The Viking World

Chapters 1-2 , 4 -7, 10 , text ©James Graham-Campbell 1980

Chapters 3 , 8 -9 , text ©Frances Lincoln Publishers Limited 1980
Artwork © Frances Lincoln Publishers Limited 1 9 8 0
First published in the USA in 1 9 8 0 by
Ticknor & Fields
Published in Great Britain by
Frances Lincoln Publishers Limited
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval
system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Publishers
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Graham-Campbell, James.
The Viking World.
Bibliography: p. 2 1 4
Includes index.
1 . Northmen. 1. Title.
DL6 5 .G6 3 1 9 8 0 9 4 8 .0 2 7 9 -21521
ISBN 0 -8 9 9 1 9 -0 0 5 - 7
Filmset by Keyspools Limited Golborne Lancashire England
Colour separations by Newsele Litho Limited Italy
Printed by L.E.G.O. Vicenza Italy

Foreword 6 Ships, Shipwrights and Seamen

Contents
36
by Dr David M. Wilson, by Dr Sean McGrail
Director of the British Museum Sources of evidence 38
The ships and boats 42
Pagan People and Their Lands 8 The Viking ship: a visual glossary 44
Background to the Viking Age 10 Ship sizes and shapes 46
Preparing the timber 50
Viking Warriors 20 Shipbuilding tools 52
Salt-water bandits 22 Building methods 54
The equipment of the warriors 24 Performance of Viking ships 59
Viking raids on Britain 26
The Frankish Empire and Europe 31 Land-seekers 64
Return to England 35 The first explorers 66
Orkney anti Shetland 68
The settlement at Jarlshof 70
TheFiebrides 71
The Isle of Man 72
Ireland, Wales and England 74
The Faeiroes 76
Iceland 78
The Stöng farmhouse 80
Greenland and Vinland 82
 ENMEMORIAM
TOM DELANEY
(1947-1979)

Merchantmen 86 Viking Art 130 From Odin to Christ 172

Trade and towns 88 Art and ornament 132 by Christine Fell
Hedeby 92 The Oseberg carvings 134 Paganism 174
Birka 96 The‘gripping-beast’motif 136 The worship of Odin 178
Kaupang 98 Woodcarving and painting 138 The worship of Thor 180
York and Dublin 100 Metalworkers of the Borre style 140 Other deities 182
Town crafts and industries 102 The Jellinge style 142 The Sigurd legend and the world’s end 184
The eastern routes 108 The Mammen style 144 Pagan to Christian 186
The silver trade 110 Stone sculpture 146 Christianity 188
The Ringerike style 148
Home Life 112 The Urnes style 150 Nation-states 194
Clothing and jewellery 114 Late Viking art in England and Ireland 152 Government and kings 196
Weaving and cloth designs 120 Royal Jelling 200
Household activities 122 Rune-masters and Skalds 154 The Viking fortresses 202
The farmer and smith 127 byDrR. I. Page Defence and communications 208
Travel 129 The Viking script 156 Scandinavian new towns 211
Runic finds in Scandinavia and Churches 212
overseas 160
Runes recording Viking activities 164 Bibliography 214
A cultural record 167 Index 215
Acknowledgments 220
 W e cannot ^ e without using a Norse
m á w > Q i word, we.cannot go to law , or eat an
^gg- Famihar place-names of history
and geography - Naseby, Whitby,
Longford, Lundy, Anglesey - were
given by Scandinavian settlers. Yorkshire Ridings,
the Manx Tynwald, English earldoms, Irish trading
towns have roots deep in Scandinavian adminis­
tration and thought. The English-speaking peoples are
bound by ties to a colourful and mixed past in which
one of the more gaudy elements is Viking.
The Vikings, who were excoriated by their contem­
poraries a^ ^ u talan d bloody, have become objects of

stable society to shake its complacency: they col­

onized new lands, traded over seemingly impossible
distances, fought bravely and with spirit and estab-.
1 ' „ 1 ___ J -^ .1 - _______ L ____ » __

bombastic than most. Their medieval descendants

recorded some of the Viking deeds in a romanticized
Christian form in stories that belong with the great
literature of,the world —the Norse sagas. In the north s
lay a getiius which M r Graham-Campbell and the
va riojj^sj:o«trfhu tor s to this book record with care,
attention and enthusiasm.
The most easily understandable symbol of the
P in ilV ->n * 1, ;„

_ ■j-*1 '
 and a PhD in Archaeology. New ships are discovered But archaeology, while glamorous and potentially
year by year and our knowledge of this aspect of the the richest mine for future knowledge of the material
period has increased immeasurably. During 19 7 9 , for culture of the north, is deeply illuminated by the study
example, Odin’s Raven made an epic voyage from of contemporary and later literature concerning the
Norway to the Isle of Man, enabling scholars and Vikings. There is a splendid immediacy in reading a
practical seamen to understand and clarify many runic inscription of the eleventh century from Sweden
obscurities in our general knowledge of ships and to a man who died in England in the city of Bath. Was
seafaring a thousand years ago. Also in 1979 at he buried perhaps in the grand abbey which a few
Hedeby, in what was once Denmark, one of the most years earlier had seen the coronation of one of the
elaborate excavations of recent years has uncovered greatest Anglo-Saxon kings, Edgar? The chapters by
within the gently shelving harbour of this famous Dr Page and Miss Fell on the more literary elements of
Viking town fragments of a Viking warship, with this tale should be read with attention, particularly as
almost non-existent keel and timbers of such beautiful the illustrations in this book are rich and lush and

_T tiTrr "Acrt=>
& '*"• ._ .

Year by year archaeology discloses more and more

of the material culture of the Viking Age. New studies
aM fralM jteaaÉkh- new 1n mmdav in Sweden and Norway byíáFááalÍSi
skilful photographers. ,
^terpretatíons of their coinage and economy, of their But imagine yourself m those self-same places on a
rpohtica^qrganization and of their health and housing,
New^J^ftds-tell-b'f dö^ií^^enm es rather' technical)" soaked to the skin witmfalh, wearinganadequate o r
f aspgcts of«^ eir‘íií^^l..whícfií add to the d w ^ ají’ smelly^clAfhing with only thtkprospect of a smoky fire
jr^túi-gr l U S 'v a t i ^ afr^brbasse» ^ ^ g giig^i^hgTe and an ^ ft^ floor tq*i.ettrrn fð| Then one can perfiaps
not only revealed a true village composed of farm understand béfter thedongiogíoí other länds where '
complexes, but also houses with byres a*»one end and die Tiving^/as easier and where the pickings were rich.
living quarters at the other. A honeymoöner in the This is surely one of the reasons for the Viking Ago.
south of England finds quite casually a gold arm-ring; One of the most remarkable features of the period,
^ j á k hafd~wo»kmg grind J y Norwegian excavators
aL Westness in Orkney uncovers the first properly
J C . 1 r t. 1• A £
8
Pagan People
& Their Lands

Norway’s mountains rise abruptly from its western fjords,

leaving little space suitable for human habitation and turning its
sparse population to the sea. From these shores, in the late 8th
century, Norsemen launched the first raids on Britain and Ireland
that marked the beginning of the Viking Age in the West.
 PAG AN PEOPLE AN D THEIR LANDS

Background to the Viking Age

he period known as the Viking The beginning of the Viking Age in the West
Age extended from the ninth to was marked by an outburst of Scandinavian
the eleventh centuries. This sea-piracy during the last couple of decades of
was the time of the Viking the eighth century, when Vikings raided
movements overseas, when Western Europe for the first time. Their early
Viking ships sailed from Scandinavia, at targets included many monasteries, and this
the heart of the Viking world, out across the direct assault on Christendom brought horror
northern hemisphere, on voyages of piracy and terror to all who lay within reach of their
and invasion, and journeys of commerce, attentions. The increasing number of raids
exploration and settlement. during the ninth century, and their frequency
The world of the Vikings consisted of a in the tenth, makes the term Viking Age, in its
loose grouping of the Scandinavian home­ literal meaning, appropriate for this period in
lands and new overseas colonies, linked by the West. During the eleventh century the
sea routes that reached across the Baltic and attacks gradually diminished in number and
the North Sea, spanning even the Atlantic. intensity. At the same time the pagan peoples
Viking settlements were to be encountered of Scandinavia came to accept Christianity,
from Newfoundland to Novgorod and from and Norway, Sweden and Denmark emerged
the North Cape of Norway to Normandy in as nation-states comparable to many of those
the Frankish Empire. Viking ships sailed the in the rest of Europe, whose civilization they
northern waters from the Labrador to the now embraced.
White Seas; they harried the Atlantic coasts By about n o o the Viking Age was over
of Europe to the Straits of Gibraltar, even throughout the Viking world: in many areas
penetrating the western Mediterranean. The the Viking settlers and merchants had become
rivers of the British Isles and the Continent absorbed into the local populations; in
carried their warships deep into the heart of others, such as Iceland, their heritage lived on,
Western Europe; the Dnieper and the Volga as it does today.
Women enjoyed a good brought their merchant craft to the Black Sea Throughout these three centuries of Viking
position in Viking society
and the Caspian and so into direct contact adventure, there remained at home in Scandi­
- both in theory and in
practice. This Swedish with the worlds of Byzantium and Islam. navia farmers, hunters, fishermen and trap­
pendant (enlarged) To be a Viking was strictly to be a pirate, pers who led the same lives as their forebears.
depicts a Viking woman
wearing typical Scandin­ for the Old Norse noun viking meant piracy It was those who stayed at home who pro­
avian dress. or a pirate raid, and vikingr, a pirate or raider. vided the resources that made the voyages
It is misleading to describe three centuries of practicable. The ships had to be built,
northern history as an age of raiders —for by equipped and provisioned. Supplies had to be
no means all Scandinavians were. But the accumulated for the winter months, and so
usage is too convenient and long-established had the commodities required to make up the
to be abandoned, and will be applied here to cargoes of the traders. No true picture of the
all those of Scandinavian blood, whatever Vikings and their achievements can be gained
their occupation or intent, unless they are without some understanding of their eco­
further identified by nationality - as Danes, nomic background in Scandinavia, and so of
Swedes, Norse (from Norway), Icelanders or the very different landscapes of their separate
whatever the case might be. Often such homelands.
identification is impossible, for the European
and Islamic sources frequently refer to their Denmark
Viking assailants and to Scandinavian mer­ Denmark today comprises the peninsula of
chants only by general terms, such as Jutland and the large islands of Fyn and
Northmen or pagans. Sjælland, together with nearly 500 smaller

10
 PAGAN PEOPLE A N D THEIR LANDS/Background to the Viking Age

Lake Malar in central

Sweden provides a direct
route from the Baltic into
the heart of the well-
forested and fertile region
of Uppland. Here, on the
island of Björkö, there
flourished the Viking
town of Birka.

islands, including Bornholm in the Baltic, well the North European Plain from which Den­
to the east of the rest of Denmark. However, mark projects like a flat thumb. More than
during the Viking Age Danish territory was half of Denmark is less than iooft (30m)
considerably more extensive, for the southern above sea level, and Denmark’s highest point
Swedish provinces of Skåne, Halland and attains only 568ft (173m), in dramatic con­
Blekinge also formed part of the Danish trast to Norway’s 8,400ft (2,560m).
realm. At the base of the Jutland peninsula, The German cleric Adam of Bremen, who
the Danish frontier lay further to the soiith had had long conversations with the Danish
than its modern counterpart, in the region of King Svein Estridsson (1047—74), described
the river Eider. It was defended by a series of eleventh-century Jutland thus:
earthworks, known as the Danevirke, in And whilst the whole land of Germany
which a single gap was left for the so-called is frightful with thick forests, Jutland is
Hcervej (Army Road). This great route ran still more frightful, where the land is
south from Viborg in northern Jutland to shunned on account of the poverty of
Holstein, a frontier region where Danes, its produce and the sea on account of
Saxons, Frisians and Wends met and mingled. the infestation of pirates. Cultivation is
There it linked with the routes that traversed found hardly anywhere, hardly any

12
 brought them their wealth. In the south, the The Limfjord bisects the
flat landscape of northern
narrow base of the Jutland peninsula pro­ Jutland, linking the
vided the shortest and safest route for trade be­ North Sea to the Kattegat
tween Western Europe and the lands around at the mouth of the Baltic.
Traces of the ploughed-
the Baltic - a source of wealth developed by out rampart of the Viking
the Viking Age town of Hedeby. Control of fortress of Aggersborg
the ship-passages between the North Sea and may be seen in the field in
the foreground as a ring
the Baltic also lay in Danish hands, for all the of lighter soil.
routes passed through the archipelago be­
place exists suitable for human tween Jutland and Skåne.
habitation, but wherever there are arms
of the sea, there the country has very Sweden
large settlements. The wide variations in soil, climate and relief
Denmark during the Viking Age was exten­ throughout its thousand-mile length mean
sively wooded with oak and beech; of the that Sweden has a diverse mantle of vege­
remainder of its gently undulating landscape tation. To the north of Skåne, the low plateau
much was wasteland, sand dunes and heaths. of Småland with its thin and poor soils was
However, the soils of some of the islands were sparsely populated except for certain valleys,
fertile and Adam of Bremen noted of and so formed a natural boundary with
Sjælland, where the seat of eleventh-century Viking Age Denmark. The central lowlands
Danish kings was situated at Roskilde, that it of Sweden divided into two well-forested and
was ‘famous for the valour of its people and fertile regions, that of the Svear (who were to
for the richness of its produce’. give their name to the whole country) and that
Nowhere is more than thirty-five miles of the Götar. The Svear, centred on the
from the sea, and it was the sea that provided province of Uppland, with their royal seat at
the Danes with much of their livelihood, and Old Uppsala, dominated the tribes living

O
 PAGAN PEOPLE AN D THEIR LANDS/Background to the Viking Age

This fine head of a 9th- be practised along the coastal plain, and even
century Norseman was there the inhabitants have to contend with
carved on the side of a
richly ornamented wagon long severe winters, when the Gulf of Bothnia
found in the Oseberg ship is frozen over. The population is as sparse
burial in N orw ay-the today as it must have been in the Viking Age.
grave of a wealthy
woman, often identified The coast of Sweden has seen considerable
(without certainty) as changes since the Viking Age for it is still
Queen Asa of Vestfold.
recovering from the heavy weight of ice that
once overlay it. In the north the land rises
some 4oin (100cm) each century, although
this rate decreases towards the south and in
the extreme south the land level remains
constant. Much of the coast is fringed by
archipelagos of rocky islands, while parallel
to the coast of Götaland lies the long narrow
around the great lakes called Hjälmar and island of Öland. O f particular importance
Malar, and those of the adjacent Baltic coasts. and wealth during the Viking Age was the
The Götar lived in the region on the east of Baltic island of Gotland, consisting of a
the vast Lake Väner in the provinces of great limestone mass with good farming land
Västergötland and Östergötland. To the west around its coasts and sheltered bays. Its in­
they were cut off from the North Sea by habitants exploited to the full its strategic
Danish or Norwegian territories - for in the position at the centre of the Baltic and enjoyed
Viking Age the Swedish province of Bohuslän an independence of their own.
was a Norwegian possession, although oc­
casionally it was dominated by the Danes. Finland
To the north lies Norrland, extending well East of the Baltic, Swedes had by the
beyond the Arctic Circle. The land falls away beginning of the Viking Age begun to settle in
south-eastwards from the high plateau along Finland. Its surface is pockmarked by some
the Norwegian border, to a coastal plain 55,000 interconnected lakes, many sur­
along the Gulf of Bothnia. Much of the terrain rounded by bog and fen. No other country in
is covered with coniferous forest; a great deal the world has so high a proportion of its area
of the rest is bare rock. Agriculture can only under forest. There is, however, a narrow
plain that extends for fifty or sixty miles along
the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf
of Finland, which was populated by Finns
among whom the Swedes settled; in the far
north, as in Sweden and Norway, was the
territory of the Lapps. In the south-west the
The significance of an coast is bordered by an archipelago of small
enigmatic group of
figures carved on one end
islands and reefs, among which the Aland
of the Oseberg wagon is Islands form the largest group.
unknown, but provides
some evidence of the
Vikings’ appearance. A Norway
woman restrains the arm Norway’s mountains, rising abruptly from its
of a man with his sword
fjord-indented coastline, turn the faces of its
raised against a rider with
a dog. The pattern below sparse population to the sea. If the mainland
is of interlaced animals. coast of Norway were measured in a direct

14
 A pre-Viking helmet from
a chieftain’s grave at
Valsgärde in Uppland,
Sweden, is shaped like an
iron crash-helmet, with a
spectacle-like guard for
the eyes and nose; its rich
ornament has largely
perished. Viking helmets
were descended from this
type, and did not have
horns.

line, it would be about 2,000 miles long; its areas with gentle slopes that are well covered
actual length exceeds 12,500 miles. Even this with soil, notably around the Oslofjord,
total excludes the thousands of offshore islets but also in Jæren near the southern edge of the
(at least 150,000 in all) that protect Norway’s fjord country, and further north in the region
western seaboard and form a sheltered sea of Trdndelag.
route down most of its length - the ‘North­ The Oslofjord, or Vikin (the Inlet) as it
way’ that gave Norway its name. used to be called, has two great valley systems
The steep-sided fjords are long and narrow; draining into it-Østerdal and Gudbrandsdal.
the Sognefjord, for instance, extends for a From these valleys passes lead northwards to
hundred miles, but is rarely broader than the rich farming area of Trdndelag, a wealthy
three. Settlement is confined to narrow ledges and important region during Norway’s
and small plains at their heads, deposited by Viking Age, with important contacts east to
the inflowing rivers from the high plateau. Sweden, as well as north and south by sea
More than half the country lies at altitudes along the ‘leads’, the routes sheltered by the
above 2,000ft (610m), but there are just a few multitude of offshore islands.
 PAG AN PEOPLE A N D THEIR LANDS/Background to the Viking Age

Further to the north, extending in a narrow Iceland. In turn the Icelanders settled Green­
strip to the North Cape and broadening out to land, and the Greenlanders went on to
the White Sea, lay the region of Hålogaland, explore part of the North American coastline.
meaning perhaps Land of the Aurora. This was Sweden looked eastwards, as in part did
a thinly populated area where Norse Vikings the Danes, and already before the Viking Age
took tribute from the Lapps and exploited the there were Scandinavian communities estab­
rich natural resources by hunting and fishing. lished on the southern and eastern coasts
The south-west of Norway, except for the of the Baltic, created or developed with a view
rich farming land of Jæren, is essentially an to trade. For Sweden the beginning of the
area of high plateau. Its coast is unprotected Viking Age was marked by the establishment v
by skerries and, being exposed to the south­ of regular contacts with the East, in particular
west, is rocky and dangerous for shipping. The with the eastern part of the Islamic Empire in
far south also lacks inland routes of import­ western Asia, reached via the river Volga.
ance and so was a remote area in the Viking The Danes, although involved with the
Age, as it was to remain for many centuries. Swedes along the south Baltic shores, looked
mainly to the west along the southern coast of
A gilt-bronze bridle- Regional differences the North Sea — the territory of the Frisians.
mount, also from These geographical differences in the Scandi­ The Frisians were renowned as merchants in
Valsgärde in Sweden, navian homelands led to variations in both the eighth century, and at that time they estab­
illustrates the
Scandinavian tradition of agricultural and building practices. Stock- lished commercial contacts with Scandinavia,
stylized animal ornament raising in Denmark did not require the same as the development of Ribe on the west coast
from which Viking art
sprang. It is decorated
amount of labour as in much of the rest of of Denmark demonstrates; Frisian coins have
with a pair of barely Scandinavia, where the long, hard winters been found among the workshop sites and
recognizable creatures, meant that animals had to be housed and deep deposits of cow dung that form its earli­
with intertwining,
ribbon-like bodies and
fed indoors for several months each year to est levels. There also seems to have been a
large, round eyes. ensure their survival. So Denmark’s exports Frisian element in the earliest settlement of
will have included cattle and horses (largely the town of Hedeby on the east side of the
no doubt in the form of hides), while for peninsula, with direct access to the Baltic. In
Norway and Sweden furs obtained by hunting the ninth century, however, the wealth of the
were much more important. Timber was used Frisian merchants provided rich targets for
for building throughout Scandinavia, but Viking raiders and their chief port of
Denmark lacked suitable materials for the Dorestad was repeatedly plundered. Danish
drystone techniques that were also in use in Vikings continued their westward movement
the other countries. through the English Channel to raid France
and southern England, continuing even
Viking movements overseas further to become involved in affairs in
The varied landscape of Scandinavia also Ireland. But their main area for overseas
determined to a great extent the directions of settlement was provided by the conquest of
the Viking movements. Norse Vikings looked eastern England.
inevitably to the west, for a short voyage The reasons behind the great outpouring of
across the North Sea, sailing due westwards people from Scandinavia that marked the
from the main area of population, brought Viking Age are unknown. The search for
almost certain landfall in Shetland, Orkney, wealth, whether in the form of goods or land,
or on the Scottish mainland. The Northern is the most apparent, while population
Isles served as stepping stones to the Heb­ pressures at home may have provided the
rides, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and north-west stimulus that sent people abroad. Dynastic
England - or westwards to the Faeroes and strife and the growing imposition of royal

