'). The name Ruotsi, it is argued, arose from rodsmenn, men
of the rowing-way, the people of today's Roslagen, the Rowing-Law, the
coastal area of Swedish Uppland. In other words, the Finns named the Swedes
after that part of the Swedish folk and realm they knew best; the name was
carried by them north, east, then south to the area of Lake Ladoga, which was
largely inhabited by people of Finnish origin when the Rus arrived, and from
there spread by way of the Slavs through Russia and Byzantium. It was used
only of the Swedes in Russia, never of the Swedes in Sweden. In course of time
it came to include not only Scandinavians but those who lived under their

sovereignty, including subject Slavs. E. Hjarne's suggestion, 'Roden,

Upphovd och Namnet,' Namn och bygd, 1947, pp. 28-60, that rodr means ship,
rodsmenn shipmen, and Roslagen, Rodzlagen, Ropslagbin, etc, means Ship-Law,
provides an equally apposite origin.
V&ringi, pi. Vteringjar (Gr. fiapayyoi, Arab, varank), most probably derives
from O.N. vdrar, pledge, oath, guarantee, together with the collective
suffix -ing, and means men of the pledge, confederates. The Russian word
varyag is used of itinerant pedlars, and it is tempting to assume that the men of
the pledge were confederates in trading enterprises (cf. vara, wares), which
fits in admirably with the Slav, Byzantine, and Arab designation of the gener-

al body of northern warrior- traders in Russia (not merely the Rus: the

Povest' uses the term Varangian for Scandinavians 'from beyond the Baltic
sea') as Varangians. The Baltic was More Varjazhbskoie, the Varangian Sea.
The term Varangian seems not to have been known in Russia before the
second half of the tenth century. A. Stender-Petersen (Varangica, Arhus,
1953 'Das Problem der altesten Byzantinisch-Russisch-Nordischen Bezie-
;

hungen' in Relazioni, III, 165-88, X

Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storicbe,
Rome, 1955) considers that the Vxringjar were distinct from the Rus, and
were a second influx of Swedes dating from Vladimir's conquest of the kingdom
of Kiev in the 980s with a force recruited in Sweden. Further, the word
Faringjar is of no very common occurrence, especially outside the description
of the Varangian or Scandinavian contingent in the emperor's service at
Constantinople as Vceringjalid, -log, -seta. There was possibly no need for it
till the Rus had become substantially Slavicized and a new term came into use

in Byzantium to denote men of Scandinavian origin.

The subject is a difficult one and the etymologies remain uncertain. The
most readable 'Normanist' statement is still V. Thomsen's Relations. G.
Vernadsky presents a summary of evidence for the 'anti-Normanist' view
that the first wave of Scandinavians to reach southern Russia, in the early
248 A History of the Vikings
Jutland in the 850s (see pp. 106, 109 above), and we cannot accept
that there was no Rus activity in Russia before the 850s (there most
emphatically was); but equally we cannot disregard the tradition
itself, or lightly turn the first Rus into Slavs, Khazars, descendants
of the Crimean Goths, or still less credible contenders for the title.

Evidence Swedish activity in Russia before Rurik is of two

for
kinds, literary and archaeological. But first we must take a look at
the distribution of the non-Scandinavian peoples in Russia west of
the Volga at the beginning of the ninth century. In Estland and
around lakes Ladoga and Onega dwelt people of Finnish race, the
Chud of the Primary Chronicle, and peoples of Finnish origin were
early established around Rostov (the Meria) and Murom (the
Muroma). With such or their like the Swedes had considerable
acquaintance.At its other, southern, extremity Russia was bounded
and contained by two great imperial powers, the Byzantine Empire
dominating south-eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, and the
Arab Caliphate with its capital Baghdad in control south of the
Caucasus. The military strength, national wealth, political sagacity,
and physical remoteness of these two powers made them immune to
all save occasional excesses of Rus impudence. Their boundaries

drew the line beyond which the south-eastern progress of the Swedes
would make no headway. The two most important peoples north
of them were the Khazars and the Bulgars. The first of these, a
Turkic-speaking people of Asiatic origin, were all-powerful from
the Caucasus and the northern shores of the Caspian through the
lands enclosed by the lower Volga and Don, and exerted an often
dominant influence between the Caspian and the southern Urals.
The Crimea was also in their hands. Their capital was at Itil in the

eighth century, borrowed the name Rus from the Alanic Ruxs, in his Origins,
p. 199. See further M. Vasmer, Russisches etymologiscbes Wbrterbuch, Heidel-
berg, 1950-8, II, 551-2. There is an excellent review of the problems in Cross
and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, pp. 35-50; and the chapters on 'Kievan Russia' in
N. V. Riasanovsky, A
History of Russia, New York, 1963, provide a just and
balanced survey for the English reader.
Norse sources call geographical Russia Svipjod binn mikla, Sweden the
Great, and Gardari'ki, the kingdom of (fortified) towns or steads. Most of these
towns were already in existence when the warrior-merchants of
(villages?)
Sweden moved into Russia, and the name reflects their interest in the pheno-
menon. They call Novgorod Holmgardr, Island-garth, and Kiev Koenugardr,
Boatgarth (?). Serklatid, Silk-land, was the kingdom of the Muslims, Constanti-
nople was Mikligardr, William Morris's Micklegarth, the Great City.
 The Movement East 249

Volga delta, near the modern Astrakhan. Their gift for trade and
commerce, their unfanatical social and religious notions, and their
geopolitical role as a buffer against such fierce nomadic Turkish
tribes as the Petchenegs 1 made them so favoured of the Byzantines
that in 834-5 the emperor Theophilus sent materials and engineers
to construct for them the shining stone fortress of Sarkel, the 'White
House', and so secure the Don portage and the east-west transit of
goods from the Volga-mouth to Constantinople. West of the
Khazars and north of the Byzantines was the western division of the
Bulgars, a strong, aggressive folk often at war with the Empire.
Modern Bulgaria preserves the names of these early invaders, but
the native population was Slavonic and would absorb them com-
from these by the territories of the Khazars were
pletely. Split apart
yet other Bulgars, of Turkic origin, with a main encampment at
Bulgar in the Volga bend. Bulgar and Itil were the two main trading
centres of the Volga region. In the vast central area of Russia, now
emptied of the Avars, dwelt several loosely organized Slavonic
tribes, too independent of each other to form a confederacy strong
enough to make impression on the khaganates of the Khazars and
Bulgars, or to turn back the incoming Rus and frustrate their
ambition to develop the river-routes from the Baltic to the Black
Sea, from the Gulf of Finland to the Caspian.
We have reliable literary intelligence of the Rus in 839. Under
that year the Annates Bertiniani report the arrival at the court of the
Frankish emperor, Louis the Pious, of Greek ambassadors sent to
him by the emperor Theophilus of Byzantium. They brought with
them and gifts, and Louis received them with honour at
a letter
Ingelheim, near Mainz. They brought with them, too, certain men
'who said that they, that is their nation, were called Rhos (qui se,
id est gentem suam, Rhos vocari dicebant), and whom their own king,
Chacanus by name, had sent to him [Theophilus] in friendship, as
they asserted'. Theophilus expressed a wish that Louis would arrange
for these Rhos to continue their journey through his empire, for he
could not allow them to return home by the route they had taken
to Constantinople, so great would be their danger from rude and
savage peoples. His curiosity stirred, Louis interrogated these

1 Vernadsky, Ancient 304-5, and Origins, p. 185, considers that

Russia, pp.
Sarkel was built Petchenegs or Magyars than against the Rus, more
less against
especially those he places in the Azov region. It may well have been built
against all three.
250 A History of the Vikings
Rhos more closely about their appearance in his dominions, and
learning that they were of Swedish nationality (comperit eos gentis
esse Sueonuni), and therefore linked with the hostile, plundering

north, he decided to keep them with him for a while, till he was
satisfied that they were honest men and not spyers-out of the Frank-
ish realm. He sent intelligence to this effect back to Theophilus. 1
The most delicate and at times contradictory shades of meaning
have been extracted by scholars from the gentem suam Rhos and
gentisSueonum of this annal, but it is very much in accord with what
the other literature and archaeology tell us about the Rus. The Rus
who came to Louis's court were of Swedish origin or nationality,
but they were not of Sweden itself. They had travelled south to
Constantinople on a peaceful mission through the wild tribes
dwelling about the Dnieper, and were now circuitously returning
to that place in Russia where they had a settlement, colony, king-
dom, call it what we will, with a leader strong enough and inde-

pendent enough of the kingdom of central Sweden to style himself

(or more accurately to be styled by the Greek emperor) Chacanus,
the title borne by the khagans or kings of the Khazars and the
Bulgars. Almost a hundred years later the Arab Ibn Rustah reports
of the Rus that they have a prince who is called Khaqan-Rus.
The earliest significant archaeological evidence for the Swedes
in Russia comes from the southern end of Lake Ladoga. Not on the
lake but in a typical protected position seven or eight miles
itself,

up the Volkhov, stood the town known in Norse sources as

river
Aldeigjuborg and today identifiable on the map by the small
modern town of Staraja Ladoga, Old Ladoga. It was of good size,
almost a quarter of a mile square, surrounded by an earth rampart,
and in part still further protected by the river and a ravine. The site
was occupied long before the Swedes arrived, either by a Finnish or
(less likely) a Slavonic community. These earlier inhabitants were
friendly to the newcomers, no doubt because they benefited by the
presence of traders and warriors in their midst. Evidence of a degree
of Swedish occupation persists from the early ninth to the early
eleventh century, and Snorri Sturluson mentions the place fre-
quently. But the Finnish-Swedish heyday there was certainly the
tenth century.Above the oldest layers of the town have been found
the remains of squarish log-houses not likely to be Slavonic, and
1Ed. Waitz, Hanover, 1883, pp. 19-20. The reliable and well-regarded
Prudentius bishop of Troyes was the author of this part of the Annales.
 The Movement East 251

above these small Russian-style (Slav) one-roomed cottages with

the cooking-place in the corner. The final layer is unquestionably
Slavonic, and we may assume, as so often in parallel cases, that the
Swedes were eventually assimilated to the Finns and Slavs among
whom they had lived so long. The most dramatic viking remain
from Aldeigjuborg is a piece of wood, apparently from a bow, with
a runic inscription in complicated skaldic verse, showing the allitera-
tive pattern and obscure mythological reference typical of the high
flowering of such verse. It is of the ninth century.

35. PORTAGE ON RUSSIAN RIVERS, I (OLAUS MAGNUS)

A
good deal about Aldeigjuborg will remain puzzling till the
early cemetery is found and excavated. Meanwhile we are aware of

a great many burial mounds in the Ladoga-Onega area, along the

rivers Volkhov, Sias, Pascha, Ojat, and Svir. The four hundred or so
of these which have been examined speak of Finnish and Swedish
traders and The reason for their presence here rather than
colonizers.
elsewhere will be apparent if we follow in the track of those men who
setout from Sweden, Gotland, and Finland, to seek a profit, living,
even a home in the new land. The Swedes, Alanders, and Gotlanders
252 A History of the Vikings

were sailors, the Baltic and its sea-arms their roadways. 1 The
simplest route east was to make use of the Gulf of Finland, from
whose head a short, easy journey up the river Neva conducts to the
wide expanse of Lake Ladoga. Soon our traveller would be at the
confluence of the Volkhov, and soon thereafter at Aldeigjuborg.
The majority of visitors would not stay long in the town. Some
would acquire land outside it, to raise stock, crops, and families,
but most had other things in mind. They were not farmers but
merchants, and from Aldeigjuborg had a choice of routes to the
rivers Dnieper and Volga, which were Russia's trade arteries. To
reach the Dnieper our merchant, with others of his kind, would
journey south along the river Volkhov to the town of Novgorod by
Lake Ilmen, traverse the lake, and continue south along the river
Lovat, and eventually by the use of smaller streams and a short and
manageable portage reach the headwaters of the Dnieper. It was
possible to make much the same connection by way of the Gulf of
Riga and the southern Dvina, 2 or if a merchant chose he could
return to the Baltic that way. If he sought the Volga, he had the
choice of at least two more easterly routes, the better and more
frequented out of Lake Ladoga by the river Sias, then by portage
and the Mologa to the Volga north of Rostov, the other from Lake
Ladoga by the river Svir to Lake Onega, and from there upstream
to Lake Beloya, on whose southern shore stood the trading town of
Beloozero, the patrimony of Rurik's oddly named brother Sineus,
and so by way of the river Syeksna to the Volga itself. The area was
one of rivers, swamps, and a great diversity of streams, and many of
those who traversed it must have had their favourite routes, based
1
The Alands seem to have been part of the kingdom of central Sweden
throughout the Viking period. Archaeological evidence shows a Swedish
rather than a Finnish relationship, and suggests that the Alanders took an
active part in Swedish trade with Russia and the Muslim world. See Ella
Kivikoski, Finland, 1967, pp. 132-4.
2 As Guta Saga informs us. 'The exiled Gotlanders (see p. 196 n. 3 above) went
forth into an island off Estland whose name is Dagaipi [Dago], and settled
there, and built a fortified town which can still be seen. They could not
maintain themselves there, set off up the waterway known as the Dvina, and
up through Russia. So far did they go that they came to Greece.' (Ed.
Pipping: Excerpt in An Introduction to Old Norse, O.U.P., 1957, p. 176.) For a
discussion of a Dvina-Don-Donets route between the Baltic and Black Seas,
and a markedly hypothetical case for the Varangians reaching the Azov c. 739
and borrowing the name Rus from the Antian Slavic tribes there, see Vernad-
sky, Ancient Russia, pp. 266-75, and Kievan Russia, pp. 333-4.
 The Movement East 253

36. PORTAGE ON RUSSIAN RIVERS, 2 (OLAUS MAGNUS)

to some extent on the size of the boats they had with them and their
arrangements for The route south from
forwarding and transfer.
Staraja Ladoga by way of Novgorod and the Lovat to the Dnieper
could be used to connect with the Volga, too. There is convincing
archaeological evidence of early Swedish and Finnish initiative along
the river-routes from Lake Ladoga right down to Gnezdovo-
Smolensk and from Lake Onega to Rostov and Murom.
By the closing decades of the ninth century the Swedes and the
Rus were of considerable importance in Russian affairs. Over on the
Volga they were active in trade and busily in contact with the
khaganates of the Bulgars and Khazars; they were well known to the
Muslims south of the Caspian, and having crossed that sea by boat
from Itil would continue by camel train over the desert to Baghdad.
Here and on the Volga bend they encountered merchants and trade
goods from as far east as China, so that viking trade reached out
eastwards to the confines of the known or rumoured world. Arabian
silver, Persian glass, Chinese silk, narrow-necked bronze bottles

from east of the Caspian, exotic purses from India, spices and wines,
all these found their way to Novgorod, Gotland, and the homes and

graves of Swedish Uppland, in exchange for slaves, weapons, honey

and wax, and an odorous plenitude of furs. But on the Dnieper they
254 A History of the Vikings

MAP 10. THE RUSSIAN RIVERS AND THE MOVEMENTS

OF THE RUS

were both traders and something more. Northwards they had their
city state of Novgorod and their base at Staraja Ladoga; along the
river they won a footing at Gnezdovo-Smolensk and Chernigov and
supremacy at Kiev, from which last they exploited and imposed
their will on the surrounding Slav population. Before the end of the
century Kiev under Oleg would be the main seat of Rus power in
Russia. From Muslim and Greek sources during the next hundred
years we acquire a good deal of picturesque (perhaps over pictur-
esque) information about these Rus, 'whom we with another name
call Northmen (Rusios quos alio nos nomine Nordmannos appellantus^'. 1

1 Liudprand, bishop of Cremona, describing the peoples who dwell north

of the Byzantine Empire, Antapodosis, ed J.
Becker, SSRG, Hannover,
1915, 1,
n. Compare the same work, V, 15: 'There is a people dwelling in the north
whom for some bodily quality the Greeks call Rus ; we however by reason of
the situation of their homeland call them Nordmannos.'' Liudprand was an
envoy to Constantinople 948-50 and 968.
 The Movement East 255

Ibn Rustah, writing in the first half of the tenth century, tells us
how the Rus lived on an island (or promontory) in a lake, which was
large, marshy, forested, and unhealthy. They were much busied
with slave-hunting. 'They have no cultivated land but depend for
their living on what they can obtain from Saqalibah's land 1 . . .

They have no estates, villages, or fields; their only business is

dealing in sables, squirrel, and other furs, and the money they ac-
quire by these transactions they keep in their belts.' They journey-
ed and made war by ship, were excessively valiant and treacherous,
were handsome, clean, and well dressed (Ibn Rustah notes the full
baggy trousers gathered kneewards vouched for by Scandinavian
picture stones and fragments of northern tapestry, though these
may well have been influenced by Oriental fashions —the viking in
general was skartsmabr mikill, They were hospitable
quite a dandy).
and protective of their guests; were quarrelsome among themselves
and frequently resorted to single combat (reminiscent of saga
accounts of bolmgangd) to settle disputes ; but in the face of a common
enemy they closed their ranks and fought as one man. They had
priests and made sacrifices of men, women, and cattle to their god.
The method of sacrifice was by hanging. They lived in a state of
such insecurity and distrust that a man dare not go outside about
his natural needs save with an armed escort. JWhen one of their
chieftains died they made a grave like a big house and put him
inside, with his apparel and gold armbands, and an abundance of
food, vessels with drink, and coins. Finally they put his favourite
wife (woman, concubine) inside with him, still living, then closed
the door of the grave, so that she died.
Ibn Rustah was possibly describing the Rus of Novgorod, 2 but
his picture of a big trading-post maintained by force of arms among
an alien community must be true of the other known centres of Rus

1 That is, from the land of the Slavs. By the time Ibn Rustah secured his
information there would have taken place a considerable fusion of the domin-
ant Swedish-Rus and the general Slav population. At all time Rus military
strength must have drawn substantially on Slav manpower.
2 G. Vernadsky, AncientRussia, p. 281 ff., and The Origins of Russia, pp.
189 argues for Tmutorokan on the Taman peninsula, which is situated
ff,,

between the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, and the Sea of Azov. He considers
that Tmutorokan was early a military base of the Rus and their main centre
of Oriental and Caucasian trade. In the middle of the ninth century its com-
munications with the Rus of northern Russia were interrupted by the Khazars
and Magyars (Origins, p. 209).
256 ^^^'History of the Vikings

influence also. What he

says of Rus burial customs is borne out by
the wooden chambers at Gnezdovo, 1 Chernigov, and Kiev on
burial
the .Dnieper, and by many wooden-chamber graves of Swedish
provenance, including a number at Birka, some of them containing
man and woman, and sometimes a horse in addition to the other
grave goods. On the Dnieper the women are never wearing Scandin-
avian brooches, so presumably they were women of the locality,
living possibly in wedlock, but more likely in concubinage. This is
consonant with Ibn Fadlan's chilling account of a slave-girl on the
Volga being found to accompany her Rus master in death as in
life.
2

Our next informant as to the ways of the Rus is no less a person

tharTTrrernemperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his work De
Administrando Imperio, written about 950. 3 He is concerned to tell of
the convoys of vessels out of the Russian north which descend the
Dnieper to Berezany on the Black Sea, and from there make their
way to the imperial city itself. The boats from Further Russia (i.e.
from beyond Kiev), he tells us, came from Novgorod, where prince
Svyatoslav had his seat, the son of that Igor who had attacked
Constantinople in 941, from Smolensk and Chernigov, Teliutza
(Lubetch) and Busegrad (Visgorod), and they travelled downstream
till they arrived at Kiev. Meanwhile the Rus of Kiev had been hard

at work (their life, he says, was a hard one), for during the winter
they were out on poliudie, that is, on their rounds, visiting the
Slavonic peoples, Vervians, Dregovichians, Krivichians, Severians,
and others who paid them tribute. Some paid in money, some in
furs and other commodities, and there was always a use for slaves.
In April with the thaw they returned to Kiev. The town stands on a

1 Gnezdovo was admirably placed as a centre of trade, situated as it was by

the Dnieper, and with access to the Dvina, and so to the Baltic, and that other
important trade river, the Oka, leading east by way of Finnish Murom to the
Volga, and so downstream to Bulgar on the Volga Bend.
2See Appendix 3 Yet it is probable that the evidence of the graves has
.

been interpreted too favourably in respect of the Swedish presence. Many of

the weapons, grave goods, and modes of burial are as likely to be Slav as
Scandinavian, and more extensive archaeological investigation will probably
diminish rather than enhance the Normanist claim. The many boat-burials,
however, are certainly Scandinavian or show Scandinavian influence. L.
Musset provides illuminating comment on this and related matters in his Les
invasions : le second assaut, pp. 261-6 ('Problemes Russes').

3 Ed. G. Moravcsik and (trans.) R. J. H. Jenkins, I-II, Budapest, 1949-62.

 The Movement Exist 257

series of bluffs on the river's west bank, and is unaffected by the

spring floods, which raise the river's level as much as 16 feet, and
increase its width from less than half a mile to five miles or even six.

From April June the Rus found it unnavi gable, but after their
till

return from their rounds they needed this length of time to transfer
usable gear and parts from their old boats, hollowed out of a single
tree, to the new ones prepared for them by the Slavs, and make all
shipshape. By June the river was manageable; it still ran with more
than its normal flow, but this served a purpose. The fleet now moved
a short way downstream to the stockaded taxing-post of Vitichev
(the emperor was writing at a time when the Rus of Kiev had ab-
solute control of the Dnieper), and after a day or two all the boats
c
sailed off to face the perils of the voyage together'. These were of
two kinds: the natural hazards of the descent, which were worst at
the rapids of the modern Dnjepropetrovsk, and the risk of ambush
by the Petchenegs, which was at its most acute on the same stretch
of river. The emperor is eloquent on the perils of the forty-mile
succession of cataracts where the mighty river is compressed
between walls of granite. It was to get over or past the rocks and
boulders here that they needed the high water of the June season.
Now the Rus go into the water naked, some feel the way with their
feet, others ply their stout staffs at prow, amidships, and stern; now

they unload their cargoes and use their slaves for a six-mile portage;
now they appoint sentinels, lest the same fate befall them as befell
prince Svyatoslav in 972, when the Petchenegs slew him near the
rapids and made a drinking-cup of his close-shaven skull. The
emperor has preserved the names of the seven cataracts he knew
about, in their Slavonic and Scandinavian forms. 1 They are, these
last, Essupi (supa), the Drinker, or Gulper, or (ei soft), 'Sleep not!';
Ulvorsi (holmfors), Island-force; Gelandri (gjallandi), the Yeller;
Aifor (eifors), the Ever-fierce, Ever-noisy, or Impassable, or (edfori),

Narrow-force, or Portage-force; Baruforos (bdrufors), Wave-force,

or possibly (varufors), Highcliff-force; Leanti (hlajandi, leandi), the
Laugher, or Seether; Strukun (rtruk, stroK), the Courser —a piece of
philological evidence as striking as it is unexpected. We read of one
of these, Aifor, on a runic stone at Pilgards in Gotland: 'Hegbjorn

1The difficulties of interpretation do not affect the Norse origin of the

names. See Vilh. Thomsen, Ancient Russia and Scandinavia, pp. 52-67, 143-5,
and K. O. Falk, 'Dnjeprforsanas namn i kejsar Konstantin Porphyrogennetos
De Administrando Imperio', Lunds Univ. Arsskrift, 1951.
258 A History of the Vikings
and his brothers Rodvisl, Osten, and Emund, had this stone painted
in colours and They also raised stones in memory of Hrafh,
raised.
south of Rufstein. They went far into Aifor. Vifil gave the order.'
Hrafn evidently lost his life in that insatiable, boulder-strewn tor-
rent.

37. THE FUR TRADE, I MARTENS AND SABLES

(OLAUS MAGNUS)

Thereafter, continues the emperor, they come to St. Gregor's

island with its giant oak tree, where they offerup sacrifice. And so
in time they come to the island of Berezany on the Black Sea, its
name, we think, a Rus remembrance of Birka and Bjorko, the Birch
Island in Lake Malar, far north in the Uppland kingdom of the
Swedes. And here on this Birch Island of the south an unknown
Norseman named Grani cut runes in memory of his unknown com-
rade Karl —
the 'farthest east' of this robust commemorative art.
But the stay of the convoys on Berezany would be a short one.
By a treaty of 945 the emperor would make it clear he did not
propose to see it become an island base: the Rus must go back home
every autumn. Nor would the convoys be anxious to stay: the goal
for so many of them was Constantinople, Tsargrad, the loveliest,
most splendid, and richest of cities, on which the Scandinavian
north was to bestow the simplest and most pre-emptive of titles,
 The Movement East 259

Mikligar3r, Metropolis, the Great City. Everything that the

archaeological sciences tell us about the settlements of the Swedes
and the Rus, from Gamla Uppsala and Birka to Kiev, prepares us
for the astonishment, admiration, and cupidity with which the
Barbarians would first see the Queen of Cities riding the waters of
Bosporus, Marmara, and the Golden Horn. For buyers and sellers
this was an emporium beyond dreams; the Norseman could not
fail to be impressed by the art, culture, 'politeness', and civilization

he encountered here; while the visible manifestations of Greek per-

manence and power, the churches, towers, wharves, warehouses,
fortifications (twelve miles of them), the palaces and statuary, to
say nothing of its half a million inhabitants, were beyond his home-
land imaginings. With their contribution to the ever-grinding mill
of Byzantine trade, the Rus were welcome, even favoured, visitors,
while politically it suited the emperor to have a khaganate at Kiev
strong enough to restrain the turbulence of local tribes, but in the
nature of things not strong enough to challenge the Empire with
expectation of success.
Even between the Rus and Byzantium were not
so, relations
always peaceful. In the early 860s a fleet said to be under the com-

mand of Askold and Dir, the first rulers of Kiev, having already
ravaged the shores of the Black Sea and the Propontis, appeared
before Constantinople in the absence of the emperor, and was
routed less by the overwhelming force the city could deploy than
by prayers to the Virgin and the destructive storm that followed
them. In 907 the Rus were back again, this time under Oleg, the
uniter of Novgorod and Kiev, but what shall we say of a fleet of
2,000 vessels, a force of 80,000 men, and a stratagem which circum-
vented the chaining of the Bosporus by putting the ships on wheels
and sailing them overland to Constantinople? Still, somewhere be-
hind these accretions of fantasy may be found the reality of a Rus-
Byzantine confrontation which led to the commercial treaty of
911-12, whose beginning, as recorded in the Primary Chronicle, is
such a fanfare of northern nomenclature 'We of the Rus Karli,
: :

Vermud, Rulov, Gody, Ruald, Karn, Frelav, Aktevu,

Ingeld, Farlof,
Truan, Lidul, Fost, Stemid, 1 are sent by Oleg, great prince of the
1 Vermundr, HroSleifr, G63i-Guc3i, Hroaldr,
Karl-Karli, Ingjaldr, Farulfr,
Kami, Angantyr(?), Thr6ndr-Thrandr, Lei5ulfr, Fasti-Fastr,
FriSleifr,
Steinvi5r(?), are the normalized ON. forms. They point preponderantly to
eastern Sweden, but some are Finnish.
260 A History of the Vikings
Rus, and by all the illustrious and mighty princes, and the most
noble boyars under his sway, to you, Leon and Alexander and
Constantine, great rulers by the grace of God, emperors of the
Greeks, for the maintaining and proclamation of the long-standing
friendship between Greeks and Rus. .'.What followed were
.

regulations concerning killing and murder, theft, wreck and

stranding, ransom and inheritance, and the like. Earlier, in 907,
there had been mention of free baths and provisions and ships' gear
reminiscent of deals and treaties far west in the Frankish Empire.
There was now peace for thirty years, till prince Igor for no known
reason came across the Black Sea in the early summer of 941 with a
fleet said by the Primary Chronicle to consist of 10,000 ships, but
certainly much overestimated by Liudprand of Cremona at 1,000.
Whatever their number, they availed him nothing: a cruel reality-
underlies the tale of their destruction by outpourings of Greek fire.

Vengeful and undismayed, he returned three years later with a

horde of mercenaries and innumerable ships. This time there was no
need of Greek fire. Greek diplomacy was just as effective. Igor was
beguiled with gifts and promises; his Petcheneg allies departed with
everyone's blessing to ravage Bulgaria; Igor led the Rus back home
to Kiev, and in 945 a new treaty came into being which names no
fewer than fifty Rus plenipotentaries, some with Norse but in
contrast with the treaty of 912 many with Slavonic names. Once
more there were legal stipulations, some renewed, some novel ; they
were allotted summer quarters in the suburbs of Constantinople,
might not enter the city proper in detachments of more than fifty
men, and these unarmed. The amount of silk they could purchase
should not exceed the worth of fifty gold pieces, and this required a
customs stamp before it left the city, no doubt by way of precaution
against the local black market. The Rus were entitled to a month's
provisions, free,and to food and equipment for their return to Kiev,
which must take place every autumn. Finally, the Rus would fight
the Bulgars and entreat the Khazars in accord with the needs of
Byzantine foreign policy. When the Greek diplomats departed for
home Igor gave them presents of furs, slaves, and wax.
These were not the only wars of the Rus, who, typically, were
always prepared to vary the profits of commerce with those of
martial arms. Al Masudi tells of a big viking raid in 912 across the
Caspian to Baku and Azerbaijan. It ended disastrously. In 943 a
large Rus fleet entered the river Kura south of Baku, reached the
 The Movement East 261

38. THE FUR TRADE, 2: SQUIRRELS (OLAUS MAGNUS)

town of Berda on its tributary the Terter, and put a large number of
the inhabitants there to the sword. In turn they were attacked within
and without by Muslims and dysentery, and so brought to retreat,
whereupon their adversaries dug up the corpses of the dead Rus and
stripped them of the fine weapons they had taken with them into
their graves— graves which also contained a wife or slave-girl, after
the Rus (and it must be admitted, Slav), custom. This was in Igor's
time. Igor's son Svyatoslav (his birth when his father was aged 75,
and his mother, the famous Olga, 60, was a guarantee of wonders,
some would say lies, to come) was a hardy campaigner against
Khazars, Vyatichi, and Bulgars, and shortly before the Petchenegs
took his head in 972 had behaved menacingly towards Constantin-
ople itself. But not only in name was Svyatoslav (Slavonic, 'of Holy
Story') parting from his viking heritage.He rode without baggage,
carriedno kettle or cauldron, and supplied tent and couch by a sad-
dle under his head. This was his appearance, as recorded by Leo
Diaconus in 971, when he signed a treaty with the emperor Johannes
Tzimiskes on the Danube

Svyatoslav crossed the river in a kind of Scythian boat; he handled

the oar in the same way as his men. His appearance was as follows
—
he was of medium height neither too tall, nor too short. He had
262 A History of the Vikings

bushy brows, blue eyes, and was snub-nosed; he shaved his beard but
wore a long and bushy moustache. His head was shaven except for a
lock of hair on one side as a sign of the nobility of his clan. His neck
was thick, his shoulders broad, and his whole stature pretty fine. He
seemed gloomy and savage. On one of his ears hung a golden ear-ring
adorned with two pearls and a ruby set between them. His white
garments were not distinguishable from those of his men except for
cleanness. 1

A year or so later he was dead, and his three sons fought savagely
among themselves to enlarge the third share of Kievan power he had
appointed for each of them. Yaropolk slewOleg, then perished in his
turn, and was the third son Vladimir who with the help of an
it

army recruited, we are told, in Sweden succeeded to all the lands of

the Rus. This Vladimir (Slavonic, 'the Ruling Mithra'), was born to
do more than survive; he interfered victoriously in the affairs of
various Slavonic tribes, made his presence felt in the north among
the Ests and their neighbours, beat the Poles once and the Bulgars
twice, and chastised the insolent Petchenegs. Then in 988 he ac-
cepted the Christianity of the Greek Church, and employed his
enormous energy in building churches and christianizing his many-
religioned subjects, no small number of them by immersion in the
waters of the Dnieper. Like other Scandinavian princes (and his
bonds with the North seem stronger than his father's and grand-
father's), he had come to recognize the political and economic
advantages of belonging to a monotheistic religion. He is not over-
reliably reported to have taken an appraising glance at Islam,
Judaism, and Rome, before settling on the faith of Byzantium. As
part of the complicated and farsighted manoeuvre by which he
brought Novgorod and Kiev into the community of Christian
peoples he helped the emperor Basil II Bulgaroctonos put down a
rebellion by Bardas Phocas, and was rewarded with the emperor's
sister in marriage —
an honour she tried hard to avoid, partly no

1 G. Vernadsky, The Origins of Russia, p. 277 (Leo Diaconus, Historic Libri

Haase, pp. 156-7). There is another translation in Holger Arbman,
decern, ed.

The Vikings (trans. Alan Binns), pp. 103-4. Professor Arbman continues: 'The
description has many features (the hair lock, osolodets, in particular) of the
Cossack hetman of the sixteenth century, and suggests how quickly the Rus
were becoming Slavonic. Svyatoslav is not a Scandinavian name, and it is
probable that he was in part of Slavonic descent.' In an earlier reference to
Svyatoslav's birth Professor Arbman suspects that something has been lost of
the Kievan family tree (p. 102).
 The Movement East 263

doubt because of the eight hundred concubines and slavegirls he

maintained in various Rus towns. Another far-reaching decision of
his was to make the language of his new church Slavonic, not Greek
or Scandinavian. This last, we assume, had long since ceased to be a
possibility. But the influence of Byzantium, exerted through religion,
education, culture and art, military alliance and commercial facilities,
was great and increasing.
One more famous prince of the Viking Age was to succeed to the
khaganate of the Rus after the death of Vladimir. This was Yaroslav,
the best known of all Kievan rulers to northern historians. Like
Svyatoslav, he was a man of inexhaustible energy, wide and calculat-
ing vision, and a sage awareness of what was needed to strengthen
the kingdom of Novgorod-Kiev and enhance its prestige in the eyes
of its neighbours. He was highly conscious of his Scandinavian
connection, married Ingigerd the daughter of Olaf Skottkonung of
Sweden, comforted and reinforced the dispossessed Olaf Haraldsson
of Norway, gave refuge to the young Magnus Olafsson and to
Harald Hardradi after Olaf's defeat at Stiklarstadir, found this
latter employment in his army, and was recognized by him as his
liege-lord and patron. Finally he gave him his daughter Elizabeth
in marriage. Other daughters were bestowed on other monarchs,
king Andrew I of Hungary, king Henry I of France. Four of his sons
married into the courts of Byzantium and Germany. The arts of
war and peace were equally dear to him. When in the 1030s he had
ground down those ancient foes the Petchenegs he celebrated his
victory and the God who gave it by building the first Russian
cathedral, his church of St. Sophia, noble enough to have been long
mistaken for a copy of St. Sophia in Constantinople. He asserted the
Kievan power with similar success in the northern reaches of his
vast dominion, brought the Chud back under control, and enlarged
his boundaries to the west. Kievan hold on the Dnieper trade-route
was now absolute; it was a time when the national coffers first
bulged then overflowed; and the town, henceforth properly to be
styled the city, of Kiev was the beneficiary. The heart of the city
was walled about with an earthen rampart, with many bastions and
gateways ; churches arose there, other than St. Sophia, monasteries
and schools. With the example of Constantinople before him, he
knew that his capital city must not only be strong, but lovely and
adorned, so he imported artists as well as architects, to provide
frescoes and mosaics. Like king Alfred of Wessex a century and a
264 A History of the Vi kings

half before, he brought in scholars to translate devout and necessary

works into the Slavonic tongue; and like Alfred he sought to clarify
and record the laws.
Yaroslav's achievement was a notable one. It has been remarked
by many historians that under him the kingdom of Kiev moved and
was seen to move within the European orbit. But it calls for special
pleading to describe it in any meaningful sense as a Norse kingdom.
There had been a steady process of assimilation to the native
population for almost two hundred years: concubinage, inter-
marriage, a change of language and religion, and the adoption of
Slavonic customs had quietly eroded the Norseness of the Rus, and
the massive influence of Byzantium carried the process ever farther.
During Yaroslav's long reign (1019-54) he clashed only once with
the Greeks, when he ill-advisedly sent his son to intimidate the
capital in 1043. He lost his fleet, which was bad, and his illusions
about the relative power of Kiev and the Empire, which was good.
For Byzantium was by now essential not only to Kiev's prosperity,
but to her purposeful survival. The absorption of Byzantine influ-
ence by the Kiev kingdom would prove one of its two main
contributions to the future of Russia. The other was not the
'foundation of the Russian state' with which the Swedes are often
overgenerously credited, but the creation or furtherance of durable
trading towns, of which Novgorod, Beloozero, Izborsk, Polotsk,
Rostov, Smolensk, Chernigov, and Kiev itself were the most
important, and its decisive role in the development of a Slavonicized
state extending from Lake Ladoga to the Black Sea. The foundation
of the Russian state was a complicated and lengthy process in
which the Rus played a memorable and effective, but not an only
part. At what point in time the activities of the kingdom of Kiev
ceased to be anything but marginal to viking history is open to
debate. A hard answer might set it well back in the ninth century;
an even harder might carry it back to the beginning and say it had
never been anything but marginal. To the disengaged it may well
seem that the Normanist case has been as overpresented by a
majority of Scandinavian historians as it has been played down by a
majority of the historians of Russia. Arguments for Scandinavian
influence on Kievan law, literature, language, art, religion, coinage,
customs, and social organization have not prospered; and it is a
major presumption to take all Greek and Muslim references to the
Rus as relating to men from Scandinavia, and to those alone. The
 The Movement East 265

nations of the east Slavs played a far greater part in the foundation
and development of the Russian state than did the Norsemen. So
—
did Byzantium and there is still a Muslim and a Turkic influence
to be added.
In any case there was an emphatic break in Vladimir's time. The
conversion to eastern Christianity while Sweden was still heathen,
together with the encroachments of the Slavonic tongue, were
accompanied by an extraordinary decline in the import of Muslim
silver into Scandinavia. 1 This indeed was already marked in the
time of his ancestor Svyatoslav, and has been ascribed to the
interruption of Volga trade as a result of that king's warring against
the Bulgars of northern Russia, as well as to a silver crisis in Islam.
Either way, it is the fact rather than its cause which is important.
Scandinavia had grown used to silver, needed silver, and as supplies
from the Muslim world by way of Russia, and to some extent
Poland, dried up, they looked to Germany and England instead.
Silver from the mines of the Harz mountains came north by way of
loot and, increasingly, trade; and silver coins from England represent
successive payments of tribute till the country had been conquered,
when they represent the payment of northern soldiers in Danish
pay. The famous mart of Birka ceased to be of importance after
c. 970, such was its dependence on the Russian trade. It looks as

though the interests of Kiev and Sweden were by now less than

1The incidence of kufic coins in Birka graves tells a clear story. The follow-
ing table is from H. Arbman, Svear i osterviking, p. 135, by way of P. H.
Sawyer, The Age ofthe Vikings, p. 176
Number found in
Date of Coins Birka graves

700-750 12
750-800 14
800-850 17
850-890 4
890-950 42
950- I

I add Sawyer's comment: 'The presence of coins of the eighth century

does not, of course, mean that the graves can be dated to that time, for these
older coins remained in circulation for a long time in Scandinavia. Some of the
older coins were in fact found in graves along with later ones; for example in
one grave a coin of 818-19 was found together with four from 913-32. Many
of the other early coins may similarly have been buried in the tenth century.'
266 A History of the Vikings

complementary, and in some respects flatly opposed. 1 Increasingly

the Rus looked first to themselves and next to Byzantium, and the
gap between Svi|)j63 and SviJ)j65 hinn mikla, Sweden and Sweden
the Great, grew wider. Yaroslav's northern sympathies and
affinities obscure the estrangement, but hardly effect it, and after

Yaroslav's death in 1054 nothing remains for our present chronicle.

Or almost nothing. The eastern Scandinavian connection with
the famous Varangian Guard would not come to an end for another
twenty years and more. That adventurers from the north would
early take service with the Greek emperor was to be expected it :

appealed to the age-old ambitions and compulsions which had

enrolled men in the comitatus of Hygelac in the early sixth century,
in Harald Fairhair's hird in the late ninth, and in Knut's Thing-
mannalid in the eleventh. The sword-arm was a saleable commodity.
And where could service be more honourable and reward more
bounteous than in the sumptuous treasure-city of the Bosporus?
So at times contingents, even small armies of the Rus, enlisted to do
battle against the Emperor's enemies. There is a fair documentation
of their campaigns throughout the tenth century; they landed in
Crete and southern Italy, fought in Mesopotamia and Dalmatia,
died in the sands neighbouring the Caspian. Their ships ploughed
many waters. It was probably near to the year 1000 before the
Varangians were organized as the emperor's personal guard. The
c
axe-bearing barbarians' remained in the imperial service till the
early thirteenth century, but after 1066 its composition was much
changed. The sometimes glorious, occasionally monstrous, and all

too often untestimonied exploits of Harald Hardradi between 1034

and 1042 suggest a guard still dominated by the Scandinavian
connection, but after the Norman conquest of England numerous
Englishmen and resident Danes left the country for military employ-
ment at Constantinople. They found many disaffected Normans and
Frenchmen there already. Soon the guard would be more English
than viking, a most curious consequence for an offshoot of the
Norsemen in the east of the activities of an offshoot of the Norsemen
in the west.
One other aspect of the Swedish movement into Russia has
claims on our attention — the frequent runic inscriptions in the

1 A good discussion in English of all these matters will be found in P. H.

Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, 1962, and more particularly in chapters 5,
'Treasure', and 8, "Towns and Trade'.
 The Movement East 267

motherland which record the journeys and deaths of her east-going

sons. There is the stone at Ed in Uppland (Plate 17) 'Rognvald had
:

runes carved for Fastvi his mother, Onsem's daughter. She died in
Ed, God help her soul. Rognvald had runes carved: he was in
Greekland, was leader of a host.' And this from Gripsholm, Soder-
manland: 'Tola had this stone raised for his son Harald, Yngvar's
brother. They journeyed boldly, far afield after gold: in the east they
gave food to eagles. They died in the south, in Serkland.' This was
that Yngvar the Widefarer whose exploits in the east entered Norse
—
legend and Norse history inasmuch as twenty-five east Swedish
memorial stones of the early mid-eleventh century tell of men who
took the eastern road to Serkland and fell with Yngvar's host. Not
all journeyed so far. A stone from Estaberg, Sodermanland, records

of Sigvid: 'He fell in Holmgard (Novgorod), the ship's captain with

his crew'; and a stone from Sjusta, Uppland, tells of Spjallbodi:
'He met his end in Holmgard, in St. Olaf's church.' Not all were
men of war he was a peaceful trader to the Baltic lands whom a
:

loving wife commemorated with a stone at Mervalla: 'Sigrid had

this stone raised for her husband Svein. He sailed often to Semgali
with his fine ship round Domesnes.' The memorial can be full and
verse-adorned, like this to Thorstein at Turinge, Sodermanland:
'Ketil and Bjorn raised this stone for Thorstein their father, and
Onund for his brother, and the housecarles for their peer, and
Ketillaug for her husband. These brothers were the best of men, at
home and afield with a host. They kept their housecarles well. He
fell in battle, east in Russia, leader of a host and best of men from

this land.' Or it can be spare as the Timans stone in Gotland:

ormiga: ulfuair: krikiaR: iaursaliR: islat: serklat: 'Ormika, Ulfair:
Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, Serkland.'
One of the most impressive of runic inscriptions relating to the
Swedes in the east is preserved in a city they never troubled. Down
past the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, outside the entrance to the
Arsenal, stand four guardian lions. Two of them were brought to
Venice from the Piraeus harbour of Athens in the late seventeenth
century. The bigger of these (and the largest of all four) is a
magnificent creature, 12 feet high, carved in white marble by a
Greek artist seventeen hundred years ago. There he sits on his lean
haunches, front legs braced, grave and regarding, and on his two
shoulders displays worn and weathered runic scrolls inscribed there
by Swedish soldiers in Greece in the second half of the eleventh
268 A History of the Ft kings
century. But not deeply enough: they cannot be read, which, as
Brondsted says, is a pity. 'It would have been interesting to know
what a Swedish Viking wished to confide to a Greek lion.' It is mere
fancy to ascribe to the lion a message of Greek lastingness and
—
Swedish transience in the context of Byzantium but fronting him
it is a fancy hard to dispel.
5. The Movement West:
Iceland, Greenland, America

Ihe presence of a vast and for the most part

unsailed ocean to the west ofNorway and the British Isles was a
constant challenge to the land-hungry, wealth-hungry, fame-
hungry vikings of Scandinavia. As soon as they had ships fit for its
waters it was a challenge they accepted. The motivating force of
the Norwegian sailings west, the colonization of the lesser Atlantic
islands, and thereafter of Iceland and Greenland, and the attempted
settlement in America, was a need for land and pasture. Fittingly
enough, Iceland, whose soil the Norsemen made so devotedly their
own, would prove the one lastingly successful 'pure' Norse colonial
experiment overseas, and so deserves our special attention. But to
its discovery and settlement, which dates from c. 860-70, the

discovery of the Faroes was a necessary preliminary. In both

countries the first men ashore were Irish religious, peregrini who
had 'turned their back on Ireland' and sought hermitages across
the northern waters. In his Liber de Mensura Or bis Terr£, written in
the year 825, the Irish monk Dicuil has this to say of the islands
surrounding Britain

There are many other islands in the ocean to the north of Britain
which can be reached from the northernmost British Isles in two days'
and nights' direct sailing, with full sails and an undropping fair wind.
A certain holy man [presbyter religiosus] informed me that in two
summer days and the night between, sailing in a little boat of two
thwarts, he came to land on one of them. Some of these islands are
very small; nearly all of them are separated one from the other by
narrow sounds. On these islands hermits who have sailed from our
Scotia [Ireland] have lived for roughly a hundred years. But, even as
they have been constantly uninhabited since the world's beginning,
270 A History of the Vikings
so now, because of Norse pirates, they are empty of anchorites, but
full of innumerable sheep and a great many different kinds of seafowl.
I have never found these islands mentioned in the books of scholars.

There is a general agreement that Dicuil is here speaking of the

Faroes, Fsereyjar, or Sheep Islands. In the same context he mentions
Iceland.

It is now thirty years since priests [clerici] who lived in that island
[i.e., Thule] from the first day of February to the first day of August
told me that not only at the summer solstice, but in the days on either
side of it, the setting sun hides itself at the evening hour as if behind
a little hill, so that no darkness occurs during that very brief period
of time, but whatever task a man wishes to perform, even to picking
the lice out of his shirt, he can manage it precisely as in broad daylight.
And had they been on a high mountain, the sun would at no time
have been hidden from them. . . .

They deal in fallacies who have written that the sea round the
island is frozen, and that there is continuous day without night from
the vernal to the autumnal equinox, and vice versa, perpetual night
from the autumnal equinox to the vernal; for those sailing at an
expected time of great cold have made their way thereto, and dwelling
on the island enjoyed always alternate night and day save at the time
of the solstice. But after one day's sailing from there to the north they
found the frozen sea. 1

It would seem from this that Irish priests had reached the Faroes
soon year 700 and lived there undisturbed till the first
after the
Norsemen arrived about a hundred years later and dispossessed
them. Of these Norsemen we know practically nothing, save that
the most important among them was Grim Kamban, who despite
the testimony of Ftereyinga Saga probably came by way of Ireland
or the Hebrides rather than direct from Norway, and may have been
a Christian. After his death, however, his fellow settlers are said to
have worshipped him and offered him sacrifice. Presumably the
economy of the islands was still based on sheep, which could graze
the plains which diversify the steep hills, on fowling by net and
pole along the precipitous cliffs, on fishing and whaling (the driving
in, stranding, and slaughter of blackfish or ca'ing whales in the

blood-red shallows of Midvagur or other beaches in August cannot

have looked much different a thousand years ago from what it does

1 Ed. Walkenaer, Paris, 1807, pp. 27-30.

 ******•¥¥***-*

w
l8. THE PIRAEUS LION, VENICE
The lion bears runic inscriptions of Swedish origin. (See pp. 267-8.)
 The Movement West 273

the Icelanders (c. 1125), of the highly respected Ari Thorgilsson

makes mention of none of them. Two of these pioneers are reported
to have lighted on the country by accident of weather, the third
—
with the help of three hallowed ravens though it may be admitted
that the use of birds as aids to navigation was a device anteceding
the vikings. Two suffered the misfortune of a broken tow-line and
lost their ship's boat with one or more members of crew aboard, all
of them safely recovered later. Two of them climbed a mountain
(a reasonable thing for newcomers to do) and were disenchanted
with the view. All three gave the island a name. Three mariners,
three voyages, three names: with these warnings against over-
credulity belling in our ears, we may venture to sail in their wake.
The men named are Gardar Svavarsson the Swede, Naddod the
Viking, and Floki Vilgerdason from Rogaland, both Norwegians.
Sturla Thordarson's recension of Landndmabok, the Book of the
Settlements, gives the credit of the discovery to Naddod, but a
heavier weight of witness would ascribe it to Gardar, and this is
likely tobe right. At the behest of his mother, a seeress (Sturlubok),
or to lay claim to his wife's inheritance from her father in the
Hebrides (Hauksbok), he set sail from his home in Scandinavia, was
driven off course, and the gale and good luck helping raised Iceland
east of the Eastern Horn. From here he sailed on round the land,
wintered at Husavik in Skjalfandi, the Trembler, and the following
summer discovered, or in the light of Irish intelligence confirmed,
that was an island, so with propriety named it Gardarsholm after
it

himself, and on his return home praised it highly.

Of Naddod we read that he was vikingr mikill, a viking of note
who seems to have made Norway and other Norse settlements too
hot to hold him. His acquaintance with Iceland was entirely
accidental. He was storm-tossed to Reydarfjord in the Eastfirths,
where he climbed Reydarfjall in the hope of seeing smoke or other
sign of human habitation. As he and his crew sailed away a heavy
snowstorm enveloped the mountain, so appositely they named the
land Snasland, Snowland, and back home in the Faroes they, too,
praised it highly.
Floki Vilgerdason was likewise vikingr mikill, and sailed for
Gardarsholm-Snseland as though intending to settle there. He took
with him livestock, offered up sacrifice, and hallowed three ravens
to show him the way, 'for in those days sailors in the Northlands
had no loadstone'. He began by sailing to Shetland, where he lost
274 A History of the Vikings
one daughter by drowning, then sailed to the Faroes, where he lost
a second by marriage. Then he sailed for Iceland with his three
ravens. Some way out he loosed the first, which flew back to the
land it had left. Then he loosed the second, which rose, surveyed
the empty horizon, then prudently returned to the ship. Later he
released the third, which flew straight ahead and so gave them a
bearing for Iceland. They raised Horn from the east and sailed in
Gardar's wake along the south coast and so to the northern shore of
Breidafjord, to Vatnsfjord on Bardarstrand. Here they spent their
time fishing and sealing, with no thought to the winter to come.
But come it did, cold and snowy, so that their livestock perished for
lack of hay. The spring, too, was cold, very cold, and when Floki
climbed a mountain to check his prospects his discouraged eye
beheld one of the southern arms of Arnarfjord stiff with ice. So he
gave the island a third name, Island, Iceland, the one it has borne
ever since. To add to his disenchantment he was late hoisting sail
for his return. He failed to clear the Reykjanes headland in the teeth
of the sou'-westerlies, had to turn and run for it, and spent the
winter in Borgarfjord. His messmate Herjolf made what must have
been a hair-raising crossing of Faxafloi in their parted tow-boat, but
survived to tell the tale. On their return to Norway, Floki had
nothing but ill to say of Iceland; Herjolf, whose impartiality is in
the circumstances to be commended, spoke well of some things and
ill of others ; while a third man, Thorolf, undaunted by ice and

haylessness, reported that butter dripped from every blade of

Iceland's grass, for which testimonial to the land's benignity he was
gratefully, or satirically, nicknamed Thorolf Butter.
In another decade the Age of Settlement had begun. Ari describes
the arrival of the founding-father Ingolf [Arnarson] in seventy
words which are the foundation-stone of Icelandic history; 1
Landndmabok enlarges the story after a fashion which makes it a
pattern of Icelandic historiography. Thus. Towards 870 two foster-
brothers back in Norway, Ingolf Arnarson (or Bjornolfsson) and

1
'A Norwegian named Ingolf is the man of whom it is reliably reported
that he was the first to leave there for Iceland, when Harald Fairhair was
sixteen years old, and a second time a few years later. He settled south in
Reykjavik. The place is Minnthakseyr, where he
called Ingolfshofdi, east of
made his first landing, and west of Olfus river, where he afterwards
Ingolfsfell,
took land into his possession. At that time Iceland was covered with forest
between mountain and seashore.' (Jdendingabok, cap. 2.)
 The Movement West 275

Leif Hrodmarsson, were to fall out with their former allies and

friends, the three sons of jarl Atli the Slender of Gaular, one of
whom at a winter feast rashly swore to marry Helga, IngolPs sister
and the betrothed of Leif, or no woman else. This feckless vow cost
him his life next spring, and within a year a second of jarl Atli's
sons followed him violently into the grave. By way of penalty the
foster-brothers were compelled to forfeit their estates, so without
delay they fitted out a big ship and went off to find the land Raven-
Floki had discovered and reported on. They made a reconnaissance
in the Alptafjord area of the Austfirthir, wintered in Iceland, then
went back home permanent settlement. Three or four
to plan a
years later they again came out to Iceland, with a ship apiece, their
families, retainers, and some Irish slaves. On sighting the Icelandic
coast the devout Ingolf cast his high-seat pillars overboard, vowing
that he would make his home wherever Thor saw fit to bring them
ashore. He spent his first winter on or near the lonely and command-
ing fortress promontory of Ingolfshofdi, on the south coast, but
Hjorleif (Sword-Leif: his name had been lengthened after he carried
off a gleaming sword from an underground house or burial-mound
in Ireland) was borne sixty miles further west to another such head,
Hjorleifshofdi, where he and his fellow Norwegians were tricked
and killed by their Irish slaves, who made off with the women, the
movable goods, and the ship's boat to the fangy islands they could
see in the south-west. There Ingolf caught up with them and killed
them to the last man, which is why those islands, according to
Landndmaboky got their name Vestmannaeyjar, the Isles of the Men
from the West, the Isles of the Irishmen. Concurrently IngolPs
thralls found his high-seat pillars where Reykjavik stands today,
and the following spring Ingolf arrived there, built himself a home,
and took into his possession a patrimony bigger than many a
Norwegian kingdom. Part of this he distributed among his followers,
and so established at the very well-head of Icelandic history a
pattern of land-taking and local lordship which would continue
throughout the Age of Settlement and shape the Republic-to-be
and its Constitution.
The colonization started thus summarily proceeded with vigour.
In the south-east of the country, more between the
particularly
island of Papey and Papos in Lon, and further west in the rich
grazing lands of Sida, the Norsemen found a scattering of papar,
Irish monks and anchorites, but these solitaries had no wish to
276 A History of the Vikings
proselytize, and quickly went away. Otherwise the land was empty.
—
There was no one and nothing to subdue except the land itself,
some five-sixths of which offered no support to human life. There
were large areas devastated by volcanic action, with their debris
of craters, lavafields, ash, and coarse black sand; there were screes,
moraines and rocky outcrops, swamps and quags, geysirs and boiling
mud; there were mountains, often barren, and icefields, always
deathly. Fierce rivers poured from the island's centre to the sea,
untameable as Thjorsa, or for long distances unfordable and
unbridgeable as the northern and eastern Jokulsa. It was a sundered
and barricaded land to which the land-takers came. Fire rose out of
the ground, and sometimes the earth shook as though to rid itself of
human encumbrance.

40. LAND OF FIRE AND ICE (OLAUS MAGNUS)

But this was by no means all the story. The habitable parts of
the country proved attractive to men seeking sometimes a home,
sometimes a refuge. Grass grew plentifully in long valleys, on broad
plains or hillsides fronting the sea, and upland grazing on the
heidi offered sheep a good living during the light bright months of
summer. There was birchwood and scrub between mountain and
seashore, and carpets of succulent blue berries in season, while the
first generations, helped by a less extreme climate, grew a modest
 The Movement West 277

supply of corn. The lakes and rivers were filled with trout and
salmon, the surrounding seas with fish and seals and whales, and the
coasts and islands bred innumerable seafowl. And everywhere these
creatures were at ease in the hunting-grounds, because men and
men's ways were unknown to them. There were many catchment
areas for driftwood. By c. 930 all suitable land had been occupied.
The majority of settlers came from south-west Norway, from the
viking breeding-grounds of Sogn, Hordaland, and Rogaland, most
of them direct, but some by way of Scotland and her Atlantic isles,
the Faroes and Ireland. From south-west Norway, too, came
Iceland's law, language, and and the predominantly Norse
religion,
stamp of her civilization. Some of those who came from the western
colonies were Christian, a few of them devout enough to inspire
onomastic and homiletic anecdote in their post-Conversion
descendants, like Aud the Deep-minded, who is reputed to have
had Christian crosses set up at Krossholar, near Hvamm in Hvamms-
fjord, and to have been buried in the salty no-man's-land below
high-water mark, so that she might not He in unconsecrated earth
like her heathen neighbours; or the genial Svartkell from Caithness,
whose grandson Glum, by the testimony of Landndmabok, still
prayed in a genial way to a Christian cross, with the words, 'A
blessing on the old ones, a blessing on the young.' There were
others less committed, like Helgi the Lean, who 'believed in Christ,
and yet made vows lo Thor for sea-voyages and in tight corners,
and for everything which struck him as of real importance'. 1 But
the vast majority of settlers were heathen. Here, too, some would
be ardent, cast in the image of that Thorolf Mostrarskegg of later
tradition who is said, not without exaggeration, to have made of
Helgafell, Holy Mountain, on the southern shore of Breidafjord, so
inviolate a sanctuary that neither man nor beast should suffer harm
there unless they left it of their own accord, and no man should turn

1 One canaccept the proposition that there were Christians among the
and maybe a few among the late-comers, without being obliged
early settlers,
to these minute particulars. The tenth-century Viking Age ship-grave
excavated at Vatnsdalur, PatreksfjorSur, in 1964, contained among its grave
goods a Thor's hammer of silver, presumably worn as an amulet on a string of
glass and amber beads; a piece of lead with an inlaid cross, apparently enamel-
led; and a small fragmentary bronze bell, presumably Christian and brought
from north-west England. It also contained a kufic coin, a dirhem. (See Thor
c
Magnusson, Batkumli5 i Vatnsdal 1 PatreksfirQi', Arbok bins Islenxka Forn-
leifafelags, 1966, pp. 5-32.
\l 1SV 3
 The Movement West 279

his unwashed face to it; but most were tolerant of their Christian
neighbours, and could afford to be, 'for this [Christianity] rarely-
held good in their families, for the sons of some of them raised
temples and sacrificed, and the land was altogether heathen for
about a hundred years'.
Landndmabok records the names of some four hundred settlement-
men. Estimates of the Celtic element among them have varied
greatly, but that roughly one-seventh of them had a Celtic connec-
tion (often tenuous) is a not unreasonable guess. In addition there
were many Celtic slaves and concubines in Icelandic households,
some of them of good birth and standing. How far this Celtic, which
predominantly means Irish, admixture of blood and manners affected
the subsequent history and culture of Iceland has been long and
inconclusively debated by historians, ethnologists, and literary
critics. The most earnest protagonist of celticism cannot argue that

the colonization of Iceland was anything but a Norse viking under-

taking, though it is tempting to believe that it was the Irish infusion
which most distinguished the Icelanders from the Norwegians and
contributed in some measure to their literary achievement.
Iceland, we have said, was fully occupied by c. 930. We have this
on the authority of the first great vernacular historian of Iceland,
Ari Thorgilsson. The decades either side of the year 900 were
propitious to colonization. It was a time when viking armies in the
west suffered a series of reverses. Defeated in Brittany and on the
Dyle, harassed and pounded in Wessex and Mercia, thrown out of
Dublin, Anglesey, and the Hebrides, deprived of their leaders in
Scotland and Orkney, they found their freedom of movement and
prospects of gain sharply curtailed. Another bad development for
the Norwegian viking was Harald Fairhair's welding of the kingdom
back home. Icelandic tradition in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries was insistent that Iceland was settled mainly fyrir ofriki
Haralds konungs, because of the tyranny of king Harald, and offered
chapter and verse for it. 1 But we shall not be far from the truth if
we conclude that the usual compulsions, land shortage, pressure of
1 There were three main reasons for this first, an external tyrant is an
:

emotional necessity to small nations struggling for their independence;

second, a search for 'holy freedom's laws' is a respectable reason for leaving
one country for another; and third, for one's ancestors to have come out to
Iceland after even a fictional opposition to Harald seems to have conferred the
same kind of backward-looking prestige in one context as coming over with
the Conqueror or the Mayflower in another.
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 The Movement West 281

population, restlessness, ambition or emulation, prospects of trade

and hope of easy pickings, played a part in the colonization of
Iceland, in addition to the special factors of the viking setbacks
around 900 and the 'tyranny' of Harald Fairhair after Hafrsfjord.
That Harald took an interest in the colonization, wished to exert a
measure of control over it, and a degree of suzerainty over the
colonists, is borne out by Ari Thorgilsson's statement that he set
a tax on the head of Norwegian emigrants to Iceland, Landndmabok's
witness that to curb overextensive settlements and the quarrels
these led to, he pronounced that no one should occupy more land
than he and his crew could carry fire round in one day, and the
curious story preserved in the Sturlubok and pordarbok versions of
this latter authority about Uni the Dane, the son of Gardar the
discoverer and circumnavigator, that he went out to Iceland at the
bidding of king Harald Fairhair in order to make the land subject
to himself or the king. Indeed, the kings of Norway would continue
to keep a half-paternal, half-covetous eye on Iceland until the sub-
mission of the Republic to king Hakon Hakonarson in 1262-4.
Information about the settlers and their settlements is presented
with unparalleled richness in Icelandic sources. Not all of it is
correct, but the general picture is one we can rely on, of resourceful
men crossing the northern seas in their tough and buoyant ships,
making landfalls and getting themselves ashore, then exploring the
empty countryside and exploiting its resources, appropriating land
by strength and a first-comer's right, granting homes and holdings
to their faithful followers, then settling down to an existence in
which they called no man master and not many their peer.
Some of the settlers, we are told, built temples for the worship
of their god, generally Thor, occasionally Frey, and more rarely
Njord, Balder and Tyr. Odinn's followers were few, but in the next
generation would include the magnificent Egill. The most circum-
stantial account of such a temple relates to Thorolf Mostrarskegg's
so far undiscovered edifice at Hofstadir in Breidafjord. 1
1 'He hada temple built —
and a mighty edifice it was. There was a door-
way in the side wall, nearer to the one end, and inside stood the pillars of the
high-seat, with nails in them which were called the gods' nails. The area
inside was a great sanctuary. Further in was a room of the same shape and
order as the choir in churches today, where in the middle of the floor, like an
altar, stood a pedestal, with an arm-ring without a join lying on it, twenty-
ounces in weight, on which men must swear all their oaths. The temple-
priest was required to wear this ring on his arm at all public assemblies. On
282 A History of the Vikings
Unfortunately archaeological research on the temple (hof) sites of
Iceland has tended to nullify all such saga evidence. Most of them,
if not all, owe more to nineteenth-century antiquarian enthusiasm
than ninth-century religious zeal. It may be too early to say that
Iceland (Scandinavia?) knew no such elaborate structures, but
certainly the spade proving no helpmeet to the pen. Probably the
is

majority of places in Iceland where acts of worship, sacrifice, and

sacral conviviality took place, were the homesteads of wealthy men,
some of which may even have had a room earmarked for the purpose.
The likeliest of such so far unearthed is the famous (and debated)
site at Hofstadir in Myvatnssveit.
To maintain part of one's establishment for even occasional
religious use, and to provide oxen and horses for sacrifice, was at
once the privilege and perquisite of a man of means and authority.
It arose out of, and contributed to, his strong position in the district,

and he and his kind soon acquired the distinctive Icelandic title of
the secular priest, godi (godi, godly one). Till 930 there was no
central authority in Iceland,and in effect the godar {godar) were its
rulers. The office of godi was not coterminous with an estate or
original land- taking; it could be acquired, shared, borrowed, or
disposed of; but decidedly it remained a perquisite of the rich and
powerful. Lesser men could transfer duty and allegiance from one
godi to another; what they could not do was weaken the power of
one without strengthening that of another. In other words, the
institution itself could not be weakened, and when in 930 legislative
and judicial power was placed in the hands of thirty-six leading men
these were expressly and inevitably the godar. This attempt to
provide Iceland with a constitution coincided with the end of the
period of settlement. By this time it was apparent that men needed
some form of machinery which would enable them to live together.
The chieftains entrusted the introduction of a legal code for the

the pedestal too must stand the sacrificial bowl, and in it a sacrificial twig,
like an aspergillum, by means of which the blood, which was called blaut, shall
be sprinkled from the bowl. The blood, that is, which was shed when animals
were slaughtered as a sacrifice to the gods. Around the pedestal in this same
room were set the images of the gods.' {Eyrbyggja Saga, 4.)
This may be compared with Adam of Bremen's no less dubious account of
the temple and god-images at Uppsala in Sweden, and with the fictional
Gudbrand-temple near Trondheim in Norway, whose despoiling is recounted
in Njala, 87. For a closer discussion of the hof'or templum, see pp. 324-8 below.
 The Movement West 283

whole country to Ulfljot of Lon, who returned to Norway, where

with the help of his uncle, Thorleif the Wise, he adapted the
Gulathing Law, the law of western Norway, to the needs of Iceland.
'And when he returned to Iceland the Althing was established, and
thereafter men had but one law here in the land.' Ulfljot' s code has
been preserved in snatches only, and no great faith can be attached
even to these. 1 Certainly it started with first principles. 'This was
the beginning of the heathen laws, that men should not have a ship
with a figure-head at sea, but if they had, they must remove the
head before coming in sight of land, and not sail to land with gaping
heads and yawning jaws, so that the spirits of the land grow
frightened of them.' The thirty-six godar who controlled the
Althing or National Assembly elected a president or lawspeaker
(logsogumadr) for a renewable term of three years, whose duty it was
to recite one-third of the law to the assembled congregation every
year. Many famous men adorned this office, including Ulfljot
himself, the drafter of the constitution, Thorgeir of Ljosavatn, who
held office for seventeen years and though a heathen announced the
adoption of Christianity in Iceland, and Skapti Thoroddsson, who
held it for twenty-seven years, established the Fifth Court in 1005,
and made other far-reaching legal reforms. Later holders included
Snorri Sturluson and Sturla Thordarson, the historians.
The lawspeaker was the embodiment of the Constitution and a
repository of law, but he in no sense ruled the country or even the
courts. He could exert influence, but not wield power. That was
reserved for the godar. The Althing was unquestionably an
assembly for law of all free men who chose or were appointed to
attend it; but it was first and foremost the instrument of aristocratic
rule. It did not control the godar, but they it; and within their
home-districts their authority was absolute. Inevitably their
influence was strongly conservative. The reforms of 965 did nothing
to upset them. Iceland was now divided into four Quarters, North,
South, East and West, and the number of godar raised to thirty-
nine. In each Quarter there were assemblies for law in spring and
autumn; the spring Things proved highly successful in disposing of
minor suits. There were three such in each of the South, East and
1 They probably best regarded as antiquarian reconstructions by
are
learned men
of the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries of what they
judged such pre-Christian laws would be. See Olaf Olsen, Horg, Hop og Kirke,
Copenhagen, 1966, pp. 34-49.
284 A History of the Vikings
West Quarters, and four in the North. Three godar presided over
each local assembly. The Althing was reformed in that its legislative
and judicial functions became separate. The legislature was now
called the Logretta or Law-righter, and consisted of no fewer than 142
members. This number was raised to 144 by the addition of the two
bishops after the Conversion. The disproportion of the North
Quarter was redressed by the co-option of three substitute godar
from each of the other Quarters, making forty-eight in all. Each
godi was attended by three advisers without power to vote. The
Logretta alone could make new laws and interpret or amend old
ones. It granted pardons, issued permits, and had some slight
discretionary power in respect of various punishments. The
judicature on the other hand now operated through four Quarter
Courts which heard lawsuits from their own part of the country.
Trial was made and judgement given in each court by a panel of
judges or jurymen, probably thirty-six in number, and all of them
appointed by the godar of the Quarter. The Quarter Court was
expected to reach a unanimous decision on the cases submitted to
it, unanimity being claimed if the minority vote did not exceed six.

Naturally this was not always attained, and the need for a court of
appeal was felt acutely till Skapti Thoroddsson established the

Fifth Court (Jimtardomr) c. 1005. This consisted of forty-eight

judges or jurymen, appointed by the godar, whose number had
been increased to forty-eight for this very purpose. This was the
last significant change in the Constitution before the end of the
Republic in 1262-4. Since the godar chose the lawspeaker, controlled
the Logretta, administered the local Things, and appointed the
—
judges to the Quarter Courts and the Fifth Court and all this in
addition to their religious office and the privileges of wealth and
ownership of land in their home Thing-districts—
it will be seen

how completely they dominated Icelandic society from beginning

to end of the Republic.
Much of the Republic's history lies outside the viking period.
By summary assessment the Age of Land-taking or Settlement was
over by c. 930, to be followed by the so-called Saga Age (soguold),
which lasted till 1030. During this period were enacted, or to it
were attributed, the deeds we read of in the tslendingasogur, the
Sagas of Icelanders. This was followed after a period of consolidation
by what may well be called an Age of Learning, which in its turn
led to the Sturlung Age and the thirteenth century, known for two
 The Movement West 285

things above all: the ambitions and rivalries of the leading Icelandic

which together with various economic and political factors

families,
ensured the loss of Icelandic independence to Norway; and the
development and perfecting of the art of saga-writing which has
remained the island's most distinguishing characteristic in the eyes
of posterity. Two or three features of this cavalcade of history
demand an all-too-brief attention.
Iceland's history began in heathendom, a circumstance of the
first importance for its constitutional and literary achievements.

But when Christianity moved into the north it moved into Iceland,
too. The force behind the conversion was traditionally held to be
the proselytizing zeal of king Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, but the
exposure of Iceland to German and English influences was so
considerable that the tradition may well be misleading. There
would have been a conversion with or without such royal patronage.
The first-named missionary, the German Thangbrand, was a
muscular Christian after the fashion of Egino at Skara, 1 and the
Englishman Wolfred at Uppsala; 2 he baptized a few of the leading
men, took quarrels on his hands, was lampooned, killed two or three
of his enemies, and departed homewards with a rough report of the
contumacious islanders. A second mission followed, associated with
the labours of a priest named Thormod (according to Kristni Saga
he came from England, presumably the Danelaw); and this, by the
witness of Ari's Islendmgabok, led to a confrontation at the Althing
between a minority of Christians, including at least three godar,
and a substantial majority of heathens. Both sides swore that they
would not live together under the same law, and catastrophe
seemed imminent. 3 'Then the Christians requested Hall of Sida
1 'There he also broke to pieces a very highly esteemed image of Frikko.'
(Adam of Bremen, IV, ix (9).)
2 'And as bypreaching he converted many to the Christian faith, he
his
proceeded to anathematize a popular idol named Thor which stood in the
Thing of the pagans, and at the same time he seized a battle-axe and broke the
image to pieces. And forthwith he was pierced with a thousand wounds for
such daring, and his soul passed into heaven, earning a martyr's laurels.'
(Adam of Bremen, II, lxii (60).)
3 Ari's chief informant was his tutor Teit, the son of Isleif, the first native

bishop of Iceland. Ari's second fosterfather, Hall Thorarinsson of Haukadal,

who lived to be 94, told him that he had been baptized by Thangbrand at the
age of 3. In words reminiscent of Bede's (E.H., V, 24), Ari tells us that he
'came to Hall when seven years old . . . and there I lived for fourteen years'
(Islendingabok, 9).
286 A History of the Vikings
that he should proclaim that law which was right and proper for
Christians ; but he got out of this, in that he made payment to
Thorgeir the lawspeaker that he should proclaim the law even —
though he was still a heathen. And later when men had returned to
their booths, Thorgeir lay down and spread his cloak over him, and
lay quiet all that day and the night following, and spoke never a
word. But the next morning he sat up and announced that men
should proceed to the Law Rock. And once men had made their way
there he began his speech.' It would be disastrous, he told them, if
men should not have one and the same law, all of them, in this land.
He thought it policy that they should not let those prevail who were
most anxious to be at each other's throat, but reach a compromise.
'
"It will prove true, if we break the law in pieces, that we break the
peace in pieces too." And he so concluded his speech that both
sides agreed that all should have that one law which he would
proclaim.' Thorgeir's verdict, which must have been a surprise to
the heathens, was that all men in Iceland should be baptized in
water cold or warm, and become Christians. A few relics of heathen-
dom were let stand: infants might still be exposed, horseflesh might
still be eaten, sacrifice might still be carried out in secret. A few

years later these survivals were abolished too. 1

That Iceland was heathen from 870 till the year 1000 allows us to
observe in considerable if disputed detail the founding and develop-
ment of a Norse heathen nation. It meant, too, that a great deal of
Icelandic literature, both the poetry of the ninth and tenth centuries
and the family sagas written down in the thirteenth century, is
concerned either directly or through antiquarian interest with
aspects of the old religion. In addition Iceland preserved in the
Fornaldarsogur, the Sagas of Time Past, a wealth of legend, folktale,
tradition and pseudo-history, relating to Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden. Saxo speaks rhetorically when he describes the Icelanders
as 'devoting every instant of their lives to perfecting our knowledge
—
of the deeds of foreigners [i.e. non-Icelanders]' someone, after all,
had to scythe hay and make butter, as well as practise the lordly
—
northern art of living but he is right to praise them for the

1 Islendingabok, cap. 7. It is customary to ascribe the Conversion to the year

1000, but 6lafia Einarsd6ttir, Studier i kronologisk metode i tidlig islandsk historie-
skrivning, Stockholm, 1964, pp. 107-26, presents a good case for 999. Incident-
any Icelandic written source which considers horseflesh the nonpareil
ally, at
heathen feasts should be regarded with caution.
 The Movement West 287

assiduity withwhich they 'culled and consigned to remembrance'

the kind of historical and legendary information he so freely
incorporated into his Danish History. Similarly their passionate
concern for genealogy and family history made them proud to trace
their descent from worshippers of Thor with the hammer, Frey
with the phallus, and infrequently the High One, Odinn himself.
life their roots were in heathendom, and it is to a
In literature as in
preservative as well as a creative impulse of Snorri Sturluson that
we owe the survey of Norse mythology and skaldic art which we
style his Edda. But it was equally important to the shaping of the
nation that the Icelanders embraced Christianity when they did.
Contacts with Europe were quickly both closer and more extensive;
the detached stronghold of a disfavoured polytheism was now a full
member of the Christian community. The colour of European
learning in the ensuing centuries was Christian, and Iceland more
than most countries stood to benefit. At first there were few priests,
and these, as had happened in Scandinavia, tended to be foreigners,
from the British Isles and Germany. Probably it was these men who
introduced Roman script to Iceland. After one generation native
priests emerged, the most famous of them Isleif, son of the chieftain
Gizur the White.
Gizur was reputedly one of the first godar to accept baptism at
Thangbrand's hands. The learned Isleif became Iceland's first native
bishop (1056-80), and was succeeded in office by his son Gizur
Isleifsson, who introduced tithes, made provision for the poor,
carried out the first reliable census of taxable farmers, and was
responsible for the change whereby two bishoprics were established
in Iceland, one at Skalholt in the south-west, one at Holar in the
north. Towards the end of his life, and possibly at his instigation,
part of the law of Iceland was for the time committed to writing.
first

Two late contemporaries of his, Saemund the Learned, 1056-1133,

and Ari Thorgilsson the Learned, 1067-1148, were the fathers of
Icelandic historical writing, though the title is strictly reserved for
Ari because he, unlike Saemund who wrote in Latin, used the
vernacular. With Kolskegg the Learned, who died before 1130, they
established a practice of responsible though far from scientific
authorship which would persist until the thirteenth century
produced Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla and that blow-by-blow
account of the last eighty years of the Republic which we know by
the general title oiSturlunga Saga.
288 A History of the Vi kings

The thirteenth century, we have noted, was also the classical

age of saga (i.e. family saga) writing. The hundred and twenty or
more sagas (sogur) and short stories Qptettir) provide us with a freely
rendered and often fictional 'history' of most of the tenth century
and the first third of the eleventh, revealed through the lives of
outstanding men and women and the feud-ridden traditions of
notable families, but much affected by the creative imagination of
storytellers, authors and scribes, by the changes to which tradition
is subject over a period of two to three hundred years, and the
distortions inevitable when men of antiquarian interests and family
pride portray one age partly in terms of another. The family sagas
are both more and less than a history. The best, indeed the majority,
of them rest on a foundation of history and antiquarian speculation,
but the superstructure is often shaped by arbitrary assumptions as
itself. The sagaman saw history in terms of
to the nature of history
men and women and human destiny, and in terms of a story. A saga
was not the fixed and immutable record of known facts. It was an
individual's version and interpretation of facts, and could undergo
shortening, lengthening, interpolation of new material, deliberate
change, accidental manipulation, plain misunderstanding. Thus
Landndmabok ascribes the credit of the discovery of Iceland to different
persons, and clouds its accounts of the first three voyages with such
motifs of story as ships driven off course and parted tow-boats; and as
we shall two sagas which recount the Vinland voyages con-
see, the
where disagreement would seem harder
tradict each other at points
than agreement. But when we consider the sagas as literature only,
as examinations of human conduct within the conventions of prose
narrative, Njala, Eigla, and Grettis Saga, to name the three master-
pieces only, add a new dimension to the medieval literature of
Europe.
The Saga Age was not an age of prose composition. Its literary

glorieswere in verse. Poetry was a national industry during the

Saga Age, and poets a national export. The most sublime of Eddie
poems, Voluspd or the Sybil's Prophecy, was composed in Iceland
c. iooo; the lifespan of the greatest of all skaldic poets, Egill Skalla-
grimsson of Borg, was c. 910-90; Kormak, Hallfred Troublesome-

skald,and Gunnlaug Snaketongue with a highly suspicious similarity

of story were love poets at home and court poets abroad; Einar
Skalaglamm or Jingle-scale was Egill's friend and a poet of jarl
Hakon of Hladir, who ruled in Norway till 995 ; Sighvat Thordarson
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ter-nu ttefcu* fcv tm^l^trirlore^ &r jmfhidu kHn tfeu

TttMu ten t>t»y e£trl)fy&a l|dprm;4 |>dJj^twWJju
tdtr i*ck pn? lite- fa Ku re ft jiof lutini 3- vd ttofwri m flr
:
t^t efc lmr ^ W^ ™*P« letjiir feti til [m mi Cm o?m a*

j bp& ftotr f pidtr ir ...

tfr4i»mttrMh3-qw TB&ntz 1»» u um trteta nuki "\» «*"%

ir feir ^d infiT-r- utr |»«u \>n fSr »4vfl tn; (>tj» mif WoJJ e
H (ju utll til timrntft^ ml d> Vo flrlWjur wi»i ftJ^ e^tu*

20. FLATEYJARBOK
The passage begins with Tyrkir's claim to have found grapes in
the land Leif Eiriksson therefore named Vinland, Wineland. It

ends with the decision of Thorvald Eiriksson to undertake a

voyage there.
 The Movement West 289

was the friend, counsellor, and ambassador of St. Olaf as well as his
poet; and Ottar the Black, Sighvat's nephew, practised his art at
the court of king Olaf Eiriksson of Sweden as well as at St. Olaf 's
court in Norway. Thormod Coalbrow 's-poet
r
perished with Olaf at
Stiklarstadir in 1030. AfterEyvind the Plagiarist was silenced by
loyalty to his dead lord, Hakon the Good, in the 960s, the office of
court poet in Norway became the monopoly of Icelanders till the
end of the thirteenth century. And there were plenty of poets at
home, ranging from humble men who could turn a not too humble
verse dignifying a local squabble to skilled practitioners like
Thorarin the Black, whose verses are preserved in Eyrbyggja Saga,
and Viga-Glum, whose verses, deceptions, and killings fill the pages
of the saga which bears his name and purports to tell his life-story.
We must not, of course, expect poets to be always telling the truth;
the court poet, satirist, eulogist, have other important considerations
in mind. Egill Skallagrimsson managed a twenty-verse drdpa on
Eirik Blood-axe which merely informs us that he was a brave soldier
and free with his money. Nor are we always sure that we know what
they are writing about, or whether the verses have been embedded
in a proper prose context, or whether they are genuinely of the
Viking Age. The time is past when a man could, like Finnur
Jonsson, offer to go to the stake for the historicity of saga or skaldic
verse, and remain unsinged. But the amount still astonishes, and
we can but admire and wonder that this harsh and riven island
whose population at no time exceeded 60,000 people, put forth from
its scanty soil so rich and continuous a harvest of poetry, history,

and saga, hiopiam ingenio pensant. 'They make good their impoverish-
ment with their wits.' Saxo's adage carries less than the full truth,
but if we accept the dictum that a nation's chief glory consists in its
authors, then the poets of the ninth and tenth centuries, the histor-
ians of the twelfth and thirteenth, together with the story-tellers
and saga-men, are Iceland's strongest claims to a high eminence
among the peoples of medieval Europe, and it is they, rather than
lawspeakers and administrators, heathen priests and Christian
bishops, acquisitive chieftains and practitioners of feud, who made
Iceland's most distinctive contribution to the viking and post-viking
period.

And yet there was another sphere in which the Icelanders won an
equally lasting fame. It was they who crossed the Atlantic ocean
290 A History of the Vikings

westwards to colonize Greenland and light upon the eastern coast of

—
North America and of all viking achievements it was this last
which has most strongly impressed itself upon our modern imagina-
tion.
Effectively the story begins in 982, when a man named Eirik
the Red, a native of the Jaeder in south-west Norway, who had
already been outlawed from that country for manslaughter, and for
the same sufficient reason been driven out of Haukadal in Iceland,
received a three-year sentence of banishment at the Thorsnes Thing
With Norway and
in Breidafjord for yet a third outbreak of killings.
Iceland barred to him he decided to sail east and fill in his time by
finding and exploring a new land sighted some fifty years earlier by
a Norwegian sailor named Gunnbjorn, when he had been storm-
driven south then west of Iceland. 1 Judge, then, his satisfaction
when after sailing from under the Snaefell jokul on the 65th parallel
to the neighbourhood of Angmagssalik, and then coasting south, and
so reaching the western coast of Greenland by way of Prins Christ-
ians Sund or Cape Farewell, he found himself in a land which in
addition to its other attractions (and they were many) was empty
of inhabitants. The rugged islands of the archipelago, the fjords and
headlands, the hills right back to the Ice Cap, the rivers and lakes,
and best of all the grassy slopes and scrub-strewn nooks, were his
for the taking, and without loss of time he took them.
For three years he explored the region between Herjolfsnes
(Ikigait) and Eiriksfjord (Tunugdliarfik), and with his crew marked
the sites of farms and homes to be. Marked, too, that the land was
rich in animals: bears, foxes, caribou; that the sksergaard bred sea
mammals; and that wherever there was water there were fish. And
everywhere birds that had never known the fowler's snare. So it was

1Gunnbjorn Ulf-Krakason on his involuntary journey into the west sighted

some islands or skerries and the land behind them. The skerries were
known as Gunnbjarnarsker (less frequently Gunnbjarnareyjar), and according
to Ivar Bardarson in his mid-fourteenth century description of Greenland
(J)etgamle Grenlands beskrivehe, ed. Finnur Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1930), lay
half-way between Iceland and Greenland (presumably the Norse settlements
in Greenland, on the west coast). The identification usually accepted is with
the islands east of Sermiligaq, near Angmagssalik, west across the Denmark
Straitfrom Snxfellsnes in Iceland (so Gustav Holm, Meddelelser om Gronland,
56, 1918), and of late, a shade optimistically, with the rock-ribbed, grass-
spattered island of Kulusuk. Gunnbjorn's family was later well represented in
Eirik's part of Iceland.
O a
f»
2.
S
'
2
©
3
a
h

BIS'

^§fn MB* $m£M

gj^p?» .*s^
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' — -'5* ~^,
292 A History of the Vikings

with a determination quickly to return and colonize it that he sailed

back to Breidafjord when his period of banishment was over. Not
too inaccurately in respect of the fjords of the south-west he called
the country Greenland, believing that no place is the worse for an
attractive name. Ten years earlier Iceland had suffered one of her

GREENLAND
Eastern Settlement
ISTOKKANES
MATTAHUD (OAGSSIARSSUK)

NORSE FARMS

OTHER NORSE BUILDINGS

NORSE CHURCHES

MAP 13. GREENLAND, THE EASTERN SETTLEMENT

 The Movement West 293

cruellest famines,and in any case her habitable land had long since
been taken up. There were rich and poor men alike facing a worsen-
ing prospect there, so when Eirik sailed again for Greenland in 986
he was accompanied by no fewer than twenty-five ships, fourteen
of which arrived safely in the first settlement area. This was the
region whose centre is the modern Julianehab, the so-called Eastern
Settlement, which would eventually number 190 farms, twelve
parish churches, a cathedral at Gardar (Igaliko), a monastery and a
nunnery. A decade or so later men had pushed on north as far as the
modern Godthab, and there by the fourteenth century the Western
Settlement would come to number ninety farms and four churches. 1
Just north of the Eastern Settlement was a cluster of twenty farms
round the modern Ivigtut. The colonization of Greenland began
with perhaps 450 souls, almost all of them Icelanders, and eventually
the population would number 3,000.
Quickly the Greenlanders had a constitution on the Icelandic
model, a national assembly, and a code of law. They explored,
hunted, traded, and prospered. For export they had furs and hides,
ropes and cables, oil, woollens, and sea-ivory, and not least white
bears and falcons. In return they needed corn, iron (including
wrought weapons), timber, garments of European style, and assort-
ed luxuries. Primarily these must come from Norway, and it was
Norway who inherited when in 1261, just a year before the Ice-
landers, they surrendered their independence and became the
farthest-flung and most perilously situated outpost of a fast-
weakening, trouble-bound empire.
But the year 1000 was not a year in which Norsemen stood still,
content with fixed horizons. Soon they were pressing north, for they
needed more land, more grazing, more natural resources. 'Men',
says the well-informed author of the mid- thirteenth-century King's
£
Mirror, in his description of Greenland, have often tried to go up

1 Bet gamk Grmlands beskrivehe (1930); Grmlands Historiske Mindesmcerker,

Copenhagen, 1838-45, m, 228. In all some 400 Norse ruins have been dis-
covered in Greenland, almost 300 of which are farms of varying size and
different periods. The standard account of Norse finds to the beginning of
World War II is Aage Roussell, Farms and Churches in the Mediaeval Norse
MGr. 89, Copenhagen, 1941. For a recent summary see
Settlements in Greenland,
Michael Wolfe, 'Norse Archaeology in Greenland since World War II', in the
American-Scandinavian Review, xliv, 4, pp. 380-92, 1961-2. The verification of
saga evidence in respect of Greenland is not without relevance to the same
saga evidence in respect of Vinland.
 294 ^ History of the Vikings

into the country and climb the highest mountains in various places
to look about and learn whether any land could be found that was
free from ice and habitable. But nowhere have they found such a
place, except what is now occupied, which is a little strip along the
water's edge.' 1 So they looked north, and away beyond the Western
Settlement found better hunting-grounds with good fishing and
driftwood, from Holsteinsborg to the Nugsuaq Peninsula. These

43.thjodhild s church, PLAN

brattahlid, eastern
settlement, greenland
(a pictorial
reconstruction)

1..VM =- uM-jA.^

were the Nordrsetr, -seta, the Northern Encampment(s) or Hunting

Ground(s), where men took narwhal and walrus, ptarmigan,
reindeer, and the prized white bear of Greenland. Still farther north,
on the island of Kingigtorssuaq, near Upernavik, just short of
latitude 73 °N., the Eskimo Pelimut discovered in 1824 a stone
inscribed with runes which tell that in 1333 three Norse Green-
landers had camped and wintered there. Earlier, in 1267, an ex-
pedition from the Eastern Settlement reached Melville Bay in
latitude c. 76°N., observed traces of Skradings in Kroksfjardarheidi
(Disco Bay), and then got safely back home. North-west there were
voyages to the Canadian Arctic, of which two cairns discovered in
Jones Sound in latitude 76°35N., and a further two on Washington
1 L. M. Larson (Translator), The King's Mirror* New York, 1917.
 The Movement West 295

Irving Island in latitude 79 , may be the visible proof; but these

were voyages too unrewarding, ill-fated, or generally unsustained to
force themselves into the literary record. 1 Like the Nordseta, such
remote and inhospitable areas held no attraction for the solid
settlement men who were the backbone of the colony. These were
men who needed grassland on which to raise their animals, and this
was to be found above all well up the fjords of the two major
settlements. The most important area of Norse Greenland was that
stretching from the head of Eiriksfjord by way of the head of
Einarsfjord to Vatnahverfi. Here were the best farms, and here the
best grazing, 'good and fragrant grass', as the Kings Mirror de'
scribes it. Here lived Eirik the Red, his son Leif, and in time Leifs-
son Thorkell, and here a hundred years later lived the then leaders
of the Greenland community, Sokki Thorisson and his son Einar.
According to Ivar Bardarson, Greenland's chief officer always lived
at Brattahlid in Eiriksfjord. In this area, too, Eirik the Red's wife
Thjodhild built the first Christian church in Greenland, a turf-
walled structure discovered and excavated with its graveyard
during the last few years, and a short sail and a short walk from
Thjodhild's church are still to be seen the ruins of Greenland's one
cathedral at Gardar. From Eiriksfjord, finally, would be mounted all
the planned voyages of discovery and settlement to Baffin Island,
Labrador and Northern Newfoundland, on the eastern shores of
what is now Canada.
The first voyage which brought a European within sight of the
North American continent was not planned. The man who made it,
the Icelander Bjarni Herjolfsson, was therefore in line with Gardar,
Naddod, and Raven-Floki in respect of Iceland, Gunnbjorn in
respect of Greenland, and for what the evidence of Eiriks Saga
Rauda is worth with Leif Eiriksson in respect of Vinland. All were
storm-driven sailors lighting on lands unsought, though in the
context of northern geographical speculation not entirely unsus-
pected. Bjarni Herjolfsson had spent the winter of 985-6 in Norway.
1 The sophisticated portrayal of Greenland on the recently discovered
Vinland Map, and the accurate delineation of its northern and eastern coasts
could, if the Map's authenticity is established, change our thinking about the
limits of Norse exploration in the west and north-west. Had Norse mariners,
forexample, in the favourable climatic conditions of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, circumnavigated the entire island-continent, with all that this
implies for their exploration of the Canadian Arctic? In the present state of
knowledge a very large question mark hangs over any such speculation.
296 A History of the Fikings
The following summer he sailed to Iceland with a full cargo,
intending to spend the winter with his father. But when he arrived
there it was to hear the startling news that Herjolf had sold his
estates and departed for Greenland on Eirik the Red's colonizing

44. GARDAR, EASTERN SETTLEMENT, GREENLAND

'The place is now called Igaliko (the deserted cooking place).
Survey map 1 10,000. 1: cathedral with churchyard;
: 8: episcopal
residence; 9, 14: byres; 15: spring; 16: byre; 17-18: sheep-cotes;
19-22: storehouses; 23 enclosed garden; 24: byre and barn;
:

25: horse paddock; 26-35: "Thing booths"; 34-35, sheep-cotes;

36: storehouse; 38: sheep-pen; 39-40: large enclosures for
domestic animals.'
 The Movement West 297

expedition. He determined to follow him, no doubt collected all the

information he could, and then with the consent of his crew he set
ofFon what they all knew would be a risky journey, pilotless, chart-
less, compassless, for the south-western fjords of Greenland. Three
days out, and the mountains and glaciers of Iceland whelmed under
the horizon, they fell a prey to north winds and then to fog, and for
many days had no notion which way they were going. Then the sun
broke through, they took fresh bearings, hoisted sail, and journeyed
for awhole day before sighting a land which was not mountainous,
but well forested, with low hills. His crew, metaphorically speaking,
were still all at sea, but Bjarni, if he did not know where he was, at

45. GARDAR (A PICTORIAL RECONSTRUCTION)

'This sketch of the episcopal residence at Gardar was made by
Aage Roussell immediately after excavationswere finished in 1926.
The big building at the far left is the cathedral with a choir and
side chapels. It is surrounded by a churchyard dyke. The long
block in the foreground is the residence. To the right is the big
byre, and the belfry may be seen above the house. The other
buildings are storehouses, stables, smithy, etc' (Compare the
ground plan, no. 44 opposite.)
298 A History of the Vikings

least knew where he was not. This could not be Greenland and it —
was Greenland he was headed. Too single-minded, perhaps too
for
prudent, to go ashore, he held north along the coast for two days'
sailing. The land here, they saw, was still well forested but flat.
Again he refused to put in, and sailed with a south-west wind for
three more days till they came to a land which was high, mountain-
ous, and glaciered. A land in Bjarni's opinion good for nothing. So
yet again he turned his prow from the land, and after four days'
sailing before a strong wind he reached Herjolfsnes in Greenland.
Without imperilling his ship and crew he had done exactly what he
set out to do, and The Greenlander? Saga (Groenlendinga Saga) has
preserved what to all intents and purposes is his log-book the —
plain record of a practical man.
In contrast Eirik the Red's Saga (Eiriks Saga Raudd) makes no
mention of Bjarni, but in a section remarkable for confusion and
irrelevance ascribes the honour of the discovery to Leif Eiriksson,
the eldest son of the founder of the Greenland settlements. To Leif
the Greenlanders* Saga assigns the credit of the first landings in the
New World and the first sojourn in Vinland. There are good, though
complicated, reasons for believing this to be right. 1
For fifteen years the colonists of Greenland did nothing to
improve on Bjarni's accidental acquaintance with the coast of
eastern Canada. For one thing, they were too busy. There was no
question of their not believing him. Medieval geography favoured
the notion of more land to be found beyond Greenland, and, more
practically, when men climbed the high mountains behind the
settlements (as the King's Mirror informs us they did) they would
see in the far distance either land itself or the cloud formations they
associated with land. Out west, they knew, lay something. And so
Leif Eiriksson enters the story. He sailed south from Brattahlid to

1 The literature of the subject is enormous. The most valuable recent

discussions are in Sven B. F. Jansson, Sagorna om Vinland, Lund, 1944; J6n
I,

Johannesson, 'Aldur Groenlendinga Sogu', in Nordda, Reykjavik, 1956

(English translation by Tryggvi J. Oleson, 'The Date of the Composition of the
Saga of the Greenlanders', in Saga-Book, XIV, 1, 1962, pp. 54-66); Halldor
Hermannsson, The Vinland Sagas, Ithaca, 1944. Jansson and j6hannesson
established, inter alia, the greater age and reliability of GS (c. 1200) as com-
pared with ESR (c. 1265). There are presentations of the argument in Gwyn
Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga, 1964, and M. Magnusson and H. PaJsson, The
Vinland Sagas, 1965. G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, The Norse Discoverers of America,
1921, remains important.
 MARKLAND AND VINLAND
f Main route to VI N LAN D
Thorvald, Karlsefni).
( Lett,

'
^ Probable route of Thorvald and
Karlsefni north-west from
Harrison Leifsbudir-Straumfjord
Indicate the approximate position
of the native ESKIMO and INDIAN
population c. 1000 A.D.

MAP 14. MARKLAND AND VINLAND

300 A History of the Vikings

meet Bjarni down at Herjolfsnes, bought his ship and enlisted some
of his crew, and undertook a voyage of discovery. He sailed Bjarni's
course in reverse and put ashore in three identifiable areas, on which
he bestowed suitable place-names: Helluland, Flatstone Land,
mountainous, glaciered, grassless and barren, which most students
agree is the southern portion of Baffin Island; Markland, Wood

Land, flat and forested, with extensive white sands and gently
shelving beaches, thought to be Labrador south of the medieval
tree-line (south of today's Nain); and finally Vinland, Wineland, a
region whose identity has provoked considerable, and at times
impassioned, debate, but whose northern extremity is almost
certainly the northern extremity of Newfoundland. Here there was
an island lying north of what appeared to be a mainland with a cape
projecting northwards from it. Leif wintered in Vinland, at Leifs-
budir, Leif's Booths, where day and night were of a more even length
than in Iceland or Greenland, so that on the shortest day of winter
the sun was visible above the horizon at about nine in the morning
and three in the afternoon. He returned to Greenland the following
summer, full of Vinland's praises, its sweet dew and frostlessness,
its grass and grapes, timber and salmon. Eirik the Red was now dead,

and Leif must take over his position and responsibilities. His sailing
days were done. But they were a stirring family, and his brother
Thorvald stepped forward with a scheme for exploring the new
country more extensively. He sailed the known route to Leifsbudir
in Vinland, and sent his men on a probe down the west coast. He
himself headed back north past a cape he named Kjalarnes, Keel
Ness, because he damaged his keel there, and into a big inlet leading
west. Here they met the first natives to be encountered in America,
and in the hostilities provoked by the Norsemen Thorvald was
killed by an Indian arrow. Without other loss his crew returned to
Leifsbudir, spent the winter there, and the following spring sailed
for Eiriksfjord with their heavy news.
So far there had been no attempt at colonization. Bjarni had not
so much as gone ashore, and Leif's and Thorvald's expeditions were
literally intended to spy out the land. The next significant voyage
was made by an Icelander named Thorfinn Karlsefni, who had
sailed to Brattahlid with a cargo for sale, and while he was there
married Eirik the Red's daughter-in-law Gudrid. The accounts of his
Vinland expedition vary considerably in Grcenlendinga Saga and
Eiriks Saga, but both make it clear that he had in mind an extended
 The Movement West 301

or even a permanent stay. A number of his men took their wives

along with them, and further, 'they took with them all kinds of
livestock, for it was their intention to colonize the country, if they
could do so'. The two
sagas offer different accounts of their numbers
and route. According to Groenlendinga Saga, Karlsefni with sixty men
followed the same route as Leif and Thorvald; he arrived at Leifs-
budir, and there he stayed. Firth Saga is much more detailed, as it
tells of Karlsefni' s voyage with three ships and 160 men up the west

coast of Greenland from Brattahlid in Eiriksfjord to an unidentifiable

Bjarney(jar), Bear Isle(s), somewhere north of the Western Settle-
ment. From there he crossed the Davis Strait with a north wind in
two days to south Baffin Island, which we are told he named Hellu-
land, and so proceeded south to the forests of Labrador, which he
named Markland. Other place-names bestowed by Karlsefni's party
were Kjalarnes, Keel Ness, to distinguish a cape where they found
part of a ship's keel, and Furdustrandir, Marvel Strands, to denote
beaches of such remarkable length that it took a remarkably long
time to sail past them. That Karlsefni should give these place-
names flatly contradicts Groenlendinga Saga, and is assuredly wrong,
but the author of Eirih Saga had no choice but to say so. Having
removed Bjarni Herjolfsson from the Vinland record, and transferred
the accidental sighting of America to Leif Eiriksson (in the most
perfunctory way, at that), and then having delayed Thorvald
Eiriksson's voyage so that we now find him sailing in company with
Karlsefni, he was left with no one who could have given place-names
in America. Another major difference between the two sagas is that
Eirih Saga conducts Karlsefni not to Leifsbudir, but to two areas of
settlement, the one named Straumfjord, Stream or Current Ford,
which like Leifsbudir appears to be in the northern part of New-
foundland, and one further south called Hop (the word means a
landlocked bay or estuary). As before, the land yielded wild grapes,
self-sown wheat, and tall timber, a snowless winter at Hop (but
a bitter one at Straumfjord), and natives of whom the colonizers fell
foul. Thorvald Eiriksson was killed, as in Groenlendinga Saga, by an
arrow somewhere north and west of Straumfjord, though in more
fanciful circumstances. Karlsefni's dealings with the native Skrael-
ings (Skrdingar, a word of uncertain but uncomplimentary meaning,
c
possibly 'screechers' or uglies') began with a surprise confrontation,
proceeded to trade by barter, and ended in hostilities. Of their
trading Groenlendinga Saga has this to say
302 A History of the Vikings
After that first winter came summer. It was now they made acquaint-
ance with the Skradings, when a big body of men appeared out of the
forest there. Their cattle were close by; the bull began to bellow and
bawl loudly, which so frightened the Skradings that they ran off with
their packs, which were of grey furs and sables and skins of all kinds,
and headed for Karlsefni's house, hoping to get inside there, but
Karlsefni had the doors guarded. Neither party could understand the
other's language. Then the Skradings unslung their bales, untied
them, and proffered their wares, and above all wanted weapons in
exchange. Karlsefni, though, forbade them the sale of weapons. And
now he hit on this idea; he told the women to carry out milk to them,
and the moment they saw the milk that was the one thing they
wanted to buy, nothing else. So that was what came of the Skrselings'
trading: they carried away what they bought in their bellies, while
Karlsefni and his comrades kept their bales and their furs. And with
that they went away.

This is the witness otEiriks Saga}

Then morning when they looked about them they saw
early one
nine [H. a great multitude of] skin-boats, on board which staves were
being swung which sounded just like flails threshing and their —
motion was sunwise.
'What can this mean?' asked Karlsefni.
'Perhaps it is a token of peace,' replied Snorri. 'So let us take a
white shield and hold it out towards them.'
They did so, and those others rowed towards them, showing
their astonishment, then came ashore. They were small [H. dark],
ill favoured men, and had ugly hair on their heads. They had big eyes

and were broad in the cheeks. For a while they remained there,
astonished, and afterwards rowed off south past the headland.
Karlsefni and his men built themselves dwellings up above the
lake; some of their houses stood near the mainland, and some near the
lake. They now spent the winter there. No snow fell, and their entire
stock found its food grazing in the open. But once spring came in they
chanced early one morning to see how a multitude of skin-boats came
rowing from the south round the headland, so many that the bay
appeared sown with coals, and even so staves were being swung on
every boat. Karlsefni and his men raised their shields, and they began
trading together. Above all these people wanted to buy red cloth
[H. adds in return for which they had furs to offer and grey pelts].
1 My is of the
translation AM 557 4to text (Skalholtsbok), with two variants
from AM
544 4to (Hauksbok). As Sven B. F. Jansson has demonstrated in his
Sagorna om Finland, 557 for all its gaucheries and errors is the earlier and more
authentic text.
 The Movement West 303

They also wanted to buy swords and and

spears, but this Karlsefni
Snorri would not allow. They had dark unblemished skins to exchange
for the cloth, and were taking a span's length of cloth for a skin, and
this they tied round their heads. So it continued for a while, then when
the cloth began to run short they cut it up so that it was no broader
than a fingerbreadth, but the Skradings gave just as much for it, or
more.

The outbreak of hostilities between Skradings and Norsemen was

decisive for the Vinland venture. The Norsemen had no marked
superiority of weapons, their lines of communication were thin and
overlong, and there was an insufficient reservoir of manpower back
in Greenland. After a far from happy stay lasting three winters
Karlsefni decided to get out. Eiriks Saga tells us therewas by then
jealousy and ill-feeling in camp over the women they had brought
with them, and in any case Karlsefni was level-headed enough to
recognize that for all the land's excellences 'there would always be
fear and strife dogging them there on account of those who already
inhabited it'. So home he went. Gmnlendinga Saga makes mention of
one more voyage to Leifsbudir, at the instigation of Freydis
Eiriksdottir, sister of Leif and Thorvald. It was a bloody and
melodramatic affair, as recounted, and not likely to encourage further
experiment. We conclude that all these voyages were over and done
with by 1020 at the latest. 1
1 There are important and trustworthy references to Vinland in Adam of
Bremen, c. 1075, in the Icelandic Annals for 1121 and 1347, and in Ari's
Islendingabok, c. 1125; an unsatisfactory one preserved in connection with the
no longer extant Honen runic inscription found in Ringerike, Norway, and
possibly of the period c. 1050 ; a number of casual ones in Icelandic histories
and sagas of the thirteenth century; and what appear to be derivative mentions
in some Icelandic geographical treatises of the fourteenth century. Adam of
Bremen derived his information about Vinland from Svein Estridsson, king of
the Danes, who died in 1076: 'He told me too of yet another island, discovered
by many in that ocean, which is called Wineland from the circumstance that
vines grow there of their own accord, and produce the most excellent wine.
While that there is an abundance of unsown corn there we have learned not
from fabulous conjecture but from the trustworthy report of the Danes.'
(Gesta HammaburgensU: Descriptio insularum aquilonis, IV, xxxix (38).)
With the exception of the recent discoveries made by Helge and Anne
Stine Ingstad at L'Anse-aux-Meadows in the Sacred Bay area of northern
Newfoundland none of the numerous Norse 'finds' in North America invites
confidence. The Ingstad finds still await a scientific demonstration, and
certain of them may well allow of a non-Norse explanation; but it seems highly
probable that some of the ruins are Norse, including the smithy, and the
304 A History of the Fi kings

But while there is general agreement that the Norsemen reached

North America, agreement does not extend to how far south they
reached. An increasing weight of opinion has now settled for south-
ern Baffin Island as Helluland, Labrador south of Nain as Markland,
but Vinland, Wineland, where the voyagers are said to have found
grapes and wheat growing wild, is a different story. 1 The St.

Lawrence Estuary, Baie de Chaleur, New

Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
New England, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Long Island Sound,
Virginia, Georgia, and Florida have been argued for with acumen and
eloquence, and a single reliable archaeological discovery in any one
of them could change the picture overnight. Maybe it was as a

soapstone spinning whorl which came to light in 1964 is certainly Norse, and
probably Norse Greenlandic. Carbon-14 dating gives a spread on either side
of the year 1000, with some dates fairly close to that year. A satisfactory
clarification of the material would not localize Leifsbudir or define Vinland,
but would show conclusively that there were Norsemen at L'Anse-aux-
Meadows at the time of the saga voyages.
The only other tangible evidence that the Norsemen were in contact
somewhere, somehow, with the Indians of the American continent is the
Indian arrow-head of quartzite identical with the quartzite of Labrador found
by Aage Roussell in 1930 in the north-west corner of the churchyard at
Sandnes in the Western Settlement of Greenland. It is the same kind of
arrow-head as Jorgen Meldgard found in the ancient Indian settlement by
Northwest River at the inner extremity of Lake Melville in 1956, i.e. in the
general area where we think Thorvald Eiriksson was killed not long after
the year 1000 by just such an arrow. The use of the bow and arrow was
unknown to the Eskimo at that time.
Perhaps, too, the chests of larch found by Danish archaeologists at Her-
jolfsnes-Ikigait should carry the same conviction. It appears to be larch from
Labrador or Newfoundland.
Landmarks in the present case for northern Newfoundland's being
regarded as the Promontorium Winlandix are: Captain W. A. Munn's
booklet, Wineland Voyages, 1914 (reprint of 1946); Vai'no Tanner, De gamla
Nordbomas Helluland, Markland och Finland. Ett fbrsok att lokalisera Finlands-
resornas huvudetapper i den isld'ndska sagorna, Abo, 1941, and the same author's
Outlines of the Geography, Life and Customs of Newfoundland-Labrador (the eastern
part of the Labrador Peninsula), Helsinki, 1944; Helge Ingstad, Landtt under
Leidarstjernen, Oslo, 1959 (English translation, Land under the Pole Star, 1966),
and the same author's Festerveg til Finland, Oslo, 1965 (English translation,
Western Way to Finland); Jorgen Meldgard, Fra Brattalid til Finland,
Naturens Verden, Copenhagen, December 1961.

1 Attempts to replace Wineland (Finland) by Grassland (Finland), tempt-

ing though the rationalization is, are unconvincing.
 The Movement West 305

result of far-ranging voyages to coasts below the Promontorium

that tales of grape-clusters, self-sown wheat, and kindly winters
enriched the Norse tradition of Vinland; maybe longer voyages and
later travellers blurred the outlines of Leif's landing and Karlsefni's
settlement. Time will tell. Meantime it
prudent to hold on to the is

little we have. That Norse the area of Belle Isle

sailors arrived in
Strait is hardly to be disputed; that the northern tip of Newfound-
land is the likeliest place to be the Promontorium Winlandia?

Xlktuictemttt in Jtac maMi

'Ouiirn iiAiit't'j CXffte&At . .

JL tft Junt ad jvrtJnfttjtr

Vtniniwf to tnliftm nine*
fidtn.£ 'fanii'xmyilScl'i <4.
'jnatnioAJfWM b.rndi OC
^thiutfi . .
, 1 1.

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Ytm. fimrcndum.. JJlMCL>TL
diyLert. J6ux * meriJic
eunntinvfnxrt wrlu.:nw-
frri, Jilcilt ex men-birox
iuffvni-S QtllijO, au.{jnfc

&utm<frt*t~i f

and iiiVJmfo ccnutyi

aim .SJfcr&i"*, diC:'-:.
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QA now Qijxnzutn inert'*

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'StQclhlk'nit 9vcnJ.<v*/&cUr di'lM'fj f muf^atft'c£j>x all's, Htruujla. ntjenii &T raijijf-

Vi'dtli'c<^2ti/ir:ji^:/ium &taxii«VqMm. y<J Scnntx'Jtyta Aty^fy/tyvtrnttn ^htnrulu fcZfrun vidftllix

'lanclui jft^rc UrJlui ^{XfmOnJleaiaJuti vr'tlen

1
fii.n.c'^Unffa.t . JsUk&'-a. hi'cjitlfo KutJoift At/et fa
it*,hi CeK&'iitnbi brnitf oi*a>n. Jiwiiip vtiJ>v-wn}>t&nC Upturn tri :
1 'rr^tl^ cufergi. titSfat*,
,
aifii;,
\fi4r>t a.KK >^^.-; .

46. THE SKALHOLT MAP OF SIGURDUR STEFANSSON, I59C

306 A History of the Vikings

depicted on SigurQur Stefansson's map of c. 1590, and Resen's of

1604, now seems handsomely confirmed; and that Thorvald
Eiriksson sailed north from the Promontorium past the Strands
(Furdustrandir) and Cape Porcupine (Kjalarnes) to meet his death
up in Hamilton
Inlet, where English River flows west into Lake
Melville, consonant with the written sources and has (if only-
is

secondary) archaeological support. The Norsemen encountered both

Eskimos and Indians on their travels. But for Vinland itself even the
Vinland Map does not help. 1 Northern Newfoundland may be not
enough, but at present it is all we have. Northwards in the Canadian
Arctic lie argument and fantasy. Southwards
England, or
in New
Maryland, lie speculation and hope. Not that there was no contact
with Vinland after the great age of westward sailing c. 1000-20.
Bishop Eirik (upst) sailed there in a year variously stated to be 11 12,
1113, 1117, and, most probably, 1121, with what result we do not
know. As late as the middle of the fourteenth century men were still
sailing there, presumably to fetch timber and furs. The Icelandic
Annals record that in the year 1347 a ship with seventeen or eighteen
Greenlanders on board was storm-driven to Iceland as they sought
to return to their own country from Markland. But after that there
was silence.

By 1347 dire events were happening in Greenland, presaging the

destruction of the colonies there. In time they carry us far beyond

1 It is difficultto draw any conclusions at all for the Norsemen in America

from the Vinland Map. Not only is its authenticity still in dispute, but even
if that is accepted the Map adds nothing reliable to our knowledge in respect

of Vinland. Its major importance, apart from the circumstance that it offers
the first cartographical delineation of part of the North American continent,
would be in respect of Greenland. The western section of the map appears to
be based on saga tradition; the land-mass is divided into the accepted three
regions, though these are unnamed, and the short legend, Vinilanda (or
Fimlanda, not Vinlandd) Insula a Byarno referta et leipbo socijs, 'Island of Vinilanda,
discovered by Bjarni and Leif in company', is placed at the northern not the
southern end of the 'island'. The second legend, about Bjarni and Leif's
voyage from Greenland to a new land, 'extremely fertile and even having
vines', and about Eric [Henricus], 'legate of the Apostolic See and bishop of
Greenland and the neighbouring regions', visiting Vinland c. 1 120 is not
really evidence for a Norse colony surviving there in the eleventh century.
When, as one confidently expects will be the case, the Map is shown to be
authentic it will be an interesting confirmation of saga tradition; if proved a
forgery, it can detract not at all from the Norse claim to discovery.
 The Movement West 307

the Viking Age; in every other sense they provide it with a poig-
nant epilogue. Wise after the event, we can now see that everything
about the Greenland settlements was temporary and marginal.
Sailing the fjords or walking the pastures there today two things are
immediately intelligible: how certain it was that men from Iceland
would be attracted by the green and grassy oases of the south-west,
make their homes and lodge their destinies there- —and when events
turned against them how certain it was that they could not survive.
c
First, there was their geographical situation at the world's end', as
Pope Alexander VI would later describe it; their dependence upon
communications with Europe; the threat to existence from the con-
stricting ice, the sundering ocean, and the worsening cold after
1200. Second, the Eskimo had been there before, and might he not
return, far better equipped in the struggle for existence than the
conservative Scandinavian? And, third, there were not enough of
them to make good the wastage exacted by prolonged bad times.
The settlements grew unmanned, unviable, and died out.
It is sometimes said that the surrender of independence in 126

had deplorable consequences for the settlements' future. As a mari-

time power, true, Norway was entering upon a period of decline
and would eventually be unable to maintain the long and dangerous
sea-route to Greenland, while power politics in all three Scandinavian
countries would operate to Greenland's disadvantage. On the other
hand, where else could Greenland turn for succour when times grew
hard and everything went wrong? What other course could save
the Europeans there? The causes of the colony's destruction were
so many, so interdependent, and so compulsive, that our impression
of the last phase is not so much of accident or misdirection or mis-
management of the colony's affairs as of ineluctable historical and
geographical necessity.
As the stars in their courses fought against Sisera, so the revolv-
ing centuries fought against the Norsemen in Greenland. The great
voyages of Eirik the Red, Leif, and Karlsefni all took place at a time
when the northern lands and seas were enjoying a comparatively
favourable climate. But after 1200 it began to grow colder, and by the
middle of the fifteenth century it was very cold indeed. Over much
of Europe the glaciers were advancing, the tree-line fell lower,
vegetation and harvest were diminished by the cold, and the alpine
passes were sealed for longer periods. The northern coast of Iceland
grew increasingly beleaguered by drift ice; and off Greenland as
308 A History of the Vikings

the sea temperatures sank there was a disabling increase in the

ice which comes south with the East Greenland Current to Cape
Farewell, and then swings north to enclose first the Eastern and then
the Western Settlement. By 1250 we have the testimony of the
King's Mirror to the forbidding nature of the East Greenland Ice; a
hundred years later Ivar Bardarson in his celebrated Description of
Greenland tells how the old sailing route west has been abandoned as
too dangerous because of the down-swinging polar and men ice,

must now follow new be heard of

sailing directions or 'never
again'. For confirmatory evidence of the state of Icelandic waters we
have Bishop Arngrim Brandsson's chilling account written some
time before 1350. The voyage made in 1267 as far north as Melville
Bay now sounds even more remarkable than at its first mention.
For the growing cold was making sea-passages more hazardous
and had led to the reappearance on the west coast of the Eskimo or
Skrseling. 1 Soon after the middle of the thirteenth century they had
penetrated the northern hunting-grounds as far as Disco, and seem
increasingly to have hampered their use by the Norse Greenlanders.
By c. 1340 they had reached the Western Settlement, and a little
later Ivar Bardarson, who had been sent out from Norway to investi-
gate the situation generally, could report that 'the Skradings hold
the entire Western Settlement'. 2 Even before the Eskimo arrived
the Settlement was in trouble. It was more severely affected by a
deterioration of climate than the Settlement further south, and it

had grown harder to maintain constant touch with it. There is

1 When Eirik the Red and his comrades entered Greenland towards the
end of the tenth century they found there traces of an earlier and, as they
judged, non-European occupation. 'Both east and west in the country [i.e.
at both the Eastern and Western Settlements] they found the habitations of
men, fragments of boats (Ikeiplabrot), and stone artefacts, from which it may
be seen that the same land of people had passed that way as those that
inhabited Vinland, whom the Greenlanders called Skralings' (Islendingabok).
These particular Skrxlings we assume to have been Eskimo people of the
Dorset Culture, who vanished from south-west Greenland maybe as long as
800 years before. But the Skradings who now began to make their presence
felt in Greenland were people of the Thule Culture, who had made their way

across northern Canada from Alaska, and from Ellesmere Island entered the
Thule area of Greenland shortly before 1200. As the Inugsuk folk they
proceeded to reoccupy the habitable strip of the western coast, and, though
this is not to our purpose now, also went round the top of Greenland and
spread far down the east coast, too.
2 Det gamle Gronlands Beskrivelse, 1930, p. 8 and p. 29.
 The Movement West 3°9

evidence that the pastures there had suffered from pest, while
developments far away in Europe were helping destroy its economic
viability. The increased trade in furs and hides out of Russia, the
growth of the English and Dutch cloth trade as against Greenland
woollens, and the preference of French workshops for elephant ivory
over the inferior walrus tusk, helped price Greenland, and especially
the remoter settlement, out of the market. But the Skiading would
prove the last, unbearable burden. Unlike the white man, he had
time and the climate on his side.
What happened Norsemen of the Western Settlement?
to the
Under the year 1342 the Annals of Bishop Gisli Oddsson state that,
'The inhabitants of Greenland of their own will abandoned the true
faith and the Christian religion, having already forsaken all good
ways and true virtues, and went over to the people of America (ad
America populos se converteruni)? However, in the first part of his
statement (written in Latin c. 1637, though presumably based on
earlier documents) the Bishop is demonstrably wrong —
the Green-
landers —
had not abandoned the true faith and it is not easy to
decide what he meant by 'went over to the people of America'. It is
as likely that by the people of America he meant the Skradings of
Greenland (who also lived in parts of Markland and Vinland) as the
people living in America. That the Norse Greenlander had abandon-
ed the Christian faith was to remain the most persistent and base-
less piece of European information about them till the end of the

fifteenth century. Some members of the weakened colony may

indeed have thrown in their lot with the advancing Eskimo, or
ceased to be European; but it is altogether more reasonable to
assume that as many as could sought a refuge with their kinsmen
and co-religionists down in the Eastern Settlement. From there
rumour and dispossessed men filtered back to Iceland and Norway to
tell their hearers of sinister happenings out in Greenland; but noth-

ing would be done, in part because it was too troublesome to keep

in touch with Greenland, in part because there was no profit in it.
Greenland was falling out of sight, going over to the Skradings.
After c. 1 3 50 the Norsemen survived in the Eastern Settlement alone.
They till c. 1500 and remained white, Norse, European,
survived
and Christian to the end. The so-called 'Middle Settlement' around
Ivigtut disappeared by c. 1380; and the Icelandic Annals for the
year 1379 record that 'The Skradings attacked the Greenlanders,
killed eighteen of them, and carried off two boys, whom they made
310 A History of the Vikings

slaves'. Soon the Skrelings would bypass the Eastern Settlement

altogether and continue their odyssey south to Cape Farewell and
from there up the eastern coast. All this while, too, communications
grew more tenuous as trade grew less rewarding. Trade with Green-
land was a royal monopoly, soon vested in the town of Bergen. But
even in the thirteenth century Bergen had all the furs and hides it
needed without having to fetch them from Greenland. And the
town, like Norway itself, was headed for troubles enough of its own.
Norwegian maritime supremacy was in rapid decline before the end
of the century, and the day of the viking ship would soon be over.
In 1349 the Black Death killed one in three of Norway's population.
Bergen suffered worse than most. As though plague was not enough,
the town was twice burned towards the end of the fourteenth
century by the Victual Brethren, and twice sacked by Bartholomeus
Voet in 1428-9. The Bryggen were three times almost totally
destroyed by fire in 1322, 1413, and 1476. Finally, during the four-
teenth century the Hansa merchants got a stranglehold on the
town's trade, and by 1400 on that of all Norway. In all this, whoever
stood to gain Greenland stood to loose. And lose she did.
Intermittently we have sight of the doomed colony. It was king
Magnus Smek's intention to send a ship to its succour in 1355
but nothing seems to have come of it. The Greenland carrier or
Gnenlands kndrr made the Greenland run at intervals till 1369, when
she sank and was apparently not replaced. In 1385 Bjorn Einarsson
Jerusalem-farer was storm-driven to the Eastern Settlement, where
he spent two years. In 1406 a party of Icelanders arrived against
their will and did not get away for four years. They found the Settle-
ment entirelyNorse and resolutely Christian. In 1448 we light on a
papal letter of doubtful authenticity and muddled content relating
to Greenland; and in 1492 a letter of Pope Alexander VI speaks of the
church (cathedral) at Gardar and the grim condition of the Green-
landers, short of food, beleaguered by ice, and as always in the un-
knowing European mind guilty of apostasy. Certainly the last time
a bishop set foot in Greenland was in 1377, but the flock proved
tougher than its shepherds, and Christianity persisted. Among other

visitors were a redoubtable pair of mariners, Pining and Pothorst, c.

1476, and an assortment of English skippers, most of them out of
Bristol. Somehow even in the second half of the fifteenth century
European garments and a few other goods found their way to
Herjolfsnes, but the circumstances in which they did so are unclear.
 The Movement West 311

Soon thereafter the Settlement was at an end, and here likewise

much is obscure. What happened to the Norse Greenlanders, so that
they vanished from history? Some have thought they died of
physical degeneration and the mental debility that would accom-
pany it. But the evidence used to support this theory (more
particularly the skeletons found at Herjolfsnes) can be largely dis-
counted. Others speculate that they were destroyed by plague, the
Black Death, but the evidence for this is be forced to so
too slight to
deadly a conclusion. Did they, then, migrate to the adjacent parts of
Canada, the people of the Western Settlement c. 1340, and those of
the Eastern c.The evidence is negligible, and the circum-
1500? 1
Were they carried off, willingly or unwillingly, by
stance unlikely.
fishermen and pirates, to England? Once more the evidence is
Did they so blend with the Eskimo that they disappeared
negligible.
though their blood and culture survived briefly
as a separate race,
and uncertainly in this diminishing form? In a few instances, no
doubt, individual Norsemen did so come to terms with their
environment, but as an explanation for the disappearance of the
settlements this assumes the very thing it sets out to prove. Were
they exterminated by the Eskimo? The supposition is strong, but
the evidence is weaker than we could wish. Did they take to their
unseaworthy boats and set off for asylum in Iceland? And did they
go down, man, woman, and child, on the way? This would be a
—
theory to end all theories but a theory is all it is.
—
In the present state of knowledge and it may not prove
—
susceptible of much improvement it seems safest to conclude that
the Greenland colony died out for no one reason but through a
complex of deadly pressures. Of these its isolation from Europe, the
neglect it suffered from its northern kinsmen, the lack of trade and
new blood, the worsening conditions of cold, and above all the
encroaching Eskimo, were the most important. Even in theory they
sound more than enough to bring down the curtain on this farthest
medieval outpost of what had been the Viking and was now the
European world, and extinguish it with all the trappings of an
inexorable and heart-chilling doom.

1 The far-reaching theories of Jon Duason, Landkonnun og Landndtn Islend-

inga 1 Vesturheimi, Reykjavik, 1941-7,and Tryggvi J. Oleson, Early Voyages
and Northern Approaches, Toronto, 1964, have won little support. See Gwyn
Jones,'The First Europeans in America', The Beaver, Hudson's Bay Company,
Winnipeg, 1964, pp. 4-1 1.
IV. THE VIKING AGE
ENDS

ijfaAMMh*'"
1. The Scandinavian Community /

in: Culture and Image

JLNoTHING WAS MORE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE

northern lands than the Old Norse religion. Of the three homelands
Denmark was the first because the best placed to receive Christian-
ity, and the Conversion there was more or less completed in the last
third of the tenth century. The effective christianization of Norway
took place in the first third of the eleventh, but in Sweden heathen-
dom outlasted the Viking Age. Heathen thought and custom, and
some of its practice, persisted in the less accessible regions ofNorway
and Sweden till very much later. Iceland underwent a change of
faith, formally, in the year iooo, and the conversion of the Green-

landers was begun the following summer. There is no reason to

doubt the tradition that Shetland, Orkney, and the Faroes were won
for Christianity between iooo and 1005. 1 The main movers in all
this were those with most to gain by it, native kings ambitious of a
truly sovereign state, the missions from England and Hamburg-
Bremen, and the policy-makers who stood behind them. But the
conversion itself was inevitable, desirable, and beneficial.
It was an old-fashioned religion which had survived in the north-

ern fastnesses so long, polytheistic, loosely organized, and seemingly

1 As we have Norsemen were in general tolerant in matters of

seen, the
religion. A number of them underwent a minor form of baptism, prim-
fair
signing or prima signatio, when overseas in Christian parts. The sign of the
cross was made over them, to exorcise evil spirits, they could attend mass
without committing themselves to Christianity, and live in communion with
Christians. 'This was a common custom of the time among traders and those
who went on war-pay along with Christian men; for those who were prime-
signed held full communion with Christians and heathens too, yet kept to the
faith which was most agreeable to them.' (Egils Saga, 50.)
316 A History of the Fi kings

lacking a vocational priesthood. That it appears bare of theology

and overfoliated with myth may be the effect of our ignorance, for
the information which has come down to us is incomplete, hard to
interpret, and frequently misleading. But it could be old-fashioned
without being ineffective. He would be a supplicant hard to please
who found no patron in its extensive pantheon, no convenience in
its varied practice, no message in its myth and eschatology. It

accounted for the creation of the world and charted the doom to
come. It provided mysteries as transcendent as Odinn hanged nine
nights on the windswept tree as a sacrifice to himself, and objects of
veneration as crude as the embalmed penis of a horse. Like other
religions it devout with hidden truth, and contented
rejoiced the
mere conformers with its sacral and convivial occasions. There was
a god for those who lived by wisdom and statecraft, war and plunder,
trade and seafaring, or the land's increase. Poet, rune-maker, black-
smith, leech, rye-grower, cattle-breeder, king, brewer, each had a
god with whom he felt secure; warlocks, men on skis, barren women,
brides, all had a deity to turn to. Best of all, the powers, attributes,
and functions of the gods overlapped so generously that Odinn's
man, Thor's man, Frey's man, and the like, could expect to be
looked after in every aspect of life and death.
Norse conceptions of how the world began and how it must end
are preserved in two famous works, the verse Foluspa, the Sybil's
Prophecy, probably composed early in the eleventh century, and the
prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson about the year 1220. These
are supported by passages poems of the so-
in various mythological
called Elder Edda, and present usbroad outline with the follow-
in
ing. In the beginning, before men or gods existed or the world was
made, there was a great void, Ginnungagap. North of the void was
Niflheim, dark and misty, later to be known as the realm of death,
with a well from which issued eleven rivers. South of the void was
Muspell, fiery and hot, presided over by the giant Surt. The rivers
of Niflheim froze, and from the cataclysmic union of hot and cold
was born the giant Ymir, whose left armpit sweated offspring and
whose one leg begat issue on the other. His nourishment was the
milk of the cow Audumbla, which had emerged from the melting
frost. She licked the salty ice-blocks for food and fashioned a being
of human form, named Buri. Buri had a son called Bor, who married
a giantess, and by her had three sons, Odinn, Vili, and Ve. These
were the first gods. They killed Ymir, and from his body formed the
 The Scandinavian Community, III 317

world: sea and lakes from his blood, earth from his flesh, mountains
from his bones, rocks from his teeth and jaws, clouds from his brains,
and from his skull the sky. In the sky they set sparks as stars, created
Night and Day to speed across the sky, and Sun and Moon to
hasten unceasingly before the wolves who ceaselessly pursued them.
The round disc of the earth was girt with a vast ocean, on whose
farther shore lay Jotunheim, the home of the giants, with its strong-
hold Utgard. To protect Midgard, the world of men, the gods
erected a palisade made from Ymir's eyebrows. Then they made the
first man and woman, Ask (Askr, Ash) and Embla, from two trees,

or a tree and creeper, which they found on the seashore, and gave
them breath (or spirit), understanding, movement, and their five
senses. Then in the middle of the world they built Asgard, the
home of the gods. Here stood the residences of the gods, and here
stood Valhalla (Valholl), the Hall of the Slain, to which came all
brave men who died in battle. Odinn was lord of the hall and lived
there with his wolves and ravens and drank wine. Each day the
armies of the valiant dead fought together on meadows outside the
hall; then as evening came the slain rose up and victors and
again,
vanquished went indoors to feast on Odinn's pork and mead, taking
their stoups of bright drink from the hands of the Valkyries, those
maiden choosers of the slain who had earlier summoned them from
the battlefields of earth. But those who died of age or sickness went
'northwards and netherwards' to the goddess Hel in Niflheim.
Central to this created world was the 'greatest and best of all
trees', the World Ash, Yggdrasill, whose branches reach the sky
and cover the earth, and whose three roots go out to the realm of
the dead, the home of the frost-giants, and the world of men. It was
on Yggdrasill (the name probably means Ygg's, i.e. Odinn's, horse,
and Odinn's horse was a kenning for the gallows) that Odinn hung
nine days and nights to win wisdom, and under Yggdrasill in
Asgard was the holiest seat of the gods, where they assembled each
day in council. Beneath its roots lay the wells (or well) of Fate and
Wisdom, and by the well of Fate dwelt the Norns who tended the
destinies of men, and whose names were Urd (JJrbr, Fate or Past),
Verdandi (Verdandi, Being or Present), and Skuld (Skidd, Necessity
or Future). Each day they watered the tree from the well of Fate
and refreshed it with the well's life-giving clay. No care was too
good for it, for Yggdrasill bore up the universe, and on its well-
being depended the welfare of the world. Living and sentient, it
318 A History of the Fikings

knew pain and decay like all living things. 'The ash Yggdrasill
suffers harms,' says Grimmsmdl, 'more than men imagine.' In its

branches perched an eagle with a hawk between his eyes, and the
serpent Nidhogg was one of many snakes for ever gnawing its roots.
Up and down the trunk between these two ran the squirrel Ratatosk
and sowed mischief between them. Deer and goats devoured its
shoots, and the huge trunk was invaded by rot. Of its origin we
know nothing, but it would endure, aged and shaken, till the world's
end.
The world's end was the Ragnarok, the Doom or Destiny of the
Gods. Itwas so called because it had been destined from the world's
beginning. Death which waits on every living thing waited on the
gods, too, and on everything they had made. Immense forces of
destruction surrounded them always; men and gods were deeply
flawed and the time must come when neither Odinn's wisdom nor
;

Thor's valour could protect them any longer. In Asgard the death
of Odinn's good and lovely son Balder, through the treachery of
Loki, revealed to the All-Father that the last dread act was at hand.
The punishment of that cunning, evil, and unnatural god set him
irrevocably alongside the giants and his own monstrous progeny,
and against all that was good and fair in Asgard. In Midgard the
last phase would be preceded by an age of faithlessness and de-

pravity: all ties and restraints would vanish between kinsfolk,

fratricide and incest reign unchecked. There would be a long, dire
winter (Jimbubetr), lasting three years with no summer-time
between; then three years of war and discord: 'Axe-age, sword-age,
storm-age, wolf-age, ere earth is overthrown.' Three cocks will
crow, one in the gallows-tree, one in Valhalla, one in Hel; the
pursuing wolves will swallow up both Sun and Moon, Earth's
bonds will crack, the mountains fall. The wolf Fenrir, whose jaws
stretch from heaven to earth, breaks his fetters the Midgard Snake,
;

spewing poison, rises from the sea; Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead,
made of the uncut nails of dead men, breaks from her moorings down
in Hel. The fire giants, led by Surt, come riding out of Muspell,
and as they approach Asgard the rainbow bridge Bifrost cracks under
their weight. Giant-home rumbles and the dwarfs whimper. Loki
bursts free of his chains and advances to battle.
Meantime Heimdall, watchman of the gods, has blown his horn.
Yggdrasill trembles. Odinn takes counsel at the well of Wisdom.
The gods arm themselves, and the chosen of Valhalla, Odinn's
 The Scandinavian Community, III 319

Einherjar, prepare for the fight fromwhich none will flee and none
rise up. Odinn leads them to the field, with his golden helm and
spear. —
Thor has his hammer, Frey his sword but not the good
sword he gave to his messenger Skirnir. 'How fare the i£sir? How
fare the Elves?' Odinn faces Fenrir, Thor the Midgard Snake, Frey
faces Surt. Frey dies first, hewn down by a sword that outshines
the sun. Thor kills the Snake, but when he has walked nine paces
falls dead of the Snake's venom. The Wolf swallows Odinn, but

Vidar, Odinn's son, takes vengeance when he stabs him to the heart.
Tyr and Garm destroy each other, as do Heimdall and Loki. The
sun grows dark, stars fall from the sky, the sea invades the land,
Surt flings fire over all the world; heaven and earth, the whole
universe are consumed, and Earth sinks into the sea.
But if the old order had gone for ever, a new order would arise.
Another world would appear above the waters, green and pleasant
with grass and self-sown corn. Two of Odinn's sons would survive
the fire and flood, and two of Thor's. The blameless Balder and his
blameless slayer Hod would join them from their place in Hel, and
sweet and pleasant will be the life they lead, and stirring the tales
they tell. Midgard likewise had two survivors who would replenish
the dewy, fruitful earth, while the Sun's daughter, more radiant
than her mother, measures the sky in her effulgent track.
That this Creation and Doom have features in common with
other Indo-European systems of mythology, and are not uninflu-
enced by Christian conceptions, would become clearer if we had
space to discuss their many details. The beliefs of the Hindus,
Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Celts have all yielded
striking comparisons, and the Norse gods display significant
resemblances to members of other pantheons, though Dumezil's
attractive division of the gods of both the Norse and what he
considers the common Indo-European religion into three categories
has found dissenters. In the category are the dread sovereign,
first

the ferocious master of magic and wisdom, like Odinn, and the
milder sovereign who bestows law and justice, like (thinks Dumezil)
Tyr. In the second are the warrior gods, like Thor, and in the third
the gods of wealth and fertility, like the Vanir, whose chief figure
is Frey. 1 Foremost of the Norse gods stands Odinn, strange and

1 For Dumezil's thesis concerning

brilliant though not always convincing
the Old Norse religion, see his Les Diettx des Indo-Europeens, Paris, 1952, and
Les Dieux des Germains, Paris, 1959. His views are extensively referred to in
320 A History of the likings

many-sided, demonic and frightening. It is his passion to know and

understand, and for wisdom he has run many risks and made great
sacrifices. For a draught from the well of Mimir (the Fount of
Wisdom) he yielded up an eye; and for magic and its runes he hung
nine nights on the windswept tree, wounded with a spear:

They stayed me not with bread,

Nor with the drinking horn;
Downward I peered,
Caught up the runes,
Screaming I caught them,
Fell back from there.

He was god of the gallows and those who died on it, god of war and
those who perished by it, god of occult knowledge and master of
the dead from whom this must be won. He was no Christ who hung
on the tree for others. He sought his own gain —dominion and
knowledge —and his suffering has more in common with shamanism
than with Christianity. He was violent, fickle, and treacherous,
apportioning victory by policy rather than desert, dashing down
those who had most claim on his favour in the hour of their greatest
need. Of heroes, Hrolf Kraki, Sigmund the Volsung, and Harold
Wartooth were destroyed by him ; of kings, Eirik Blood-axe and
jarl Hakon Sigurdarson; among poets, Egill Skallagrimsson felt
his chastening hand. Such were his proper worshippers: men who
dealt in policyand power, spell-makers and rune-readers, they that
knew the ecstasy of creation and the frenzy of war. Wotan, says
Adam of Bremen id est Furor. He had many treasures, his dedicat-
ing spear Gungnir, his gold ring Draupnir for ever dropping replicas
of itself, his eight-legged steed Sleipnir, his hall Valhalla, his ravens
Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory, who flew over the
world each day and returned to tell in Odinn's ear all that was
happening there. He had many names, relative to his many func-
tions: All-Father, Lord of the Gallows, Ill-doer, Terrifier, Father of

E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, 1964, and in H. R.

EllisDavidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, 1964. There is some useful
comment in 6laTur Briem, Vanir og JEsir, Studia Islandica 21, Reykjavik,
1963 (with a summary in English, pp. 75-80). One would welcome an essay
which approached the Old Norse religion by way of those good friends of
man, the sun, ship, horse, and phallus.
23. THOR
 The Scandinavian Community, III 321

Victory, One-Eye, Raven-God, Mimir's Friend, Fenrir's Foe.

Victory in war was hisgift, poetry his mead, his cup, his sea.

Aristocratic, perilous, incalculable, Odinn was no god for the

ordinary man to meddle with. Such would be in every way better
off with Thor. Irascible but kindly, boisterous but straight-dealing,
a huge eater and drinker, here was a god with whom the peasant
and other ranks could identify themselves. All those adventures of
his, his travels, the way the giants made a fool of him —
and the way
—
he made a fool of them this brought him home to the common
man's bosom. But a god must be more than well loved: he must
show the attributes of godhead, and this Thor did, abundantly.
By name and quality he was the thunder-god, who rumbled in his
goat-drawn chariot across the heavens and was armed with the
thunderbolt in the shape of his short-handled hammer Mjollnir.
Red-bearded, massive of frame, enormously strong, he was cast in a
protecting role for Asgard and the gods, and by implication for
Midgard and the race of men. Two of the eventual destroyers of the
world had his special attention, the Midgard Snake and the frost-
and mountain-giants, 'who know his hammer well when it comes
through the air, for it has cracked many a skull of their ancestors
and kindred'. He had two other treasures, the iron gloves which he
donned to brandish Mjollnir, and the girdle of might which doubled
his divine strength when he clasped it round his middle. It was Red
Thor, not Odinn, who stood out against White Christ. It was the
hammer, not the spear, which warded off the cross. In the later
reaches of heathendom he was probably the most widely honoured
of the gods, and it was Thor, not Odinn or Frey, who was set mid-
most of them in Adam's description of the Uppsala shrine. In parts
of Scandinavia he was the god of agriculture, too, but the lateness
of manufacture of his famous hammer, together with the lateness
of the written sources which tell of him, make it difficult to define
his consecrative and fructifying role in heathendom. But he was a
mighty god in the viking homelands, and in the colonies overseas
he became the mightiest god of all.
Odinn and Thor were of the ^Esir, Frey of the Vanir. These were
a different family of gods whose chief figures were Njord and his
two children Frey and Freyja. Male and female alike, they were
representative of an earlier religion in the north, whom the yEsir
figuratively overcame in battle, but failed to destroy or drive out.
They were fertility gods. Njord's name and function connect him
322 A History of the Vi kings

with the Germanic earth mother Nerthus, and whatever the

explanation of this sexual divergence, ambiguity, or duality, we
consider them the same deity. Her worship is described thus by
Tacitus in his Germania 40:

None of these tribes [of north-western Germany] have any note-

worthy feature, except their common worship of Ertha, or mother-
Earth, and their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and visits
the nations in her car. In an island of the ocean [a Danish island?]
there is a sacred grove, and within it a consecrated chariot, covered
over with a garment. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He
can perceive the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess, and
walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is drawn along by

of rejoicing, and festivity reigns wherever she

heifers. It is a season
deigns to go and be received. They do not go to battle or wear arms
every weapon is under lock; peace and quiet are known and welcomed
only at these times, till the goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at
length restored by the same priest to her temple. Afterwards the
car, the vestments, and, if you like to believe it, the divinity herself,
are purified in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly
swallowed up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror and a
pious ignorance concerning the nature of that which is seen only by
men doomed to die. (Trans. Church and Brodribb.)

This ancient NjorSr-Nerthus, with priest, wagon, island-grove,

lake, sacrificed slaves, and reign of peace and pleasure, is hardly less
a starting-point for exegesis than the lake and grove of Nemi; but
we must rest content with a single paragraph about Njord's son.
Frey was a god of fruitfulness and sexuality. His necklaced sister
was his genial counterpart. His image at Uppsala was distinguished
by its exaggerated phallus, and the similarly enhanced little
statuettes found in Sweden must also be of him. His cult had its
orgiastic occasions, which drew more disgust than information
from Adam of Bremen and Saxo. To the Swedes he was God of the
World (veraldar goS)\ his very name means Lord (Freyr). Another
name of his was Yngvi, from which we conclude the Swedish royal
house took its name Tnglingar. He is associated with stallions,
owned a wondrous boar, and the skaldic poem most associated with
him, Skirnismaly the Sayings of Skirnir, however distrustful one may
be in general of interpretations of love stories, is an imperfectly
concealed nature myth of the god of sunshine and fertility, Skirnir,
finding his corn-bride Gerd (Ger3r, cf. GarSr), or the reflection in
 The Scandinavian Community, III 323

later verse of a ritual drama of the marriage of the impregnating sun

and recipient earth. Men, animals, and crops looked to him for
increase. He presided over rain and sunshine, and all the fruits of
earth. He had a further significance, for death and fertility are
closely related. It is this which gives meaning to those parts of Ibn
Fadlan's account of the Rus burial on the Volga which describes
how the friends of the dead man had sexual intercourse with the
sacrificial bride or slave-girl (see Appendix 3). It adds meaning, and

also confusion, to the widespread Scandinavian practice of ship-

burial. From as early as the Bronze Age ships feature prominently
in the fertility rites depicted on the rock faces of Bohuslan and other
regions. Now the best of ships was Skidbladnir, and it was Frey who
owned her. She was big enough to contain all the ^Esir fully armed,
but when not in use could be folded away in a purse. She always had
a favourable wind. Like Fray's chariot, his ship may be seen as a

symbol of death and rebirth. Love and begetting, seed-time and

harvest, the breeding and nurture of stock thrive better in peace
than war. But no leading god of the Bronze, Iron, or Viking Age
could be entirely peaceful. Some of Frey's bynames show that he
was a warrior, and at Ragnarok he would not flinch from Surt.
Odinn, Thor, and Frey were the gods most celebrated among the
northern nations during the Viking Age. This does not mean that
other gods, or goddesses, were not important. Tyr was a god
equated by Tacitus with the Roman Mars, though his name is
cognate with Greek Zeus, Sanskrit Dyaus; myth has the almost
forgotten Ull contend with Odinn for supremacy; but by now
both Tyr and Ull were gods in decline. The evidence of place-
names would make Denmark the centre of the cult of the warlike
but law-maintaining Tyr, central and south-eastern Sweden
together with south and south-eastern Norway that of the once
were representative of gods displaced, Balder,
brilliant Ull. If these
the son of Odinn and his wife Frigg, is an example of a god come
fairly late to prominence. Good, beautiful, and beloved, he was
killed by a mistletoe thrown at him by his blind brother Hod at the
instigation of Loki. It is possible that the beauty and interest of
Snorri's story of his death and funeral, the grief of the gods, and
how Hermod rode down to Hel to beg that he be allowed to return,
and how this was granted on condition that all things alive or dead
would weep for him, and how all things did so weep save Loki, so
that Balder stayed with Hel till after the Ragnarok, and only then
324 A History of the Vikings
returned to the world — it is possible that this, despite the violently
different view of Balder presented by Saxo, has given him a promin-
ence in the pantheon to which, considered in his character of god,
he is not entitled. Heimdall, watchman of the gods, the killer of
Loki, and in Rtgspula (see pp. 145-7 above) identified with Rig the
father of all mankind, is another god of whom we could wish to
know more. And so with the goddesses Idunn, Gefjon, and Frigg,
and the lesser, tutelary, goddesses (disir, sing, cits') associated with a
district, a family, or sometimes an individual; with their festivals
and and so, on a lower level, with the elves,
sacrifices (disabl6i)\
land-spirits, and dwarfs, and lower still the fetch otfylgia.
A religion needs more than a god. It needs ritual and places of
worship. Concerning these we have a considerable amount of
information in the literary sources, most of it late and some of it
unacceptable, and by way of corrective the evidence of place-names
and archaeology, in so far as this can be reliably interpreted. Inas-
much as we are dealing with many gods and a number of peoples
over several centuries we can expect variation within any establish-
able pattern. Thus place-names with Odinn- are not infrequent in
Denmark and southern Sweden, including Vaster- and Ostergot-
land, but are thin on the ground in Norway —
though expectedly
least thin in the south-east. In Iceland there are no Odinn- names.
Names with Thor- are common everywhere, and especially in
Iceland, where personal names with Thor- are likewise numerous,
though it does not follow that his popularity in different countries
rested on the same aspect of his divinity. Iceland has a few Frey-
names in the east; they are known in Zealand, Fyn and southern
Jutland; Norway has a good number in the south-east; and the
abundance of Frey- names in Sweden confirms other evidence that
until near the end of the heathen age his was the most important
cult of that nation. The Tyr- names of Denmark and the Ull- names
of Norway and Sweden locate the areas of their cults; but the subject
is full of surprises. When the foremost authority of Norway, Magnus

Olsen, listed the divine place-names of his country in viking times,

they numbered as follows names with Frey or Freyja 48, with Ull
:

33, with Thor 27, with Njord 26, with Odinn 12. The second
1

element of these divine place-names throughout Scandinavia relates

sometimes to man-made features connected with the act of worship,
1
Hedemke Kultminder i norske Stedwavne, Christiania, 1915, 1, pp. 63 ff; Nordisk
Kultur, XXVI (Religionshistorie), Copenhagen, 1942, pp. 60 ff.
 r-.-y.v .:'. .-:-.' da- p. Ill 32s

like bofy house, rgr, mound (shrine\ u-. sanctuary these meanings
are a shade limiting and arbitrary), to natural features connected
with worship and fertilitv, like .':</:.;>, strove, and cultivated .
.
'.

ground, and ro a variety or'lar.dscape features, like .V'n. rock. .:::.

ap. iv.oand. Thedrst group is the most sicnidcarit
.

ridge, island,
".
. .

for the forms and places of viking religious obsei-var.ee.