16
 Pendants from Gotland
represent a tradition of
Scandinavian goldsmiths’
work that stretches back
to the 5th century, when
such ornaments were first
made. Originally these
copied Roman coins and
medals, although they are
no longer recognizable as
such by the Viking Age.

power drove some to seek new lands. Above bead-makers, that flourished particularly in
all we must remember the quality of their the fifth and sixth centuries. Helgö continued
ships, which, for the first time, made such in occupation into the Viking Age, although
expeditions possible. it was then eclipsed by the nearby town of
Birka. The iron and ornaments produced by
Commerce its craftsmen were traded locally and some
The beginning of the Viking Age was almost were also exported. Its imports came in return
certainly a less sudden event than it is often de­ mostly from around the Baltic, but its raw
picted ; dramatic emphasis is generally placed materials of precious metals, bronze and
on the first recorded raids, but one should also glass originated in both Western and Eastern
take into account the more elusive process of Europe. Two remarkable finds are quite con­
the opening up of Scandinavia to the rest of trasted in their ultimate origins - a bronze
Europe, and to the worlds of Byzantium and figure of Buddha from northern India, Kash­
Islam, by the establishment of regular com­ mir, or Afghanistan, and an inlaid bronze
mercial networks with West and East. mount made in Ireland that may be a crozier-
Within Scandinavia a number of small head (see page 91).
trading and manufacturing centres flourished Helgö lay at the centre of the kingdom of
during the eighth century, among them Ribe, the Svear, not far from Old Uppsala where
which has already been mentioned, Paviken there stands an impressive group of burial
on Gotland and Helgö in Sweden. Helgö, mounds of its pre-Viking kings. Helgö’s
which is situated on Lake Mälar, consists of wealth and trading contacts, maybe even its
several groups of houses, including the products, are also reflected elsewhere in
workshops of smiths, bronze-workers and Uppland in the rich boat graves of Vendel and

17
 PAGAN PEOPLE AND THEIR LANDS/Background to the Viking Age

Viking Age royalty will be making regular

appearances in the course of this narrative.
Although we do not know of their graves in
Sweden, the ship burials of Oseberg and
Gokstad in Vestfold, beside the Oslofjord,
and the royal burial place of Jelling in
Jutland, provide us with direct archaeological
evidence for the status and possessions of
certain kings and queens of Norway and
Denmark respectively.
The chieftain, or jarl, would have had
about him a warrior-band drawn from the
free men of his region. During the Viking Age
Scandinavian kings were successful in estab­
lishing their control over the activities of such
leaders, depriving them of their indepen­
dence, and so consolidating their countries
into proper kingdoms. The free men, karlar,
who formed the bulk of society, were
generally farmers, although some might be
Few Viking Age Valsgärde - the cemeteries of two families specialists of one kind or another, such as
farmsteads have been who, judging from their possessions and the boatbuilders, weapon-makers or goldsmiths.
excavated in Norway.
That at Ytre Moa in Sogr lavishness of their burial rites, must have been Farms employed slave labour and the slave,
occupied a small plateau local chieftains. In both cemeteries, which or þrcell, was generally despised (although he
above a river. The farm
dwellings and outhouses
continued in use into the Viking Age, there might be of high birth) and had few rights
were surrounded appear to have been deposited in each (although slaves might be freed from bondage
by the family graves. generation one major ship burial, containing by gift or purchase). Slavery at this period was
a warrior equipped with fine-quality weapons a recognized institution in northern Europe
and highly ornamented equipment, and and among the Arabs, and the Vikings were to
sometimes his horses and imported luxuries become the greatest slave-traders of their day,
such as drinking glasses. The ornamented supplying the Islamic Empire with a com­
bridle-mounts are covered with designs modity that their piratical activities made
created from the bodies of stylized animals. readily available, in return for the silver that
These designs had originally been borrowed they so much coveted and that the Arabs pos­
from the naturalistic art of the provincial sessed in abundance.
Roman Empire, but had then undergone a
continuous process of modification in Scan­ Modern archaeology
dinavia from the fifth century, remaining in The greater part of our knowledge of the
use in one form or another to form the basis of Vikings in Scandinavia is still derived from
various styles of Viking art. the study of grave-goods, for, fortunately for
us, a full range of objects from daily life was
The structure of society provided for the pagan dead. Silver orna­
The chieftains’ graves at Vendel and Vals­ ments and coins were deposited in graves only
gärde introduce us to the aristocratic level of 'in very small numbers, but are found instead
Scandinavian society in the centuries before in hoards, hidden in safe places for security,
and during the Viking Age. At the apex of that and then never recovered. One can only
society, of course, were the kings and princes. conclude that silver was regarded as family

18
wealth, in the same manner as land, and so Anglo-Saxon town, which they turned into
not buried with its owner - or that it had the capital of a Viking kingdom. Details of
conveniently been decided that there was no Viking farmhouses and their associated
use for it in the afterlife. buildings are still best appreciated from sites
Settlement studies are, however, gradually that have been uncovered in the western
gaining in importance as more sites are ex­ settlements - in Scotland, the Faeroes and
cavated and the finds processed. These Iceland - yet here too a great deal remains to
sites include towns and trading centres, such be done. As will become apparent, much
as Trondheim and Kaupang in Norway, information of the greatest importance is the
Hedeby (now in northern Germany), Lund result of recent excavation, as well as work in
and Löddeköpinge in southern Sweden, and the many related fields that together con­ At Lindholm Hdje in
other sites such as the Danish fortresses (for stitute Viking Age studies. One archaeologi­ northern Jutland, beside
example Fyrkat), and the great pre-Viking cal find, such as that of the Skuldelev ships, the Limfjord, an
extensive Viking Age
stone fort of Eketorp on Oland, which was may bring entirely new light to bear on the cemetery has been
reoccupied on a permanent basis during the Vikings and their activities, but so does the excavated, together with
part of its associated
late Viking Age. patient excavation of towns, farms and settlement and even a
We do not yet know as much as we would middens. And we can be sure that far more ploughed field. Most of
like about ordinary farms in the Viking remains to be revealed wherever in the Viking the burials were
cremations placed within
homelands - no doubt because many of them world the resources are made available for stone settings, often in the
lie beneath their modern counterparts, given such research to be carried out. outline of a ship.
the restricted areas available for farming
settlements in much of Scandinavia. At Ytre
Moa, in western Norway, one such farm
complex has been excavated and has been
found to consist of a small scatter of houses
and farm buildings (although not all were in
use together) amid the burial mounds of its
former inhabitants. A similar close re­
lationship between the living and the dead
may be assumed at Lindholm Hdje in Jutland,
which came to an end c. n oo , to be smothered
with sand. This mantle has been stripped away,
to reveal a dense concentration of pre-Viking
and Viking Age graves. Elsewhere in Jutland
new finds of villages and farms —such as that
at Vorbasse - are currently under excavation.
Some of these appear to substantiate the
suggestions that cattle- and horse-ranching
were of particular importance to the Viking
Age economy of Denmark.
Excavations outside Scandinavia are also
continuously increasing our knowledge of the
Viking world. For instance, work in recent
years in Dublin has transformed our under­
standing of the Viking presence in Ireland,
while that in progress in York will enable us
to assess the true impact of the Danes on this

19
zo
Viking
W arriors

Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is a small tidal island off the coast of

Northumbria where a monastery had been established in 634.
Its shelving beaches provided a perfect landing for the shallow-
draft ships of the Viking raiders who fell upon its unsuspecting
and unprotected monks in the summer of 793. This bloody
assault on ‘a place more venerable than all in Britain’ was one of
the first positively recorded Viking raids on the West.

21
 VIKING WARRIORS

Salt-water bandits
alt-water bandits with brutal For a couple of centuries the Vikings as
vices’ or ‘stout-hearted gentle­ vikingr, in the true sense of raiders, brought
men of the north’ ? From the terror and destruction to much of Western
time of their first raids on­ Europe. They fell on the monasteries and
wards, the Vikings have al­ towns around the North and Irish Seas, down
ways aroused strong passions in their com­ Europe’s Atlantic coast and even around the
mentators. In twelfth-century England they western Mediterranean. Any settlement, how­
were recalled as ‘stinging hornets’ and ‘fearful ever small, could serve to revictual a ship, or
wolves’, while in Ireland at the same period have sons and daughters who would fetch a
they were remembered as ‘ruthless, wrathful, price in the slave market. It was not just the
foreign, purely pagan people’. Their initial coasts that suffered. Viking longships, with
impact on Western Europe fell heavily on the their shallow drafts and good manoeuvra­
Church, for monasteries were prime targets; bility under both sail and oar, allowed their
and monastic scholars have left us con­ crews to strike deep inland up Europe’s major
temporary chronicles with bitter accounts of rivers; from the Shannon to the Seine and
their misfortunes. from the Rhine to the Rhone there was
That monasteries were frequently raided in hardly a watercourse, with its ports and
the ninth and tenth centuries was not because markets that escaped the attentions of the
the Vikings were actively anti-Christian, but Vikings in their quest for booty. Throughout
because these sites were centres of wealth, and the West the relics of saints had to be moved
ill protected. They had ecclesiastical treasures to safety: those of St Columba were trans­
and accumulated gifts; they were well sup­ ferred from Iona in the Hebrides to Kells in
plied with provisions and Mass wine. Above Ireland; those of St Cuthbert, removed from
all, they were centres of population, whose Lindisfarne off the Northumbrian coast, fin­
abbots, monks and nuns might be captured ally came to rest in Durham; those of St Phili­
for ransom; or, if funds were not immedi­ bert from the isle of Noirmoutier, at the
ately forthcoming for their release, sold into mouth of the Loire, ended up at Tournus.
slavery. Repeated raids on monasteries in By no means all of those who sailed west and
Ireland and western France suggest that their south from Scandinavia were after loot; there
inmates were being culled to feed the de­ were merchants among them, and people
mands of the slave trade on which much of seeking new livelihoods as settlers or as
Viking Dublin’s prosperity was based. mercenaries in the service of whoever had
The Vikings were not the only people to need of them. But raids were the hallmark of
attack monasteries, which were liable to fall the Viking Age; and it is as raiders that the
victim also to local political disturbances, or Vikings have been remembered.
even to native bandits, as the Irish annals
show. Nor was the Church always hostile to
Viking forces: accommodation was some­
times felt to be a better course than valour.
Archbishop Wulfhere of York, for instance,
collaborated with the Danish conquerors
Right One of a pair of when they took the city. But it is important to
silver miniatures
(enlarged) from Birka in
remember that our principal historical
Sweden. Adam of Bremen sources, being written by churchmen, are
wrote in the n th century naturally biased. All the same, running
that the Swedes were
‘very great warriors both through their accounts there is a very real
on horses and on ships’. sense of fear, even of panic.

22
 VIKING WARRIORS

The equipment of the warriors

ihe success of the Vikings’ raids Rare exceptions among the representa­
depended in the first place on tions, such as a small figure from Uppland
the special qualities of their (page 179), have horned helmets. But the ex­
ships. But in addition they planation for such figures is to be found in
were well provided with weap­ the period before the Viking Age. Even then
ons of exceptional efficiency, among which such helmets were not worn in battle, but were
swords were the most important. These were cult objects with birds’ head terminals worn
carefully balanced for maximum effect as by dancing warriors at festivities probably
slashing implements, and were designed to be connected with the worship of Odin.
used single-handed. Their blades were double- Body protection in the form of chain mail
edged and the finest seem to have been seems to have been a rarity for most of the
imported from the Rhineland. Great care was Viking Age, although the Norwegian chief­
naturally taken of such weapons and this tain who was buried with his helmet also
often found expression in the elaborate possessed a mail shirt. By the end of the
ornamentation of their hilts. Apart from the Viking Age such shirts were clearly becoming
sword, the commonest weapon found in the more common; not only are they depicted
pagan Viking Age graves is the spear. Both frequently on the Bayeux Tapestry, they are
The 10th-century Viking javelins for throwing and lances for thrust­ mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poem known
warrior crudely carved on ing were in use; again the finest of these were as The Battle o f Maldon, after the encounter
one side of the Middleton
cross, in Yorkshire, is richly ornamented. between an English and a Viking army that
shown surrounded by his The weapon with which the Vikings are took place in 991 - a Viking was ‘wounded
weapons. On his head he
most often associated in the popular imagin­ through his mail in the breast’, by the thrust of
wears a conical helmet
and by his left side are ation is the axe. Axes were certainly much an Anglo-Saxon spear.
placed his shield, sword used in battle throughout the Viking Age — This poem tells also how ‘They let the
and axe; to his right is his
spear. A large knife in a
they can be seen being wielded on the spears, hard as files, fly from their hands, well-
sheath hangs from his belt. Lindisfarne stone (page 26 ), and on the Bayeux made javelins. Bows were busy. Point pierced
Tapestry they are among the weapons being shield. The rush of battle was fierce, warriors
loaded to equip William the Conqueror’s fell on both sides, men lay dead.’ The Anglo-
invasion fleet. The principal means of defence Saxons had, at the beginning of the fight,
was the shield, which consisted of a circular formed a wall with their shields in order to
wooden board with a central iron boss to hold their line against the Vikings; this was
protect the hand. also a Viking practice. But, on the whole, a
It is, one fears, too late to scotch the myth battle seems to have consisted of a general
that the Vikings wore horned helmets. You mélée with the principal concern being to
may search among the contemporary illus­ knock hell out of the opposition in whatever
trations of Viking warriors from Iceland to manner was most effective.
Sweden and almost all will be found to show The use of horses in fighting seems to have
men with pointed heads. A simple conical become increasingly widespread as the Viking
cap, most probably of leather (for helmets of Age developed. In the tenth century we find
any description dating from the Viking Age Vikings buriednotonly with their weapons, but
are very rarely found), seems to have been the with their riding equipment and horses as well.
normal protection for the head of a Viking The successes of the Vikings in England in the
warrior. The most complete find of an iron late Viking Age seem to have been due in great
helmet is from the grave of a tenth-century part to their mobility, resulting from their use
Norwegian Viking and consists of a simple of horses. They would normally have seized
rounded cap, made in several pieces, with a horses on landing, but the Viking ships could
spectacle-like guard for the eyes and nose. carry horses when necessary.

24
Above Spear-heads richly
encrusted with silver and
copper wires, from 10th-
century graves at
Valsgärde in Sweden,
demonstrate the wealth
and care that could be
lavished on Viking Age
weapons.

Left A 19th-century
watercolour records the
weapons of 9th-century
Viking warriors, found in
the pagan cemetery at
Kilmainham-Islandbridge
outside Dublin. Swords
with ornamented hilts,
spear-heads, arrow­
heads, shield-bosses, and
an axe, are all illustrated,
together with women’s
bronze brooches and four
playing pieces.

2-5
 VIKING WARRIORS

Viking raids on Britain

ut of the north an evil shall The Northumbrian raids are the first of
break forth upon all the which we have certain knowledge, but
inhabitants of the land’ disturbances in the English Channel may have
(Jeremiah 1:14). This pro­ started even earlier. Offa was arranging for
phecy came true for the the defence of Kent against pagan seamen in
Anglo-Saxons on 8 June 793, when ‘ravages 792, although we are not told who they were.
of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s That the south coast of England was in
church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and danger is confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon
This Anglo-Saxon stone
grave-marker was raised slaughter.’ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle pre­ Chronicle's entry under the year 789 of an
on Lindisfarne in the 9th faces this entry with an account of the ‘dire event that occurred during the reign of King
century. It seems
portents’ that had appeared over North­ Beorhtric of Wessex (786-802). From the
probable that the scene
depicted is that of a umbria earlier in the year, to be followed by various versions of what took place, it ap­
Viking raiding party famine. To the Anglo-Saxons the first Viking pears that men from three ships put ashore
brandishing their axes
and swords —perhaps
raids seemed to be a divine judgment on their at Portland and the King’s official, who rode
recalling the attack on sins. out from Dorchester to investigate, was killed
the monastery o f 793. The long sandy beach of Lindisfarne, or by them. It is probable that these were Vikings
Holy Island, where monks from Iona in from Hordaland in western Norway, al­
Scotland had established themselves in 634 to though the Chronicle passes the comment
bring Christianity to the Northumbrians, that ‘Those were the first ships of Danish men
provided a perfect landing for Viking long- which came to the land of the English.’
ships. The raid was a hit-and-run affair, The Anglo-Saxons were frequently con­
typical of those that were to follow. The fused as to the distinction between Nor­
English scholar Alcuin wrote of it to the King wegians and Danes. They were ‘heathen
of Northumbria: men’ alike and both races spoke the ‘Danish
. . . never before has such terror tongue’. As a further complication, certainly
appeared in Britain as we have now at a later period if not at the very beginning,
suffered from a pagan race, nor was it Viking armies and even groups of raiders
thought that such an inroad from the included men of more than one nationality.
sea could be made. Behold, the church In 795 Iona was plundered for the first time,
of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood as was an island off Ireland, probably
of the priests of God, despoiled of all its Lambay, to the north of Dublin. There are no
ornaments; a place more venerable chronicles to tell us of the raids that must have
than all in Britain is given as prey to preceded these, on the monasteries of the
pagan peoples. Northern Isles. In the north and west of
The success of this raid was such that a Scotland, raiding and settlement seem to
party of Vikings, no doubt the same ones, have gone hand in hand. The new settlements
returned to the coast of Northumbria the provided a network of fellow Norsemen along
following year and raided a monastery, much of the sea route from Norway to
probably Jarrow. However, their leader was Ireland and bases where additional crewmen
killed, others were drowned in a severe storm or ships might be recruited, or storm damage
and those who clambered ashore were killed. repaired, before heading southwards.
Following this disaster for the Vikings,
Northumbria seems to have escaped their Ireland
further attentions for a generation. The focus Raiding on Ireland was at first sporadic and
of Norwegian piracy, for it is a reasonable confined to the coastline. But in the 830s the
assumption that these raiders of 793 /4 were frequency of the raids increased and Viking
from Norway, shifted westwards. ships began to penetrate Ireland’s rivers and

26
 VIKING WARRIORS/Viking raids on Britain

operate on her inland waters. One by one her also suggests that the first settlement of
great monasteries were plundered for their Dublin may have been slightly different from
treasures and their occupants, some of them the one, dating from the tenth century, that
many times. Partly in response to these has been excavated from beneath the heart of
continuing attacks the Irish invented the tall the medieval and modern city.
conical ‘round tower’. The remains of some This putative change in location might be
eighty of these, built between the tenth and attributable to the fact that in 902 the Irish
twelfth centuries, survive on the sites of early succeeded in expelling the Norse from
monasteries; although they were used pri­ Dublin; some went to Scotland, others to
marily as bell towers, their doors were always north-west England. However, about ten
raised well above ground level to make them a years later the pillaging of Ireland began
safe place for both monks and valuables. One again in earnest and in 917 Dublin was re­
anonymous monk expressed his anxiety in established as a Norse settlement, soon to
some lines penned in the margins of his expand and develop into a great port and
manuscript —one of the few poems written in manufacturing centre. To the tenth century
praise of bad weather. In translation, it reads: belongs also the development of the other
‘The wind is rough tonight, tossing the white Norse towns in Ireland: Wicklow and Ark-
hair of the ocean; I do not fear the fierce low, Wexford and Waterford, Cork and
Vikings, coursing the Irish sea.’ Limerick, a familiar list to which recent
In the 840s events took a sinister turn when studies suggest that Larne should now be
groups of raiders began to establish long- added. Yet it was only in the neighbourhood
phorts, fortified sea bases in which they could of Dublin that any extensive area of Irish
over-winter. Whereas the raiders had pre­ countryside came directly under Norse rule.
viously appeared annually, as the raiding Land-taking on any significant scale had been
season had come round again, now they successfully resisted by the scores of small
became a permanent part of the Irish scene. At Irish kingdoms. At the battle of Tara in 980
about the same time the Norsemen who had the Norse suffered a severe defeat at the hands
mounted the earlier raids were joined by of the Irish, to whom they henceforth paid
Danes. Some of the fortified bases came to tribute. The Irish were prepared by then to
nothing, as at Annagassan in County Louth, tolerate the Vikings in their midst, if kept
where a rampart-enclosed area awaits exca­ under control, because of their skill as traders
vation. But at the first base, established in 841 and the wealth that their towns generated.
by the Dubh-Linn (Black Pool) at the ford of Many words in the Irish language connected
the river Liffey, there developed a settlement with both ships and trade, such as margadh
that in time became (with one brief interlude) for a market, are borrowed from Norse, which
the capital of a Norse kingdom and one of illustrates well the permanence of their
the premier trading centres of Western impact on the Irish economy. Struggles and
Europe. Up-river from medieval Dublin, at battles continued, for they were a major
Kilmainham-Islandbridge, numerous graves feature of Irish politics to which the Vikings
of well-equipped Viking warriors - and their had only added a further dimension. The
women - were discovered and destroyed battle of Clontarf, fought near Dublin in
when the Great Southern Railway was built in 1014, is often regarded as the ultimate
the mid-nineteenth century. Enough was confrontation between the Vikings (who
salvaged to suggest that from the mid-ninth numbered among their army allies from the
century onwards there was a permanent Orkneys and the Isle of Man, together with
settlement here that numbered craftsmen and the Irish of Leinster) and Brian Boru, King of
merchants among its inhabitants. Its site Munster and High King of Ireland. The Norse