It is remarkable that the Old Norse religion appears to have had

no vocational priesthood. It was a fanction the local leader or . :

chieftain to act as intermediary between worshipped and worshipper.

We have noticed about the "secular priest', the £odi of Iceland, that
he was a priest only because he was a chieftain, and that his sacer-

dotal function depended upon his social status and. later, his
authority and orhce as denned bv the Constitution. There is no
reason to believe things were different back in Scandinavia. The
outstanding centres of religious observance would tend to be
associated with the outstanding chieftains. It was the king of the
Swedes who was responsible for the ceremonies at Uppsala, and
the jarls of the Trondelag who maintained H'.adir. It is true that the
description of Thorolf Mostrarskegg's iv'in Breidafiord. Iceland,
speaks of a ':.
"ad . and ".:: a.; Sana 5 or' ;. ivdp/a
,;
.:
v
ap-"'-' the
feminine equivalent o£ gp&i), just as Adam of Bremen speaks of
sacardota attendant on the heathen cods at Unnsa'a; but it was the
function of these "priests' to oner sacrifices for the people, a role

consistent with that of an officiating chieftain, and nothing more

should be attributed to them.
The characteristic religious ceremony of the north was sacrifice
(blot).With allowance made for local and chronological circumstance
this was of two chief kinds. There was the votive offering, norm a..
of a destructive nature, in which human beings, animals, weapons,
boats, artefacts ot all kinds, pass out ot human possession into that
of the god; and there was rhe convivial where cthe wor- sacrifice
shippers collectively eat and drink the nourishment consecrated to
the god. Our attention must focus on the convivial sacrifice, for this
might presuppose the existence of buildings in which the ritual
feast could be celebrated. Onlv late and unreliable sources record
the ceremonial of the ritual feast v Snorri\ but the impression
conveyed by heathen poetry is that the slaughter of the sacririci.il
animal was in itself a ritual, the meat possibly being prepared bv
baking in an earth-covered pit lined with hot stones an ancient —
method used primarily in cult ritual in the Yikiuu period. In
326 A History of the Vikings

addition to the feast, the ceremony may have included singing,

dancing, divination and the enactment of mythological scenes.' 1
There remains the difficult question of where these sacrifices took
place. By far the best known statement is that of Adam of Bremen
in Book IV, xxvi-vii, of his Gesta Hammaburgemis:

That folk [the Swedes] has a very famous temple called Uppsala,
situated not far from the city of Sigtuna or Birka. In this temple,
entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three
gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Trior, occupies a throne
in the middle of the chamber; Wodan and Fricco have places on either
side. The significance of these gods is as follows Thor, they say, :

presides over the air, and governs the thunder and lightning, the
winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wodan [Odinn]
that is, the Furious —
carries on war and imparts to man strength
against his enemies. The third is Fricco [Frey], who bestowes peace
and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an
immense phallus. But Woden they chisel armed, as our people are
wont to represent Mars. Thor with his sceptre [i.e. hammer]
apparently resembles Jove. The people also worship heroes made gods,
whom they endow with immortality because of their remarkable
exploits, as one reads in the Vita of Saint Ansgar they did in the case
of King Eric.
For all their gods there are appointed priests to offer sacrifices for
the people. If plague and famine threaten, a libation is poured to the
idol Thor; if war, to Wodan; if marriages are to be celebrated, to
Fricco. It is customary also to solemnize in Uppsala, at nine-year
intervals, a general feast of all the provinces of Sweden. From attend-
ance at this festival no one is exempted. Kings and people all and
singly send their gifts to Uppsala and, what is more distressing than
any kind of punishment, those who have already adopted Christianity
redeem themselves through these ceremonies. The sacrifice is of this
nature: of every living thing that is male, they offer nine heads, with
the blood of which it is customary to placate gods of this sort. The
bodies they hang in the sacred grove that adjoins the temple. Now
this grove is so sacred in the eyes of the heathen that each and every
tree in it is believed divine because of the death or putrefaction of the
victims. Even dogs and horses hang there with men, and a Christian
told me that he had seen seventy-two bodies suspended promiscuously.
Furthermore the incantations [songs] customarily chanted in the

1 Olaf Olsen, Horg, Hov og Kirke, p. 279. In this context I am heavily indebted
to Dr. Olsen.
 The Scandinavian Community, III 327

ritual of a sacrifice of this kind are manifold and unseemly; therefore,

it is better to keep silence about them. 1

Visual reconstructions of the Uppsala templum range from the im-

probable to the impossible. Certainly there were images of gods.
Assuredly there was some kind of structure to protect them, but
whether this was a mere four-cornered roof or something more
elaborate due to the impact of Christianity and its churches we
cannot say. Clearly the sacrifices were associated with the near-by
grove and its huge evergreen tree rather than with the templum.
Neither the literary nor the archaeological evidence suggests that
the templum was a big one, and everything we know of Scandinavian
buildings before 1070 convinces us that there can be no question of
a hof big enough to contain a significant proportion of the large
crowd assembled there. Also there is no trustworthy parallel to
—
Adam's nobilissimum templum which in any case he never saw. The
scepticism of late expressed by archaeologists about the 'temples'
here in Sweden, at Jelling in Denmark, at Hofstadir near Myvatn
in Iceland, together with the higher criticism directed at thirteenth-
century literary accounts in Eyrbyggja Saga, Kjalnesinga Saga, Njala,
and Heimskringla, makes it prudent, perhaps imperative, to approach
the subject another way.
The weight ofevidence for the south Germanic peoples associates
their religious practice with sites in the open air, and with groves
and springs in particular. Early Christian laws in Norway, Sweden,
and Gotaland, the laws of Knut in England, and the Northumbrian
priests' law of Danish provenance, point to the same state of affairs

1
1 have made two alterations in Tschan's translation. There are three
relevant scholia accompanying the text:
Schol. 138. Near temple stands a very large tree with wide-spreading
this
branches, always green winter and summer. What kind it is nobody knows.
There is also a spring at which the pagans are accustomed to make their
sacrifices, and into it to plunge a live man. And if he is not found, the people's
wish will be granted.
Schol. 139. A golden chain goes round the temple. It hangs over the
gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach it,
because the shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like an
amphitheatre. [Cf. the temple of Solomon, II Chronicles, 3, 15-16.]
Schol. 141. Feasts and sacrifices of this kind are solemnized for nine days.
On each day they offer a man along with other living beings in such a number
that in the course of the nine days they will have made offerings of seventy-
two creatures. This sacrifice takes place about the time of the vernal equinox.
328 A History of the Vikings

among the north Germans. Men are forbidden to worship in or by

woods, mounds, stones, springs, sanctuaries, or holy places con-
nected with heathendom, and the likeliest interpretation of such
injunctions is not that they reflect the general proscription of
heathendom but that they are directed against the places tradition-
ally associated with it. Arab witness in respect of heathendom at
Hedeby (p. 177 above) makes no mention of a temple in connection
with the festivals there, though it does mention a Christian church;
while in respect of the Rus offerings to idols on the Volga it seems
that these wooden figures either stood in the open or under
unelaborate cover (p. 165). It is probable that the great majority of
buildings with the title hof as they are mentioned in the sagas and
later antiquarian Icelandic tradition,were not temples dedicated to
a god, butby Olaf Olsen's definition were farms 'where cult meetings
were regularly held for more people than those living on the farm'.
In the northern climate it was useful to have a building where
convivial feasts could be held indoors, but for the rest of the time the
farm buildings would revert to normal use. The two well-known
Icelandic sites named Hofstadir, one in Myvatn, the other in
Thorskafjord, each with an oval pit for baking near at hand,
apparently much too large for the needs of one household, are the
likeliestexamples of this.
A much older and wider-spread name for a holy place than hof is
horgr, whose primary meaning is a pile of stones, whether natural or
man-assembled. Normally this, too, means a site in the open, but
from as far back as the Early Iron Age there are indications that an
image was sometimes set on a cairn, and it may be assumed that in
course of time it appeared natural to give these images some kind
of cover. But this did not convert the cairn into a temple it remained
:

a shrine. The Viking Age knew and uncovered, but

shrines covered
there is no trustworthy evidence that the horgr was in any instance
a large or splendid building. As for the ve, we know little more than
that was a holy place, and appears to have been in the open air.
it

Even the most fragmentary survey of the old religion must seek
to answer one more question. What did the Norsemen think about
death? To what heaven, hell, limbo, or nothingness did the dead
repair? And how did they make their way there? For once we have
not too few answers but too many. There are the statements
preserved in literature, more particularly by Snorri and the unknown
authors of the Eddie poems, but in a variety of sources besides.
 HOFSTADIR,
47-
MYVATNSSVEIT,
ICELAND
A large farmstead in
northern Iceland, often
called a temple-site.
The large hall (A + B),
is 36-3 metres long, 8-25
metres at its broadest,
and narrowing at the
gable ends. The outhouse
(C) to the north is 6-2
by c. 4 metres, and is
unlikely to be of any
religious significance.
The large hall was a
banqueting-hall on
occasions, and the oval
pit to the south (G) may
have been used for sacral
cooking. (See p. 328.)
330 A History of the Fi kings

And there are the statements of the graves, which reveal widely
differing beliefs about the nature and destiny of the dead. The most
picturesque piece of literary evidence is the best known : that 'all

themen who have fallen in battle since the beginning of the world
—
have now come to Odinn in Valhalla' though the same authority
(Snorri's Edda) insists that Freyja takes half the slain into her hall
Folkvangar. Women, too, came to Freyja, but virgins to the
unvirginal Gefjon, whose name is reminiscent of Freyja's nickname
Gefn or Giver. It is possible that those who worshipped Thor

joined him in his hall Bilskirnir on Thrudvangar, the Plains of

Might, and other deaths, other abodes. Antecedent to the viking
Valhalla was the concept of Hel, which early received Sigurd the
Volsung, the tigerish Brynhild, and in time Odinn's son, the
blameless Balder. It was a concept which underwent much change
for the worse when Loki's double-hued daughter Hel, half black,
half flesh-colour, was thrown down there by Odinn with power over
nine worlds, but with an obligation to share her provisions with
men who died of sickness or old age. The wicked went to Hel, says
Snorri, and from there into Niflhel, which is down in the ninth
world. To what extent men in the ninth and tenth centuries believed
in, or were fully aware of, this agglomeration of other-world

destinations is hard to tell. Perhaps in trying to find out we are in

the position of a post-nuclear inquirer establishing Christian notions
of the after-life from a Jacobean translation of the Book of Job, a
partial salvage of the Gospels, Traherne's Centuries of Meditations,
and the hell-fire sermons of Mr. Spurgeon. Almost certainly no one
man living at any one time did or could believe in the entire Norse
eschatology as it has been preserved for posterity. Also, there is a
good deal of literary evidence contradictory of the whole picture.
Icelandic sources are rich in references to men who went into a grave
and stayed there, or journeyed no farther than a near-by hill. Some
of them kept benevolent watch on the neighbourhood, some, if
disturbed, provided horrid company for the living. In general those
evil in life stayed evil in death. On the other hand, the great
northern wisdom-poem, the Hdvamdl, confines itself to this world
and ignores the life to come.
On the whole we are safer with the evidence of the graves,
though this, too, is not all of a piece, or always easy to interpret.
Immediately we are impressed by the variety of funeral usage
among the northern nations. They practised cremation as well as
48. MAN S GRAVE,
SILASTADIR,
KRAEKLINGAHLID,
ICELAND
A man with his axe,
sword, shield boss,
knife, weights, and the
skeleton of a horse.
332 A History of the Vikings
earth-burial, laid thedead to rest in mounds or level places, with or
without grave goods, with boats real or symbolic or no boat at all,
in big wooden chambers and small coffins, and sometimes in neither.
There are single graves, graves for two (the one sometimes a woman
slave), and communal graves. Sometimes graves show an inter-
mixture of religious beliefs. It appears that Viking Age burial was
strongly affected by pre-Viking Age customs, that it was open to
local and regional distinctions, particularly as between Denmark,
with its infrequency of cremation, save at Lindholm Hoje, and its
paucity of grave goods on the one hand, and Norway and Sweden
on the other, and that it reflected different views of the after-life.
The size and magnificence of the burial mounds at Jelling and
Oseberg, as at Vendel, Valsgarde, and Sutton Hoo earlier, denote
the importance of the persons for whom they were erected and
furnished; but they also point from this world to the next.
Christianity forbade the bestowal of grave goods save of the
simplest kind. Heathendom, in Norway and Sweden especially, did
not. When means sufficed for it, the dead man or woman was given
everything that could make the after-life as comfortable and
honourable as that they knew on earth: ships, weapons, horses,
wagons, adornments, utensils, toilet articles, even food. There was
a fatalism in this: a chieftain in this world would be a chieftain in
the next, a thrall a thrall. It would be helpful to the spread of
Christianity that it did not perpetuate man's state throughout
eternity. When a heathen chieftain or king was howed with his

grave goods, the poets and makers of pictured stones were quite
clear what next happened to him. We read and see pictures of heroes
riding and, we think, sailing to the next world, where they are
welcomed by Odinn and his valkyries, or maybe some other god.
Ship-burials would seem the factual confirmation of this. The ship
at Ladby in Denmark (the only one of its kind so far discovered
there) had its anchor on board, ready to be dropped at the end of its
lord's voyage. Conversely, the Oseberg ship was moored to a big
stone. Probably the distinction matters less than we think. The big
ships, like the small ones,and like the graves marked out in boat-
shape by means of stones, were above all symbolical. They enabled
the dead man's spirit, not his physical frame, which all experience
showed must moulder wherever it was laid, to transfer to the world
of the dead, and inasmuch as the ship was a fertility symbol, be
reborn there. The evidence is nowhere clearer than in the cremation
49- WOMAN S
GRAVE,
HAFURBJAR-
NARSTADIR,
GULLBRING-
USYSLA,
ICELAND
A woman with
her brooch, pin,
knife, comb,
beads, and large
shells.
334 A History of the Vi kings
graves at Lindholm Hoje near the eastern exit of the Limfjord in
northern Jutland. The sizeable cemetery there, consisting of some
700 graves, was in use from approximately the mid-seventh to the
tenth centuries. It stands a little south of a settlement from the
years 400 to 800; and a later settlement, of the eleventh century,
overlaps part of the cemetery site. The cemetery was largely
covered over by drifting sand and has recently been extensively
surveyed. A majority of the graves are cremation type; but the
dead bodies and their grave goods had not been burned in the place
where they were buried, but elsewhere. The ashes were then carried
to the cemetery, laid on a smallish piece of ground, and thinly
covered over with earth. Many graves were then marked out with
stones arranged in ovals, rounds, squares, and triangles. The ovals,
stenstetninger, are symbols of ships, and once they had served their

immediate symbolic purpose the stones could be taken up and used

for other and newer stone-settings. An interesting variation of ship-
burial is that at Hedeby, where the ship was laid upright over a
large wood-lined grave chamber containing the bodies of either two
or three men who had their grave goods alongside them and three
horses in a separate, much shallower, grave back under the stern.
It is impossible to maintain that some boats in graves were not

straightforward grave goods. In Iceland graves with boats are rare;

the horse was the instrument of travel there, and more than two-
thirds of known Icelandic viking graves show the remains of one or
more horses buried with their master. Cremation was unknown
there. Clearly no one explanation holds good for the many modes of
northern burial, and no one notion for life beyond the grave.

Yet within this variety of concept and practice the old Norse
religion was one. It belonged to the three Scandinavian countries
and their colonies overseas, and belonged to them alone. The same
is true of viking decorative art, which was homogeneous from the

Trondelag to the Gulf of Bothnia, from Uppsala to the neck of

Jutland. It had its roots in continental Germanic art, but was
developing along distinctive lines as early as the fourth century
A.D., and thereafter continued to do so, mainly because of the
continuing devotion of Scandinavian artists to animal motifs for
decoration, and their unwillingness to follow their European
contemporaries into the intricacies of vegetation patterns. There is

no question of their ability to do so, had they wished; nor were the
 The Scandinavian Community, III 335

minds of Scandinavian artists sealed to outside influences. War,

piracy, trade, and purchase brought all kinds of beautiful objects
back to Scandinavia, sword-handles, bookmarks and clasps,
brooches, coins, chests, croziers, cups and goblets, statuettes,
church plate, textiles. Irish, English, and Carolingian art strongly
influenced northern practitioners, as to a lesser extent did the art of
Russia. In other words, artistic impulses as well as artistic objects
were part of the Viking Age intake; but it would be wrong to
conclude that northern artists welcomed foreign arts because they
felt themselves to be behind the times, naive, or provincial. It is

every bit as likely that they welcomed them because they were
assured in respect of their own tradition, the techniques they
employed, and the clientele they served. Thus large quantities of
gold and especially silver were melted down to provide the northern
artistwith the materials of his craft, while the undoubted foreign
influences were skilfully absorbed into the native tradition, which
they stimulated and helped reshape, but could not replace. The
problem of native and foreign elements is even so a difficult one.
For example, the Jelling style of decoration has been described as
owing much to Irish (i.e. Hiberno-Saxon), Anglo-Saxon, and
eastern art, while the latest study of the subject considers that most
of its elements 'are derived from native Scandinavian traditions,

which stem back to the beginning of the ninth century, when there
may well have been some direct, or indirect, insular influences in
Scandinavia'. 1 The problem is further complicated by the possibility
of Scandinavian influence on some of the art which influenced
Scandinavia. It is it took direct viking (probably
arguable that
Jelling) influence to produce the undated stone crosses in various
east Yorkshire villages, and northern influence is undoubted for
various monuments in those parts of England which were occupied
by Norse armies and the settlers who followed them. The Ringerike
style left its mark there in Knut's time; and in the days of those
ex-vikings the Normans the last indigenous flowering of viking art,
the Urnes style, achieved its final triumphs not at home but in
England and Ireland. That Scandinavia should export as well as
import art styles over many centuries, and be self-confident in
using the imports, indicates the independent status of its artists.
As artists will, they took what they wanted from the past and their

1 D. M. Wilson and O. Klindt-Jensen, Viking Art, 1966, p. 116.

336 A History of the Vikings

contemporaries abroad. What resulted was not bastard-Carolingian,

or extra-Insular, but Viking art.
The development of this from pre-viking times till its eclipse in
the twelfth century by Romanesque has been closely plotted in
terms of styles: Oseberg, Borre, Jelling, Mammen, Ringerike,
Urnes. Unfortunately the material is far from complete. We have
the Oseberg ship with her wagon, and may wonder how many
ships and wagons, now lost, received similar loving care. Few ship's
vanes and standards survive, but they must have been made in
hundreds; half a dozen Danish horse-collars with gilt-bronze moulds
and panels are a meagre remnant of ancient plenty; little work
survives in the Borre style, especially outside Norway, and the
overlap of Borre and Jelling is obscured by the shortage of metal
ornaments and an almost complete lack of evidence from architec-
ture and furniture. It is troubling to know that bold primary
colours were applied to both picture and rune-stones, when today
we behold them all too anciently plain or freshly bedizened. But
none of this forbids a verdict on the art of the northern nations as a
vigorous, continuing, and triumphant activity, and an impressive
manifestation of viking culture and civilization.
The Norsemen were excellent workers in metal, producing
handsome weapons and agreeable ornaments for the person. How-
ever, in this they were at least matched by practitioners in other
parts of Europe. Of their skill in cloth-making, costume, and
tapestry we judge favourably on the strength of the little of their
product which has survived. In architecture they showed skill in
the use of turf, stone, and especially timber, and it is unfortunate
that no examples of their kings' halls and farm-complexes have
survived. To judge by late accounts and the evidence of archaeo-
logical excavation they surely produced buildings of much dignity,
good proportions, solid workmanship, and high artistic finish
constructions, that is, in their own way matching the viking ships.
But the distinctive achievements of viking art were in wood-
carving and picture stones. To judge by what has survived, Norway
was pre-eminent in the first and the island of Gotland in the second.
Wood and stone were native materials, and it was in these that
native artists excelled their contemporaries elsewhere.
Fittingly, the outstanding find of northern wood-carving comes
from a ship-burial. If not queen Asa (see p. 85 above), itwas
assuredly a royal lady who was howed at Oseberg (Slagen) near
 '.'V.

24. A NORWEGIAN VIKING

 —

'

**

-'

<>A>

N^>V
"

25. ANIMAL HEAD (a LION?) FROM SHETELIG's SLEIGH,

oseberg It has been suggested that these alarming heads were
intended to frighten off evil spirits and give protection to those
seated inside the four posts that bore them.
 The Scandinavian Community, III 337

Tunsberg in the Vestfold. Only a royal house, we assume, could

command the resources and artists needed for such a monument.
took place in an area of blue
Fortunately for posterity the burial
clay which together with a peat cover preserved the ship and its
grave goods for more than a thousand years till the excavation ot
1904. Almost the entire find, carefully preserved and suitably
restored, is now housed in the Viking Ship Hall at Bygdoy, Oslo,
to provide an unparalleled exhibition of the northern wood-carver's
art. Most notable are the ship's prow, the wagon, and three of the
sledges. They are the product of a number of artists of the first half
of the ninth century, whose work shows marked differences both in
its inspiration and technique. One's first impression is of rich
invention and vitality, in the long scrolls of interlaced animal-
patterns on the ship's bows, the fantastic yet regulated groupings of
gripping beasts and lugubriously comic human beings that enliven
her prow or beak (tingf), the sculptured animal heads of the bed-
posts (if stylized lions, to a layman somewhat equine lions), the
skilled open-work at the rear of the wagon shafts, the narrative
carvings on the wagon's front and sides, and the alarming animal-
head posts on Gustafson's sledge. If the first requisite of art is that
it should be alive, these have it. One is aware, too, of the luxuriance

of fancy here: the proliferation of design, the intricate frames and

borders with their gripping beasts, biting beasts, bird forms and
serpentinings, the nicely differentiated human features, and the
overall discipline which holds everything firmly in place. The
Oseberg artists show differing degrees of sophistication, but their
engagement, even their exultation, in what they were producing is
discernible in each one. The gripping beasts of Oseberg are a good
illustration of this. We have no certain indication of where this
exciting little creature came from. Some give him an ancestry in
Carolingian lion-forms; others derive all his features from earlier
Scandinavian work. In either case he was a lusus naturae. Lion, dog,
cat, bear are among his suggested constituents. The head is large,
the eyes goggling, the nose blobbed, the mouth small. The forehead
is and the back of the head carries a pigtail or scalplock.
baldish,
The expression of the full face can be at once fierce and comic. The
body varies in width but the waist is thin the thighs can be plump
;

and pear-shaped. His paws (one would prefer to say hands and feet)
give him his name they
: are for ever gripping the sides of his
frame, a neighbouring animal, some portion of himself, or sometimes
338 A History of the Vikings
all Two engaging little creatures on the bronze
of these together.
oval brooch from Lisbjerg in Denmark have spared one hand for a
stranglehold on their own throats. This eccentricity aside, they
look like grown kittens. Gripping beasts are to be found in great
number throughout the ninth century. Their compactness and
mobility allowed the artist endless variations : the more naturalistic
of them without particularly resembling some well-known
recall
modern cartoon creations, and the young of the feline and ursine
species in their most supple and strenuous postures. The less
naturalistic achieve improbable feats of boneless contortion and
wear looks of consternation. Grotesque, varied, ferocious, filled with
energy, and lending itself to sallies of virile wit and humour, the
gripping beast seems to have fascinated Scandinavian artists of the
ninth century, who with all their interest in animal motifs had
never found one quite so intriguing as this.

50. THE GRIPPING BEAST

Ornament of a brooch from Lisbjerg, Jutland, Denmark.

Some of the carving in the Oseberg find tells a story. On the

front board of thewagon, over a band of fierce serpent forms is the
picture of a man grappling with snakes, while a toad-like creature
bites him in the side. Another man is fighting with a four-legged
 The Scandinavian Community, III 339

beast, and all around are other animals, snakes, and birds in a welter
of combat. Possibly the chief figure represents Gunnar in the snake-
pit. Similar fighting snakes and animals decorate the backboard.
Down the sides is a wealth ofanimal ornament, the elongated beasts,
seen mostly in profile, gripping and biting each other in a pattern at
once violent and controlled. There is a dramatic insertion in the
middle of the upper board on the right hand side, which has been
interpreted in widely differing ways (Plate 4). It shows three
human figures: on the right a man on horseback riding into the
centre of the picture; in the middle another man, who has caught
the horse's bridle in his hand and holds a sword aloft in his right;
left

behind him stands a handsomely dressed woman, wearing fine

necklaces, and with a strenuous head of hair, who has caught the
second man by his sword-hand. Whoever they are they meet in a
tense and hostile moment. All three faces are filled with determina-
The stance in each case is unyielding. A hint of rigidity in the
tion.
human figures compared with the swirling menace of the creatures
on the frieze below adds to the drama of their situation.
The elaborate animal heads topping the corner posts of the
sledges probably served a practical purpose. They protected anyone
sitting in the sledge by frightening off evil spirits. It has been
conjectured that those set on the end of metre-long posts or handles
were carried in processions, but this awaits proof. They have been
ascribed to different artists, to whom descriptive titles have been
given according to the style of their work the Academician, the
:

Carolingian, and the Baroque Master. They worked with varying

degrees of mastery to produce these predatory heads, generally
assumed to be leonine, and to enrich heads and posts with the most
intricate and demanding ornamental patterns. The Academician's
work is distinguished not only by the strong line of the gaping,
blunt-toothed head, and the brilliant adaptation of his decorative
patterns to its curves, but by the smooth neck and unfussed geo-
metric ornament at the post's lower extremity. The Carolingian
heads are clumsier and more barbarously decorated; those of the
Baroque Master justify their name by the luxuriant richness of their
ornament. Even the snout is enriched with a further beast-image,

part animal, part bird, winged and horned; the protruding eyes are
made more conspicuous with silver plates ; the ornamenting of the
head and neck, often deeply carved, is filled with twisting, inter-
laced, and sometimes frenetic forms. All these animal heads are
340 A History of the Vi kings

vivid, powerful creations in their own right, and doubly impressive

in their context.
The Oseberg find consists of objects from the early Viking Age
down to the middle of the ninth century. The main change in the
tenth century was the movement away from the lavish modelling
of the Oseberg styles to an emphasis on line and composition. Any
such statement is a simplification, but the Jelling style is a very clear
departure from Oseberg and Borre. The style is named after the

51. THE GREAT

BEAST
Ornament of the
Heggen Vane from
Modum, Akershus,
Norway.

ribbon-like animal form (rather like an elongated S, and frequently

crossed with another of the same shape) found in the grave chamber
in the northern Jelling mound in 1820. It is not named after the
'great beast' depicted on the memorial stone erected at Jelling by
Harald Bluetooth (see pp. 117 above). That, unfortunately for
nomenclature, is an example of Mammen style, and its most
important and influential example, with considerable consequences
for Scandinavian and English art in the eleventh century. The stone,
'a semi-pyramidal boulder of red-veined, grey granite, some 8 ft.

high and damaged slightly at the top' (to quote Klindt-Jensen's

succinct description), was set up c. 980, and is the most imposing
runic monument in all Scandinavia. One of its three faces is filled
 The Scandinavian Community, HI 341

with all save the concluding half-dozen words ofHarald's tribute to his
father, mother, and himself. The second contains the representation
of a big lion entwined with a snake, and the third a stylized picture
of Christ bound and crucified, together with those few words of the
runic inscription which refer to the conversion of the Danes to
Christianity. Despite its borderand interlace it is a simple and rather
but of great interest because it is the first signific-
stiff composition,

ant representation of Christ in Scandinavian art. The artist had

evidently studied essays at the same subject by foreign artists.
The Mammen style is named after the findmade at the place of
that name in Jutland, which included a very fine iron axe-head
inlaid with silver, and bearing on one side a prototypal image of a
creature which is certainly an animal, and probably a lion, but whose
head is not unlike a bird's. The Jelling Hon is a more imperial beast,
with a more heraldic stance, but close analysis shows much similarity
in their detail. They are both portrayed with a double outline, there
is an interlaced snake or snake-like band, they have rather small,

cockerel-proud heads, spiral hips and a lip-lappet. Both have foliate

features which suggest Carolingian or English influence. The great
beast of the Jelling stone, strong, energetic, and elegant, would
provide Scandinavian art with a dominant animal-motif to the end
of the Viking Age. He would be copied more or less faithfully, with
his bands, claws, pointed ears, and acanthus-leaf tail decoration, or
he would be modified according to the inspiration and skill of the
individual artist, till eventually we find him, in Ringerike style,
featured on some of the most celebrated works of art of the late
tenth and eleventh centuries, the Sollested horse-collar, the vanes
from Heggen in Norway and Soderala in Sweden, the sarcophagus
from St. Paul's churchyard now in the Guildhall, London, the
Bamberg and Cammins caskets in Germany, rune-stones at home,
and stone crosses abroad. In the full Ringerike development the
design is distinguished by a quality of movement and the pro-
liferation of graceful tendrils in place of the ears and tail. Sometimes
the entire snake is expressed in Ringerike foliation. Sometimes the
snake takes over, and either alone or with a colleague or two is the
mainstay of many pleasing patterns on east Swedish rune-stones.
Finally the great beast, astonishingly refined and literally thinned-
down, becomes the new animal motif of the graceful Urnes style, as
it is exemplified in the north portal of the Urnes stave church, the

second and concluding glory of Norwegian woodcarving, and in

342 A History of the Vikings
manly delightful brooches, of which that from Lindholm Hoje, now
in Alborg Museum, is probably the best known in Scandinavia, and
that from Pitney, Somerset, the most beautiful in England.
There remain for separate mention the picture stones of Gotland.
Hundreds of memorial stones were produced from the local lime-
stone from the fifth century onwards, and in pre-viking and viking
times (more especially during the eighth and eleventh centuries)
they grew richly informative. General themes are easily recognized
ships on a journey, men fighting in battle or defending a house, a
warrior being welcomed home or into Valhalla, often by a woman
who offers him a drinking-horn, stories of gods and heroes. At the
beginning of this book we described the rock-carvings of Bohuslan,
Kivik, Simris, and their like, as the picture-galleries of the Bronze
Age. The pictured memorial stones of Gotland are their counter-
part for the Viking Age. We shall describe just three of them, all
well known and readily available through photographs: Ardre
VHI, Larbro I, and Klinte Hunninge I. The first, about seven feet
tall, with its sides inclining inwards to a 'neck', and with the normal

52. THE URNES BEAST

Ornament of the west gable of Urnes Church, Norway.
 The Scandinavian Community, III 343

rounded top, is filled with narrative detail. In the upper field, i.e.

that circumscribed by the rounded top edge and a decorative band

across the neck, there is top-left a representation of Valhalla, a
building with three arched entrances and seven apertures above
them. Beneath it a group of people are carrying some kind of pole
just above head-level. Most of the right half of the top panel is

filledby Odinn's eight-legged horse Sleipnir, with the god on his

back. The horse would seem to be galloping. Above Odinn there is
a crumpled warrior, dead but still clutching his sword. In the much
larger lower panel the top-left quarter is filled by
witha viking ship
extended as it rides over high tip-curled waves. It has a
its sail fully

look-out man in the prow, a steersman in the stern, complete with

rudder, and a crew with swords in their belts. The rest of the stone
is heavily loaded, but we recognize Loki in durance and his wife
Sigyn with a horn trying to catch the venom from the snakes that
surround him; likewise part of the story of Volund the Smith. There
is smithy with tongs and hammers, the headless bodies of
his
Nithad's sons, and Volund in the shape of a bird flyingaway from
Nithad's daughter Bodvild. Left of her are Thor and Hymir fishing
for the Midgard Snake. Bottom centre is a building containing two
men and a cow. A man outside has hold of the cow's halter. This
leaves five small groups of figures unexplained and to the writer
inexplicable. To the right of the stable, which has a paved floor,
stands a dog.
The Larbro stone is less complicated (Plate 13). The stone itself
is narrower than Ardre VTH, and its sections are marked off with
clear horizontal lines. In the topmost and semicircular panel a
battle is taking place, with eagles and dead men. A mounted
warrior has fallen to the ground. Two men apart in a building, their
swords uplifted, appear to be taking an oath together. In the section
below we see the eight-legged Sleipnir walking with a dead man on
his back. Behind him, and facing in the opposite direction, are three
men with down-turned swords. In the third section a warrior with
a splendid shield rides proudly at the head of four armed men. He is
greeted by a man holding a drinking-horn. The bottom panel (it
fills half the stone) contains a big viking ship in full sail, her side
lined with shields, her crew attentive to the rigging, with look-out
man and steersman, and under her the familiar tall and curling
waves. It is hard to say whether her prow and stern end in spirals or
in animal heads, but probably the latter are intended.
344 A History of the Vikings
The stone from Klinte Hunninge offers some interesting varia-
tions.The principal figures in the upper semicircular area are two
warriors fighting with sword and shield — it looks quite a formal
encounter —and a rider armed with and spear and accom-
shield
panied by his dog. The middle panel has a stiff and awkward viking
ship under sail, over the usual stylized waves. Like the Ardre
(and Oseberg) ship she has a spiral at prow and stern. Immediately
thereunder is a portrayal of Loki plagued by snakes, with the

53. A DANISH STONE-CUTTER

The inscribers and carvers on stone
in pre-vikingand viking times
seem not to have used a chisel but
a pointed hammer of the kind
displayed in the self-portrait of the
mason Gote above. Gjol Church,
Jutland.

faithfulSigyn in attendance. But the intriguing picture is at the

bottom. Here two men are defending a gabled house with bows and
arrows, in a scene reminiscent of that relating to Volund and Egill
on the Franks Casket (Plate 3). As on the Ardre stone, a man out-
side the house has taken hold of the halter of the very large cow
standing within. Parts of the picture are difficult to interpret, but
the attackers seem to be getting the worst of it.
These and comparable scenes recur again and again on the
memorial stones of Gotland, and still wider throughout the viking
lands and colonies. The story of Sigurd the dragon-killer was a
particular favourite, and would persist in a different medium,
woodcarving, till well after the end of heathendom in Norway
(Plate 28). And there were other forms of pictorial art, for example
the scenes on the Oseberg wagon mentioned above, and the
processionals and depictions of hanged men on the Oseberg tapestry
(Plate 21). We read frequently of wall tapestries in great houses, and
sometimes of shields like the one a tipsy Egill Skallagrimsson spoiled
in the whey-tub at the Vidimyr bridal, pictured with old tales, set
 The Scandinavian Community, III 345

with stones, and with twelve ounces of gold in the cross-pieces. But
enough, one trusts, has been said to establish the distinction and
distinctiveness of viking art.

All this while, along with religion and art, there was law in the
northlands, pronounced and dispensed at the local Things, or courts,
which grew up with the herreds or local communities they served;
at the supra-Things associated with such large regional units as the
Trondelag or Vestland in Norway, the demarcated spheres of
Jutland and the Danish islands and possessions whose legal and
administrative centres were towns like Viborg, Hedeby, and Ring-
sted, and likewise the main divisions of Sweden and Gotaland, and
the four Quarters of Iceland; or at such national assemblies for law
as were established at Thingvellir in Iceland and, we think, at
Gardar in the Eastern Settlement of Greenland. All such Things
underwent the change from heathendom to Christianity (Gardar
presumably came into being only in Christian times), and their
laws were first committed to writing after this change. From the
point of view of the student of the Viking Age this happened over-
late. He has to wait upon documents of the twelfth and even the

thirteenth century for a backward glance at eighth- to eleventh-

century law, and this commits him to a highly subjective process of
sheer speculation. 1 It was long held that a substantial body of
custom and law could be recovered from saga sources, and indeed it
can, but what is now very much in dispute is how reliable was the
information transmitted to thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
authors, how scrupulous were they in using it, and how far should
we trust to them. The answer gets ever dustier. From Konungsbok,
Stadarhohbok, Codex Regius, Jdrmida, and Jonsbok we have a most
detailed knowledge of Icelandic law in the thirteenth century.

1 The literature is considerable. The following are important: K. Lehmann

and Hans Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Die Njdls-sage Insbesondere in Ihren Juristiscben
Bestandtbeilen, Berlin, 1883 ; Jon Johannesson, Islendinga Saga, I, pp. 53-117, IT,

pp. 13-44, Reykjavik, 1956-8; Poul Jorgensen, Retshistorie, Nordisk Kultur,

XVHI, 1933, and Dansk Retshistorie, Copenhagen, 1947; A. Taranger, Udsigt
over den norske rets bistorie, Oslo, 1935. In English see L. M. Larson, The Earliest
Norwegian Laws, NewYork, 1935; in French, Aa. Gregersen, Vlslande, son
Statut a travers les Ages, Paris, 1937. The two close-packed works of Andreas
Heusler, Das Strafrecbt der Isldndersagas, Leipzig, 191 1, and 'Zum Islandischen
Fehdewesen in der Sturlungazeit', Abhandl. der K. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss, 1912,
are rich in information, but draw some wrong general conclusions from it.
346 A History of the Vi kings

Sometimes the sagas in their portrayal of Soguold Iceland (930-

1030) agree with it, which tells us little, and sometimes not, which
tells us still less, for it is no longer a tenable assumption that any

saga whatsoever can be believed through thick and thin. Even if a

saga is corroborated by other sagas or by a work of different intent
like Landndmabok, we have to satisfy ourselves that we are
still

dealing with two independent sources rather than one source and a
borrowing, and that the relevant portion of Landndmabok (or
Flateyjarbok or Heimskringld) is itself open to proof or deserving of
trust. This and similar considerations have played havoc with old-
style romantic reconstructions of Viking Age law. Temple-law
grows suspect when we doubt the existence of temples; warrior-
law is unacceptable when recorded in sagas as unreliable as Joms-
vikinga Saga and Hdlfs Saga, holmgang-law requires a hard look
indeed as preserved for Iceland in Kormdks Saga and for Norway in
Egils Saga. Court procedure as described in close detail in Njdls Saga
is of the thirteenth century, not the late tenth and early eleventh,

and so on.
Even so, we have a number of pointers to the place of law in
Scandinavian life, including some from the Danelaw in England.
It was associated with the Thing; it was the prerogative of all free

men ; and its operation was public. It would be naive to think that
rank and wealth never swayed the courts or affected legal decisions.
When the Danish invaders of Normandy were challenged from the
bank of the river Eure and asked the name of their leader, they are
said to have shouted back that he had no name. 'We are all equal.'

—
Ganga-HrolPs gloss on this has not been preserved perhaps that
equal they might be, but not all equally equal. But the free-born
householder was sensitive to encroachment on his independence
throughout the Scandinavian homelands and colonies, and never
more so than in respect of his right to express his opinion in open
assembly. It was his shout and clash of arms which gave validity to
Thing-decisions. The law was very much in the public domain.
Areas of the law are easily guessed at. There must be regulations
for establishing, conducting, and closing the Thing, and for dis-
charging its business in due order and with proper safeguards. There
were laws relating to frequent causes of civil dispute boundary —
marks, hunting rights, flotsam and jetsam, the felling of trees and
collection of firewood, infringement of grazing and the like; to libel,
satire, calumny, the making of love songs, sheep-stealing, turning
 The Scandinavian Community, III 347

people's butter sour, and wooing their bees; to offences against the
person, with an endless gradation of injury and penalty from cutting
off a finger to cutting off a head. There were laws about the flouting
of public morality, hurt to the community, and eventually about
good old viking practices like strandbogg which had grown intoler-
able. There were laws dealing with fines, death, and outlawry.
Increasingly there were laws about strangers and foreign nationals
and the processes of trade. Religious observance, respect for holy
places, the property of married women, and the huge and debatable
sphere of manslaughter, self-defence, fair fight, burning indoors,
killing under provocation, killing by night, in the king's presence,
or in a holy place, unavowed killing, infamous killing, and murder
most foul —eventually the law would have something to say about
them all. The individual had his value, and the value could be
fixed. Elaborate wergelds, sometimes counted in silver, sometimes
in woollen, sometimes in cows, were the guarantee that a man might
not be attacked with impunity in his person, family, property, or
honour. Under all these heads the law spoke for the dignity of free
men.
roman alphabet the
Literally spoke. Before the adoption of the
runic mode of northern was not well suited to codex or
inscription
chronicle (though one such codex is known: the Codex Runicus,
AM 28 8vo), and the body of law must needs be carried in the
memory. There was no mystery about this. First, there were private
individuals knowledgeable in the law, and useful as advisers and
consultants to those with a case to plead or defend. These, under
one title or another, were lawmen. Second, in Iceland in particular
we hear a good deal about the lawspeaker, an elected official whose
business it was to hold the law in memory and recite one-third of it
each year for three years at the main assembly. He was a speaking
codex (no one, of course, would claim that he had no written aids
to memory), the ultimate authority, and we know the names of
those Icelanders who held the office from 930 to the end of the
Republic in 1262-4. They make an impressive list. A grounding in
law was part of a chieftain's education and contributory to his in-
fluence and power. And while the bondi depended on the law to make
his life safer and easier, the law depended on the goodwill and parti-
cipation of the bondi to make it operative. Theirs was a happy and
mutually profitable partnership, still further improved when much
of the law was christianized.
348 A History of the Vikings

Legal procedure was far from perfect —but when was it other-
wise? The enforcement of sentence was sometimes and
difficult,

occasionally impossible. There was a strong emphasis on the liti-

—
gants themselves too much depended on their private initiative
and energy, and the backing they could command. There is evidence
from Norway, Sweden, and Iceland that a litigant could appeal,
literally, to the sword when he considered that the forms of law

were inadequate in an affair affecting his honour. Yet on the whole

the northern peoples were obedient to the rule of law, enjoyed its
benefits in respect of their persons and property, and found it a
stabilizer of their social order from king and chieftain to bondi and
thrall. What might appear classic evidence of a wholesale flouting

—
of law, legal procedure, and the Thing namely, the tale of feud
—
and blood- vengeance unfolded by the Icelandic sagas on reflection
proves to be nothing of the kind, first because of the fictional
nature of a good part of it, and second because in any case the writers
of sagas were not concerned with the law's successes and unspec-
tacular benefits, but with its infrequent causes celebres. In other words,
even if we take saga evidence at its face value, our conclusion must
be that the Icelanders were the same law-abiding and litigious people
during the viking centuries that they are today. As for the Scandin-
avian peoples in general, their respect for law, their insistence upon
its public and democratic exercise at the Thing, and its validity for
all men, together with their evolution of a primitive and ex-
free
portable jury system, is one of the distinctive features of their
culture throughout the Viking Age, eloquent of the value they set
on the individual man and woman, and the enlightened pragmatism
of their thinking.

And now, with three chapters on the Scandinavian Community, its

geography, race, language, social structure, means of livelihood,
and law behind us, and some account rendered of the
religion, art,
Viking Age at home and the viking movement abroad, the tempta-
tion is strong to offer generalizations about the viking himself,
produce a 'typical' figure, and prop him against the museum wall
with his catalogue number and descriptive label. It is a temptation
to be resisted because of its limiting and misleading consequences.
Harald Hardradi, who waged war from Asia Minor to Stamford
Bridge for thirty-five years, was a viking; so was his father Sigurd
Sow, who stayed at home and counted haystacks. Hastein, who led
 The Scandinavian Community, III 349

the Great Army of the Danes into England in the early 890s, was a
viking; so was Ottar, who came peaceably to his lord king Alfred's
court with walrus tusks and lessons in northern geography. The
men who destroyed churches in England, Ireland, and France were
vikings; so were the woodcarvers of Oseberg and the metalworkers
of Mammen. The men who said 'With law shall the land be built up
and with lawlessness wasted away' were vikings; so were the
practisers and curtailers of blood-feud, the profit-makers and those
who robbed them of profit, the explorers and colonizers, the shapers
of verse-forms and makers of legends. The kings and their counsel-
lors who brought the Scandinavian countries within the boundaries
of Christian Europe were vikings. In short, the viking is the aggre-
gate of this book and recalcitrant to summary.
However, most peoples and most ages nourish an image which
they appear to prize, and by which posterity seeks to define their
peculiar quality. There is no lack of mirrors for the Viking Age, held
up by southern chroniclers and northern skalds and story-tellers
alike. When Rognvald Kali, jarl of Orkney 1135-58, listed his per-
sonal accomplishments he versified within a tradition. 'I am a keen
player at tafl ['tables', a hunt-game sometimes confused with chess]
nine skills I know; hardly will I make a mistake with runes, I have
books and crafts constantly in hand; I can glide on skis, shoot and
row, to meet any occasion; I am master of the two arts of harping
and poetry.' It was an illuminating remark attributed to king
Harald Hardradi of Norway about bishop Gizur Isleifsson of Ice-
land, that he was fit to be a king, a leader of vikings, or a bishop. As
for manly virtue, the favourite themes of poets are valour, loyalty,
open-handedness. When the greatest of northern poets, the Ice-
lander Egill Skallagrimsson, set out to praise Eirik Blood-axe in his
'Head-ransom', he concentrated on Eirik's battles in Norway and
abroad
Swordmetal pealed King reddened sword,
On rim of shield Came ravens a horde.
Strife round him reeled Bright lifeblood outpoured
Who ranged that field. As shafts flew abroad.
Heard was the yell Scots' scourge bade feed
Of bladefury fell, Trollwife's wolfsteed,
Ironstorm's knell Hel trod with her feet
Past far sea's swell. The eagles' nightmeat

and drove the praise home with his twin refrains

350 A History of the Vikings

Bright fame he gat, Eirik o'er sea

Eirik from that. Paid the wolves' fee. 1

In the paean to manly virtue which Egill composed for the friend of
his heart, Arinbjorn the hersir, it is his staunchness and good faith

he celebrates, along with his generosity:

There stood one He's cruel to wealth

Staunch beside me, Who dwells in the Firths
Better than many Dread enemy
A money;
foe to Of Draupnir's kin;
True friend of mine And a stern foe
I'm free to trust in, To bracelets stands;
Glorious grown Fatal to rings,
In every counsel. And treasure's bane.

Without qualities like these, and an attendant good fortune (for

'Good parts are one thing, good luck another'), it was hard for a man
to win good report, especially from the skalds. But the most
significant source of life's wisdom in the viking north will be found
not in narrative verse or public eulogy, but in the gnomic poetry of
the Poetic Edda, and there, chiefly, in the Havamdl, the Sayings of
the High One, i.e. Odinn. This is a fairly long poem of its kind,
containing 164 verses or stanzas, and although it passed through
several recensions before it was committed to vellum in the thirteenth
century, it is much or even most of it was transmitted
agreed that
by from heathen times. Its precepts are strikingly
oral tradition
unconsonant with popular conceptions of the Viking, whether as a
superhuman hero and devotee of Wyrd, hell-bent on doom and
destruction, and quitting life with a jest or laconic aphorism; as a
pure-blooded, clean-living, noble-thoughted nordic gentleman,
looking with innocent blue eyes on the tortuous corruptions of his
southern neighbours; or even a piratical, bloodthirsty, loot-laden
rapist, whose favourite tipple was mead quaffed from a dead enemy's
brainpan. The maxims, directives, warnings,and concealed pro-

1 The rhymes here represent the rhyme-scheme of the original poem.

In Scandinavian court metre, drottkvtdr hdttr, rhyme and assonance are to be
found only within the line, the lines themselves being linked by alliteration
(see the verse on page 414). Rhymed verse, runbenda metre, would seem to be
Egill's own invention, c. 948, and may derive from the Old English rhymed
verse, and still more the rhymed Latin hymns (themselves owing something
to Irish-Latin hymns), which Egil presumably heard during his earlier stay in
king Athelstan's court. For a brief bibliography see my EgiPsSaga, p. 15, n. 20.
 The Scandinavian Community, III 351

verbs of early tenth-century Norway and Iceland, as they are pre-

served in the High One's wisdom, are above all prudential. The
question is, How shall a man conduct himself so that his life may be
reasonably happy and reasonably successful, reasonably blest with
friends, reasonably useful to the community, and reasonably free
of harmful entanglements? The freely but, I hope, reasonably
rendered verses which follow are part of the answer.

Before proceeding up the hall, study all the doorways. You never
know when an enemy will be present.

A guest needs water, towel, and a welcome, a warm word if he can

get it, and the right sort of entertainment.

There is no better load a man can carry than much commonsense; no

worse than too much drink.
A man of mark should be reticent, thoughtful, and brave in battle.
Everyone should be happy and cheerful till he reaches the end.
Only a fool lies awake all night and broods over his problems. When
morning comes he is worn-out, and his troubles the same as before.
Only a fool thinks all who smile with him are friends. He will find
when he reaches the law-court how few real backers he has.
Better a house of your own, however small it be. Everyone is some-
body at home. Two goats and a poor-roofed cot are better than begging.
Out in the fields a man should never be parted from his weapons.
No one knows when a man in the open has need of a spear.

On the other hand, we must cultivate the good life, friends and
company. We can do this and still keep our wits about us.
A man should not be grudging of the money he makes. Often what we
intend for those we love is laid up for those we dislike. Matters
frequently turn out worse than we expect.
Be a friend to your friend; match gift with gift. Meet smiles with
smiles, and lies with dissimulation.

Iwas young once and walked by myself, and lost my way. I knew
myself rich when I found a comrade. Man's joy is in man.
Generous and brave men get the best out of life; they seldom bring
harassments on themselves. But a coward fears everything, and a
miser groans at a gift.
Out in the fields I gave my clothes to two scarecrows. They thought
themselves champions once they had trappings. A naked man is
shorn of confidence.
352 A History of the Vikings

A big gift is not necessary. Esteem can often be bought on the cheap.
With half a loaf and a tilted bottleI have gained a companion.

A man should be moderately wise, never too wise. He who does not
know his fate in advance is freest of care.
A man with few helpers must rise early and look to his work. A
late-morning sleeper carries a heavy handicap. Keenness is halfway to
riches.

Confide in one, never in two. Confide in three and the whole world
knows.

Life is its own good. Take care to enjoy it and leave a good name
behind. The best thing in life is to be alive and happy.

The lame can ride a horse, a man without hands herd sheep; the deaf
can fight and prevail, it is better to be blind than burn [i.e. be
cremated because dead]. A corpse is useless to everyone.
It is good to have a son, though he be born late, after the death of his
father. Seldom will a memorial stand by the roadside unless kin erect
it for kin.

Cattle die, kinsfolk die, we ourselves must die. One thing I know
will never die — the dead man's reputation.
Praise no day until evening, no wife before her cremation, no sword
till tested, no maid before marriage, no ice till crossed, no ale till it's
drunk.

In view of the honourable position accorded to women in northern

society, the Hdvamdl poet sounds less than cordial to them. In-
stead of the warm and often moving tributes to mothers, wives,
sisters, on the runic stones, the brief utterances of love and loss,

here are warning tugs at our sleeve.

No one should trust the words of a girl or what a married woman

says.Their hearts have been shaped on a turning wheel, and inconst-
ancy dwells in their breasts.
He who would win a woman's love must speak her fair and offer
presents, praise the lovely lady's figure. It is the flatterer who carries
the day.
Great love turns the sons of men from wise men into fools.
Be cautious, but not too cautious. Above
be cautious with ale or
all

another man's wife. And, third, watch out that thieves don't make a
fool of you.

And finally a curious injunction as to the gods

 The Scandinavian Community, III 353

Better no prayers than excessive offerings: a gift always seeks a

recompense. Better no offering than excessive sacrifice. So declared
Thundr (Odinn) before man's memory began.
These and the similar admonitions of Sigrdrifumdl, Reginsmdl, and
Grogaldr are the work of realists. They come from men who drive
their cows to a hard market. 'Don't argue with a fool, you have
more —
to lose than he Be patient with your kinsfolk, however
—
exasperating they appear Don't get involved with a married
—
woman, and steer clear of female gossip Never start a journey on
—
an empty belly A living dog is better than a dead lion Marry a —
—
bargain, buy at a profit Don't live to yourself, this makes you
ingrown and uninformed.' There is no fine excess in any of this, no
striking of attitudes. The Havamal is a guide to conduct not to virtue.
At best it commends enlightened self-interest. The absence of moral
sanction has been many times noted; law and tradition are hardly
mentioned; religion, as distinct from mythology, cuts little ice. A
man is heard at the bar of public opinion; the verdict is that of a jury
of neighbours. Folk wisdom, peasant cunning, mercantile caution,
and the soldier's prejudice against being caught with his trousers
down, have all contributed to the cool pragmatism of the gnomic
poems. They are not the whole story, but serve as a corrective to
high-flown sentiment and the heroic ideal, which also have their
place. The northern ethos was the product of northern life and fully
explicable in the setting of the Viking Age and viking movement,
whose characteristics have now been set forth.
2.Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf,
and Knut the Great

W HEN IN THE MILLENNIAL YEAR 1000 KING OLAF

Tryggvason in his scarlet cloak leapt from the gunwale of the Long
Serpent at Svold, and the kingdom of Norway broke from his hand,
the lords of three realms inherited. Olaf Skottkonung of Sweden
made the long-desired western advance into the former Gautish
coastal territories of Ranrike-Bohuslan and into the eastern districts
of the Trondelag. Jarl Eirik of Hladir, the magnanimous, temperate
son of that immoderate lover of gods, gold, and women, jarl Hakon
Sigurdarson, received the coastal provinces of the west from far-

away Halogaland beyond the Polar Circle in the north to the green
fieldsand early harvests of the Jaeder and Agdir in the south. To
Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, the shrewd and purposeful engineer of
the confederacy which destroyed the Norwegian Olaf, came the
traditional areas of Danish overlordship in the Vik. In fact, his gains
were more substantial than this. Jarl Eirik was his liegeman and son-
in-law, and while in the viking world it was not always safe to trust
to such relationships (Olaf Tryggvason was Svein's brother-in-law,
which helped him not at all), jarl Eirik's loyalty to Svein, as to his
son Knut after him, was as absolute as it was profitable. King Olaf
of Sweden entrusted part of his Norwegian territory to jarl Eirik's
brother Svein, and since Eirik seems to have been the ablest, as he
was certainly the most celebrated of all those brothers, it would
seem to follow that king Svein's influence throughout much of
Norway was strong indeed. And a firm hold there not only streng-
thened Denmark in a Scandinavian context; it made possible a
stepping-up of Svein's ambitions in respect of England.
After the expulsion of Eirik Blood-axe from York in 954, his
heroic yet somehow paltry death, and the seizure of Northumbria by
 Svein Fork beard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 355

the English king Eadred, England was to enjoy a quarter of a cen-

tury's freedom from Norse aggression. This fortunate period ended
in 980. England's western neighbour Wales had enjoyed her respite
earlier, from 918 till 952, when the death of one of the most re-
nowned of Welsh kings, Hywel Dda ('the Good'), offered the
Norsemen of Dublin and then of Limerick, too, together with their
compatriots in Man, opportunities for gain and adventure they
were prompt to make use of. The raids grew worse after 980; the
cathedral of St. David's in Dyfed was sacked four times between
982 and 989; and Norse armies several times espoused a cause of
profit on behalf of one scuffling Welsh prince or another. It is pro-
bable that they had more success in the southern half of the country
during these fifty years than written history records, and, as in
Ireland, fostered along the South Wales seaboard small marts and
havens. In England as in Wales the renewal of Norse activity coin-
cided with, or was inspired by, a change for the worse in rulers.
The strong Eadred had been followed after the four-year interlude
of Eadwig the All-fair by the strong Edgar in 959. Out of his strength
he could treat the Danes in England at once generously and firmly.
They need no longer be the alien people of a conquered province,
but fellow subjects with the English of an English king. They would
serve him war and accept their lay and ecclesiastical lords at his
in
hand. The would be as real in the Danelaw (it would
king's peace
shortly acquire this title) as in Wessex and Mercia, but their proved
loyalty would be rewarded with an ungrudging recognition of Danish
law and custom, and the right to manage regional affairs in their
own way. On the face of it, self-interest if nothing better should
make them Edgar died in 975
a contented part of the English realm.
and was followed by his son Edward, of whom we know little save
that he was young, unstable, resented by many, murdered in 978,
and in time dubbed saint and martyr. He was succeeded by his 12-
year-old brother Ethelred, from his accession to our own day one of
the most fiercely reprehended of English monarchs. It was early in
his disturbed, unhappy reign (978-1016) that the viking scourge
again upon England.
fell

The situation was a familiar one. In Denmark and the neighbour-

ing north political change and material needs encouraged adven-
turers and restless men to try their hand at the old courses just when
their natural prey invited assault by internal weakness and irresolu-
tion. But by now Normandy and the Frankish lands were closed to
356 A History of the Vikings
them, and the Danelaw was occupied by their own kith and kin ; so
the raids of the early 980s were almost all directed against the coast-
line from Hampshire round to Cheshire, and were carried out by
bands of limited size. But a change was heralded by Svein's succession
to the Danish throne in 985 or soon thereafter. At what point in time
Svein began to think of subduing England, as distinct from plunder-
—
ing it, no one can say whether the idea came to him slowly as he
first heard tell of and then witnessed for himself the lack of will in

England under Ethelred, or whether it was the destruction of Olaf

Tryggvason in the year 1000 and the murder of his own sister in the
St. Brice's day massacre of November 1002 which half led, half drove
him to a course of action as gratifying to his ambitions as to his
need for revenge. In any case the contrast between the calculating
and purposeful Svein and the uncounselled and fitful Ethelred is as
sharp as the differing fates of their peoples.
But first the young Olaf Tryggvason, trained in arms among the
Rus of Novgorod and graduated to piracy in the Baltic, hung in the
wings awaiting his tempestuous entrance upon the English scene.
Trustworthy details of his early exploits there are lacking in both
English and Norse sources. The battle of Maldon, where one version
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A) puts Olaf (Unlaf, Anlaf) in command
of the invading Norsemen, passed unmentioned in northern verse
and saga. Byrhtnoth's brave but as it turned out foolhardy stand
against overwhelming odds, his promise to glut the host with spear
and sword and hard battle-play instead of the gold they demanded,
found no remembrancer among the victors and few imitators —
among the vanquished. Olaf's campaign over, he and Ethelred made
a treaty together which offers valuable information about trade and
shipping customs of the time (see p. 163 above), stipulates that all

past offences between the peoples should be dismissed from mind,

and concludes with an unadorned statement that 22,000 pounds of
gold and silver have been paid to the vikings in exchange for peace. 1
The Chronicle under the same year speaks of a payment of 10,000
pounds. If there was one thing that everyone had learned by this
time, whether payers or paid, it was that the truce resultant upon
a forced tribute would be brief. Olaf Tryggvason is not heard of in
England for a couple of years, but he would be back in 994, and in the
meantime part of the viking force campaigned on, and two main

1 Liebermann : Gesetze der Angehachsen, Halle, 1903-16, 1, 220 ff.

 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 357

attempts to defeat them foundered on the treachery or cowardice

of English leaders in the field.

Olaf Tryggvason, we have said, reappeared to plague England in

994.He had warships, warriors, and as ally king Svein Forkbeard of
Denmark. The pattern of viking was changing when great kings and
kings-to-be rather than the old-style captains brought their wave-
stallions over the ocean's back to England. There are indications
that already there were English noblemen prepared to take Svein as
their king —
men who could see no other remedy for the ineptitude
of Ethelred. The martial glory of Alfred's line was now tarnished;
in high places there was malaise where there should be judgement
and valour; and the commonalty lost heart when half-heartedly led.
But the storm of 994 was weathered, though at heavy price, because
the alliance of Olaf and Svein was between two destined enemies
and in the nature of things could not persist. Also, the men of
London defended their city so bravely that the vikings failed in their
attempt to burn and suffered heavy casualties. Fetched up hard,
it

they followed their usual practice, abandoned the siege, harried in

Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, found themselves mounts, and
rode far and wide on errands of plunder and destruction. The English
paid 16,000 pounds as the price of peace, and provisioned the host
from the whole kingdom of Wessex. Olaf and Svein parted at once.
The Dane returned home by way of Wales and Man, pillaging as he
went. He was not the man to forget England, and would return.
Olaf was baptized and left England for good. After 995 his fate lay
in Norway.
While these two fleeting allies settled into their more natural
role of enemies back home, the exploitation of English weakness
continued. In the three years 997-9 a Danish army ravaged the
coasts of Wessex almost at will, and one of the unhappiest entries in
the Chronicle expresses the exasperation and dismay of the inhabi-
ants there

999. In this year the host again came round into the Thames, and
so up the Medway to Rochester. They were opposed by the Kentish
levies, and a sharp encounter took place: but alas all too quickly they
!

turned and fled, because they did not get the support they should
have had, and the Danes had possession of the place of slaughter,
and got horses and rode far and wide as they pleased, destroying and
laying waste almost the whole of West Kent. Then the king with his
counsellors decided to advance against them with both naval and
358 A History of the Vi kings

land levies but when the ships were ready there was delay from day
;

to day, which was very galling for the unhappy sailors manning the
vessels. Time after time the more urgent a thing was the greater was
the delay from one hour to the next, and all the while they were
allowing the strength of their enemies to increase; and as they kept
retreating from the sea, so the enemy followed close on their heels.
So in the end these naval and land preparations were a complete
failure, and succeeded only in adding to the distress of the people,
wasting money, and encouraging their enemy. (Trans. Garmonsway .)

In the summer of iooo the host crossed over to 'Richard's realm'

of Normandy. Till 991 Normandy had been an ever-open point of
repair for viking crews operating against England. That year
Ethelred and Duke Richard I at the Pope's urging agreed not to
comfort or harbour each other's enemies, but whether the agree-
ment had much force or duration is open to question. There is no
evidence that Duke Richard II received the Danes other than
amicably in 1000. In 1001 they returned to Wessex on a course of
depredation which ended only when Ethelred in the following year
paid 24,000 pounds for the customary Danish pledge of peace.
Within weeks he had married Duke Richard's sister Emma, pro-
bably out of a desire to improve his political relations with Nor-
mandy, but we have a hint that little improvement took place. 1
Norman sympathy for their not-so-distant blood-brothers in
Scandinavia was natural and strong. Still, if Ethelred's Norman
marriage brought no immediate balm to his hurt and griefs, it
would in the long run provide him with a refuge. His other main
deed of 1002 brought unrelieved disaster. This was his order for
'all the Danish people who were in England to be slain on St.

Brice's day [November 13]', because he had been informed, says the
Chronicle, that they were planning to kill him and his counsellors by
treachery, and then seize his kingdom. Whether the report was
fantasy, or the belated excuse for a vile and stupid deed, we cannot
say. In any case the Danes of the Danelaw were practically immune
from the possibility of massacre, but a massacre of kinds there was
(we have a reference to such at Oxford), and among the victims
tradition places king Svein's sister, the lady Gunnhild.
Svein's onslaught on England in 1003-5 was not aimed at secur-
ing a kingdom. It was his gesture of revenge, typically enough com-

1 In William of Jumieges, who gives credit to a tradition that an English

army shortly afterwards attacked the Cotcntin.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 359
bining the blood-feud with monetary profit. Exeter, Wilton,
Salisbury,Norwich, and Thetford were among the towns sacked,
and the only effective resistance came from the Anglo-Dane Uhkell
[Ulfcytel] Snilling, who fell upon the invaders after the sack of
Thetford. Only English slackness in not carrying out Uhkell's
orders to cut to pieces the ships of the Danes saved the day for them,
and 'they themselves admitted that they had never met with harder
hand-play in England than Ulfcytel gave them'. So easily might the
conquering course of Danish Svein have ended in death or ignominy.
The Danes withdrew from England in the famine year of 1005, but
were back in 1006 on a mission of challenge and bravado. The
language of the Chronicle is ironic as it tells of the vikings' safe base
in Wight, their well-stocked food-depot at Reading, of the great
deeds threatened by the English if the host ever got as far as Cuck-
hamsley Knob on the Wiltshire downs, and how the host called their
bluff not only by getting there but by insolently inviting attack,
how they quickly put the levies to flight, and defying all prophecy
rode back to the sea past the gates of Winchester, whose citizens
beheld them, arrogant and confident, bringing provisions and
treasures from more than fifty miles inland. This happened at mid-
winter, while Ethelred was meditating his Christmas fare in Shrop-
shire. But he bestirred himself, and in 1007 paid the Danes a tribute
of 36,000 pounds in return for peace, along with provisions and
supplies gathered from all parts of the kingdom. With this pro-
digious addition to the booty they had already seized, the Danes
were pleased to leave England.
The peace lasted two years. Ethelred took two steps to prepare
for the next invasion, but as so often they went awry. He sought to
stiffen his defences by appointing an ealdorman for Mercia, but
chose the most notorious double-dealer of the age, Eadric Streona.
And he tried to build a fleet strong enough to defeat anything the
Danes could sail against him. According to the Chronicle every unit
of 300 hides throughout the kingdom was to furnish the king with
a warship, 1 and every unit of eight hides provide a helm and corslet.
The was ready early in 1009, assembled off Sandwich, and was
fleet
quickly made ineffective by a grotesque combination of accusation,
flight, selfishness, indiscipline, rivalry and self-mutilation. With

1 For a discussion of what c

Earle called a tantalizing annal' see Earle and
Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicle^ II, 185-6. The variants are offered there, I,
138, and by Garmonsway, p. 138.
360 A History of the Vikings

eighty ships burned and twenty defected, Ethelred, his ealdormen

and counsellors, in the words of the Chronicle, 'went home'. The re-
maining ships were fetched to London, and the facilities offSandwich
abandoned to the Danes, who dropped anchor there on 1 August.
It was a formidable host which began in its confident way to

harry the near-by countryside that same autumn. Unlike the armies
of the sons of Ragnar a century and a half before, it was not com-
posed in substantial measure of part-time soldiers hankering after
a farm of their own. These were professionals. Their leaders in the
absence of Svein were two famous brothers, Thorkell the Tall and
Hemming, and a more shadowy figure, Eilaf the brother of jarl Ulf,
who later (Ulf, that is) married Svein's daughter Estrid and became
the father of king Svein Estridsson or Ulfsson and the progenitor of
the royal line of Denmark to our own day. Doubt has been expressed
(and must still be felt) about late saga accounts of the Jomsvikings,
and we have noticed (p. 127) that excavations at Wollin-Jumne reveal
little save the presence there of a mixed population of Scandinavians

and Slavs. But none of this affects our belief in comparable military
establishments in Denmark itself about the year 1000. Four such
are known, at Trelleborg near Slagelse in West Zealand, at Aggers-
borg on the Limfjord in North Jutland, at Fyrkat near Hobro in
East Jutland, and at Nonnebakken in the town of Odense on Fyn.
All four are built to a pattern, and consist of a symmetrical grouping
of wooden houses within a rampart. At Trelleborg there were sixteen
such houses, arranged in groups of four, each four forming a hollow
square, with the full count of sixteen forming yet another and
larger square. Fyrkatand Nonnebakken likewise had sixteen houses,
Aggersborg had forty-eight. There are differences in the size of the
houses from camp to camp (all are based on the roman foot of 29.57
cm. modified to 29.33 Aggersborg, no such feet, or c. 33 metres;
:

Trelleborg, 100 such feet; and Fyrkat, 96), but within each camp
they are uniform. 1
1 For information about Trelleborg see P. Norlund, Trelleborg, National-
museets Bla Boger, Copenhagen, 1956 (English version); Olaf Olsen, 'Trel-
leborg-problemer', in Scandia, 28, 1962, pp. 92-112 (a brief summary of some
aspects of this paper will be found in English in 'Trelleborg Problems —
Summary', in Fourth Viking Congress, ed. A. Small, Edinburgh, 1965, pp. 176-
8). For Aggersborg, see C. G. Schultz, 'Aggersborg, vikingelejren ved
Limfjorden', Fra Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark, Copenhagen, 1949, pp. 91-108;
for Fyrkat, Olaf Olsen, Fyrkat, NM Bla Boger, 1965. For brief surveys see J.
Brondsted, Danmarks Oldtid, Copenhagen, i960, III, 363-70; The Vikings, 1965,
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 361

'.'ill''''
40 60 60 100
L-J— —140— — — —160— —ZOO metr«
120
I I 1 1

160
1 I I

20

54. TRELLEBORG: A PLAN OF THE CAMP

Trelleborg, the first found and most extensively excavated of

these camps, stands in a good defensive position on a piece of raised
ground between two navigable streams, the Vaarbya and Tudea,
which join here before flowing another two miles or so into the
Great Belt between Zealand and Fyn. The site was improved by
levelling and filling-in before building took place. The natural
defences provided by the rivers and an expanse of swampy or
flooded ground north, west, and south-west, were reinforced by a

pp. 173-85; Olaf Olsen, 'Typehuset pa Trelleborg', in Skalk, 1965, nr. 4, pp.
18-27.
362 A History of the Vi kings

circular earth rampart, roughly 17 metres thick and almost 7

metres high, strengthened with palisades and traversed with stout
timber. There were four gateways, set diametrically opposite each
other, joined by roadways north by south and east by west (the
orientation of Trelleborg is a little to the east of north, but the terms
are convenient); these intersected at the centre of the house-blocks.
The gateways were strengthened against earth-slip by a 6-metre-
deep course of big stones throughout the width of the rampart. The
outer face of the rampart was provided with various deterrent
features. On the land side it had the additional safeguard of a wide,
deep moat. But even this was not considered enough, and this same
east and south-east land side was given an outer ward, with a
lower rampart and a shallower ditch. Trelleborg today, with its
ramparts in good trim, and the position of the house post-holes
touched in with concrete, gives a strong impression of its former
power, its domination of the land and quick access to the sea, the

FRIEND
RUSTRIMGE.M SAXONY

MAP 15. DENMARK IN THE VIKING AGE

 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 363

protection it afforded its ships from storm or sudden attack, the

menace and mobility of its garrison.
The diameter of the camp proper, the inner ward, is 136 metres.
Most of this was occupied by the sixteen houses in their four hollow
squares. A few smaller buildings, including what look like guard-
rooms by the north and west gates, hardly affect the overall symmetry.
The houses were stave-built of upright planks, and an outside
row of slightly inward-leaning posts helped support the roof.
The houses were boat-shaped, that is, with curved side-walls and
straight end-walls, and internally were divided into three sections,
the largest in the centre. There are further houses in the outer ward,
thirteen of them set radially within the curved area (see plan), and
two outside the inner moat and the eastern gate of the inner rampart.
All these houses are of the same kind as the inner sixteen, except that
the thirteen are not arranged in squares, and they are smaller by
one-tenth, i.e. they are 90 roman feet in length, not 100. Outwards
of the other two houses is the camp cemetery, parts of it older than
the camp. A preponderance of skeletons were found to be those of
men between 20 and 40 years old, in other words men of military
age. There were few old people and fewer children. Since asceticism
in books is easier than asceticism in life, it is not surprising to learn
that some of the skeletons are female —a sane contradiction of the
(undoubtedly fictitious") Jomsviking law which forbade the presence
of women inside the Jomsborg fortress. The grave orientations were
east by west, but this in itself is not indicative of Christian practice.
Grave goods were scanty, but include weapons (among them a
handsome longhorned axe-blade inlaid with silver, from around the
year 1000), smith's tools, agricultural implements, women's
jewellery and articles for spinning and weaving.
What, then, was Trelleborg? When was it built and what was its
purpose? The answer to the first of these questions has been assumed
throughout this brief description. It was a military camp, part
stronghold, part barracks. Like its sister camps it was built, on the
evidence of archaeology, within the period 970-1020. It is hard to
see how four such structures, with their requirements of engineering
knowledge, labour, materials (it has been estimated that Trelleborg
alone would use up 8,000 big trees), cost and upkeep, could be taken
in hand by any save a Danish king. It is hard to see how this could
be a king other than Svein. This is not a conclusion from negatives.
Ithas been calculated that between them the four camps could house
364 A History of the Vikings

4,000 men. Who could maintain such armies except the king? —and
he only in specific and favourable circumstances.Whatever the camps
might be, they were not follies. To judge by their style and siting
they had two chief functions they were barracks for men in training
:

or transit, and they were points of control within the country

containing them. We are back again with king Svein, who needed a
paid professional army to soften then subdue England, and paid
professional soldiers to see that Denmark fell into no disarray while

he was about it.