28
were defeated, although Brian Boru was this year a great heathen army came into
killed. O f such victories are legends made, but England and took up winter quarters in East
in reality Clontarf was not the ultimate Anglia; there they were supplied with horses,
confrontation between the Irish and the and the East Angles made peace with them.’
Vikings, and final overthrow of the Vikings, This ‘great army’ (micel here) had come after
that it was built up to be. It was Irish against land for settlement, an aspiration that was
Irish and Norse, and the vanquished King to be fully realized, although their progress
Sigtrygg Silkenbeard of Dublin ruled on for through England cannot be followed in detail.
a further twenty years, until his own death. In 866 they captured York and placed a
The Norse remained distinct in their puppet Anglo-Saxon king on the throne of
coastal communities, outward-looking with Northumbria. By the early 870s the Vikings
their concentration on trade. But under Irish controlled the greater part of eastern England
influence they had long since become Chris­ from York to London. In 874 the ‘great army’
tians, which had done much to ease cross­ divided and subsequently in 876 those under
fertilization between their two cultures. In the the leadership of Halfdan ‘shared out the land
late eleventh and twelfth centuries Irish art of the Northumbrians and they proceeded to
was strongly influenced by the late Viking plough and to support themselves.’ Other
styles, providing them with a final flourish of groups from the ‘great army’ also took land,
glory far from Scandinavia. Dublin was still in Mercia in 877, and in East Anglia in 879
Norse-speaking when it fell to the Anglo- under the leadership of King Guthrum.
Norman invaders in 1170. Guthrum had previously attempted to settle
in Wessex, but had been defeated by King
Renewed Viking attacks on England Alfred at Ethandun (Edington). In victory,
The 830s saw a major new impact by the Alfred was able to force the invaders to accept
Vikings on England. A Danish expedition his terms, which included the baptism of
that had fallen on Frisia in 834, sacking its Guthrum and his chief followers.
prosperous trading centre of Dorestad on the Five years after settling in East Anglia A large amount of metal­
Rhine, turned across the Channel in 835, Guthrum broke the terms of his agreement work from the British
Isles has been found in
when the ‘heathen men ravaged Sheppey’, a with Alfred, but after a successful campaign 9th-century Scandinavian
small island at the mouth of the Thames. Alfred imposed a new treaty on Guthrum in graves. This stylized
human figure, his body
During the next fifteen years there were more 886. Its terms survive, with its first clause inlaid with enamel and
Viking raids on England, from Somerset and defining the frontier between the English and chequered glass, is from
Dorset to Lindsey and Northumbria. Some the Danes: ‘up the Thames, and then up the an Irish bronze bowl
found in a man’s grave at
would have been the work of the Norse from Lea, and along the Lea to its source, then in a Micklebostad in western
Ireland, most were by Danes, including those straight line to Bedford, then up the Ouse to Norway.
who had established bases in Frisia. In 850 Watling Street’.
they began to over-winter in England, at first During the last twenty years of his reign
on the island of Thanet, and in 865 the first Alfred was troubled by a new group of Vik­
payment of a Danegeld is recorded. For the ings, who were raiding on both sides of the
promise of peace the people of Kent paid Channel. Meeting with a severe defeat by the
the Vikings money and were rewarded with Franks in 891, they crossed to England and
treachery, for ‘under cover of that peace and attempted to seize land for settlement. They
money the army stole away inland by night were successfully resisted and so finally split
and ravaged all eastern Kent.’ up in 896, some settling in areas already under
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 865 re­ Viking control - in East Anglia and in
cords an event that marked a turning point in Northumbria — others returning across the
the intervention of the Vikings in England. ‘In Channel to continue their raiding.

29
 VIKING WARRIORS/Viking raids on Britain

A bove A gilt-bronze
mount, made for the cover
of an 8th-century
Northumbrian book, was
plundered by a Viking
and converted into a
woman’s pendant.

Right ‘Ranvaig owns this

casket’, states the runic
inscription on the base of
this small Scottish or Irish
reliquary now in
Copenhagen. Was it
looted to make a jewel
box or acquired by an
early convert as a shrine ?

By the turn of the century there had been that ‘we were all harassed by the heathen
Vikings resident in England, in greater or army.’ Alfred, however, was the leader who
lesser numbers, for a period of fifty years. had beaten back the Vikings and whose
A great deal of disruption and destruction policies for the defence of his kingdom,
had taken place. The Danelaw - the area initiated during his own lifetime, enabled his
of accepted Danish settlement and rule in successors to turn the tide and establish a
eastern England - now included the king­ united English kingdom by the middle of the
doms of York and East Anglia, and the tenth century. The last Viking king of York
area around the fortified towns of Derby, was Eirik Bloodaxe, who was expelled by the
Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford Anglo-Saxons in 954 during the reign of
(the Five Boroughs) in between. Within it the Alfred’s grandson, Eadred.
Church had survived, but numerous monas­
teries had been abandoned and their estates Loot from the British Isles
shared out following Viking attacks. Lindis- A large amount of metalwork from the British
farne, Wearmouth and Jarrow all came to an Isles has been found in ninth-century graves in
end in the ninth century, as did Whitby in Scandinavia, especially in Norway. There is
Yorkshire, which was raided in 867. A stone obviously a problem, however, in trying to
mould for casting ingots found at Whitby determine what is loot and what may have
Abbey may well have been used by Vikings been obtained by other, non-violent, means.
for the melting down and sharing out of the It' is now realized that much of what was once
looted treasures. Alfred, in his writings, accepted as ecclesiastical metalwork, and
recalled the time ‘before everything was therefore necessarily loot, may well have been
ravaged and burnt’, and in his will remarked secular in origin and use.

30
=The Frankish Empire & Europe
he earliest contacts between Buskerud, Norway, consists of 5^1b (2.5kg)
Scandinavia and the Continent of gold objects, with some glass beads. The
seem not to have taken the Frankish coins among these have been
form of Viking raids, but to mounted with loops to convert them into
have been based on trading pendants. The prize of the collection is
relations. The Frisians were the traditional without doubt a massive trefoil-shaped
North Sea traders and would have been in­ mount, with acanthus-leaf ornament of
volved in commercial contacts with Denmark Carolingian workmanship - an object of
before the Danish King Godfred invaded exceptional splendour by any standards. To
Frisia (the low-lying southern coast of the complete the picture of Viking depredations
North Sea) in 810. Although this first raid was on the West, the hoard also contains the only
successful, Frisia was by then part of the Anglo-Saxon gold object to have been found
Carolingian Empire and its defence was well in Scandinavia, a finger-ring. Again, it is
organized. A subsequent attack was beaten difficult to decide whether Frankish objects
off during 820, the year when Viking ships that found their way to Scandinavia did so by
(perhaps the same ones) also appeared for fair means or foul. In 864, in desperation,
the first time on the Seine, and again were Charles the Bald had prohibited any further
driven away. It was in 834, with the sack of sale of weapons and horses to the Vikings.
Dorestad, that Viking attacks on the Frankish Meanwhile the Vikings who had been
Empire began in earnest; thereafter it was active down the western coasts of the British
pillaged regularly for a generation. In 841 it Isles had penetrated south to the Atlantic
was the turn of Rouen on the Seine to be coasts of France. There were raiders active off
sacked, and in 842 of Quentowic, opposite the Aquitaine as early as 799. In 835 the monas­
Straits of Dover. In 844 Viking ships sailed up tery on the island of Noirmoutier, at the
the Garonne, and in 845 Paris was plundered mouth of the Loire, was plundered; this was
and the Vikings bought off by Charles the a centre for the trade in salt and wine. In 843
Bald for 7,ooolb (3,000kg) of silver, the first the Vikings penetrated the Loire to attack
of thirteen Danegelds known to have been Nantes, before retiring to establish a winter
paid in France up to 926. This one achieved base at Noirmoutier, by then abandoned by
a respite of six years. In 845 Hamburg was the monks because of earlier attacks. A monk
sacked. In the years 862-3 the Vikings were from Noirmoutier, writing in the 860s, sums
operating up the Rhine to Cologne, and in 882 up the events of these years:
Trier received their attentions. These are but The number of ships grows: the endless
a few dates from the catalogue of misfortunes stream of Vikings never ceases to
that fell upon the northern coasts of the increase. Everywhere the Christians are
Frankish Empire in the ninth century. victims of massacres, burnings,
The loot and the Danegelds received, plunderings: the Vikings conquer all in
totalling 6851b (310kg) of gold and 43,0421b their path, and no one resists them:
(19,500kg) of silver according to contem­ they seize Bordeaux, Périgueux,
porary Frankish sources, have left their mark Limoges, Angouléme and Toulouse.
in Scandinavia, but not to the degree that Angers, Tours and Orléans are
might be expected. Very few ninth-century annihilated and an innumerable fleet
Frankish (or Anglo-Saxon) coins have been sails up the Seine and the evil grows in
found in Scandinavia and the reason must be the whole region. Rouen is laid waste,
that for the most part they were melted down plundered and burned: Paris, Beauvais
and turned into ornaments. The great Hon and Meaux taken, Melun’s strong
hoard, hidden in the ninth century in fortress levelled to the ground, Chartres

31
 VIKING WARRIORS/The Frankish Empire and Europe

occupied, Evreux and Bayeux woman’s grave at Pitres on the Seine, between
plundered, and every town besieged. Rouen and Paris. There is otherwise only a
It was not just the towns and monasteries pair of gold arm-rings from Dorestad and a
that suffered. In western France there was scatter of swords and spear-heads across the
disruption of cultivated land and dispersal of Continent, until one reaches a little island off
the peasantry. When the land around the the south coast of Brittany, the lie de Groix.
towns was devastated, to remain within the Here, beneath a mound, were found the
walls would have meant starvation. The cremated remains of two bodies buried in a
result was the depopulation of both town and ship during the second half of the tenth cen­
countryside. Bordeaux, which had become tury. At its centre was a large iron cauldron,
increasingly prosperous up to the ninth surrounded by weapons and smith’s tools;
century, then experienced disaster without there was gold and silver wire from richly
parallel in its history and reached its nadir in ornamented cloth, and a gold finger-ring. The
the middle of that century. As Bordeaux grave-goods form a mixture of Scandinavian
suffered, so too did Aquitaine. The popu­ and West European objects, so this Viking sea
lation of the Périgord was driven to take captain, buried with a slave or follower, can
refuge in the Haut-Limousin. From the north scarcely have just arrived from home before
refugees fled to Burgundy, and there were meeting his death by the Atlantic. He must
others who sought safety in the Ardennes and have been operating in the West for some
the Auvergne. time, active perhaps in Normandy, Ireland
In the mid-ninth century, Lothar, son of and around the Loire. The island of his burial
Charles the Bald, had granted the island of might well have served as his ‘pirate’s nest’ for
Walcheren in Frisia to the Danish brothers part of his life; it would have been well suited
Harald and Rorik. He was buying their pro­ for the purpose.
tection and assistance against other Vikings
and against his own brothers. It was a first Spain and the Mediterranean
step in the direction that led to the Viking Other Atlantic Vikings followed the coast of
chieftain Rollo receiving Normandy by treaty France yet farther south to one of the richest
in 911. Rollo, probably a Norwegian himself and most splendid of Europe’s kingdoms in
although leading a force of Danes, had evi­ the Viking Age — that of the Moors in Spain.
dently been plundering in France for a While it is possible that some Vikings had
number of years before Charles the Simple reached Spain as early as the end of the eighth
settled Normandy on him in return for his century, the first raid of which we have
promise to defend it. Rollo did homage to the definite evidence took place in 844 when
King and in 912 he was baptized; Normandy Seville was taken and held for a week. The
was shared out among his men. During the raiders subsequently received short shrift at
tenth century the Normans drifted away from the hands of the Moors and suffered severe
their Scandinavian origins and became assim­ losses; only by ransoming their prisoners
ilated into French ways. After a couple of were those still surviving able to re-equip and
generations their language had been lost, make good their escape.
although their presence lives on in Normandy The next year the Moorish kingdom of
(as in the English Danelaw) in the place- Spain sent an embassy under Al-Ghazal to the
names of the region. King of the Majus — majus, meaning fire-
The Vikings in Frisia and in France have worshippers or heathens, was the Muslim
left few archaeological traces of their pres­ name for the Vikings. The embassy may have
ence. There is a man’s grave at Antum, gone either to Ireland or to Denmark,
near Groningen in the Netherlands, and a unfortunately we cannot be sure which, or

32
The magnificent hoard
buried at Hon in south­
east Norway in the 86os
consists of 5^ pounds (2.5
kilos) of gold with a little
silver and some beads. The
large trefoil-shaped
mount (top left) is one of
the finest surviving pieces
of Carolingian goldwork;
some of the coins
mounted as pendants
were also obtained from
the Franks, the others
are Roman, Byzantine,
Arabic and Anglo-Saxon.

33
 VIKING WARRIORS/The Frankish Empire and Europe

what was the outcome, although the object of the western Vikings’ contacts with Spain,
may well have been to encourage trade in although it is clear that the western Mediter­
slaves and furs. ranean, at any rate, lay outside the sphere of
The most famous expedition to Spain and regular Viking activity.
beyond was that led by Bjorn and Hastein,
which set out from the Loire with sixty-two Viking mercenaries
ships in 859 and which did not return until From early in the Viking Age there seem to
862. They passed through the Straits of have been plenty of men prepared to hire
Gibraltar, plundered Algeciras, and then themselves out as fighters wherever the
headed for North Africa. After considerable demand existed. In Ireland, bands of Vikings
success they turned back and harried the became involved as mercenaries in the eternal
southern coast of Spain, before moving on to disputes between the numerous kingdoms
the Balearics. They found winter quarters for into which the country was divided. In Frisia
themselves in a traditional type of location, Lothar engaged the services of Harald and
on an island in the Camargue in the Rhone Rorik in return for Walcheren. We are told
delta; this had the incidental benefit of that in England on several occasions the
providing them with a base from which they Vikings aided the Britons of the south-west in
were able to raid up-river as far north as their struggles to hold off the Anglo-Saxons
Nimes, Arles and Valence. Finally, beaten off of Wessex. In the late Viking Age, as we
by the Franks, they moved on to Italy. Pisa shall see, there was a permanent force of
was sacked and so was Luna, in mistake (it is Scandinavians maintained for the defence of
said) for Rome; their subsequent movements England against other Scandinavians. But
are largely unknown, but there is a sugges­ the most famous of such mercenary undertak­
tion that they continued on into the eastern ings must be the so-called Varangian Guard of
Mediterranean. Their attempt to pass back the Emperor at Byzantium.
through the Straits of Gibraltar in 861 was Scandinavians may have served in the
contested by the Moorish fleet. Those that Imperial Bodyguard from soon after the estab­
escaped made one last bid for yet more booty. lishment of contact with the capital in the
On reaching Navarre they went inland and ninth century. An agreement of 911, between
captured its prince, for whom they obtained a the Rus, those of Scandinavian origin settled
ransom of 90,000 denarii. Although only a or active in Russia, and the Byzantines, con­
third of the ships that had set out four years tains a clause concerning those of the Rus
Helmeted Viking previously reached the Loire again in 862, the who wished to enter military service under the
warriors with their dogs survivors must have been immensely richer Emperor. The Byzantines applied the term
ornament the splendid
Ledberg rune-stone in for their expedition. Varangians to Scandinavians in general and
Östergötland. They carry Arabic sources for events in Spain are far there does not seem to have been a separate
circular shields and the
man at the top is armed
from complete, but there does seem to have band of them in the Imperial Guard until the
with a sword and spear. been a gap of almost a century before the next late tenth century. In the eleventh century the
concerted raid in 966, which was unsuccess­ Guard appears to have become a mainly
ful. The Iberian peninsula had not, however, Scandinavian company and the most famous
gone unvisited in the intervening period; among its number was Harald Sigurdson,
some trade may well have been involved. later to be nicknamed ‘the Hard-ruler’, who
Around 966 eighteen of the cities of the was King of all Norway from 1047 to 1066. In
Christian kingdom of Asturias in northern rhe later eleventh century, however, the com­
Spain fell to Viking attacks; among them was plexion of the Guard changed when it was
Santiago de Compostella. But all in all it is augmented by Anglo-Saxons leaving England
hard to assess the extent and significance after the Norman Conquest.

34
Return to England
second Viking Age began for ever, who, not sharing in the raiders’ booty,
England in 980, when the were prepared to sell their services to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle record­ English. Thorkel the Tall, with forty-five
ed attacks on Southampton, ships, became a mercenary in the pay of King
Thanet and Cheshire; the fol­ Æthelred in 1012, helping to save London
lowing year the coasts of Devon and Corn­ from Svein in 1013. His troops were richly
wall were ravaged. Then in 982 Dorset was rewarded for their services.
attacked and London burned. These were the In 1013 Svein had arrived by way of the
first in a new wave of Viking expeditions Humber and had been accepted by the
carried out by men who had no interest in Danelaw as king; he died the following year
land-taking; they were after treasure. They (‘a happy event’, said the chronicler). But his
found England once again vulnerable as well son Cnut remained, and was chosen as king of
as wealthy, and therefore concentrated their England when Æthelred died in 1016. He
attentions upon it. These renewed raids ruled until his death in 1035 (see page 196);
reached their peak at the turn of the tenth his court reintroduced Scandinavian tastes to
century and the first of a new series of the English. The splendid tombstone from St
Danegelds was paid in 991. Paul’s churchyard in London must have been
The attacks of 991 were led by Olaf raised in memory of one of his followers;
Tryggvason (later to be King of Norway) at it is ornamented in the mainstream fashion
the head of a fleet of ninety-three ships. It of Viking art of that period. Even after the
was during his campaign that the Battle of restoration of the English monarchy in the
Maldon was fought, against the English in person of Edward the Confessor, Scandi­
Essex. The Anglo-Saxon poem renders thus navian mercenaries were still employed by the
the words of the Vikings’ messenger. English. When in 1051 this force was dis­
Bold seamen have sent me to you, and banded, the stream of English silver to Several Swedish rune-
stones from the n th
told me to say that you must send Scandinavia dried up, although kings of both century mention England
treasure quickly in return for peace, Norway and Denmark continued to regard and men who died in the
and it will be better for you all to buy England and her wealth with longing eyes. West. The Yttergärde
stone in Uppland was
off an attack with treasure, rather than It was from a victory over Norwegian in­ raised in memory of a
face men as fierce as us in battle. We vaders, at Stamford Bridge, when their king, man called Ulf who ‘took
need not destroy each other, if you are Harald the Hard-ruler, was killed, that King three payments of geld in
England. The first was
rich enough. In return for the gold we Harold of England had to speed southwards the one that Tosti paid,
are ready to make truce with you. to meet a second invasion - that of Duke then Thorkel, then Cnut.’
Rich enough England proved to be, for the William of Normandy - and his own defeat at
Vikings victorious that year received £10,000 the battle of Hastings. These events of 1066
as the first of the Danegelds. The sums needed did not bring England’s Viking Age quite to
to make truce rose rapidly: £16,000 (994), its close. In 1069 a Danish royal fleet entered
£24,000 (1002), £36,000 (1007), £48,000 the Humber and supported an English revolt
(1012). The silver hoards of Scandinavia against their Norman invaders. The follow­
contain dramatic evidence of this continued ing year the Danish king, Svein Estridsson,
drain on the pockets of the English. came himself, but was bought off by William.
The Danegeld of 994 was again paid to Finally, in 1085, Cnut, Svein’s son and suc­
Olaf, who had returned allied with King Svein cessor, planned a mighty invasion of England,
Forkbeard of Denmark. Although Olaf there­ but the attempt came to nothing and the fleet
after engaged himself in Norwegian affairs, never set sail. This was the last serious effort
Svein followed this venture with many cam­ by the Scandinavians against England; the
paigns of his own. There were those, how­ Viking Age was over.

35
36
Ships,
Shipwrights
& Seamen

For 300 years the Vikings were the most accomplished

shipbuilders and seamen of the northern seas, operating from the
Arctic to the Caspian and across the Atlantic to the New World.

37
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN

Sources of evidence
he Viking longship has become were these ships navigated ? Why were they so
a symbol of Scandinavian successful and why finally were they super­
achievement, encapsulating seded by the bulky, slow-moving ships of the
the essence of the Viking Age Middle Ages? Unfortunately there are no
and excellence in ancient ship­ Viking shipbuilding manuals to provide
building. But how did the Viking shipwrights immediate answers to such questions, but
build ships of such speed and elegance ? How there are many other sources of evidence,
which when painstakingly pieced together
offer a surprisingly complete picture of the
ships and the men who built them.
Two i,ooo-year-old ships, excavated eighty
to a hundred years ago from Norwegian
burial mounds, at Oseberg and Gokstad on
the west side of Oslofjord, and now recon­
structed and displayed in a building of
cathedral-like proportions at Bygddy near
Oslo, are everyman’s idea of a Viking ship.
But these two ninth- to tenth-century ships
were rather special ones - possibly the Norse
equivalent of royal yachts; although we can

Thousand-year-old
Norwegian vessels from
burial mounds at Oseberg
and Gokstad are
everyman’s idea of Viking
ships and are among the
chief sources of evidence
for Viking Age
shipbuilding techniques.
Right The burial chamber
of a royal lady was found
in the centre of the 9th-
century Oseberg ship,
excavated in 1904. This is
the richest ship grave yet
discovered.