55. barrack-house at
fyrkat (a pictorial
reconstruction)

The four camps were the product of a known and consistent

policy of warfare and profit overseas. The 'profit' needs underlining.
We have seen 265 above) how supplies of kufic silver were
(p.
diminishing in the second half of the tenth century, and practically
dried up at the beginning of the eleventh. The north needed silver
in quantities,and the brigand-like commonsense of Svein told him
where and how to get it in tribute from a disorganized, disheart-
:

ened, and immensely wealthy England. The process had started in

980, and in person or through his approval of other captains Svein
was continuously involved in it from 994 till the day of his death in
1013. To attack the unhappy country was to be paid to go away, and
to be paid to go away kept your army in being till you attacked
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 365

again. The weight of tribute still astonishes: 16,000 pounds in 994,

24,000 in 1002, 36,000 in 1007, 48,000 in 1012: literally, England
paid for her conquest with her own money. Not all the tribute took
the form of minted coins. Brooches, arm-rings, torques, ingots
nothing came amiss so long as it The men whose un-
was silver. 1

relenting arms levered away these vast and precious burthens were
not all Danes soldiers of fortune and mercenaries came in from every
;

Scandinavian land. There are memorial stones in Sweden to warriors

who campaigned and, some of them, died in England. There are five
Swedish stones which tell of men who received tribute there, like
that at Grinda in Sodermanland raised to a brave father, Gudvi, who
'went west to England and received a share of the geld'; or that at
c
Vasby informing us that Ali raised this stone in memory of himself.
He received Knut's geld in England. God save his soul'; or the most
famous and informative of all, the Borrestad stone from Orkestad in
Uppland: 'Karsi and Gerbjorn had this stone raised after Ulf their
father. God and God's Mother help his soul! But Ulf received
danegeld three times in England. The first was that which Tosti
paid. Then Thorkell paid. Then Knut paid.' Tosti has by some
been assumed to be the Swedish father of that Sigrid the Haughty
(Storrada: see p. 136, n. 1, above) whom, if she existed, Olaf Trygg-
vason (we fear) spurned and Svein Forkbeard (we trust) married;
Thorkell was Thorkell the Tall; and Knut was Knut the Great.
The wealth thus extorted flowed back to all the Scandinavian lands,
to the island of Gotland, mainland Sweden and Denmark, in smaller
measure to Norway, and is not without trace in the Atlantic island
dependencies. 2 The rapid increase of Anglo-Saxon coins in Scandin-
1 It is not easy to restrict one's illustration to the English campaigns,

because the island of Gotland is in every sense the most fruitful soil for such.
Hoards discovered there up to 1946 contained more than 570 ornaments,
many of them manufactured at home from foreign bullion; more than 2,300
pieces of silver in such forms as rods, bars, and rings; 93,000 whole coins and
16,600 fragments of coins, only three of which are not silver. All this came
from abroad, most of it from the east, but it probably indicates the mixed
nature of English and Frankish tribute, too. See P. H. Sawyer, The Age of the
Vikings, p. 84, and the references there given to Marten Stenberger, Die
Scbat-zfunde Gotlands der JVikingerzeit, II.
2 It has been suggested (P. H. Sawyer, The Age of Vikings, pp. 98-9) that
the marked scarcity in Scandinavian hoards of English coins of the ninth
century may be due to the circumstance that the money may have been
used in England to acquire land for intending settlers. The idea has been well
received in some quarters, but there is no positive evidence for it. The
366 A History of the likings

avian hoards dates from the beginning of Ethelred's reign. At first

the bulk of it represents tribute; but after Knut's conquest of the

realm it represents the money raised in England to pay his soldiers'
wages. The
danegeld of 1018 reached the unparalleled total of
72,000 pounds over all England, plus a sum variously stated to be
10,500 or 11,000 pounds from the citizens of London. From 1012
onwards there was an annual tax or danegeld raised in England, and
under Knut the army-tax (heregeld) took precedence of all other
taxes. The Chronicle under 1040 informs us that the rate of pay in the
naval force maintained by the Danish king was eight marks to a
rowlock. While allowance for the differing sizes of sixteen ships is
difficult (Knut is said to have had one showpiece of 120 oars), this
would hardly have come to less than 3,000 pounds a year, and there
were Knut's housecarles to be paid in addition. The flow of Anglo-
Saxon coins into Scandinavia continued till 105 1, when Edward the
Confessor at last paid off his mercenaries.
Four pieces of evidence, then, permit us to see the invading
armies of Svein and Knut in fair perspective. There is the year-by-
year account of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, remarkably personal and
emotive at this time; the silent witness of the four Danish military
camps, built for a purpose and allowed to fall into disuse once this
purpose was achieved; the large amounts of tribute and known
rates of pay of the professional soldiers engaged; and the contem-
porary influx of English money into Scandinavia revealed by the
hoards discovered there.
Meantime the armies of 1009 were at work. Eastern Kent bought
peace for 3,000 pounds, London showed its accustomed valour,
repelling every attack, but thereafter the Danes cut swathes of
destruction through the shires, burned Oxford, sacked Ipswich, and
took heavy toll of the men of East Anglia and Cambridge at the
pitched battle of Ringmere in 1010, where their old enemy Ulfkell
Snilling stood firm, but the wretched Thurcytel with his 'mare's
head' broke rank and saved life without honour by flight. Among the

Chronicle for 896 records how after the Danish defeats in 892-6 'the Danish
host broke up, some some to Northumbria, and those who
to East Anglia,
were feoblease got themselves ships there and went south across the sea to the
Seine'. It is unlikely that feoblease means 'moneyless', as Sawyer translates,
with the implication that they sought money in order to settle; it is more
likely to mean that they were without possessions or property in England,
and so departed.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 367

invaders, righting under Thorkell the Tail's banner, was a thick-set

young Norwegian, Olaf Haralds son by name, of whom more would
be heard later. The bitter fruits of Ringmere were that the Danes
overran East Anglia, ravaged Thetford and Cambridge, and fared
out with sword and fire to the shires of Oxford, Buckingham, and
Bedford. There was hardly the show much less the reality of op-
position. The Chronicle for 1010 depicts a country grown ripe for
the taking:

Then they made their way back to the ships with and
their plunder;
when they were dispersing to the ships, then the have
levies should
been out, ready in case they should seek to go inland. Then, however,
the levies were on their way home. And when the enemy was in the
east, then our levies were mustered in the west; and when they were
in the south, then our levies were in the north. Then all the councillors
were summoned to the king, for a plan for the defence of the realm had
to be devised then and there, but whatever course of action was
decided upon it was not followed even for a single month. In the end
there was no leader who was willing to raise levies, but each fled as
quickly as he could; nor even in the end would one shire help
another. (Trans. Garmonsway.)

The next year showed no improvement. When

Canterbury and
its archbishop fell into Danish hands in the autumn
it was through

treachery among the defenders. There had already been English

overtures for a truce, but it was past Easter in 1012 before the full
48,000 pounds of tribute could be collected and paid over. For
archbishop iElfeah they demanded a separate ransom, which he
would neither pay nor permit others to pay. The sequel was re-
volting. At an assembly of the army at Greenwich reminiscent or
some drunken passage from the Fornaldarsogur of the north, they
pelted him with bones and the heads of cattle till some more
merciful ruffian crashed his axe against the old man's skull. Thorkell
the Tall is said to have done his best to stop them, offering every-
thing he possessed or might hope to lay hands on for iElfeah's life
'save only my ship'. 1 His failure to do so is thought to explain why
on the dispersal of the Danish host later in the year he transferred
his allegiance from Svein to king Ethelred, taking forty-five ships
and their crews with him.
It has likewise been thought that Thorkell's defection was the

1 Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon, ed. Holtzman, 1935, VH, 42-3.

368 A History of the Fi kings

spur which brought Svein to England the following summer. This

does less than justice to Svein's cool-headedness. He had long shown
himself a manipulator of men and events, and blest with a sense of
timing. Danish pressure on England had been cumulative for more
than twenty years, and between 1009 and 1012 it became intolerable.
Given leadership, hope, and a cause, the English rank and file would
have fought on doggedly, and maybe successfully; but all three
were lacking. Despondency and defeat were in the air. The lesser
Danish predators had completed their part of the 'Enterprise of
England'; now it was the king's turn. The calculating Svein would
be well satisfied to chastise Thorkell the Tall for desertion, or
indeed ambition, 1 and bend him to his royal will, but this was not
his main business, which was to make himself king of England.
Nothing seems to have been left to chance. With a fleet reputed to
have been as handsome as it was powerful, he set sail for Sandwich,
proceeded from there to the Humber, then twenty miles up the
Trent to Gainsborough in the heart of Danish England. It was his
correct assumption that here he would be welcomed and safe. Earl
Uhtred and all Northumbria submitted to him, likewise the people
of Lindsey and the Five Boroughs, and soon afterwards all the
Danes to the north of Wading Street. Leaving his ships and hostages
in charge of his son Knut at Gainsborough, he took his mounted
army through English Mercia, where for the first time they were
allowed to harry, received the submission of Oxford and Win-
chester, and then attacked London. Here the ever- valiant citizens,
strengthened by Ethelred's bodyguard and the crews of Thorkell
the Tall, checked him heavily, but in the event to no purpose. Svein
declined to batter his head against a fortified wall, and rode off to
the submissive West Country. By the time he returned to Gains-
borough the Chronicle records that the whole nation accepted him as
full king. The Londoners' position had been rendered untenable;

they sought terms and gave hostages, promised tribute and supplies.
Ethelred, with no ally save Thorkell the Tall, sent his wife and sons
1 A. Campbell, Encomium Emm<e Regius, Camden Third Series, 1949, p.
Hi, considers it highly improbable that Thorkell was ever in Svein's service
or took any forces with him to England which could be considered part of
Svein's army; but 'on the other hand, it is more than likely that his progress
was regarded by Svein with disquiet, for the latter had himself long cherished
designs upon England.' The Encomium is our most eloquent authority for the
notion that Svein went to England at the persuasion of his warriors to chastise
Thorkell's disloyalty (I, 2, pp. 10-11).
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 369

back to Normandy for safe keeping, and shortly after Christmas

followed them there himself. Svein had arrived off Sandwich in late
July,and now, five months later, he was master of all England.
Five weeks later he was dead. He was at most 55 years old when
in the Chronicle's impartial phrase he 'ended his days at Candlemas',
3 February 1014. He was one of the foremost viking kings. As a
general and politician he had freed Hedeby from the Germans,
increased Danish power in Wendland, gained authority over the
Jomsvikings or whatever northern mercenaries gave rise to that
contested name, disposed of Olaf Tryggvason and set jarl Eirik
Hakonarson over those parts of Norway which he (and to a lesser
extent the king of Sweden) did not rule directly; and finally he had
conquered England. He favoured Christianity, but was tolerant of
the heathen, and he brought wealth from abroad to enrich his
dominions at home. Not least, he produced a son as able as himself,
who would complete his work in England and Scandinavia, and it
was not in Svein or any man of his time to know that this was a
work which politically could not endure.
There was still a chance that England might be saved for English-
men. Knut, to whom S vein's men now offered their allegiance, was
at most 18 years old, his genius for management and opportunism
immature, his experience of military command slight, and he had no
lieutenant of stature at his side who could supply the unselfish
support which the regent Guthorm gave to the 10-year-old Harald
Fairhair or the tutelage which the 14-year-old Olaf Haraldsson re-
ceived from Thorkell the Tall. And England, despite her twenty
years' ravaging, was still strong and wealthy. For once the English
acted quickly; they sent noblemen to Ethelred in Normandy in-
viting him to return and rule them again, more justly and wisely,
and with a line drawn under the errors of the past. By April he was
back and leading an army against the Danes and their allies in
Lindsey. Knut, no doubt under advice, embarked his army and
abandoned Lindsey to the resentful savagery of Ethelred. He sailed
down the coast as far as Sandwich, where he mutilated his father's
hostages before putting them ashore, and with this twofold legacy
of horror and hatred behind him departed for Denmark. Fiis elder
brother Harald was king there, in succession to Svein, and friend-
ship or self-interest induced him to help Knut win a kingdom of his
own, elsewhere. An invasion force was assembled. It was Knut's
good fortune to be joined by his brother-in-law jarl Eirik of Hladir,
37° A History of the likings
who as we have seen ruled so much of Norway by Danish permis-
sion. He was among the most seasoned warriors of the north, had
practised viking early in Baltic waters, with his father was the
victor at Hjorungavag, was credited with the sack of Aldeigjuborg
in Russia, and according to Icelandic and Norwegian tradition
played a prominent role in the sea-fight at Svold. By 1014 he had
amassed considerable experience of men and state affairs. Content
with his ancient title of jarl, loyal to the bonds of a profitable al-
legiance and kinship, he was the ideal eaxlgestealla, shoulder-com-
rade, of an ambitious but inexperienced young king. The enlistment
of a second famous captain was more surprising. This was none other
than Thorkell the Tall, who had gone over to Ethelred late in 1012
and given him faithful service ever since. After Ethelred's punitive
expedition against Lindsey in 1014 Thorkell and his mercenaries
were given a payment of 21,000 pounds, and it is hard to account
for his prompt abandonment of a restored patron. It has been
suggested that he had a slain brother to avenge upon the English,
but Thorkell's mainspring was self-interest; he could read the
times, and he never read them better than when he sailed for Den-
mark with the nine ships prepared to follow him and secured
employment with Knut.
In the summer of 1015 when Knut's glittering menagerie of
ships sailed forEngland those who should oppose him there had
reverted to their normal malpractice. The sinister Eadric Streona
for reasons unknown procured the murder of the two foremost
noblemen belonging to the 'Seven Boroughs', Siferth and Morcar;
king Ethelred abetted him by seizing their property and arresting
Siferth's widow; Ethelred's son Edmund rescued the lady, married
her in his father's despite, departed for the Five Boroughs, possessed
himself of the property, and by consent of the inhabitants, equally
resentful of Knut's desertion and Ethelred's revenge, made himself
master there. At a time when unity was imperative the country was
divided by ill feeling between Ethelred and his son and a feud
between Edmund and Eadric. This may be the kind of situation
Thorkell the Tall foresaw. In any case he was now on service with a
compact, disciplined, and well-led army, which in September took
the field in earnest. With treachery and distrust in the English air,
they quickly made the weight of their arm known in Wessex and
Warwickshire. The infamous Eadric came over to the Danish side
with forty ships, and half the country was Knut's. Briefly Edmund
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 371

combined with Uhtred of Northumbria to devastate Staffordshire,

Shropshire, and Cheshire, but Knut carried the war northwards by
way of Nottingham to York, and Uhtred had to submit. He was
then murdered or executed and his earldom of Northumbria placed
in the safe hands of jarl Eirik of Hladir. Knut next turned towards
London, the hard knot of England, but before his ships came up the
river Ethelred the Redeless died 'after a lifetime of much hardship
and many difficulties', and the counsellors and citizens chose
Edmund his son as their king.
A month later the Danes were besieging the city. It was an
elaborate operation against a determined enemy, and though the
city was invested on all sides, even to the extent that a channel was
dug on the south bank of the Thames to permit the Danish ships
to get up river, it failed. Edmund had already got away; he collected
an army and waged what must have been a sensationally successful
campaign to free Wessex, all of whose inhabitants, says the Chronicle,
submitted to him. He then launched a vigorous and unexpected
attack upon the army besieging London, driving it smartly back,
but in doing so suffered such heavy casualties that he had to with-
draw and allow them to renew the siege. London still held out in the
face of the worst Knut could do; suddenly he abandoned the siege
and having provisioned the host in East Anglia and Mercia sent his
ships and the captured livestock to the Medway. The remounted
host had arrived in Kent when Edmund caught up with it at Otford,
put it to flight, and slew all he could overtake. The outlook for the
Danes had so deteriorated that Eadric Streona changed sides again
and joined Edmund, who took him back into favour. No greater
c

c
error of judgement', says the Chronicle, was ever made than this'.
And so it proved. For when the augmented army of Edmund
encountered Knut's host at Ashingdon in Essex, 'the ealdorman
Eadric did as he had so often done before; he and his men were the
first to set the example of flight, and thus he betrayed his royal lord

and the whole nation'. Knut won all England by his victory.
Among the irreparable harms of the day were the death of Ulfkell
Snilling, the defender of East Anglia, and the destruction of 'all the
flower of the English nation'. Edmund Ironside survived and took
refuge in Gloucestershire. Knut moved after him, but without
more fighting a compromise was reached whereby Edmund should
have Wessex and Knut the rest of the country. Among the honest
brokers was Eadric Streona. It was a settlement loaded with the
372 A History of the Vikings
promise of future dissension. Neither Knut nor Edmund could
leave matters so. But the death-struggle between them never took
place. On St. Andrew's day (30 November) of this same year
Edmund died at the age of 22, and in sorrow, necessity, and some
relief, the whole realm of England chose Knut for its king. He was

even younger than his rival.

With Knut as an English king we are not primarily concerned.
But two events of 1017 invite attention. In that year Knut divided
England into four parts, for administrative and military convenience.
Wessex he kept under his own control, and he left jarl Eirik in
charge of Northumbria. Thorkell the Tall received East Anglia, and
no one could say that in one way or another he had not worked hard
for it. To Eadric Streona went the whole of Mercia. But for a short
while only. Within a matter of months Knut had him executed.
Jarl Eirik held his earldom with honour till his death in c. 1023.
Thorkell's course was more troubled. From 1017 till 1020 he
appears to have been the foremost of Knut's lay subjects; we meet
his name on charters, and he is named as accompanying the king
on various important occasions. The most impressive witness to his
standing during these first years is that he is the only magnate
named in the statement of legal policy issued by Knut after his
return from Scandinavia in 1020. 1Then in 1021 he was outlawed;
a reconciliation took place in Denmark in 1023 on terms which
suggest that Thorkell was still a man of immense power: he was
made Knut's regent in Denmark and the guardian of his son
Hordaknut, but thereafter disappears from history. Knut's other
action of 1017 was to marry Ethelred's widow Emma. In the
Chronicle's arresting sentence, he 'commanded the widow of the
late king Ethelred, Richard's daughter, to be brought to him so that
she might become his wife'. This was an admirable stroke of policy.
It could hardly displease the English, promised well dynastically,

and ensured the friendship of duke Richard II of Normandy. Knut

already had an English consort, iElgifu of Northampton, to whom
he would remain warmly attached, and for whom (and her son
Svein) he would make handsome provision in Norway as late as
1030; but Emma was his queen, and it was agreed that her children
by Knut should take precedence over her sons by Ethelred and
exclude the children of ./Elgifu from the royal succession. It was a

1
A. Campbell, Encomium Emmae, p. 75; Liebermann, Gesetze, I, 273-5.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 373

'sensible arrangement', and for everyone except the Norwegians it

worked out well. And unintentionally even for them.

In 1018-19 Knut's brother Harald, king of Denmark, died, and
Knut crossed the North Sea to make sure of the succession. Thorkell
the Tall remained in England, and perhaps it was now that certain
earlier ambitions were reborn in him and led to his banishment in
102 1. There is a complete lack of direct evidence, but one reading of
Thorkell's shifts and vicissitudes is that he never quite gave up
hope of some gigantic prize of his own, in England or Scandinavia,
as opportunity offered. In other words he was a craggy and cunning
survival of the old-style viking who looked after himself well until
kings came in and spoiled the business. One explanation of Knut's
placing his fleet off the Isle ofWight in 1022 is that he was safe-
guarding the realm against some heavy stroke by the outlawed
Thorkell. 1 At the reconciliation in Denmark of 1023 Knut seems to
have brought one of Thorkell's sons back to England with him
before trusting him with Denmark and Hordaknut. That Thorkell
died within a year or two would be no grief to his royal master.
These were king Knut's first expeditions from England to
Denmark and the north. Before he undertook his last he had given
proof of himself not only as a good king of England but as a monarch
of European stature. As a man he is hard to define, because we know
so little about him, 2 but as a peace-bringer, legislator, administrator,
statesman and politician, and as a patron of the Church we see him
more clearly. In law he was less an innovator than a re-worker, and
was as English as the English in the moral and improving ingredients
with which he flavoured his law-making. Stenton justly describes
Knut's legal code as one 'which in its length and varied detail gives
him a high place among the legislators of the Dark Ages'; 3 for the
value of law lies very little in originality or ingenuity, but in its
fair dealing between men, its assurance of rights, its practicality of

1 It is difficult to
get a clear picture of this year. During the course of it
Knut reported to have made a considerable naval demonstration in the
is

Baltic, for the benefit of Jomsborg-Wollin, the restless Wends, and the
inhabitants of Estland. It was after his return to Denmark from this show of
strength that he was reconciled to Thorkell.
2 Knytlinga Saga,
20, tells us that he was tall, strong, fair-haired, keen-eyed,
bountiful, valiant, and all-conquering. His nose, which was long, narrow, and
slightly bent, somewhat marred his good looks. 'He was a man of great good
luck in everything to do with power.'
3 Anglo-Saxon England, p. 404.
374 A History of the Vikings

enforcement, its power to settle argument, and forestall or compose

strife. Further, for Knut law was a prop of kings, as was religion.
We need not doubt his devotion to the Church, because he made
use of the Church — as the Church made use of him. The links
between Church and monarchy in England were close and strong;
each had its duty to the other, for the glory of God and the good of

the nation, and there is something magnificent about the way this
young and alien conqueror accepted an English king's obligations
in matters religious and ecclesiastical. His gains, properly, were
—
enormous nothing did so much to bring him within the comity of
Christian Europe; he gained the blessing of the pope and the favour
of the emperor; 1 he was seen by his royal peers to be a great
monarch; he secured the support of the most powerful institution
in England —
but these were gains he well deserved, and behind
the pomp and circumstance, the ceremonies of honour to St.
Edmund and St. Alphege (/Elfeah), the restoring of monasteries and
consecration of churches, the ostentation of the pilgrimage to Rome,
he appears a man not untouched by humility before the Church in
both her worldly and her sacred roles. He would be the last man to
object to the worldly, he was so pragmatic a man himself.

In 1026 it was necessary for him and look to his

to leave England
Scandinavian interests again. Denmark had come under
threat from
Norway and Sweden, and to understand how this could be we must
revert to the years 1014-16, when Knut so hurriedly withdrew
from England that he might assemble a new army from Denmark
and Norway and complete Svein's conquest. When again he sailed
from Denmark jarl Eirik of Hladir sailed with him, and Norway was
left in charge of Eirik's brother jarl Svein and maybe Eirik's son

Hakon. This was the moment when a new Olaf, like Olaf Trygg-
vason a scion of the royal Yngling line, chose to make his bid for the
partitioned kingdom. He was the thick-set young man we noted as
fighting under Thorkell the Tail's banner at Ringmere in 1010, the
1To the pope he owed a reduction in the charges levied on an English
archbishop when he went to Rome for his pallium. To the emperor and
various rulers he owed a reduction in the tolls exacted from northern and
English traders and pilgrims who passed through their dominions on the way
to Rome. To the emperor Conrad he owed, as part of the wedding settlement
between the emperor's son Henry and his own daughter Gunnhild, the return
of Slesvig to Denmark and the recognition of the Eider as the German-
Danish boundary.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 375

son of a petty ruler in eastern Norway, and stepson of Sigurd Sow,

the farmer-king of Ringerike, but destined to be the most famous
Norwegian of his century, and of many centuries to come.
Olaf had been born c. 995 and set to viking at the age of 12 in
charge of a tried ship's captain named Hrani. He harried in Den-
mark, Sweden, Gotland, Osel off the coast of Estland, and in
Finland, too, where his good luck prevailed against the wiles of
the local wind-brewers. Sometimes he raided, sometimes fought
battles. By the time he met Thorkell the Tall, in the language of the
skalds he had reddened nesses, sated the wolf's brood, roused the
steel-storm, convened the Thing of arrows. In the language of
plain men he had made an unmitigated nuisance of himself in
northern waters. 1 As a member of Thorkell's company he made a
warlike voyage past Jutland and Frisia to England, and in England
fought at London, Ringmere, and Canterbury. When Thorkell
entered Ethelred's service Olaf transferred his talents for destruction
to France and maybe Spain. William of Jumieges knows him as
Olavus rex Noricorum and puts him in the service of duke Richard II
of Normandy. While in Normandy, c. 1013, he was baptized at
Rouen. In Normandy, too, he appears to have taken service with
Ethelred and followed him back to England. The sources agree that
he fought further battles in England, but are divided as to which side
he fought on. Chronology alone forbids us to think that he ever
fought for Knut, for the absence of Knut from Denmark implied the
absence ofjarl Eirik from Norway, which gave Olaf the opportunity
we know he was quick to lay hold of. In any case he arrived in
Norway not later than 1015, and in all probability one year earlier.
Concerning his thoughts, motives, plans at this time, save that he
hoped to win Norway, we stand in the dark.
Nor are we much more enlightened in respect of the moves
which brought him to power there. This is not the fault of Snorri
1 Our most valuable sources for Olaf's life as a viking are the 'Viking

Verses' (Vikingavhur) of Sighvat Thordarson and the 'Head Ransom'

(Hofudlausn) of Ottar the Black, both court poets of his in later life. Sighvat
was Olaf's friend as well as his retainer and poet. He tells of thirteen set
battles from Lake Malar to the Guadalquiver, but exaggerates Olaf's import-
ance in those of them we can identify from foreign sources. But cautiously
interpreted the Viking Verses give a good generalized picture of a gifted
young viking working his way up in his profession. See O. A. Johnsen, Olav
Haraldssons ungdom indtil slaget ved Nesjar, Oslo, 1922, and G. Turville-Petre,
The Heroic Age of Scandinavia, 1951, pp. 140-6.
376 A History of the Vikings
Sturluson, who with an abundance of un verifiable detail brings him
to Selje south of Stad with two merchant ships and 120 men, lets
him dispose ofjarl Hakon by a cunning but not unmerci-
Eirik's son
ful viking stratagem, celebrates his golden oratory and persuasive-
ness, places his decisive confrontation with his enemies at Nesjar
off the western shore of the Oslofjord (this appears to have been
Sighvat the Skald's first attendance on Olaf on battle), and conveys
the victorious Olaf northwards to the Trondelag, which he saw
was the key to Norway. Jarl Svein's flight and death and young
Hakon's removal to England gave him the chance to establish
himself at Nidaros and keep an eye on those of his subjects likeliest
to cause him trouble. He rebuilt the town a second time, established
a residence there, and laid the foundations of a new church. From
the start it was his intention to attract traders to the town. There
were still chieftains like Erling Skjalgsson and Einar Thambar-
skelfir who would do him no service, and large areas like the remote
north and the interior stretches of the Trondelag which yielded
him no tribute, but by the end of 1016 in fact as in name he was
king over the immediately accessible provinces of Norway.
In most respects he was a good king, even a very good one. 1

1
He was not as good, of course, as hagiographical writing would make
him. No other king of the Viking Age was written about so extensively.
There is the anonymous 'First Saga', written in Iceland a little before 1 180,
of which only fragments survive, and the big 'Legendary Saga' preserved in a
Norwegian manuscript of c. 1250; there are the numerous products of the
and verse, latin and the vernacular (for example, the lost
saint's cult, in prose
Acta S.O., and Geislt); there is much skaldic verse
Translatio Sancti Olavi, the
by a number of skalds, including Sighvat Thordarson, Ottar the Black, and
Thormod Coalbrow's-skald; northern historians from Ari and Theodoricus
downwards speak of him, and he is occasionally referred to in foreign sources;
and clearly there was a rich oral tradition concerning him. Finally there is
Snorri Sturluson's Olafs Saga Helga, written as a separate work, but later
incorporated in his Heimskringla, where it is a third of the whole. The Olaf
material consists of hagiographical and lay tradition and invention, king's
life and saint's life, closely and troublesomely blended. Among many
important studies are Sigurdur Nordal, Om Olaf den Helliges Saga, Copenhagen,
1914; O. A. Johnsen and Jon Helgason (ed.), Den store saga om Olav den bellige,
Oslo, 1941; and Bjarni A5albjarnarson, Heimskringla, II, Islenzk Fornrit,
Reykjavik, 1945. There is an excellent brief survey in 'Kongekroniker og
kongesagser' by Th. D. Olsen in Norron Fort<ellekunst, Copenhagen, 1965.
The English reader is well served by G. Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic
Literature, 1953 (chapter VII, 'Historical Literature of the Late Twelfth
Century', especially pp. 175-90).
 Svein ForBeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 377

Most remarkable of all for a man of his early training in rapine

and slaughter he gave his subjects peace and security. That he
could be hard and merciless goes without saying, but except in
matters of religion he reserved this side of his nature for those who
disturbed his peace or challenged his authority. Like Knut over in
England, he had a strong feeling for law. The law-meets and
assemblies, the Things, kept their former dignity and power, and
may have been strengthened inasmuch as Olaf worked through
farmer aristocrats of his own choosing rather than the old-style
local kings. Like Knut he relied a good deal on the legal enactments
of his predecessors. Snorri tells us that he often had recited in his
presence the laws which the Good had prepared for the
Hakon
Trondheim and some of these, in consultation with the
region,
wisest men he could gather at court, he amended, 'taking away or
adding as seemed best to him'. Neither rank nor riches could bend
the law; Olaf was immune to threats or bribery; and we have said
that he could be merciless. Not all the laws known in later days as
'king Olaf's Law' were his ; members of the lordly families of old
who bore justice on their sword-points did not disappear in a
generation; but Olaf's reign saw an impressive development of
the notion of law in a national context. Sighvat's poetic com-
pliment, while excessive, was not entirely undeserved: 'King,
you can establish the nation's law, which stands firm among all
men.'
His most renowned work for Norway was to make her Christian.
This had implications beyond a change of gods and forms of wor-
ship. It brought Norway out of the past into the present, lessened
her isolation, and inducted her, partly at least, into the fuller
European civilization of the time. Much progress had already been
made; in places where Danish influence was strong, like the Vik,
there had been proselytization since the conversion of Harald
Bluetooth; Hakon the Good, Harald Greycloak, and Olaf Trygg-
vason had toiled for the faith in their different degrees; but the
remoter areas of the interior and the northern coasts stayed
benighted. Olaf's methods were uncompromising; he executed the
recalcitrant, blinded or maimed them, drove them from their
homes, cast down their images and marred their sacred places.
However, baptism and the king's friendship were always on offer.
But baptism was one thing a state church for Norway was another
:

and a harder undertaking. His success in organizing this was

378 A History of the Vikings
remarkable. His right-hand man and counsellor was Grimkell, to
judge by hisname a Norwegian. It was with Grimkell and other
priests that he worked out a framework of church law at Moster.
He used priests and missionaries from England, too, 1 but because
of Knut's rule there it was to Bremen that he sent Grimkell and
other priests for their consecration. The Christian law formulated
at Moster was of prime authority; it was read out at the different
Things, and there are confirmatory references to it in the oldest
Gulathing Law. Olaf had many churches built in Norway, and we
assume that parts of the Moster law were concerned with their
upkeep, administration, and their place within the Church as a
whole. There is a shrouding overlay of pious propaganda in much

medieval writing about Olaf, but one thing is clear: by the time he
died Norway was a Christian country, and no relapse into heathen-
dom was possible.
It helped in this respect that his downfall was followed by his
sanctification. It helped, too, that his downfall was due to king
Knut, another determined Christian.
For ten or twelve years Olaf's foreign policy had been favoured
by Knut's preoccupation with his realm of England, while the
rivalry of the jarls of Hladir had been providentially removed by
Eirik's transfer to Northumbria, Hakon's capture and oaths, and
the defeat and death ofjarl Svein. This left Sweden and the Atlantic
Islands. These last, Faroes, Orkney and Shetland, in their different

1 English share in the conversion of the Scandinavian lands was con-

The
siderable,from Willibrord's mission in the first half of the eighth century
to the time of Knut and Svein Estridsson in Denmark; under the two Olafs
and Harald Hardradi in Norway; and so far as we can judge at various times
in Sweden. England supplied missionaries, priests, bishops, saints, and
martyrs, and influenced ecclesiastical terminology and epistolary usage. See
A. D. Jorgensen, Den nordiske Kirkes Grundlteggelse og forste Udvikling, Copen-
hagen, 1874-8; Ellen Jorgensen, Fremmed Itidjlydelse under den Danske Kirkes
tidligste Udvikling, Copenhagen, 1908; K. Gjerset, History of the Norwegian
People, I, 191 5; H. G. Leach, Angevin Britain and Scandinavia, Harvard, 192 1;
Oluf Kolsrud, Noregs kyrkjesoga, Oslo, 1958; and for Iceland, J6n Helgason,
fra dens Grundlteggelse til Reformationen, Copenhagen, 1925. There
Islands Kirke
isfurther bibliographical reference in F. E. Harmer, 'Epistolary Usages of
Scandinavian Kings' in Saga-Book, XIII, pt. IE, 1949-50. For a useful survey
of the Christianization of the north, see Lucien Musset, 'La Penetration
chretienne dans l'Europe du Nord et son Influence sur la Civilisation
Scandinave', in Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi suWalto medioevo,
XIV, pp. 263-325, 527-35, Spoleto, 1967.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 379
ways acknowledged his overlordship, though Olaf's court poet
Ottar used the language of eulogy when he assured the king that
before his day no warlike Yngling laid such a yoke on the isles in
the west. Against Swedish encroachment he stood firm from the
beginning. When the king of Sweden sent his tax-gatherers across
the mountains into Gaulardal and Orkadal we are told that Olaf
had twelve of them hanged on a ridge as sport for the raven, a
warning to the Swede, and a joyful spectacle for Norwegian passers-
by. It is easier to believe that in the disputed territory of Ranrike
he had the Swedish king's two officers put to death and replaced
them with a nominee of his own. Here, too, he built the town of
Sarpsborg and fortified it with a moat and rampart to hold the
Swedes at bay. As always, information about Sweden is hard to
come by. There had been a Christian mission to Sweden after the
death of Olaf Tryggvason whereby king Olaf Eiriksson, Skott-
konung, was converted to the new faith, but only a small minority
of his people followed his example. Eventually Olaf of Norway
married his Swedish namesake's daughter Astrid. We are given to
understand that Olaf of Norway was the prime mover in the settle-
ment. It was he who sent embassies through the desolate interior,
using for the purpose his court poet Sighvat. The Austrfararvisur,
or 'Verses on an Eastern Journey', of this Icelandic emissary between
the kings of Norway and Sweden, and more particularly those
relating to his adventures in the horse-foundering, man-rejecting
heathen hinterland, are as entertaining as they are informative.
Time and again the poet and his comrades knock on a door for
shelter; time and again they are sent packing. One house was
hallowed and heathen, another hag-ridden and elf-ruled; three in a
row were inhabited by farmers named Olvir, and all three drove
them away; at the next all they got was a surly stare from the
closing doorway. But was grist to the poet's mill he seems to
this :

have very much enjoyed it, and certainly we enjoy his wry humour
and mock-complaints at the forestlands and Gautland. Whether this
rough terrain and its rough inhabitants belonged to Swede or Dane
we do not know; we presume it was to the former. In any case
Sighvat and his comrades re-traversed it, a marriage was arranged,
and its terms bargained for. Common interest and fear of the Danes
brought about an alliance of Norway and Sweden. Somewhere
about this time the Swedes grew so dissatisfied with Olaf Skott-
konung, in part because of his newfangled religion, that they
380 A History of the Vikings

compelled him to share his rule with his twice-named son Onund-
Jacob; Olaf died in 1022, and it was with Onund that Olaf of

Norway made a compact at Konungahella to attack Denmark.

Happy the king who has no foreign policy. This led to Knut's third
expedition to Denmark in 1025-6, which in its turn led to the
reversal of Norwegian Olaf's fortunes.
One wonders why Knut had not moved before. The reasons seem
to be that he had plenty to occupy him in England, and that
England was a far richer prize than Norway; that his situation in
both England and Denmark imposed caution on him; and that so
long as Norway and Sweden stayed on bad terms he had little to
fear from either. It is unlikely that Knut had a theory of empire
impelling him to add Norway (and some say Sweden) to his realms
of England and Denmark. But he would be sensitive to the threat
to English and Danish trade and security posed by an unfriendly
king in Norway and the Atlantic islands; if either opportunity or
compulsion arose he was the man to act upon them, and the middle
1020s offered both. We postulate the death of Thorkell the Tall
soon after 1023, but the succession of Knut's brother-in-law jarl
Ulf as regent in Denmark led to fresh doubts and dangers. We are
far from clear who jarl Ulf was —
he has been furnished with Danish,
Swedish, Gaulish, Jomsborg, and English antecedents but on the —
most charitable count he showed less than full loyalty to king Knut.
There was the dubious transaction when by means of a stolen seal
and a forged instrument he sought to make Knut's young son
Hordaknut king of Denmark (Fagrskinna, written by an Icelander in
Norway shortly after 1220, implicates queen Emma in this); he
provided no worthwhile opposition to the first hostile moves of
Sweden and Norway, but retreated to Jutland; and there was Ulf's
disputed role in the disputed battle at the Holy River in the
disputed year of 1025-6-7. 1 Knut, it is clear, had much to see to, and
was aware that some of it was happening behind his back. Not that
he was entirely idle in respect of Norway. There must be some
disaffection after an enforced change of religion and a paring down

1The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (E) puts the battle in 1025, but this is too
upsetting to the chronology supplied by Scandinavian sources to be acceptable.
The known facts of Olaf's last years point to 1027 (a date skilfully defended
by Campbell, Encomium Emmae, pp. 82 ff.). But if we believe that Knut's
pilgrimage to Rome took place in 1027, we are forced to assign the battle to
1026.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 381

of the kingly families of old. His bribes and promises had already-
begun to move north.
When Olaf with sixty ships sailed to harry Zealand, and Onund
with a much bigger fleet began to harry Skane, Knut moved north
in person with a fleet from England to Limfjord in Jutland, where he
was joined by a second fleet recruited at home. The news of his
coming gave heart to all Denmark, and when he stood out into the
Kattegat with his combined force Olaf judged it prudent to leave
Zealand. Swedes and Norwegians then harried the coasts of Skane
together, a feeble gesture in kings who had sworn to conquer
Denmark, and even here their opportunities dwindled as the Danish
fleet drew near. They retreated to a defensive position in the mouth
of Holy River, Helga-a, on the east or Baltic coast of Skane, and here
Knut fought with them. Some early writers awarded the victory to
Knut, others to the confederates. Jarl Ulf is reported as playing a
decisive role on both sides. Details of the fight are more than
usually unreliable. But something may be deduced from its immedi-
ate consequences. Onund headed offhome with as whole a wagon as
remained to him, and almost at once his alliance, though not his
friendship, with Olaf broke down. Knut retired to Denmark and
settled his score with jarl Ulf: he had him murdered in Roskilde
church, then compounded the scandal with generous endowments
of land. Olaf's position was more difficult. The first whiffs of
treachery were reaching his nostrils ; he had to get back home, but,
remembering the fate of Olaf Tryggvason, dare not risk an ambush
in the Oresund; there was nothing for it but to abandon his ships
and take the overland route to Sarpsborg. There was a short period
of peace during which Olaf could do little save grow increasingly
uneasy, while Knut increased his chances of a bloodless conquest of
Norway by enhancing throughout the north by the
his prestige
spiritual and temporal benefits of his pilgrimage to Rome. Mean-
time, because a wolf in its lair never wins a ham, nor a sleeping man
a victory, his agents were suborning Norwegians great and small.
C
I have never', says the Hdvamdl poet, 'found a man so generous and

hospitable that he would not take a present, nor one so free with
his money that he would be displeased with an award if he could
get one.' Some held their hands out for money; others of the ancient
hersar aristocracy craved esteem. Knut dispensed both. Before the
year's end he was sure of Harek Thjotta, Thorir Hound, Einar
Thambarskelfir, and Erling Skjalgsson. When Knut arrived off
382 A History of the Vikings
Norway with a powerful fleet in 1028 he was unopposed. Olaf tried
to rally men to his drooping banner, to no avail. 1 His one small
victory ended in the murder of Erling Skjalgsson, to whom he had
promised quarter, and lost him more than he gained. Kalf Arnason
deserted him, and with a few trusted companions he crossed the
mountains to Gudbrandsdal and passed by way of Sweden to find
sanctuary with his kinsman Yaroslav in Russia. But the all-con-
quering Knut made a triumphal progress up the Norwegian coast.
Wherever he put ashore he was hailed, or maybe tolerated, as a
deliverer, and when he reached Nidaros was accepted as Norway's
lord and king. Yet again a king who had lost command of the sea
had lost his kingdom as a consequence, and Knut, who held that
command, inherited. He proclaimed his son Hordaknut king of
Denmark, and having set Hakon Eiriksson of the Hladir line of
jarls to govern Norway on his behalf, sailed by way of Sarpsborg,

where he was acclaimed king over Vik, to Denmark and so to

England. There had been many inflated claims to glory on behalf
of earlier Scandinavian kings, but with the description of Knut as
Rex totius Angliae et Dennemarchiae et Norregiae et partis Suavorum
there can be little quarrel. 2 Even if we accept that Suavorum should
read Slavorum, the ruler of Skane, and maybe of Blekinge, suffers no
very crippling diminution.
The following summer the situation in Norway changed. Jarl
Hakon drowned in the Pentland Firth; he was the last effective
representative of a family comparable in dignity and esteem to the
Ynglings, and there was no Norwegian with a pre-emptive claim to
succeed him. Knut seems to have made promises to both Kalf
1 A number of scholars have held that Snorri was misled by his knowledge
of thirteenth-century Norway when he portrayed its eleventh-century
chieftains in rebellion against king Olaf. It is arguable that he had more
support in parts of the country, in Uppland and the Vik for example, than
Snorri allows for, and that his opponents were not so much politically allied
against their sovereign as disaffected for more personal reasons, including loss
of land or status, change of religion, family grievances, and private quarrels
with the king.
2 It is found in his
letter of 1027 to the English people, a translation of
which will be found in D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 1955, pp.
416-18. A number of coins bear the inscription Cnut rex sv, and that sv can
refer only to Sweden is proved by the attribution on the coin's reverse:
Thormod on Siht, 'Thormod in Sigtuna'. Thormod was a moneyer of the
Swedish king Onund-Jacob. The inscription may be taken at its face value or,
more convincingly, as evidence of a Knytling aspiration.
 Svein For Beard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 383

Arnason and Einar Thambarskelfir; he continued to handle them

skilfully if trickily, but announced that Norway would be ruled by
his son Svein. With his English mother ^Elfgifu, who would be
known to Norse historians as AlhTa (Alftfa), Svein set off for Nor-
way, probably from Denmark, and mother and son arrived in the
Vik from the south at much the same time as an overlooked but
natural contender, the recently expelled king Olaf Haraldsson,
crossed into Trondheim province from the east. As in the year 1000
the pieces were on the board for a further famed encounter of the
Viking Age.
We assume that it was news of Hakon's death which quickened
Olaf's resolve to win back Norway, but he would have made the
attempt sooner or later. Early in 1030 he began his preparations,
travelled the frozen Russian rivers to the coast, and when the sea-
ice broke up sailed with 240 men to Gotland. Here he had confirma-
tion of Hakon's death, and with rising hope went on to Sweden,
where Onund was not slack in well-doing, but with an eye to Knut,
not overzealous neither. He supplied his former ally with 480 men
and leave to recruit what others he could. With these he headed
into the forestlands of Dalarna, where he was met by his half-
brother Harald (Hardradi) and other of his kinsmen with their
following. But if his friends in Norway were aware of his move-
ments so, too, were his foes. While Olaf pressed on through the
forests and mountains of the interior, the war-arrow was borne
through northern and western Norway. Harek ofThjotta and Thorir
Hound came down from the north with their men; the lords of
Agdir, Rogaland, and Hordaland fared from the south, and the sons
of Erling Skjalgsson moved a covering force east from the Jaeder.
In Trondheim at the centre of preparations stood Kalf Arnason.
Those great chieftains who had accepted bribes and office at Knut's
hand had everything to lose if Olaf returned to power ; but strikingly
enough the farmers great and small were equally opposed to him.
The army that eventually defeated him at Stiklarstadir was reckoned
the biggest ever assembled in Norway, of one hundred hundreds, or
14,400 men. As a figure it looks suspiciously large and round. Olaf
could muster not more than 3,600, made up of Norwegians from
his own south-eastern part of Norway, Swedes, and an assortment
of unidentifiable riff-raff, many of them heathens. He also had three
Icelandic poets in train, including Thormod Coalbrow's-skald, who
would die of his battle-wound at Stiklarstadir, but his faithful
384 A History of the Vikings
Sighvat was on pilgrimage to Rome. These poets Olaf is said to
have brought within his shield-wall, bidding them mark the event
well and immortalize it later.
From and such other traditions and legends as were
their verses
associated with the battle Snorri composed one of his consummate
narrative pieces. For once his natural pragmatism is tempered by
sympathy with Olaf. To a cold eye it might appear that Olaf set
death or victory on a desperate throw, and it is interesting to find
that tradition, in general so favourable to him, shows him returning
to his kingdom with everything he had formerly reprobated, a part-
alien and part-heathen army of mercenaries. Against him, we read,
were none but Norwegians. But in all likelihood the battle reflected
the permanent realities of Scandinavian politics pressure and inter-
:

ference from Denmark and Sweden, and the Norwegians divided in

factions. The traditional date of the battle is 29 July 1030, but there
was an eclipse of the sun visible at Stiklarstadir on 3 1 August, and
the two dates were not unnaturally confounded. Details of the
battle are lacking, 1 but when the day ended Olaf was dead, and
once more Norway had broken from a Norwegian's hand to the
hand of a foreigner.
Medieval historical works are eloquent that Norway at once had
cause to regret it. But the partiality of their witness is patent.
Understandably for skalds like Sighvat the hillsides which had smiled

1 Snorri's account is deliberately heroic and highly fictitious. The day,

he informs us, began in epic style. Olaf woke early and called on Thormod to
recite a poem to rouse the host. This was the old Bjarkamal, which told of the
doomed stand of Hrolf Kraki and his champions at Lejre. Their courage
whetted, Olaf 's men advanced to the place of slaughter. Olaf wondered whether
his half-brother Harald was not too young and weak for what lay ahead:
Harald replied that if nothing else would serve, his hand should be tethered
to his sword-hilt. The armies were harangued by their leaders, and the
l
leaders harangued each other. Then to a shout of Fram, fram, boandmennP
'
('On, on, farmer-men!') in the one army and Fram, fram, Kristsmenn, krossmen,
:

konungsmenn /' (' On, on, Christ's men, cross-men, king's men!') in the other,
the unequal struggle began. The weather was bright and the sun shone from
a clear sky, but as blows were struck and the dead men fell, sky and sun grew
red, and before the battle ended it was dark as night. The king fought with
exceeding valour and no thought of flight. Two of his poets, his standard-
bearer, and his marshall fell near him. In turn the king was brought to bay by
broad-axe and spear and died of three fearful strokes. Some say Kalf Arnason
dealt him his last wound, some say a different Kalf. The king's sanctity was
revealed forthwith by the miracles wrought by his blood.
26. ARTICLES OF PEACE: PINS AND COMBS

27. ARTICLES OF WAR: AXE, STIRRUP, SWORD

28.THE STORY OF SIGURD
CARVED IN WOOD
AT HYLESTAD

Reading from the bottom

right we see Sigurd and
Reginn forging the sword
Gram, the sword breaking
when tested on the anvil,
and thereafter Sigurd using it
to kill the dragon. At the
bottom left we see Sigurd
roasting the dragon's heart
while Reginn sleeps. He
burns his thumb and puts
it, fresh from the dragon's
heart, into his mouth, and
at once understands the
language of the birds in
the tree above him. Reginn
is planning to deceive him
and secure for himself the
dragon's treasure which we
see loaded on to Sigurd's
horse Grani. He thrusts his
sword through Reginn.
After many disasters
Gunnar dies in the snake-
pit, playing the harp with
his toes.
 Svein Forkbeard, Saint Olaf, Knut the Great 385

grew dark and louring, but it is hard to believe that

in Olaf 's reign
iElgifiiand Svein would promptly set out to punish their friends
and supporters, crop the chieftains' power, and impose burdens on
the free householder. Almost everything the synoptic historians
say under this head sounds a note of national and hagiographical
propaganda. Had Norwegians, they seem to ask, destroyed a king
of their own blood to burden themselves with a bad Dane and a
worse Englishwoman? Their mulctings are recounted, their acts of
oppression noted in detail, taxes, legal disabilities, enforced services,
but there is no good reason for believing in any of it. They are the
secular counterpart of the carefully fostered legend of the dead Olaf.
Men was said that men talked, of the maimed or blind
talked, or it
or dead made whole by his blood; and when permission was granted
to exhume his body, foreseeably it was found to be uncorrupted.
Foreseeably bishop Grimkell declared him a true saint, and had him
translated to that St. Clement's Church in Nidaros which Olaf had
founded twenty years before. The miracles increased in scope and
number, legends grew, stories spread, and it was right and proper
for good Norwegians to believe in them. They strengthened the
Church and they enhanced the native monarchy. The cult of St.
Olaf, so swiftly born, so straitly based, spread to many countries
and proved long-lasting. King Olaf died against a rock at Stiklar-
stadir; St. Olaf continued his work long beyond the Viking Age as
perpetuus rex Norvegiae, 'Norway's eternal king'. Some of the changes
affecting Norway would become apparent only during the course
of the century, but two were quickly made plain: that Norway had
become a Christian country, and that the days of foreign kings and
their regents were over.
When Olaf set out on his death-journey in the heart of winter
from a frozen Russia he left behind him at Yaroslav's court his
young son Magnus, borne to him by his frilla Alfhild, and named, we
are told, after Charlemagne (Karla-Magnus) on the initiative of
Sighvat the Skald. He was now the best hope of the Norwegian
party, and thought was given to his return and restoration. There
may have been another candidate, a self-styled son of Olaf Trygg-
vason who sailed to Norway from England in 1033. He sounds a
creature of folk-tale, and is described as an impostor and son of a
priest. In the battle which proved fatal to his hopes he hurled spears
with both hands at once, crying, 'Thus my father taught me to say
Mass!' If he ever lived he was thereupon killed. Norwegian
386 A History of the Vikings
emissaries left for Russia, met Yaroslav and Magnus Olafsson

there, and brought the boy back and had him made king. The
Danish ascendancy was in heavy regression, and in the autumn
Svein sought refuge with his brother Hordaknut in Denmark. A
month or two later, on 12 November, king Knut died in England
and was buried at Winchester. The death of this great king who had
briefly controlled the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat, the Sound
and the southern Baltic, and been lord of so many peoples, was a
happy accident for Norway. The unpopular Svein likewise died,
Hordaknut could not risk leaving Denmark in face of the threat to
Danish interests in Norway, and this in turn led to the election of
his half-brother Harald Harefoot first as regent then as king of
England. The Anglo-Scandinavian empire, if it ever existed, had
fallen apart, and by their muddled lives and early deaths the sons of
Knut ensured that the Anglo-Danish monarchy would soon follow
its example. The Viking Age was ending, though harsh throes were

still to come. Meantime of the Scandinavian kingdoms Norway was

the chief beneficiary of change.

3. The Viking Kingdoms
to the Death of Harald Hardradi, 1066

Xhe viking age did not end suddenly, and it may

appear an arbitrary fall of the axe which terminates its story in
1066-70. Many phenomena of the Age, particularly religion and
kingship, had experienced change by 1030-5, which saw the death
in battle at Stiklarstadir of Olaf Haraldsson, king and saint,
perpetuus rex Norvegiae, and the death by sickness in England of king
Knut the Great, the Mighty, the Old, rex tortus Angliae et Denne-
marchiae et Norregiae et partis Suavorum; but all such change is more
clearly defined after 1066, the climacteric year which saw the death
at Stamford Bridge of Harald Hardradi of Norway and the conquest
of England by William of Normandy. The twenty years before
1050, and the twenty after, show an obvious shrinking back upon
itself of the viking world, though much of the evidence has a clearer
message for posterity than for men living at the time. Thus there
was a heavy setback to Norse aspirations in Ireland in 1052, when
—
Diarmaid of Leinster seized the Dublin kingdom but the Norse-
men there had suffered setbacks before and been returned to power.
The death of Yaroslav in 1054 was the end of Norseness in the
—
Kievan kingdom of Russia but this only confirmed what thinking
men had long known to be a political and economic fact. The
greatest of the Orkney jarls in might, wisdom, and magnanimity,
jarl Thorfinn, who had greatly extended his realm, died in 1065,
—
to the comfort of Malcolm Canmore king of Scotland but Orkney,
Shetland, Man, the mainland and islands of Scotland were well used
to permutations of local power. Jomsborg-Wollin was destroyed in
—
the early 1040s but it had burned before, and who could say it
would not rise again out of its ashes? Hedeby was destroyed by
pillage and fire c. 1050, but there would soon be a new mart north of
388 A History of the Vikings
the Sliefjord. For every town that was falling away a new town was
being built up. The Vinland venture had been concluded, unsuccess-
fully, thirty years since, but trade there had never amounted to
much and land-taking to nothing at all. Besides, Greenland and
Iceland were doing well, apart from an infrequency of drinking-
parties in the one and an occasional famine in the other, and had
not the 'well-informed prince of the Norwegians', Harald Hardradi,
shown that the old spirit of exploration for gain was still alive by
—
attempting the Frozen Sea? Not too successfully 'After he had
explored the expanse of the Northern Ocean in his ships, there lay
before their eyes at length the darksome bounds of a failing world,
and by retracing his steps he barely escaped in safety the vast pit of
the abyss.' 1 But it made for talk of the right kind.
In most of this there was nothing to convince the ordinary man
of the mid-eleventh century that it was well an old age was out and
time to begin a new. As in the legendary sixth century and the
viking heyday he continued to go about his business, and it was the
same business. The land was farmed with love and diligence. The
long flat Danish landscape, the high Norwegian valleys, the clear-
ings of the Swedish forests yielded corn or fragrant grass; sheep
grazed the pastures of a thousand islands between the Alands and
the west Greenland archipelago, and on the mainlands went up to
the seter and the heiQi in spring and fattened there till the first cold
nights of autumn. Northwards in Norway and Sweden the Norse-
man and his animals contended for grazing with the bright-clad
nomads and their migratory herds; in Iceland the bondi widened
his homefield, so that a greener grass encroached on the livid
wilderness. There and in Greenland even more than at home he
must select beasts to be brought through the winter and slaughter
the rest in September. They were small animals by today's stand-
ards, the sheep springy, the cattle multi-coloured and unshapely,
yielding less meat and milk, but easier to transport on voyages of
colonization. In general horses were exempt from this autumnal
slaughter; they were clever at finding food and survived all save the
savagest weather. 2 Between 750 and 1100 life on the land changed
comparatively little: peasant and franklin stayed deeply conserv-

1 Adam of Bremen, IV, xxxix.

2
One can still see these sturdy
little utigangshestar, or out-grazers, in Iceland
today, their wise and melancholy eyes surveying the prospect of spring
through a veritable shako of forehead-hair and mane.
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 389

ative. Great lords came and went; some were good, others were
bad; you took up arms for or against them only if you had to. The
Norwegian farmers who defeated and killed king Olaf were content
to see him sanctified. The English, including the Danes of England,
who had Knut followed Edward. The Danes of Denmark
followed
obeved in turn their own Hordaknut, Magnus the Norwegian, and
Svein Estridsson, and would not have jibbed at Harald Hardradi.
True, there was a new religion to be observed, and soon wise men
would be writing down the law, all very important, no doubt,
especially for kings and jarls and bishops and zealots, but for the
most part not bearing too hard on the farmer scything hay in
Gudbrandsdal or Borgarfjord, the fisherman dropping his nets off
the Lofotens or Jutland, and the cold-fingered fur-hunter spearing
and trapping in wildernesses from the Gulf of Bothnia to the verges
of Baffin Bay. Merchants whose interest was in profit continued to
sail the trade-routes of Baltic, Sound, and Kattegat, lay-to by night

in the leads of western Norway, or turned their laden ships south

and south-west to Frisia, France, and the British Isles. Hucksters
with a packhorse penetrated fjords and crossed mountain passes.
Smiths and craftsmen were traffickers to dwellings great and
small, with pots, lamps, and brooches for the womenfolk, tools,
weapons, and drinking-vessels for the men. More of life's amenities
were distributed over a wider territory.
Similarly in the towns there was no great outward change.
Birka might die slowly and Hedeby be swiftly extinguished, but
on the narrow roadways of Sigtuna, Nidaros, and Slesvig, amid the
jostle of carts and animals, gadding women and gossiping men, or
down at the waterfront watching the transfer of wares from ship to
cart, and hearing the tap of the shipwright's hammer, a nordic Rip
van Winkle from a century or two earlier would not feel significantly
out of place. Certain outlandish additions to masculine costume,
baggy trousers copied from Serkland, and
especially those long, full
too many women flaunting a linen petticoat instead of the good old
woollens —but they still built the houses the same way, the ships
looked the same, as did the carts and sleds and the beasts that drew
them; there were the same-shaped saddles laid over the same-
shaped horses, and much the same bridles and stirrups. And the
weapons, in look and hoist, very much the same. And if you looked
in through the opened doorways the same loom and wheel, spit and
cooking pot, dish and spoon, the same unsilenced women contra-
390 A History of the Vi kings

dieting their menfolk, the same children. Dogs, too —a cur was
always a cur, all teeth and tail. If you were a religious man you would,
of course, notice a degree of change, and probably regret it. If you

were a Swede you would find it a novelty that a Norwegian now

lorded it over the Danes. And if you were a wise Swede you would
doubt that it could last.

Nor would it, and the Norwegian-Danish treaty of 1064 which

recognized that each country was independent of the other is not
the least pointer to the end of the Age. From its beginnings till the
proclamation of Magnus Olafsson as king in 1035 Norway had been
subjected to Danish influence, and the succession of events which
made Magnus king of Denmark after Hordaknut's death in 1042
was without parallel in earlier Scandinavian history. But it led to a
new imbalance, and it was not until the restoration of a Danish king
to Denmark in 1047 and Norway's recognition of him in 1064 that
the scales hung steady between the neighbours. The cancellation of
the Norwegian claim to the throne of England in 1066 and Svein's
virtual abandonment of the Danish in 1070 were likewise events of
terminatory significance.
Before the death of Harald Hardradi in 1066 there had been
further developments in the slowly changing social order of the
Scandinavian homelands. They can be followed most clearly in
Norway, where they affected all four classes, the king, the aristoc-
racy, that ubiquitous body which included 'all husbandmen, those

too who worked in the forests, and salt-men, and all takers of prey
by sea and land', and, finally, the thralls. In the century after the
death of Harald Fairhair no Norwegian king died peacefully in his
bed and was succeeded by his son. Eirik Blood-axe was driven out
and killed in England; Hakon the Good was killed by Eirik's sons
at Fitjar; Harald Grey cloak was enticed to Denmark with Norwegian
help and killed in the Limfjord; jarl Hakon was deserted by his
subjects and killed in the Trondelag; Olaf Tryggvason was killed
at Svold by a confederacy including jarl Eirik Hakonarson; jarl
Svein was driven out and died in Sweden Olaf Haraldsson was ;

driven out and on his return killed at Stiklarstadir. Most were

rulers who had themselves seized the throne by violence, usually
by sea-borne invasion. But in 1035 Magnus became king by the
invitation of his subjects, and later made a peaceable arrangement
with his uncle Harald Hardradi when he, too, sought dominion in
Norway. Harald's death in England owed nothing to his subjects,
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 391

and his sons, grandson, and great-grandsons succeeded him in due

order. Not less remarkable, his immediate descendants solved the
problem of a double, even a triple kingship, without resort to
assassination or civil war.
Clearly the monarchy was on a new footing. In the main this was
because had
it either broken or contained the power of the regional
chieftains and changed the nature of the aristocracy. The viking
captain with a hird and a fleet, thriving on civil war at home
and plundering expeditions abroad, was departing the scene. The
new chieftains were landed men, concerned with stability and
peaceful development. A bondi aristocracy worked more closely
with the king, and proved better for the country's prosperity, than
a viking aristocracy with recurring military ambitions. The ruth-
less reign of Harald Hardradi was good for Norway; his long wars
with Denmark were the ugly backside of his determination to be
master in his own house. The king-breakers and king-makers whom
he had inherited along with the kingdom, like Einar Thambar-
skelfir and the Arnorssons, he destroyed without scruple as
opportunity arose. Only one private army would be tolerated: the
king's. And this everyone would tolerate, the new-style chieftains,
usually landed men and overseers, who attended to regional needs
between royal visitations; the bishops whose interests were bound
up with the king's, and who brought to his support not only their
spiritual authority in Norway but the strength derived from their
active membership of an institution which had taken Christendom
as its parish, besides the organizing and administrative ability
distinctive of the Church and so necessary to an emergent kingdom;
and the free men likewise who looked to the king to implement law
and justice. The only time the bondis need fear the hird was when
they fell short in their duty to the king. During Harald's long reign
this happened particularly in respect of Uppland, which he was
determined to bring into full obedience. An improved relationship
between the Norwegian king and his franklins great and small knit
the kingdom more firmly together, and was matched south of the
Skagerrak by the attachment of the Danes to Svein and his realm
of Denmark.
Other social changes followed from the dying down of viking.
Slavery was enfeebled as an institution as the supply of slaves came
to an end. Emigration overseas fell off when there were no new
lands to settle, no old ones from which to dispossess English, French,
392 A History of the Vi kings
or Irish householders.Younger sons must now make do at home,
break the soil's wherever this was possible, seek higher or
surface
more northerly grazing, or, commonly, settle for a smaller farm,
a straitened tenancy, and increasingly as time went on for hiring
out as labour. This had important consequences at home, and
immediately apparent ones overseas, in that the most sensational
manifestation of Scandinavian history and civilization as it is

recorded in other than Scandinavian sources, that is, the Viking

Movement, the excursus abroad, was grinding to a halt. Viking
kingdom of the Franks (but not the Germans)
incursions into the
had ended early in the tenth century with the creation of the
duchy of Normandy, and after the death of Knut the ancient West
Saxon dynasty pre-emptively reinherited England. Earlier still, on
the principle that if one has a farm and a manor house one lives in
the manor, Knut had settled to be king of England rather than
Denmark, and sent his vikings back home. Apart from the fact that
the viking aristocracy was in decline, with the arguable exception
of Harald Hardradi's exploits in Byzantium and the north there
were remarkably few viking opportunities left. And hardly any
vikings. Instead there were Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, though
the extent to which they were aware of their separateness from each
other is hard to say, and across the water the Norse of Dublin,
those of the sea-sundered region between Orkney and Man, the
Icelanders by now become a people apart from Norway and the
Western Islands, and the Greenlanders far out on the rim of the
world. Even if 'vikings' now existed and had their ancient longings,
where could they fulfil them? Alas for private enterprise and the
rights of free men! Monarchs had taken over the business of war.
Harald Hardradi's expedition to England, Svein Estridsson's
baffled action there in 1069-70, and if they can properly be counted,
the abortive plans of king Knut II (St. Knut), and the three west-
ward sorties of Magnus Barelegs at the end of the century, were all

royal and therefore at least quasi-national undertakings. There were

still great blood-lettings, from Clontarf in 1014, by way of Lyrskov

Heath in 1043 (where most of the blood was Wendish), to Gate

Fulford and Stamford Bridge in 1066; service in the king's hird was
still a hook drawing brave men to riches and regard; but the once-

esteemed profession of arms with piracy offered fewer openings and

ever-scantier opportunities. As for home waters, the seizure of
cattle, food, and booty, strandhogg, nesnam, and herfang, were under
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 393

ban. Theviking was become an anachronism at home and abroad.

indeed curious to observe how by 1066-70, after two and a
It is
half centuries of ardent expansion overseas, the viking peoples,
with the significant exception of their remote Atlantic colonies,
were in large measure back inside their original boundaries. For
this there were four good reasons: the constant struggle for
territory and dominance in and between the three homeland king-
doms ; their general inability to propagate elsewhere their political,
social, and religious systems; the fact that they must encounter
nations and peoples, the Franks and English, the Empire, Byzan-
tium, the Caliphates, and in the long run the Slavs, richer or
stronger, and altogethermore absorbent and self-renewing than
themselves; and, most important of all, their lack of manpower.
These reasons are not always separable one from the other, and are
capable of subdivision. But it is manifest that the wars at home for
some kind of Scandinavian imperium, or even the welding of a
kingdom or extension of a patrimony, persistently handicapped
Norse ambitions abroad. Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson,
Svein Forkbeard, Magnus Olafsson, and Harald Hardradi (to say
nothing of Svein Estridsson) were all kings whose plans for Scandin-
avia delayed or terminated their operations in the west, 1 and the
list could be lengthened with the names of leaders as famous as

Godfred, Horik, Olaf-Amlaibh, and even Thorkell the Tall. The

viking peoples, even under Knut (who, it must be remembered,

1 There is confirmatory evidence from the buried hoards of Scandinavia.

'[The] relationship between disturbances and hoards is well established for
historical times both in Scandinavia and elsewhere and the best explanation
for the large number of hoards from certain periods seems to be that those
were unusually disordered. It has long been recognized that in Norway there
are many hoards from the disturbed reigns of Olaf Tryggvason (died 1000),
St Olaf (died 1030) and Harald Hardradi (1046-66), while there are few from
the more peaceful reign of Magnus the Good (103 5-47). 55 Similarly in Den-
mark there are many hoards datable to the period 1050-65 when there was
extensive fighting between Harald and Svein Estrithson. 56 The same is true
of England: the reign of Edgar has yielded very few hoards and the five years
that saw the Norman Conquest, 1065-70, produced more hoards than the
preceding five decades.' (P. H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, p. 103, with
references to 55 A. W. Brogger, 'Et mynt fund fra Foldoen i Ryfylke, fra xi
Aarhundrede', in Aarboger for Nor disk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1910, pp. 239-
82; 56 R. Skovmand, De Danske Skattefund fra Vikingetiden og den celdste Middel-
alder indtil omkring 1150, Copenhagen, 1942, pp. 192-6; 57 R. H. M. Dolley,
Anglo-Saxon Coins, pp. 163-5.
394 A History of the Vikings

increasingly identified himself with English interests) never settled

—
to a common purpose and it was impossible that they should.
Under the second head it might be argued that Iceland and the
Danelaw show that viking polity and custom could be exported;
but Iceland was a country devoid of inhabitants, save for a few
papar, and therefore a special if not unique case; while the strong
flavour of Scandinavia in the Danelaw and its various influences
back home cannot hide the readiness with which before the time of
Brunanburgh it looked to England rather than to Denmark or
Norway. The Norsemen there had gratified their desire for land,
and wanted to farm it, not go on fighting for ever, and they came to
find their heathen Norse brothers less congenial than their Christian
English cousins. The religious view was everywhere important. In
England, Normandy, and Kiev, the rejection of yEsir and Vanir
in favour of Christ ate deep into the Norse sense of separateness, as
back in Scandinavia heathendom had helped sustain it. And almost
everywhere their numbers were too small, and their presence
subject to erosion. At their western extremity it was this which led
them to abandon Wineland the Good, and in course of time fail
where the Eskimo would succeed, in Greenland and in the east, in
;

Russia, they were submerged completely. Even the improvements

that were taking place in Scandinavian agriculture, and the new
soil being brought under cultivation, led to fewer men going over-

seas. When, as we must, we set aside the exaggerations of Christian

chroniclers from Ireland to Byzantium, with their tale of hundreds
and thousands of ships, and tens of thousands of warriors disting-
uished by superhuman strength and subhuman destructiveness, and
think instead on the realities of manpower and logistics, it is
imperatively borne in on us that as colonizers or conquerors the
vikings were too few for the many and varied causes they bore in
hand. And this told more and more against them as their initial
advantages of surprise and mobility were whittled away.
Paradoxically, in the light of all this, in two areas overseas they
appear to have been too successful for their own good, in that they
established colonies which became independent of the homeland,
went their separate ways, and rendered further immigration
impossible. The first of these was Iceland, whose ties of affection
with south-west Norway were not more heartfelt than their
devices for avoiding the pressures of Norwegian royal power.
Remote and conservative, its habitable areas soon occupied, it
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 395

became a country of its own, and by virtue of the administrative

enactments of 930 and 965 a republic answerable to none but its own
folk. The second was the duchy of Normandy, which so cut free of
its Danish-Norwegian apron-strings that long before the Viking

Age closed it was French in language, culture, and political institu-

tions, Christian in religion, and committed to a future in western
Europe, without regard for the medieval north it had deliberately

turned its back on. It does not do to forget that the Icelander and
the Norman were blood-brothers, and that the enterprise and
energy shown by the one in mastering his sea-girt, stony province,
developing its arts and constitution, and mounting the voyages of
exploration and colonization to Greenland and North America, were
the counterpart of the organizing ability, statecraft, and military
zeal which made the duchy of Normandy so formidable a newcomer
to the comity of western Europe, and led in course of time to the
—
Norman conquests in England and Sicily though the two states'
differing destiny in the post- viking centuries affords one of the more
striking illustrations of geo-political determinism in the history of
our continent.