38
The 10th-century
Gokstad ship, seen here
during its excavation in
1880 and reconstructed in
the Viking Ship Museum
at Bygdby, near Oslo, is
less ornate than the
earlier Oseberg ship, but
was found in a better
state of preservation.

The superb carvings on

the bow and stern of the
reconstructed Oseberg
ship can also be seen at
the Viking Ship Museum
at Bygddy.

39
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS AND SEAMEN/Sources of evidence

learn much from them about certain aspects gravings and the eleventh-century Bayeux
of Viking Age shipbuilding, we have to look Tapestry. There are problems in interpreting
elsewhere for evidence of how earlier and all these forms of evidence: for example, the
later ships were built, for the distinctive sagas were not written down until the twelfth
features of Viking merchant ships, and for century and thus many contain post-Viking
details of sails and rigging. material. Nevertheless, careful investigation
Ships and impressions of ships in other can reveal valid information about Viking
burial mounds in Scandinavia and Britain ships. More recently, our knowledge has been
have provided some of this additional infor­ greatly increased by the excavation of wrecked
mation. Sagas, sea laws, poetry and travellers’ or abandoned vessels. Research by Ole
tales (such as those recounted to King Alfred) Crumlin-Pedersen, Director of the Viking
have also helped to fill out the picture, as has Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, on the
the evidence from woodcarvings, stone en­ five Skuldelev ships excavated from Roskilde

Unlike the burial ships at

Oseberg and Gokstad,
the nth-century ships
excavated at Skuldelev in
Denmark were working
vessels, deliberately sunk
to blockade the shallow
Roskilde fjord —thus
protecting the Danish
royal town of Roskilde
from an attack from the
sea. The diagram, right,
shows how the five
wrecks were laid across
the navigable channel.

40
 Museum, Greenwich, recently built and
tested a replica of one of the small boats — a
færing or four-oared boat - found inside the
Gokstad ship. During the process much was
learned about how the ninth-century crafts­
men probably tackled the job of building such
a boat; and the replica’s characteristics under
oars and under sail were assessed.
Similar evaluations can be made by calcula­
tion using data from reconstruction draw­
ings, or by testing a small-scale model in a
special tank fitted with instruments that
record the boat’s speed and resistance to
motion, or possibly in a wind tunnel. The
advantage of such evaluations is that several
different versions of the ancient vessel can be
tested, under variable conditions. However,
the results from both theoretical and practical
experiments can only be as sound as the data
used; this, and the authenticity of the
experiment, will determine their value in
estimating the performance of ancient ships.
All these forms of evidence have been used
in this chapter to describe what is known and
conjectured about Viking Age boats and ships.
fjord in 1962, and on other Danish finds, and Building modern replicas
by Arne Emil Christensen of the Viking Ship of Viking Age boats
provides considerable
Museum in Oslo, on recent Norwegian finds, information, both on the
means that we can now begin to recognize use of timber and tools
both functional and regional variations in and on performance
under oars and sail. A
Viking Age boats and ships. The ability to replica of a færing (a
identify and date ship finds by the stage of four-oared boat) was
built and tested at the
technological development they had reached National Maritime
is but a short step away. Museum, Greenwich;
Study of modern wooden boatbuilding above left, one of the
boat’s oak stems is
methods in such places as western Norway, hollowed out with an
where there has been a great degree of adze; left, the boat on
the stocks nearing
continuity over the past 1,000 years, has also completion.
proved fruitful, and evidence of a different
sort is now coming from the building and
trials of replicas of ancient boats. The aims of
this experimental archaeology are to learn
how ancient boats and ships were rowed,
sailed and steered; what sorts of loads they
could safely carry; and what their perfor­
mance might have been in various states of
wind and sea. The National Maritime

41
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN

The ships & boats

Of the 7th-century royal of the ship had decomposed, leaving in its
burial ship excavated at place an impression in the sand that revealed
Sutton Hoo, England, in
details of the ship’s construction: a clinker-
1939, only an impression
in the sand, with iron built, equal-ended vessel of distinctive form
nails, remained. But this and structure.
distinctively clinker-built,
equal-ended vessel may
Ships and boats dating from the ninth to
be considered as a fore­ the eleventh centuries, of a similar though
runner of the Viking ship. more advanced construction, are now known,
the main bulk of the evidence coming from
two groups: the ninth- to tenth-century
Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune burial ships; and
the tenth- to eleventh-century Skuldelev
ships, which were working ships that were
deliberately sunk to blockade Roskilde fjord.
Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, joint excavator of
the Skuldelev ships, has concluded from
studying these and other ship remains of
Nordic origin, that although each ship was
unique in some way, they have many charac­
teristics in common. This basic shape and
structure, which in its developed form we can
now recognize as the Viking ship, is illus­
trated and described in the visual glossary on
pages 44-5. There were of course variations
in the ships over time, recognizable regional
differences and also functional modifications.
hether the Viking urge to ex1 For example, the method of supporting the
pand stimulated shipbuild­ mast changed between the ninth and eleventh
ing, or whether improved centuries; and the way planks were fastened
boatbuilding techniques together in the eastern Baltic, where treenails
paved the way for Viking (or wooden pegs) were used and the overlaps
exploration and expansion, is still being dis­ made watertight with moss, differed from the
cussed by scholars. What is certain, however, method of the western Baltic, where iron nails
is that the Viking ship was not invented at the and animal hair were usually employed.
start of the Viking Age, but was developed Within the Skuldelev group of ships itself
from boats used in- earlier times. North there are differences, Skuldelev ships i and 3
European finds dating from about AD 400 being much broäder in relation to their length
onwards, including the Nydam and Kvalsund than ships 2 and 5. This reflects the different
boats, in Schleswig-Holstein and Norway, functions of the ships, 1 and 3 being cargo
show early forms that were subsequently per­ carriers and 2 and 5 being warships. Possibly
fected by Viking Age shipbuilders. Although other variants remain to be identified or to be
not in Scandinavia, the ship found at Sutton discovered by excavation.
Hoo, Suffolk, England, may be considered as This distinctive style of boat- and ship­
one forerunner of the Viking ships. Here a building greatly influenced the shipwrights of
large open boat some 75ft (23m) in length had those lands where Vikings settled. Unfor­
been used for a royal burial dated to c. a d 625. tunately, except for finds of re-used boat
During its 1,300 years of interment the timber timbers from Viking Age Dublin and some

42
poorly documented boat graves in Scotland,
the archaeological evidence is scarce. How­
ever, the many Norse shipbuilding and
seafaring words borrowed by the Irish,
French, and, to a lesser degree, the English,
indicate this influence. And by post-Viking
times, illustrations on the Bayeux Tapestry,
on Irish monuments, and on English, Irish
and French town seals, show a form of ship
that has unmistakable Norse characteristics,
as do the fragmented remains of ships built
from Irish timber recently excavated from
the thirteenth-century Wood Quay site in
Dublin. It seems safe to say, therefore, that
during the Viking Age and for some time
afterwards the dominant vessel in north-west
Europe was this Nordic type: the Viking ship
in its several forms.
Nevertheless, some requirements for water
transport were more efficiently satisfied by
other types of boat. For instance, on inland
waterways, lakes and fjords the Vikings used
log rafts and log boats (dugout canoes), as did
their contemporaries in other European
countries. Boats of skin and bark were used
on the northern and eastern fringes of the Above Skuldelev ship 1
Viking homelands, and skin boats were was an ocean-going
merchant ship and
almost certainly used in the Celtic west of the
represents the peak of
British Isles during the period of the Viking Viking Age shipbuilding.
raids and settlement. Furthermore, the flat- Its remains are on display
at Roskilde, Denmark,
bottomed boat found in 1966 at Egernsund on the missing parts being
the Flensburg fjord in southern Denmark, and outlined by metal strips.
dated to about 1090, shows that not all Viking
Age planked boats were what we think of as A late form of the Nordic
‘Viking boats’. This boat is believed to have type of ship depicted on
this 13th-century town
been a ferry and therefore probably built seal of Winchelsea,
locally. It has none of the Nordic boat’s England, reveals the
characteristics of form and probably few (if continuing influence of
Viking shipwrights on the
any) of the structural features, its role as lands they settled.
a ferry on inland waterways determining
both form and structure. Similar ferries were
used elsewhere in Europe, especially on the
Rhine. In regions uninfluenced by Viking Not all Viking Age boats
building methods other types of planked boat looked like the Skuldelev
ships; this flat-bottomed
were constructed, such as the forerunners of ferry was built in
the medieval cogs and hulks, which were southern Denmark at the
ships of great cargo capacity. end of the n th century.

43
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN

The Viking ship: a visual glossary

This visual glossary illustrates the parts of a yacht, and there were also variations during the
Viking ship and explains the terms used in the 300 years of the Viking Age, but they all had
chapter.The cutaway ship is a composite draw­ certain distinctive characteristics in common.
ing including details taken from more than one The hull was symmetrical at the ends, with a
vessel. In order to show the main structural slightly curved keel blending into a curved
features, many of the internal timbers have fore-stem and after-stem at the bow and stern.
been omitted. The top line of planking (the sheerline) had a
The shape and size of Viking ships varied with distinctive curve, being higher at the ends than
their function, as cargo vessel, warship or royal amidships. The hull was built with clinker-laid

This body plan shows the characteristic shape of the

Viking ship, with round bottom and flared sides.The
light d r a ft- resulting from the thin planking -
allowed the ship to go close in to the shore before
grounding and to be taken far inland up shallow
rivers, while the deep keel and steeply angled lowest
planks reduced sideways drift (leeway) caused by
the wind.

The curved fore- and

after-stems were each
carved from a single
A cross-section (looking towards the bow) shows piece of wood and might
the internal supporting system of floor-timbers and be marked as here to
crossbeams. The slender floor-timbers were simulate an effect of
individually chosen to match the curve of the hull, as overlapping planks-the
were the beam knees used to attach the crossbeams real planking being
to the planking beneath. In a warship the upper fastened to the stems
crossbeams could be used as rowing benches, with some way back from the
the rowers'feet resting on bottom boards at lower bow and stem. Other
crossbeam level. In a cargo ship decks might be laid Viking Age stems were
on the upper beams at either end of the vessel with of simpler design. The
an additional layer of crossbeams used as rowing base of each stem was
benches. nailed to the keel at the

44
strakes (overlapping planks), which were fas­ The overlapping strakes were fastened with iron
tened to the 'back-bone' of keel and stems. nails (a), the ends hammered flat over a rove
Internal supporting timbers were added only (washer) to hold them. Acaulking of tarred animal
hair between the planks kept the hull watertight.
after the bottom planking had been completed. Floor-timbers were either lashed on to cleats left
The evenly spaced floor-timbers were attached standing proud of the strakes (b) or fastened by
to the planking but not to the keel, producing a treenails, wooden pegs driven through strake and
flexible structure, and the system of cross­ floor-timber (c) and jammed in position by a wedge
beams above each floor-timber could be used to hammered into the inboard end of each peg.
support decking or rowing benches.

1 fore-stem 12 keel
2 top strake 13 keelson
3 horizontal beam knee 14 keelson knee
4 stringer or beam shelf 15 mast step
5 additional crossbeam 16first strake or
6 upper crossbeam or garboard
mast! beam 17 s n e lle
7 vertical beam knee 18 stanchion
8 side-tim ber 19 bulkhead
9 low er crossbeam 20 rudder w ith tiller
10 floor-tim ber 21 after-stem
11 keel scarf 22 oarport

The lower edge of each

strake of planking
overlapped outside the
one below it. Individual Oarports were cut at
planks in a strake were either end of a merchant
joined at plank scarfs, ship or along the full
which (except the ones length of a warship.
at the forward stem ) had Small boats had th o le s -
their opening facing aft vertical projections from
to minimise the ingress the top strake - as oar
of water when underway. pivots.

The mast slotted into a

hole or mast step cut in
the keelson, a heavy
piece of wood resting on
the keel, which
distributed the weight of
mast the mast and had a
vertical projection to
upport it.

mast beam

mast step
keelson

45
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS AN D SEAMEN

Ship sizes & shapes

he Viking boats and ships For the present it seems best to recognize only
could be classified by size. functional types: the merchant ship, the
Smaller boats, sufficiently nar­ warship, and possibly the fishing boat, each
row for each man to pull a pair with distinctive characteristics. Ships such as
of oars, were known as . . .
cering according to the number of oars: thus a
four-oared boat is a feering, a six-oared vessel
a sexcering, and so on. Bigger vessels in which
each man pulled only one oar were described
by the number of thwarts or rowing benches
they had. In addition to these two groups,
documentary sources mention various types
of ship by name, but it is generally impossible
to equate archaeological remains with them.
Plans and profiles of eight Viking Age vessels: from the
Skuldelev longship to the Gokstad feering, each has the
same equal-ended shape and distinctive curve of the
upper line of planking (sheerline). The merchant ships
Skuldelev i and 3 are clearly deeper and broader than
the others in relation to their length.

Skuldelev 5, a longship.
Length 59ft iin (18m)
Breadth c,. 8ft 6in (2.6m)

Skuldelev 1, an ocean­
going trader.
Skuldelev 3, a coastal Length c. 53ft 6in (16.3m)
trader. Breadth c. 15ft (4.6m)
Length 43ft 4m (13.5m)
Breadth io ftéin (3.2m)

Skuldelev 6, a ferry or
fishing boat.
Length c. 39ft 5m (12m)
Feering, a small four- Breadth 8ft 2in (2.5m)
oared boat from the
Gokstad ship.
Length 21ft 4m (6.5m)
Breadth 4ft 7m (1.4m)
46
Transverse sections of four Viking Age ships at the Skuldelev x and 5 show
midships position demonstrate both the similarities of the more developed
form and the developments in the internal structure system of ribs and
between the Oseberg ship of the early 9th century and crossbeams that were
Skuldelev 1 built some 200 years later. characteristic of the later
Viking ships.

In the early ships,

Oseberg and Gokstad,
the weight of the mast
was carried by a massive
central timber known as
the mast fish; in later
vessels this was omitted
and the mast was
supported by an upper
crossbeam.

47
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN/Ship sizes and shapes

settlers in Britain, Ireland and Iceland, and

demands from north-west European towns
for basic goods such as timber, cloth, wool,
fish, millstones and whetstones. These ships
were relatively broader in the beam than
longships, had a cargo hold amidships, with
decking and oarports only in the fore and
after parts, and a more firmly seated mast
designed to be unstepped only rarely. Despite
The Viking Age merchant those from Gokstad and Oseberg are difficult their sea-going capacity they were still
ships were built for cargo to classify by this scheme. They may be either basically open boats with the cargo covered
capacity and
seaworthiness and did special ships built as royal yachts or general- by skins, and the crew and any passengers
not have the speed and purpose ships built before specialization of exposed to the elements. On coastal voyages
manoeuvrability of the
function had developed. it may have been possible to beach, or to go
longships. They were
relatively deeper and ashore at night using the ship’s boat, which
broader in the beam and, Raiders and traders was towed astern, to cook and to sleep in
as can be seen from this
conjectural
The warship or longship may be recognized tents, but on the voyages to Iceland and
reconstruction, had an by its relative slenderness, its continuous full- Greenland and éven crossing the North Sea
open cargo hold length decking, a full outfit of oars, and an this would not have been possible. Seamen,
amidships with decking
and oarports only at easily unstepped mast. These ships were built merchants and passengers slept where best
either end. Although this for speed, for operating semi-independently they could on the deck, between the thwarts,
was an ocean-going vessel
of the wind, and for the carriage of men and of covered with hides or possibly in two-man
designed for long
voyages, there was little goods of high density and high unit value, skin sleeping bags for extra warmth. Food
protection for either such as coins and other booty from raids. The was mainly dried, pickled, salted or possibly
cargo or crew. (In this
illustration the rowing
development of the Viking Age merchant smoked fish and meat, with unleavened
benches have been ships, built for cargo capacity and sea­ bread. For drink there would be water in skin
omitted.) worthiness rather than speed, was probably bags, and beer or sour milk in tubs. Some of
stimulated by the requirements of early these stores (and indeed other cargo) could

48
have been carried under the half-decks. offloaded from what is probably a cargo ship, The Bayeux Tapestry
shows the Norman
Merchant ships relied mostly on their as it is without the continuous line of oarports
invaders disembarking
single square sail for propulsion, using their shown on the other vessels. It is also possible horses from their Nordic-
few oars only when temporarily becalmed or that longships carried horses. Imme Gram, style ships, at Pevensey,
Sussex, on z8 September
when manoeuvring near landing places. At a replica of the Danish warship from Ladby, 1066. This is probably a
times they would need to await a favourable carried horses during sea trials in 1970. With a cargo vessel, but horses
wind to round a headland or to take them on a low freeboard the horses were able to step on may also have been
transported in the
long passage across the ocean. These ships board in shallow water. longships (already drawn
could be crewed by relatively few men: a Longships, being fighting ships, were up on the beach).
helmsman, a lookout, someone bailing, and operated to make good use of favourable
others sufficient to handle the sail: the ocean­ winds but also to be as independent as
going Skuldelev i probably carried a twelve- possible of contrary winds and the weather in
man crew, the 43ft (13m) coastal trader Skul­ general. Their main source of power was
delev 3 required only five or six. therefore the oar, with the mast unstepped to
Although only 10ft (3m) longer than the reduce wind resistance and to improve
coastal trader, Skuldelev 1 had space for stability. There were no supernumaries in the
something like 1,060-1,235 cubic feet (30-35 crew, all being seamen at sea and soldiers on
cubic metres) of cargo in the hold, plus more land. Where there was room, two or more
under the half-decks, compared with an men could man each oar; and for long
estimated 355 cubic feet (10 cubic metres) passages it would have been necessary to
space in Skuldelev 3. What precisely could be change crews at intervals. Thus extra crew
carried would be determined by density, for a would have to be available or the full
bulky load, with a high centre of gravity, complement of oars could not be con­
might impair stability, while a high-density tinuously manned. Estimates of crew are
load might reduce freeboard dangerously. therefore difficult: the 92ft (28m) Skuldelev 2
The reconstruction drawing of a cargo ship is thought to have had a crew of fifty to sixty
shows horses, cattle and sheep in the hold. On men; Skuldelev 5, which had twelve oars each
the Bayeux Tapestry horses are shown being side, may have had twenty-six to thirty men.

49
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN

Preparing the timber

Timber for shipbuilding
was selected to suit the
job in hand: planking
was cut from straight­
grained trees, while ribs
and other curved
members followed the
grain of crooked trunks
and limbs.

Oak was most commonly

used, the logs being split
radially to produce thin
wedge-shaped planking
ideal for clinker
construction. Pine planks
(used in Norway and
possibly Sweden) were
fashioned from near the
widest part of the log.

herever it was available, oak

seems to have been the
timber preferred for build­
ing Viking ships and boats,
although ash, beech, alder,
birch, lime and willow were also used, prob­
ably for their specific qualities; pine was
used in Norway and possibly in Sweden.
Forest oaks that had grown tall with straight
grain and no low branches were selected for
keels and planking. Such oaks are a rare
commodity today, and the single oak timber
required for the 6oft (18m) keel of the
Gokstad ship would be hard to find. Isolated
oaks, free to grow outwards, produced the
crooked timber for ribs and other curved
components. After felling by axe the timber
was cut, without seasoning, into planks and
other structural pärts. Green timber was used,
probably because it was easier to work than
when seasoned, and to avoid the shrinkage
Smaller curved structures
were also cut from
and splitting that occurs on drying. The
naturally angled pieces of danger of dry rot - the main reason for the
wood to ensure modern insistence on seasoned timber -
maximum strength. This
modern replica of a thole would be minimal in these Viking vessels,
or oar pivot was made which were mainly open and well ventilated.
from a log with a The oak logs were split radially, using
projecting branch and
follows the curved grain beech or hafted metal wedges, each log
of the ‘crook’ . being cut in half and half again until wedge-

50
shaped planks of uniform breadth and planks and bailers; for clamps, battens, Scenes from the Bayeux
triangular cross-section were produced, stakes, shores and the stocks on which the Tapestry depicting the
Normans preparing their
somewhat in the manner of slicing a cake. boat was built; and for skids and launching invasion fleet give a good
Experiment has shown that an average of ways. All this necessitated a good supply of impression of the way
Viking shipwrights must
twenty sound planks, some i2in (30cm) choice timber. Ole Crumlin-Pedersen calcu­ have worked. Here
broad, can be produced from a log of 39m lated that 1,765-2,050 cubic feet (50-58 cubic William’s men use
(im) diameter. These radially split planks, or metres) of oak was probably required to build different types of axe to
fell trees, lop branches
clove boards, worked from sound, straight a 65~8oft (20-25m) longship. This would be and trim planking from
logs without a spiral grain, have several equivalent to about eleven trees each 39m the logs.
advantages over modern sawn boards: they (im) in diameter and 16ft (5m) in length of
are stronger, shrink less, and are not so liable trunk, together with another tree 50-6oft
to warp or split. They are also very suitable (15-18111) long for the keel.
for clinker construction, as their wedge shape Naturally curved timbers (crooks) not
allows more wood along one edge for the immediately required were stored underwater
cutting of the bevel where the planks overlap. to keep the timber green and workable. In
Nevertheless, this planking is generally re­ Scotland and Norway partly fashioned stems
markably thin, the bottom planks of the have been found which had probably been
Gokstad ship being only iin (25mm) thick, laid by in this way.
while those of the feering are yin (15mm).
Keels, keelsons, masts, yards and cross­ Other raw materials
beams were fashioned from suitable straight­ Other essential raw materials included iron
grained logs, and stems (and possibly some for anchors and for nails and the roves or
keels) were worked from timber with an washers over which they were flattened
appropriate slight natural curve. More cur­ (clenched) to fasten the planking; wool for
vaceous timbers were used for ribs and knees. sails and as a caulking (luting) between the
Tholes and those keelsons with a mast-sup­ planks; leather (walrus or sealskin), hemp,
porting projection required forked timbers. lime bast and willow for rigging; and pine tar
More wood was required for treenails and for waterproofing the seams and as a pro­
wedges, oars, rudders, rigging blocks, gang­ tection against rot.