In earlier chapters we have concluded the viking story in respect of

the eastern progress to Kiev and thence south to Byzantium, the
westward progress to Iceland, Greenland, and the fronting coast of
North America, and the founding by Hrolf and his Danes of the
duchy of Normandy. Before we return to Norway and Denmark,
with the reference this entails to England, the tangled course of
Norse affairs in Ireland demands a brief mention. Here, and still
more in the viking colonies and conquests in Scotland and the
islands from Man to Orkney, the practice of viking died hard. But
much of what happened in these latter areas, though fascinating in
itself, and amply if often creatively recorded in northern saga, was

hardly central to viking history. Ireland was different. The Norse-

men (part Danes, part Norwegians) had established a number of
important trading towns in the southern half of the island, Dublin,
Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, and it was in petty
kingdoms in and around these that leaders great and small main-
tained the viking tradition of a military aristocracy based on sea-
power and comitatus, and sustained by the profits of trade, tribute,
and war. The nature of this society was little changed by an
acquaintance with unpeaceful Christianity or intermarriage with
396 A History of the Vikings

the unpeaceful Irish; and the evidence of the graves, especially in

respect of weapons, still points to a life tumultuous, decorative, and

lordly. The triumph of 902, which gave them Dublin, proved

Irish
short-lived. The Norsemen were back in 914, recovered Dublin,
captured Limerick, held the overlordship of Waterford, and
initiated another century of intermittent strife. For a while the
affairs of the Norsemen in Ireland were bedevilled by their ambitions

in northern England, which brought them brief glory, but helped

the Irish kings contain their territorial ambitions. No doubt each
lurch of Norse policy seemed meaningful at the time to men like
Guthfrith and his son Olaf, to Sigtrygg Gale and Olaf Kvaran, and
the various Ivars, Rognvalds, and Sigtryggs who span the century
between the return of the grandsons of Ivar of Limerick and the
battle of Clontarf. There was the dream of a maritime confederacy
both sides of the Irish Sea, there were the encircling Irish, and the
never-slackening demand for plunder and tribute to reward their
hirdmen. But the hyperbole over events and the emphasis on
romantic personalities in the documents which record their deeds,
bring them too closely into line with the murky-glittering heroes of
the Sagas of Old Time to engage our full belief. The stock of Ragnar
continued to breed sowers of gold and feeders of ravens, but no one
of them, whatever his valour and triumphs, gave his countrymen
in Ireland a prospect of dominance and permanency. Olaf Guth-
frith's son died in the north of England in 941, seemingly on the

very brink of success, but it is unsafe to conclude that had he lived

he would have held his own with the resolute Edmund. Olaf Kvaran
not only abandoned hope of securing Northumbria in 951, but at
the end of his long reign in Ireland lost Dublin and died a straw-
death in Christian Iona. Thereafter the Norsemen found no one to
match Mael Seachlainn Mor in the centre and Brian Boru in the
south, and it was only the normal intractability of Irish politics
which prevented their being bundled into the sea in the heyday of
these two kings. But Ireland of the priests, the story-tellers, and
the high kings, remained even after Clontarf in that state of dis-
unity which made viking entry safe and survival easy.
Clontarf is one of the incantatory names of viking history, a
foreign counterpart of Hafrsfjord, Hjorungavag, Svold, and Stiklar-
stadir. Like them it was too important to be left to historians, so
passed into the legend-maker's hand. Soon it was not merely a
battle for an exceeding prize between armies, with the exceeding
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 397

profits of Norse traders and carriers decorating the background, but

the formal assembly of heroes pursuant of doom. Between LirFey and
Tolka, within a mile or two of Dublin Bay, there gathered on behalf
of Ireland in April 1014 the high king Brian with his son Murchad
and grandson Tordelbach, Mael Seachlainn and the southern O'Neill,
and Ospak of Man. Opposing them, with their backs to the sea,
stood jarl Sigurd the Stout of Orkney, Brodir of Man, Maelmordha
with his Leinstermen, and the Dublin vikings under the command
of Dubhgall, brother of Sigtrygg Silk-beard. It was an alignment
which set brother against brother, father-in-law against son-in-law,
Irishman against Irishman, viking against viking, and the skalds
and sagamen did it justice, weaving many remarkable personalities,
motives, and incidents into their tragic tapestries. There was
Gormflaith (Kormlod), mother of Sigtrygg Silk-beard, sister of
Maelmordha, widow of Olaf Kvaran, divorced consort of Mael
Seachlainn, deserting wife of Brian, impossibly promised as a prize of
victory to both Sigurd of Orkney and Brodir of Man, with the
Dublin kingdom for dowry. At a far extreme there was Thorstein
the Icelander, son of Hall of Sida, who knelt and tied his shoelace,
calmly, as men fled after the fall of jarl Sigurd. The pursuing Irish-
men asked him why he was not running away like the rest of them.
'Because I can't get home tonight,' said Thorstein, 'for my home is
out in Iceland.' He was spared, that his answer might be known
or invented. Omens, wonders, and miracles multiplied, to foretell
or confirm the fall of princes. On the Irish side Brian was cut down
as he prayed for victory in 'Tomar's Wood', his son Murchad was
killed even as victory came in sight, and his grandson Tordelbach,
hunting victims by the river-mouth as a seal hunts salmon, was
drowned near the Weir of Clontarf. Along with their leaders died
4,000 Irishmen. Of Vikings and Leinstermen the slaughter was
worse, for when they fled it was to the hardly attainable refuge of
their ships or the viking stronghold over the Liffey. Sigurd died
bravely, Brodir gruesomely (if we may trust to Njdls Saga 157), and
with them 7,000 men. Thereafter it was clear that Ireland would
never fall under a Norse yoke, but it also happened that the Norse-
men were neither now nor later expelled from Ireland. They re-
mained important to the country's trade and the development of its
towns, had kings here and princes there, survived the military
disasters of 1052, and were still royally led at the coming of the
English in the 1160s and '70s.
39$ A History of the Vikings

We said, at the end of our preceding chapter, that the chief benefici-
ary of the changes consequent upon the death of Knut and his sons
was Norway. A more cynical opinion might limit the benefits to her
king, Magnus, and his eventual partner and successor, Harald
Hardradi (Hardrddi, Hard Counsel, Hard Ruler, Harald the Ruth-
less). At his death in 1035 Knut left three sons, two by his mistress

iElgifu, that Svein whom we have seen expelled from Norway upon
the return of Magnus Olafsson, and Harald nicknamed Harefoot,
and the third, Hordaknut, the issue of his marriage to Emma, widow
of the ill-starred Ethelred. It was Knut's intention that both England
and Denmark should be ruled by his one legitimate heir, Hordaknut,
but even if all parties, factions, kingdoms, mothers, and half-
brothers had been in full agreement, this was impracticable.
Hordaknut already bore the title king of Denmark and was resident
there. It was to him that the discredited Svein, ^Elgifu's son, fled
for refuge in the autumn of 1035, and it was at Hordaknut's court
that he died a few months later. This still left Harald Harefoot, then
resident in England. In the normal course of events Hordaknut
would have come straightway to England to be hailed as her king;
but this he could not do. The resurgence of Norwegian interests in
Norway, accompanied by hostility to Denmark and the sudden
prestige of Magnus, kept him so to speak on the frontier. To leave
Denmark was to invite invasion. Still, something had to be done,
and over in England an English habit prevailed. There was a com-
promise of interests: the election of a king was postponed, Harald
Harefoot was made regent, and Hordaknut's mother Emma
remained in charge of Knut's treasure-chest and some of his house-
carles in Winchester. But the arrangement was not intended to last,
or even to work. ^Elgifu's maternal ambitions, thwarted in the case
of the dead Svein, were intensified on behalf of Harald; Knut's
treasure was seized, a 'king's party' rapidly and efficiently estab-
lished, Emma's chief supporter, earl Godwine, suborned or other-
wise brought over, and Emma's son by Ethelred, Alfred the
iEtheling, betrayed and so horribly ill-treated that he died of his
blinding. In 1037 Harald was recognized as king of England, and
Emma driven from the country to seek refuge with Count Baldwin
in Flanders.
And still Hordaknut could not move. It was not until 1038 that
he and Magnus reached the agreement which permitted him to
gather an invasion force to recover his rights in England. First he
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 399
went with ten ships to consult with his mother in Bruges. Possibly
he had intelligence that all was not well with Harald Harefoot's
health, for he was still in Bruges when his half-brother died of an
illness on 17 March 1040. Three months later he reached Sandwich
with a fleet of sixty-two ships, and 'was at once received by both
English and Danes, though afterwards his councillors made a stiff
recompense for it when they ordained that [Hordaknut's] sixty-
two ships should be paid at the rate of eight marks a rowlock'. In
1041 this fleet-tax produced the monstrous sum of 32,000 pounds of
Hordaknut and a commensurate grievance for his subjects.
silver for
He had body disinterred from its tomb at Winchester and
Harald's
thrown into the Thames, made peace with earl Godwine for his share
in the ^Etheling's death in return for a resplendent warship equipped
for eighty men, harried all Worcestershire to avenge the killing of
two of his tax-collectors, basely betrayed earl Eadwulf of North-
umbria, and in the opinion of the C version of the Chronicle 'never
did anything worthy of a king so long as he reigned'. This was for a
period of two years, and in its entry for 1042 the same authority
records how 'this year Hordaknut died as he stood at hisdrink, and
he suddenly fell to the ground with a horrible convulsion; and those
who were near thereto took hold of him, but he never spoke again,
and passed away on 8 June'. The thrones of Denmark and England
stood without an incumbent, and the feeble progeny of Knut was
exhausted. Svein had failed in Norway, Harald and Hordaknut in
England. The Norwegians already had a king of their own ancient

56. A NORSE SHIP

400 A History of the likings
line, and so now would the English., when immediately and by
acclamation they chose Hordaknut's hall-brother Edward, son of
Emma and Ethelred, and finished with Danish kings (though not
with Anglo-Danes) for ever. The problem of succession in Denmark
was more complicated, and to understand it we must look back to
the train of events in Denmark and Norway after the accession of
Hordaknut and Magnus Olafsson.
At the time of his return from Russia to Norway in 1034 Magnus
was 11 years old. Hordaknut, when he became full king of Denmark,
was 17. Both must have relied on their mentors, and we are unclear
as to the advice these gave them and the course of action that
ensued. A weight of testimony, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic
(the Chronicle ofRnskilJi, Saxo, Theodoric, Agrip, Morkmsktmia, and
..:. aa well as HfirwiringlS), speaks of a 'treaty
'
between the
two kingdoms; but Adam of Bremen speaks of war. The treaty, we
are told, was negotiated on an island at the mouth of the Gota-elv
or Gota-river, a water-boundary between the kingdoms, at which
Magnus and Hordaknut took each other for foster-brother and
pledged everlasting peace. If either died without a male heir, the
survivor should take his lands and subjects. The twelve highest-
born men of each country swore confirmaton* oaths that this peace
should be enforced so long as any one of them stayed alive. The
death of Hordaknut when king of both Denmark and England
would give any such arrangement momentous consequences. If, on
the other hand, we trust to Adam, who has Magnus invade Den-
mark during the absence of Hordaknut in England (in this particular
Adam is astray), defeat Svein Estridsson, to whom Hordaknut had
entrusted his fleet, and seize the Danish kingdom on Hordaknut's
death, this was a conquest whose consequences would prove
equally fraught with destiny.
But if Magnus was the man in possession, there were other
possible contenders. The first of these was another Harald, son
of a doughty father, Thorkell the Tall, but he was murdered within
the year by Magnus's brother-in-law Ordulf, son of duke Bernhard
of Saxony. This left another Svein, sometimes called Ulfsson after
his father jarl Ulf, whom Knut cut down in his pride and treachery
in Roskilde church, and sometimes Estridsson after his mother,
Knurs sister. By blood he was Hordaknut's true heir, with a
realistic claim to the throne of Denmark and a theoretical one to
the throne of England, where he spent his youth as a hostage for his
29- TRELLEBORG TODAY
A view of the camp and its surroundings from the air. The Great Belt in the

background.
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30. THE DEATH OF ST OLAF AT STI K L A R ST A DI R

 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 401

father's good faith while regent of Denmark. He had lived a further

twelve years in Sweden in the service of king Onund Jacob. He was
a personable and wealthy young man, with a limp, considerable
natural gifts, a subtle sense of political manoeuvre, inexhaustible
determination, and patience without end. But Magnus had four
weighty and on the whole unanswerable advantages his prestige :

(he was a winner of victories, Svein was a loser; he had a saint for
father, Svein an unavenged traitor); there was his agreement with
Hordaknut and the Danish aristocracy, or maybe his simple right
of possession; his deep purse; and his speed of action. And these
advantages rested on or were reinforced by his superior fleet. Before
Svein could rally his supporters, Magnus crossed from Norway to
Jutland and was proclaimed king at the Viborg Thing.
In the circumstances Svein Estridsson judged it advisable to
come to terms with Magnus. Once more a Dane met Magnus at the
Gota-elf, and this time he promised allegiance. In return Magnus
set Svein as jarl and regent over Denmark, like his father Ulf
before him. This was more than Svein could have hoped to achieve
by force of arms, and he returned to Denmark well placed, as he
thought, to exploit the indignation caused by the murder of
Harald son of Thorkell the Tall, and so further his own advance-
ment. Soon afterwards he betook himself to Viborg Thing, where
the Danes are said to have paid him the same homage due to a king
they had recently paid to Magnus. But any satisfaction Svein felt
would be short-lived. Magnus moved with his usual speed and
energy, and Svein had little to set against the powerful fleet with
which he sailed for Denmark. Prudently he departed for Sweden
and the court of Onund Jacob, and played a spectator's part in the
stirring events which next took place in Denmark.
When Svein was appointed regent of Denmark it was Tor the
protection of the land' against the increasing activity of the peoples
and settlements of the south Baltic coast, more particularly the
Slavonic Wends. In the event Magnus had to discharge the task
himself. Either immediately before Svein's disaffection or soon
thereafter he moved against Wollin, whose inhabitants, by now
predominantly Wendish, but no doubt still retaining a Danish
element more sympathetic to Svein than to any Norwegian, had
thrown off their allegiance. In 1043 he took the town by storm,
burnt its fortifications, and ravaged the surrounding districts.
Snorri, for what his word is worth, describes Magnus's attack as
402 A History of the Vikings
against the Wends in Jomsborg, and the skaldic verses incorporated
by Arnor Jarlaskald) make no mention of
in his narrative (they are
vikings, only of Wends and heathens. Adam of Bremen (schol. 56)
has Magnus besiege Jumne, 'richest city of the Slavs'. At any rate,
the Jomsborg vikings, creatures of legend for the best part of a
century,now disappear from our sight for ever.
Magnus now turned to deal with a Wendish invasion of southern
Jutland. Continuing Slavonic pressure westwards through the north
German plain was the most serious menace to Danish security at
home since the northward-looking ambitions of Charlemagne, and
a sharp threat to Danish trade. The outlook was equally perturbing
to the Saxons, and Magnus and his brother-in-law Ordulf joined
forces to save their peoples from the common danger. But clear
though the situation was, and urgent the need, there were com-
plications. There were Norwegians who judged it politic to let the
Danes clear their own southern boundaries and weaken themselves
in the process. There were Danes who wished to see the Wends
defeated but grudged the glory of a Christian triumph to a Nor-
wegian, while supporters ofS vein were less than happy to aggrandize
the popularity of his rival. But with his usual incisiveness Magnus
brought his fleet to Hedeby and disembarked his men in the rear of
the Wends, who were harrying farther north. This permitted him
to join with Ordulf and the Saxons. The question now was whether
to fight, and it seems to the modern observer, as it seemed to
Magnus and Ordulf in September 1043, that there was only one
answer. So the Norse-Saxon army moved into position on the flat
expanse of the Lyrskov Hede north-west of the modern Schleswig,
and there, if it had not already done so, legend took over from
history. That night the Christians slept, as good Christians should,
in their armour under their shields. The king prayed and was wake-
ful, but slept long enough to see his father St. Olaf in a dream and

learn that the morrow would be rough on the heathen. And so it

proved. As dawn grew to day the northerners heard the ringing of a
bell on high, and those who had been in Nidaros thought it sounded
like the pealing of the great bell Glad which St. Olaf had presented
to the Church of St. Clement there. If the Wends heard it too,
the circumstance went unreported. It was Michaelmas Eve. All
Christian sources stress the superiority in numbers of the Wendish
host, but in the light of St. OlaPs assurance this could not dismay
the land's defenders. It is told of Magnus that, fortified by faith and
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 403

vision, he doffed his mail-shirt and fought in a kirtle of red silk,

swinging the battle-axe Hel which had been St. Olaf's own. The
foremost of the Wends fell in waves, those in the rear fled and
perished like cattle, the entire heath was strewn with their dead.
Adam of Bremen ventures a total of 15,000 Wendish corpses, Snorri
leaves with the statement that in Christian times no such carnage
it

was ever wrought in the north as that among the Wends on Lyrskov
Heath. That the Wendish army was shattered in Jutland and the
Wendish threat to Denmark removed is not to be doubted. Both
conclusions are unaffected by the inconsistencies, even the contradic-
tions, to be found in the early sources. 1
Magnus had still to deal with the threat to his authority in
Denmark posed by Svein Estridsson. He had also to make a gesture
in respect of England, which by his treaty with Hordaknut he
considered should nowbelong to him, not to Edward the English-
man. The English took his claim, as they should, seriously, for he
disposed of the naval strength of two great seafaring kingdoms, but
his preoccupations at home, first with Svein and then with his
maternal uncle Harald Hardradi, prevented his ever mounting an
expedition for England, where he knew he could look for a united
opposition, save for the eccentricities of queen Emma and maybe
bishop Stigand of Elmham. 2 To Svein Estridsson's inquiries about

1 Our doubts extend far beyond the discardable hagiographical and

propagandist details. Skaldic verses by Thjodolf Arnorson and Arnor
Jarlaskald preserved in Morkimkinna but not used by Snorri Sturluson in
Heimskringla point to there being two big engagements, one on Lyrskov Hede
and the other by the Skotborgara, Skotborg river, near Ribe, a good way
farther north. Snorri evidently considers the Skotborgara to be a river
traversing Lyrskov Hede (Hlyrskogsheidt). Knytlinga Saga 22 would have Svein
Estridsson take part in the battle, on the Danish side, invoking to this end a
probably misquoted verse by the skald Thorleik the Fair. With comparable
rashness Agrip makes Svein fight for the Wends. Morkimkinna, Fagrskinna,
and Heimskringla preserve the likely tradition that Svein, having reneged
on his treaty with Magnus, could take no part in the struggle. Adam of
Bremen makes no mention of his royal friend and patron Svein, but ascribes
c 5
the victory on the heath near Hedeby to Magnus. For a concise summary,
see Bjarni ASalbjarnarson, Heimskringla, HI, pp. xi-xii and 42.
is little eviden ce that Magnus seriously considered the conquest of
2 There

England. Also it is hard to credit Adam of Bremen's twicemade assertion that

Edward of England promised Svein Estridsson that he should be his heir (II,
lxxviii, and HI, xii). Sture Bolin suggests (Scandia, V, 214-21) that Adam's
words may be interpreted to mean that Edward had made this promise not to
404 A History of the Vikings
help against Magnus, England returned an unhelpful answer. In
1045 and again in the following year Edward stationed a fleet off
Sandwich in readiness for a Norwegian attack j early in 1047 he and
his councillors refused Svein's request for fifty ships to serve with
him in northern waters. But for the moment we must stay with the
year 1045.
Svein was not the only monarch-to-be who ate Onund's meat
that winter, for 1045 saw the re-entry into the northern arena of the
last of the part-historical, part-legendary viking heroes, Harald
Hardradi, the 'thunder-bolt of the north', as Adam of Bremen
described him. We saw him last at Stiklarstadir, young, untried in
war, most valiant, fighting alongside his half-brother Olaf. That was
fifteen years ago, when he was 15 years old. The man who now
returned to Sweden from the east was 30, in the prime of his
strength, the flower of his fame and ambition. His valour and skill
at arms were legendary, as were his deeds and reputation as a captain
of armies. Brought off the and healed of his
field after Stiklarstadir,
wounds he thereafter crossed the Keel into
in a lonely farm-house,
Sweden, and from there proceeded into the service of king Yaroslav
in Russia, taking part in the Polish campaign of 103 1. Three years
later, with a personal following of 500 warriors, he sailed to Byzan-
tium and entered the imperial service. It would be imprudent to
insist on the details of the campaigns with which his saga credits
him during the next ten years, but we can be sure he spent most of
the time with harness on his back, and became a commander of the
Varangians. He was a professional who fought in any theatre of war
to which his employer sent him, including the Greek islands, Asia

Svein but to Magnus. It may be granted that Adam was much misinformed by

Svein in various contexts concerning himself and Magnus. In the mid-

1040s Edward had not the slightest need to placate Svein, but he and his
councillors felt unease about Magnus. That the arrival of Harald Hardradi's
son Magnus in the Irish Sea in 1058 with a view to conquering England should
be related to Edward's promise of the succession to Magnus the Good some
twelve years earlier is a possibility, but nothing more. His expedition is
noticed in Welsh and Irish sources (see the reference in B. G. Charles, Old
Norse Relations with Wales, Cardiff, 1934, p. 48, n. 4) and, very sparely, in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (see Earle and Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles, II, p. 248)
year came a naval force from Norway it is tiresome to relate how it all
'In this :

happened.'
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 405

Minor, the Caucasus, Palestine, Sicily, Bulgaria. With even'

1

allowance made for the subsequent growth of his legend, he showed

himself during these years fierce, resourceful, cunning, resilient and
enduring, and when occasion called for it, double-dealing, vengeful,
and cruel. In brief, the epitome of the viking who lived by rapine
and war, believed in fame, riches, and power, and employed fair
1 Haralds Saga Sigurdarsonar, 2-16, offers a highly coloured and far from
acceptable account of Harald's exploits while in the service of Byzantium.
It much exaggerates his importance in Byzantine affairs, informs us that the
empress Zoe wished to marry him, confuses Asia Minor with Africa, credits
him with various time-worn stratagems for the reduction of cities, and offers
some eccentric information about palace politics. We can accept that the
Varangians played an important part in the events of 1042 which led to the
blinding and deposition of Michael Calaphates; but Heimskrwgla's insistence
that Harald personally gouged out the emperor's eyes is made suspect by its
choice of Constantine Monomachus in the true victim's stead.
The comparable Greek source, the anonymous 'Book of Advice to an
Emperor', c. 1070-80 (ed. Vasilievsky and Jernstedt, in Cecaumeni Strategicon,
St Petersburg, 1896) has this to say of Harald: 'Araltes [Haraldl was son to
the king of Varangia, and had a brother Julavos [Olafj who inherited his
father's kingdom after his death and made his brother Araltes next after him
in the kingdom. But while he was still young he decided to go on his travels
and pay his respects to the blessed emperor Michael Paphlagon and acquaint
himself with Byzantine administration. He had with him too a company of
500 valiant soldiers. Off he went, and the emperor received him as was seemly
and proper, and dispatched him together with his company to Sicily, because
the Byzantine army had a war on its hands in that island. And he went there
and achieved mightily. And when Sicily had been conquered he returned
with his troop to the emperor, who appointed him manglavites [belt- wearer, a
mark of honour]. After this it befell that Delianos began a revolt in Bulgaria,
and Araltes and his company went campaigning with the emperor and
achieved mightily there against the enemy, as befitted a man of his lineage and
valour. The emperor returned home once he had subjugated Bulgaria. I too
fought for the emperor as best I might. And as soon as we reached Mesina (?)
the emperor appointed him spatbarokandates [troop-leader, a rank of honour]
as a reward for his services. After the death of the emperor Michael and that
nephew of his who succeeded him [Michael Calaphates], Araltes sought to
obtain permission in the time of Monomachus to return home to his own
country, but he was not given leave for this, but instead difficulties were
put in his way. Even so he got away by stealth and became king over his
country in place of his brother Julavos.'
This associates him with the Sicilian campaign of 1038-41 and the
Bulgarian campaign of 1041, and shows a less than sensational rise in the
service. For a general discussion, see Sigfus Blondal, 'The Last Exploits of
Harald Sigurdsson in Greek Service', in Classica et Mediaevalia, I, 2, 1939,
pp. 1-26.
406 A History of the likings

means and tbul to obtain them. If the Viking Age went out with
Harald Hardradi it ended with a foremost kemper, albeit a shade
new-style.
Meantime he had not returned home by way ot Kiev, Novgorod,
and Aldeisyuborg through any sentimental longing for his native
land and tongue. He had heard how Magnus was ruler over two
kingdoms since the death of Hordaknut, and wanted his share of
—
Norway to which he considered himself entitled as Olaf 's half-
brother and one who had shed blood for the cause while Magnus was
still a child in Russia. Since Svein wanted something from Magnus,

too, it was natural for them to lay their heads together in Sigtuna
and plan a demonstration against what they regarded as the most
lightly held part of Magnus's dominion. This led to the ravaging of
Zealand and Fyn, but an alliance between Harald and Svein was
based on the merest expediency: the game of power politics in
which they were engaged with Magnus was three-cornered, not a
straight tight. Harald' s aim was a kingdom or half-kingdom in
Norway; Svein wanted Denmark; Magnus wanted Norway and
Denmark, but could afford to settle for half of the one so long as he
held on to the whole of the other. Nothing could illustrate more
clearly the status of a 'kingdom' as the personal property- of its then
ruler,whether by inheritance, donation, or conquest. Nation it was
not. Nor, in speaking of the kingdom of Norway should we forget
how remote in miles was the north, how remote in spirit the inland
provinces, and how little national sentiment obtained in either.
This was hardly less true of Sweden.
In circumstances which early sources do little to clarify, Harald
made contact with his not unwilling nephew, and Magnus agreed
to a division of his Norwegian territories. 'The kings were now
—
merry' but not for long. The situation was still three-cornered
when Magnus died of accident or sickness,by land or water, in
Jutland or Zealand, in theautumn of 1047. Svein had fled to Skane,
but promptly returned. He was acclaimed king at Isore Thing on
Zealand and (for the second time) at Viborg Thing in Jutland, and
king he remained over Denmark till his life's end in 1074.
A long and pointless struggle now ensued between Harald and
Svein, characterized on Harald's side by viking raids and punitive
expeditions, on Svein's by battles lost and resistance renewed. The
Icelandic historians exerted their full powers of memory, rearrange-
ment, and invention to shed splendour, even humour, on what is
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 407

essentially a sorry narrative of coasts raided, farms burned, husbands

killed, and womenfolk carried off. The skalds, too, did their best.
The stag of billows, kelpland-courser, still bore ring-sarked oaks of
Odinn Thing of arrows, where they fed the wolf, gave meat
to the
to the raven, shed wound-dew on the waters. But by now we have
heard it all before; the limitations of the style are becoming
exposed; and gifted amateurs like Harald himself with his
it is

four-lined contrast between sailors anchored in the hostile Randers-

fjord and husbands lullabied a-bed by their night-linened wives, 1
or the unnamed sailor who sang of burning Hedeby, that suddenly
catch our fancy, not Harald's versifying public-relations men.
There were two main periods of Norwegian aggression against
Denmark, separated by a ten-year interval during which Harald
most resolutely stabilized his boundary with Sweden, drove hard
ecclesiastical and economic policies at home and abroad, and
strengthened his personal authority by ruthlessly, and often basely,
getting rid of various of his enemies and friends, including the four
great lords of the Trondelag and Uppland Einar Thambarskelfir,
:

c
whom he made kiss the thin lips of the axe', along with his son
Eindridi; Kalf Arnarson, whom like a northern Uriah he saw
advanced into the forefront of battle that he might die of an
undefended back; Finn Arnarson, an unwitting tool in his brother's
destruction, who fled to the Danes; and Hakon Ivarsson, great-
grandson of jarl Hakon of the Trondelag, who fled to the Swedes.
The earlier attacks on Denmark were concentrated in the three or
four years following upon Harald's accession to the throne of all
Norway in 1047, the later came to a climax after 1060. The first
series was distinguished by the destruction of the town of Hedeby,
the second by the sea-fight at the Nissa in Halland.
The destruction of Denmark's main mart may appear a self-

mangling exercise for a man ambitious of the Danish throne. But

burning towns came naturally to Harald. Besides, they were of
timber here up north, and easily rebuilt; and if we can trust to
Snorri the expedition of 1049 had terror and loot as its primary
objectives.The congested wooden houses inside their confining
rampart made a splendid blaze. An unknown man of Harald's army,
with a turn for verse and arson, records how he had stood the
previous night a borgar armi, on the stronghold's arm, no doubt the
1 The verse has also been attributed to Thjodolf Arnarsson, and may be of
still later provenance.
408 A History of the Vikings
rampart's northern extremity, and watched the flames climb high
over the houses. It was a gallant deed, he opined, and calculated to
make Svein as well as Hedeby smart.
The wasteful campaigns that thereafter sought to make two
unwilling kingdoms into one dragged on till 1064, when even
Harald must recognize that everyone was sick of them. The fight at
Nissa itself, which emptied seventy ships of the Danes, settled
nothing. Svein was back in Denmark the following winter with
undiminished revenues and the approbation of his people. During
the winter of 1063-4 messengers passed between the two rulers and
a peace meeting was arranged at the Gota river in the spring. The
two kings arrived for negotiations which for a while went as
uncordially as a modern peace treaty, and for much the same
reasons of pride, greed, revenge, and embittered memory. Then
wisdom prevailed. Harald should have Norway, Svein Denmark.
The ancient boundaries were left undisturbed; there would be no
compensation paid or exacted; the line was drawn as of that day,
and the peace should last their lifetimes. Harald, winner of battles,
carried his banner, the famed Land-Waster, back to Norway,
disciplined Raumarike and Heidmark, and fiercely chastised the
tax-withholding Upplanders. Svein, loser of battles, returned to
Denmark and bound up the nation's wounds. Always defeated,
constantly in flight, invariably returning, he had outlasted Magnus
and would outlast Harald by eight good years.
And now the Viking Age was moving to its close. Its last and

57. A NORSE FLEET

'With sharp keel they ploughed the crest of the foaming deep
and sailed in a swift course between skerries and capes till they
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 409

consummatory figure had just two more years to live before he died
his splendid and unnecessary death at Stamford Bridge near the
city of York, drawn there by the never-failing viking compulsions
of land, wealth, and fame overseas. His first battle had been at
Stiklarstadir back in 1030; next came the great arc of sacks and
sieges, sea-fights and land-battles, from Poland through Russia by
way of Asia Minor and Bulgaria on to Sicily; then his bid for a
kingdom in Norway, wars throughout Uppland and along the
Swedish border, and seventeen years of hostilities against the
Danes. Now, his fiftieth year safely behind him, he would please
himself and gratify his chroniclers by challenging fortune once
more, in a greedy, royal, and aesthetically satisfying way. He would
undertake an expedition west-over-sea and meet his doom in a
holocaust reminiscent of the fabled encounters of old. He would fail
to win England, but would ensure its conquest by another and
remoter branch of the Nordmanni, the Normans of Normandy. This
was the last effective viking intervention in the affairs of western
Europe; the manner and extent of Harald's disaster, and its con-
sequences for three nations, made it culminatory.
It was on 5 January 1066 that Edward king of England died of
age and sickness, and was succeeded one day later by Harold
Godwinson, his subregulus. Harald of Norway was never the man to
forget that he, too, had a claim to a land as rich as England. One of
his first actions after he became sole king of Norway had been to
dispatch envoys of peace there. (Svein, typically, asked yet again

)^jM^^ A *"

reached the town and laid their prows up to the pier in the presence
of a great crowd (Bergen).'
410 A History of the Vikings
to be sent a fleet of fifty ships, and yet again was denied them). But
no emphasis on Harald the viking abroad should obscure that he
was a hard-headed king at home. The early years of his reign were
no time for an Enterprise of England, and thereafter he was too
deeply engaged with Svein, though maybe the western expedition
of 1058 conducted by his son Magnus shows that he was keeping
his ambitions warm. By the winter of 1065-6 he was at long last
free to plan a course of action in the light of the significant news
coming in from England, Flanders, and Normandy. The legality of
his claim, its strength or weakness compared with the claims of
others, would not worry him. The thing that mattered was could
it be enforced? Clearly he thought it could, and that S vein's claim

as the nephew of Knut could not. We would give a good deal to

know what was said in Trondheim that winter and the following
spring about Harold Godwinson the Englishman and William the
Bastard of Normandy and their claims. One thing we can be sure of:
Harald of Norway judged he had the beating of them both. The
emissaries who came to him from Harold's brother Tostig, the
deposed earl of Northumbria, and from the stirring hive of Orkney
with pleas and counsel would be of the same opinion. Even so he
must plan carefully, move unannounced, strike hard and true. It is
difficult to believe that so shrewd a calculator as William knew
nothing of Harald' s interest, particularly in view of the Scandinavian
connection, but we have no evidence that he was aware he was
planning a full-scale invasion. Harold Godwinson was taken entirely
by surprise, so perhaps we should attribute the silence of Norman
and English sources before the event to the Norwegian's skill in
mounting an expedition and, when the moment came, his speed in
delivering the blows. It helped that Harold and William had much
on their minds, and it is a legitimate speculation that Harald
Hardradi had over the years assembled so many and such large
fleets for inter-Scandinavian operations (he took 180 ships into
battle at the Nissa) that no one in Normandy and England could be
sure that the 200 or so ships assembling in the Solunds were not
intended for the same purpose. In the autumn the fleet set sail, with
Northumbria as its ultimate destination. By the time it was joined
on the other side of the sea by its reinforcements under Tostig and
the Orkneyers it is said to have numbered 300 ships and 9,000 men.
It could hope for the support of Tostig' s former earldom, and rely

on the goodwill of the Scots.

 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 411

Possibly Harald knew that the wind which carried him down the
coast of Yorkshire, ravaging in Cleveland, Scarborough, and Holder-
ness on the way, would keep the Norman invasion fleet in port and
immobilize Harold Godwinson, condemned to wait upon William's
initiative. But speculation serves no purpose: once Harald entered
the Humber and, moving behind the few and retreating English
ships,. followed the Ouse to Riccall/three miles below the conjunction

of that river with~tKe WHarfe, where he disembarked his men, he

was committed to winning a kingdom or a grave on English soil,
whatever the course of events down south. Northumbria was not
to be acquired without a battle, and one which though somewhat
neglected in history and story compared with the battle of Stam-
ford Bridge, played a vital part in deciding the issues of the year.
The small English fleet lay a few miles up the Wharfe at Tadcaster;
ten miles north of Riccall stood the city of York, and Harald
advanced upon it without delay. Barring his road was the army of
Edwin earl of Mercia and Morcar earl of Northumbria. The earls
had taken up position at Gate Fulford on the Ouse, two miles south
of York, and here they fought with Harald and Tostig on Wednes-
day, 20 September. It was a hard and close-locked engagement for
most of the day. When the Englishmen broke they had suffered
losses which would affect the issue at Hastings, while Norwegian
mortality helped decide Stamford Bridge.
Meantime, though Harald of Norway did not know it, Harold of
England was riding north with his housecarles, and the invasion coast
stood open. This was a calculated risk of the English king's, a course
imposed on him by the kingdom's need and his own temperament.
A change of wind could prove him wrong, without proving his critics
right.
For Harald Hardradi the road to York lay open, as did York
itself.He had everything to gain by moderation; it was not treated
as a hostile town, and once he had taken hostages for good behaviour
and provisions for his troops, he retired to his ships at Riccall. At
this same time he offered the citizens of York a treaty whereby they
would become his allies and march south with him 'to conquer this
realm'. But habit demanded that he secure hostages from through-
out the shire, and we assume that it was to receive these that he
now marched the main body of his army to Stamford Bridge on the
Derwent, twelve miles from the ships at Riccall, and eight miles
north-east of York. It was a good centre of road communications,
412 A History of the likings

well suited to his purpose. Harald's movement away from his ships
—
was eloquent of self-confidence and ignorance of the man he had
to deal with. A forced march had by now brought Harold Godwin-
son north to Tadcaster, where he met with the English ships and
spent the night of the 24th. Incredibly, Hardradi was still unaware
of his movements. On j-he niorr ow^JJond.Ty, 25 September, Harold_
moved rapidly north through an undefended York, and at the end
of a seventeen-mile march came upon the unsuspecting Norwegians
a t_Stamford Bridge.
We know veryHttle about t he battle itself. The Norwegian
position was on the eastTbank ofthe river, but possibly because of
their leisurely overconiidence and subsequent surprise they seem
not to have set a strong enough guard about the vital bridge. A
V

very stubborn battle', says the Cbro/iicle, 'was fought by both sides.'
It was an encounter which moved northern historians to compile a

magnificent story, complete with omens, accidents, confrontations,

gnomic rejoinders, berserk fury, and the casting away of armour,
but story, alas, is all that it is. 1 In numbers and quality, weapons
and armour, the armies were well matched. In skill, valour, and

1 There are thoroughgoing discussions of the northern historical material

relating to the battles of 1066 in Bjarni A5alb)arnarson, Oin de Xorsk Kongers
Sagasr, Oslo, 1937, and in his many- times cited edition of Heimskringla. See
also G. Indrebo, Fagrskinna, Kristiania, 1917, and most recently Svend Ellehoj,
StuJier over dot sldste norrone bistorieskrivning, Copenhagen, 1965. The relevant
parts of Hembigs partr have been translated by Jacqueline Simpson, The Xortb-
men Talk, 1965; and Orkneyinga Saga may be read in G. W. Dasent's version,
Rolls Series, 88, 1894. It is interesting that Morkinskinna (the oldest of the
three), Fagrskiinu, and Heimskringla omit from their rather stereotyped set of
portents attendant on Harald's expedition, as well as on the battlefield itself,
the 'haired star', Halley's Comet, whose appearance so deeply impressed the
compilers of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Bayeux Tapestry. Of con-
frontations the one we with most regret produced the promise to
set aside
Harald Hardradi of seven feet of English ground, 'or as much more as he is
taller than other men', and Harald's comment on his English namesake: 'A
small king that, but he stood bravely (jar. well) in his stirrups.' The only
English contribution in any way comparable is the C-Cbronicle's twelfth-
century conclusion. 'The Norwegians fled from the English, but there was
one Norwegian who stood firm against the English force, so that they could
not cross the bridge nor clinch victory. An Englishman shot with an arrow
but to no avail, and another went under the bridge and stabbed him through
the coat of mail. Then Harold, king ofthe English, crossed the bridge and his
levies went forward with him; and there made great slaughter of both Nor-
wegians and Flemings.' (Trans. Garmonsway.)
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 413

experience it would be hard to choose between them, and each had

an imperative need of victory. They fought on foot, and with the

advantages of surprise and preparedness resting with the English,
s o far a s we can tell they slogged it out till the day turned irrecover-

ablyjagainst the Norwegians. Harald, says tradition, was struck in

the throat by an arrow and fell. There can have been few survivors
from his bodyguard: a new generation of soldiers had to grow up in
Norway before an overseas adventure could be undertaken again.
When their frightfully punished army_aLJast to ok ^to flight the
_
survivors were harried over a dozen bloody miles to Riccall. There
was to be no residual menace in the north when Harold Godwinson
sped south again. But at Riccall he stayed his reddened hand and
gave the wealdf, the sorry remnant, quarter. Of the battle and its
aftermath the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (D) has this to say: 'Then
Harold_^urJdngcame unexpectedly upon the NorwegianSjjmdjnet
them beyond-YQrFat Stamfor d B ridge with a great host of English-
men, and that day awery stubborn battle was fought by both sides.
There were slain HaralaTHardradl [MS. Fairhair] and earl Tostig,
and Sie^reniainmgTToTwe^iafrs^v'ere put to flight, while the
English fiercely assailed their rear until some of them reached their
ships: some were drowned, others burnt to death, and thus
perished in various ways so that there were few survivors, and the
English had possession of the place of slaughter. The king then gave
quarter to Olaf, the son of the king of the Norwegians, to their
bishop, to the jarl of Orkney, and to all those who were left aboard
the ships. They then went inland and swore oaths that
to our king,
they would ever maintain peace and friendship with this land; and
the king let them sail home with twenty-four ships.'
This Olaf was Olaf Kyrre, the Gentle or Peaceful, who ruled at
first with his brother and then alone over Norway till 1093 without

strife or bloodshed. It was well for the Scandinavian kingdoms that

he was spared. He sailed for home by way of Orkney, and one

wonders how soon he learned that within days of the truce at
Riccall the victorious Harold Godwinson had made a second forced
march, this time south to his death at Hastings, and that the
Normans had achieved what their northern kinsmen had missed,
the conquest of England.
_Qne_year after Stamford Bridge Harald Hardradi's body was
brought from England to Norway. He was buried north in Nidaros,
in St. Mary's church, which he himself had founded. When that
 414 A History of the Vikings

huge_skull^ with its sweeping moustaches and mis-aligned eye-

brows, andtEaT stupendous frame which for thirty-five years was
'never free of turbulence and war', were laid away in the presence of
his peace-loving son, the Viking Age was OA'er.
Symbolically For in 1069 Svein Estridsson, made
if not factually.

. hopeful by unease and rebellion in the northern half of England,

dispatched a strong invasion fleet to that country. It had no success
off Kent and East Anglia, but at York won a victory ominous for the
Normans. But in their viking greed for prisoners and money its

leaders allowed king William to win back the initiative his captains
had lost, devastate the north and the north Midlands, and when
Svein crossed in person to the Humber in the spring of 1070 it was
toJ3nd_the jituation-so unpromising that by summer-time he made
peace with kingA¥Jlliam_and_sailed his fleet home again to Denmark.
Old habits., die hard,_ the Danes briefly, and the Norwegians till the
skirmish at Largs in 1263, would again lead their lank steeds of
ocean into western waters, display the dragon-head, but these were
the spasmodic efforts of stragglers in a race already run, whose
principal figures had long since'quit the field and, save for the
winners of fame, been hooded in darkness for ever.
And so the Age ended.

pverra nu, peirs pverrdu,

pingbirtingar Ingva,
hvar skalk manna mildra,
mjadveitar dag, leita,

peira's hauks fyr handan

bdfjdll digulsnjdvi
jar bar gjord vid or bum
eyneglda mer hegldu.

Minish they now who diminished

Dawnfire of meadfoaming horn;
Now vanish the heroes, time-vanquished,
War's flaunters, the thingmen of Ingvi.
Who now shower limbeck's snowsilver
As guerdon past earth's sea-isled girdle?
Or fill high hawkfell of my hand
With skald's reward for skilled word?

This had been Egill Skallagrimsson's lament for Arinbjorn the

hersir,when "he learned of his death alongside Harald Greycloak of
 The Viking Kingdoms to 1066 415

Norway at the battle by Hals in the Limfjord, c. 974. A century

lateFiT can serve as an epitaph for those last strong props of the
—
Viking Age the unknown fighting-men who watched Hedeby
blaze and covered the retreat at Stamford Bridge, great lords like
Einar Thambarskelflr and the Arnarsons, and the monarchs them-
selves —who died with the reigns of Harald Hardradi and Svein
Estridsson, and brought the Age to its rough-hewn, mortuary con-
clusion.

58. 'the riders sleep, heroes in the grave'

APPENDIXES
I. Runes
The first runic alphabet is thought to have originated either a
little before or a little after the beginning of the Christian era.
It consisted of twenty-four letters or phonetic symbols, organised
in threecettir or families of eight, and with minor variations in the

shape of some of the letters was common to all the rune-using

Germanic peoples. For convenience the runic alphabet is known as
the futbark, from its first letters (just as our present alphabet is

sometimes called the ABC). Each letter had its proper and significant
name: for example \p , f, was Gothic faihu, ON. fe, OE. feob, cattle,

property, wealth; j> , J)

(=th), Gothic paurh, ON. purs, giant (but

OE. porn, thorn);

f,
w, Gothic winja, ON. vin, pasture, or Gothic
wunja, OE. wynn, joy; \\, h, Gothic hagl, ON. Tyr, OE. Tim, the
god. The entire alphabet may be set out thus

riHNKXhNil ^KiTOnMMr^M
futharkgwhnijp ERs tbemlngod
The language represented by these phonetic symbols is the Old
Norse common to the Scandinavian peoples during the first six or
seven hundred years after the birth of Christ. But both alphabet and
letters were undergoing modification and the futbark of the Viking
Age proper, c. 700-1050, was one of sixteen letters, thus

rnmmu^T&Yri. s&as. i p a
futhcjrkhnias tbmlR egy
These are the Danish forms, normal over Denmark, Skane, much of
Sweden and Norway. There was a further Swedish-Norwegian series
with substantially reduced branch-strokes, and a second Swedish
420 Runes

refinement, the so-called Halsinge runes. However, the reduction

from twenty-four to sixteenletters, which meant that one rune

must now more than one sound, raised problems. Three

serve for
dotted Qtungne) runes were added to the sixteen during the
eleventh century, and eventually Scandinavia would enjoy a
complete runic ABC on the Latin model.
Where and how the runic alphabet originated is still a subject of
debate. That roughly a third of the long futbark derives from Latin
capitals is but other alphabets, Greek, Etruscan, and
self-evident;
north have
Italian, been brought into the account, as have the
Celts, Goths, Marcomanni, and Eruli. Where so much is uncertain,
it may be enough to conclude in general terms that the futbark was

in part based on one or more southern European alphabets, among

which the Roman predominated, and in part invented. The shape
of its letters based on vertical and diagonal strokes, and avoiding
horizontals and curves, suggests this was an alphabet designed for
use on wood. The earliest dateable runic inscriptions are to be
found in Denmark, but this does not disprove a contemporary
usage among the Goths north of the Black Sea. A majority of
scholars stress the magical significance of runes, and runes were
undoubtedly used in a most special way for spells and magic. But
runes were an all-purpose alphabet and were used increasingly for
non-magical (i.e. gnomic, commemorative, recording, identifying)
purposes. The range and number of runic inscriptions during the
Iron and Viking Ages is impressive: from Greenland to the Black
Sea, from the Isle of Man to Athens; they are rare in Iceland,
plentiful in Denmark (about 500) and Norway (about 750), and
most abundant of all in Sweden, which has some 3,000, including
1,000 or more in the province of Uppland. Brief Bibliography (1) :

O. von Friesen, in Hoops's Reallexikon der germaniscben Altertums-

kunde, IV, Oalle, 1919, and in Nordisk Kultur, VI, Stockholm-Oslo-
Copenhagen, 1933; S. Agrell, Runornas Talmystik ocb dess antika
Forebild, Lund, 1927; A. Badksted, Runerne, deres Historie og Brug,
Copenhagen, 1943 ; H. Arntz, Handbuch der Rwienkunde, Halle, 1944;
F. Askeberg, Norden ocb Kontinenten i gammel Tid, Uppsala, 1944;
(2) S. Bugge, Norges Indskrifter nied de <eldre Runer, Christiania, 1891-
1923 ; M. Olsen, Norges Innskrifter medde yngre Runer, Oslo, 1941-51
L. Jacobsen and E. Moltke, Damnarks Runeindskrifter, Copenhagen,
1942; S. Soderberg, E. Brate, E. Wessen, R. Kinander, etc., Sveriges

Runinskrifter, Uppsala, 1900- .

II. The Danelaw
The Danelaw was by name and definition that part of England in
which Danish, not English, law and custom prevailed. It comprised
the Danish conquests and settlements in Northumbria, East Anglia,
the Five Boroughs of Stamford, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and
Lincoln, and the south-east Midlands. Its southern boundary was
established by the treaty made shortly after 886 between king
Alfred and Guthrum of East Anglia. It followed the estuary of the
Thames upstream to the confluence of the river Lea, just east of
London, a town which remained in English hands, then up the
Lea to its source near Dunstable, whence it led north to Bedford.
From Bedford it followed the Ouse westwards to where it was
crossed by Watling Street at Fenny Stratford. Northwards of this
irregular line lay English Mercia and the territories won by other
Danish armies. The effect of the treaty then was to bring about the
threefold division of England into Wessex, English Mercia, and the
Danelaw; and though the Danelaw's political independence lasted
fifty years at most, its separate, i.e. Scandinavian, quality was

recognized not only by Alfred and his English successors, but by the
laws of Knut in the early eleventh century and by Norman law-
givers after the Conquest.
The Danelaw (its name had no currency before the time of Knut)
was,we suspect, at no time fully homogeneous, but internal
variations in respect of race, density of Norse settlement, political
allegiance and social organization, counted for less than its separate-
ness from English England. The evidence of personal coins and
moneyers is indicative, and that of language, vocabulary, and place-
names compulsive, that there was a rapid and heavy settlement of
parts of the Danelaw by Scandinavians 'representing little less than
a migration' (K. Cameron, Scandinavian Settlement in the Territory of
the Five Boroughs: the Place-Name Evidence, 1965, p. 10), and recent
|22 The Daaehnp

attempts to minimize the Norse element have been unconvincing.

Scandinavian vocabulary penetrated even* domain of language, as
the following groups of words indicate: law, by-law, outlaw; riding,
jpjpeatah; busbanj. fellow, busting; awkward, happy, ill, loose, odd, seemly,
weak, wrong; calf, leg, skin, skull; bull, egg, kid; bank, brink,
hoods, down (i.e. down), knife, race, rift, thrift, trust, window;
birds'
they, them, their, (and the pronominal adjectives both and same);
sister; to call, crawl, cut, drown, lift, reef scare, take, want; birth and to die.

Ddmk tmnga was spoken in parts of England long after the end of
Danish rule there, and in parts of Scotland even later. But the main
interpenetration of tongues had taken place before the death of
Knut. The evidence is so abundant that, reinforced as it is by such
place-name elements as -by, -beck, -breck, -fell, -gill, -keld, -mel, -rigg,

-scale, -sou: .
-
waite, -thorp, and -toft, it points to a consider-
able number of northern speakers in the Danelaw.
Of place-names those in -by and -thorp are the most significant.
Cameron calculates that of the 303 names in -by recorded in Domes-
dav Book as being in the territory of the Five Boroughs, at least

87 per cent are Scandinavian compounds. The evidence of the

-thorp names (they number 106) is likely to prove not less decisive.
Yorkshire and Lindsey in Lincolnshire show a Scandinavian division
into "ridings' (i.e. thridings, thriding, ON. pridjungr, 'a third part');
Yorkshire and the counties of the Five Boroughs were subdivided
not into English hundreds but into wapentakes, a curious develop-
ment from the ON. vdpnatak, the 'weapon-taking' or brandishing of
weapons which denoted approval of decisions made at the Thing
not that the word was ever used in Scandinavia for a legal or
administrative unit. In the Five Boroughs arable land was commonly
divided not into English hides but into ploughlands, which in turn
—
were subdivided into eight oxgangs a ploughland representing a
unit of land which could be worked by an eight-ox plough-team in
one year. Norse words for classes of men persisted in the Danelaw
after Domesday Book, including the hold (ON. holdr) or free land-
owner, who Norway could be buried next to the lendrmadr or
in
bersir, and Northumbria had a wergold of 4,000 thrymsas,
in
double that of a thane, equal to that of a king's high-reeve, and
half that of an earldorman or bishop; the sokeman or superior
landowning peasant, owing fair duty to his lord's estate, but
participant in that highly relished privilege of free men everywhere
— responsibility for the payment of his own taxes to the king; the
 The Danelaw 423

dreng (ON. drengr, 'brave, worthy man'), a shade better off in

status than the attached peasant, and surviving the Conquest on
the royal manors between Mersey and Ribble; and, finally, the
bonde and the thrall.
The Scandinavian basis of law and legal custom in the Danelaw
was frequently and handsomely acknowledged by the law-makers
of all England. No doubt there were variations of legal practice
amongst the Danelaw's different regions, but these again were less
significant than the overall difference from Wessex and English
Mercia. This was not just a matter of terminology, though such
Scandinavian or anglicized Scandinavian terms as lahslit, 'breach of
5
law , lahcop, 'purchase of law', sammxle, 'agreement', botleas, 'unaton-
able', festerman, 'surety', sacleas, 'innocent', and the like, bear
witness to concept as well as vocabulary; but the notion of law
itself was attimes distinct from that of England. Thus, a Danelaw
wergeld was related to the dead man's rank rather than his lord's,
and offences against the king's peace were more sternly penalized
than in England. But the most striking example of Danelaw legal
usage will be found in the Wantage code of Ethelred the Unready,
which describes the legal assemblies or courts of the Five Boroughs
first, the court of the Five Boroughs considered as a unit, presided
over by an ealdorman or king's reeve; second, the court of each
separate Borough; and, third, the wapentake court. All this is

strongly reminiscent of the supra-Things and local Things of

Scandinavia and Iceland; but the resemblances do not end there. In
each wapentake there were twelve leading men, thanes, with a
special responsibility for law—the so-called jury of presentment.
These twelve were required to take oath on holy relics that they
would neither accuse the innocent nor shield the guilty, after which
they were empowered to arrest any of ill fame then at odds with the
reeve. In Stenton's words: 'The sworn jury is unknown to pure Old
English law, and it is safe to follow the long succession of scholars
who have seen in the twelve leading thegns of the wapentake an
institution derived from the juries of twelve familiar in the
Scandinavian north. Although the fate of the suspects was settled
by the ordeal, and not by the judgment of the thegns who had
presented them, there is reason to think that these thegns formed
what may be called an upper bench of doomsmen within their
wapentake. A later passage in the codex runs "Let the judgment
:

stand on which the thegns are agreed; if they differ, let that stand
424 The Danelaw

which eight of them have pronounced, and let those who are out-
voted each pay six half-marks." On general grounds it is highly
probable that the thegns of this passage are identical with the
thegns on whom the wapentake relied for the presentment of evil-
doers. In any case, the passage is interesting as an illustration of the
climate of thought which lay behind the practice of the Danelaw
courts. It is the first assertion in England of the principle that where
opinions differ that of the majority must prevail' {Anglo-Saxon
England, pp. 503-4. For the Danelaw in general see the same work,
pp. 494-518). Finally there are the lawmen (lagematmi), familiar to
us from Scandinavia, and more especially Iceland, mentioned in
connection with Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York, and Chester,
where they appear to have constituted a judicial body (normally of
twelve) who gave verdicts in appointed cases.
The importance of the Danelaw to the Norsemen back home,
save as a temporary outlet of population, awaits a full determination
i.e. its part in christianizing first Denmark and then Norway and
Iceland; its influence on visual art in Scandinavia; on coinage and
currency, and on such military and quasi-political institutions as
the leidangr and bird; and on the concept of monarchy itself. Its

influence may well have been considerable in these and other

spheres.
III. A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga
[During the years 921-2 the Arab Ibn Fadlan served as secretary of
an embassy from the Khalif of Baghad to the Bulgars of the middle
Volga. About one-fifth of his account of his journey (the Risala)
relates to the Rus whom he met at the camp and trading-post, later
the town, of Bulgar. We have already noted his witness to certain
of their social and trading habits (pp. 164-5, 197 and n. 2 above). His
account of a Rus funeral is the most celebrated part of the Risala.
It is here quoted in the version of H. M. Smyser, which takes account
of the translation into German of Ahmed Zeki Validi Togan and
that into French of M. Canard. The passages in roman type are
based on the manuscript of the Risala, probably of the eleventh
century, discovered at Meshed in Iran in 1923 by Zeki Validi. Those
in italics are basedon Amin Razi's version of the Risala (AR), of
1593? which thought to derive from a good early MS. and to
is

preserve many valuable details not found in the Meshed MS. (see
the references to A. Zeki Validi Togan, Canard, and Smyser on
p. 164 n. 2 above).]

87. 1 had heard that at the deaths of their chief personages they did
many which the least was cremation, and I
interesting things, of
was interested to learn more. At last I was told of the death of one
of their outstanding men. They placed him in a grave and put a roof
over it for ten days while they cut and sewed garments for him.
If the deceased is a poor man they make a little boat, which they
lay him in and burn. If he is rich, they collect his goods and divide
them into three parts, one for his family, another to pay for his
clothing, and a third for making nabid [an intoxicating drink,
perhaps beer], which they drink until the day when his female
slave will kill herself and be burned with her master. They stupefy
themselves by drinking this nabid night and day; sometimes one
of them dies cup in hand.
426 A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga

(AR: They burn him in this fashion: they leave him for the first ten days

in a grave. His possessions they divide into three parts: one part for his

daughters and wives; another for garments to clothe the corpse; another part

covers the cost of the intoxicating drink which they consume in the course of
ten days, uniting sexually with women and playing musical instruments.
Meanwhile, the slave- girl who gives herself to be burned with him, in these
ten days drinks and indulges in pleasure; she deck her head and her person
with all sorts of ornaments and fine dress and so arrayed gives herself to the
men.')

When a great personage dies, the people of his family ask his
young women and men slaves, 'Who among you will die with
him?' One answers, T. Once he or she has said that, the thing is
obligator)-; there is no backing out of it. Usually it is the girl slaves

who do this [i.e. volunteer].

88. When the man of whom I have spoken died, his girl slaves were
asked, 'Who will die with him?' One answered, 'F. She was then put
in the care of two young women, who watched over her and
accompanied her everywhere, to the point that they occasionally
washed her feet with their own hands. Garments were being made
for the deceased and all else was being readied of which he had need.
Meanwhile the slave drinks every day and sings, giving herself over
to pleasure.

So. When man was to be cremated and

the day arrived on which the
the girl with him, went to the
I on which was his ship. I saw
river
that they had drawn the ship on to the shore, that they had erected
four posts of birch wood and other wood, and that around it [the
ship] was made a structure like great ships'-tents out of wood
[Canard: and that around these posts they had arranged some kind
of great scaffolding of wood]. Then they pulled the ship up until it
was on this wooden construction. Then they began to come and
go and to speak words which I did not understand, while the man
was still in his grave and had not yet been brought out. (AR: The
ninth ]ZV; Canard: tenth] day, having drawn the ship up on to the river
bank, they guarded it. In the middle of the ship they prepared a dome or
pavilion a coupole (kunbad) of wood and covered this with various sorts
offabrics.) Then they brought a couch and put it on the ship and
covered it with a mattress of Greek brocade. Then came an old
woman whom they call the Angel of Death, and she spread upon
 A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga 427

the couch the furnishing mentioned. It is she who has charge of the
clothes-making and arranging all things, and it is she who kills
the girl slave. I saw that she was a strapping old woman, fat and
louring.
When they came to the grave they removed the earth from above
the wood, then the wood, and took out the dead man clad in the
garments in which he had died. I saw that he had grown black from
the cold of the country. They had put nabid, fruit, and a pandora in
the grave with him. They removed all that. The dead man did not
smell bad and only his colour had changed. They dressed him in
trousers, stockings(?), boots, a tunic [qurtaq], and caftan of brocade
with gold buttons. They put a hat of brocade and fur on him. Then
they carried him into the pavilion [qubba\ on the ship. They seated
him on the mattress and propped him up with cushions. They
brought tiabidi fruits, and fragrant plants, which they put with him,
then bread, meat, and onions, which they placed before him.
Then they brought a dog, which they cut in two and put in the
ship. Then they brought his weapons and placed them by his side.
Then they took two horses, ran them until they sweated, then cut
them to pieces with a sword and put them into the ship. They took
two cows, which they likewise cut to pieces and put in the ship.
Next they killed a rooster and a hen and threw them in. The girl
slave who wished to be killed went here and there and into each of
their tents, and the master of each tent had sexual intercourse with
her and said, 'Tell your lord I have done this out of love for him.'
(AR: The tenth day, they brought the deceased out of the ground and
put him inside the pavilion [qubba] and put around him different kinds of
flowers and fragrant plants. Many men and women gathered and played
musical instruments, and each of his kinsmen built a pavilion [qubba]
around his pavilion [qubba] at some distance. The slave-girl arrayed herself
and went to the pavilions of the kinsmen of the dead man, and the master of
each had sexual intercourse once with her, saying in a loud voice, ''Tell your

master that I have done the duty [or exercised the right] of love and friend-
ship,.' And so, as she went to all the pavilions to the last one, all the men had
intercourse with her. When this was over, they cut a dog in two halves and
put it into the boat, then, having cut the head off a rooster, they threw it,

head and body, to the right and left of the ship?)

90. Friday afternoon they led the slave-girl to a thing that they had
made which resembled a door frame. She placed her feet on the
428 A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga
palms of the men and they raised her up to overlook this frame. She
spoke some words and they lowered her again. A second time they
raised her up and she did again what she had done; then they
lowered her. They raised her a third time and she did as she had done
the two times before. Then they brought her a hen ; she cut off the
head, which she threw away, and then they took the hen and put
it in the ship. I asked the interpreter what she had done. He

answered, 'The first time they raised her she said, "Behold, I see
my father and mother." The second time she said, "I see all my dead
relatives seated." The third time she said, "I see my master seated
in Paradise and Paradise is beautiful and green; with him are men
and boy servants. He calls me. Take me to him." ' Now they took
her to the ship. She took off the two bracelets which she was wearing
and gave them both to the old woman called the Angel of Death,
who was to kill her; then she took off the two finger rings which she
was wearing and gave them to the two girls who served her and
were the daughters of the woman called the Angel of Death. Then
they raised her on to the ship, but they did not make her enter into
the pavilion.
Then men came with shields and sticks. She was given a cup of
nabid; she sang at taking it and drank. The interpreter told me that
she in this fashion bade farewell to all her girl companions. Then she
was given another cup; she took and sang for a long time while
it

the old woman incited her to drink up and go into the pavilion
where her master lay. I saw that she was distracted; she wanted to
enter the pavilion, but put her head between it and the boat [sic]
Then the old woman seized her head and made her enter the pavilion
and entered with her. Thereupon the men began to strike with the
sticks on the shields so that her cries could not be heard and the
other slave-girls would not be frightened and seek to escape death
with their masters. Then six men went into the pavilion and each
had intercourse with the girl. Then they laid her at the side of her
master; two held her feet and two her hands; the old woman known
as the Angel of Death re-entered and looped a cord around her neck
and gave the crossed ends to the two men for them to pull. Then she
approached her with a broad-bladed dagger, which she plunged
between her ribs repeatedly, and the men strangled her with the
cord until she was dead.
(AR: After that, the group of men who have cohabited with the slave-
girl make of their hands a sort ofpaved way whereby the girl, placing her
 A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga 429

feet on the palms of their hands, mounts on to the ship. After that, they give
her a hen, which she throws into the ship after tearing off its head. Then she
drinks a cup of an intoxicating drink and pronounces many words, and, thrice

standing on the palms of the men, she comes down and mounts again to the

ship and recites many things [Canard : sings some snatches]. She goes into the

pavilion [qubba] in which her husband [Mann; mari] has been put, and
six of the ofher husband go into the pavilion and unite sexually with
relatives

this wife in the presence of the dead man. When they have finished these

duties oflove, the old woman who, according to the belief of these people, is the

Angel of Death arrives and lays the wife to sleep beside her husband. Of the
six men, two seize the legs of the slave-girl, and two others her hands, and the

old woman, twisting her veil, puts it around her neck and gives the ends to the

two other men so that they can pull it so tight that the soul escapes from her
body.)

91. Then the closest relative of the dead man, after they had placed
the girl whom they have killed beside her master, came, took a piece
of wood which he lighted at a fire, and walked backwards with the
back of his head toward the boat and his face turned (toward the
people), with one hand holding the kindled stick and the other
covering his anus, being completely naked, for the purpose of
setting fire to the wood that had been made ready beneath the ship.
Then the people came up with tinder and other firewood, each
holding a piece of wood of which he had set fire to an end and which
he put into the pile of wood beneath the ship. Thereupon the flames
engulfed the wood, then the ship, the pavilion, the man, the girl,
and everything in the ship. A powerful, fearful wind began to blow
so that the flames became fiercer and more intense.

92.One of the Rus was at my side and I heard him speak to the
interpreter,who was present. I asked the interpreter what he said.
c
He answered, He said, "You Arabs are fools" 'Why?' I asked him. '

He said, 'You take the people who are most dear to you and whom
you honour most and you put them in the ground where insects and
worms devour them. We burn him in a moment, so that he enters
Paradise at once.' Then he began to laugh uproariously. When I
asked why he laughed, he said, 'His lord, for love of him, has sent
the wind to bring him away in an hour.' And actually an hour had
not passed before the ship, the wood, the girl, and her master were
nothing but cinders and ashes.
430 A Rus Ship-Burial on the Volga
Then they constructed in the place where had been the ship
which they had drawn up out of the river something like a small
round hill, in the middle of which they erected a great post of birch
wood, on which they wrote the name of the man and the name of
the Rus king and they departed.
Select Bibliography

The Bibliography is A short list of books

presented in six sections: I,

in English, introductory to the subject; 2, General and national

Scandinavian history; 3, Pre- viking Scandinavia; 4, The vikings
overseas; 5, The Scandinavian community; 6, Sources.

The lists are alphabetical, except that books in English precede those
in other languages.

The sections are not exclusive of each other.

I. An introductory list of books in English:

1. Bertil Almgren (ed.), The Viking. 288 pp. C. A. Watts. 1966. A

general survey, impressively illustrated with plates and drawings.
2.Holger Arbman, The Vikings. Trans. Alan Binns. 212 pp. Thames
and Hudson. 1961. Brief but authoritative, with an emphasis on
archaeology and art. Handsomely illustrated.
3.Johannes Brondsted, The Vikings. Trans. Kalle Skov. 347 pp. Penguin
Books. 1965. Excellent on the background and life in the Scandinavian
homelands. Light on political history and the vikings overseas.
4. R. W. Chambers, Beowulf. An Introduction to the Study of the Poem.
With a Supplement by C. L. Wrenn. 628 pp. Cambridge University-
Press. 1959. The classic statement in English of the Geat-Swedish
and other heroic problems.
5. Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga. 246 pp. Oxford University
Press. 1964. The Norse voyages of discovery and settlement to Iceland,
Greenland, and America, with a translation of the more important
early documents.

6. T. D. Kendrick, A 412 pp. Methuen. 1930.

History of the Vikings.
The only English of the Vikings at home and
full-scale history in
abroad. Comprehensive and stimulating, but may soon need revision.

7. Axel Olrik, Viking Civilization. 246 pp. Allen and Unwin. 1930. A
translation by J. W. Hartmann and H. A. Larsen of Olrik's Nordisk
432 Select Bibliography

Aandsliv i Vikingetid og Tidlig Middelalder, revised after the author's

death by Hans Ellekilde.
8. P. H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings. 254 pp. Arnold. 1962. Inform-
ative, important, selective, severely critical. Makes use of recent
Swedish research not otherwise available in English.

9. Shetelig and Hjalmar Falk, Scandinavian Archaeology. Trans.

Haakon
E. V.Gordon. 458 pp. Clarendon Press. 1938. A brilliant and humane
survey from the earliest times to the end of the Viking Age, appro-
priately illustrated.

10. Haakon Shetelig (ed.), Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland
I- VI. Oslo. 1940-54. Includes 'An Introduction to the Viking History
of Western Europe', 164 pp (i94°)-
11. JacquelineSimpson, Everyday Life in the Viking Age. 208 pp.
Batsford. 1966. A
well-judged survey, tellingly illustrated with plates
and drawings by Eva Wilson.
12. E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, 340 pp.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 1964. The standard work in English on the
ancient Scandinavian religion, but stronger on the literary side than
the historical or archaeological.
13. G. Vernadsky, The Origins of Russia. 354 pp. Clarendon Press.
1959. An admirable survey, which sets the Scandinavian-Rus con-
tribution to early Russian history lower than most Scandinavian
scholars do.

14. David M. Wilson and Ole Klindt-Jensen, Viking Art. 173 pp.
Allen and Unwin. 1966. A good general survey, effectively illustrated.
15.H. R. Ellis Davidson, Pagan Scandinavia. 214 pp. Thames and
Hudson. 1967. A compact and well-illustrated survey.

II. General and National Scandinavian History:

See Almgren, Arbman, Brondsted, Kendrick, Sawyer, under I.

K. Gjerset, History ofthe Norwegian People, I—II, 1915. (Somewhat dated.)

K. Larsen, A History of Norway, Princeton, 1948.

L. Larson, Canute the Great and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the
Viking Age, New York, 193 1.

E. Oxenstierna, The Norsemen, 1966. (A translation of Die Wikinger,

Stuttgart, 1959.)

G. Turville-Petre, The Heroic Age of Scandinavia, 195 1. (An excellent

introduction, strong on the written sources.)

I. Andersson, Skanes historia till Saxo och Skanelagen, Stockholm, 1947.

 Select Bibliography 433

E. Arup. Danmarks Historie, I, Copenhagen, 1925.

J.
Bjernum, Kilder til vikingetidens historie, Copenhagen, 1961. (A simple,
clear, reliable introduction.)

J. Bjernum and Th. Ramskou, Danmarks Sydgnense, (Copenhagen,

1948.)
S. Bolin, Skanelands bistorie, Lund, 1933.
Sture Bolin, Ur penningens historia, Lund, 1962.
V. La Cour, Danevirkestudier, Copenhagen, 195 1. (Chapters on Swedish,
German, and Danish rule in Denmark.)
P. V. Glob, Ardogplov i Nor dens oldtid, Arhus, 195 1.
G. Hafstrom, Ledung ocb Marklandsindelning, Uppsala, 1949.
A. Holmsen, Norges Historie, Fra de Eldste Tider til 1660, Oslo-Bergen,
1961.
Bjorn Hougen, Fra seter til gard. Studier i norsk bosetning-historie, Oslo,
1947.
H. Jankuhn, Haithabu. Ein Handelsplatz der Wikingerxeit, 4th ed.,
Neumunster, 1963. (Chapters on social and economic history in
Scandinavia.)
A. O. Johnsen, Fra tettesamfunn til statssamfunn, Oslo, 1948.

A. D. Jorgensen, Dennordiske Kirkes GrundUggelse, Copenhagen, 1874-6.

Poul Johs. Jorgensen, Dansk Retshistorie, Copenhagen, 2nd ed., 1947,
1965.
H. Koht, Innhogg og utsyn i norsk historie, Christiania (Oslo), 192 1.
(Includes 'Sagaenes opfatning av var gamle historie'; 'Kampen om
makten i Norge i sagatiden'; 'Um eitt nytt grunnlag for tidrekninga
i den elste historia var'.)

H. Koht, Harald Harfagre og rikssamlinga, Oslo, 1955.

Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nor disk Middelalder, Copenhagen, etc., 1956-

(to be completed). (Contains brief, authoritative articles in alphabeti-
cal order over a wide range of Scandinavian medieval culture and
civilization. Useful bibliographies, illustrations. Indispensable.)

H. Ljungberg, Den nordiska religionen ocb kristendom. Studier over det

nordiska religionsskiftet under Vikingatiden, Stockholm, 1938.
Brita Maimer, Nordiska my nt fore ar 1000, Acta Arch. Lundensia, Lund,
1966.
L. Musset, Les Peuples Scandinaves au Moyen Age, Paris, 195 1. (A com-
pact, masterly summary.)
Nordisk Kultur, 30 volumes, Copenhagen, etc., 1930-56. (Articles and
monographs in the three Scandinavian languages include: Befolkning i
434 Select Bibliography

Oldtiden, I 1936; Befolkning, II, 1938; Stednavne, V, 1939; Runorna, VI,

1933; Litteraturbistorie, VIII A and B, 1942-3; Vdben, XII B, 1943;

Dragt, XV B, 1941; Handel og Samfardsel, XVI, 1934; Bygningskultur,
XVII, 1953; Religionshistorie, XXVI, 1942; Kunst, XXVII, 1937; Mont,
XXIX, 1956. Indispensable for almost every aspect of ancient and
medieval Scandinavia.)
F. Paasche, Motet mellom bedendom og kristcndom i Norden, Stockholm,
1958.
Th. Ramskou, Danmarks Historie, II : Normannertiden, 600-1060,
Copenhagen, 1963.
Thorkild Ramskou, Vikingetiden, Skibct, Snerdet og Vsgten, Copenhagen,
1962.

Schultz' Danmarks Historie, I—II, Copenhagen, 1941.

H. Schiick, Svenska folkets bistoria, Lund, 1914.

H. Shetelig and E. Bull, Det norska folks liv og historie, I—II, Oslo, 1930-1.

R. Skovmand, De danske skattefund fra vikingetid og den celdste middelalder

omkring 1150, Copenhagen, 1942. (Has a resume in French.)
indtil

J.
Steenstrup, Normanneme, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1876-82. (A classic
work, still of great value.)
M. Stenberger, Die Scbafzfunde Gotlands der JVikingerzeit, I, Stockholm
1958,11, Lund, 1947.
F. Strom, Nordisk Hedendom, Goteborg, 1961.
Sonderjyllands Historie fremstillet for det danske Folk, I—II, Copenhagen,
I93I-9.
Sv. Tunberg, G. Carlsson, S. Kraft, Sverigeshistoria till vara dagar, II-
III, Stockholm, 1926.
Curt Weibull, Kallkritik ocb bistoria, Stockholm, 1964. (Includes 'Om
det svenska och det danska rikets uppkomst', Hist, tidskr.fbr Skaneland,
VIII,Lund, 1917-21; and 'Sverige och dess nordiska grannmakter
under den tidligare medeltiden', Lund, 1921.)
Lauritz Weibull, see p. 444.

III. Pre-Viking Scandinavia:

See Chambers, Shetelig and Falk, Davidson, under I.

Anders Hagen, Norway, 1967.

Ella Kivikoski, Finland, 1967.

Ole Klindt-Jensen, Denmark, 1957.

E. Oxenstierna, The World of the Norsemen, 1967. (A translation of Die
Nordgermanen, Stuttgart, 1957.)
 Select Bibliography 435

Marten Stenberger, Sweden, 1962.

R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford, The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, British Museum, 1966.

J. G. D. Clarke, Prehistoric Europe. The Economic Basis, 1952.

C. A. Nordman, The Megalithic Culture of Northern Europe, Finska

Fornminnesforeningens Tidskrift, 39, 1939.
Johannes Brondsted, Danmarks Oldtid, I—III, Copenhagen, revised
edition, 1957-60.

Johannes Brondsted, Danmarks Historie, I: De celdste Tider Indtil dr 600,

Copenhagen, 1962.
G. Ekholm, Forntid och fornforskning i Skandinavien, Stockholm, 1935.
P. Herrmann, Die Heldensagen des Saxo Grammaticus, Leipzig, 1922.
L. Musset, Les invasions : les vagues germaniques, Paris, 1965.

Axel Olrik, Kilderne tilSakses Oldhistorie, I— II, Copenhagen, 1892-4.

Axel Olrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning. I, Rolf Krake og den celdre Skjold-

ungreekke; II, Starkad den gamle og den yngre Skjoldungnekke, Copenhagen,

1903-10. (English translation and revision, L. M. Hollander, The
Heroic Legends of Denmark, New York, 1919.)

IV. The Vikings Overseas:

(a) The Movement South and South- West:

See Arbman, Kendrick, Sawyer, Shetelig, under I.

W. E. D. Allen, The Poet and the Spae-Wife. An attempt to Reconstruct

Al-GhazaF's Embassy to the Vikings, i960.
Peter Hunter Blair, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, 1956.
A. W. Brogger, Ancient Emigrants, A History of the Norse Settlements of
Scotland, 1929.

B. G. Charles, Old Norse Relations with Wales, Cardiff, 1934.

Michael Dolley, Viking Coins of the Danelaw and of Dublin, British Mu-
seum, 1965.
R. H. Hodgkin, A History of the Anglo-Saxons, I—H, 1952.
E. Joranson, The Dane geld in France, Rock Island, 1923
C. F. Keary, The Vikings in Western Christendom, 1891.
S. Korner, The Battle of Hastings, England, and Europe, Lund, 1966.
F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 1943.
A. Walsh, Scandinavian Relations with Ireland during the Viking Period,
Dublin, 1922.
436 Select Bibliography

R. E. M. Wheeler, London and the Vikings, 1927.

D. M. Wilson, The Anglo-Saxons, i960.

H. Arbman and M. Stenberger, Vikingar i Vasterled, Stockholm, 1935.

Fritz Askeberg, Norden och kontinenten i gammal tid, Uppsala, 1944.

J. Adigard des Gautries, Les norm de personnes scandinaves en Normandie de

911 a 1066, Lund, 1954.
Louis Halphen, Les Bar bares, Paris, 1940.
E. Levi-Provencal, Histoire de PEspagne musulmane, Paris, 1950.

F. Lot and L. Halphen, Le Rtgne de Charles le Chauve, I, Paris, 1909.

F. Lot, Les Invasions bar bares et le peuplement de P Europe, I—II, Paris, 1937.

Niels Lund, De Danske Vikinger i England, Copenhagen, 1967.

A. Melvinger, Les premieres incursions des Vikings en Occident d?apres des

sources arabes, Uppsala, 1955.

P Europe du Nord-Ouest
]

L. Musset, Relations et echanges d' influence dans

(Xe-XIe siecles^), Paris, 1958.

L. Musset, Les invasions: le second assaut contre P Europe chretienne, Paris,

1965. (Deals with the Slavs and Steppe peoples as well as the Vikings
under the three heads : Instruments de Recherche et Documentation;
Nos Connaissances; Problemes en suspens et Directions de Re-
cherche.)

J.C. H. R. Steenstrup, Normandiets Historie under de syv forste Hertuger,

Copenhagen, 1925.
W. Vogel, Die Normannen und das Frankische Reich bis zur Griindung der
Normandie (799-911), Heidelberg, 1906.

(F) The Movement East:

N. K. Chad wick, The Beginnings of Russian History, 1946.

D. M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khaxars, Princeton, 1954.

B. D. Grekov, Kiev Rus (English version), Moscow, 1959.

C. A. Macartney, The Magyars in the Ninth Century, 1940.
H. Paszkiewicz, The Origin of Russia, 1954.
N. V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, New York, 1963.
Vilh. Thomsen, The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia and

of the Russian State, 1887. Reissued Burt Franklin, New York,

the Origin
?I964. Revised in Thomsen's Samlede Shifter, I, Copenhagen, 1919.

G. Vernadsky, Ancient Russia, New Haven, 1943.

G. Vernadsky, Kievan Russia, New Haven, 1948.
 Select Bibliography 437

G. Vernadsky, The Origins of Russia, 1959.

H. Arbman, Svear i osterviking, Stockholm, 1955.
T. J. Arne, La Suede et F Orient, Uppsala, 1914-
F. Balodis, Handelswege nach dem Osten und die Wikinger in Russland,
Stockholm, 1948.
W. J. Raudonikas, Die Normannen der Wikingerzeit und das Ladogagebiet,
Stockholm, 1930.
A. Stender-Petersen, Farangica, Arhus, 1953.

(c) The Movement West:

G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, The Norse Discoverers of America, 1921.

K. Gjerset, History of Iceland, 1925. (Needs revision.)

Halldor Hermannsson, The Problem of JFineland, Ithaca, 1936.
Helge Ingstad^ Land under the Pole Star, 1966.
Helge Ingstad, WesternWay to Finland, 1969.

Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga, 1964.

Knud J. Krogh, Viking Greenland. Supplement of Saga Texts by
With a
Gwyn Jones, Copenhagen, 1967. (A by Helen Fogh of
translation
Erik den Rodes Grenland: Sagatekster ved H. Bekker Nielsen, Copen-
hagen, 1967.)
Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, The Finland Sagas, 1965.

Fridtjof Nansen, In Northern Mists. Arctic Exploration in Early Times,

1911.
Poul Norlund, Fiking Settlers in Greenland and their Descendants during
five hundred years, 1936.

R. A. Skelton, Thomas E. Marston, and George D. Painter, The

Finland Map and the Tartar Relation, 1965.
Kristjan Eldjarn, Kuml og Haugfe ur Heidnum Sid i Islandi, Akureyri,
1956.
S. B. F. Jansson, Sagorna om Finland, I, Lund, 1944.
Jon Johannesson, Islendinga Saga, I—II, Reykjavik, 1956-8. (The best
history of early Iceland.)
SigurQur Nordal, Islenzk Menning, I, Reykjavik, 1942.

V. The Scandinavian Community:

(a) Art:

See Arbman, Brondsted, Wilson and Klindt-Jensen, Shetelig, and

Shetelig and Falk, under I.
438 Select Bibliography

H. R. Ellis Davidson, The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England, 1962.

A. Hagen and A. Liestol, Ancient Norwegian Design, Oslo, 1961.

W. Holmqvist, Germanic Art during the First Millennium A.D., Stock-

holm, 1955.
T. D. Kendrick, Late Saxon and Viking Art, 1949.
P. M. C. Kermode, Manx Crosses, 1907.

B. Almgren, Bronsnyklar och Djuroromamentik vid overgdngen frdn

vendeltidtil vikingatid, Uppsala, 1955.
H. Arbman, Schweden und das Karolingische Reich, Stockholm, 1937.
R. Broby-Johansen, Oldnordiske Stenbilleder, Copenhagen, 1967.
A. W. Brogger, H. Falk, and H. Shetelig, Osebergfunnet, I-IV, Oslo,
1917-28. (Also Bjorn Hougen, 'Osebergfunnets billedvev', in Viking,
IV, Oslo, 1940.)

S. Lindqvist, Gotlands Bildsteine, I—II, Uppsala, 1941.

J.
Petersen, De Norske vikingesverd, Christiania, 1919.

J. Petersen, Vikingetidens redskaper (with an English summary), Oslo,

1951.
B. Salin, Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik, Stockholm, 1904 and 1935.

(b) Camps and fortifications

See p. 101 n, and p. 360, n. I.

(c) Religion:

W. A. Craigie, The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia, 1914. (Needs

revision, but still a useful introduction.)

H. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, 1964.

H. Ellis Davidson, Pagan Scandinavia, 1967.
E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, 1964.

G. Dumezil, Les Dieux des Germains, Paris, 1959.

Olaf Olsen, Horg, Hov og Kirke. Historiske og Arkteologiske Vikingetids-
Copenhagen, 1966 {Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie,
studier,

1965).

J. de Vries, Altgermanische Religions geschichte, I— II, Berlin, 1956-7.

(i) Runes
See p. 420. Add S. B. F. Jansson, The Runes of Sweden (Trans. P. G.
Foote), 1962; L. Musset and F. Mosse, Introduction a la runologie, I— II,
 Select Bibliography 439
Paris, 1965 ; Arndt Ruprecht, Die ausgehende JFikingerzeit im Lichte der
Runeinschriften, Gottingen, 1958.

(e) Ships:

See p. 183, n. 2.

(/) Towns and Trade:

See p. 181, n. 1. Add H. Jankuhn, 'Sechs Karten zum Handel des 10
Jhs. im westlichen Ostsee-becken', Archaeologia Geographica, Hamburg,
I5!95°5 pp- 8-16; P. Kletler, Handel und Gewerbe im friihen Mittelalter,
Vienna, 1924; H. Preidel, Handel und Handwerk im frtihgeschichtlichen
Mitteleuropa. Eine kritische Betrachtung, Lund, 1965 J. R. C. Hamilton, ;

Excavations at Jarhbof, Shetland, 1956.

VI Sources:

Adam of Bremen: Gesta Hammabur gensis Ecclesiae Pontifcum, ed. B.

Schmeidler, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Hanover, 19 17. Trans.
F. J. Tschan, History of the Archbishops of Ham burg- Bremen, New York,
1959.
Agrip Qaf Noregskonunga
' sb'gurn), ed. F. Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1929.
Alfred's Orosius, ed.H. Sweet, EETS, 1883. Text and trans, of the
passage relating to Ohthere's northern voyage in Alan S. C. Ross,
The Terfinnas and Beormas of Ohthere, Leeds, 1940; and see B. Schier,
'Wege und Formen des altesten Pelzhandels in Europa', in Archiv f.
Pelzkunde,!, 195 1.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. C.

Plummer and J. Earle, 1892, re-ed. D.
Whitelock, 1952. Trans. D.
Whitelock. D. C. Douglas, and S. I. Tucker, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,

1961 ; G. N. Garmonsway, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, i960.

Anskar : Vita Anskarii auctore Rimberto, ed. G. Waitz, SSRG, Hanover,
1884. Trans. C. H. Robinson, Anskar, The Apostle of the North, 1921.
Annales Bertiniani, ed. G. Waitz, SSRG, Hanover, 1883; F. Grat, J.
Vielliard, S. Clemencet, Paris, 1964.

Annales regni Francorum, ed. G. H. Pertz and Fr. Kurze, SSRG,

Hanover, 1895.
Annales Fuldenses, ed. F. Kurze, SSRG, Hanover, 1891.

Arab Sources Rerum normannicarum fontes

: arabici, ed. A. Seippel, I— II,
Oslo, 1 896-1928. Translations of various documents will be found in
Harris Birkeland, Nordens historie i middelalderen etter arabiske kilder,
Det Norske Videnskabs-Akademi i Oslo, Skrifter, E, Hist.-Filos.
440 Select Bibliography

Klasse, 1954; Georg Jacob, Arabische Berichte von Gesandten an

2,
d. g und 10 Jabrhundcrt, Berlin-Leipzig, 1927;
germanische Fiirstenhofe aus
C. A. Macartney, The Magyars in the Ninth Century, 1930; V. F.
Minorsky, Hudud-al- Alam, 1937; A. Zeki Validi Togan, Ibn Fadlatfs
Reiseberichte, Leipzig, 1939; M. Canard, 'La Relation du Voyage d'Ibn
Fadlan che-z les Bulgares de la Volga\ Algiers, 1958; H. M. Smyser,
'Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus, etc' (For the last three see p. 164-5
above, n. 1); W. E. D. Allen, The Poet and the Spae-Wife, i960; and
others.

Beowulf, ed. Fr. Klaeber, 1936; ed. C. L. Wrenn, 1953. For the
references to Hygelac see Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, and
Mon. Germ.
Liber Historiae Francorum QGesta Francorum), in B. Krusch,
Hist., Scriptoresrerum Merovingicarum, I—II, Hanover, 1885; Liber
Momtrorum (De Monstris et de Belluis), in M. Haupt, Opuscula II,
Leipzig, 1876, and M. A. Thomas, 'Un manuscrit inutilise du Liber
Monstrorum', in Archivum Latinitatis medii aevi, Bulletin du Cange,
Paris, 1925.

Chronicon Althelweardi, ed. A. Campbell, 1962.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio, Greek text

edited by G. Moravcsik, English translation by R. J. H. Jenkins,
I—II, Budapest, 1949-62.

Dudo : Dudonis sancti Quintini de moribus et actis primorum Nonnanniae

ducum, ed. M.J. Lair, Caen, 1865.
Edda Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst Verwandten Denkmalern, ed. G.
:

Neckel, I—II, Heidelberg, 1936. Trans. H. A. Bellows, The Poetic Edda,

New York, 1923; and others. For an account of the Eddie poems see
the relevant chapters of G. Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature,
J 953; Stefan Einarsson, A
History of Icelandic Literature, New York,
1957; and especially Einar Ol. Sveinsson, Islenzkar Bokmentir i Fomii/d,
I, Reykjavik, 1962.

Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, ed. F. Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1926. Many

translations into English.
Egils Saga Skallagrimssonar, ed. SigurQur Nordal, Reykjavik, 1933.
Trans. Gwyn Jones, EgifsSaga, New York, i960.
Einhard: De vita Karoli Magni, ed. G. H. Pertz, SSRG, Hanover, 1845;
Annales, ibid.
Encomium Emmae, ed. and trans. A. Campbell, Camden Third Series,

1949.
Ermentarius: Vie et miracles de Saint Philibert, in A. Giry, Monuments de
Phistoire des abbayes de Saint-Philibert, 1905.

Fagrskinna, ed. F. Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1902-3.

 Select Bibliography 441

Flateyjarbok, ed. G. Vigfusson and C. R. Unger, I—III, Christiania,

i86ck8.
Flodoardi Annates: Ph. Lauer, Les Annates de Flodoard, Paris, 1905.

Fontes Historiae Religionis Germanicae, coll. C. Clemen, Berlin, 1928.

Gertz, M. Cl., Scriptores minores historiae danicae medii <evi, I—IT, Copen-
hagen, 1917-22.
Grdgds, ed. V. Finsen, I—III, Copenhagen, 1852-83.

Gronlands Historiske Mindestmerker, ed. C. C. Hrafn, I—III, Copenhagen,

1838-45. (Contains all the known early material relating to Norse
Greenland.)
Guta Lag och Guta Saga, ed. H. Pipping, Copenhagen, 1905-7.
Hamburgiscbes Urkundenbuch, ed.
J.
M. Lappenberg, A. Hagedorn, H.
Nirrnheim, I-UI, Hamburg, 1842-1953.
Heimskringla, ed. Bjarni ASalbjarnarson, I—III, Reykjavik, 1946-51.
The best edition. For the northern historians see also Bjarni A3albjarn-
arson, Om de Norske Kongers Sagaer, Oslo, 1937; G. Turville-Petre,
Origins of Icelandic Literature, 1953 ; Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Ole Widd-
ing, Th. D. Olsen, Norren Kapitler af den norsk-islandske
Fortcellekunst,

middelalder-litteraturs Copenhagen, 1965; Svend Ellehoj,

historie,

Studier over den £ldste norrene historieskrivning, Copenhagen, 1965. Trans.

(Heimskringla) S. Laing, 1844 and 1961-4; W. Morris and E. Magnus-
son, 1893 Erling Monsen, 1932; L. M. Hollander, Austin, 1964.
;

Historia Korwegjt, ed. G. Storm, Monumenta historica Norvegiae,

Christiania, 1880.

Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensimn, ed. G. Storm, ibid.

Hrolfs Saga Kraka, ed. D. Slay, Copenhagen, i960. Trans. Gwyn

Jones, in Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas, 1961.

Icelandic Sagas: In Islenzk Fornrit, Reykjavik, 1933- (in progress);

Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, Halle,1 891-1929; Islendingasagnautgdfan,

Reykjavik, 1946-50. Numerous separate editions and translations.

[The following offer a fair conspectus of the debate concerning the
sagas' historicity. Paul Henri Mallet, Introduction a. Phistoire de Danne-
marc, Copenhagen, 1755; A. L. Schlozer, All gemeine Nordische Geschichte,
Halle, 1771; Friedrich Riiys, Die Edda, Berlin, 1812; P. E. Miiller,
Ueber den Ursprung und Verfall der Isldndischen Historiographie, Copen-
hagen, 1813; Sagabibliothek, Copenhagen, 1817; N. M. Petersen,
Historiske Fortallinger om IslcendernesFcerd, Copenhagen, 1839; Den
Oldnordiske Literaturs Historie, Copenhagen, 1866; C. C. Rafn (ed.),
Copenhagen, 1 850; R. Keyser, Efterladte Shifter, I :
Antiquites russes,
Nordmxndenes Videnskabelighed og Literatur i Middelalderen, Christiania,
44 2 Select Bibliography

1866; Konrad Maurer, 'Die Norwegische Auffassung der Nordischen

Literatur-Geschichte' in ZfdPh, I, 1869; 'Ueber die Hoensna- Jaoris
Saga', in K. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., Munchen, Philos-Philol. Classe,
Abhandl., 1871; and various other works; E. Jessen, 'Glaubwiirdigkeit
der Egils-Saga und Anderer Islander-Saga's', in Historiscbe Zeitschrift,
1872; P. A. Munch, material collected in Samlede Afhandlinger,
Christiania, 1874; K. Lehmann and Hans Schnorr von Carolsfeld,
Die Njdls-sage Insbesondere in Ihren Juristischen Bestandtheilen, Berlin,
1883 ; Finnur Jonsson, many works including Den Oldnorske og Oldis-
landske Litteraturs Historie, Copenhagen, 1 894-1902, 2nd ed. 1920-4;
Udsigt over den Norsk-Islandske Filologis Historie, Copenhagen, 191 8;
'Norsk-Islandske Kultur- og Sprogforhold i 9. og 10. Arhundrede'
in D. Kgl. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Hist, of Fil. Meddelelser, 1921; A.
Heusler, particularly Das Strafrecht der Islandersagas, Leipzig, 191 1;
'Zum Islandischen Fehdewesen in der Sturlungazeit' Abhandl. d. K.
Preuss. Akad d. Wiss., Pbil-Hist. Classe, 1912; L. Weibull, critical works
collected in Nordisk Historia. Forskningar ocb unders'oknin gar, I, Forntid
och Vikingatid, Stockholm, 1948 ; Knut Liestol, Uppbavet til den Islendske
ALttesaga, Oslo, 1929 (Trans. The Origin of the Icelandic Family Sagas,
Oslo, 1930), and other works; Bjorn M. Olsen, 'Urn Islendingasogur',
in Safn til Sogu Islands, 6, 1937-9; Sigur5ur Nordal, 'Hrafnkatla',
Studia Islandica, 7, 1940 (Trans. R. G. Thomas, Hrafnkels Saga
Freysgoda, Cardiff, 1958); The Historical Element in the Icelandic Family
Sagas, Glasgow, 1957; Einar Olafur Sveinsson, Urn Njdlu, Reykjavik,
1933 ; W. Baetke, 'Uber die Entstehung der Islandersagas', in
Berichte fiber die Verhandl. d. Sachs. Akad d. Wiss. zu Leipzig. Philol-
Hist. Klasse, 1956; the Islenzk Fornrit introductions generally. See, too,
the references under Heimskringla above, and the references to C. and
L. Weibull and H. Koht in Section II, and add Theodore M. Andersson,
The Problem of Icelandic Saga Origins. A
Historical Survey, New Haven and
London, 1964, without which this note would hardly have been
assembled, and The Icelandic Family Saga. An Analytic Reading, Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1967]

Ireland-Scotland: Annala Rioghachta Eireann. Annals of the Kingdom of

Ireland by the Four Masters, I-VII, ed. J. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1851,
1856; Annala Uladh. Annals of Ulster, I-II, ed. W. H. Hennessy,
Dublin, 1887-93; Annals of Inisfallen, ed. S. Mac Airt, Dublin, 195 1;
Cogadb Gaedhel re Gallaibh. The War of the Gaedhil with the GailI, ed. J.
H. Todd, Rolls Series, London, 1867; Three Fragments of Irish Annals,
ed. J. O'Donovan, Dublin, i860. All with English translations. See
P. Walsh, 'The Dating of the Irish Annals', in Irish Historical Studies,
II, 1941, pp. 355-75, and The Four Masters and their Work, Dublin, 1944;
W. F. Skene (ed.), Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other
 Select Bibliography 443
Early Memorials of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1867; A. O. Anderson,
Early Sources ofScottish History, I-II, Edinburgh, 1922.

Islendingabok, ed. and trans. H. Hermannsson, The Book of the Icelanders

(Islendingabok), New York, 1930.
Jordanes: Getica, ed. Th. Mommsen, Berlin, 1882. Trans. C. C.
Mierow, Princeton, 1915.
Konungs Skuggsjd, ed. F. Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1920; L. Holm-Olsen,
Oslo, 1945. Trans. L. M. Larson, The King's Mirror, New York, 1917.
Landndmabok, ed. Finnur Jonsson, I-HI, Copenhagen, 1900, 1921, 1925.
Also Skardsdrbok, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, Reykjavik, 1958. Trans. G.
Vigfusson and F. York Powell, Origines Islandicae, I, 1905; Gwyn Jones,
The Norse Atlantic Saga, 1964 (in selection).
Langebek, J., Scriptores rerum Danicarum medii cevi, I-IX, Copenhagen,
1772-1878.
Langfedgatal, in Langebek, Scriptores, I.

Liebermann, F. Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, I-II, Halle, 1903-16.

Morkinskinna, ed. F. Jonsson, Copenhagen, 1928-32.
Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, 1-V, ed. R. Keyser and others, Christian-
ia, 1846-95.
Recueil des Actes de Charles II le Chauve, ed. M. Prou, F. Lot, and G.
Tessier, Paris, 1943-55.

Recueil des Actes de Charles III le Simple, ed. Ph. Lauer, Paris, 1940.
Recueil des Actes des dues de Normandie, 911-1066, ed. Marie Fauroux,
Caen, 1961.
Rimbert: Vita Rimberti, ed. G. Waitz, SSRG, Hanover, 1884.
Runes See 'Runes' under V(i).
:

Russian Primary Chronicle: RovesfVremennykh Let, ed. E. F. Karsky,

Leningrad, 1926; V. P. Adrianova-Peretts (text prepared for publica-
tion by D. S. Likhachev), Leningrad, 1950. Trans. S. H. Cross and
O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Cambridge ,Mass., 1953.
Samling afSveriges Gamla Lagar, ed. C. J. Schlyter, I-XDI, Lund, 1827-
77-
Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum, ed. A. Holder, Strasbourg, 1886;
J. Olrik and H. Raeder, Copenhagen, 193 1. Trans. Oliver Elton, The
First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, 1894.

Simeon of Durham, Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesi£, ed. T. Arnold, I-II,

RS, 1882.
Skaldic VerseFinnur Jonsson, Den norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning, I-II,
:

Copenhagen, 19 12-15; E. H. Kock, Den norsk-isldndiska skaldediktningen,

444 Select Bibliography

I—II, Lund, 1946-9. Trans. L. M. Hollander, The Skalds, New York,

1945 (a selection); G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, Corpus Poeticum
Boreale, I—II, Oxford, 1883.

Skjoldunga Saga, ed. A. Olrik,Copenhagen, 1894; Jakob Benediktsson,

Arngrimi Jonae opera latine conscripta, in Bibliotheca Arnamagnaeana,
IX-XII (text in IX), Copenhagen, 1950-7. See Jakob Benediktsson,
'Icelandic Traditions of the Scyldings', Saga-Book, XV, 1957-9, pp.
48-66.
Svenonis Aggones Historia Regum Daniae, in Langebek, Scriptores, I;

Opuscula Historica, in Gertz, Scriptores, I.

Theodoricus See Historia

: de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium.
Thietmar of Merseburg: Merseburgensis Episcopi Chronicon, ed. R.
Holtzmann, SSRG, Berlin, 1935.

Welsh Sources: Annales Cambriae, ed. John Williams ab Ithel, i860;

the different texts are more reliably edited by Egerton Phillimore in
T Cymmrodor, IX, 1888, and J. E. Lloyd in Transactions Cymm- . . .

r odor ion, VIII; Brut y Tyrpysogion, The Chronicle of the Princes, ed.
or,
and trans. Thomas Jones, Cardiff, 1952 (Peniarth MS. 20), 1955 (Red
Book of Hergest) ; Brenhinedd y Saesson, or, The Kings of the Saxons, ed.
and trans. Thomas Jones, Cardiff, 1968; The History of Grujfydd ap
Cynan, ed. and trans. Arthur Jones, Manchester, 1910; ed. D. Simon
Evans, Cardiff (to appear).
Widukind: Chronica Saxonum, ed. H. E. Lohmann and P. Hirsch, Die
Sachsengeschichte des Widukind von Korvei, SSRG, Berlin, 1935.
William of Jumieges: Gesta Normannorum Ducum, ed. J.
Marx, Rouen
and Paris, 1914.
#

L. Weibull, Kritiska undersokningar i Nordens historia omkring ar 1000,

Lund, 1911.
L. Weibull, Historisk-kritisk metod och nordisk medeltidsforskning, Lund,
I9I3-

L. Weibull, Nordisk Historia. Forskningar och undersokningar, I, Forntid och

Vikingatid, Stockholm, (Edited for Lauritz Weibull's 75th
1948.
birthday by Sture Bolin, Sven A. Nilsson, and Gunnar T. Westin.
Contains a reprint of Kritiska undersokningar and Historisk-kritisk metod,
together with fifteen other essays, including 'Jordanes framstallning
av Scandza och dess folk', 'Upptackten av den skandinaviska Norden',
'En forntida utvandring fran Gottland', 'Ansgarius', and 'Knut den
stores skanskas krig'.)
Index

Abalus (Heligoland?), an island succession, 372; arrives in Norway

rich in amber reported on by with Svein 1030, 383 put;
in charge
Pytheas of Massalia, 21 there with her son after
Abd-al-Rahman II, Moorish ruler Stiklarstadir, 385; later historians
in Spain, 214 and hagiographers unjust to her,
Abodrits, a Wendish people, en- 385; Magnus Olafsson secures a
couraged by Charlemagne to move hold on Norway, 386; her ambitions
into East Holstein at the expense of for her son Harald, 398
the Saxons, 98 ; invaded by /Esir, the heathen deities of the north
Godfred the Dane, 98 ; their king discussed, 316-24; mentioned,
Drosuk captured and their mart 123,124,125,126
at Reric destroyed, 98-9; Drosuk /Ethelweard, an ealdorman, 132
put to death, 100 ; 101, 103, 244 Agdir, a province in south-western
Adaldag, archbishop of Hamburg- Norway, 26, 84
Bremen, confirmed as head of the Aggersborg, west on the Limfjord,
Church in Denmark, 948, 125 site of a military camp c. 1000, 19,
Adam of Bremen, his Gesta 51, ioi«, 135,360
or History of primary im- Agrip, a source for northern history,
portance for northern history and 119, 122, 124, 131, 400, 403 n
the conversion of the north, Aifor, a cataract on the Dnieper,
mentioned or his authority 257,258^
invoked, 63 n, 65 «, 109, 111,113, Aisne, a river in France, 224
126, 127, 129-30, 134, 136, 137, Aix-la-Chapelle, a seat of Charle-
166, 197, 242, 285, 304, 322, 327, magne, 101,224
400, 402, 403 n Alamanni, Alamanns, 28, 73
Adogit, dwellers in Scandza's farthest Alanda, a river in Kurland, 243
north, 25 Aland Islands, Alanders, 165, 183,
/Elfeah, archbishop of Canterbury, 251-2,388
as bishop of Winchester assists Alborg, in Jutland, an early mint, 6;
at the conversion of Olaf Trygg- and mart, 167
vason, 132; murdered at Greenwich Alcuin, describes king Ongendus,
1012, 367; Knut honours him as 106; laments the viking incursion
saint, 374 and quotes Jeremiah, 194-5, l 9&
vElgifu (Alfifa), Knut's consort and Aldeigjuborg, see Staraja Ladoga
mother of his son Svein, 372; her Alexander VI, Pope, his letter c.
children excluded from the English 1490 concerning Greenland, 307, 3 10
 446 Index

Alexandria, 217 Angantyr, Ongentheow, a king in

Alfhild,mother of Magnus the Good Uppland, Sweden, 35-8
of Norway, 385 Angers, town in France, 215
Alfred the Atheling, is mutilated Angles, Angli, Angiloi, the people
and dies, 398 of Angeln, Denmark, and among
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, 9; the invaders of Britain, hence
a campaigner against the Danes, Angelcynnn, 3, 28, 31-3, 48, 109,
220-1 ; succeeds his brother 1 10, 23 8 Angul, eponymous lord
;

Ethelred, 221 surprised by

; of Angulus and the Angles, 44
Guthrum's winter campaign of Anglesey, North Wales, troubled by
877-8, 223 ; takes refuge in vikings, 279
Athelney, 223 ; defeats and pursues Angmagssalik, on west coast of
the Danes, 223 ; treaty with Greenland, in neighbourhood first
Guthrum, 150, 223 recovers ; sighted by Gunnbjorn, Greenland's
•
London from the Danes 886; 226; discoverer, 290 and «
king of all free Englishmen, 226; Angouleme, town in France, 215
military and naval reforms, 227-8 Anlaf, see Olaf
campaigns of 892-6, 226-9; dies Annals of Ulster, 9, 204
899, 229; a decisive opponent of the Anskar (Ansgar), monk of Corbey,
vikings, 229; succeeded by his son missionary to the north, 78, 106;
Edward the Elder, 229; mentioned, accompanies Harald Klak to south-
9, 109, 120, 154, 158, 263 ern Jutland, 106; establishes small
Algeciras, 216 school at Hedeby, 107; leaves
Al-Ghazal, Arab emissary to the Denmark, 107; mission to the
Majus, 214-15 Swedes, 78, 107; robbed by Baltic
Ah, Onela, 37-9 pirates, 107; establishes church at
Al-Masudi, his account of the wares Birka, 107; returns to Germany and
of the Rus on the Volga, 164; and in 831 becomes archbishop of
of the disastrous Rus raid across Hamburg, 107; with Ebo nomi-
the Caspian in 912, 260-1 nated papal legate to the north,
Alrik, a king in Vastergotland, 107; hard times, 107-8 ; escapes
named on a runic stone, Sparlosa, from sack of Hamburg, 107;
44 », 79 archbishop of Bremen, 108; resumes
Al-Tartushi, Arab visitor to Hedeby, mission to the Danes and builds
164, 174-7 church at Hedeby, 108 resumes
;

Alstad, pictured stone described, 40 mission to the Swedes, 108 again

;

Althing, the national assembly of visits Birka, 108; returns to Bremen,

Iceland at Thingvellir, 283-6 108 again visits Hedeby and re-
;

Amber, 3, 18, 20, 21, 23, 157 opens the church there, 108
America, see Vinland mentioned, 44, 169, 180, 242
Amleth, Amlethus, Hamlet, 52 n Apuole (Apulia), mart in Kurland
Anagassan, harbour and mart in (Latvia), overcome by Swedish king
Ireland, 205 Olaf, 242 ; briefly described, 243
Andalusia, commemorates the Aquitaine, first viking raids there,

Vandals, 28 195; assaulted by the Westfaldingi,

Angantyr, Ongendus, a king in 241
Denmark, visited by Willibrord, Arabs, Moors, Muslims, etc, viking
106 contacts with, 2, 9, 10, 13, in, 165;
 Index 447
regions of Shem, 163 ; assault on 232 «; Grobin, 243 Apuole, 243
;

Moors in Spain in 840s, 213-14; Wiskiauten, 244; Truso, 244;

four-year expedition to Spain, Staraja Ladoga, 250-1 Ladoga- ;

North Africa, the Balearics, in 860s, Onega, 251-2; Gnezdovo,

215-18 ;fir gorm, 216, 218 con- ; Chernigov, Kiev graves, 256 and n
taining power of the Caliphate, 248 2; PatreksfjorQur, Iceland, 277 ;/;

viking raids across the Caspian, Greenland Settlements, 293 n,

260-1 Muslim sources, see Al-
; 294, 295 ; Brattahlid, 291, 294-5 5

Masudi (trade goods), Al-Tartushi L'Anse aux Meadows, 5, 303-4 n\

(visit to Hedeby), Ibn Dihya Indian arrow at Sandnes, 304 n\
(Al-GhazaPs visit to the Majus), Skraeling relics found by first
Ibn Fadlan (description of the Rus, settlers in Greenland, 308 >r,
their habits, Rus funeral on the Herjolfsnes burials, 3 10-1 1
Volga), Ibn Rustah (description of archaeology and Norse religion,
the Rus, their habits), Muqqadasi 325-30; religion and funeral
(trade goods); Arab, kufic coins, practice, 330-5; archaeology and
see Coins; runic reference to Serk- art, 334-44; Trelleborg and the
land, 267 other Danish military camps, 360-4
Archaeological evidence, general and see Coins and coinage, Runic
considerations, 3-5 ; value of, 4-5 stones and inscriptions, Trade and
for Stone and Bronze Ages, 17-19; trade goods
early funeral practice, 19; evidence Arctic Canada, see Vinland
of climatic change at beginning of Ardgar, missionary to the Swedes,
Iron Age, 21-2; Gundestrup bowl, visits Birka c. 850, 108

22; evidence for Roman Iron Age Ardre pictured stone, described,
trade-routes and northern contacts 342-3, 344
with the south, 23 ; Gamla Uppsala, Arhus, town and mart in Jutland,
39; Vendel, 39-41 Valsgarde,
; 6, 51, 167; early see, 125
39-41 Sutton Hoo, 41 n, 117;
; Ari Thorgilsson, Icelandic historian,
Gamle Lejre, 46-7; light on early 8,38,273,279,287
history of the Danes, 50; evidence Arinbjorn the Hersir, Norwegian,
of race, 67; of expansion of Swedish subject of a panegyric by the poet
power from the sixth century, 39 Egill Skallagrimsson, 350; killed
pre- viking Norway, 79-83 alongside Harald Greycloak at
Vestland characteristics, 82-3 Hals, and lamented by Egill, 414-15
Norwegian and Swedish hill-forts, Aries, 217
83 Oseberg burial, 85 336-40; the
; ;
Armagh, 295, 206
Danevirke, 99-101 and«; Ham- Amies Prydein, 237 « 2
burg, 107-8 n; Jelling, 14-17; 1 Army Road, in Jutland, barred by the
Jumne-Wollin-Jomsborg, 127 and Danevirke, 99 ff.

«; thralls buried with their owners, Arnarfjord, in the Vestfirthir,

Oseberg, Birka, Ballateare, 149, Iceland, 274
and in Russia, 256; plough-marks, Arngrim Brandsson, Icelandic
156; Kaupang, 171; Birka, 171-4; bishop, supplies information
Hedeby, 174-81; ships, 183-90; about climate, 308
horses in graves, 170, 171, 186, 334; Arngrfmurjonsson, Icelandic
skis and skates, 171, 186; Dorestad, antiquary, made an abstract of
210; France, 232 ;/; lie de Groix, SkjoUunga Saga, 37-8
448 Index

Arnulf, king of the East Franks, interest in the north, 24

defeatsDanes on the Dyle, 891, 226 Aun, a king among the Swedes, 39
Art, main entry, 334-45 Austrfararvisur, 'Verses on an
Asa, every inch a royal lady, 84 Eastern Journey', composed by
and see Oseberg Sighvat Thordarson about his
Asfrid, Odinkar's daughter, 112 mission between the kings of
Asgard (Asgar6r), the home of the Norway and Sweden, 60 «, 379
^Esir, described, 3 17-19 Austrriki, the territories of the
Asgeir, a Danish viking leader, 210 eastern Baltic and the Ladoga region
Ashdown, Berks, Alfred defeats the of Russia, 52, 240
Danes there 870, 221 Autbert, with Anskar a missionary
Ashingdon, in Essex, crushing defeat to the Danes, 106
for the English there 1016, 371 Avars, 249
Askold (Hoskuld) and Dir (Dyri), Awair Strabain, a great man on
reputed Rus masters of Kiev, Gotland, 242 n 1

246, « 2, 259 Azerbaijan, 260

Askr, the first man, 3 17 Azov, Sea of, 252 n 2, 255 n 2
Astrakhan, 249
Astrid Eirik's daughter, mother ot Baffin Bay, 389
Olaf Tryggvason, 8, 136 n Baffin Island, 1, 65, 191, 295, 301,
Astrid Olaf Eiriksson's daughter, 304
wife of Olaf Haraldsson, 379 Baghdad, 248,253
Astrid, the most accomplished Baku, 260
maiden in Hadaland, 186 n Balder, a god, 318, 319, 323-4
Athelney, 223 Baldwin, Count of Flanders, 398
Athelstan, son of Edward the Elder, Balearics, attacked by vikings, 217
236; succeeds his father, 236; a Ballateare, Isle of Man, viking grave
hammer of the Dublin Norse and with attendant woman slave, 149
the Scots, 236-8; Brunanburh, Baltic Fenns, 165
237-8 his achievement celebrated
; Barte, river in Kurland, 243
in song, 238; relations with Scan- Bartholomeus Voet, twice sacks
dinavian world, 238; fosters Hakon Bergen, 310
son of Harald Fairhair, 89, 94, 238; BasilII Bulgaroctonos, Byzantine

dies 939, 238 emperor, 262

Athils, a legend-girt early king Bayeux, attacked by vikings, 215,
among the Swedes, the Eadgils of 224, 232
Beowulf, 37-9, 48-9, 240 Bearing dial (presumed), from Green-
Atil, see Itil land, 193-4, and «
Attoarii, Attuarii, See Hetware Bear Isle(s), see Bjarney(jar)
Aud the Deep-minded, a Christian Beauvais, attacked by vikings, 215
settler inheathen Iceland, 277 Bede, English historian, 31, his
Aud (Ota), wife of Turgeis, viking account of the Angles, Saxons, and
assailant of Ireland, said to have Jutes in Britain, 31 »; mentioned,
desecrated churches there, 206; 285 n
possibly theAud (Nod, Noud) Bedford, a fortress of Edward the
by Al-Ghazal, 214-15
visited Elder's, 234, 367
Audumbla, 316 Beidenfleth, Danish-Frankish nego-
Augustus, emperor of Rome, his tiations at, 100
 Index 449
Belle Isle, northern Newfoundland, fighting man's grave, 170-1
191 grave goods indicative of trade and
Belle Isle Strait, 305 wealth, 171-2; need for law, 173
Beloozero, a town on Lake Beloya, Bjarkeyjarrettr, 173 ; decline after c.

south of Lake Onega, the Rus 970, 173-4, 265 n; loss of Russian
leader Sineus said to have located trade, 174, 265 ; cessation of kufic
himself there, 245, 246 n 1, 252 silver, 7, 174, 265 ; incidence of
Benfleet, Essex, England, Hastein kufic coins in Birka graves, 265
has a camp there, 228 and«
Beorhtric, king of Wessex, viking Birka necklace, description of, 172;
assault begins during his reign, picture of, Plate 16
194 and n 2 Bjarkamdl, a heroic poem, said to
Beowulf, hero and later king of the have been recited to king Olaf's
Geats, not to be placed in the forces before the battle of
historical record, 38 ; and see Stiklarstadir, 384
Beowulf Bjarkeyjarrettr, see Birka
Beowulf, Old English poem, 29-30; Bjarmaland, 87
its and
significance for the early Bjarney(jar), Bear Isle(s), 301
legendary history of the Danes, Bjarni Herjolfsson, the first European
Swedes, and Geats, 30 and n, 35-49; known to have sighted the east
tells of Hygelac's foray south coast of the American continent,
against the Frisians, 30, 35, 41, 297; sails from Norway to Iceland,
42-43 ; the Swedish-Geat wars, 296; from there sets off for
35-7, 41-4; Sutton Hoo, 41 n Greenland, 297; blown off course
Berda, south of Baku, Rus disaster and sights new lands in the west,
there, 261 297; these lands described, 298
Berezany, in the Crimea, 256; runic gets safely back to Greenland, 298
inscription found there, 258 his story not known to Eirlks S.R.
Bergen, mart and town in western 298 consulted by Leif Eiriksson,
;

Norway, 2, 65, 167, 190; its im- 298-9; Vinland Map, 306 n
portance to Greenland, 162, 3 10; Bjorko, Birch Island, in Lake
its disasters,310 Malar, Sweden, 168, 258
Bergio, mentioned by Jordanes, a Bjorn (1), a king at Uppsala, 78, 107
Swedish tribe, 25-6 Bjorn (2), a king at Uppsala, 79
Bering Strait, 65 Bjorn Einarsson Jerusalem-farer,
Bersoglivhur, 'The Plain-speaking supplies information about
Verses', a poem of Sighvat Greenland, 3 10
Thordarson's, 119 Bjorn Farmaor, Kaupmaftr, the
Birka, a town and mart on Lake Trafficker and Merchant,
Malar, Sweden, 5, 99, 242; its Haraldsson, his cenotaph, 154; and
importance to the kings of Uppland, see Farmanshaugen
78, 154; Anskar's mission to, 78, Bjorn Ironside Ragnarsson (Bier
163 ; Gautbert's mission un- costae ferreae), a viking leader,
successful, 107; Ardgar's mission, on the Seine, 215 ; raids in the
108 ; Anskar's second visit, 108 Mediterranean, 216-18
trade goods there, 157; the town Black Sea, 3, 73 ; early trade routes
described, 168-74; its position, 168; from, 23 ; Eruli in neighbourhood of,

defences, 169; harbours, 169; 28 ; trade with Wiskiauten,

450 Index

244; Rus convoys reach, 79, 256, Boulogne, 101,226

259 (Askold and Dyr), 260 (Igor) Brandenburg, 129
bldmenn,fir gorm, black or dark- Brattahlid, Eiriksfjord, Eastern
skinned men, prisoners acquired Settlement, Greenland, 19, 291,
by the vikings in North Africa 295,298,301
(and possibly Spain), 216, 218 Bravellir, battle of, a legend-girt
Blekinge, no, 111,382 encounter, 53-4, 78, 96
Bohemia, 23, 164 BravicWar, 8, 54,97
Bohuslan, earlier Ranrike, east of the Breidafjord, western Iceland, 274,
Oslofjord, its Bronze Age carved 281,290,292
rock-pictures, 18-19; mentioned Bremen, see Hamburg-Bremen
by Jordanes, 26; its islanded coast, Bremesburgh, 234
65; acquired by OlafSkottkonung, Brian Boru, high king of Ireland,
104, 354; in part recovered by Olaf killed at Clontarf, 396, 397
Haraldsson, 379 Bridgenorth, Shropshire, England,
Boleslav I, king of the Wends (Poles), 234
Olaf Tryggvason said to have Bristol, skippers from, in Greenland
married his daughter Geira, 132; waters, 310
marries Thyri, sister of Svein British Isles, Britain, 13, 20, 21, 28,
Forkbeard, 136; his dealings with 79; the fifth-century invasions,
Olaf Tryggvason, 137-8 3 1-3 ; Domk tunga in, 73 , 422 ; a
Bordeaux, attacked by vikings, 215 Christian realm, 73 ; Olaf Trygg-
Borgarfjord, western Iceland, Floki vason raids there, 132, 356-7;
Vilgerdason driven there for his converted there, 132; slaves from,
second winter in Iceland, 274; 148; first viking attacks on, 194-5
Egill Skallagrimsson lived at Borg and n 2, 200, 204 fF.; viking activities
there, 288 fine hay country, 274,
; there, HI, 3 passim, IV, 2 passim;

276,389 the islands north of, 269-70;

Bornholm, the Baltic island, early mentioned frequently, and see
funeral practice, 19; reputed England, Ireland, Scotland,
home of the Burgundians (Borgun- Wales
darholm, Burgenda land), 22; Bromme, Zealand, Denmark, early
coins of Roman Iron Age found evidence of human activity there,
there, 23 ; in Wulfstan's time, c.

890, independent of the Danes and Bruges, Emma, Knut's widow,

Swedes, no; fertile land in, 59; finds refuge there, 398;

63 ; Olaf Tiyggvason raids there, Hordaknut there, 399

132; mentioned, 49, 59, 83 Brunanburh, battle of, 236-8
Borre, in Vestfold, Norway, 84 Buckingham, England, Edward
Borre style, 336, 340 the Elder's fortress there, 234,
Boso, acquires Provence from the 367
West Kingdom, c. 879, 224 Bulgar, Bolgar, a river and caravan
Bosporus, 259, 266 mart on the Volga Bend, 164, 256;
Bothnia, Gulf of, 25, 60, 62, 79 itstrade with the East, 253 ; Ibn
Bothvar Bjarki, a bear-begotten Fadlan's description of the Rus
hero of the Danes, accompanies traders there, 164-5 his descrip-
;

Hrolf Kraki to Uppsala, 49; slain tion of a Rus funeral there, 425-30
at Lejre, 49; and see Bjarkamdl Bulgars,2, 163, 174, 253, a powerful
 Index 451
people encountered by the Rus in Theophilus sends ambassadors
Russia, 248 ; their territories north and Rus to Louis the Pious 839,
of the Byzantine Empire, 249, and 249-50; Rus-Byzantine trade
on the Volga Bend, 249; Bulgar, treaties 911-12, 259, and 945, 260;
their mart, see previous entry; Christianizes the Rus-Slav
Chacanus, 250; Igor hostile to, 260; kingdom of Kiev under Vladimir,
Vladimir, 262; and Svyatoslav, 262; Yaroslav copies St. Sophia's
174,261,265 Church, Constantinople, at Kiev,
Bulgaria, 405 and n 263 powerful influence of
;

Burgundians, 22, 28, 73 Byzantium on emergent Russian

Burgundy, 225 state, 263, 264, 265, 266;
Buri, 316 Varangian Guard, 266; Harald
Burial beliefs and customs, graves, Hardradi in imperial Byzantine
4, 5 early Stone Age burials, 17;
; service, 404-5 and n; 8, 9, 26, in
dolmen and dysse, 18 Bronze Age
; and see Constantinople and Greece
oak cists, 19; skibsaetninger, see
under separate entry; decline in Cabo Tres Forcas, 216
grave goods at beginning of Iron Cecaumeni Strategicon, a source of
Age, 19; cremation and inhuma- information about Harald Hardradi,
tion in Roman Iron Age, 23 9, 405 n
Vendel and Valsgarde, 3 8-41 Caliphate, 7, 248, 393
Sutton Hoo, 41 n; Vestfold, 84; Cambridge, 221, 234, 366
Oseberg, 85; Kaupang, 168; 2,000 Canada, see Vinland; and see
graves at Birka, 169-72; fighting Baffin Bay, Baffin Island, Belle Isle
man's grave there, 171; Birka Hamilton Inlet, Labrador,
Strait,
grave goods, 171-2; Hedeby graves, Lake Melville, Newfoundland, St.
I77> 178) 333> 415; He de Groix, Lawrence Estuary
232 n; Staraja Ladoga, 250-1 Canterbury, 367
Ladoga-Onega, 251 Gnezdovo,
; Canute, see Knut
Chernigov, Kiev, 256; Ibn Rustah Cape Bauld, northern Newfoundland
on, 255 Berda, 261 Ibn Fadlan on,
; ; 191
425-30; Greenland, 311; general Cape Farewell, southern Greenland,
discussion, 330-4; Trelleborg 191,290,310
cemetery, 363 ; suttee, 149, 256, Cape Porcupine, Labrador, see
261, 425-30; and see Jelling, Lejre, Kjalarnes
Lindholm Hoje, Religion, Carlingford Lough, Ireland, 207
Archaeology, Ships Carloman, dies 771, 97
Burizleif, see Boleslav Caspian Sea, 3, 248, 253, 260, 266
Busegrad, a town in Russia, 256 Cassiodorus, 25
by, bygd, 83, 56; and see heraQ, Caucasus, 248
herred Celts, 20, 22, 23
Byzantium, 1, 13 ; Byzantine in- 20
Celtic Iron Age,
fluence on northern coins, 6; Ceolwulf,22i,226
silver dish from at Sutton Hoo, 41 n; Chabiones, 28
silver coin from on Birka necklace, Chacanus, khagan, Khaqan-Rus,
172; Byzantine empire, its wealth 250,259,263
and power, 248 ; a terminus of Chadeinoi, 25
Rus ambitions, 248 emperor
; Charlemagne, his campaigns against
452 Index

the Saxons, 97-8 ; invites Paul the vellum, 77; Charlemagne's con-
Deacon to visit Sighed, 98 version of the Saxons, 97-8;
alliance with Abodrits, 98 Willibrord's mission to the Danes,
confrontation with Godfred,98, 100, 106; trade and the new religion,
101; his preoccupations elsewhere, 106, 108 «; Ebo's mission to the
100; sends his son Charles against Danes, 106, 107; Harald Klak
the Danes and Wilzi, 100 ; his baptized, 106; Anskar's missions to
reported opinion of Godfred, 101 the Danes and Swedes, see Anskar;
builds a fleet to defend Frisia, 101 Horik the Elder, 106-8 Gorm the;

negotiates with Hemming, 101 Old, 113 the Jelling monuments,

;

dies 814, 102573, 139, I94> 199 1 14-17; Harald Bluetooth's stone,

Charles the Bald, son of Louis the 117; he favours Christianity, 118;
Pious, 107; ruler of the Western Hakon the Good abandons it, 119;
Kingdom 843, 203 ; Westfaldingi Harald Greycloak, 124; Harald
sack Nantes in his day, 211 pays ;
Bluetooth, Otto I, and German
Danegeld, 212-13, 215-16; a king Christianity, 125-9, bishop Poppo,
with problems, 213, 215 payment ;
126; Olaf Tryggvason converted in
toWeland, 215-16; dies 877, 224 England, 132; seeks to convert
Charles the Fat, son of Louis the Norwegians, 132-5; hostile witness,
German, acquires most of the 134; favourable witness, 134;
Empire, 224; failure at Elsloo, 224; overfavourable, 135; Christianity
ineffective over siege of Paris, 225 ameliorates slave-trade, 149, 164;
deposed and dies 888, 225 sustains emergent northern mon-
Charles Martel, 98 archies, 129, 134, 154, 391; Christian
Charles the Simple, Normandy graves at Hedeby, 177; Alcuin on
established by Rollo in his time, viking scourge, 194-5, x 96; viking
231 assaultson religious foundations
Chartres, attacked by vikings, 215, directed at their undefended wealth,
231 200; Weland converted, 216 » I
Charades, 24 murder and sanctification of king
Chernigov, trading-base of the Rus, Edmund of East Anglia, 220, 374;
254-256; evidence of its graves, Guthrum converted, 223 ;Christian-
256 and 11 2 ization of theDanelaw, 223,
Chester, England, 228, 235 238-9; Rollo-Hrolf converted in
China, goods from, 253 Normandy, 231 Vladimir con-
;

Chippenham, England, 223 verted in Kiev, 268 his subjects

;

Chirbury, Ethelflaedan fortress, 234 converted, 262; Christian hermits

Chnob, Chnuba, Gnupa, a member of and priests in Faroes and Iceland
the Swedish ruling house at (j>apar),275-6; some Christian
Hedeby in the early tenth century, settlers in Iceland, 277
111-12 and «; conversion of Iceland,
Christianity, southern chroniclers' 135, 285-6; of Greenland, 295
partial view of the heathen baseless talk of apostasy there,
assault, 1, 10; extension of Christian 309-10; bishop Eirik's mission to
Europe northwards, 13 skibsztmiig
; Vinland c. 1 120, 306 «; brief
and church-building, 19; summary of northern conversions,
Christianity and Norse heathendom 315; prima si gnat io, 315//; Red
73-4; a litany without need of Thor and White Christ, 321
 Index 453
Christian reference on rune stones, 5, 223 ; East Anglia, 5, 223 ; royal
186 //; Knut and Christianity, 374; currencies late in Scandinavia, 6;
Olaf Haraldsson baptised at Rouen, Danish mints, 6; Byzantine in-
375; Christianizes Norway, 377-8; fluence on design, 6; incidence of
English contribution to northern kufic coins, 7, 174, 265 and «;
conversions, 378 n; St. Olaf, 385; limitations of numismatic evidence,
Magnus the Good smites the 7; Roman coins in Scandinavia,
heathen at Jumne-Wollin, 401-2; 23 ; in Iceland, 7; Merovingian
and at Lyrskov Heath, 402-3 tremisses at Sutton Hoo, 41 n;
Chronicle of the Kings ofLejre, 44, coins won by trade and war, 157;
46, 52 n supplication of Rus traders, 165;
Chronicon ALthelweardi, 200, 228 coins at Kaupang, 168 ; coins
Chud(s), a people of Finnish race, minted at Birka, 171 ; run down of
245 ; resident in Esthonia, and kufic coins there after 970, 174,
Ladoga-Onega region, 248 265 and n; site of Hedeby mint not
brought under Kievan rule by yet discovered, 180; plenitude of
Yaroslav, 263 coins found on Gotland, 242-3 »2;
Cimbri, warlike inhabitants of coins deposited in Rus graves, 251,
Himmerland, Jutland, 21, 24; their 253 ; coins from England, 7, 242 n,
excursus south 21-2, 28 365-6; dirhem in Patreksfjor5ur
Climate and climatic change, wor- grave, Iceland, 277 «; silver coins
sens at beginning of the Iron Age, melted down for ornaments and
20-1 a 'climatic optimum' during
; artefacts, 335, 365 ;feohlease, 366 n;
the Viking Age favourable to the flow of English coins into Scandi-
western voyages, 295 n, 307; navia ends in 105 1 ; 366; Knut's
deterioration helps destroy Norse 'Swedish' coins, 382 n; hoards
Greenland, 307-9, 311 buried in disturbed times, 6-7,
Clonfert, monastic establishment in 242-3772, 393 n
Ireland, 206 Cologne, attacked by vikings, 224
Clonmacnois, monastic establish- Colonization, see Land and land-
ment in Ireland, 206 hunger
Clontarf, battle of, near Dublin, a Constantine, king of the Scots, 237
famed and confusing encounter, Constantine Monomachus, Byzantine
396 77 emperor, Heimskringla's mistake
Clovis, chieftain and king of the concerning, 405 n
Franks, converted to Christianity, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, a
73 source of information for the Rus
Codanus, the bay beyond Jutland, and Varangians, 256, 257
24 Constantinople, Tsargrad, on Rus
Codex Runicus, 347 trade routes, 79, 163, 255 ff.; Rus
Coins and coinage, their importance attacks on, 259-60; Askold and Dir,
as sources of information, 5-7; for 246 n I, 259; Igor, 259; Oleg, 259;
the kingdoms of York, 5 ; for an Igor, 260; Yaroslav, 264;
assessment of a king's status and Mikligar3r, 248 n; Rus emissaries
power, 5-6, 240; Scandinavian travel to the emperor Theophilus
coinage begins by copying Dorestad there, 249-50; Rus convoys go by
coins, 5 early native mints, 5,6;
; way of Dnieper and Black Sea to
English influences, 5-6; Guthrum, Constantinople, 256-8 ; its
454 Index

undreamt-of splendour and activities hostile to the English,

Varangian Guard
profitability, 259; 226; its decline, 223-4, 233 ff.;

there, 266; Harald Hardradi there, characteristics (boundaries,

404-5 and n; mentioned, 32, 73, language, society, law), see
100; and see Byzantium, Greece Appendix II, 421-4; and see 219-24,
Cordoba, Al-Tartushi a native of, 394
164, 174 Danevirke, the defence works across
Cork, southern Ireland, 205 the neck of the Jutland peninsula,
Cornwall, viking raids there, 203, 99; planned and begun in Godfred's
210 time, 99; described, 99-102, 104-5
Cotentin, Normandy, 230 n, 23 1 n Thyri, Gorm's wife, erroneously
Crete, Varangians see service there, credited with, 144; Otto II attacks
266 and surmounts, 128; Jarl Hakon
Crimea, 248 Sigurdarson said to have defended,
Cuckhamsley Knob, 359 128
Cumberland, 203 Danevirkesten, runic inscription
Cwenas, see Kainulaiset relating to king Svein's housecarle
Skardi, 174 n
Dag, unlikely death of an unlikely Dani, the name first used by Jordanes
king, 37 in the sixth century, 26, 45
Dago (DaganSi), an island off Dan mark, a geographical
Estland, temporary abode of exiled designation, first recorded usage,
Gotlanders,252«2 114 and «; and see Denemearc
Dalarna, a province of Sweden north Danube, the river, 20, 22, 23, 103,
ofVarmland, 383 261
Dalmatia, Varangians campaign Denemearc, Denimarca, a
there, 266 geographical designation, first
Dalriada, 203 recorded usage, 109, 114 and «; and
Dan, son of Ypper, eponymous hero see Dan mark
of Danish legends, 44 Derby, England, 221, 239
Danegeld, general name for enforced Descriptionof Greenland, see Ivar
payment of money, treasure, goods, Bardarson
food to the Danes, 9, 132, 154; first Diarmaid, king of Leinster, 388
recorded French payment, 212-13 5 Dicuil, a source of information for
details of seven French payments, Atlantic islands, including the
213 «; recorded English
first Faroes and Iceland, see his Liber de
payment, 213 «; details of English Mensura Or bis Terrae, 269-70
payments, 132, 356, 358, 364-5, Dir (Dyri), see Askold
366, 367, 399; annual tax in England Disco, island and mountain, western
1012-51, 366; Edward the Greenland, 65, 191, 294
Confessor pays offhis northern Dnieper, the Russian river, 9, 163,
mercenaries, 366; runic stones 244; Rus arrival on, 79, 246 ;/; wild
referring to, 9, 265 tribes of its lower reaches, 249-50;
Danelaw, Denelagu, a late title for the route to from Staraja Ladoga, 252;
Scandinavian-held part of eastern trade and overlordship of Rus, 254;
England, 12, 355; possible influence trade artery from Further Russia to
on religion in Denmark, 126, and Black Sea and Constantinople,
Iceland, 285 ; its making, 219-23 256-8 ;poliudie, 256; perils of the
 Index 455
voyage, 257; Petchenegs, 257; (Ironside), 370; joins the Danes,
cataracts, 257; Kievan Christians 370; joins Edmund, 371; betrays
immersed in, 262 him, 371; helps arrange treaty
Dnieper rapids or cataracts, Norse between Knut and Edmund, 371
names of, 257 rewarded with Mercia, 372;
Domaldi, a legendary early king executed, 372
among the Swedes, 37 n Eadwig the All-fair, king of England
Don, the Russian river, 248, 249, 955-9,355
252 n 2 Eardwulf, earl of Northumbria, 100
Donets, the Russian river, 252 n 2 Eanmund, see Beowulf
Language
Do'mk tunga, see East Anglia, English kingdom,
Dorchester, 200 regains independence in early ninth
Dorestad, mart and mint in Frisia, 5, century, 203 ; viking attacks, 210;
167; attacked by vikings, 77, 210; sons of Ragnar and, 219, 220; Ivar
destroyed by nature, 210 and Ubbi kill king Edmund, 220;
Dorset Culture, 308 n partitioned by Danes, 223 ; Danes
Dregovichians, 256 there take part in campaigns of
Drosuk (Drasco), a king of the Slav 892-6, 226, 229; help Ethel wold,
Abodrits, removed, restored, and 223 ; the Danelaw pacified, 223 ff.,

finally put to death by the Dane 235; Ulfkell Snilling, 359, 371;
Godfred, 98, 100 Ringmere, 366; Ashingdon, 371
Dubh-gaill, Black Foreigners, Irish Eastern Horn, Iceland, 162, 273
name for the Danes, 76-7 Eastern Settlement (Austribygg3),
Dublin, a Norse mart and haven in western Greenland, its
Ireland, 205 overrun by Danes,
; establishment, history, decline and
207; then by Norwegians, 207; fall, 191, 290, 292, 294, 295, 296,
retaken by Cearbhall, 208 309,310,311
SigtryggGale,235;Olaf Ebo, bishop of Rheims, active on
Guthfrithsson, 236, 238; Olaf the northern mission, 106, 107
Kvaran, 396; Diarmaid seizes, 387; Edda, Prose, of Snorri Sturluson, 287,
Norse affairs there, 395-6; 316 ff., 330
Clontarf, 396-7 Edda, Verse (the Elder Edda,
Dudo of St. Quentin, an unreliable Saemund's Edda, Codex Regius), a
historian, 196 n, 217, 229 source of information for heroic
Dvina, southern, a trade-route, legend and mythology, 67-8, 145-7,
163,252,256 288, 316, 318, 322; and for wisdom
Dyle, Danes defeated there 891, 109, and injunction, 167, 350-3, 381
111,226 Eddisbury, Ethelflaedan fortress, 234
Edelia, Edeltan (i.e. Athelstan),
Eadgils, see Athils and Beowulf baptismal name of the Danish king
Eadred, succeeds his brother Guthrum, 5, 223
Edmund as king 946, 239; a strong Edgar, an English king, succeeds
king, 239, 355 Eadwig in 959, 335; his handling of
Eadric Streona, English politician the Danelaw, 7, 355
and double-dealer, 359; appointed Edmund, king of East Anglia,
ealdorman for Mercia, 359; cruelly executed, 220, 374; coins
procures the murder of Siferth and commemorating, 15
Morcar, 370; feud with Edmund Edmund, brother of Athelstan,
456 Index

succeeds him 939, 238; his military 346,350,414-15

dealings with the Dublin Norse and Egino, a muscular English
kingdom of York, 238-9; redeeems Christian, 285
the Five Boroughs, 239; king of Eid Forest, a barrier to Norwegian
Northumbria till his death in 946, Swedish communications, 60
239 Eider, Ejder, river south of Hedeby,
Edmund Ironside, son of Ethelred 32; Withitb places Angel and king
the Redeless, quarrel with his Offa north of(Fifeldor), 32, 52;
father, 370; feud with Eadric severs Jutland from Germany, 60,
Streona, 370; chosen as king of 97, 374 »; relation of to
1 01,

England, 371 ; relieves London, 371 Danevirke, 99; frontier of

defeats the Danes, 371 ; betrayed by Christianity, 73, 106; mentioned,
Eadric, 371 ; comes to terms with 73 100
>

Knut, 371 dies 1016, 372

; Eidsivathing, in eastern Uppland,
Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Norway, 92
Great, 228 ; a formidable warrior- Eilaf, a shadowy figure, brother of
king, 229; safeguards Mercia after JarlUlf,36o
death of Ethelred, 233 maintains ; Einang, Valdres, Norway, bauta-
heavy pressure on the Danelaw, steinn inscription there, 71
234-5; fortress system, 234; Einar Rognvaldsson, poet,
contains the southern Danelaw, peat-cutter (Turf-Einar), and jarl
235 ; new situation Northumbria,
in of Orkney, 90, 92
235 ff; forces north to acknowledge Einar Skalaglamm (Jingle-scale),
his authority, 236; dies 924, 236 Icelander and poet, 288
Edward the Confessor, king of Einar Sokkason, a great man in
England, ends flow of Anglo-Saxon Greenland, 295
coins to Scandinavia in 105 1, 366; Einar Thambarskelfir, soldier and
acclaimed king of England after politician, 139 //; legendary archer
death of Hordaknut, 400; at Svold, 139; opponent of Olaf
consequences of his death in Haraldsson, 376, 383 too powerful;

January 1066, 409 to suit Harald Hardradi, 407; made

Edward, son of Edgar, king of to kiss the thin lips of the axe, 407;
England 975-8, 355 his byname, 139 n (cf. Enar
Edwin, earl of Mercia, an English Protuberans, a fighter at Saxo's
leader at Gate Fulford, 41 Bravellir)
Egill, a king among the Swedes Einarsfjord, Eastern Settlement,
(? = Angantyr, Ongentheow), 38, Greenland, 295
39 Eindridi, son of Einar
Egill Skallagrimsson, Icelander, Thambarskelfir, killed along with
viking and poet, 68, 288 ; composes his father, 407
a panegyric on Eirik Bloodaxe, 240, Einhard, chronicler of Charlemagne,
289; Odinn's man, 281 ; composes a 63 11,7611, 10
panegyric on Arinbjorn the Hersir, Eirik Bloodaxe Haraldsson, a king in
350; and an elegy, 414-15 Norway, 89 and 11 ; his mother a
Egils Saga Skallagrimssonar, an Dane, 94; marries a Dane, Gunnhild
uncertain source for tenth-century (Mother of Kings), 94; unlikely
history, 60
68, 89, 91, 94 n, 121,
n, that he was chosen as Harald's sole
122, 154, 237 « 1 and 2, 288, 344, heir, 94; worsted by his brother
 Index 457
Hakon the Good, 94-5 becomes ; a journey to Vinland, 306 and n\
king at York, 95, 239-40; described as papal legate in a
vicissitudes there, 95, 239-40; Vinland Map legend, 306 n
killed at Stainmore c. 954, 95, 121, Eirik (Eric, Hericus) Sigrsaell (the
240; enters Valhalla, 240; praised Victorious), king of the Swedes at
in verse by Egill Skallagrimsson, Uppsala, earns his name by
349-50; mentioned, 121 n, 134, 152, defeating Styrbjorn Starki's
198 invasion, 128; mentioned, 67, 136
Eirik Hakonarson, Jarl, holds Eiriksgata, the processional route of
command under his father at anewly elected Swedish king
Hjorungavag, 130; joins the through his realm, 157
Danish-Swedish confederacy Ein'ks Saga Rauda, 288, 298, 300, 301,
against Olaf Tryggvason, 135; 302, 303
marries Gyda daughter of S vein Elfwyn, daughter of Ethelflaed, 235
Forkbeard, 137; fights at Svold, Elbe, the river, 22, 24, 31, 32; early
137-8 ; his reward the overlordship trade route, 23 ; a boundary of
of the Trondelag and other western Saxonia, 97, 98, no
coastal districts in Norway, 140, Elizabeth, Yaroslav's daughter,
151, 384; a viking leader of much marries Harald Hardradi, 263
reputation, 370; takes part in Ella, an English king at York, 219
Knut's expedition to England 1015, 224
Elsloo,
369-70; is put in charge of Embla, the first woman, 317
Northumbria, 371 ; confirmed in Emma, wife and widow of Ethelred
his jarldom there, 372; dies c. 1023, the Redeless, wife thereafter of
372; mentioned, 374 Knut, 358, 398-9, 403 and see ;

Eirik the Red, Thorvaldsson, reared Encomium Emmae

in but outlawed from the Jaeder, Ems, theriver, 31,32
Norway, 290; ma^es a home in Encomium Emmae, a source of
then outlawed from Iceland, 290; information, often dubious, about
find a rumoured land in the
sails to Knut and Emma and Anglo-Danish
west, 290; reaches east coast of affairs, 130, 368 n, 380 n
Greenland, 290; rounds southern England, English, 2; and northern
Greenland and explores the coinage, 5-6, 7, 33 first viking;

south-western fjords for three years, ships attack, 194-5 and n\ the
290-2; gives the land a name, 292; Dene, 75-6 Eirik Bloodaxe in, 95,
;

goes to Greenland a second time 239-40; Hakon the Good raised in,
and establishes the Eastern 94, 119, 238; Olaf Tryggvason and
Settlement, 293 ; his home at his English-trained priests, 133,
Brattahlid, Eiriksfjord, 291, 295 137; payment for a slave in, 145;
his family of western voyagers (see equation of Danish and English
Leif, Thorvald, Thorfinn Karlsefni, wergelds, 150; Ottar travels to,
andFreydis); 156, 163 162; Norse-English trading
Eirik, a king in Jutland, 94 agreement, 163 ; connection with
Eirik (1), a king at Uppsala c. 800, 79 Kaupang, 168; English book mount
Eirik (2), a king at Uppsala c. 850, 79 atBirka, 172; Danish cleanliness
Eiriksfjord (Tunugdliarfik), Eastern corrupts English female virtue, 177;
Settlement, Greenland, 290, 295 England a rich prey, 200; a divided
Eirik upsi (Pollock), bishop, makes land, 203 ; viking activities in, HI,
458 Index

3, IV, 2; first phase ends, 210,218; Estridsson's assault on England

the sons of Ragnar, 219-21 ; land 1069-70 defeated, 414; mentioned,
shared out, 221 ft".; Alfred's wars, 28, 201, 202; and see British Isles,
see Alfred ; Edward the Elder, Alfred the Great, Edward the
233 and Ethelflaed, 226, 233-5;
ff. ; Elder, Ethelred, Harald Hardradi,
Christianization of Danelaw, 223, Harold Godwinsson, Knut, Svein
239; Norwegians in north-west, Forkbeard
23 5 Athelstan, 236 ft".; Brunanburh,
; English River, flowing westwards
237-8 Edmund redeems the Five
; into Hamilton Inlet, Labrador,
Boroughs, 239; Northumbrian probable scene of Thorvald
permutations, 235-6, 239-40; end Eiriksson's death, 306
of a phase, 240; share in Conversion Epaves Bay, northern
of Iceland, 285 Svein Forkbeard,
; Newfoundland, 191
356 ff.; renewal of Danish activity Erilar (eirilaR), a name associated
early in Ethelred's reign, 355 Olaf ; with rune-makers, and maybe
Tryggvason, 356; Olaf and Svein, connected with the Eruli, 29
357; Danegeld and English defeats, Erimbert, a missionary with Anskar
356, 357, 3595 Thorkell the Tall, to the Swedes, 108
360 ff.; Ringmere, 366; Svein Erling Skjalgsson, an opponent of
becomes 'full king', 368 ; dies, 369; Olaf Haraldsson, 376, 381; killed,
Ethelred returns, 369; Knut goes to 382
Denmark, 369; Edmund Ironside, Ermanaric, king of the Ostrogoths,
371 Knut's conquest and
; defeats Eruli, 29; a stock tyrant of
administrative measures, 371-2; Germanic story, 131
Olaf Haraldsson in England, 367; Ermentarius of Noirmoutier, recounts
English share in conversion of viking assaults in France, 215
northern realms: Willibrord, 106; Ertha, a goddess and her rites
the Danelaw, 223, 239; Olaf described by Tacitus, 322
Tryggvason, 132; Olaf Haraldsson, Eruli, Heruli, a northern people, 3

375 royal assaults on England, see

5 26, 48 ; original home in
Svein Forkbeard, Knut, and Harald Scandinavia, 26, 28, 29; in Black
Hardradi; Anglo-Saxon coins in Sea area, 28 ; invade Gaul, 28
Scandinavia, 7, 242 n, 365-6; plunder Spanish coast, 28
hoards in England, 6-7; Procopius reports on them, 26, 29;
Danelaw-England relations, see as does Jordanes, 26, 29, 45-6;
Danelaw; dynastic problems after Beowulf6, 29; various movements in
death of Knut, 386, 398-400; Europe, 28-9; problem of their
Harald Harefoot, 398-9; expulsion propriis sedibus, 29, 45 and
Hordaknut, 398-9; Edward the n; and see Erilar
Confessor, 366, 400; Magnus Eskimos, see Skraelings
Haraldsson, 403 and «; Svein Ethelbald, rex Britanniae, king of
Estridsson, 404, 409-10; Harold Mercia, 203
Godwinsson, 409 Harald
ft". ; Ethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians,
Hardradi, 409-10; Gate Fulford, sister and ally of Edward the Elder,

411; Stamford Bridge, 412-13 226, 233 ; builder of fortresses, 234;

survival of Olaf Kyrre, 413 death
; dies 918, 235
of Harold Godwinsson, 413 Ethelred, king of the West Saxons,
William of Normandy, 413 Svein ; 221
 Index 459
Ethelred of the Mercians, 226, 228, Falster, the Danish island, 44, 49,
233 no
Ethelred, bynamed the Redeless, Farmanshaugen, by
English king, succeeds when 12 Tunsbergsfjord, the Trafficker's
years old his brother Edward 978, Howe, cenotaph of Bjorn Farmadr
355; renewal of Danish assaults, Haraldsson, 117, 120
355—6; treaty with Olaf Faroes, 2; Olaf Tryggvason credited
Tryggvason, 63, 356; pays with its Conversion, 135 ; farmers
Danegeld, 356; his subjects and fishermen, 155 ; mentioned in
dissatisfied with him, 3 57 fF. Landndmabok sailing directions, 162;
agreement with Normandy, 358; a stepping-stone to the discovery of
marries Emma of Normandy, 358 Iceland, 269; Dicuil's account of,
orders St. Brice's Day Massacre, 269-70; Irish priests there, 269;
35<5,358; Danish assault of 1003-5, Grim Kamban, 270; Norsemen's
358; further Danegeld, 3 59; life and livelihood there, 270-2;

appoints Eadric Streona ealdorman Sheep Islands, pasture, 3, 270;

of Mercia, 359; strengthens fleet, Floki Vilgerdason there, 274; some
359; to no purpose, 359-60; joined Icelandic settlers from, 277; Olaf
by Thorkell the Tall, 367; removes Haraldsson's authority there, 378
to Normandy, 369; recalled by Fehmarn Belt, 59, 166
English after death of S vein, 369; probable meaning of as
feohlease,
punitive expedition against applied to the Danes in England,
Lindsey, 369; abandoned by 366 n
Thorkell the Tall, 370; quarrels Fifeldor, see Eider
with his son Edmund, 370; dies Fimbulvetr, 318
1016,371 Finland, Gulf of, 60, 241, 252
Ethelwold, Edward the Elder's Finn Arnarson, an opponent of Olaf
cousin, foolish conduct of, 233 Haraldson and Harold Hardradi,
costs him his life, 233 407
Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, White Foreigners, 76
Finn-gaill,
203,221 Finnmark, the northern territories of
Eugenius, king of the Strathclyde Norway, Sweden, Finland, 17, 63,
Welsh, fights at Brunanburh, 237 65,83, 122 n, 165
Evreux, attacked by vikings, 215 Finns, their name for Sweden
Eyrarthing, the legal and general Ruotsi a possible source ofRus, 247
assembly of the Trondelag, 92 n; their share in opening the
Eystein Fart, a less than historical Russian trade routes, 250, 25 1-3
king in Norway, howed at Borre, 84 Chud, Meria, Muroma, Finnish
Eyvind Skaldaspillir (Skald-despoiler tribes, 248; Finns at Staraja
or Plagiarist), a court-poet of Ladoga, 250-1 ; and in
Harald Fairhair and Hakon the Ladoga-Onega area, 253 Finnish ;