51
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS AN D SEAMEN

Shipbuilding tools
roodworking tools found in
several Viking Age graves
show the wide range of
tools available. M ost of
these would have been used
by the boat- and shipbuilder, who would also
have used certain metalworking tools to
produce the thousands of nails and roves.
Examination of these tools, of boatbuilding
scenes depicted by early medieval artists, as
for example on the Bayeux Tapestry, and of
the toolmarks left on boat finds leads to the
conclusion that the axe was by far the most
important of the Viking Age shipwright’s
tools: incredibly, even the final finish of oak
planking was done with axes, although pine
planking in the Skuldelev finds was finished
with a draw-knife, and adzes must have been
used to shape certain curved surfaces. Four
different types of axe can be seen in the
Excavations have
produced a wide range of Bayeux boatbuilding scenes, being used for
Viking Age wood- and felling trees and lopping off branches,
metalworking tools, most
fashioning planks from logs and for the final
of which would have
been used by the trimming of the plank after fitting. Holes were
shipwrights. A selection bored with a spoon-shaped bit inserted in a T-
is illustrated here.
shaped handle, and knives, chisels, gouges,
A bove T-shaped wooden
hammers and mallets were all in frequent use.
breast auger with metal
bits (as seen on the
Bayeux Tapestry, right), The axe was the most important tool to the shipwright,
for boring holes in timber. for fine work as well as for cutting timber. Here axes
are used for the final trimming of the planking, while in
B elow Adze (the main the background holes are bored with a T-shaped
woodworking tool after auger. The man standing on the left, who is apparently
the axe) for shaping assessing the run of the planking, may well have been
curved structures. the master shipbuilder.

Axe (also seen on the

Bayeux Tapestry) for Knife for carving
trimming planks or the treenails and decorations
flat sides of curved or for other general
timbers. purpose work.

52
 Hammers and tongs used
in forging iron nails and
roves.

Hafted metal wedge used

with a hammer for
splitting logs.

Chisel for working a

groove, for example
along the length of a
plank to hold the tarred
caulking.

Moulding irons for

working a groove or for
applying a decorative
pattern of lines along the
planking.

53
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN

Building methods
he sagas and other document­ from experience. It has been established, for
ary sources can tell us some­ example, that Viking merchant ships had a
thing of the various grades of length/breadth ratio of approximately 4:1,
skill required in building a whereas for warships this was 7:1. Such rules
medieval Scandinavian ship. were handed on by oral tradition, but Arne
Doubtless small boats would be built by one Emil Christensen has suggested that design
man, possibly with an assistant, as they are details may also have been transmitted in
today. But for ships greater specialization was code on a boat ell, a form of measuring stick,
The first stage in the required and under the master boatbuilder or on a boat level, which recorded the angle
construction of a Viking
worked a range of craftsmen including between the runs of planking.
ship or boat was to place
the prepared keel on a woodsmen, specialist stem-smiths and crafts­ Within such traditions there was scope for
base of securely laid men plank-cutters, as well as labourers. individual variation to cater for specific
stocks and to join the Today we instinctively think of boats and
fore- and after-stems to it
requirements or differences in available raw
(at the keel scarfs) with ships being built from designs or plans. But material, and vessels were built with the same
iron nails and one or two the Viking Age master builder had no such general characteristics but differing in detail.
wooden treenails. Once
the backbone of the ship
aids: he built by eye and rule of thumb, as was The eye of the individual master boatbuilder
had been thus set up and the case until recently in Norway and in determined the final result.
firmly supported at either Shetland. The optimum ratios of length to
end it was ready to
receive the garboards breadth and depth required for boats to Stages of construction
(first strakes). perform different functions were learned Viking ships and boats were not built in yards
or in sheds, but in the open, perhaps under a placed in the overlap to fill any irregularities
simple shelter, as close to the water as and thus keep the hull watertight. Ships built
possible. Work began with the fashioning of in the eastern Baltic, however, had moss The first strakes (each
the keel and the forward and after stems, and caulking in between planks fastened by made of two or more
planks) were fastened to
the preparation of the firm, level base upon treenails or wooden pegs. As planking-up
the keel and stems with
which the ship was to be built. Meanwhile continued the varying breadths of the planks iron nails, iron spikes
other men would be splitting logs and and the angles at which succeeding strakes being used at either end
where the wood was
fashioning planking from them. were fastened to the lower ones determined thick. Subsequent strakes
The backbone of the ship was set up, by the form of the boat. Thus, as the master were then added in
fastening the stems to the keel. The gaf boards builder saw the shape emerging he could clinker fashion, again
using iron nails clenched
or first strakes (each layer of planking is called achieve the required hull shape by altering the over roves (see page 45),
a strake) were then fastened to the keel and breadth of the next pair of strakes or by and with tarred animal
stems, using iron nails driven through the two altering the angle at which they were fastened. hair in the overlaps.
Clamps held the planking
pieces of wood then beaten flat against a The top strake of the ship’s bottom - the layer temporarily in place; the
metal washer (rove) on the inside of the ship of planks at or near the waterline - was often angle and position of
each strake may have
(the western Baltic method), except at the stouter than other strakes, in order to give been checked by a device
ends, where iron spikes were used. The longitudinal strength at that point. similar to the level
second pair of strakes was then fastened Internal supporting timbers were added shown here, or possibly
by a boat ell, measuring
overlapping the lower strakes, a caulking only after the bottom planking had been the distance from a
(luting) of tarred animal hair having first been completed: for the Oseberg and Gokstad central line as illustrated.
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAM EN /Building methods

ships this was after ten or eleven strakes had of the hull. Notches were cut in their lower
been fastened each side; for the Skuldelev surfaces so that they fitted close to the clinker
ships it varied from three to seven strakes. planking, and limber holes were also cut to
Thus Viking ships were built shell first, rather allow free passage of bilge-water.
than by the method recently used in Britain in A keelson was fitted on top of the keel in
which the planking is fastened to a preformed those ships destined to have a mast. In the
skeleton of ribs, keel, stem and stern that eastern Baltic this was a transverse timber,
Internal supporting
timbers were added only
determines the shape of the hull. but in the normal Viking design it was a heavy
after the bottom planking In the Oseberg and Gokstad ships the longitudinal timber, with notches at appro­
had been completed, and regularly spaced floor-timbers were lashed to priate places in its undersurface to accom­
were attached to the
strakes, not to the keel. cleats left standing proud of the planking. But modate the floor-timbers, to which it was
The slender floor-timbers in almost all other Viking Age finds these fastened by knees (timbers that had naturally
were chosen to match the floor-timbers were fastened by wooden pegs grown with two arms approximately at right
curve of the hull and
notched in their lower or treenails. The treenail method has the angles). There was a vertical supporting
surfaces to fit close advantage of saving in material, labour and projection (again a natural branch) from the
against the overlapping
planks. They were either
skill, but the drawback is that many holes, upper surface of the keelson immediately
lashed to cleats left each a potential source of leakage, have to be forward of the hole in which the mast would
standing proud of the made in the planking. The characteristically be stepped. Keelsons distributed the weight of
planking or fastened by
wooden pegs or treenails slender floor-timbers were fashioned from the mast and yard over the keel, and thus the
as shown on page 45. timbers chosen to match the transverse curves larger they were the more efficient they
became. The Skuldelev keelsons were about was added and reinforced by longitudinal
half as long as the keel, and some were of timbers known as stringers, and the internal
sufficient size significantly to reinforce the structure was further developed to include
longitudinal strength of the ship. upper crossbeams with their ends resting on
Slender crossbeams (known as bite) were the stringers, and vertical and horizontal
next fastened across the ends of the floor- knees to reinforce the upper side planking.
timbers, often supported by a wooden pillar Where there was to be a cargo hold amidships
A keelson (to support the
(a stanchion or snelle) between floor-timber upper crossbeams were omitted, except for a mast) was fitted on top of
and beam. Vertical knees were fastened to the central mast-bracing beam of stouter dimen­ the keel and over the
ends of the beams and to these the lower side sions supported by the vertical projection floor-timbers, to which it
was fastened by angled
planking was secured. When possible, a beam from the keelson. The upper crossbeams knees. Crossbeams were
and a knee were worked out of one suitably could be used as thwarts or rowing benches, then laid across the ends
with the rowers’ feet resting on bottom of the floor-timbers,
curved timber, thus increasing the strength of
braced centrally by a
the structure. boards at lower crossbeam level. In the large wooden pillar or
At crossbeam level in the earlier ships the cargo vessel Skuldelev i a half-deck was laid stanchion and attached
by knees to the strakes at
mast was supported by a massive timber on these crossbeams both forward and aft, either end. Planking-up
known as a mast fish or mast partner; in later and there was a third tier of crossbeams at the could now continue,
ships this was omitted and the mast was ends that could be used as thwarts. Knees further beams, knees and
stringers (horizontal
supported by an upper crossbeam. attached to these crossbeams supported supporting timbers) being
In the Skuldelev ships more side planking further strakes, with side timbers providing added as necessary.
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN/Building methods

additional support between the crossbeam but it is thought that the Gokstad ship’s loose­
stations. This distinctive combination of footed sail was rectangular, about 23ft (7m)
crossbeams and knees above each floor- high and 36ft (urn) across, while the sail of
timber, with longitudinal stringers providing Skuldelev 1 was probably twice as wide as
a housing for the beams, transversely rein­ high: the representations on the Gotland
forced the shell of thin planking at each picture-stones appear to agree with these
station along the boat’s length, thus giving proportions.
Viking craft maximum strength and resilience Oars were made of varying lengths to
despite their lightness and flexibility. match their station in the ship. For oar pivots,
With the hull completed, and probably tholes (forked pieces of wood) were fastened
after tarring and launching, the ship was fitted to the top strakes of planking — or, in ships
out. The mast was stepped and the yard fitted, with greater freeboard, rounded or rec­
held to the mast by a parrel, a yoke of rope tangular oarports were cut through one of the
and wooden beads. Mast steps on cargo upper strakes. Oarports were required the full
vessels tended to be deeper than those on war­ length of warships, whereas they were fitted
ships: the former’s mast could withstand only near the ends of merchant ships.
greater forces and thus could be used in worse The side rudder was made to a distinctive
The stern of the Oseberg weather. Excavated evidence for mast, rig­ shape, somewhat like a broad oar, and
ship shows the distinctive
ging, yard and sail is minimal: stumps of fastened on the starboard quarter by a thong
Viking Age side rudder,
fastened by a rope or masts and yard fragments from Oseberg and or rope lashing through the upper planking
thong through the upper Gokstad; cleats and twisted osier rings and by a withy thong through an external
planking and pivoted on
a boss lower down.
(grommets) in Skuldelev 3; iron rings in the projection or boss on the lower planking. The
Ladby ship; and fittings to receive the heel of a skilled craftsmanship of the Viking Age ship­
tacking boom in Gokstad and Skuldelev 1. wright is apparent in the way side rudders
Representations of sailing ships, ranging from were given a cross-section similar to that of an
those on the Gotland stones of the seventh aircraft wing: thus the ‘lift’ or sideways thrust
century and later, to those of graffiti, coins generated on the rudder by the flowing water
and seals of the thirteenth century, provide compensated for the drag or water resistance,
useful information, however, and documen­ which would otherwise have caused the ship
tary evidence also helps. From this evidence it to turn to starboard.
seems that the standing rigging was very In warships bottom boards were fitted at
simple, with a forestay to the bow, shrouds lower crossbeam level, thus providing deck­
fastened to the top strakes or to thwarts, ing the full length of the ship, with possibly a
Sails and ropes do not
survive the passage of crossbeams or knees either side of the mast, raised section at the stern for the steersman
time, but coins and and a backstay that perhaps doubled as a and in the bow for the lookout. In cargo ships,
graffiti give some idea of
Viking Age rigging. The halyard to hoist the yard and sail. there could be similar bottom boards in the
ship depicted on a silver The running rigging to hoist and lower the central area whére the cargo was stored, with
coin minted at Hedeby yard and to control the head and foot of the half-decks forward and aft at upper cross­
has a wide sail and
carries a row of shields sail was also simple, leaving little specific beam level.
along the gunwale. evidence to be found on excavation, as these Anchors, gangplanks, bailers and other
ropes could be made fast to structural essential equipment completed the fitting out
elements of the ship and thus would not need of the ship. The more important ships were
special fittings. There were probably braces to decorated with carvings and some had
each yardarm, sheets and tacks to the foot of detachable figureheads, but even small boats
the sail, and a bowline to the leading edge, had moulding patterns of lines cut along the
supplemented by the beitiáss spar (tacking planking, a sign of the craftsman’s pride in a
boom) when tacking. Sails have not survived, well-built vessel.

58
Performance of Viking ships
e get some idea of the per­ Viking's voyage also demonstrated the
formance of these ships at reliability of the thin planking. Thin planking
sea from the fact that the results in light draft and thus Viking vessels
Vikings could maintain could be taken far inland up shallow rivers;
fairly regular contact with some could even be manhandled overland
Iceland and Greenland, and undertake count­ between rivers or across a peninsula.
less voyages in the Arctic, the Baltic, the
North Sea, the eastern Atlantic and the Steering
Mediterranean, though prudently limiting Magnus Andersen was also favourably im­
their sailing season to between April and early pressed by the side rudder, which, because it
October. For further information we must was balanced, he found easy to use even in

turn to recent experimental work with heavy seas. Viking Age side rudders projected A late i ith- or early 12th-
century ship graffito on a
replicas of Viking ships and boats. well below the keel but in shallow water they wooden plank found in
could be raised quickly by unlashing the the Winetavern Street
Seaworthiness upper fastening and pivoting the rudder about excavation, Dublin,
provides further evidence
In 1893, Viking, a Norwegian replica of the the external boss. of shrouds and stays. The
Gokstad ship, under the command of Captain arrow at the mast head is
Magnus Andersen, sailed from Bergen to Speed possibly a wind vane.

Newfoundland in twenty-eight days. This Theory indicates that long, light-displacement

voyage demonstrated the seaworthiness and craft should have high speed potential, and
the seakeeping qualities of this form of hull. this was in fact demonstrated during trials of
Andersen noted the flexibility of her distinc­ the Greenwich feering of longship pro­
tive method of construction, yet the vessel portions; the feering achieved an unexpec­
successfully endured several stormy days and tedly high speed of 7 knots under oars,
proved reasonably watertight. Viking ships probably because she rode up out of the water
were designed to be supple and to ‘ride the and skimmed along in a semi-planing posture,
pufich’ of the sea, rather than be rigid and almost like a power boat. Experiment and
battle against it. In this they were probably theory thus show that in favourable con­
more successful than any rigid structure could ditions the Viking longship could have
have been, for, with the materials and achieved high speed under oar or sail,
technology of those days, a rigid structure provided that she had a competent crew.
would inevitably have had to be more
massive. Leakage at the seams and through Under sail
fastenings must always have been a problem, The simple standing rigging evidently used in
however, and bailing out a constant task. Viking ships gave freedom to trim the yard

59
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN/Performance of Viking ships

Various types of rigging

are tested on Im m e Gram,
a replica of a Danish
warship from Ladby.

into the optimum position, especially if the Pilotage and navigation

shrouds were readily adjustable. The rel­ With generations of experience and constant
atively short mast would mean better stabi­ practice Viking seamen became familiar with
lity and less need for support, while the long landmarks that indicated their whereabouts
yard made a large sail area possible. Calcu­ in coastal waters, even when operating at
lations indicate that the Gokstad ship did in extreme visual range, as would be prudent
fact have good sailing potential. Precisely with an onshore wind when they might easily
how fast and how close to the wind a Viking be wrecked. Crossing a channel such as the
ship could sail is at present difficult to English Channel or the North Channel would
quantify, for these qualities also depend on also be relatively simple; wider stretches of
the material and the cut of the sail, the match water could be similarly navigated in con­
of the sail and rigging to the hull, and the ditions of refraction, when bending of the
abilities of the crew. The deep keels and the light rays means that peaks and headlands can
characteristic steepness of the lower strakes be visible at sea level up to 60 miles away.
imply that Viking hulls had relatively good Voyaging out of sight of land was a
windward capability and the use of the different matter, for the Vikings had no
beitiáss or tacking boom to hold the leading compass and no accurate timepiece. Never­
edge of the sail taut shows that Viking seamen theless, in the later Viking period they
were striving to get as close to the wind as repeatedly achieved long, two-way ocean
they possibly could. voyages to Iceland and Greenland during
Recent experiments in Denmark have which they were out of sight of land for
shown that the Viking hull and rig can be several consecutive days. They were thus
sailed across the wind and even against it, proven ocean navigators, but we can only
though precise figures are not yet available. make a reasoned guess at the precise methods

6o
 they used: possibly these were similar to those would have been built up on the time usually Their light draft enabled
used by contemporary Arabs, for which there the Viking ships to be run
taken to sail between two places. There are
close in shore before
is some documentary evidence. If the course accounts of traditional routes and their grounding —hence the
was known and the distance of the run associated number of sailing days in the sagas success of the fast and
unexpected beach
estimated, a form of dead reckoning could and we may deduce that there were similar landings of the Viking
have been used. On a clear night a course may oral accounts in the earlier, Viking times. raiders.
be steered relative to the Pole Star, and we Such records would have to be based on a
know that the significance of this was ap­ standard speed, possibly allowing for cur­
preciated by early medieval seamen. The rents. Deviations from this theoretical speed
angle to a steady swell from a known could be estimated on a particular voyage
direction can also be used, as can the relative from a knowledge of the past performance of
direction of a prevailing wind: warm wet one’s own ship, and the existing weather and
winds are from the south-west, cold wet sea conditions. Alternatively, speed could be
winds from the north-east; thus the feel of the estimated from the position of the bow wave,
wind can be roughly equated with direction. or by counting the number of standard oar-
Checks on these estimates could be made at strokes used to propel the ship past a floating
certain times of day, providing the sun was object thrown overboard from the bow, or by
visible. At noon, with the sun at its highest, or a sandglass. Use of a simple traverse board
in northern latitudes at midnight, with the sun (similar to the gaming boards found in Viking
at its lowest, the direction of north and south contexts) would enable these estimated
can be established; sunrise and sunset, except courses and speeds to be plotted to give the
in high latitudes, give the approximate ship’s approximate position, although there is
directions of east and west. no direct evidence of such use. For a more
Over generations, a body of knowledge accurate position estimates would have to be

6 1
 SHIPS, SHIPWRIGHTS A N D SEAMEN/Performance of Viking ships

made of the leeway experienced (the amount

the ship had been blown sideways) and the
effects of any currents.
The length of daylight and the angular
altitude of Polaris and of the noon sun change
as one moves north or south of a known
place. If such variations could be detected on
board ship it would be established that the
ship was north or south of a known ‘latitude’.
It may have been possible to estimate altitudes
against the ship’s rigging, although with
questionable accuracy. Another method
could be to compare the apparent height of
sun or star above the horizon with the out­
stretched hand (a finger’s breadth is c. z°;
wrist span, c. 8°; clenched fist, c. io°;
extended fingers, c. 190), or against a cali­
brated stick. The ship’s movement would
cause inaccuracies, but the mean of several
readings could be used to reduce error. The
ability to appreciate significant deviations
from the known ‘latitude’ of the home port, line, even the smell of sheep indicate its
or of destination, could lead to a form of proximity. Landmarks and beacons were
latitude sailing, striving to maintain a con­ built as aids for navigators in certain places.
stant ‘latitude’ as indicated by the altitude of Using these aids the master or pilot would
the Pole Star or the sun, and there are identify his landfall and decide which way to
indications in the sagas that the Vikings may turn along the coast in order to make the
have used this method. intended destination.
Navigation based on celestial observation
requires relatively clear skies; a succession of Landing places
overcast days would almost inevitably lead to Viking ships, at least until the eleventh
loss of bearings, unless, as some authorities century, did not need the formal facilities of
believe, Viking seamen had discovered the quays and jetties to load and unload. Raiders
sun-seeking property of double refracting would naturally prefer to run aground
cordierite or Icelandic feldspar crystals. unobserved on a remote strand where their
Whatever methods were employed, it seems attack would be► mounted. But the marked
clear that the Vikings had developed ocean wear on the keel and the extensive repairs
navigation to a fine art, possibly with the aid to the bottom planking of Skuldelev ship 3
of skills that we no longer realize we possess. show that some merchant ships were also
Approaching land, navigational problems run ashore on beaches with suitable gradi­
would be eased, although risk of shipwreck ents, on river banks, estuary shores or coastal
increased. Cloud sitting over an island is sites protected from the prevailing wind. On
visible before land is sighted, and ice may be muddy beaches simple hardstandings of par­
detected many miles away in good weather by allel timbers might be used; otherwise ships
its reflection in the sky. Nearer land the line of were run direct on to the sand or shingle, their
flight of seabirds, the boom of the surf, the relatively light draft allowing them to go in
shallowing of the water revealed by lead and close before grounding. For a long stay or in

62
 The Viking seamen were
independent of quays and
jetties, for even the cargo
ships could be beached,
or anchored in shallow
water and loaded and
unloaded from small
boats or by men wading
from the shore.

tidal conditions they might subsequently be smaller ships continued to use beach or river-
dragged clear of the water. As we see on the bank landing places.
Bayeux Tapestry, ships could also be an­
chored off a landing place or moored to posts The Viking achievement
in shallow water. They were then unloaded Many of the achievements described in other
and loaded by men wading through the water chapters would have been impossible without
or by carts driven into the water. For ships the Vikings’ mastery of shipbuilding, seaman­
moored further away from land, small boats ship and navigation. For a period of 300 years
could be used to ferry the cargo to and fro. or so, they were the most accomplished
That it was foreign to their nature to seamen of the northern seas. Their ships
bring Viking ships alongside a waterfront or operated from the Arctic to the Caspian Sea
another ship is illustrated by the presence of and across the Atlantic to the New World:
cleats on the outboard side of Skuldelev 3’s some were on raiding missions but many were
top strake, where they would be vulnerable to trading ships or on voyages of exploration
damage; similar considerations apply to the and settlement.
external shield rails on Skuldelev 5 and on the The Viking ship type appears to have been
Oseberg ship. The tholes (oar pivots) pro­ replaced as the dominant northern ship in
truding from the top strakes of the Greenwich the twelfth century by the larger and more
feering replica also proved to be a hazard unwieldy cog. This was mainly because the cog
when alongside a jetty, where they were likely could carry more cargo and not because it
to be broken or to catch under a projection. was a more seaworthy ship. Although ships
Only with the development in the post- with Viking characteristics may have virtually
Viking period of ships of significantly greater disappeared by the fourteenth century, the
draft, and structurally unsuited for beaching, style of building lived on in the small boats
did vessels of this type need to use quays with of many countries, in some places even up
relatively deep water. Even then boats and the to the present day.

63
64
Land-seekers

Viking explorers and settlers sailed out across the Atlantic to

discover and colonize new lands in the West. Eirik the Red who
explored Greenland, left, in the 980s gave it this name in order to
attract prospective settlers. Although much of its coastline is
grim and forbidding, pastureland exists at the head of certain
fjords. The early settlers flourished, but the Norse colonies were
eventually abandoned in the 14th and 15th centuries.

65
 LAND-SEEKERS

The first explorers

mong the Viking raiders who resources of the sea. Others followed, travel­
swept across the sea to attack ling farther south'to the lands around the Irish
the British Isles during the Sea. In Ireland there were few opportunities
closing years of the eighth for land-taking, although Viking towns
century, there must have been would flourish. But the Isle of Man and north­
men who would return in later seasons as west England were to offer considerable scope
settlers, bringing with them their families and for rural settlement.
friends. These first land-seekers came to the In previous decades Irish monks had
Northern and Western Isles of Scotland, discovered, and sought solitude in, the north
where they found familiar landscapes that Atlantic islands. Now the most venturesome
would support them in their accustomed Viking explorers set out from their new
manner, by mixed farming, hunting and the settlements in the British Isles in the wake of

66
 , WESTERN ROUTES
AND SETTLEMENTS
Pushing ever further west
in their search for fertile
lands in which to settle,
the Vikings first sighted
America in about 985.

It is impossible to plot
Viking Age limits of drift
and pack-ice, but the
Atlantic Ocean was
warmer at that period
and drift ice probably
rare south of North Cape.
The northern voyages of
the Vikings would have
been difficult under
present ice conditions.

the monks’ leather curraghs to the Faeroes

and to Iceland. From there, an intrepid few
sailed on to countries as yet unseen by Euro­
peans, to Greenland and thence to America.

Medieval sagas and histories

The early settlers are anonymous men and
women, for there was none among them able
to chronicle their voyages and their struggles
to establish new farms. It was not until much
later that the events of these centuries of
exploration and settlement came to be written

67
 LAND-SEEKERS . O rkney fr Shetland
down in the medieval Icelandic sagas and re cannot tell exactly when
histories. Orkneyinga Saga (The Saga o f the the first Vikings settled in
Orkneymen), Fcereyinga Saga {The Saga o f Shetland and the Orkneys -
the Faeroemen), Eiriks Saga Rauda {Eirik the certainly in the ninth cen­
Red’s Saga), and Grcenlendinga Saga {The tury, but not necessarily any
Saga o f the Greenlanders) all have much to earlier, as is often claimed. Place-name
offer the historian as well as the student of scholars in particular have suggested that
medieval literature. But such saga-history there was extensive settlement already in the
must be treated with* caution, for the infor­ eighth century in the Northern Isles, but
mation recorded about the events that took archaeology has not confirmed this version
place several centuries before is in the form of of events. The evidence from excavated Viking
stories that had been preserved by constant graves and farmsteads in Scotland indicates
retelling, and thus were always liable to that settlement was taking place during the
distortion by personal, political and religious ninth century with expansion in the tenth.
interests, before finally being committed to More recently controversy has centred on the
parchment. For Iceland, however, in addition manner in which these settlements came to be
to the various íslendinga Sqgur {Sagas o f established in the territories of the Piets and
Icelanders), there are two historical works Scots, who lived respectively in the northern
compiled in the twelfth century that delib­ and western areas of Scotland. Was it by
erately set out to record the country’s early violent conquest, or peaceful assimilation ? If
history: the íslendingabók (Book o f the the latter was the case then why are nearly all
Icelanders), and the Landnámabók {Book o f place-names in the Northern Isles Norse in
the Settlements). But even these depend ulti­ origin? The two most obvious explanations
mately on unwritten traditions for the earliest for this state of affairs would be either that the
events that they describe. Vikings found the islands empty or that they

On Unst in the Shetland

Isles, ponies graze today
in front of the excavated
remains of a Viking farm
at Underhoull. The bay
behind served as the
harbour. The boat would
normally have been
pulled up on the beach,
although there was also a
boathouse for its
protection during the
winter months.

68
exterminated the native population of Piets.
But neither of these somewhat simplistic
suggestions can be accepted today.
Recent excavations have now demon­
strated that some established Pictish settle­
ments were indeed taken over by the
Norsemen, such as that at Buckquoy on the
main island of Orkney. Buckquoy faces the
tidal islet of the Brough of Birsay, where there
stood a Pictish monastery and community,
including metalworkers capable of producing
fine ornaments. This monastery was deserted
by its monks and replaced by a major Norse
settlement that in time was to be the seat of
Orkney’s greatest earl, Thorfinn the Mighty,
who died in 1065.
Fine examples of pre-Norse metalwork of
the type made at Birsay were found in 1958 as
part of a silver hoard buried under the floor of,
the small church on St Ninian’s Isle, off the
south-west coast of Shetland. Its excavator
lifted a cross-marked slab to reveal the re­
mains of a larchwood box filled with twenty-
eight pieces of silver and (rather surprisingly)
part of the jawbone of a porpoise. This Pictish
treasure, consisting largely of bowls and dis­ been put to work as slaves, farming the land, The tidal island of the
Brough of Birsay, off the
tinctive penannular brooches, had been building the houses, making pins and pots for
north-west of Orkney
hidden about a d 800, presumably to keep it their Norse masters. They made them, of mainland, was the site of
safe from Viking raiders; the fate of its owner course, in the manner to which they were a monastery when the
Vikings arrived. Here
is unknown. The St Ninian’s Isle hoard is an accustomed. This then would explain the they established a
eloquent witness both to the wealth available presence of such Pictish material in Norse settlement that was to
to the Pictish population of these islands and houses on sites like Buckquoy. become the seat of
Orkney’s earls and
to their obvious fear of attack by Vikings. A further argument in the case for friendly ultimately the site of a
On the other hand, Buckquoy is considered Viking settlers is the fact that weapons are not Norse church, built over
found on such settlement sites. But then the ruins of its Pictish
by some to have produced evidence for the
predecessor.
peaceful assimilation of the native culture by weapons are valuable objects that are not
the Norsemen, because its ninth- and tenth- discarded on middens, lost about the house,
century houses contained pottery, bone pins or left lying around in abandoned buildings.
and combs in the Pictish tradition. But how They are treated with care, as excavations at
could there have been a mingling of Norse Westness, on the Orkney island of Rousay,
and native on a peaceful basis when we see the have shown. Here, for the first time in
Piets obliged to bury their treasures, and their Scotland, a ninth-century farmstead has been
monks put to flight ? Why then should all their discovered together with its family cemetery.
own names for places have been replaced? The grave-goods buried with the dead show
The Norse takeover must have been com­ that the men were warriors as well as farmers,
plete; the Pictish population can only have for their weapons were placed beside them in
been subjugated by force. They would have their graves.

69
 LAND-SEEKERS

The settlement at Jarlshof

he clearest picture that we have

to date of the type of farmstead
built by the first Viking settlers
in Scotland is provided by the
multi-period site of Jarlshof,
on the southern tip of Shetland. The settle­
ment is located in a sheltered bay, behind the
cliffs of Sumburgh head. It had been occupied
for centuries, and still was on a small scale,
when the Vikings arrived and recognized its
A bove Jarlshof on
Shetland was
continuously occupied
from the late Bronze Age.
The complex of early
settlements is dominated
by a 17th-century ruin,
behind which may be
seen the long, rectangular
outlines of several Norse
houses. The earliest
Viking farmstead,
outlined right, was a
simple two-room
dwelling with a number
of outbuildings.

70
 The Hebrides
in his novel The Pirate for the later ruins urials of Viking warriors and
that still dominate the site. The first Norse their wealthy ladies have also
dwelling house was a bow-sided building been discovered in the
about 75ft (23m) long and built of drystone Hebrides, but to date only two
settlements have been exca­
vated and both of these are in the Outer Isles.
The most important is the Udal, on a sandy
peninsula projecting from the Atlantic coast
of North Uist. Here again the story is one of a
ninth-century takeover of what had been a
flourishing native settlement, the characteris­
tic rectangular buildings with their central
long-hearths being built among the pre-Norse
ruins. At this moment in the history of the site
a small but strongly defended enclosure was
constructed on its highest point. It cannot
now be established whether it was built by the
natives against the Norsemen, or by the Norse
settlers against native reprisals (or even
against other Vikings). Whichever it may have
been, it certainly does not speak of peaceful
penetration of the Hebrides.
The pattern of Norse settlement in the
An old man’s head scratched on slate by an inhabitant
of Jarlshof, perhaps even a portrait drawn from life, is Hebrides is still far from fully understood, but
an unusual example of naturalism in Viking art. it appears to have been more concentrated in
and turves, except for its east gable, which some areas than in others, so that different
was of timber. It was divided into two rooms, degrees of co-existence must have been
the hall or living room, and a much smaller practised. On Skye, for instance, only the
kitchen or pantry. The hall was provided with northern half of the island has any significant
a characteristic long-hearth down its centre, number of Norse settlement names. The same
with raised platforms on either side for both was true for the Scottish mainland, where
sitting and sleeping. The outbuildings con­ there was scattered settlement, particularly in
sisted of a byre for wintering the animals, a the north and down the east coast as far as the
barn for their fodder, stables, a small smithy Dornoch Firth.
and another building of similar size that is
thought to have been a bath house where Christianity in the Scottish isles
water would have been thrown on hot stones The conversion of these pagan settlers in a
to make a steamy sauna. Christian land was a gradual process, de­
The settlers at Jarlshof were principally pendent on personal inclination. But pagan
farmers, although as time passed fishing burial practices were gradually abandoned
appears to have become of increasing impor­ during the tenth century. The Orkneys were
tance to their economy, perhaps because of forcibly converted in 995, when Olaf Trygg-
the need to feed the growing population. The vason, about to seize the throne of Norway,
little community grew and prospered over forced Earl Sigurd the Stout to be baptized
the next 400 years, with new buildings and and to see that the islands followed his
extensions being added when necessary to the example. On the other hand there was
original farm complex. nothing at all militant about Scandinavian

71
 LAND-SEEKERS The Isle of M an
he Hebridean chain of island
settlements led south to the Isle
of Man, a connection recalled
in the title of the Bishop of
Sodor and Man (Sodor, from
Suðreyjar, meaning the Southern Isles, as the
Hebrides were known to the Norsemen).
Viking graves, among them that of a warrior
buried in his boat in the Christian cemetery at
Balladoole, suggest that the first settlements
on Man were made during the second half of
the ninth century - at the same time as those in
Ireland, after fifty or more years of raiding in
these waters and beyond. One curious fact is
that, except for the slave girl apparently
sacrificed with her master at Ballateare, there
is not a single burial of a woman among the
The Hebrides were paganism and many Vikings seem to have forty or so Viking graves known from the Isle
settled by Norse Vikings
respected the holy places of others. Even of Man. Given this number of burials, it seems
in the 9th century, but not
as intensively as the raiding monastries was not done with their probable that few Scandinavian women can
Northern Isles. Above destruction in mind. The settlers at Birsay did have been involved in the settlement of Man.
The fertile, sandy plain of
North Uist’s Atlantic
not build over the Pictish church and its Indeed it is unlikely that the island was settled
coast proved attractive to cemetery, so that when they erected their own in the same way as Scotland; more probably it
Viking land-takers. church there in the eleventh century they were was seized by Viking warriors who then
Here, at the Udal, later
buildings overlie the able to superimpose the new building on the intermarried with the Manx women.
Norse settlement, itself ruins of the old. This church, of which the Evidence for this supposition comes not only
established among the remains still stand, is likely to have been the from their rapid adoption of Christianity,
ruins of native houses.
minster of Christchurch, built by Earl Thor- presumably by example, but also from the
finn the Mighty. It was the predecessor of St fact that native Celtic names are among those
Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall, begun in 1137 carved in runes on the tenth-century stone
while Orkney was still a powerful Norse earl­ slabs and crosses that are so finely decorated
dom (but using masons from Durham, so that with Scandinavian ornament and mytho­
it is hardly a Norse building). logical scenes.
Viking-period settlements on Man include
The decline of Norse power small defended homesteads on coastal prom­
Norse power in Scotland gradually declined ontories, a type of fortification that appears at
from the twelfth century. After the defeat of that time to have been peculiar to this island,
the Norwegians at Largs in 1x63, the Hebrides perhaps because of its position exposed to all
were ceded to the Scottish Crown. In 1468-9 the traffic through and across the Irish Sea.
the Orkneys and then Shetland were pledged More familiar in type is the massive bow­
as part of the dowry of the Danish princess sided hall at the Braaid, replacing the circular
Margaret on her marriage to King James in of houses of the earlier native settlement.
Scotland (Norway and Denmark being then On Man, the legacy of its Viking past is alive
united). But no such transfer could obliterate above all in the fact that it retains independent
the Viking heritage of the Northern Isles, status under the British Crown, administered
where Norse dialects continued to be spoken by its own parliament - the Tynwald. The
into the nineteenth century. name is derived from the Norse Þ i n g V Q Í l r ,
 A bove One of the first
Viking warriors to settle
in the Isle of Man was
buried in his boat, marked
by a stone cairn, in a
corner of the early
Christian churchyard at
Balladoole.

Left At the Braaid in the

centre of the island, a pre-
Viking round house was
replaced by rectangular
and bow-sided Norse
buildings (foreground).
Unfortunately, few finds
were made when the site
was excavated.
meaning Parliament Plain (as in the modern Tynwald, although no one knows for certain
place-name Thingvellir, in Iceland). This when the first Viking assembly was held. Man
assembly, originally known as the Thing, still remained a Scandinavian possession until
meets annually in the open air on Old Mid­ iz 6 6 , when the last of its own kings accepted
summer Day (5 July), seated on an artificial the overlordship of King Alexander in of
mound called Tynwald Hill, in the south-west Scotland. Today it is Queen Elizabeth 11 who
of the island, to promulgate the laws passed holds the position of Lord of Man over this
during the previous year. In 1979 the Isle of independent country, unique in its relation­
Man celebrated the millennium of the ship to the British Crown.
 LAND-SEEKERS

Ireland, Wales & England

n the nineteenth century a
small Viking cemetery was
discovered on Rathlin Island,
off the north-east coast of
Ireland, suggesting that a
Norse settlement awaits discovery there.
Other such sites may well be scattered along
Ireland’s northern, eastern and southern
coasts, but they must be few and far between,
for the only concentrations of Scandinavian
settlements were around the new Viking
towns of Dublin and Waterford. They were
anyway of little importance in comparison
with the wealth and influence of the
Scandinavian towns in Ireland, above all of
Dublin (see page 100).
When the Irish drove the Norse out of
Dublin in 902, some Vikings sought land
unsuccessfully in North Wales and were
forced to move on to England. Silver hoards
from Anglesey and Bangor tell of Viking
activity in these parts and the development of
the trade route between Dublin and Chester.
In the latter part of the Viking Age, Bristol
replaced Chester as the principal focus for
Hiberno-Norse trade with Anglo-Saxon
England. Many Scandinavian place-names
along the coast of South Wales testify to the
importance of this sea route. The establish­
ment of small markets and settlements must
be the explanation for the adoption of these
names into common usage, although there is
no archaeological evidence for this. It could
be that those involved were second- or third-
generation settlers, from say Ireland, without
distinctive Scandinavian objects or tastes. If
so, it would be hard to recognize the
This unique early 10th-
century cross at Gosforth archaeological remains of the Haralds,
in Cumbria is the largest Hakons and others who left their names for
surviving piece of sculpture
places around Milford Haven. It is possible,
in England from before
the Norman conquest. It however, that they also left their mark in
is ornamented with other ways. A study of blood-group frequen­
interlace patterns
(including the Borre-style
cies showed the frequency of A genes among
ring-chain), scenes from the indigenous population of Pembrokeshire
the life of Christ and from to be at levels of up to 33.6 per cent, which is
pagan Norse mythology.
Irish monastic sculpture far higher than in adjacent parts of Wales and
influenced its design. only matched in parts of Scandinavia.

74
 The settlement of north-west England, by
Vikings from Ireland, also got under way at
the beginning of the tenth century. Historical
references to this are supported by a handful
of Viking burials from Cumbria and Lanca­
shire. The most dramatic testimony to the
events of these years is that provided by the
great Cuerdale silver hoard, concealed in a
lead chest in a bank of the river Ribble. Its
contents of some 9olb (40kg) of silver objects
and coins make it by far the largest Viking
hoard known in the West, exceeded only by
some coin hoards found in Russia on the
routes along which the Arabic silver travelled
to the Baltic. The 4,000 or so coins in the
Cuerdale hoard include some that are Arabic
and others from the Continent, but the
majority are Anglo-Saxon and from the
Viking kingdom of York. Among the many
fragments of silver objects, or so-called ‘hack
silver’ , are arm-rings and brooches of distinc­
tive Hiberno-Viking types.
The great cross standing at Gosforth also
speaks of the Irish origins and connections of
the settlers of Cumbria. The form of the cross
itself and its Christian scenes are inspired by
the High Crosses of the Irish monasteries,
although combined with Scandinavian orna­
ment and mythological figures. It is its Irish
elements that make it quite unlike the Anglo- objects that can be proved to be Scandinavian
Scandinavian sculpture of Yorkshire, which were found, but there were three small bronze
still remains among the most important coins struck in York to point to its occupation
archaeological evidence for the Danish de­ in the latter part of the ninth century. The
scendants and followers of the ‘great army’, buildings could have been built by Scandi­
who established the Viking kingdom of York. navians, but equally well by the Anglo-Saxons.
Most Scandinavian farms in England will We do not know the answer at present and Excavations at
lie beneath their modern counterparts, but of will not be able to tell until a number of Ribblehead, top, on the
weathered limestone of
those placed on marginal land, and subse­ Viking Age farms, both Scandinavian and Gauber High Pasture in
quently deserted, we may hope to learn Anglo-Saxon, have been located and exca­ Yorkshire, have revealed
vated across northern England. Meanwhile it a farm that may have
something. There is, however, a real problem
been built either by some
of identification, as is illustrated by the remains possible that Ribblehead is a settle­ of the first Viking settlers
excavations at Ribblehead in the far west of ment of some of the first Vikings to penetrate in the north of England or
by native Anglo-Saxons.
Yorkshire. Here a bow-sided hall with England from the west, or represents a
The buildings, grouped
outbuildings, one of which was a kitchen, western outpost of the Danish settlers who around a farmyard, above,
was uncovered around a yard from which spread from the east after their leader consist of a bow-sided
dwelling (a), a kitchen
radiated the drystone walls of fields, running Halfdan had shared out the land of Northum­ (b), and a workshop or
off across the high limestone plateau. No bria among his army in 876. smithy (c).