Good, 93, 123,289 names of negotiators of

Rus-Byzantine commercial treaty
Faereyinga Saga, reference to Grim of91 1-12,259
Kamban, an early settler in the Firthafylki, the Firths or Fjords, a
Faroes, 270 district in south-western Norway
Fagrskinna, 86, 119, 122, 380, 400, 82,92,134
403 n, 412 n Fitjar on Stord, Hakon the Good,
4<5o Index

killed there by the sons of Eirik 229-32; Olaf Haraldsson and, 375;
Bloodaxe, 122 end ot viking incursions there,
Five Boroughs, 221, 239, 421-4 225, 229; French influence becomes
Fjolnir, a legendary king among the dominant in Normandy, 23 1-2
Swedes, meets legendary death in a and see names of Frankish kings,
mead vat, 37 Normandy, and Saxony
Floki Vilgerdason (Hrafna-Floki, Freedmen, 150
Raven-Floki), an early voyager to Freemen, 146, 150, 155
Iceland, 273 sails from Norway by
; Frey, Fricco, Frikko, Yngvi-Frey, a
way of Shetland and Faroes, 273-4; god, 37, 74, 81, 157, 281, 285, 287,
uses ravens as land-finders, 273-4; 316; his attributes and powers, 321,
spends a cold winter on the 322-3, 324, 326
northern shore of Breidafjord, 274 Freydis, Eirik the Red's daughter,
and a cold spring, so names the conducts a bloodstained expedition
country Iceland, 274; beleaguered to Vinland, 303
in Borgarfjord for a winter, 274; Freyja, a goddess, sister of Frey, 321,
returns to Norway with a 323,324,330
discouraging report, 274 Frigg, a goddess, Odinn's wife, 324
Food and foodstuffs, an agrarian Frisia, the Frisians, southern
world, 2, 155-6; first food-gatherers neighbours of the Danes ofJutland,
in Scandinavia, 17; Early Iron Age, Geat expedition against, 30, 35,
70-1 Screrefennae, 25
; 42; role in the invasion of Britain,
Scrithifinoi, 26-7; Scef (Sheaf), 45 32-3 Danish fleet raids there c. 565,
;

pre-viking times, 23, 50; Limfjord 42; its trade with Denmark, 23, 42,
fish, 62 Skane fish, 62, 65 rations
; ; 103 ; Norway, 82, 83, 87, 154;
according to Gulathing Law, 93 Sweden, 168, 169; its coast scoured
./Esir's provision of, 125 ; Thrall's by Godfred, 101 ; Harald Klak and,
food, 145; JarPs food, 146; general 105-6; Rorik and, 109; Godfred
list, 155-6 n ; Faroes, 270-1 and (884), 224; pre-viking Frisian
Iceland, 276-7; food shortage at presence in Limfjord area, 189 n ;
times in Iceland and Greenland, Frisian cog, 189 n; a weakened
293 , 358 ; the farmer and, 3 8 8-9 Frisia contributory to Viking
and see Trade Movement, 98, 119; Danish attack
Fornaldarsogur, Sagas of Time Past, of 834, 210; Dorestad, 210; attacks
a repository of the legendary story of 836, 837, 210 ; 198, 215, 389
material of the North, 286 Frobisher Bay southern Baffin
Fortresses, early hill-forts in Norway Island 191
and Sweden, 83 English use of; Frostathing,93, 119, 148
against the Danes, 227-8, 234-5 '> Fulham, England, 226
and see Birka, Hedeby, Grobin, Furdustrandir, Marvel Strands,
Trelleborg probably the Strand, Labrador, 191,
Fosna Culture, 17 306
Franks, France, 2, 32, 103 ; defeat Furs and the fur trade, 3 26-7, 63
,

Hygelac in Frisia, 30; Charlemagne in Roman Iron Age, 23 Suehans, ;

sole king of, 97; trade with north, 25 ; Skrit-Finns, 26, 63 ; fur-bearers
157, 165 Frankish swords at
; of the northern plateaux, 66;
Hedeby, 179; viking attacks on Frisian trade in, 82-3, l54;jarlsof
France, see III, 3 ; Normandy, Hladir and northern fur trade, 87;
 Index 461

Harald Fairhair said to have exacted mentioned in Beowulf, 12; equated

on, 91 Harald Greycloak
toll ; with the Gotar, Gautar, Gauts of
develops, 124; the Lapp tribute, Gotaland in Sweden, 34-44; or
162; Rus fur- traders, 164 and n, with the Jutes ofJutland, 42-4;
I0 5, 253, 255, 260; Sembi prefer their foray to Frisia, 30-1, 35, 42;
fal dones, 166 n ; furs at Birka, 171 ; at their wars against the Swedes,
Hedeby, 180; possible connection 34-44
of Al-Ghazal's mission with, 215 Geira, daughter of Boleslav (or
Greenland furs, 163 Vinland ; Miesco?), king of the Poles,
furs, 163, 302-3, 306; effect of rashly said to have married Olaf
Russian trade on Greenland, 309; Tryggvason, 132
and see Trade Geoffrey of Monmouth, 52; his
Fyn, Funen, the Danish island, 23, reference to the expulsion of surplus
44> 51,59,62, 71, 102, 166 Saxons, 196 n
Fyrisvellir, near Uppsala, the scene Gerloc, Geirlaug, (Adelis), daughter
of Hrolf Kraki's flight and ruse, 49; of Gongu-Hrolf (Rollo of
and of Styrbjorn Starki's defeat, 128 Normandy), 229
Fyrkat, near Hobro, Jutland, site of a Germanic tribes and peoples, 21 ff.;
military camp c. 1000, 5, 19, 101 n, Teutones and Cimbri, 21-2;
135,360,364 Germani, so called by Poseidonois,
22; Germania and its tribes, 22, 24,
Gainsborough, Lines., England, 363 25, 26, 27, 28-33, 73 5 for later
Gallehus horn, runic inscription on, relationships between Scandinavia
71 and Germany see Charlemagne,
Gall-Gaedhil, Gall-Gael, 206 and n Godfred, Gorm the Old, Harald
Galloway, 203 206 , Bluetooth, Henry the Fowler,
Gamla Uppsala, see Uppsala Louis the German, Louis the Pious,
Gamle Lejre, see Lej r e Otto I, Otto E, Rhine, and Trade
Gandvik, see White Sea Gesta Cnutonis, 136
Gardar, the bishop's see in Gesta Danorum, see Saxo Grammaticus
Einarsfjord, Greenland, 293, 295, Gesta Fran cor um, see Liber Historiae
296,297,310 Francorum
Gardar Svavarson, a Swede, the first de Gestis Karoli Magni, see Einhard
circumnavigator of Iceland, 75 n, Getae, 30, 42
79, 273 winters in Husavik in the
; Getica (De rebus Geticis, De Origine
north, 273 names the country
; actibusque Getaruni), see Cassiodorus
Gardarsholm, 273 praises it highly
; and Jordanes
2735281,295 Gibraltar, 216, 218
Gardariki, 43 248 n
, Ginnungagap, 316
Garonne, river in France, 213 Gisli Oddson, Icelandic bishop, his
Gate Fulford, battle at, 11, 411 reference to the troubles of the
Gaulardal, 133,379 Greenlanders, 309
Gautar, Gautland, Gautigoths, Gizur, bishop of Skalholt, 287;
Gautoi, Gauts, Gotar, Gutones, described by Harald Hardradi, 349
see Gotaland, Geats, and Beowulf Gjaskogar, early eleventh-century
Gautbert, a missionary to the farm in Iceland, described, 280
Swedes, 107 Glad, the church bell at Nidaros,
Geats, Geatas, a sixth-century people heard ring before the battle on
462 Index

Lyrskov Heath, 403 Jutland, 113 ; his wife Thyri hardly

Glavendrup, Fyn, runic stone at, 71 known to his ton", 114; raises
Glum, a Danish leader, 102 memorial stone to her at Jelling,
Gnezdovo-Smolensk, important 114; difficulties of its interpretation,
trading nexus in Russia, 253, 254; 114; other constructions of Gorm's
wooden burial chambers at, at Jelling, 1 13-16; himself
containing man, woman, horse, commemorated there by Harald
256; well placed for Dnieper, Volga, Bluetooth's stone, 117; 94, 109, 118
Oka river-routes, 256 and » I Gormflaith (Kormlod), mother of
Godfred, a famed king in Denmark, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, a well-manned
successor to Sigfred, 12, 67; queen, 397
confrontation with Charlemagne, G6ta-elv, the river, treaty- at,

98, 100; negotiations with him, between Magnus the Good and
98-103 oppresses the Abodrits, 98
; Hordaknut, 400; between Magnus
destroys Reric, 98 ; carries off and Svein Estridsson, 401 ; between
Drosuk, 98; overruns other Slavonic Svein and Harald Hardradi, 408
of trade, 99,
tribes, 98; solicitous Gotaland, the territory south of
102-3 ; plans the Danevirke, 99; Swedish Uppland embracing
suggests conference with Oster- and Vastergotland and
Charlemagne at Beidenfleth, 100; later-acquired provinces, the home
executes Drosuk, 100; scours the of the Go tar, 22 Hogby stone, 9
;

Frisian coast, 101 ; reputed vaunts, presumed connection with the

101 ; murdered 810, 101 ; succeeded Goths, Gautar, Goutoi, 21, 22, 25,
by Hemming, 101 ; his status as 2 6, 35s 53 ; Olaf Skottkonung rex
king, and nature of his kingship, 67, Sveorum Gothorumque, 43 Jarl ;

102-4,118 Rognvald of Gautland, 43

Godfred, a Danish king, perishes on Sparlosa stone and king Alrik, 44;
theDyle89i, 109 relations with Sweden, 34-44
Godi, Godord, the Icelandic passim, 78-9, 1 5 1-2; West Gautish
chieftain-priest and his office, Law, 1 5 1-2, 173 ; Odinn-
282-4 place-names in, 324; and see Geats
Godthab, modern town, in the Goths, peoples of the Migrations, 21,
former Western Settlement area, 22,25,26,28
Greenland, 191, 293 Gotland, the Baltic island, 7, 24;
Godwine, the English earl, father of early funerary practice, 19; possible
Harold, 398 connection with the Goths, 22
Gokstad, in Vestfold, Norway, 183 coins of Roman Iron Age found
Gokstad ship, see Ships there, 23 fertile land there, 63 in
; ;

Golden Horn, Constantinople, 259 Wulfstan's time, c. 890, belongs to

Gorm, a rune-carver, 112 the Swedes, no, 1 1 1, 242 and ti,
Gorm the Old, Hardaknutsson 243 ; trade with Birka, 168; with
(?Hardecnudth Wrm), a famed Russia and interests in Kurland and
king in Denmark, his origins Estland, 243-4; Gotland-Swedish
obscure, 113 ; unreliable historical relations, 39, 242, 243 ; Guta
sources concerning, 1 13-14; Saga on 242 »; abundance of
possibly the son of Harda- or foreign coins there, 23, 257,
Hordaknut Sveinsson, 114; 242-3 »; a kind of Rus, 245, 252;
establishes himself at Jelling, Timans stone, 267; Gotland
 Index 463
hoards, 242-3 n 2; Olaf Graiilandskiiorr, the Greenland
Haraldsson there, 383 ; Gotland carrier, 3 10
pictured stones, 342-4, ships Greece, Greeks, 2,8, 30; place on
depicted on, 343-4 Varangian trade-routes, 163, 257 ff.;

Granni, the people of Grenland, Greek fruits at Pereiaslav, 164;

Norway, 26 Gotlanders said by Guta Saga to
Great Beast in viking art, 340-1 have reached, 252 n 2 Piraeus Lion
;

Great Belt (Store Ba^lt), the passage at Venice, 267-8; runic stones
between Zealand and Fyn and their referring to, Hogby, 9; Ed, 267;
attendant islands, 44, 49, 62, 109 Timans, 267; mentioned frequently
Greenland, first sighted by in EI, 4; and see Byzantium and
Gunnbjorn Ulf-Krakason, 290 and Constantinople
«; first visited by Eirik the Red, Greenwich, England, 367
290; he spends three years exploring Gregory of Tours, see Hhtoria
there, 290; proceeds to colonize it, Francorum
292-3 ; names the country Grenaa, in eastern Jutland, viking
Greenland, 292; the Eastern axe-heads found at, 165
Settlement, 293 ; the Western Grenland, a region west of the
Settlement, 293 ; the so-called Oslofjord, 26
Middle Settlement, 293 ; economy, Grimkell, bishop in Norway, 378,
exports and imports, 293 ; the 385 ,

Northern Hunting Grounds, 294; Gripping Beast in viking art, 337-8

progress north to Melville Bay, 294, Grobin, mart in the eastern Baltic,
and latitude 79 north in Arctic 167, 242; Swedes and Gotlanders
Canada, 295 farming in Greenland,
; there, 243
295 the heartland, 295 Brattahlid
; ; Grxnlendinga Saga, 'The
in Eiriksfjord, 291, 295; Greenlanders' Saga', a source of
Christianity in, 135, 295 ; voyages information for the discovery of
to America mounted there, 295 Greenland and Vinland, 288, 298
hardships in the Settlement after c. and n, 300, 301, 302, 303
1350, 308 ff.; marginal position at Gronk Moar, Isle of Man, grave
the world's end, 307; loss of preserving plough-marks from
independence and breakdown of viking times, 156 n
communications with Iceland and Guadalquivir, river in Spain, 214,
Norway, 307; worsening of the 216, 375
climate, 307-8; relics of Dorset Gudbrandsdal, Norway, 85, 87, 382
Eskimos found by first settlers, 308 Gudrid Thorbjorn's daughter, Eirik
n; reappearance of the Eskimo and the Red's daughter-in-law, marries
his progress south, 308 Western
; Thorfinn Karlesfni and accompanies
Settlement extinguished, 308; him to Vinland, 300
attempted explanations Gudrod Bjarnarson, a minor king in
thereof, 309; Eskimos bypass the south-eastern Norway, protected
Eastern Settlement, 309; by Hakon the Good, 119; destroyed
intermittent glimpses of life there, by Harald Grey cloak, 124
3 io-ii ; explanations for Gudrod the Hunting King, an early
disappearance of the Settlement by king in southern Norway, husband
c. 1500,311; mentioned, 3, 5, 10, 13, of queen Asa, father of Olaf
19,73,157,162,163,166,190; Geirstada-Alf and Halfdan the
464 Index

Black, 84; violent death of, 84 Gutnalthing, 242 «

Gulathing, 92, 1 19, 378 ; Gulathing Gyda, daughter of king Svein
Law a model for early Icelandic Forkbeard, marries jarl Eirik
Law, 92, 93, 283 Hakonarson, 137
Gulf Stream, importance for
Norwegian climate and
communication by sea, 65 Haethcyn, a Geat king, 36
Gundestrup bowl, from Hadaland, 80, 84, 85, 87
Himmerland, Jutland (Celtic art Lfe(3um, see Hedeby
artefact), 22 Hafrsfjord, near Stavanger, Harald
Gunnar in the snake-pit, art motif, Fairhair defeats his enemies in a
339 sea-fight there, 88-9; date of the
Gunnar of Hlidarendi, archetypal encounter, 89
land- lover, 155 n Haki, a berserk, abducts Ragnhild
Gunnbjarnarsker, Gunnbjarnareyjar, Sigurd Hart's daughter, 85
islands or skerries off the west is robbed of her by Halfdan the
Greenland coast, presumably east Black and falls on his sword, 86

of Sermiligaq, near Angmagssalik, Hakon Eiriksson, jarl,374;

290 n captured by Olaf Haraldsson, 376;
Gunnbjorn Ulf-Krakason, the first Knut puts him in charge of Norway
European known to have sighted after Olaf's flight, 382; is drowned
Greenland, 290 and n, 295 in thePentland Firth, 382
Gunnhild Mother of Kings, a famous Hakon Grjotgardsson, jarl of
but somewhat fictitious northern Hladir and ruler of the Trondelag,
lady, 113, I2i-2andw, 123, 124, comes to terms with Harald Fair-
125, 131,136^235 hair, 87; increases his territory and
Gunnlaug Wormtongue, Icelander, power, 88592
a hesitant lover and incisive poet, Hakon Hakonarson, king of Norway
288 at time of loss of independence by
Gunnvor (Albereda), wife of Greenland, 1261, and Iceland,
Richard I of Normandy, 229 n 1262-4,281
Gunnvor Thidrik's daughter, a Hakon the Good, Haraldsson,
bridge-or causeway-builder, 186 Athelstan's-fosterling, king in
Gurd, a Swedish ruler at Hedeby, Norway, 12; raised in England,
111-12 89, 94 ; returns to Norway and
Guthfrith, a king of the Irish-Norse drives out his half-brother Eirik
at Dublin, 235, 236, 237 Bloodaxe, 94-5, 119; reverts to
Guthorm, uncle of Harold Fairhair, heathendom, but keeps his reputa-
supports him in his early wars, tion with late Christian historians,
85,86-7 119; his friendly relations with
Guthrum, Danish viking, attacks
a jarl Sigurd of Hladir, 94, 119;
East Anglia, 221 attacks Wessex,
; reputation as law-maker, 1 19-20;
223 defeats and is defeated by king
; and as the land's defender, 120-1
Alfred, 223 accepts baptism at
; traditionally associated with the
Wedmore and strikes coins as leidangr or ship-levy, 121 ; subject to
Edelia, Edeltan (i.e. Athelstan), Danish hostility, 121-2; and that
5, 223 becomes ruler of East
; of the sons of Eirik Bloodaxe, 121-2;
Anglia, 150,223 fatally wounded at Fitjar on
 Index 465

Stord, 122; loses his kingdom to Halfdan the Generous but Stingy
the sons of Eirik, lamented by with Food, a less than historical
Eyvind the Plagiarist in his king in Norway, howed at Borre,
Hakonarmdl, 123 ; enters Valhalla, Vestfold, 84
123593,124,134,289 Halfdan Ragnarsson, a famed Danish
Hakon Sigurdarson, jarl, an enemy viking and king, prominent in
of Harald Greycloak's, 124; enters England, 219-21 shares out
;

into an alliance with (or takes Northumbria 876, 221 possibly

;

service with?) Harald Bluetooth of the Halfdan killed in Strangford

Denmark which leads to Grey- Lough in Ireland, 208
cloak's (and Gold- Harald' s) Halfdan the White, Haraldsson, 68
destruction, 125; holds the south- Halfdan Whiteleg, an early king in
western provinces of Norway at Norway, howed at Skiringssal
Bluetooth's hand and is reinstated (Kaupang), Vestfold, 34, 84
in theTrondelag, 125 ; a devout Hall Thorarinsson, fosterer and
heathen, 125 ; helps Harald Blue- informant of Ari Thorgilsson,
tooth defend the Danevirke baptized at the age of 3, and lived
against Otto II, 128; breaks with to be 94, 285
Bluetooth, 128-9; beats off an in- Hall Thorsteinsson, Hall of Sida, a
vasion by and Wends
sea of Danes Christian negotiator at the
at Hjorungavag, 130 and «; loses Conversion of Iceland, 285-6,
control of the Trondelag, 131; 397
reasons for this, 131, 133; succumbs Halland, a district in the south-west
to Olaf Tryggvason's sea-borne of Sweden, north of Skane, 17,
invasion, 133; tradition that he was 25,49
killed by his thrall Kark, 133 Hallfred Troublesome-poet
father ofJarl Eirik, q.v. mentioned,
; (Vandrsedaskald), Icelander, a
95,151,288 love poet at home and court poet
Hakon Ivarsson, jarl, driven from abroad, 288
Norway by Harald Hardradi, 407 Hallin, mentioned by Jordanes,
Hdkonarmdl, Eyvind the Plagiarist's possibly the inhabitants of Halland,
elegiac encomium on Hakon the Sweden, 25
Good, 123 Halogaland, a northern province of
Halfdan, a Danish king, brother of Norway, 54, 83, 87, 122, 124,
Sigfred, 109 135,354
Halfdan, a Danish king in England, Hals, at the eastern end of the
~
known only by his coins, 5 Limfjord, Harald Greycloak
Halfdan (Healfdene), a somewhat trapped and killed there, 125
legendary king of the Danes, likewise Arinbjorn the Hersir,
father of Hroar-Hrothgar and 414-15 ; likewise Gold-Harald, 95
Helgi-Halga, 46, 47, 48 Halsingborg, on the Swedish side of
Halfdan the Black, Gudrodarson, the narrows between Kattegat
enlarges the Vestfold kingdom, 34, and 0resund, 25, 138
37 k; rescues and marries Ragnhild, Hamburg, Hamburg-Bremen,
and begets Harald Fairhair, 85-6; Anskar archbishop of, 107; burned
a king girt with legend and folk- by the Danes 845, 107; sees of
tale, 86 Hamburg and Bremen combined,
Halfdan the Black, Haraldsson, 68 108 Adaldag confirmed as head of
;
466 Index

the Church in Denmark, 125 dansson, a famed king in Norway,

burned by the Wends 983 , 129 12, 79; his glorious reign and
Olaf Tryggvason prefers English progeny revealed to his mother in a
Church to that of, 137; Olaf dream, 86; conquests in the Vest-
Haraldsson and, 378 fold area, 86-7; extends his
Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, 191, 306 territories northwards, 87; comes to
Harald Bluetooth (Blatonn) terms with Jarl Hakon of the
Gormsson, king of Denmark, 12, Trondelag, 87-8; conquests in the
102, 113 ; his church, mound, and viking south-west, 88-9; wins
stone at Jelling, 1 14-17; his runic battle of Hafrsfjord, 88-9; expedi-
inscription, 'the baptismal tion to the Atlantic isles, 90;
certificate of the Danes', 117; acquires substantial personal
succeeds Gorm c. 950, 118; a realm in Norway, 90, 91 ; mislead-
politicaland theological realist, ing account of his administrative
118; a dominant king in Denmark, measures in Heimskringla and
118; supports his sister and sister's EgihSaga, 91 ; encourages Things,
sons against Hakon the Good, 121-2 92 ; may have developed ship-levy
sees to Danish interests in the Vik, for defence, 92, 120; has many
124-5 alliance with jarl Hakon
5 sons, 93-4; break-up of kingdom
Sigurdarson, 125 ; leads to death of at his death, 94; influence, 95-6;
Harald Greycloak, 125 ; sets mentioned, 37 «, 124, 131, 154,
Hakon in power in western and 197,238,279,281
northern Norway, 125 ; Harald's Harald Greycloak (Grafeldr)
'hawk-isle', 125;Danish-German Eiriksson, returns from England
relations, 125-9;Otto I and after the death of his father there,
Christianity in Denmark, 126, 129; 121 ; with Danish support mounts
Bluetooth converted, 126; Danish- several invasions of Norway, 122;
Wend relations, 127; marries a after the battle at Fitjar seizes the
Wendish princess, 127; Jumne- realm of Hakon the Good, 123 a ;

Wollin-Jomsborg, 127-8 n; strong, even headstrong, king,

possibly supports Styrbjorn Starki 124; a militant Christian, 124;
against Eirik Sigrsaell of Sweden, incurs the enmity ofjarl Hakon of
128 his army roughly handled by
; the Trondelag, 124-5 ; and of
Otto II, 128; contradictory reports Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, his
of German action against the mother's brother, 124-5 ; tricked
Danevirke, 128; takes steps to and killed off Hals in the Limfjord,
evangelize Norway, 128-9; con- 95, 125
certed attack with Wends upon Harald Hard-counsel or the Ruthless
Holstein and Slesvig, 129; sudden (HardraQi) Sigurdarson, Adam of
loss of power to his son Svein, 129; Bremen's 'Thunderbolt of the
possibles causes thereof, 129; North', king of Norway, 6, 8, 9, 11
flees tothe Wends, 129; his obscure supports his half-brother Olaf
death, 130; doubtful tradition of Haraldsson's attempt to regain
his part in the Danish- Wend naval his kingdom, 383, 384 «; wounded
expedition against jarl Hakon, at Stiklarstadir, 404; flees to
130 and «; succeeded by his son Sweden, then takes service with
Svein Forkbeard, 130; 134 king Yaroslav in Russia, 263, 404;
Harald Fairhair (Harfagri) Half- departs for Byzantium and the
 Index 467
imperial service, 404; ten years of Harald Wartooth (Hilditonn), a
warfare in many arenas, 266, 404, legendary king of the Danes,
405 and », 409; returns to Norway, killed by Odinn at Bravellir, 51,
406; temporary alliance with 52-4, 78
Svein Estridsson, 406; succeeds Haraldskvtedi, a panegyric on Harald
Magnus the Good in Norway, 406 Fairhair, by hispoet
seventeen years of warfare against Thorbjorn Hornklofi, 89; also
the Danes, 406-8 ; burns Hedeby, calledHrafnsmM
174, 181, 407-8 ; victory at the Hardangerfjord, in western Norway,
Nissa, 407; comes to terms with 122,133
Svein Estridsson, 408 invades
; Hardegon Sveinsson, according to
England, 409-10; wins victory at Adam of Bremen, comes from
Gate Fulford and clears road to Nortmannia and ends the Swedish
York, 41 1; surprised and killed interlude at Hedeby, ill, 113
at Stamford Bridge, 412-13 Hardecnudth Wrm, see Gorm the Old
buried in Nidaros, 413-14; a Harek Gand, discharges a deadly
terminatory figure of the Viking errand to the berserk Haki, 85
Age, 414; an account of him as Harek Thjotta, an opponent of
Araltes in the Cecaumeni Strategicon, Olaf Haraldsson, 381, 383
405 k; untrustworthiness of Harold Godwinson, becomes king of
Heimskringla in respect of him, 8, England after the death of Edward
217 11, 404-5 said by Adam of
; the Confessor, 409; makes forced
Bremen to have explored the march to Tadcaster, 412; marches
'Frozen Sea,' 388 through York to Stamford Bridge,
Harald Harefoot Knutsson, 3 86, 412; defeats Harald Hardradi,
398,399 412-13 ; gives quarter to the
Harald (Gold-Harald) Knutsson Norwegian survivors at Riccall,
(Knut Dana-Ast), nephew of 413 ; account of his victory in the
Harald Bluetooth, a contender for Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 412 ;?, 413
Norway, 95 betrayed and hanged
; rides south again to his death at
in Denmark, 95, 199 Hastings, 413
Harald Klak Haraldsson, a Harothi, mentioned by Jordanes,
contender for power in Denmark, possibly the inhabitants of
105 driven out by Horik the
; Hordaland, Norway, 26
Elder, 105; granted a fief in Frisia, Hastein, a Danish viking, 202; a
105-6; fives out his life there, 106; leader with Bjorn of the Danish
had become a Christian in 826 and Mediterranean venture c. 860,
takes Anskar with him to 216-18 ; a legendary master of
Denmark, 106-7 ruses, 217; leads a horde to England
Harald Sveinsson, king of Denmark, 892, 226
helps his brother Knut to mount an Hastings, battle of, 413
expedition for England, 369; dies Haugasund, south-western Norway,
1018-19 and is succeeded by Knut, Harald Fairhair buried near, 94
373 Haukadal, in north-west Iceland, 290
Harald, Thorkell the Tail's son, a Havamal, a wisdom poem in the
claimant to the Danish kingdom Elder Edda, advises on conduct,
after Hordaknut, murdered by the 167,330,350,351-3,381
Saxons, 400, 401 Healfdene, see Halfdan
468 Index

Heardred, son of Hygelac, killed by i37-9> 154, 166, 229, 287, 327, 376,
the Swedes, 36-7 400, 403 ;/, 412 «; and see
Heathobeards, 48 Tnglinga Saga
Hebrides, 90, 270, 273 Hel, an abode of the dead, 318, 323,
Hedeby, town and mart at the head 330
of the Sliefjord at the neck of the Hel, the goddess and keeper thereof,
Jutland peninsula (modern Schles- 317,323,330
wig), 5> 6, 9, 5 1> 65 5 created by Hel, St. Olaf's battle-axe, swung by
Godfred, 99, 103 ; relationship to his son Magnus at the battle on
Danevirke, 99-101 and //; Anskar Lyrskov Heath, 403
establishes school there, 106-7; Helgaa, Helge-a, Holy River, 380,
returns to Hedeby and opens a 3 81
church, 108; Ottar sails there from Helgafell, Holy Mountain, in
Kaupang, 109, 162; Wulfstan leaves western Iceland, a sanctuary and
there for Truso, no; Swedish holy place in heathen times, 277;
interlude, 51, 111-12, 152; Henry and in Christian
the Fowler establishes Saxon Helgi Halfdansson, Halga son of
colony there, 114; Hored first Healfdene, a legendary king
bishop 125 ; its defensive site,
of, among the Danes, 47-8
167, 168; the town described, 174- Helgi (Heiligo), a good king among
81; Al-Tartushi's relation, 175-7; the Danes, in
itshouses, 179; seaward mole, 179; Helgi the Lean, a settler in Iceland,
trade goods and manufactures, of mixed religious belief, 277
157, 180; its name(s), 181 ; coins Helgo, the island and mart of that
minted there, but mint not yet name in Lake Malar, a source of
discovered,5, 6, 180; burned by wealth and power to the king of
Harald Hardradi, 181, 407-8; Swedish Uppland, 78, 154, 167,
raided by the Slavs, 181 ceases ; to 174 «, 244
function and its place taken by Heligoland (? Abalus), 21
Slesvig north of the Sliefjord, 181, Helluland, Flatstone Land, thought
3 87-8 'the riders sleep, heroes in
; tobe the south of Baffin Island,
the grave', 334, 343, 415 ; 87, 109, sighted by Bjarni Herjolfsson, 300,
240 304; trod and named by Leif
Hedebysten, runic inscription Eiriksson, 300, or, less likely,
relating to Svein's housecarle Thorfinn Karlsefni, 301
Thorolf, 9, 174 n HemitigsPattr, preserves legends and
Hedemark, Heidmark, a province traditions of Stamford Bridge, 412 n
and earlier a petty kingdom in Hemming, a shadowy figure,
south-eastern Norway, 25, 80, brother of Thorkell the Tall, 360
81,84,85,97,151 Hemming, a king in Denmark,
Hegbjorn, 257 successor of Godfred 810, 101
Heidnir, 25 concludes a treaty with Charle-
Heimdall, a god, 145, 318 magne establishing Denmark's
Heimskringla, Snorri Sturluson's southern frontier at the Eider, 101,
Lives of the Norse Kings, now 103
much distrusted as a historical Hengest and Horsa, 31, 196
document, 9, 10, 37 «, 43, 63 «, Henry the Fowler, German emperor,
85,86,89,94;/, 119, 121,130, chastises the Danes, 112; draws
 Index 469
the kingdom's boundary at Slesvig- Hirtshals, 65
Hedeby, 114, 128; succeeded by Historia Francorum, a source of
Otto 1, 125 information for the Geats and their
her ad, berred, general name for a king Hygelac-Ch(l)ochilaicus, 30
district or territorial unit, 50-1, Historia de antiquitate regum
83, 156, I75 5 2 3i Norwagiensium, 9, 122
here,a term in Old English law Historia Norwegiae, 38, 93, 122
meaning a band of thieves Histories, see Sources
numbering more than thirty-five, Hjorleif(Sword-Leif)Hrodmarsson,
and commonly applied therefore foster-brother of In golf Arnarsson,
to Danish raiding parties or armies, and one of the first settlers of
218; Sawyer's calculation of the Iceland, 275
size of a Danish here, 218-19 n Hjorungavag, sea-fight at, 130 and «,

heregeld, the army-tax exacted by 138

Knut in England, 366 Hjorvard (Heoroweard) a person
Heremod, an ill-fortuned tyrant known in northern legend as the
king of legend, 131 destroyer of Hrolf Kraki and the
berfang, the forcible seizure by royal hall at Lejre, 49
vikings offood and plunder, at Hladir, in the Trondelag, Norway,
home as well as abroad, 392 main seat of the Trondheim jarls,
Herigar, a great man among the 81,87,135,355
Swedes of Birka, converted to Hoby, Lolland, 23
Christianity by Anskar, 107, 108 Hofstadir, Myvatn, Iceland,
Herjolf, an early voyager to Iceland, possibly a site of sacral festivity,
274 282,328
Herjolf (Bardarson), a settler in Hofstadir, Thorskafjord, Iceland,
Greenland, father of Bjarni, who possibly a site of sacral festivity,
first sighted the North American 328
coast, 296 Hbfudlausn, 'Head-ransom', a poem
Herjolfsnes (Ikigait), 191, 290; composed by Egill Skallagrim for
Herjolf's settlement, reached by Eirik Bloodaxe, 240, 349-50
Bjarni, 298 ; visited by Leif Hofudlausn, 'Head-ransom', a poem
Eiriksson, 298 ; late fifteenth- composed by Ottar the Black for
century garments found in the Olaf Haraldsson, 375 n
graveyard there, 310; skeletons Holar, the bishop's see in northern
found there, 311 Iceland, 287
Hernar, a navigation mark north of Hollingstedt, on the river Treene,
Bergen, starting-point of the at the western end of the Dane-
Bergen-Greenland passage, 162 virke, 42, 99 n, 100 n
Hertford, England, 234 Holmfast, a bridge or causeway
Hetware, 30-1, 36 builder, 186 n
Himlingoje, Roman Age glass Holmgard, see Novgorod
found there, 23 runic inscription
; Holstein, 23, 31, 32, 71, 98, 100, 103,
on brooch in the high-born lady's 128, 129
grave there, 71 Holsteinsborg, western Greenland,
Himmerland, Jutland, probably the 191, 294
home of the Cimbri, 21, 22, 24 Holy Mountain, see Helgafell
hir5, 152-3 and« Holy River, see Helgaa
470 Index

bolmganga, 'island-going', wager-of- Hroar Tungu-Godi, 75

battle as described in the Icelandic Hrolf (Gongua-Hrolfr), see Rollo
sagas, 255 ; bolmgb'nguldg, the Hrolf Kraki (Hrothulf), a famed
formulated laws related thereto, legendary king of the Danes,
hard to believe in, 346 46-9, 5 1 , 24 1 Hrolfs Saga Kraka,
;

Honen inscription, relating to Vin- 46,48

land, now lost, 303 n Hudson Bay, 191
Hop, a place in Vinland, 301 Humber, the river in England, 239,
Hordaknut Knutsson, put in charge 240,368,411
of Denmark under the regency of Hunaland, a general term for the
Thorkell the Tall, 372; attempt to lands lived in or conquered by
make him king there, 380; the Huns, 197; 'metal of Hunaland'
succeeds to the kingdom and gives probably means gold
refuge to his brother Svein, 386, Huns, 28
398 ; reaches an agreement with Huntingdon, England, 234
Magnus of Norway and sails for Husavik, in Skjalfandi, northern
England, 398-9; an unworthy king Iceland, 273
there, 399; dies at his drink, 399; Hvarf, a mountain and navigation
the situation in Denmark after his mark in south-western Greenland,
death, 399-400 162, 191
Hordaland, a region of south-west Hven, an island in the 0resund,
Norway, 26, 75, 82, 83, 92, 119, south-west of Halsingborg, 137,
123,200,277 138
Hored, bishop in Denmark, 125 Hygelac (Huiglaucus, Ch(l) och-
Horik the Elder, Godfredsson, a ilaicus, etc.), king of the Geats,
king in Denmark, involved in killed on an expedition to Frisia,
struggle for power with the sons 30-i> 35, 36, 42-3, 229, 266
of Harald, 105 drives out Harald
; Hywel Dda, a Welsh king, 355
Klak, 105 his dealings with Anskar,
;

107; Danish attack on Hamburg c. Ibn Dihya, his account of Al-Ghazal's

840, 107; gives Anskar permission visit to the king of the Majus and
to build a church at Hedeby, 108 his queen Nod or Noud, 215 n
uprisings by his kinsmen, 108; Ibn Fadlan, his description of the
meets a violent death, 108 ; maybe Rus on the Volga, 164-5 the '>

visited by Al Ghazal, 214-15; adornment of their womenfolk,

109, 118 164; their sexual habits, 165, 197;
Horik the Younger, a king in Den- and offerings, 165 ; his
their idols
mark, succeeds to power in account of a Rus funeral, 426-30
853-4, 108; permits a Christian Ibn Rustah, his account of the Rus-
mission to southern Jutland, 108 Slav economy, 250, 255 ; their
Horundarfjord, in western Norway, appearance and habits, 255 their ;

130 funerals, 255-6

Hrafnsmdl, see Haraldskvadi Iceland, Icelanders, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13,
Hrethel, king of the Geats, father 53, 73, 79, 91, 154, 162, 163 ; first
ofHygelac, 36 identifiable in Dicuil's Liber de
Hroar-Hrothgar, a legendary king in Mensura Or bis Terrae, 270; he quotes
Denmark, 46-8 and see Beowulf
; Irish priestson the midnight sun
and HrSlfs Saga Kraka and frozen sea, 270; need for caution
 Index 471

in approaching the early written Ingolf Arnarson (or Bjornolfsson,),

sources, 272-3, 274; the voyages of the Norse settler in Iceland,
first

Gardar (Gardarsholm), 273 89 274 and n

n,

Naddod (Snaeland, Snowland), Ingolfsfjall, a well-loved mountain

273 ; and Hrafna-Floki (Island, in south-western Iceland, associated

Iceland), 273-4; Age of Settlement with Ingolf Arnarsson, 274 n
begins with the foster-brothers Ingolfshofdi, the 'land-isle' south of
Ingolf and Hjorleif, 89 ti, 274; Irish the Vatnajokull where Ingolf is
hermits, papar, already in residence, said to have spent his first winter
275-6; impulse to settlement said in Iceland, 274 n, 275
to be Harald Fairhair's tyranny in Ingvaeones,2i
Norway, but this an oversimplifica- Inugsuk people, 308 n
tion, 279; heathendom there, Iona, 195
277, 279, 281 ff; development of Ipswich, 366
Constitution and law (godi, Ireland, Irish, 2, 8, 77, 132; Black
lawspeaker, logretta, Fifth Court, Foreigners and White Foreigners,
etc.),282-4; the Conversion, 135, 76-7; first viking attack, on Lambey
285-6; Thorgeir proclaims the Law Island (Rechru), 195, 204; division
(Faith), 286; the Icelanders' in Ireland helps vikings, 203
addiction to history, 286-7; sa g a > arrival of the Norwegian Turgeis,
288, and poetry, 288-9; their 204; his successes and desecrations,
literary achievement, 289, their 204-6; the Gall-Gaedhil, 206 and «;
colonization of Greenland, 290 fF, arrival of the Danes, 207; wars
and Vinland, 295 ff; Iceland at the between Danes and Norwegians,
end of the Viking Age, 388, 394-5 207-8 arrival of Olaf (Amlaibh),
;

Igaliko, see Gardar, Greenland 207; his exploits, 207-8 those of ;

Igor, a Rus leader, unsuccessfully Ivar of Limerick, 208 arrival of ;

attacks Constantinople in 941, 260 Halfdan from Deira, 208

tries again in 944, 260; returns to Cearbhall of Leinster seizes Dublin
Kiev and negotiates a commercial from the Norsemen 902, 208
treaty with Byzantium, 260; 'Westfaldingi' and their Irish
married to the famous Olga, 261 is ; connection, 208 Al-Ghazal's visit
;

succeeded by his son Svyatoslav, to the Majus (to Turgeis in

261 Ireland?), 214-15 ;fir gorm in Ireland
Ikigait, see Herjolfsnes, Greenland 218 new viking fleet in Ireland
;

He de Groix, near Lorient, France, 912-13, 234; the Norse-Irish entry

viking remains there, including into England north of the Wirral
ship relics, 232 n soon after 900, 23 5 and into ;

Ilmen, the Russian lake, 163, 246 n 1, North Wales, 23 5 Sigtrygg Gale
;

252 recovers Dublin and kills Njall,

India, trade goodsfrom 253 235; long period of political and
Ingelheim, near Mainz, 106, 125, 249 military traffic between Dublin
Ingigerd, daughter of king Olaf Norse and Norse of Northumbria,
Skottkonung of Sweden, 263 235-40; Brunanburh, 237-8; Olaf
Ingimund (Igmunt, Flingamund), Guthfrithsson, 237-9; Olaf
235 Kvaran Sigtryggsson, 239-40; the
Ingjald the Wicked, unlikely death union of the Norse kingdoms of
of an unlikely king, 52 Dublin and York never achieved,
472 Index

239-40; Irish element in among the Swedes, 52; destroys

settlement of Iceland, 269-70, Ingjald the Wicked, 52; acquires
272, 279; Norse contribution territories overseas, 52, 240; re-
to trade and towns in Ireland, 395 puted to have drowned on the way
Irish art contributory to viking to Russia, 240
art,335 ; preliminaries to Clontarf, Ivigtut, the so-called Middle
396; its mixed consequences, 397; Settlement in Greenland, more
Norsemen important in Ireland till properly regarded as a northern
after the Viking Age, 397 spur of the Eastern Settlement,
Irminsul, the World Pillar of the 290, 309
Saxons, destroyed by the Franks, Izborsk, the reputed scene of settle-

97 ment by the Rus Truvor in Russia,

Isla Menor, 214 245, 246 //I, 264
Isleif Gizur the White's son, bishop
of Skalholt, the first native bishop Jaederen, the Jaeder, a district in
in Iceland (1055), 285 ;/, 287 south-western Norway, 61, 82,
Isletidingabok, Ari Thorgilsson's 89, 290
'Book of the Icelanders', a source Jammerbugt, 21
of information for northern and Jarlsberg, Tunsbergsfjord, Norway,
particularly Icelandic history, 117;/
9, 76, 89, 154, 272, 285 and //, Jarrow, Northumbria, attacked by
301 308
;/,
vikings, 195
Isore, Zealand, 406 Jelling, in Jutland, associated with
Itil (Atil), a Khazar mart in the Gorm the Old, Harald Bluetooth,
Volga delta, 248, 249, 253 ; a name and Svein Forkbeard, 114; its
applied to the river itself, 164 mounds, 1 14-17; runestones and
Itzehoe, an administrative centre of inscriptions, 114-17, 134; and
the Franks north of the Elbe, 102 triangular enclosure or sanctuary,
Ivar Bardarson, compiler of the 116 and;/
indispensable mid-fourteenth- Jelling(e) Style, 335, 336, 340-1
century 'Description of Greenland', Johannes Tzimiskes, Byzantine
290,293,295,308 emperor, meeting with Svyatoslav
Ivar the Boneless, a famed viking on the Danube, 261
leader, brother of Halfdan and Ubbi, John of Wallingford, remarks on the
all three sons of Ragnar, 219, 220, seductive cleanliness of the Danes
221 in England, 177
Ivar-Imhar, a brother of Olaf- Jolduhlaup, an unknown place
Amlaibh, a Norwegian chieftain serving as a navigation reference in
in Ireland, unlikely to be Ivar the Ireland, mentioned in Laudiiamabuk,
Boneless, 207; lord of Limerick, 162
208; succeeds his brother in 871 Jomsborg, a (Danish?) viking
as rex Normamwrum Totius Hiberniae settlement, engirt with fictions, on
et Britanniae, 208 presumably
;
a the south Baltic coast, also known
leader of authority among the as Jumne (Adam of Bremen),
Norwegians in England, too, 208 127, 128 «, 137, 401 but see Wollin
;

Ivar Vidfadmi, Far-reacher, Wide- Jomsvikinga Saga, a fictitious source

grasper, a legendary king in Skane, of dubious information, 10; about
thereafter more extensively a king Gorm, 113 the legendary
;
 Index 473
Joms vikings, 127, 128, 346; about 122, 125, 360; and see Godfred,
Harald Bluetooth, 130; about Gorm, Harald Bluetooth, Hedeby,
Svein Forkbeard, 136; and about Jelling, Limfjord, and Trade
the sea-fight at Hjorungavag,
130 and n Kainulaiset (Kvenir, Kvamir,
Jomsvikings, a legendary military Cwenas, etc.), presumably the
and viking community at Jomsborg, Sitones of Tacitus, and a Lapp tribe
possibly produced by late historians or people, 25 name confused
; the
and antiquaries from their know- with an Old Norse word for woman,
ledge of the Danish camps at with resultant notions of a terra
Trelleborg etc., and their uncertain femhiarum, Kvenland, Kvennaland,
information about Danish control Cwenaland, 25
of the trading town Jumne-Wollin, Kalf Arnarson, an opponent of Olal
mentioned, 127, 128 and n, 130 and Haraldsson and Harald Hardradi,
», 136, 137-8,360,402 1367/2,382-3,384,407
Jones Sound, in the eastern Kalfsvisa, a poetic source of
Canadian Arctic, two cairns there information for Athils-Eadgils of
of probable Norse origin, 294 Uppland, 39
Jordanes, the historian of the Goths, Kama, tributary of the river Volga,
and a source of information for the on the Volga Bend, 167
Dani and Eruli, 25-6, 27, 29, 45 Kamchatka, 65
Joscelin, a defender of Paris, 225 Kandalaks Bay, on the west coast 01
Julavos, see Olaf Haraldsson the White Sea, reached and entered
Julianehab, modern town in the area by Ottar, 60, 159 and n
of the Eastern Settlement, Kark, jarl Hakon Sigurdarson's thrall
Greenland, 191,293 and slayer, 133
Jumne, see Jomsborg Karlsefni (karls-efni, make of a man,
Jutland, 6, 24, 50; its amber, 18, 20; true stuff of a man), see Thorfinn
early information about, 21, 22; Karlsefni
well situated for trade, 23, 99, Karmoy, 92, 94
111-12, 157; possible home of Kattegat, the waters between
Eruli, 28; the Jutes, 31 and n, 38, Jutland and modern Sweden, 21,
42-3, 45 ; role in early history of 24, 99, I37> 166,183,386
Denmark, 44, 49, 51, 53, 66; an Kaupang (Skiringssal, Sciringesheal),
extension of north German plain, a mart on the western shore of the
59; described by Saxo, 60-1 ; its Oslofjord, a port of call for Ottar,
history from Sigfred to Harald 109; briefly described, 168;
Bluetooth, 97-119 passim; Christian mentioned, 81, 84, 87, 162
missions to, 106-8 ; Swedish Keel (Kjolen), probably meaning
interlude in, 12,75, m-12; Wasteland, the long mountain
German activity there, 113, 126, range between Norway and
128 ; Danes re-established there, Sweden, 59, 69, 82
113 ; Knut assembles a fleet there, Kent, 31 n, 203, 226, 233, 357, 371
381 ; Magnus the Good proclaimed Kerch Strait, 255 n 2
king at Viborg, 401 ; and so Svein Khazars, a Turkic-speaking people
Estridsson, 401 ; Wendish invasion in southern Russia, 248 253 ; exact
;

of,402 Lyrskov Heath, 402-3

; tribute from Slavonic tribes, 246
mentioned, 65, 69, 87, 99, 103, 109, n 2; their immense territories, 248
474 Index

their capital at I til, 248-9; its trade Bjarkeyjarrettr, 173 ; defence of the
with the East, 253 ; on good terms realm and kings, 91, 93, 153
with Byzantium, 249; Chacanus, Harald Fairhair's achievement in
250 respect of Norway, 90-6; Godfred
Khoriv, Kij, and Shchek, the in Denmark, 102-4; Harald
legendary founders of Kiev, 246 n 2 Bluetooth's claim and authority,
Kiev, town on the Dnieper, capital 117; importance of Christian
of the kingdom of the same name, religion to kings, 129, 134, 154, 374,
13,76, in, 131, 166; legend of its 391 ; Hakon the Good, 119; Harald
founding, 246 «; Oleg establishes Greycloak, 124; Harald Bluetooth,
himself there, 246 n; chief seat of 118, 129; OlafTryggvason, 134;
Rus power, 254; Koenugard, 248 «; Svein Fork beard, 136; Olaf
trade convoys assemble there, Haraldsson, 376-8; Harald
256—7 ;poliudie, 256; Greek Hardradi, 390-1 ; general discussion
negotiators there for commercial of kingship, 150-5, 391 ; a king's
treaty, 260; Igor succeeded by power circumscribed yet
Svyatoslav, 261 Vladimir makes
; strengthened by public assemblies,
Kiev Christian, 262; makes its 1 5 1-2; importance of sea-power to
language Slavonic, 263 Yaroslav
; kings, see Sea-power; trade, law,
extends Kievan power, 263 and wealth unite at centres like
beautifies the city, 263-4; erosion Birka, 78, 153-4; nature of the
of Norseness there, 264; increasing kingdom of Kiev, 254, 256, 264;
influence of Byzantium, 264; change in kingship in Norway after
Kievan contribution to the 1066, 390; social change affects
foundation of Russian state, 264; kingship, 391 ; kings come to
interest of Sweden and Kiev not dominate viking activity, 392
complementary at end of Viking Kingigtorssuaq, near Upernavik,
Age, 265-6 western Greenland, runic
Kingship and kings, nature of in inscription discovered there, 294
Scandinavia, 11-12, 67, 150-5; few King's Mirror (Konungs Skuggsjd),
or no national institutions, little mid-thirteenth-century source of
or no sense of national identity, information about the northern
12, 406; Tacitus on the kings of lands, waters, and creatures, 3, 293,
the Suiones, 24; beginnings of 295, 298; and climate, 308
the kingdoms, I, 2, passim; Kirkenes, in northern Norway, 63
territorial holdings and changes, Kiruna, modern iron town in
49-5 1 ; importance of trade northern Sweden, 65
to kings, 23, 11, 51; Helgo, 78; Kjalarnes, probably Cape Porcupine
Birka, 78; Hedeby, 99; Godfred in Labrador, 300, 301, 306
and Hedeby, 99-103 many petty
; Klinte Hunninge I, Gotland pictured
kings in Norway and Sweden, 51, stone described, 344
83, 220 n; coalescence of small units Knut Sveinsson, i.e. Canute the
by war or common interest, 2, 1 1, Great, 121, goes to England in 10 13
83 ;
personal nature of Harald with his father Svein Forkbeard
Fairhair's overlordship in Norway, and has charge of the ships at
92-4; Snorri's witness astray, 91-2; Gainsborough, 368; at Svein's
importance of law and Thing to death obtains the allegiance of the
kings, 92-3, 154, 173; Danes in England, 369; finds it
 Index 475
politic to return to Denmark, 369; Kola Peninsula, 60
helpled by his elder brother Harald, Kolbeinsey, i.e. Mevenklint, off the
369; mounts a sea-borne invasion of north Iceland coast, navigation
England, 370; launches his assault reference, 162
there, 370; besieges London, 371 Kolskegg the Learned, Icelandic
checked by Edmund Ironside, 371 historian, 287
wins decisive victory at Ashingdon, Komsa Culture, 17
371 ; pursues Edmund, 371 ; reaches Konungahella, at the mouth of the
uneasy compromise with him, 371 Gota-elv river, anti-Danish alliance
at Edmund's death becomes ruler of made there between Olaf
England, 3725 his military and Haraldsson and king Onund-Jakob,
administrative measures there, 372; 380
makes provision for his mistress Kormak Coalbrow's-skald, Icelander
^Elgifu and marries Ethelred's and poet, 288
widow Emma, 372; after the death Kormdks Saga, 346
of his brother Harald goes to Kornerup A, atGamle Lejre, 46
Denmark, 373 makes; a naval Korshamn (or Kornhamn), at Birka,
demonstration in the Baltic, 373 n; 169
entrusts Denmark and his son Kristiansand, modern town in
Hordaknut to Thorkell the Tall, southern Norway, 65
372-3 ; a legislator and Krivichians, 245, 246 n 2, 256
adminstrator in England, 373 ; his Krossholar, Hvamm, western
profitable alliance with the Church, Iceland, Christian crosses said to
374; makes a pilgrimage to Rome have been set up there by Aud the
and advances his name and Deep-minded, 277
interests, 374 n; goes to Denmark Kugghamn, at Birka, 169
again in 1026, 374; controls the Kulusuk, near Angmagssalik,
ambition ofjarl Ulf, 380; begins to southern Greenland, 290 n
undermine Olaf Haraldsson of Kura, a river in Russia, 260
Norway, 3 80-1 probably had no
;
Kurisches Haff, 244
dream of an empire, 380; debated Kurland (Latvia), Kurlanders
battle at the Holy River, 3 81 has ; (Chori), 78, 242
jarl Ulf murdered in Roskilde Kvenland, Kvennaland, see
Church, 381; suborns many Kainulaiset
Norwegians and arrives offNorway Kyntire, 195
in 1028 with a big fleet, 381 as Olaf
;

takes to flight makes a triumphal Labrador, 73, 191, 301, 303 n, 304
naval progress, 382; makes and«
Hordaknut king of Denmark and Ladby, ship burial at, 183, 332
jarl Hakon Eiriksson regent of Ladoga, lake in Russia, 13, 79, 163,
Norway, 382; Knut's resounding 240, 241, 247, 251, 252
382; his coinage, 382 «; after
titles, Lambert, Count, and the sack of
the death ofjarl Hakon sets his and Nantes, 211
-/Elgifu's son Svein in charge of Lambey Island (Rechru), north of
Norway, 383; dies in England and Dublin, first viking attack there,
isburied at Winchester, 386 195,204
Knut II (St.), king of Denmark, 392 Land-hunger, a main viking
Knytlinga Saga, 373, 403 n 1 compulsion, 2-3, 212; agrarian basis
476 Index

of life, 2; northern topography, Larbro I, Gotland pictured stone

59-67, 82, 162; seter, 82; shortage described, 343
of good farming land in south-west Law, main entry, 345-9; see Thing
Norway, 82; and in the Lawbooks, written down in
Scandinavian northern areas, 197; Scandinavia and Iceland after the
odal, 90-1 ; the free man holding viking period, 345-6
land, 155-6; Karl and Snor, Lawspeaker, in Iceland, 283, 347
Rigspula, 146; overpopulation, Layamon, the Brut's reference to the
196 fF. ; 'Out they must, for the land expulsion of surplus Saxons, 196 n
cannot contain them', 198; Lea, a tributary of the Thames,
land-hunger basic to the Viking Danish fleet trapped there, twenty
Movement Overseas, see III, 3 and miles north of London, 228
5, passim, Northumbria,22i; Mercia, Leicester, England, 221, 234, 238, 239
221 East Anglia, 223 ; and see
; kibangr, leditig, a compulsory ship
Danelaw; Normandy, 231 levy for the land's defence, possibly
land-hunger less important than a viking institution, possibly not,
trade in Russian ventures, 252, 121, 189; a form of it attributed to
255 land sought in the Atlantic
; Harald Fairhair, 90, 93 and to ;

Isles, 269-72; Iceland, 276, 279; Hakon the Good, 121 ; 137
Greenland, 293 Vinland, 300; land
; Leif Eiriksson, Leif the Lucky, the
and farming at the end of the Viking first Norseman to seek the
Age, 388-90 American coast, 299-300; seeks
Landndmabok, the 'Book of the sailing directions from Bjarni
Settlements', a source of Herjolfsson, 300; sails Bjarni's
information about the early settlers course in reverse, to Helluland,
of Iceland, 10, 75, 76, 190, 279, 281, Markland, and Vinland, 300;
288,346 winters at Leifsbudir, 300; returns
Langanes, in the north of Iceland, a to Greenland, 300
navigation reference, 162 Leifsbudir, Leif 's Booths, a Norse
Langeland, the Danish island, no habitation in Vinland, established
Langobards, Lombards, 24, 26, 28, by Leif, 300; used by other
138,196 explorers, 300, 301, 303 ; saga
Language, the general intelligibility observation on its latitude, 300
oiDonsk tungu, norrmt mat, for all the Leif Hrodmarsson, see Hjorleif
Scandinavian peoples and their Lejre, near Roskilde, Zealand, 46;
colonies, 69-73 general identification in legend with
L'Anse-aux-Meadows, northern Heorot of Beowulf, 46; its

Newfoundland, an apparent place antiquities, 46-7; tenth-century

of Norse settlement or habitation, burial there, 46; no sign of
5, 190, 303 n, 304 n Skjoldungs, 46-7; no sign of
Lapps, 17; Tacitus on the Sitones, Thietmar's sacrificial site, 47;
24-5 Jordanes on the Screrefennae,
;
Hrolf Kraki's chief seat, 48-9; both
25 Procopius on the Scrithifinoi,
; destroyed, 49; Harald Wartooth
26-7; Saxo on Skrit- Finns, 63 Ottar
; said to be sepulchred there, 54;
(Ohthere) on the Finnas, i.e. the Sepulchrum Haraldi Hyldetandi
Lapps of Finnmark and the a Stone Age langdysse, 54 «
Lapp-tribute, 159-60; and see Lek, its conjunction with the Rhine
Kainulaiset the site of Dorestad, 210
 Index Ml
Liafdag, an early bishop in Denmark, Loire, the river, 210, 211, 218, 224
125 Loki, a god, brings about the death
Liber Historiae Francorum, a source of of Balder, 3 18 ; his share in
information for the Geats and their Ragnarok, 318-19; his story
king Hygelac-Ch(l)ochilaicus, 30 portrayed on pictured stones,
Liber de Memura Or bis Terrae, quoted, 343-4
269-70 Lolland, the Danish island, 23, 44, 49,
Liber Momtrorum (de Monstris et de no
Belluis Liber), a source of London, attacked by vikings, 210;
information for the Geats and lost to theDanes, 223 recovered ;

Hygelac, 30 from the Danes 886, 226; Danes on

Liege, 224 the Lea 895, 228 safeguarded by
;

LifFey, river in Ireland, 235, 397 Edward the Elder, 233 sarcophagus ;

Limfjord, in northern Jutland, 21 with Ringerike adornment from St.

Ottar the Swede said by Tnglinga Paul's Churchyard, 341 ; defence of
Saga to have been killed there, 38 city against vikings 994, 357;
full offish (Saxo), 62; Harald Norwegian and Danish traders into
Greycloak killed at Hals, 125 fleet ; London, 163 ; remnants of English
assembled there against jarl Hakon fleet brought there 1009, 360;
Sigurdarson, 130; evidence of defence against Svein, 368 against ;

pre- viking Frisian presence there, Knut, 371 5134,366

189 n; a trade-route, 167, 189 n; Lothar, son of Louis the Pious, 107,
Knut assembles a fleet there, 381 109; defeated by his brothers at
Limoges, attacked by vikings, 215 Fontenoy, 203 forced to share out
;

Lincoln, England, Danish settlement the Empire, 203

there, 221, 234, 235, 239 Lough Owel, Westmeath, Turgeis
Lindholm Hoje, on the Limfjord, drowned there by Mael Seachlainn,
north of Alborg, 19; skibs£tninger a blasphemer's death, 206
there, 19; probable site of early Lough Ree, Ireland, viking attacks
mart and Thing, 51, 167; on the monastic establishments
ploughland there, 156 n; whelmed there, 206
by drifting sand, 147; description Louis the German, son of Louis the
of the settlements and the Pious, 107; reorganizes Hamburg-
pre- viking and viking cemetery, Bremen, 108 ; with Charles the Bald
334; Urnes style brooch found at, defeats Lothar at Fontenoy, 203 ;

342 becomes ruler of the Middle

Lindisfarne, Northumberland, viking Kingdom, 203
raid on the monastery there, 793, Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne,
1945195,208 dispatches missionaries to the
Lindsey, 368, 369 Swedes, 79, and to the Danes, 106;
Liothida, 25 undertakes campaign against the
Little Belt (Lille Badt), the passage Danes ofJutland, 102; uses Harald
between Fyn and Jutland, 62 Klak against his fellow Danes,
Liudprand of Cremona, his 105-6; his troubles, 203, 210;
Antapodosis a source of information meets with Rus, 249-50; dies 840,
about the Rus, 254 and n, 260 203
Lofotens, 67, 389 Louis the Stammerer, not a
logretta, the Icelandic legislature, 284 significant king, dies 888, 224
478 Index

Louvain, scene of Danish activity, Maine, the French river, 224

226 Majus, al-Majus, a Muslim name for
Lovat, a river in Russia, 163, 253 the Norsemen, 76, 214
Luna, sacked by Bjorn Ironside and Malangen, Malangenfjord, northern
Hastein, 217 Norway, an early source of power to
Lund, Skane, 6, 51, 72, 167; Annals of the future jarls of Hladir, 65, 87;
Lund, 46, 52 n Ottar's part of Norway, 158 and «
Lyrskov Hede or Heath Malar, lake in east central Sweden,
(Hlyrskogsheidi), battle there Malaren, 66, 78, 107, 167 ff. 173,
between the Norse-Saxon alliance 375 n
and the Wends, 402-3 Malcolm Canmore, king of the Scots,
hagiographical and legendary 387
overlay, 402-3 and n; confusion as Maldon, in Essex, battle of, 132; one
to site, 403 n; and Svein Estridsson's MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

presence, part, or absence, 403 «; reports that Olaf Tryggvason was a

Magnus the Good wins a decisive Norse leader there, 356;
victory, 403 unmentioned in northern sources,
356; Edward's fortress there, 234
Maelmordha, king of Leinster, fights Malmo, in southern Sweden, 63, 65
at Clontarf, 397 Mammen style, 341
Mael Seachlainn king of Meath,
I, Man, Isle of, 71, 90, 195, 235, 357
destroys Turgeis 845, 7, 206 Marcomanni, 23
Mael Seachlainn II, 396-7 Mariagerfjord, western Jutland, 21
Maglemose, evidence of early human Markland, 'Forest Land', probably
and canine habitation tnere, 17 Labrador south of the modern
Magnus Andersen, crosses the Nain, 300, 301, 304, 306
North Atlantic, 1893, in a replica of Marmara, 259
the Gokstad ship and gives a good Marne, the river in France, 224, 225
report of her, 188 Meaux, attacked by vikings, 215
Magnus Barelegs Haraldsson, leads a Mediterranean, early religions there,
fleet into the Irish Sea, 1058, 392, 19; early connections with the
404 n north, 19, 20; increasing knowledge
Magnus the Good, Olafsson, a king of the north there, 21-9; the
in Norway and Denmark, 385, 398; Migrations affect, 28 ; trade routes
brought home from Russia, 386; to, 23, 157; Bjorn and Hastein lead

political and military activity, 398, viking expedition into c. 860,

400-1; his advantages over 216-18; Varangians see service
Svein Estridsson, 401; there, 266; Harald Hardradi a
destroys Jumne-Wollin, 401-2; campaigner there, 404-5
Lyrskov Heath, 402-3 ; his claim to Medway, the river, 357
England, 403 and «; arrangement Melville Bay, north-western
with Harald Hardradi, 406; dies Greenland, reached by the
1047, 406 Norsemen, 294, 308
Magnus Smek, king of Denmark, Melville, Lake, west of Hamilton
proposes to succour the Inlet, Labrador, 304 11, 306
Greenlanders in 1355, but appears Melun, attacked by vikings, 215
not to have done so, 3 10 Memel, the river, 244
Magyars, 249 n Mercia, English kingdom, 203, in
 Index 479
decline at time of viking raids, 203 Morcar, a leading man in the
shared out among Danes, 221 ; the 'Seven Boroughs', murdered, 370
Five Boroughs, 221 ; the Danelaw, Morcar, earl of Northumbria,
q.v.; CeoKvulfin English Mercia, defeated by Harald Hardradi at
221, 226; Ethelred of Mercia, q.v. Gate Fulford, 411
weakening position of Danish Morgannwg, in South Wales, raided
Mercia, 223-4, 2,3 3 ; Edward the by vikings, 195
Elder's pressure on, 233-5; it nears Morkinskitma, an Icelandic source of
collapse, 234; Edward's wisdom information, often anecdotal and
there, 23 5 ; Eadric Streona its unreliable, about northern history
ealdorman, 359; Five Boroughs and story, 400, 403 n, 412 n
submit to Svein, 368 ; and see Mos, Gotland, early runic
Alfred the Great, Edward the inscription at, 71
Elder, Ethelred, Ethlflaed, Moster Law, presumably concerned
Athelstan, Edmund, Guthrum, with church administration, 378
Halfdan Muonio, a river flowing into the
Meria(ns), a Finnish tribe in Russia, head of the Gulf of Bothnia, 60
245, 246 n 2, 248 Muqqadasi, reports on the wares of
Mesopotamia, 266 the Rus at Bui gar, 164
Meuse, the French river, 224 Murom, Muroma, a Finnish
Michael Calaphates, emperor of settlement by the river Oka in
Byzantium, blinded and deposed, Russia, and the Finnish people
presumably with Varangian aid, living there, 248, 256 n I

405 « Muslims, see Arabs

Michael Paphlagon, 405 n Muspell, the fiery region south of
Midgard, 317, 318, 319; Midgard the first void ruled over by the
Snake (Mi8gar3sormr), 112, 162, giant Surt, 316,318
318,319 Mycene, 157
Miesco, king of the Wends (Poles), Myth and mythology of the north,
132 rV, 1, and see Religion
MikUgarQr, see Constantinople Myvatnssveit, a district in northern
Mints, in Denmark, 6; in Norway, Iceland, 282
6; in Sweden, 6; at Dorestad, 5
Quentowic, 210; York, 5 in ; Naddod the Viking, an early voyager
Ireland, 5 and see Coins and
; to Iceland, 275 reaches land at
;

coinage Reydarfjord in the East Firths, 275

Mistivoj, a king among the Wends, names the country Snseland,
Harald Bluetooth's father-in-law, Snowland, 275 ; but speaks well of
127; attacks the Germans and burns it, 275

Hamburg, 129 Nain, modern township in eastern

Mjosa, lake in Norwegian Uppland, Labrador, 191, 300
59; site of a Thing, 92 Nantes, sacked by vikings, 217
Mojebro, in Uppland, Sweden, Narbonne, raided by vikings, 217
pictured stone with runic Narses, defeats the Eruli, 29
inscription at, 71 Naumudal, a district in Norway
Mologa, a river in Russia, 252 north of the Trondheimsfjord, 119
Men, the Danish island, 44, 49 Navarre, attacked by vikings, 218
Moors, see Arabs Nero, during his reign some southern
480 Index

exploration of the Baltic, 24 Nonnebakken, Odense, Fyn, site of a

Nerthus, see Njord Danish military camp c. 1000, 360
Nesjar, offthe western shore of the Nordalbingia, Nordalbingians,
Oslofjord, Olaf Haraldsson wins a district in western Holstein north
sea-fight there, 376 of the Elbe and its inhabitants, 106;
nesndm, a viking procedure for the oppressed by Charlemagne, 98;
forcible seizure of food and goods, Harald Klak's possible connection
392 with, 106
Nestor, an editor or part-compilor Nordmanni, Normanni,
of the so-called Nestorian Chronicle, Nordmannia, general words
here called the Primary Chronicle among southern chroniclers for
(Nacha? naya Letopis), the Russian the northern peoples and regions,
Povest' Vremennykh Let, 244-5 n or various parts thereof, 2, 63 n, 76
Nestorian Chronicle, see Primary and 98 (Denmark), 254 and
n, n,

Chronicle 409; Nortmannia, 111,113

Neva, the river in Russia, 163, 252 (Norway or Normandy); Nurmane,
New England, possible but 245 and n; y Normanyeit Duon,
unproved area of viking exploration 77 n
in Vinland, 306 Nordmoer, a coastal district in
Newfoundland, 1, 5, 73, 190, 191, Norway lying west of Trondheim,
301 303 n, 304 n, 306
;
125
Nid, the river at Nidaros, modern Nordrup, 23
Trondheim, 92, 135 Nordsetr, -seta, Northern Hunting
Nidaros, town at the mouth of the Ground(s), in Greenland, 294,
river Nid, 81 said to be founded by
; 295, 308
Olaf Try ggvason, 135; Olaf Noric Channel, i.e. the Skagerrak, 60
Haraldsson's name linked with it, Normandy, Normans, a viking

376; his body translated there, 385; conquest or colony, 13, 76, 94;
Harald Hardradi buried there, 413 Nortmannia(?), in, 113 cession of ;

laterTrondheim, 135 Upper Normandy to Rollo, 229;

Niflheim, the dark and misty region Norwegian leader, army mostly
north of the first void, later to Danes, 229-30; treaty of Clair-sur-
become an abode of the dead, 316 Epte, 23 1 ; Norman territory
Niflhel, down in the ninth world, enlarged 924 and 933, 231 0; its
and according to Snorri a deathly un-northern characteristics, 231-2;
abode for the wicked, 330 dbnsk tunga, 232; its break with the
Nimes, in southern France, north, 232; Normans in the
attacked by vikings, 217 Varangian Guard, 266; point of
Nissa, a river in western Sweden, repair for northern cousins, 358;
off which Harald Hardradi defeated attempt to compose the English
Svein Estridsson in a sea-fight, 8, grievance, 358; Ethelred marries
407 Emma, daughter of duke Richard
Nithard, a missionary to the Swedes, II,358; finds a refuge in Normandy,
107; killed at Birka, 107 368-9; Knut marries Emma, 372;
Njall, high king of Ireland, 235 Olaf Haraldsson in Normandy, 375;
Njals Saga, 155, 288, 327 baptized at Rouen, 375 Normandy
;

Njord, 321-2 at end of Viking Age, 394-5,

Noirmoutier, 210, 21 comparison with Iceland, 395
 Index 481

Norns, 317 Rustah describes the Rus of, 255

North Africa, Vandals reach so far, trading and military centre of
28 viking raiders take prisoners
; Further Russia, 256; runic stones
there c. 860, 216 referring to Swedes there, 267
North America, see Vinland Numismatics, see Coins and coinage
Northampton, England, 234
North Cape, 65, 159 Odal (odaf), rights in land pertaining
North Sea, 103,373,386 to land held not of a superior but in
Northumbria, English, Norse, and absolute ownership (allodium*),
Irish-Norse kingdom, 5, 203 90-1 reputedly infringed or
;

fictitious ascription to Ivar abrogated by Harald Fairhair, 91,

Vidfadmi, 52; Eirik Bloodaxe at, 95, 155; and Turf-Einar, 90
239-40; Olaf Tryggvason said to Odense, Fyn, Denmark, Knut has
have raided there, 132; portents coins minted there, 6; presumed
presage the viking scourge, 195 n; early site of a mart and Thing, 57;
Lindisfarne, 194, 195; Ragnar at, military camp c. 1000 at
219; sons of Ragnar overthrow Nonnebakken, 135, 360
English monarchy 867, 219; Oder, the river in north Germany,
Halfdan shares out land, 221 Danes ; 103, 127, 137
of, join in campaigns of 892-6, 226; Odinn, Woden, Wotan, Thunaer,
invade English Mercia, 233 etc., his nature and attributes, 317,
defeated, 233 ; changed situation 319-21 his traditional wisdom, see
;

after 900, 23 5 ; dynastic Hdvamdl; mentioned, 39, 45, 49, 53,

permutations, 235 ff.; Rognvald, 74, 84, 97, 123, 134, 240, 281, 287,
235; Sigtrygg Gale, 236; Guthfrith, 316,321,324,330,343
236-7; Athelstan, 236-7; Odo, defender of Paris, 225 becomes ;

Brunanburh, 237-8; Olaf ruler of Neustria, 225

Guthfrithsson, 238; Olaf Kvaran, Offa, legendary son of the legendary
239; Edmund king at York, 239; Wermund, 32, 52 «
Eirik Bloodaxe, 239-40; a phase of Offa, king of Mercia, rex Anglorum,
history ends, 240; Northumbria 203
submits to Svein, 368 entrusted by
; Ohthere, the Norwegian mariner, see
Knut tojarl Eirik Hakonarson, 372; Ottar
Harald Hardradi at York and Ohthere, a Swedish king or chieftain,
Stamford Bridge, 411-13 see Ottar
Northumbrian priest-law, 327 Oise, river in France, 224
Norway, the North Way, 95-6 Oissel, Oscellus, an island-base of
Northwest River, at the inner end of the vikings on the Seine, 215-16
Lake Melville, Labrador, arrows Ojat, a river in Russia,
257
found at site of ancient Indian Oka, a river and trade-route in
settlement there, 304 n Russia, 256 n 1
Nottingham, England, 221, 234, 235, Olaf (Amlaibh), a Norwegian viking
239 leader in Ireland, arrives there in
Novgorod, a town on the 853, 207; his success, 207; returns
Volkhov-Lake Ilmen, Russia, 13, to Norway, 207; then returns to
1 3 1-2, 252, 254; Rurik said to have Dublin and rules for fifteen years,
have established himself there, 245, 207; returns a second time to
246 n; Holmgard, 248 n; Ibn Norway and is killed there, 207
4 S2 Index

Olaf, a king in Sweden, 78, 108, 242 lawgiver, 377; undertakes the
Olaf Geirstada-Alf Gudrodarson, an Conversion of Norway to
unsuccessful legendary king in Christianity, 74, 377-8; establishes
Yestfold, half-brother of Halfdan a strong Church there, 378; clashes
the Black, 37^84-5 with Olaf Skottkonung of Sweden,
Olaf Guthfrithsson, 237-9, 396 379; is reconciled to him and
Olaf K varan, a king in Dublin and marries his daughter Astrid, 379;
York, 7, 236-9, 396 under threat from Knut, 380;
Olaf Kyrre, the Gentle or Peaceful, makes an anti-Danish alliance with
Haraldsson, survives at Stamford Olaf Skottkonung and Onund-
Bridge and returns to Norway, 413 Jakob, 380; indeterminate sea-fight
Olaf Skottkonung Eiriksson, king of at theHoly River, 381; returns
of the Swedes and the Gautar, the uneasily toNorway, 381 his p ;

first to be so entitled, 43, 79, 13 s a ; eroded by Knut and his own

confederate of S vein Forkbeard and countrymen, 381-2; flees to
jarl Eirik Hakonarson against Olaf Sweden and then to Russia, 382;
Tryggvason, 135; marriage ties returns after the drowning of jarl
with Denmark, 136; said to have Hakon Eiriksson, 3 83 defeated and ;

fought at Svold, 137 ff.; obtains killed at Stiklarstadir, 383-4; his

Ranrike-Bohuslan and territorv in legend develops soon after his
eastern Norway, 140, 354; his death, 384 s, 385 ; St. Olaf, 385 ; 154,
daughter marries Yaroslav of Kiev, 193387; Julavos, 405 ;/
n,