75
LAND-SEEKERS

76
The Faeroes
he Vikings voyaging west­
wards from Norway may have
reached the Faeroes first by
mistake, passing the Shetlands
to their north. More likely,
they will have learned of their existence in
Britain or Ireland. For this cluster of islands,
rising steeply from the Atlantic almost half­
way between Shetland and Iceland, was
already inhabited by Irish hermits before the
ninth century. The Irish monk Dicuil, living in
France, wrote a treatise in 825 in which he
described some islands (generally agreed to be
the Faeroes) that lay ‘two days’ and nights’
direct sailing’ from ‘the northernmost British
Isles’. He states that Irish hermits had been
living there ‘for roughly a hundred years’,
but ‘now, because of Norse pirates, they are
empty of anchorites, but full of innumerable
sheep and a great many different kinds of sea-
fowl.’ To the Norse they were the Fcereyjar,
or Sheep Islands, and provided unoccupied
land and pasture for settlers.
The settlers were forced to build in turf and
stone on these treeless islands, as they had
done previously on Orkney and Shetland. An
early Norse farmstead has been excavated at
Kvivik, where the hall was placed beside a
combined barn and byre. This had stalls, on
either side of a central drain, for perhaps a
dozen cattle. One end of each bow-sided
building is now missing, eroded by the sea.
Apart from their dependence on sheep and a
few cattle, the Faeroese have always lived by
The Faeroe Islands rise so
fishing, fowling and whaling - that is by steeply from the sea that
driving inshore and killing the herds of pilot settlements, such as that
whales that arrive in their fjords each August. at Kvivik, opposite, have
always been strung out
along the only level
ground available, at the
foot of the hills. The
Norse farmstead found at
Kvivik, left, was built so
close to the shore that
part of it has been eroded
away by the sea. It
consists of two turf
buildings: a bow-sided
building, with a central
long-hearth, and a
combined barn/byre.

77
 LAND-SEEKERS

Iceland
he Norse settlers in the Faeroes
were true colonists in an empty
landscape, but for others these
islands merely provided a step­
ping stone on their route to
Iceland. Dicuil knew also of Iceland’s exis­
tence, noting the perpetual daylight at mid­
summer and that ‘the frozen sea’ lay one day’s
sailing to the north. The early Icelandic
historians mention that there were Irish
hermits living there when the first Norsemen
arrived, but íslendingabók states that ‘They
went away because they were not prepared to
live here in company with heathen men.’
Three men are separately accredited with the
discovery and naming of Iceland, but it is the
name island (simply Ice Land), given by a man
called Floki, that it has borne ever since. Floki
chose this name because of the harshness of
the first winter he spent there and the drift ice
he saw to the north. It seems from the various
stories that there were a number of explora­
tory voyages, both accidental and otherwise,
around 860, preceding the main sixty-year
period of land-taking that took place between
about 870 and 930.
Landnámabók records the names of rough­
ly 400 men who are said to be the initial
settlers, of whom perhaps one-seventh can be
shown to have had connections with Britain assembly in Europe. This general assembly,
and Ireland - some arrived with Celtic wives, the Althing, met in the open air for two weeks
others with Celtic slaves. Again blood-group each summer at Thingvellir - a spectacular
frequencies have been studied and the results plain, bounded by cliffs of lava, thirty miles to
confirm the presence of Celtic blood among the east of Reykjavik. The traditional date for
Iceland’s Scandinavian population. its first meeting, and thus the birth of a nation,
is 930. It was here in 1000 that it was decreed
Birth of a nation that Iceland was to become a Christian
Iceland’s medieval historians believed that country. There had been Christians among
there was one reason above all why Norse the very early settlers (including one Ketil the
Vikings had come to settle in Iceland - to Foolish, who had been given his nickname for
escape the tyranny of King Harald. This is just that reason!), but there was still a very
certainly a later exaggeration, but the Ice­ strong pagan faction at this critical meeting of
landers were particularly proud to have the Althing. A compromise was reached
established an independent republic, even if it whereby everybody in the country should be
was ultimately to submit to King Hakon of baptized, but pagans were permitted to prac­
Norway between 1262. and 1264. Iceland can tise their religion in private, although their
still boast the oldest (but revived) national rights were withdrawn in subsequent years.

78
 Iceland’s landscape has
been formed by fire and
ice. Lava shaped the great
plain in south-west
Iceland, which was
chosen for the annual
open-air meeting of the
national assembly, or
Althing. Known as
Thingvellir (Parliament
Plain), it was accessible to
all the settlers, although
some would have
journeyed on horseback
for a fortnight or more to
reach it.

Icelandic farmsteads This basic type of hall-house was de­ This T-shaped bronze
One of the earliest settlers was a man named veloped and modified during the Viking Age crozier-head, ornamented
with a pair of Urnes-style
Ingolf Arnarson, who established himself at in Iceland, becoming divided into specific animals, was found at
Reykjavik, the Smoky Bay, so named from the rooms and also growing additional rooms at Thingvellir, where Iceland
was declared a Christian
steam of its hot-water springs, which today the back. Such changes appear to have been in country in 1000. The
provide the heating for the nation’s capital. response to local conditions, both to the crozier dates from a few
Such men constructed farmsteads with build­ weather and to the lack of suitable building generations later.
ings similar to those at Jarlshof and Kvivik — timber and stone on this volcanic island. The
having the long-hall design with at most one result was a more compact building, in which
or two ancillary rooms on the end. An a variety of tasks might be comfortably
example has been excavated at Hofstadir, in undertaken. This developed type of farm­
the north of Iceland, which is of exceptional house is well represented by those found in a
length (some 130ft, 40m). It consisted simply series of excavations in the southern Icelandic
of a hall with a single small room on one end. valley of Thjórsárdalur, which was smothered
It may perhaps have been a chieftain’s farm in ash when Mount Hekla erupted c. 1104.
used for feasting on pagan festivals, since bof What was once a fertile valley, supporting up
means ‘a building used for cult purposes’ ; and to twenty farms during the Viking Age, still
these might well have required extra space. presents today a desert-like landscape.

79
 LAND-SEEKERS

The Stöng farmhouse

The farm at Stöng was
one of several that were
smothered by volcanic
ash during an eruption of
Mount Hekla, c. 1104,
destroying not only the
buildings but also the
fertility of the valley.
Today its excavated
remains are protected
under cover. B elow
right A full-scale
reconstruction has
recently been built in the
original manner, with
turf walls on stone
footings.

he particularly well-preserved
remains of one of these farms,
cleared of its mantle of vol­
canic ash in 1939 and now
roofed over for protection,
stands at the heart of the valley on a small rise
above a stream. Few objects were found here
at Stöng, for its inhabitants appear to have
had time to evacuate their farmstead in the
face of the eruption, but its plan and many of
its structural details are complete. These have
recently been used as the basis for a full-scale
reconstructed farmstead, built in the original
manner, with massive turf walls placed on
stone foundations; the living rooms were
panelled on the inside, but with the wood
panels standing free of the walls to protect
them from damp.
The main hall at Stöng — just over 40 ft
(1 2 m) long - opens off a vestibule entered
through the single exterior door. In one ing benches; leading directly off this hall, on
corner of this vestibule was a rectangular the same axis, was a smaller living room (2 5 ft,
structure that might have been the bed-closet 8 m, long) with a central fireplace and narrow
of the owner and his wife, or was perhaps benches, suitable only for sitting; spinning
simply for storage. On either side of the hall’s was certainly one task carried out in this
stone-lined long-hearth were the wide sleep­ room. One of the two rooms that open off the

80
back of the building was a stone-lined dairy, building that presumably served as the barn.
with impressions in the ground for three large Set apart from all these structures was the
vats; opposite its entrance from the hall stood smithy, which contained a sunken fire-box,
the quern for grinding grain. The other back an anvil stone, a basin for quenching the hot
room was entered from the vestibule and has iron, and a small quern that might have been
a drain down either side; it was most used for grinding volcanic ash to make red
probably a lavatory. dye. The remains of the bog iron ore used by
To the east of this house is situated the Icelandic smiths also abounded. There is
byre, with its cattle stalls formed from vertical every reason to suppose that farm complexes
slabs of stone on either side of a paved alley to like this at Stöng were typical in Iceland
facilitate the mucking out. Nearby was a during the later Viking period.
The ground plan of the
farmhouse at Stöng was
probably typical of late
Viking Age farms in
Iceland. Comparison
with the earlier
settlements of Jarlshof
and Kvivik on pages 70
and 77 show how the idea
of including several
separate rooms in one
building was developed
in Iceland.

liv in g ro o m
h e a rth
benches

d a iry

8l
 LAND-SEEKERS

Greenland & Vinland

lood-feuds and storms were The Eastern and Western Settlements
the first links in the chain of Eirik himself survived and returned to the
chance events that led to the fjord where he had first built himself a house.
Norse settlement of Greenland He ‘took Eiriksfjord by right of settlement
and so to the Viking discovery and lived at Brattahlid.’ Farmers could exist
of North America. The chief character in this in only two main areas situated some 400
stirring adventure story was reputedly one miles apart, around Julianehåb bay and
Eirik the Red - ‘Red’ from hair and beard, but Godthåb fjord, which became respectively the
also apparently of a quarrelsome nature - Eastern and Western Settlements - although
who was born in Jæren, the fertile district of to modern eyes conditioned by other orienta­
south-western Norway. ‘Some killings’, or so tions, they would more naturally be described
it is stated in the medieval saga that recounts as the ‘Southern and Northern Settlements’.
his exploits, were behind the hurried depar­ Only by these fjords lay the grazing land
ture of the adolescent Eirik and his father for required by the Norse stock-raisers, who had
the Norse colony in Iceland in about 980. brought with them their cattle, horses, sheep,
However, Iceland was to prove no more goats and a few pigs. Today Eiriksfjord is
peaceful for him than Norway, and further frozen from October to May, but although
killings led to his banishment from the island. the climate was milder then, it was a hard life.
With his followers Eirik escaped once more The landscape of Greenland is also treeless,
by ship, this time to look for a land in the but the settlers knew how to build their farms
western ocean that had been discovered some of turf and stones, lined and roofed with
sixty years earlier by a man named Gunn- driftwood, since these were what they had left
bjorn, who had been blown far off course behind them in Iceland. They were inevitably
while endeavouring to sail from Norway to scattered to make the most of the grazing for
Iceland - a land that had since remained the animals on which their livelihoods
unvisited and without a name. depended, and to enable sufficient hay to be
For three years Eirik remained in exile, then gathered to see the stock through the winter.
returned to Iceland with tales of Greenland. Today their houses, byres and barns are
the Green Land. He had chosen the name grassy mounds, amid green pastures at the
deliberately as being far more alluring to foot of barren mountains. Further to the
prospective settlers than that of Ice Land, for north, up the western coast, were rich hunting
he sensibly maintained that ‘Men would be and fishing grounds (and beaches where
much more eager to go there if the land had driftwood could be gathered). Hunting and
an attractive name.’ But it is not entirely in­ fishing were important, for reindeer, hares
accurate if one thinks of the inner reaches of and game-birds supplemented the Vikings’
the great fjords and their inland valleys, diet, and above all they ate seals and fish.
forgetting at the same time the wet and windy Julianehåb bay and Godthåb fjord were
coasts and the high, ice-clad interior. marginal settlements for men who had been
There were many in Iceland prepared to brought up in the traditional Scandinavian
listen to Eirik’s propaganda and to follow him economy, for they were dependent on trade to
in a venture of colonization. We are told that supply many of their accustomed needs —
twenty-five ships set sail that summer (about unlike the self-sufficient Eskimos, whom they
985) for Greenland, but the hazards of their later encountered and who were ultimately
journey into the unknown were extreme and to replace them. Timber, iron and corn were
only fourteen of the twenty-five are said to always required, quite apart from luxuries.
have arrived - some being forced back, while These imported goods were exchanged for
others disappeared without a trace. furs, sealskins, ropes of hides, walrus and

82
 The site of Eirik the Red’s
farm at Brattahlid, which
lay at the heart of
Greenland’s Eastern
Settlement, overlooks
Eiriksfjord. The stone
ruins are those of later
medieval buildings. It was
Eirik’s son, Leif, who set
sail from Brattahlid to
become the first
Norseman to set foot in
North America.
narwhal ivory, woollens, and in time fero­ The route to the New World
cious Greenland falcons, and even polar As accident and chance had led to the
bears. From the tenth to the twelfth centuries discovery of Greenland, so the story con­
the settlements flourished (so that nearly 300 tinues. When Bjarni Herjolfsson sighted a
ruined farmsteads are now known). All was western land that was flat and covered with
well as long as nothing changed. But then woods, it was clear that this was not the
commercial neglect, climatic deterioration Greenland for which he had set sail from
and disease began to take their toll, while the Iceland. He was attempting to follow his
Eskimos were drawn southwards in pursuit of parents, who had sailed that year with Eirik
the seals that spelled survival for them. The the Red to settle there, when he got lost in
Western Settlement was deserted by the foggy seas, blown off course by north winds.
middle of the fourteenth century; the Eastern Thus, in about 985, Bjarni was probably the
Settlement was able to struggle on for around first Norseman to sight America - maybe
another 150 years. indeed the first European to do so, unless one

83
 LAND-SEEKERS/Greenland and Vinland

believes that St Brendan or some other Irish foundland, how far south the Norse explorers
monk achieved this in a leather boat (and travelled is another matter and as yet quite
returned to tell the tale). But Bjarni never unknown. But what evidence must we look
stepped ashore for he was no explorer, rather for ? Certainly more than that provided by the
a man with a cargo to deliver in Greenland, later Icelandic sagas, or the controversial
where he eventually landed. Vinland Map, or even by the isolated
The privilege of first setting foot in the New discovery of a Norse penny recently reported
World fell to Leif the Lucky, Eirik’s son and from Blue Hill Bay, Maine.
an experienced sailor. Inspired by Bjarni’s During the 1950s the Norwegian Helge
account of his sightings, he retraced his Ingstad was drawn on voyages of exploration
journey in reverse, sailing first to Helluland, in the wake of his Norse forebears to the
Flatstone Land - a barren mountainous land meadowlands of northern Newfoundland.
with glaciers - identified today as the Here, at Epaves Bay, into which meanders the
southern part of Baffin Island, then on south Black Duck Brook, he and his wife have
to Markland, Wood or Forest Land - which excavated the site of L’Anse aux Meadows,
was no doubt the coast of Labrador. After where the first undoubted ruins left by
two further days sailing to the south-west, Norsemen from Greenland were discovered.
Leif came to what he termed Vinland - most Over several seasons, three groups of turf-
probably Berry or Vine Land - an area with built structures were excavated, each with its
an island lying to the north of what appeared own house; a separate smithy and boathouses
The bronze ringed-pin, to be mainland, with a projecting cape. were also found. Radio-carbon dates have
excavated at L’Anse aux
Meadows, in northern
Here Leif Eiriksson built winter accom­ supported the suggestion that they were built
Newfoundland, is of a modation and waited with his crew before and occupied during the Viking Age, but the
type well known on returning to Greenland the following spring. indisputable evidence that they were used by
Norse sites around
the Atlantic. Excited by his stories, his brother Thorwald Norsemen derives from a combination of
decided to follow in his footsteps. Thorwald’s factors. The chief among these is a bronze
expedition also explored a beautiful and well- ringed-pin of a type well known from Norse
wooded coast but, while returning home,, graves in the British Isles, the Faeroes and
An American Indian encountered the first inhabitants of America Iceland, while a spindle-whorl of a type com­
arrow-head of Labrador yet to be sighted. In a bloody skirmish, mon in the settlements of Greenland also rein­
quartzite, found on the Thorwald was killed by an arrow - perhaps forces this interpretation. However, whether
Norse site of Sandnes in
Greenland’s Western with the same kind of Indian arrow-head as this was a permanent settlement is open to
Settlement. that of Labrador quartzite found in 1930 doubt, for there is no definite evidence that
during excavations at Sandnes, in the Western the occupants had livestock with them, nor
Settlement of Greenland. There were other has pollen analysis revealed evidence for
expeditions, most notably that of Thorfinn farming there at this period. It is possible that
Karlsefni, who attempted to establish a each group of buildings was used by suc­
permanent colony in Vinland. But after three cessive expeditions.
winters, harassed by the native Indians, his
party returned to Greenland. The Vinland Map
The significance of the Ingstads’ discoveries
Vinland was first overshadowed by the excitement
Vinland - with its frost-free winters, wild that surrounded the publication of the
grapes and self-sown wheat - has been Vinland Map in October 1965. This is a pen
sought by many a scholar, both in armchair and ink drawing of the world, on a sheet of
and in boat. And it will continue to be so. For thin parchment, that includes the depiction of
although Vinland must begin at New­ land in the north-west Atlantic, west of

84
 The pen and ink drawing
of the world known as
the Vinland Map
purports to have been
made in the 15th century.
It records, among other
information, the
discovery of Vinland by
Bjarni and Leif. However,
various of its features,
including the nature of
the ink, suggest that the
Map is in fact a 20th-
century forgery.
Greenland, labelled ‘Island of Vinland, dis­ The end of the settlements
covered by Bjarni and Leif in company’. The The Norsemen managed to keep a permanent
Map was then given a date of c. 1440, but toehold on a minute part of the great island of
doubts were rapidly cast on its authenticity Greenland for about 500 years from the time
for various reasons, including the fact that it of the first settlement. But to make this
has several features that do not fit the known possible, the first arduous voyages of explo­
framework of medieval European carto­ ration and colonization had to be repeated
graphy. One such problem is the accuracy of time and again as voyages of commerce in
the delineation of Greenland as an island; this order to sustain the colonies. Ultimately this
alone suggests a date for the Map of no earlier western outpost proved too remote, and trade
than the 1890s. Subsequently tests were made dwindled and finally ceased. The settlements
on its ink, which have demonstrated that it in North America were remoter still, for there
contains a pigment not known to have been no regular chain of communications had ever
available before 1917 at the earliest. Thus the become established to support any colony.
Map appears to be a twentieth-century Those who chose to settle would have been
forgery, although there are those who still dependent on local resources, or on their own
believe that evidence will be forthcoming to return journeys to Greenland - and even then,
demonstrate its authenticity. Be that as it like the Greenlanders, they would still have
may, there is no question that the Map’s had to look farther afield to Iceland and
importance in relation to the Norse discovery Norway for supplies. It is hardly surprising
of America has been greatly exaggerated in therefore that we have little evidence of
the popular press, for it contains no infor­ permanent Viking settlements in America, for
mation about the Viking Age that was not they can only ever have been extremely
already available from the literary sources. few in number.

85
Merchantmen

Silver was the prize most coveted by the Vikings. Scandinavian

merchants travelled the great Russian rivers with furs and slaves
to bring back Arabic silver coins, while others traded or raided in
Western Europe for coins or objects of silver and gold. For
safekeeping the Vikings buried their wealth in hoards, many of
which they never returned to retrieve.
 MERCHANTMEN

Trade & towns

i he image of a Viking as a trader
rather than a raider may be
unfamiliar, but the achieve­
ments of the Vikings in this
sphere are among their most
dramatic and enduring. Piracy was all very
well, but could scarcely ensure a regular
income of the kind that might be had, for
instance, by supplying the Arabs with slaves
in exchange for their excess wealth of silver.
The first small trading centres in Scandin­
avia had been established before the ninth
century, but with the great growth in trade
during the Viking Age larger towns came into
being. Many were royal foundations such as
Hedeby in Denmark and Bergen in Norway,
for the Scandinavian kings were naturally
anxious to control trade, since taxation of
merchants produced a substantial revenue.
Trade around the Baltic had been stimu­
lated by the establishment of Swedish settl

VIKING TRADERS
Viking merchants
travelling along the great
Russian rivers penetrated
far to the east. Here they
joined the international
caravan routes and met
foreign traders with
goods from such distant
countries as China and
Persia. In the West other
Vikings traded with
England and the Frankish
Empire.

Viking sea and river routes

land routes used by the Vikings

international trade routes

88
89
MERCHANTMEN/Trade and towns

90
merits on its eastern shores, as at Grobin in Exotic objects reached
Scandinavia by both fair
western Latvia, well placed to control eastern means and foul. Opposite
trade along the Vistula, or Wollin at the Glasses found at Birka
mouth of the Oder - described by Adam of were luxuries imported
for the rich from the
Bremen in 1070 as the largest town in Europe Rhineland. Above An
(although by then under Slav rule). Com­ Arabic glass and a Persian
mercial traffic was intensive, both within glazed cup are travellers’
curios, brought back to
Scandinavia and in the Baltic, but it was the Sweden. Below An
development of regular long-distance trade enamelled bronze mount
found at Helgö was made
that distinguished the Viking Age, for by the in Ireland; it may be a
end of the tenth century Viking merchants looted crozier-head.
had established a network of trade routes that
stretched from Iceland to the Caspian Sea.
Silver from the East was chiefly what the
merchants sought, for which they traded furs,
honey, wax, weapons and slaves. O f the other
surviving imports into Scandinavia, the most
exotic may simply have been the souvenirs
and curios of travellers in distant places: a
buddha, a painted Arabic glass, a glazed cup
from Iran and a bronze brazier in the form of
a mosque are all examples found in Sweden.
Silks, on the other hand, were traded and are
found in rich graves throughout Scandinavia.
Most will have been brought back from
Byzantium, but a few pieces are more likely to
be Chinese. Trade goods from Western
Europe tended to be of a more domestic
nature — cloth from Frisia, black basalt from
the Eifel region for querns - but there were
also luxuries such as barrels of wine from the
Rhineland, and pottery jugs and drinking
glasses from which it might be consumed.