203 said to have accepted

; Olaf the Swede, seizes royal power
Christianity, but failed to impose it by force of arms at Hedeby c. 000,
on his subjects, 74, 379; initiallv on 111-12
bad terms with Olaf Haraldsson, Olaf Tryggvason, a king in Norwav.
379; marriage tie with, 379; falls Ins folktale birth, 131 ; his
into disfavour with his people and legendary youth, with outlawry,
shares his power with his son enslavement, and ransom, 13 : -
Onund-Jakob, 370-80; 6, II, 289 and the favour of a royal lady in
Olaf the Stout Haraldsson, St. Olaf, Russia, 132 and Wendland,
; 1 ; . .

king of Norway, stepson of Sigurd viking in the Baltic, 1 32 and in the

;

Sow and so half-brother of Harald British Isles, maybe at Maldon in

Hardradi, 12, 74, 140; a viking in 991, and certainly with king Svein
many lands and waters, 375 and «; Forkbeard in 994, 132, 356; is
fights in England under Thorkell converted to Christianity there,
the Tall at London, Ringmere, 367, 132; and toDanegelds, 132, 356;
374; Olarus Rex Noricorum baptized mounts a sea-borne invasion of
at Rouen, 375 presumably returns
;
Norway and overcomes iarl Hakon
to England to fight for Ethelred the Sigurdarson, 132-3 ; lack of precise
Redeless, 375 makes a sea-borne
; or reliable information about him,
invasion of Norway and 133 ; his achievements for
dispossesses jarl Hakon Eiriksson, Christianity denied by Adam of
375-6; acquires most of the Bremen, 134; exaggerated by later
Norwegian realm, 376; many historians, 135 ; his power eroded,
sources of information about him, 135; his increasing isolation, 135;
most of them unreliable, 86, 376 «; marries Thyri, sister of Svein
reputation as a peace-maker and Forkbeard and formerlv the wife of
 Index 483

Styrbjorn Stuki and Boleslav the hid to regain Norway, $$}> ; gives
Pole, [365 sails south in obscure shelter to Svein Kstridsson, 40 1
circumstances) 137 Sjaccordingto and to I larald I I udradi, 404; 6, II,
Adam of Bremen is defeated in the 07
( tresund by Svein Forkbeard, leaps ( Grange, (Arausio), hat tie at,

overboard and is drowned, 137 <S; ( imbri defeat the Romans and
according to Icelandic sources oiler sacrifice, z\

recovers Thyri*s dowry from ( >rdulf, a leader of the Saxons, has

Boleslav, is betrayed and defeated I larald Thorkelsson murdered, joo;
by Svold ofFRugen, leaps overboard in alliance with Magnus the ( iood at
and is drowned) 1 37 95 mentioned) Lyrskov Ieath,40a l

12,67,73-4,95, [63,201,354 ( )resund, waters be! ween t Ik-

I tlafthe White, a Norwegian viking Zealand and southern Sweden

in Ireland, well known tOSaga leading from the Kattegat to the
tradition, Inn difficult to place in Baltic, 49, S3j '37^ 138) too, 381,
histoi V) probably not tin- same ) 86,389
person as ( )laf-Amlaibh, S7 t )rkney(s),oo; I larald Fail hair's
( >laf the Woodcutter, a legendary expedition to, 00; jail Sigurd first

king and forest --clearer nort hoi I he jail of, 00; Turl-1'inar second jail of,

Swedish lakes, sacrificed to < idinn 90, 92; Olaf Tryggvason there) 133;
tor good seasons) 8 fanners and fishermen, ss; first 1

i
Hand, an island in the Baltic, in the Norse set tiers ,. 780, i»)N; ( )laf

BOAS belonging to the Swedes, r>;, 1laraldsson's authority there, 378;

i m, 111, ii',;i [jorvard, [g jarl Sigurd the Stout ofOrkney

I )l:ins Wormiiis, Ole W01 in, killed at ( lontarf, 3975 help for

northern antiquary) 47, [96 n \ I larald 1 lardradi, | to;

< )laf Kyrie

1
(leg, a Rus leader, successoi to sails home hy way ot, alter

Rurikat Novgorod, '|ow; seizes Stamford Bridge) 1 1 ; ; Jul Thoi finn

Kiev and lorccs tubule Irom the 1 In- Mighty dies Kids, 387
neighbouring tribes, 246 »j said to < Orleans, in France, 2] s

have attacked ( oust ant inople, 2595 ( )i m, a viking

224 at Idsloo,

negotiates a commercial treaty with 1 >i F ranee, and he

ne, a liver in t

Byzantium, 259 60 district of Normandy of the same

i
rteg, son ot Svyatoslav, z6z name, 23]
t )lfns, river in south wesiei n
.1 ( )rosuis, Ins History ofthe i/'urL/,

Iceland, 274 « offers infoi (nation about the

I tiga, wileol Igorol Kiev and mother ( imbri, 21 ;and in kin;,', Allied's
(at sixty years) of Svyatoslav, 161 I ransl ation pieservcs accounts ot

1 taega, lake in Russi t, 1 18,251, the voyages of ( )ltar, 9, mo,

1
tagendus, see Angantyi 58 62, and Wulfstan,9) tio
1

1
mgentheow, see Angantyr Osebergin Vestfold, Norway, the
( >iiund Jakob, 1 kin;- of the Swedes, ship and grave goods discovered
pOWei with his hither
.li lies < »l il there, 85, ts7> 10(1,336-40;
Skdttkonung, J79 80; makes possible connection with queen
mi Danish alliance with )laf
1 1 ( \ . 1, S| ,; thfi< tseheii-, ship, COO,
1 l;u.ildsson, 3 So; i his leads to i
he ; ]:,; moored to a hip, stone, ; ;
•
,

sea-fight at the 1 telgaa*, |8i 1 he wood carvings <>l ( )scbei -.,

returns home, ;Si ; helps ( )|.il in he. ; \6 |o; pictorial art, ;

;S o; the
484 Index

Oseberg tapestry, 344; 74 among the Swedes of

chieftain
Osel, off the coast of Estland, Olaf Uppland, 38
Haraldsson harries there, 375 Otto I, German emperor, helps
Oslofjord and the Vik, Norway, define the early Danish dioceses,
17, 18, 109; fertile land and 125 exempts first Danish churches
;

pasture there, 87; important to from imperial taxes, 126; encourages

future development of Norway, Conversion of the Danes, 126;
81, 82, 83 ; Danish influence there, presumed claim to overlordship of
74-5,80,96, 103, 113, 117, 120, (part of) Denmark, 126; Harald
124,125,128,133,140,354; Bluetooth's conduct in respect of
beginnings of Christianity there, Otto, 126-7
128, 135, 377; Kaupang, 168; Otto II, German emperor, successor
Olaf Haraldsson, 377; frequently to Otto I, chastises the Danes, 128
mentioned as a geographical contradictory information about
reference; and see Vestfold fortunes of the German-Danish
Ostergotland, a district in Sweden wars, 128; presumably urges
east of Lake Vatter, 22, 34,43, 53, Harald Bluetooth to evangelize
66, 324 Norway, 128 defeated
; at Cap
Ostersalt, the Baltic, 99 Colonne 982, 129; military action
Osterso, the Baltic, 105 by his northern enemies, 129
Ostersund, town on the Storsjo, Oxenstern (Oxenstierna), Swedish
Jamtland, central Sweden, 65 statesman and antiquary, an
Ostland, the Eastland of Norway, informant of Sir William Temple,
the congregation of provinces and 196 n 2
petty kingdoms about the Oxford, England, 233, 358, 367,
Oslofjord, 79, 80, 81 368,371
Ostsae, the Baltic no
Ota, see Aud
Otkar, mentioned in connection Pamplona, attacked by vikings, 218
with the fictional elements of the Papos in Lon, the
papar, Papey,
battle of Svold, 138-9 n Irish hermits resident in Iceland
Ottar, a Norwegian sea-captain and when the Norsemen arrived, and
trader, informs king Alfred about their chief places of habitation,
the north, 9; his voyage from 275-6
Kaupang to Hedeby, 109-10; Paris, a viking objective, 212;
leaves political situation of Denmark besieged by the vikings 885-6,
less than fully defined, 109-n 224-5
use of term Denemearc, 109, 114; Pasca, a river in Russia, 251
his voyage from home to the White Paul the Deacon, Paulus Diaconus,
Sea, 158-9; account of the North eighth-century historian, declines
Norwegian economy, 159-62; face-to-face confrontation with
account of the Lapps (Finnas), king Sigfred of the Danes, 98
159, 162; his voyage from home to mentioned, 196 n 3
Kaupang, 162; and to London, 162; Peberrenden, by Skuldelev on the
mentioned, 65 Roskilde Fjord, Denmark,
Ottar the Black, an Icelandic poet, various types of Viking Age ships
289, 375 376 », 379
», found sunk there, 183 n 2, 189 and n
Ottar Vendel-Crow, a king or Pechersky Cloister, Kiev, reputed
 Index 485

place of origin of the Primary Chronicle, 10; preserves the

Chronicle,245 tradition of the 'Calling of the

Pelimut, an Eskimo, finds a runic Varangians', 244-6; Rus affairs in
inscription at Kingigtorssuaq, Novgorod, 245, and Kiev 246 n 2
north of Upernavik, Greenland, 294 and an account of the kings of Rus
Pepin, a king among the Franks, 213 ancestry to the end of the Viking
Pereiaslav, a mart on the Dnieper, Age, 261-4
'where all riches are concentrated', Prins Christians Sund, offers a route
164 through the southern extremity
Perigueux, 215 of Greenland allowing the early
Persia, 8,253 mariner to avoid the rigours of
Petchenegs, warlike tribe of Turkic Cape Farewell, 191, 290
origin on the lower Dnieper, 2, Procopius, a Byzantine historian
2495 hostile to Byzantium, 249; with information about the north-
and to the Rus, 257, 281 ; briefly ern peoples of Europe, 26-7, 3

allied with Igor, 260; Vladimir Promontorium Winlandiae, a

handles them roughly, 262; as region indicated on Sigur5ur
does Yaroslav, 263 Stefansson's and Resen's maps of
Picts, 203,208,221 the North Atlantic, and likely to
Pilgards, Gotland, inscribed stone be the northern extremity of
referring to the Dnieper cataracts, Newfoundland, 304 n
257-8 Pruzzi, or Sembi, Adam of Bremen
Pillars of Hercules, 2171, comments on their low opinion of
Pining and Pothorst, hardy voyagers furs, 166
in Greenland waters c. 1470, 3 10 Ptolemy, an early source of informa-
Piraeus, lion from, with runic in- tion for southern Scandinavia,
scription, now in Venice, 267-8 24,25
Pisa, attacked by vikings, 217 Pytheas of Massalia, geographer and
Pitres, on the Seine, 232 voyager to Britain and farther
Plain-speaking verses, see north 330-300 B.C., tells of Thule
Bersoglivtsur and its inhabitants, 20-1 ; of Abalus,
Pliny the Elder, a source of informa- 21 ; and certain north Germanic
tion about the north 24 (Scandinavian) peoples, 21
Poland, Poles, see Slavs
Polar Gulf, 162 Qubtil, Isla Menor, at the mouth of
Polotsk, town on the southern the Guadalquivir, 214
Dvina in Russia, 246, 264 Quentowic, 77, 210
Polyanians, 245, 246 Quierzy, 97
Poppo, bishop of Schleswig,
undergoes ordeal and converts king Raegnald, Ragnvald, see Rognvald,
Harald Bluetooth, 125 Ragnar, a Danish viking leader, 212,
Poseidonios of Apamea, his early on the Seine, 212; sacks Paris, 212;
reference to the Germani, 22 receives Danegeld, 212-13 his ;

prima minor
signatio, primsigning, a reputed death at York, 219;
form of baptism undergone by possible confusion with Ragnar
some vikings overseas, 315 n Lodbrok, q.v.
Primary Chronicle, Russian Primary Ragnar Lodbrok, Lothrocus, Hairy-
Chronicle, also called the Kestorian breeks, a famous but unidentifiable
486 Index

Dane, 212 and n; Lothrocus, 215 281-2, 286; for mythology, gods,
hisprogeny (?), 219, 235 worship, see IV, 2, 3 16-34;
Ragnarok (Ragnarok), the Doom or divine place names, 324-5 ; places
Destruction of the Gods, 318-19 of worship, 325-8; the Otherworld,
Ragnhild, mother of Harald Fairhair, 328-33 and see Burial beliefs,
;

her abduction, 85 ; her rescue, 85-6; skibstetninger, Odinn, Thor, Frey

her vision, 86 Reric, a mart of the Abodrits,

Ragnhild, mother of Eirik Bloodaxe, ruined by Godfred the Dane, 98,
94 99, 103
Rakkae, dog-king among the Danes, Resen's Map of the North Atlantic
52; and for good measure among lands 1604, 306
the Tronds, 52 Reydarfjall, Reydarfjord, a mountain
Raknehaugen, a cenotaph in and fjord in the East Firths,
Raumarike, Norway, 117 Iceland, the scene of Naddod's
Randersford, Jutland, a verse landfall, 273
about the night-linened ladies of, Reykjanes, the peninsula south of
407 Faxafloi, western Iceland, 162, 274
Ranrike, later Bohuslan, a province Reykjavik, the scene of Ingolf
on the eastern side of the Arnarson's main settlement,
Oslofjord, early rock-carvings Iceland, 274 «, 275
there, 2; acquired by Olaf Rhine, the river, an early trade
Skottkonung of the Swedes, 140, 354 route, 20, 23, 30, 3 1, 62, 103
Raumarike, an early kingdom, Hygelac's bones preserved on
later a province, between Lake island at mouth of, 30; a boundary
Mjosa and the Oslofjord, 26, of Saxonia, 97; Rhine pottery at
45 n, 80, 81, 85, 87, 117,151 Kaupang, 168; basalt millstones
Raumsdal, a coastal province in from at Hedeby, 180; 203, 210
Norway, north of the Firthafylki, Rhone, river in southern France, 217
82, 119 Ribe, west Jutland, scene of early
Reading, England, 220, 359 Christian activity in Denmark,
Rechru, see Lambey Island 108 ; becomes a bishop's see, 125
Regensburg, mart on the Danube, Riccall, Yorks, Norwegian survivors
164 of Stamford Bridge retreat there
Reginbrand, an early bishop in and get quarter, 411,413
Denmark, 125 Richard I, duke of Normandy, 229 n,

Reliability of written sources, see 358

Sources Richard II, duke of Normandy,
Religion, Ancient Scandinavian, 358,372
Bronze Age evidence, 18-19, 22 >
Rig, Rigspula, a god (Heimdall)
Lejre, 46, 47; a bond between the and the Eddie poem which recounts
Scandinavian peoples, 73-4, 394; how he established the three
jarl Hakon Sigurdarson favoured orders of men, the unfree, the free,
by ^Esir, 125; Rus supplication of and the ruling military aristocracy,
images on the Volga, 165 67-8, 145-7
Turgeis and Aud in Ireland, 206 Riga, Gulf of, 252
blood-eagle, 219-20; Ibn Rustah on Rimbert, a fellow missionary of
Rus religious practice, 255; Anskar and his biographer, 106,
heathendom in Iceland, 277, 109, 171, 242
 Index 487
Ringerike, an early kingdom, later Harald Bluetooth reported buried
a province in Norway, north-west there in the church he had built,
of the Oslofjord, 85, 87, 303 », 374 130; viking ship-museum being
Ringerike style, 40, 335, 336, 341 built there, 189; jarl Ulf murdered
Ringmere, Danes defeat the English in the church there, 381
there 1010, 366; Olaf Haraldsson Roslagen, coastal district in western
fights there, 377 Sweden, the Rowing or Ship Law,
Ringsted, Zealand, 6, 51 possible source of the word Rus,
Rochester, English town, 210, 226, 247»
357 Rostov, in north-east Russia, a
Roduulf, a king over the Rugii, 26 settlement of the Rus, 246, 252,
Rogaland, one of the great viking 253,264
provinces in the south-west of Rouen, France, sacked by vikings,
Norway, 22, 26, 61, 82, 83, 94, 210, 224, 232; Olaf Haraldsson
119,134,273,277 baptized there, 375
Rognvald, jarl of Gautland, 43 and 11, Roussillon, province of south-
137 eastern France, 217
Rognvald the Glorious, Olafsson, Riigen, 137, 138, 166
a king in southern Norway, for Rugii, in early sources possibly the
whom Thjodolf of Hvin composed inhabitants of Rogaland, 22, 26
the Tnglinga Tal, 37 », 85 Runcorn, England, Ethelflaedan
Rognvald Kali, jarl of Orkney, his fortress there,234
verse on manly skills, 349 Runes, Rig a rune-
erilaR, 29;
Rognvald, jarl of Moer, reconciled master, 147; and so Kon Ungr,
foe of Harald Fairhair, 90, 92; his 147; Odinn and runes, 320;
son Thorir succeeds him in Moer, unsuitability for extended
92; his son Einar becomes jarl of documentary purposes, 347;
Orkney, 90, 92; and his son Gongu- Codex Runicus, 347; alphabet, 419-20
Hrolfr wins Normandy, 92 development, 419-20; origins,
Rognvald, a king of Northumbria, 420; uses, 420; areas of use, 420; and
235-6 see Runic stones and inscriptions
Rognvald, Guthfrithsson, a king Runic stones and inscriptions, 9,
of Northumbria, 239 344; the Hogby stone, 9; erilaR,
Rollo, Hrolf, Gongu-Hrolfr, first 29; some early inscriptions,
duke of Normandy, 92, 94, 229-32, Gallehus, Stabu, Vimose,
346 Thorsbjsrg, Einang, Himlingoje,
Rome, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 40 Mojebro, 71; Eggjum, Glavendrup,
63,163,217,374 Rok, 71 stones relating to
;

Rorik, probably Harald Klak's Swedish rulers in Jutland, 112;

brother, holder of a Frankish fief in Gorm's stone at Jelling, 113, 114,
power in
Frisia, 106, 109; seizes 116, 117; that of Harald Bluetooth,
southern Jutland in 850s, 109; by 117, 118, 340-1; Sender Vissing
some thought to be the same person stone, 127; possible connection
as Rurik the Rus chieftain, q.v. of Skane stones with
Roskilde, Zealand, Knut has coins Styrbjorn Starki, 9, 128 ; Dane-
struck there, 6; proximity to virkesten and Hedebysten, 174 n;
Gamle Lejre, 46; early mart and stones commemorating public
Thing presumed there, 51 works, 186 «; Smiss, 232 «;
488 Index

Aldeigjuborg inscription, 251 caste, 255 uncertain evidence of

;

Berezany, 258; 'Varangian' stones, the Gnezdovo, Chernigov, and

258, 266-8; Yngvar the Widefarer, Kiev graves, 256 n 2; Rus convoys
266; stones commemorative of on the Dnieper, 256-7; their perils,
men who died in Novgorod, 267; 257-8 their progress to the Black
;

Mervalla stone, 267; verse-adorned Sea and Constantinople, 258-9;

inscription on Tiiringe stone, 267; Rus-Byzantine wars and treaties,
Timans stone, 267; Piraeus lion at 259-60; assaults across the Caspian,
Venice, 267-8; Kingigtorssuaq 260-1 submergence of the Rus
;

stone, 294; lost Honen stone, among the Slavs, 262-4; their
303 «; Rognvald Kali knows runes contribution to the 'Russian state',
349; Swedish stones to winners of 264; Rus need for kufic silver,
geld in England, 365 ; dispersal 265-6; Yaroslav's death termina-
and number of runic inscriptions, tory, 266; runic reference to
420; and see Appendix I, pp. 419-20 Norsemen in Russia, 266-8 and ;

Rurik, possibly the same person as see Russia, Scandinavian names,

Rorik, Harald Klak's brother, Varangians
245-7; oldest and chief of the Russia, in general see under
Varangian brothers, 245 ff.; locates specific entries, Dnieper, Kiev,
himself in Novgorod, 245, or Vladimir, Volga, etc., and
Ladoga, 246 n\ later assumes over- general headings, Rus, Slavs,
lordship of Beloozero and Izborsk, Varangians, etc.; mentioned, 3, 4,
246 and »; assigns cities to his 13,23, 52, ill, and HI, ^passim;
followers, 246 and «; a somewhat Olaf Tryggvason and his mother
legendary figure, 247 there, 1 3 1-2 jarl Eirik
;

Rus, a name given to the Scandi- Hakonarson, 370; Olaf Haraldsson,

navian, mainly Swedish (and some 382; Magnus the Good, 385, 386;
Finnish) merchant and military Harald Hardradi, 263, 404
venturers in Russia, 13, 76, 79, Rustringen, in Frisia, 106
164; the 'land of the Rus, 244; the
different denominations of Rus, Saale, river, 97
245 and »; their leaders, 245, 246 Sacred Bay, northern Newfoundland
n 2, and see Rurik; Oleg and the 303 «
Rus, 246 « 2; possibly origin of Saemund the Learned, 69, 287
name, 246-7 «; their exploits and St. Brice's Day Massacre, 356, 358
influence in Russia, 244-68 passim; St. David's Cathedral, Dyfed, Wales,
Rus sent by the Byzantine emperor sacked by vikings, 355
to Louis the Pious 839, 249-50; at St. Gregor's Island, where the Rus
Staraja Ladoga, 250-1 Rus burial; 258
sacrifice,
mounds in Ladoga-Onega district, St. Lawrence Estuary, 304
251 ; Alanders take part in Russian St. Lo, 224
trade, 251,252 n 1 Rus river-
; St. Olaf, see Olaf Haraldsson
routes, 252-3, 256 n 1; Volga trade, St. Patrick, favours the Danes at
253 Ibn Fadlan on their trade and
; Carlingford, 207
habits, 164-5 Dnieper trade and
'> Salviksgropen, at Birka, 169
settlement, 253-4; Liudprand's Sandnes, West Settlement, Green-
witness, 254 n; Ibn Rustah's land, 303 n
account of the Rus-Slav ruling Sandwich, Kent, 3 59-60, 369, 399, 404
 Index 489
Sarkel, the White House, a fortress, settlements in, 277; Malcolm

249 Canmore, king of, 387; goodwill to

Sarpsborg, 381, 382 Harald Hardradi, 410; 136, 202,
Saxo Grammaticus, his witness 206, 235 ; and see Picts, and
invoked, 9, 39, 44, 45, 46, 52-4, Strathclyde Welsh
60-3, 122 « 2, 136, 196 « 3, 286, Screrefennae, Scrithifinoi, see Lapps
289, 322, 324; 113, 400 Scyld, Scyldings, see Skjold,
Saxons, not a Scandinavian people, Skjoldungs
32; they invade Britain, 32-3, Seafaring, seafaring art, 12; Pytheas
238; boundary drawn against the reaches the north, 21; Roman ships
Myrgings at Fifeldor, 32, 52 n; round Jutland and reach the
Charlemagne and, 97-8, 103 Kattegat, 24; Ottar's sailing direc-
Henry the Fowler and, 114; tions, 109-10, 159; Landnamabok,
Thorkell the Tali's son murdered 162; skills developed in northern
among, 400; suffer a Wendish waters, 183, 190; suggested sailing
invasion, 129; and a second, 402; directions Norway-Newfoundland,
fight at Lyrskov Heath, 392, 1 90-1;sea-lore, 192; navigational
402-3 aids, 192-4; importance of latitude,
Sazur, a bridge-builder in Zealand, 190, 192; sdlarsteinn, 193 and «;
186 n bearing dial, 193-4 n > an d see
Scadinavia, Scatinavia, 24 Ships
Scandia, 25 ; Scandza, 22, 25 Sea-power, the ultimate reality of
Scandiai nesoi, 25 the viking situation, 11 jarls of ;

Scandinavian names of Dnieper Hladir control northern coastal

rapids, see Dnieper rapids route, 87; Harald Fairhair sets
Scandinavian names in Rus- himself to break naval strength of
Byzantine treaty of9ii-i2, 259; the south-west, 88-9; naval
and that of 945, 260 victory at Hafrsfjord, 88-9; crosses
Scef, Scefing, 45-6 to the Atlantic isles, 90; naval
Scergeat, an Ethelflaedan fortress, defence, 90, 93 ; Hakon the Good
234 triumphs by sea-power, 94, 119;
Scheldt, the river, 101, 103, 224 used by Godfred against the Abo-
Schlei, Schleifjord, Slie, Sliefjord, drits, 98 and to check Charlemagne
;

99 », 100, 113, 181; Schleswig, 98, 101, 103 Danevirke a tribute

;

Slesvig, 31, 42, 65 » 1, 71, 114, to sea-power, 99, 103 ; Hakon

157, 181, 374 n, 402 the Good and naval defence, 120-1
Scillies, Scilly Islands, 132 Olaf Tryggvason's sea-borne
Sciringesheal, see Kaupang invasion, 132-3 loss of sea-power
;

Scotia, i.e. Ireland, 269 fatal to him, 138; its importance

Scotland, Scots, harried by Harald to any king, 152; command of the
Fairhair, 90; Olaf Tryggvason seas essential to viking operations
reputed to have harried there, 132; abroad, passim; size of viking fleets,
Ganga-Hrolf reputed to have 218-19; the English fleet, 228
harried there, 229; Scottish the Baltic and Russia, 252, 257;
opposition to English kings, eastern fantasies, 259-60; the
237; prekrninaries of Brunanburh, challenge of the Atlantic, 269;
236-7; Brunanburh, 237-8; Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, in,
some Icelandic settlers from viking 5, passim; invasions of Svein and
490 Index

Knut, 368, 370; Knut's triumph in Olaf Haraldsson's authority there,

Norway, 382; Magnus the Good, 378-9; 191
401, 402, 403 ; Harald Hardradi, Ships, 3, 12; portrayed in Bronze
attacks on Denmark, 407; Age rock-carvings, 18, 323 ; of use
invasion of England, 410; and to the dead, 19, 85, 323, 332-3
see Seafaring and Ships Tacitus on the ships of the
Seeburg, see Grobin Suiones, 24; remnants found in
Seine, the river in France, 210, graves at Vendel and Valsgarde,
224, 225 39-40, and Sutton Hoo, 41 »;
Self-sown wheat in the New World Scyld, 46; naval hyperbole before
of America, 301, 303 n, 304, 305; Bravellir, 53 ; farmers and fishermen,
self-sown corn in the New World 155; northern ships described,
after Ragnarok, 319 184-90, 228; Gokstad ship,
Selje, western Norway, reputed construction and fittings, ibid. ;
scene of Olaf Haraldsson's folktale oars and sails, 187, 188-9; bafskip
landing, 376 or ktwrr, 189,238; cog, 1 89 »
Sembi, see Pruzzi names and types, 189, 366; size
Semnones, 24 and complement, 194; on Russian
Serkland, land of the Muslims, a rivers, 257; He de Groix, 232 «;
somewhat vague designation, on pictured stones, 343-4; and see
248 k, 267 Seafaring and sea-power
Sermiligaq, near Angmagssalik, Sias, a river in Russia, 251, 252

east Greenland, 290 n Sicily, mentioned in connection

Serpent, the Long, Olaf Tryggvason's with the Normans, 232; and
ship, 137, 138
n,,189, 354 Harald Hardradi, 405 n
upland grazing areas, sometimes
seter, Siferth, a leading man in the
common, but often in private 'Seven Boroughs', murdered, 370;
possession, 82; cf. Icelandic beidi, Ethelred seizes property and widow,
276 370; Edmund rescues and marries
'Seven Boroughs', Siferth and her, 370
Morcar associated with, 370 Sigerich, Sigtrygg, a king at Hedeby
Severians, a tribe in Russia paying during the Swedish interlude
tribute to the Khazars, then to there, 11 1-12
the Rus, 256 Sigfred, a king in Denmark, God-
Seville,attacked by the vikings c. fred's predecessor, 97; clashes

844, 214; many vikings hanged with the Franks, 97; gives shelter
there, 214; tradition of second to the Saxon leader Widukind,
attack by Bjorn and Hastein, 216 98 is denied a visit by Paul the
;

Sheppey, Kent, 210, 212

Isle of, Deacon, 98 ; dies c. 800, 98
Shetland(s), 90; Harald Fairhair's Sigfred, a Danish king, brother of
expedition to, 90; Olaf Try ggvason Halfdan, of note c. 873, 109
credited with Conversion of, 135 Sigfred, a Danish king and viking
farmers and fishermen, 155; leader, at Elsloo, 224; at Paris,
mentioned in Latidndmabok 225 killed on the Dyle 891, 109
;

sailing directions, 162; first Norse Sighvat Thordarson, Icelandic poet,

settlements c, 780, 198; Floki friend and encomiast of Olaf
Vilgerdason there, 274; some Haraldsson, 288; his Vikingavhur>
Icelandic settlers from, 277; 375 »; crosses the interior and
 Index 491

composes his Austrfararvhur, 60, father of Harald Hardradi, 348,

379; makes a pilgrimage to Rome, 375
misses the battle of Sigurd the Stout, jarl of Orkney,
Stiklarstadir, 384; laments OlaPs killed at Clontarf, 397
death, 384-5 ; writes the Plain- Sigurd the Volsung, in viking art, 40
speaking Verses, 384; 119 Sigur5ur Stefansson's Map of the
Siglufjord, Eastern Settlement, North Atlantic lands, c. 1590,
Greenland, 194 305-6
Sigmund the Volsung, with his son Sigvaldi, said to be a leader of the
Sinfjotli, welcomes Eirik Bloodaxe Jomsvikings, betrays his comrades
to Valhalla, 240 at Hjorungavag and Olaf Tryg-
Sigrid the Haughty (Storrdda), gvason at Svold, 139; probably
according to Heimskringla struck all a fiction
and spurned by Olaf Tryggvason, Silberberg, hill at Jumne-Wollin, 127
and married by Svein Forkbeard, Sillende, south-eastern Jutland, no
136, 365; strong doubt that she Sineus, brother of Rurik, and
ever existed, 136; mentioned, himself a Rus founding-father,
136 « 2 located at Beloozero, 245,
Sigtrygg Gale, a king of the Dublin 246 and n 1
Norsemen and at York, 235-6, Sitones, see Kainulaiset
396 Skagerrak, the sea between Jutland
Sigtrygg Silkbeard, king of the and Norway, 54, 60, 65, 79, 96,
Dublin Norsemen at the time of 99, 166, 183, 386; also Noric
Clontarf, 397 Channel, 60
Sigtuna, a mart in Uppland, Skalholt, the south-western
Sweden, 6, 167, 3 82 bishopric of Iceland, 287
Sigurd Eiriksson, mother's brother Skane, province in southern Sweden,
of Olaf Tryggvason, takes service held thoughout our period by the
with Vladimir in Russia, 131; Danes, 44, 49, 66, 75, 103 ; Ottar's
ransoms his nephew and brings him witness, 109, Wulfstan's, no;
into the good graces of a Russian possible connection with fact
queen, 13 1-2 or legend of Danish origins in
Sigurd Hart, father of Harald Fair- Sweden, 44, 45 and n; island-nature
hair's mother Ragnhild, 85 of Skane, 49-50; mart and Thing at
Sigurd Hring, a legendary king in Lund, 51 ; fertile soil, 59, runic
Denmark or Sweden, brings stones there, 72, 128, 186 n;
Harald Wartooth to battle at harried by Onund-Jakob, 381;
Bravellir, 53,78 Helgaa on its eastern coast, 381;
Sigurd Hakonarson, jarl of Hladir, mentioned, 28, 41, 53, 118, 122,
supports Hakon the Good's bid 137 .

forNorway, 94, 119; stays Skapti Thoroddsson, a lawspeaker

paramount in the Trondelag, 119; in Iceland, 282, 284
put to death by Harald Greycloak, Skara, a mart in Sweden, 167, 285
124 skibscetninger , boat-shaped graves
Sigurd, brother ofjarl Rognvald of outlined with stones, 19; found in
Moer, first jarl of Orkney, 90 late Bronze Age, 19, pre-viking and
Sigurd Jerusalem-farer, 86 Viking Age, 19; Lejre, 46;
Sigurd Sow, king of Ringerike, Lindholm Hoje, 19, 332-4; possible
492 Index

significance for religious belief and Slaves, slave trade, slavery, 3 ; in

notions of the afterworld, 19, 332-4 Roman Iron Age, 23 Germans ; take
Skidbladnir, Frey's wondrous ship, Slavonic slaves, 127; Olaf
associated with death and Tryggvason a slave in Estland,
rebirth, 323 13 1 ; Rigspula's tale of Thrall,
Skirnir, Skirnumal, a god, presumably Slavey, and their brood, 146-7;
Frey, or Frey's messenger, and the slavery in the north, 147-9;
Eddie poem which tells of him, objects of trade, 148 ; sclavus, 148
322-3 immolation of slaves, 149, 164, 256;
Skjalfandi, the Shaker or Trembler, slaves' situation ameliorated by
river and fjord in northern Iceland, religion and economics, 149; the
273 freedman, 150; Russian slaves at
Skjold, eponymous ancestor of the Pereiaslav, 164; Rus slave traders
Skjoldungs, 29, 45-6 described by Ibn Fadlan, 165 ; by
Skjoldunga Saga, a source of informa- Ibn Rustah, 255; slaves at Hedeby,
tion for the legendary history of 109; possible significance of
thenorth, 37-8,39,46, 52 Al-Ghazal's mission to Turgeis,
Skjoldungs, the descendants of 21 $ ; Jir gorm, 216, 218 ; Rus slave
Skjold, and hence the Danes, hunters, 255, 256; slaves used for
their legendary history, 45-9 portage on Dnieper, 257; Celtic
Skraelings, Skraelingar, a name slaves in Iceland, 119, 279;
applied to the natives of Greenland unlikely reference to Eskimos
and Vinland, whether Eskimo or taking slaves, 309-10
Indian (1) in Greenland,
: Slavs, 13 ; Charlemagne and, 98,
encountered in Disco area 1276, 100; Godfred and, 98-103
294 ; reappearance on the west Harald Bluetooth and, 121-3
coast, 308; not present in Greenland Harald marries a Wendish princess,
at time of Norse settlements, 127; Jumne-Wollin, 127; Wends in
only their relics, 308 n; Thule Otto I's army, 128 ; Wends invade
culture, 308 n\ Inugsuk, 308 «; by Brandenburg and Holstein, 129;
c. 1350 they hold the entire Western burn Hamburg, 129; Harald flees
Settlement, 308; Middle to the Wends, 129; and is killed
Settlement c. 1380, 309; bypass the there, 130; Wends at Hjorungavag,
Eastern Settlement, 310; their 130 and »; Olaf Tryggvason a slave
contribution to the end of Norse among the Ests, 131; and in
Greenland, 309, 3 1 1 ; (2) in Russia, 132; marries Polish princess,
Vinland- America, Thorvald 132; S vein's sister Thyri married
Eiriksson encounters them, 300; to Boleslav the Pole, 136; Olaf
killed by a Skraeling arrow, 300, Tryggvason and Boleslav, 137-8;
304 n, 306; Thorfinn Karlsefni Slavonic tribes of Russia and the
encounters them, 301 trade, 302;
; Rus, III, 4, passim; submerging of
hostilities force Norsemen out of the Rus, 262-4; Magnus the Good
Vinland, 303 ; 306 makes war on the Wends, 401-3
Skrit-Finns, see Lapps Jumne-Wollin destroyed, 401-2;
Skuldelev,by Roskilde Fjord, Wendish defeat at Lyrskov Heath,
Zealand, Denmark, discovery of 402-3 Saqalibah's land, 255 and n 1
;

Viking Age ships there, and see Abodrits, Russia, Wendland,

183 and«, 189 Wilzi
 Index 493
Sleipnir, Odinn's eight-legged 9-1 1 indicated more closely in
;

steed, 320, 342 appropriate contexts; for example,

Sliesthorp, mart north of the Beowulf section, 35-49; Harald
Schlei, 98,99 Fairhair, 85-94; Olaf Tryggvason,
Smaland, province in Sweden, north 131-40; OlafHaraldsson, 376 «,
of Blekinge and Skane, 43, 49 378, 382; Harald Hardradi, 404-6,
Smolensk, see Gnezdovo-Smolensk 409; law, 345-6
Snaefellsnes, western Iceland, 162, Spain, reached by vikings, 213
290 and n Asturias, 213 Guadalquivir, 214,
;

Snaeland, Snowland, Naddod's 216; viking defeat at Talayata,

name for Iceland, 273 214; Al-Ghazal, 214-15; Bjorn and
Snasavatn, Trondelag, Norway, 81 Hastein there, 216, 218;
Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic author of 21, 157, 165, 182
the Prose Edda, Egils Saga Sparlosa, runic stone at, 44, 79
(probably), and Heimskringla, all Stabu, Norway, spearhead with
listed separately, a literary genius, runic inscription found at, 71
but an unreliable because creative Stad (Sta<3r), a navigation mark
historian, 9, 10, 37, 38-9, 43, 79, north of Bergen, 162, 190
84, 85, 86, 91, 121, 122, 130, 137, Stafford, England, 234
138-9, 189, 240, 287, 316, 328, 330, Stainmore, Northumbria, king
377,382 Eirik Bloodaxe killed there c. 954,
Snorri Thorfinn Karlsefni's son, the 95, 121, 240
first known person of European Stamford, Lines, 234
origin to be born on the North Stamford Bridge, Yorks, Harold of
American continent, unfortunately England defeats Harald Hardradi
omitted from our narrative; entry there 1066, 11, 387, 411-13, 415
should have been made on p. 303 Staraja Ladoga,Old Ladoga,
Society, stratification of, 145-58 Aldeigjuborg, town on the
Sogn, a viking pi ovince in Volkhov, south of Lake Ladoga,
south-west Norway, 61, 82, 83, Russia, 167, 254; Varangians settle
92,119,277 there,246 n; described, 250-1
Soissons, on the Aisne, France, 224 Slavs (?), Finns, Swedes, then
Sokki Thorisson, an important man Slavs in ascendant there, 250-1
in Greenland, lives at Brattahlid, runic inscription found there, 251
295 starting-point for trade with
solarsteinn, sun-stone (Iceland spar Dnieper and Volga, 251-2;
or calcite?), a means of determining archaeological evidence for routes,
the position of the sun, possibly 253,370
known to viking mariners, 192-3 Star-Oddi, his tables, 192
and« Stavanger, south-western Norway,
Somme, the river in France, 224 59,65,88
Sore, Zealand, early human Trondelag, Norway,
Stiklarstadir,
activity there, 17 OlafHaraldsson defeated and
Sound, see 0resund killed there 1030, 383-4
Sources, written, general discussion Stor, river in Holstein, 100
of, 8-1 1 ; critical attitude required Strabo, Greek geographer, a source
towards, 10; their plenitude and of information for the north, 22
variety, 8-9; reliability or otherwise strandbogg, the forcible seizure by
494 Index

vikings of cattle and stock for 400; a claimant to the Danish (and
food and plunder, at home as well in a derivative way to the English)
as abroad, becomes frowned throne after the death of
upon, 202 and «, 347, 392 Hordaknut Knutsson, 400;
Strathclyde, Strathclyde Welsh, 203, labours under various disadvan-
208,221,236,237 tages and is forestalled by Magnus
Straum(s)ey, Straum(s)fjord, an the Good, 401 ; reaches an agree-
island and fjord in Vinland, 301 ment with Magnus and is made
Sturla Thordarson, Icelandic regent of Denmark 401 ; his
historian and lawspeaker, 273, 283 ambition leads to his dispossession
Styrbjorn Starki (the Strong), and he returns to Sweden, 401
nephew of the Swedish king plays no part at Lyrskov Heath,
Eirik the Victorious, said to have 403 »; fails to enlist support from
invaded the Uppland kingdom and England, 404, 409-10; brief
been defeated before Uppsala, 128 period of common interest with
first husband of Thyri, sister of Harald Hardradi, 406; after the
Svein Forkbeard, 136 death of Magnus the Good
Suehans, Suetidi, Suiones, see Svea acclaimed king in Denmark, 406;
Sunnmoer, a coastal province in seventeen years' warfare against
western Norway lying north of the Norwegians, 406-8 recognized
;

the Firthafylki, 82 as king of Denmark 1064, 408

Surt,3i6,3i8,3io sends a fleet to England 1069, 414;
Sutton Hoo, East Anglia, the c. and goes there in person 1070, 414;
mid-seventh-century ship-burial makes peace with William I and
and cenotaph there, and their betakes himself home, 414;
relationship to the world of a chief informant of Adam of
Beowulf'and Vendel in Sweden, Bremen, q.v.; 174 », 303 n
4i»,ii7 Svein Forkbeard Haraldsson, king
Svserdborg, evidence of early human of Denmark and conqueror of
and canine habitation there, 17 England, of the line of Gorm the
Svalbard, the Cold Edge, either Old, 6, 12, 102, 174 «; obscure
Spitzbergen or, more likely, circumstances in which he takes
eastern Greenland in the neigh- over power from his father
bourhood of Scoresbury Sound, 162 Harald Bluetooth, 129; comrade-in-
Svartkell, an early settler in Iceland, arms of Olaf Tryggvason in
277 England, 132, 357; his enemy
Svea, Svear, Sviar, Sweon, the thereafter 135,357; curious
Swedes of Uppland in east central position of Svein in northern
Sweden, first described by Tacitus, tradition, 136; his sister Thyri
24, 34; then by Jordanes, 25-6, 45 marries Olaf Tryggvason, 136;
Sven Aggeson, a chronicler of the his daughter Gyda marries jarl
Danes, 46, 113,136 Eirik Hakonarson, 137; victory
Sveigdir, a legendary king of the over Olaf at Svold, 138-9; his
Swedes, 37 territorial gains in Norway, 140,
Svein Estridsson, also called 354; again turns his attention to
Ulfsson, son ofjarl Ulf and Knut's England 356, 357; returns to
sister Estrid, 360; reared in Denmark, 357; returns to England,
Denmark, England, and Sweden, 358; his military successes, 359;
 Index 495
goes back to Denmark 359; the Swegen, Sweyn, Sven, Suin, etc.,
military camps at Trelleborg, see Svein
Fyrkat, Aggersborg, and Odense Syeksna, a river in Russia, 252
associated with his name, 360-4;
extortion of Danegeld from England Tacitus, his references to northern
364-5; brings a fleet to Sandwich, peoples and geography, 24-5, 26,
368 ; establishes a base at Gains- 34; and to the old Germanic
borough, 368; military successes, (Danish?) cult of Njord-Nerthus,
368; attacks London, 368; accepted 323
as full king in England, 368 dies ; Tadcaster, Yorks, 411 ; Harald
suddenly February 1014, 369; Godwinson meets the English
character and achievement, 369 ships there on his march to
Svein Knutsson, ^Elgifu's son, 372; Stamford Bridge, 412
appointed to rule Norway after Talayata, off the Guadalquivir,
the death ofjarl Hakon Eiriksson, southern Spain, viking fleet
383 ; reputedly a bad ruler, after heavily defeated there by the
the fall of Olaf Haraldsson, but no Moors, 214
real evidence for this, 3 85 re- ; Tamworth, Staffs, England, 234
pulses the threat from Tryggvi Tangier, 200 severed heads sent to
Olafsson, 385; seeks refuge in speak for themselves there, 214
Denmark with Hordaknut, 386; Tara, Meath, Ireland, 203
dies shortly thereafter, 386 Teliutza (Lubetch), a Rus trading
Svein Hakonarson, jarl, put in post in Russia, 256
charge of part of the Swedish Temple, Sir William, diplomat and
territorial gains after Svold, 140, man of letters,discusses the
c
374; driven from Norway by Olaf northern excursus in his Of
Haraldsson, 376, 378 Heroic Virtue', 196 n 2
Svir, a river in Russia, 251, 252 Terra Feminarum, see Kainulaiset
SvibjoQ, i.e. Sweden Tettenhall, Staffs, the Danes of
Svfjjjod binn mikla, Sweden the Northumbria defeated there 910,
Great, i.e. Russia, or part thereof, 233,236
248 n, 266 Teutones, mentioned by Py theas,
Svold, either in the 0resund or off 21 possibly originated in Thy,
;

Riigen in the Baltic, scene of the north-western Jutland, 21 ; early

defeat and death at sea of Olaf and warlike travellers south, 21, 22
Tryggvason, 138; fictions asso- Thames, the river, 223, 357
ciated therewith, 138-9 «; Thanet, Isle of, Kent, 212
consequences, 140; mentioned, Thangbrand, a muscular German
189,354 Christian, his contribution to the
Svyatoslav, a king at Kiev, and conversion of Iceland, 285
Novgorod, 236, with Rus Theodoric, king of the Goths, 25
progenitors; son of Igor and Olga, sought out by Roduulf from south-
261 ; his campaigns, 174, 265 western Norway, if we may believe
description of him by Leo Diaconus, Jordanes, 26
261-2; killed by Petchenegs at the Theodoricus, Theodericus Monachus
Dnieper rapids, 257; illustrates author of the Histor ia de
weakening of the Rus connection, antiquitate regum Norwagknsium, 9,
262 » 122, 400
496 Index

Theophilus, a Byzantine emperor, mariner, trader, and colonizer,

sends Rus or Rhos ambassadors hisvoyage to Greenland, 300;
to the court of Louis the Pious marries Eirik the Red's daughter-in-
839,249-505172 law Gudrid, 300; decides to
Thetford,359,367 establish a colony in Vinland,
Theudobert, prince of the Franks, 300-1 by way of the Western
;

defeats and kills Hygelac of the Settlement and Davis Strait

Geats (Getae) in Frisia, 30, 32 reaches Baffin Island, 301 ; sails

Theudoric, king of the Franks, south to Leifsbudir (Growl. 5.) or

father of Theudobert, 30 Straum(s)fjord and Hop (Eiriks
Thietmar of Merseburg, his account S.R.), 301 winters in Vinland,
;

of the (probably non-existent) 301 meets and trades with the

;

sacrificial site and sacrifices at natives, 301-2; hostilities with,

Lejre, 46-7; Svein's relations with 303 ; after three years decides to
the Baltic vikings, 136, 137; and withdraw, 303 and see Snorri,
;

Thorkell the Tail's attempt to his son

save the life of archbishop yElfeah Thorfinn, jail of Orkney, dies 1065,
at Greenwich, 367; Dene at Kiev, 76 387
Thing, the northern assembly of Thorgeir of Ljosavatn, lawspeaker
free men for law, debate, and in Iceland, 286; his share, though
matters of regional and national a heathen, in the Conversion of
importance, 50-1, 92-3, 119-20, Iceland to Christianity, 286
150, 152-3, 231, 272, 282-4, 290, Thorir haklang, killed at Hafrsfjord,
293, 345>346,347> 377 89
Thjodhild's Church, Brattahlid, Thorir Hound, an opponent of
Greenland, said by Eiri'ks Saga to Olaf Haraldsson, 381, 383
have been built by Eirik the Red's Thorir Rognvaldsson, becomes jarl
wife c. 1001, and recently discovered of Moer, 92
and excavated, 19, 294, 295 Thorkell Leifsson, lives at
Thjodolf Arnarson, a poet of the Brattahlid, Greenland, 295
mid-eleventh century, who Thorkell the Tall, a Danish viking
composed verses for Magnus the leader, a commander in England
Good and Harald Hardradi, 403, 1009, 360; a receiver and distri-
407 n butor of tribute, 365 has the young
;

Thjodolf the learned of Hvin, Olaf Haraldsson with him at

composer of Tnglinga Tal, 37 », Ringmere, 367; tries to save
85,242 archbishop iElfeah at Greenwich
Thjorsa a fierce river in south-west 367; transfers his allegiance from
Iceland, 276 Svein to Ethelred, 367-8; receives
Thor, a god, his nature and huge payment in 1014, 370;
attributes, 318, 319, 321; 74, 134, transfers his allegiance to Knut, 370;
281,285,287,316,324,343 takes part in Knut's invasion of
Thora of Rimul, reputedly the England, 370; put in charge of
mistress of jarl Hakon of Hladir, East Anglia 1017, 372; troubled
who tries to save his life, 133 course thereafter, 372-3
Thorarinn the Black, Icelander and outlawry, 373; reconciliation 1023,
poet, 289 373 made regent of Denmark
;

Thorfinn Karlsefni, Icelandic and guardian of Hordaknut,

 Index 497
372-3 ; then lost sight of, 372; his himself heads north and then west,
son Harald a claimant to Denmark, 300, 301 ; killed by an Indian
400; murdered, 400, 401 arrow, 300, 301 ; attempted
Thorkel Thordarson, a bridge or definition of the places he
causeway-builder, 186 n visited, 306
Thorleik the Fair, a skald, probably Thralls and thralldom, see Slaves
misquoted by Knytliuga Saga, 403 Thule, reported on by Pytheas of
Thorleif the Wise, interprets a Massalia, 21 probably some part
;

dream of Halfdan the Black, 86 of the west coast of Norway, 21

Thorleif the Wise, helps Ulfljot the name used for Iceland by
of Lon adapt the Gulathing Law Dicuil, 270
as a legal code for Iceland, 283 Thy, a district north of the
Thormod Coalbrow's poet, dies Limfjord, Jutland, 21
with Olaf Haraldsson at Stiklar- Thyri (Thyre, Thyra), wife of
stadir, 376^383 Gorm the Old, little known about
Thormod the Priest, his part in the her, 113, 114; erroneously asso-
conversion of Iceland, 285 ciated with the Danevirke, 114;
Thormod, a moneyer in Sigtuna, commemorated by Gorm on an
382 n inscribed stone at Jelling, 114;
Thorolf Butter, a shipmate of and by her son Harald Bluetooth,
Floki Vilgerdason, speaks well of 117
.

the grass in Iceland, 274 Thyri, daughter of Harald Bluetooth,

Thorolf Lousebeard, foster-father sister of Svein Forkbeard, marries
of Astrid, mother of Olaf Styrbjorn Starki, then Boleslav
Tryggvason, accompanies her into the Pole, and then Olaf Tryggvason,
exile, 131; killed by slavers, 13 1 128, 136; mentioned, 136 n 2, 137
avenged, 132 Thurcytel (Thorkell), saves his
Thorolf Mostrarskegg, settler in skin at Ringmere, 366
Breidafjord, Iceland, maintains a Tibirke, Tingsted, uncertain
holy place at Helgafell, 277; is evidence of V-shaped religious
said to have built a bofzt Hofstadir, enclosures at, 116 u
281-2 and »; mentioned, 325 Tmutorokan, Taman Peninsula,
Thorolf Kveldulfsson, father's Black Sea area, argued for as a
brother of Egill the poet, a gallant, military base of the Rus, 255
handsome, sunny man, 68 Tolka, a stream by Clontarf, near
Thorolf Skallagrimsson, brother of Dublin, 397
Egill, another gallant, handsome, Torne, a river flowing from Finn-
sunny man, 68 mark to the head of the Gulf of
Thorsbja^rg, Schleswig, early runic Bothnia, 60
inscription from, 71 Tosti, a distributor of Danegeld in
Thorshavn, Faroes, 272 England, 365
Thorstein Sidu-Hall's son, a survivor Tostig, deposed earl of Northumbria,
at Clontarf, 397 supports Harald Hardradi's
Thorstein the White, Egill invasion of England, 410; fights on
Skallagrimsson's son, 68 his side at Gate Fulford and Stam-
Thorvald Eiriksson, a voyager to ford Bridge, where he is killed, 411
Vinland, goes to Leifsbudir, sends Toten, a district in Norway, west
his men down the west coast, 300; of Lake Mjosa, 85, 87
498 Index

Toulouse, attacked by vikings, 213, Trollheimen, in the Trondelag,

Norway, 82
Tours, attacked by vikings, 215 Tromso, modern town, in the
Tovi (Tova), daughter of Mistivoj Malangenfjord area, 65, 97
king of the Wends and a wife Trondelag, the Tronds, the powerful
of Harald Bluetooth, 127 western region of Norway
Towcester, 234 centred on the Trondheimsfjord,
Trade, trade goods, trade routes, and the people who inhabited it,
their importance to the northern 54, 81-2; fertile land and pasture
peoples, 2-3, 50, 99; amber, q.v.; there, 82-3 ; trade and wealth,
furs, q.v., slaves, q.v.; Celts affect 82, 83 ; jarl Sigurd increases his
the trade routes, 20; Elbe and power and holdings, 87-8; its law,
Vistula early routes, 23; likewise 82, 92; the Eirikssons seize it, 124;
Russian rivers, 23 ; and Rhine jarl Hakon Sigurdarson wins it

and Frisian coast, 23, 167; ore- back, 125, 128; Hjorungavag,
aureus, 23 ; Roman Iron Age, 25 130 and «; Olaf Tryggvason, 134;
pre-viking marts, 51 ; strong posi- Nidaros, 135; attempted conversion
tion of south Jutland, 99; of the, 134-5 j j ar l Eirik Hakonarson
Godfred, Reric, Hedeby, 99-103 5 inherits, 140; jarls there not
the Danevirke, 99 ff. ; trade and kings, 151, 155; Olaf Skottkonung
Christianity, 106, 108 «; Swedish acquires some eastern shires, 140,

interest in trade routes of southern 354; Olaf Haraldsson and, 376;

Jutland, 111-12; royal interest in Hakon Eiriksson inherits, 382;
trade, 78, 99, 103, 127, 153-4, 173 Olaf Haraldsson returns and is
extent and scope of trade and trade killed there, 383-4; four great
goods, 157-68; documentary
3, 89, lords killed or banished, 407; and
witness, 158 ff.; Ottar, 158-62; see Hakon Jarl Sigurdarson,
Landnamabok, 162; Russian Primary Sigurd Jarl Grjotgardsson, Hladir
Chronicle, 162-3 ; Muslim witness, Trondheim, earlier Nidaros, and

164-5, 255 ; trade and piracy Trondheimsfjord, 17, 18, 59,

closely related, 166-7; marts, 65, 81-2, 87, 94, 133, 134, 135, 140,
166-81, 243-4; ancl see Kaupang, 167; and see Nidaros, Trondelag
Birka, Hedeby; merchant ships, Trundholm, 18
189 and n; Rus trade, 250-64; Truso, a mart on the Frisches Haff,
Icelandic, 163 ; Greenland exports mentioned by Wulfstan, no, 167;
and imports, 157, 163, 293 possibly to be identified with
Vinland trade, 163, 301-2, 309; Elbing (Elblag), 244; Norse remains
Knut's interest in keeping trade found there, 244; mentioned 99
routes open, 380; trading at the Truvor, traditionally a brother of
end of the Viking Age, 389 Rurik, settles in Izborsk, 245,
Translation Sancti Alexandri, 32 246 and n 1
Treene, river in southern Jutland, Tryggvi Olafsson, a minor king in
99 « the Vik, father of Olaf Tryggvason,
Trelleborg, military camp pre- confirmed in his power by Hakon
sumably of Svein Forkbeard's the Good, 119; survives for a while
time, near Slagelse, Zealand, 5, 19, under Harald Greycloak, 123
ioi», 135,360-4 then destroyed by him, 124, 131
Trier, attacked by vikings, 224 Tryggvi Olafsson, self-proclaimed
 Index 499
son of Olaf Tryggvason and Gyda, of their first legal code, 283 ; its
invades Norway, and is killed, 385 provisions not now known, 283
Tsargrad, see Constantinople and«
Tunsberg, Tunsbergsfjord, an Ull, a god, 323, 324
early town on the western shore of Uni the Dane, son of Gardar the
the Oslofjord, and the fjord on first circumnavigator of Iceland,
which it stands, 81, 117, 337 father of HroarTungu-Godi, 75 n;
Turgeis, a Norwegian invader of undertakes a mission in Iceland for
Ireland c. 840, 204; his military Harald Fairhair, 281
successes, 205-6 and record of
; Unni, archbishop of Hamburg-
plunder, 205 ; reported to have Bremen, renews the mission to the
made himself heathen high priest Danes 935, 113
at Armagh, 206; his wife Ota (Aud), Uppland, Norway, confused with
206; captured by Mael Seachlainn Uppland in Sweden, 3 8-9
845 and drowned in Lough Owel, mentioned, 95, 125, 133, 391, 407,
206; possibly visited by Al-Ghazal, 408, 409
214-15 Uppland, an area of central and
Tyr, a god, 323, 324 western Sweden, 18, 26; heartland
of the Svea kingdom, 24, 34; in
Ubbi, a Danish viking leader, Tacitus's time, 24; situation
brother of Halfdan and Ivar the Gotaland and the
vis-a-vis
Boneless, sons of Ragnar, 219, 220, Gautar, 34-44, 79; burial mounds
223 at Uppsala, Vendel, Vals garde,
Uhtred, earl of Northumbria, 39-41; Sutton Hoo parallels, 41 n\
submits to Svein, 368 joins with ; wealth and importance of, 241 well ;

Edmund (Ironside) against him, placed for overseas adventure, 241

371 ; submits to Knut, is put to Gotland and, 79, 241-3 ; Baltic
death, and Northumbria entrusted islands and, 66, 241, 251-2; the Rus
to jarl Eirik Hakonarson, 372 and Roslagen, 246-7 «; Olaf
Ulf received danegeld in England, Skottkonung first king to bear
365 title rex Sveorum (i.e. the Swedes of
Ulf, jarl, marries Estrid, Svein Uppland) Gotborumque, 43,
Forkbeard's daughter and sister 79? 135; great number of runic
of king Knut, 360; lack of informa- stones in, 420; and see Birka,
tion about him, 380; becomes Kingship and kings, Uppsala,
regent of Denmark c. 1024, 380; Valsgarde, Vendel, and the names
dubious ambitions recounted by of Swedish kings
Fagrskinna, 380; disputed role at Uppsala and Gamla Uppsala, in
the Helgaa, 3 80, 3 8 1 ; Knut has Uppland, Sweden, 9, 19, 48,
him murdered, 381 79, 153, 167, 242; Frey^s chief
Ulfkell (Ulfcytel) Snilling, residence there, 37; Athils falls
Anglo-Danish defender of East ofFa horse there, 39; grave mounds
Anglia against the Danes, his there, 39; the chief seat of the
feats at Thetford, 359, and Swedish kings of Uppland, and so
Ringmere, 366; his death at frequently mentioned; the holy
Ashingdon in Essex, 371 places there not razed before the
Ulfljot of Lon, entrusted by the twelfth century, 74; the templum
Icelanders with the introduction and grove described, 326-7
500 Index

Urnes style, 335, 336, 341-2 Varmland, a district in Sweden

Utgard (Utgardr), the stronghold north of Lake Vaner, adjacent to
ofjotunheim in northern mythology Norway, 43, 59, 84
317 Varpelev, 23
utigangshestar, horses that go self- Vastergotland, a district in Sweden
feeding out of doors during the west of Lake Vatter, 22, 26, 34,
winter, 388 43,66,79,137,173,324
Vatnahverfi, a central area of the
Vadso, on the western shore of the Eastern Settlement, Greenland,
Varangerfjord, northern Norway, 295
65 Vatnsdalur, Patreksfjordur,
Valence, on the Garonne, France, Vestfirthir, Iceland, grave there
attacked by vikings, 217 with evidence of mixed religious
Valhalla (Falholl), in Asgard, the beliefs, 277 n
Hall of the Slain, domicile of the Vendel, Vendil, in Jutland, in some
valiant dead, 317, 318, 330; written sources associated with
entrance thereto a frequent motif Ottar Vendel-Crow, 38
of poetic encomia, 53, 240, and Vendel, a renowned burial site in
pictured stones, 342 Uppland, Sweden, traditionally
Valkyries, the maiden choosers of associated with Ottar Vendel-Crow
the slain, 51, 317 38-41 ; significance of Vendel
Valsgarde, a renowned burial site for Sutton Hoo and Beowulf, 41 n
in Uppland, Sweden, richly Vendel-Crow, a byname associated
productive of pre- viking artefacts, with Ottar and his father Egill
39-41 ; mask from, 36 (Ongentheow-Angantyr), 38
Vandals, their name possibly con- Vendsyssel, the northernmost
nected with Vendsyssel in Jutland, district ofJutland, possibly the
take part in the Migrations, 28 original home of the Vandals, 182
Vaner, Lake, in Sweden, 39, 84 Venice, in Italy, the lion from Piraeus
Vanir, a family of gods including now there, 267
Njord, Frey and Freyja, 321 ff. Verden, on the river Aller, south-east
Vanlandi, an early and legendary of Bremen, massacre of the Saxons
king among the Swedes, 37 there 782, 98
Varangian Sea, i.e. the Baltic, 163, Verses on an Eastern Journey, see
245, 247 « Austrfararvisur
Varangians, 76, 163, 217 », 246, and Vervians, a tribe in Russia under
Varangian Rus, 245 ; the 'Calling tribute to the Rus, 256
of the Varangians, 244-8; possible Ves', a tribe in Russia under tribute
meaning o{V&ringi, Vteringmr, to the Rus, 245 ; associated with
24J Varangian Guard, in im-
n; the 'Calling of the Varangians', 245
Byzantine service, 266;
perial Vestfold, a district in Norway, west
organized as the emperor's in the Oslofjord, the natal kingdom
personal guard c. 1000, 247 «, of Harald Fairhair and his Yngling
266; Harald Hardradi in Byzantine predecessors, 54, 61, 66; a centre
service, 404, 405 «; slackening in of wealth and power, 81, 84, 95
northern recruitment after 1066, part-legendary kings of, 84-5;
266; runic stones commemorative queen Asa, 84-5 ; Halfdan the Black,
of, 267-8 and see Rus
; 85; Gudrod Bjarnarson, 119, 123-4;
 bzi-x r--

Svein Forkbeard and, 140; Kaupang North America (Canada), the

168 ; ship finds there, 84-5, 184-90; Norsemen's farthest west, 11, 13,
Westfaldingi, 75, 211; frequently 190-2; sighted accidentally by
mentioned in all chapters relating Bjarni Herjolfsson, 295-7, wno sails
to Norway; and see Halfdan the north along its coast, 298 ; Leif
Black, Harald Fairhair Eiriksson goes ashore there by the
Vestland, a general name for the route Helluland, Markland, Vinland,
viking provinces of south-western 300; winters at Leifsbudir, 300;
Norway, 82, 87-92, 133 its favourable climate, 300; its
Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman grass, timber, wild wheat, and
Islands, off south-west Iceland, grapes, 301 ; Thorvald Eiriksson
reputedly where Ingolf caught the voyages there, 300; as does Thorfinn
slayers of Hjorleif and destroyed K::.:t:h:. 5 ;•;-: ir.z IztyzLi
:

them, 275 Fink's daughter, 303 ; written

Viatichi, a tribe in Russia paying sources and archaeological evidence
tribute to the Khazars, z±< for, 303-4 and «; suggested
Viborg, a Viking Age town in north identifications of named places,
central Jutland, site ofa Thing and 304-6; tenuous but sound evidence
mart, 6, 51; a mint in Knut's time, of voyages to Vinland and Markland
6 Magnus the Good proclaimed
: till !347j 306; its name, 156 w;
king there, 401 ; Svein Estridsson 303 n, 304 a 1 ; and see Sigur5ur
proclaimed king twice, 401, 406 Stefansson's Map, Vinland Map,
Victual Brethren, privateers, twice Promontorium Winlandiae,
sack Bergen, 3 10 Labrador, Newfoundland,
Viga-Glum, Icelandic poet and Helluland, Markland, Leif Eiriksson,
manslayer, 289 Thorvald Eiriksson, Thorfinn
Vik, the Bay, i.e. the waters south Karlsefhi, Bjarni Herjolfson
of the Oslofjord, 87, 95, 103, 120, Vinland Map, evidence of concerning
125, 133, 134, 140, 229, 354 Greenland, 295 », 306 »; and the
a discussion of die
piking, viiiagry situation of Vinland, 306 h
terms, 76 and n Vinoviloth. 45 1

Vikmgr, a replica of the Gokstad Vire,224

ship, crosses the Atlantic under Vistula, river in Poland, flowing
Captain Magnus Andersen 1893, into the Frisches Ffatt", 23, 25, 103,
4, 187, 188 110,244
Vildngcmsury 'Viking Verses', Virhc5.e:h. xs
Sighvat Thordarson's not entirely Vitichev, stockaded taring-post on
reliable account of Olaf Flaraldsson's the Dnieper, below Kiev, place
thirteen set battles from Lake of assembly for the Rus convoys
Malar to the Guadalquivir, 375 n south, 257
Vimose, Fyn, Denmark, runic Vladimir, Valdimar, son of
inscriptions found at, 71 Svyatoslav, a king in Kiev, wins
Vingulmark, a district in the Oslo- his realm with Rus help, 247 w,
fjord area, north of Vestfbld, 85, 87 161 1 f::;r; ir.z ~-:z:i. kir.r. lii:
;

Vinheid 'Viiiteibr)^ a battle described converts his subjects to Christi-

in Egih Saga and probably to be anity, 262; marriage tie with
equated with Brunanburh, 237 B y z intium, 262-3 ; makes language
Vinland, on the eastern coast of ofrr.e Czzzzc'z S'.zvzzlc z:z N::fr.
502 Index

263 ; described as king of Holmgard Waterford, a viking harbour-

in Olafs S. Tryggv. and given a stronghold in Ireland, 205
fictional role, 13 1-2 Watling Street, 222, 234, 368, 421
Volga, the river in Russia, reached Weardburgh, Ethelflaedan fortress
and traversed by Swedish soldier- there, 234
traders, 1, 9, 248, 2495 a trade Wedmore, treaty made there be-
route of the Rus, 78, 79, 163, 171, tween king Alfred and Guthrum,
252; mart at Bulgar on the Volga 223
Bend, 164, 174, 249, 253, 256; Weland, a Danish viking leader in
Al-Musadi and Muqqadasi report France, hired to drive offother
on the wares there, 164; Ibn vikings at Oissel, 215-16;
Fadlan describes the Rus he saw accepts service and baptism with
there, 164-5 the routes from Lake
; Charles the Bald, 216 n; killed, 216 n
Ladoga thither, 252-3 ; contacts Welland, river in Leics. and Lines.
at Bulgar with the eastern world, 221,235
253 ; Ibn Fadlan's account of a Wendland, Wends, a general name
Rus funeral on the Volga, 425-30 for the Slav-inhabited territories
Volkhov, river in Russia, flowing extending along the south Baltic
north into Lake Ladoga, 163, 251, from the Frisches HafFto Saxony,
252 2, 103, 109, no, 127-30, 132,
Volund the Smith, his story 136, I37> 138, 139, 244, 373, 401,
frequently portrayed on pictured 402, 403
stones, 343, 344 Weser, the river, 31,32
Voluspa, a mythological poem of the Wessex, West Saxons, the Old
ElderEdda,288,3i6ff. English kingdom of that name
Vyatichians, a tribe in Russia south of the Thames and its
under tribute to the Khazars, 245 people, 203 ; Beorhtric its king
when viking raids begin, 194 and
Walcheren, Rorik receives it in fee n 2; iEthehvulf, 203 ; Halfdan
from Lothar, 109 attacks, 220; the 'year of battles',
Wales, Welsh names for the vikings, 220-1 Alfred becomes its king, 221
;

77 «; suspect Welsh account of Guthrum, 223 viking pressure;

Harald Fairhair in the west, 90 /?; eased, 224 Ethel wold raids north
;

Olaf Tryggvason raids there, 132; Wessex, 233 its kings now
;

a divided land, 203 Ubbi in South

; become kings in wider English
Wales, 223 Ingimund thrown out
; context, 226 ff. Olaf Tryggvason;

of North Wales, 235 an anti- ; and Svein Forkbeard attack, 357;

Saxon hope disappointed, 237 «; coastal assaults of 997-9, 357-8;
viking activity renewed c. 952, assault of 1001, 358; apportioned

355 ; viking successes there real (fruitlessly), to Edmund Ironside,

but limited, 355; mentioned, 163, 371 ; and see Alfred the Great,
200,234,235,238,357 Athelstan, Edward, the Elder
Warwick, England, an Ethelflaedan Western Settlement (VestribyggQ),
fortress, 234 western Greenland, 191 estab- ;

Washington Irving Island, in the lished soon after the Eastern in

eastern Canadian Arctic, two cairns general area of modern Godthab,
there probably of Norse origin, 293 Karlsefni proceeds to Vinland
;

294-5 via, 301 Indian arrow-head found

;
 Index 503

at Sandnes there, 304 »; overrun Jomsborg legend, 127; destroyed

by Skraelings c. 13 50, 308 by Magnus the Good, 401-2;
suggested reasons for its extinction, mentioned, 128, 130, 137, 157,
308-95311 167,177,360,373,387
Westfaldingi, menof Vestfold, Wolfred, a muscular English
attack Aquitaine 843, 75 ; sack Christian, destroys idol of Thor
Nantes, 211, and occupy and earns a martyr's laurels, 285
Noirmoutier, 211 Wulfstan, an English or Norwegian
Wexford, a viking harbour-strong- mariner, informs king Alfred
hold in Ireland, 205 about the Baltic and the Ests, his
White Sea, 1, 65, 124, 159 and n; voyage from Hedeby to Truso,
also Gandvik, 63, 158 no, 244; problem of phraseology,
Widsith, Old English poem, refers no; information about Swedish
to Hrothulf and Hrothgar, 48 strength in the Baltic, in, 243
and to the Eider (Fifeldor), 32, 52
Widukind, a defeated leader of the Yaropolk, son of Svyatoslav, slays
Saxons, 98 and is slain, 262
Widukind, the chronicler of the Yaroslav, called the Wise, son of
Saxons, 112, 125 Vladimir, king at Kiev, 263
Wight, Isle of, 31 », 359, 373 fosters the Scandinavian and
Wigingamere, unsuccessfully European connection, 263 ; provides
attacked by the Danes, 234 refuge for royal Norwegians, 263
William, duke of Normandy, 387, builds St. Sophia in Kiev, 263
and king of England, like Harald patron of architects, artists, and
Hardradi a claimant to the English scholars, 263 ; similarities to
throne, 410; checks the Danish Alfred the Great, 263-4; determines
assault on England in 1069-70, 414 Kiev's destiny vis-a-vis Byzantium,
William Longbeard, duke of Nor- 264; ill-advised assault on
mandy, sends his son to Bayeux Constantinople, 264; dies 1054,
to learn the northern tongue, 232 264; a terminatory figure, 387
Willibrord, an English missionary Yggdrasill, the World Ash of
to the Danes, 106, 378 n northern mythology, 317-18
Wilzi, a Slavonic people, neighbours Ymir, the giant born of hot and
of the Abodrits on the south cold, from whom the world was
Baltic coast, brought under tribute made, 316
by Godfred the Dane, 63 n, 98, 100 Tnglinga Saga, a source of information
Winchester, 359, 368, 386, 398 for northern myth, legend, and
Wirral,234,235 prehistory, 36, 37, and », 39,
Wiskiauten, mart on the Kurisches 52 and 240
n, 84,
Haff,244 Tnglinga Tal, the 'Count of the
Witham, a fortified town, 234 Ynglings', a poem of Thjodolf
Witmar, a missionary to the Swedes, of Hvin, 36, 85 a source of in-
;

107 formation for the unhistorical and

Wollin, harbour and mart at the prehistorical Yngling kings, 37;
mouth of the Oder, 99, 127; twenty-seven of its stanzas
called Jumne by Adam of Bremen, preserved in Tnglinga Saga, 37 n
reputedly established by Harald Yngvi, Yngvi-Frey, see Frey
Bluetooth, 1275 possible source of Yonne, the river, 225
504 Index

York, England, 5, 95, 122, 219, Denmark, 44, 45 and //, 49-51, 66;
235-40,411,412,413 described by Saxo, 62; attacked by
Yrsa, daughter of Helgi, mother of Hakon the Good, 118; Olaf
Hrolf Kraki, a legendary figure, 48 Tryggvason sails by, 137; pirates
of,166; Trelleborg, 360-4;
Zealand, the Danish island, 2, 53 attacked by Olaf Haraldsson, 381
evidence of early habitation in, 17; and by Harald Hardradi, 406;
growth of wealth there in Roman Svein Estridsson proclaimed king
Iron Age, 23 ; Lejre, 46-9; at Isore in, 406; 71, 202 n, 324
importance in early history of Zuyder Zee, 30, 31, 32
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