91
 MERCHANTMEN

Hedeby
and access to the Schlei fjord and so to the
Baltic Sea. The rampart was linked to the
Danevirke, the system of great earthworks
that protected the Danish border.
Hedeby owed its success as a market town,
manufacturing centre and port to its frontier
position at the base of the Jutland peninsula,
which gave it control over the most important
trade routes from Western Europe to the
Baltic. The Hcervej, the northern extension of
the long trans-European land routes, passed
through the Danevirke near Hedeby. More
important, however, was the flow of traffic
from the North Sea to the Baltic, which
avoided the dangerous coastal journey round
Jutland by travelling the short distance
overland behind the protection of the Dane­
virke and thus through Hedeby. Hollingsted,
only eleven miles west of Hedeby on the
banks of the Treene, was the primary port of
disembarkation for goods arriving from
Western Europe and further afield.
Hedeby owed its success
to its key position at the From the Frankish annals of 804, we learn
base of Jutland. This site that Godfred of Denmark, having destroyed
plan shows the rampart,
settlement areas and the Slav town of Reric ( PRostock), established
modern course of the its merchants by the site of an early settlement
Hedeby stream; a broken lesvig is a large town at the at Hedeby. This was a shrewd political act,
line indicates its course
during the Viking Age. very end of the world ocean.’ for Hedeby grew and prospered, to become a
Thus related Al-Tartushi, an rich prize held by the Danes, the Swedes and
Arab merchant from the the Germans in turn.
Caliphate of Cordoba, after The earliest occupation, the South Settle­
visiting Hedeby about the year 950; for the ment, was largely Frisian. It lay beside the
town that the Danes called ‘Hedeby’ was brook to the south of the later rampart, with a
‘Slesvig’ to their southern neighbours, the cemetery to its west. Traces of amber- and
Saxons. If the well-travelled Al-Tartushi metalworking and of such imports as Eifel
thought Hedeby ‘large’, then large it was. stone and Frisian coins have been found in its
When Al-Tartushi passed that way he late-eighth-century levels. From the start of
would not, however, have seen the feature the ninth century there was also a small North
that makes Hedeby an impressive site even Settlement. Both these Settlements, however,
today - the immense semicircular rampart. were abandoned in the late ninth century, by
Thought to have been built in the late tenth which time the Central Settlement had been in
century - and repaired and rebuilt on sub­ existence for some one hundred years.
sequent occasions before the town was aban­ The Central Settlement was established
doned in the mid-eleventh century - this runs about 800 beside the Hedeby stream, with its
down to the water’s edge, continuing as a own cemetery to the west. In the following
curving palisade into the Haddeby Nor, the years, the course of the stream was diverted
inlet that provided both a sheltered harbour and its sides planked as the settlement ex-

92
A bove The great trading centre of Hedeby is today a
patchwork of small fields. All that remains above
ground is the massive semicircular rampart, seen right.
Still standing in part to a height of 30ft (pm), it encloses
an area of 60 acres, about twice the size of Birka.
panded around it. The fact that the streets
were laid out at right angles and parallel to the
stream, and that the building plots seem to
have been regulated in size, indicates a strong
urban control, presumably under Godfred’s
authority, from the beginning of Hedeby’s
existence. The Central Settlement was later
surrounded by the rampart, although we do
not yet know how intensively the walled area
came to be inhabited.
Overshadowing the North Settlement is
a small hill, now overgrown with trees. On

93
 MERCHANTMEN/Hedeby

the top is an oblong fortification of two reeds, with a hole left either above the central
periods, but of unknown date. As it was never hearth, or at the top of the gable end, to allow
lived in, it must presumably have been used as smoke to escape. Apart from their central
a refuge in times of danger - perhaps before hearths, little is known about the internal
Hedeby was walled, for its position is similar arrangements, although some at least were
to that of the fort beside Birka. divided into separate rooms. One well-
Unlike the rich grave-fields of Birka, preserved house had three: a central living
Hedeby’s five cemeteries have produced only room with a hearth, and a smaller room at
one exceptional burial, that of a warrior either end, one containing a large bread oven.
placed in a chamber beneath a boat. In this After its peak in the tenth century, Hedeby
respect, it is clear that Hedeby was influenced seems to have declined. Certainly it never
early on by the Christian religion, for many of recovered from being burnt by Harald the
the several thousand bodies in the large Hard-ruler from Norway just before 1050, and
western and southern cemeteries were buried raided by the Slavs in 1066. Its inhabitants
in a more or less Christian manner. The moved to the site of modern Schleswig, north
skeletons excavated show that life expectancy of the Schlei, and by the late eleventh century
was about forty years. Hedeby had been abandoned.
Hedeby must always have been low-lying
and a gradually rising water level meant that
most of the Central Settlement occupation
levels became waterlogged. Under such con­
ditions of rapid deposition, where all air is
excluded by waterlogging, timber and other
organic remains may survive to a remarkable
extent. The uppermost level of the Central
Settlement was excavated in the 1930s by
Professor Jankuhn, and the exacavations
were renewed and extended in the 1960s by Dr
Schietzel, who was able to drain off the water
from his trenches and reach the natural sand
on which Hedeby was founded.
By counting and studying the tree-rings of
the preserved house-timbers at Hedeby, a
dated sequence for the construction of the
buildings has been established. It seems that
the average life of a house was only about
thirty years. Houses that had to be replaced
were simply levelled and built over.
From the start of the Central Settlement,
the merchants’ and craftsmen’s plots were
fenced round, often with wattle hurdles, and
contained both a dwelling and a storehouse or
workshop. Only one such outhouse had stalls
for animals, though there may have been
others near the outskirts. Many plots had a
timber-lined well.
The houses were generally thatched with

94
Houses in Hedeby’s Central Settlement were built a
little back from, but facing, the streets. They were
rectangular, measuring on average about zoft by 50ft
(6m by 15m). Some were constructed of horizontal
planking; others were ‘stave-built’, with vertical
planking generally consisting of wedge-shaped sections
of treetrunks; others were timber framed, with panels
of wattle daubed with clay or dung to make them
waterproof. Smaller houses for the poorer inhabitants
have been found elsewhere in the Settlement. These
were simple wattle huts, 10ft by 10ft (3m by 3m), with
a sunken floor and a hearth in one corner.

95
 MERCHANTMEN

Birka _
The coastline of Björkö has changed since
the Viking Age because the land level has
risen, so altering the appearance of Birka’s
harbours. But the site remains dominated by a
small hill-top fort on its southern edge. This
probably served as a refuge for the in­
habitants before the town was walled in the
tenth century. The rampart ran in an arc
down to the water’s edge, as at Hedeby, but
only part of it remains. There are six gaps in it
facing the burial mounds of the great cem­
etery of Hemlanden: these can scarcely all
have been for gates and it is probable that they
contained timber watch towers, linked to­
gether by a palisade that would have run
along the top of the 6ft (1.8m) high, but
20~4oft (6-izm) wide earthen rampart.
This rampart encloses an area of about
thirty acres within which lies the so-called
‘Black Earth’ - soil darkened by its content of
charcoal and organic remains from one and a
half centuries of intensive occupation. Little
of it has been excavated, so we know nothing
An area of Black Earth of the internal layout of the town itself,
lies at the centre of the 30- though both wattle-and-daub and stave-built
acre settlement of the
Swedish town of Birka, houses have been found. The debris from
situated at the northern manufacturing industries included iron­
end of an island in Lake working, bronze-casting, leather-working
Malar. Birka is
surrounded by some and the carving of bone and antler into all
3,000 graves from the 9th manner of objects — in fact a range of crafts
and 10th centuries, and is
overlooked by a hill-fort,
similar to those practised at Hedeby. A
to which it was linked in considerable number of scale-weights serves
the Loth century by a he Swedish town of Birka was to remind us of the merchants with their
rampart that enclosed the
established in about 800 on the portable balances for weighing out silver, for
town. There were three
harbours to the north and island of Björkö, or Birch above all Birka was an entrepot to which
east of the settlement. Island, in Lake Mälar, where traders brought all manner of goods for
water routes from the south distribution and dispatch.
and east converge.The choice of Birka as a There were probably markets in both
trading centre may well have been influenced winter and summer. In winter the trappers
by the fact that there was a royal estate on the and middlemen would bring their furs over
adjacent island of Adelsö. We know that Birka the ice on skates and sledges; in summer the
was governed by a representative of the king merchant-skippers came with their trading
and had its own Thing. Although in the tenth ships. The waterfront was protected by a
century Birka is estimated to have had a palisade, as at Hedeby, and there were also
population of about 1,000, the town had jetties in front of the Black Earth area. The
completely disappeared by the time Adam of 'natural harbours of Kugghamn, the Cargo
Bremen was writing in about 1070. Boat Harbour, and Korshamn, the Cross

96
Harbour, provided more sheltered accom­ graves, out of the estimated 3,000 that The Black Earth area of
modation. But such was the demand for surround the Black Earth. As well as coins, Birka is now preserved as
an open field (seen here
suitable safe anchorages that an artificial imports included wine, pottery and glass, from the north), enclosed
harbour, now known as Salviksgropen, was bronze vessels, weapons and silks, demon­ in part by the remains of
the earthern rampart.
constructed on the east side of the island. strating Birka’s contacts with both Western Trees cover the burial
We know that Swedish iron was exported and Eastern Europe, and with western Asia, mounds of the great
from Sweden to Hedeby, but the fur trade was in addition to those with the Lapps to the Hemlanden cemetery in
the foreground. In the
probably the major source of Birka’s wealth. north of the country, and with the other background rises the bare
The furs were shipped by professional traders Scandinavian kingdoms. rock of the hill-top fort,
either to Hedeby for onward transport to The decline of Birka occurred as a result of surmounted by a modern
cross to St Ansgar.
Western Europe, or across the Baltic and two circumstances: the falling off in the long-
down the Russian rivers to the Eastern range transit trade, and the rise in the land
Caliphate of the Arab Empire in return for a level. The southern channel from Birka to the
small part of its wealth of silver. The silver Baltic had always required a short overland
hoard buried in the Black Earth during the haul of the ships at Södertälje, but as the land
last years, or maybe even the last days, of rose the distance seems to have increased to
Birka’s existence, in the 960s or 970s, included something like half a mile. Birka was aban­
Arabic coins. doned, although the island itself continued to
Our most important information about the be inhabited, and its important role as a
range of luxury goods imported into Birka manufacturing centre and internal market
comes from the late-nineteenth-century exca­ was taken over by Sigtuna to the north, while
vations by Hjalmar Stolpe of nearly 1,200 Baltic trade focused more on Gotland.

97
MERCHANTMEN

98
Kaupang
he Norwegian settlement of
Kaupang — the name means
‘market-place’ - is situated on
the west side of the entrance to
the Oslofjord in the wealthy
region of Vestfold in south-east Norway. Its
Black Earth is far smaller than that of Birka
and has been intensively cultivated, but
nevertheless Charlotte Blindheim has been
able to carry out some highly successful
excavations. On the west side of the small bay
she uncovered a complex of houses and
workshops, with wells attached, placed right
by the waterside, which was provided with
stone jetties. Wooden objects discovered
included a remarkable heavy anchor. The
main crafts were metalworking (particularly
with iron, but silver and bronze were being
cast into ingots and ornaments), and the
production of soapstone vessels; the latter
were a major export to Jutland and Hedeby.
Coins and sherds of imported pottery from
the Rhineland, similar to those found at
Hedeby and Birka, demonstrate that Kaupang
existed from the late eighth century through­
out the greater part of the ninth. It must have
been an important market centre for its
region, and it was to Kaupang that northern
merchant-skippers came with their cargoes of
furs, skins, down, walrus ivory and much-
prized walrus-hide ropes. The surrounding
grave-fields contain the burials of wealthy
merchant-farmers and their wives; their
grave-goods include many trinkets from the
British Isles, which (with the Rhenish im­ O pposite Excavations at
ports) demonstrate that Kaupang’s interests Kaupang, beside a
were concentrated in North Sea trade. natural harbour on the
west side of the Oslofjord
Kaupang probably remained a seasonal in southern Norway,
market and for some reason never grew as have revealed the remains
of a small but apparently
Hedeby and Birka did; and was never wealthy trading and
fortified. In fact for the whole of the middle manufacturing centre.
period of the Viking Age, Norway seems to This settlement flourished
in the 9th century, but
have been without a major market town of never developed in the
its own. Norse trade in the tenth century same way as Hedeby or
continued to look to the west, to Iceland Birka, its role as a market­
place for North Sea trade
and the British Isles, where it was focused on passing to the Viking
the Scandinavian towns of York and Dublin. towns of York and Dublin.

99
 MERCHANTMEN

York & Dublin

York was seized from the
Anglo-Saxons to become
the capital of a Viking
kingdom. Scandinavian
merchants brought their
ships up the Ouse (in the
foreground) from the
North Sea, as had the
Romans before them.
Behind York Minster can
be seen the medieval city
walls built on top of the
Roman fortress ramparts,
which were also used to
defend the Viking town.

Among finds of Viking t York the Danes were able to tained the Anglo-Saxon minster, in the region
objects from York is a
bronze chape for the end
settle themselves in an already of its great successor, and probably also the
of a sword scabbard, thriving Anglo-Saxon town Viking royal palace. Excavation by the York
decorated in the Jellinge with an established trade, par­ Archaeological Trust of the waterlogged
style. Excavations in York
are transforming our ticularly with Frisia. New con­ levels of Anglo-Scandinavian York have been
knowledge of the houses, tacts were opened up with Scandinavia and, revealing the details of the workshops of
workshops and crafts of by about the year 1000, York is said to have York’s tenth-century inhabitants on Copper-
its Anglo-Scandinavian
inhabitants. been ‘filled with the treasure of merchants, gate, with much debris from wood-turning,
chiefly of the Danish race’. among other crafts. At High Ousegate
The town had an area of intensive in­ tanning pits were discovered at the beginning
dustrial and commercial activity to the south of this century; hides were being stretched at
of the Roman fortress, in the angle made Pavement, with cobblers active at Feasegate
between the rivers Ouse and Foss (although and Hungate. In the suburb across the Ouse
the latter’s course was a little different then tenth-century Viking burials were discovered
from what it is today). The north-west and around the church of St Mary Bishophill
north-east walls of the Roman fortress were Junior, immediately above the remains of a
kept repaired and in use (they still stand, fish-processing plant.
topped by the medieval defences), but on the
other sides of the fortress the walls had Dublin
decayed and the stones had been robbed At Dublin the Vikings did not take over an
away. On the north-east side the old wall was existing town but established their own
extended by a clay embankment running trading centre, which rose to a position of
down to the Foss, and the rivers appear to great wealth in the tenth century. Dublin was
have been considered adequate defences for ideally placed from the point of view of the
the unwalled sides. The fortress area con­ Viking merchants who used it. To the north

ioo
their routes lay through the Hebrides to Right This unique ioth-
century gaming board of
Orkney and Shetland, and then either to
wood was found at
Iceland by way of the Faeroes, or straight on Ballinderry —a native
to Norway. Across the Irish Sea lay Chester, Irish settlement. But its
ornament, including the
giving access to Anglo-Saxon merchants. ring-chain pattern of the
Sailing southwards brought one to the Scandinavian Borre style,
Carolingian Empire and even to the Arabs in suggests that it was made
in Viking Dublin. It
Spain. Dublin too has waterlogged levels would have been suitable
from the Viking Age and years of patient ex­ for the popular Viking
game of hnefatafl.
cavation by Breandán Ó Riórdáin, and most
recently Pat Wallace, have revealed successive
layers of small and crowded wattle houses,
and even one that is stave-built in familiar
Scandinavian manner. Metalworkers and
comb-makers seem to have been strongly
represented among the inhabitants of the
areas that have been investigated around
Christ Church cathedral, at the centre of what
was to become the walled town of medieval
Dublin. Viking Dublin had its own defences:
an early earthen rampart, which was replaced
with a stone wall long before the Anglo-
Norman conquest of 1170.
Although Dublin was by far the most
successful and important of the towns that the
Vikings gave to Ireland, Limerick and Cork,
Wexford and Waterford also have their urban
origins in Viking trading centres.

Dublin was founded by the Vikings in the 9th century and grew
into a wealthy town in the 10th. It supported many skilled
craftsmen who lived typically in small houses built of wattle and
daub. The house plan ab o v e has a single entrance, flanked by
small rooms. The living room has a central hearth; the cubicle in
the corner may have been a lavatory.

IOI
 M ER C H A N TM EN

Town crafts & industries

he Viking towns naturally pro­ town, which was not divided into special­
vided centres where craftsmen ized craft ‘quarters’, as was once thought.
could congregate and practise Although, as with all timber settlements,
their skills. For there mer­ there was a tendency for blacksmiths to be
chants would bring the raw placed near the edge of the town because of
materials they required and there they might the fire-risk from their furnaces.
sell their products to middlemen for dis­
tribution through the countryside. There too Bead-making
would be found newly rich traders: men from Glass bead-makers imported their rough
the north who had just sold their cargoes of glass from Western Europe in lumps or small
furs, or men returned from the East with bags cubes intended for mosaics; broken drinking
heavy with silver —people with money to burn vessels were another source of raw material.
who might wish to commission some new Simple beads were made in single colours, but
brooches, or purchase a necklace of glass more sophisticated ones were decorated with
beads for their wives left at home. coloured trails, or were completely multi­
The crafts practised in the Viking towns coloured. These last were produced by
covered the entire range; everyone from the making rods of glass, combining them into
blacksmith to the potter, the horn- and antler- bundles and then drawing them out to make
worker to the bead-maker. Excavations and new rods of multicoloured glass. These were
surface collections in the fields at Hedeby then sliced and the pieces fused together to
have shown, however, that most of these make composite coloured beads of remark­
activities were carried on throughout the able complexity.

To form glass beads

rough glass was melted in
crucibles and drawn out
into sticks that were then
softened and wound
round metal rods. Glass
sticks of different colours
were combined to form
more elaborate beads,
such as those found at
Ribe in Jutland, right.
Some were also
embellished with trails of
glass in other colours.

10 2
Bead-making was a craft
carried out in many
Viking towns and small
trading centres, such as at
Paviken on Gotland
where these beads and
glass fragments were
found. The glass cubes at
the top of the picture
were imported as raw
material, perhaps from
northern Italy; scrap
glass and waste (centre)
were also recycled. This
was much easier than
having to make glass
from scratch.

103
 M ERCH AN TM EN /Tow n crafts and industries

Amber is fossilized resin

from submerged pine
forests and has been
much prized by man since
prehistoric times. It can
be found washed up on
southern Baltic and
North Sea beaches (East
Anglia and south-west
Jutland). L eft At Ribe
some 4 pounds (2 kilos)
of rough amber was
discovered, but few
worked pieces.

Rough amber was

brought to Hedeby for
working into a variety of
small trinkets,
particularly beads and
pendants. Those
illustrated b elo w include
unfinished and damaged
examples, of which one is
leg-shaped. The round
objects to its right are
playing pieces.
Amber- and jet-working
Amber was a Baltic commodity that had been
exported from its Baltic sources for many
centuries before the Viking Age. It was used
for making small objects such as beads,
pendants and gaming pieces, although oc­
casionally it was carved into more elaborate
products. As always, it was valued by the
Vikings not only for its ornamental qualities
Some English jet was but also for its attributed magical properties.
exported from Yorkshire
to Norway during the On the other hand, the only source of jet
Viking Age. This carving available to the Vikings was in England, at
of a pair of bear-like Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. So that the jet
gripping beasts brings to
mind related examples in used for this carving of gripping beasts would
amber (see page 137). have been imported into Norway probably
from York, where there was jet-working
during the Viking Age.

Comb-making
Comb-makers used the antlers of red deer,
which gave their products strength; these
were collected after they had shed naturally. ornamented with a pattern of incised lines. In
A pair of long plates was cut to form the comb some instances combs were provided with
back, then between these was riveted a series cases, also made of antler strips riveted
of smaller rectangular plates, into which the together, so that the combs could be suspen­
teeth were cut. Finally the back might be ded about the person without damage.

10 4
Comb-making using deer
antlers was widely
practised throughout the
Viking world. The
methods were the same
from Dublin (where these
examples were found) to
Staraja Ladoga, blanks
being cut and assembled
before the teeth were sawn.

10 5
 M ERCH AN TM EN /Town crafts and industries

Casting object to be cast. The mould was then heated

Bronze-casting was carried out in all Scan­ so that the wax could be poured off before the
dinavian markets and towns by specialist bronze was poured in. Clay moulds had to be
craftsmen-jewellers capable of creating in­ broken to release the casting; but simple
dividual objects of some beauty, or of objects were mass-produced by impressing
mass-producing cheap brooches for the less them directly into clay to form a series of
wealthy. The bronze (it had to be imported) moulds. Alternatively, moulds of stone and
was melted in clay crucibles on a charcoal bone could be re-used repeatedly for casting
A bove Ander moulds hearth, with the heat raised by bellows, the in pewter. Rough castings had to be finished
could be used without
damage for casting in
nozzle of which had to be protected by a small by tooling and polishing. There might be a pin
pewter, and were thus furnace stone. A clay mould for an elaborate to be fixed, or further embellishments, such as
suitable for the mass- object was made from at least two pieces, gilding, to be added before the final product
production of cheap
brooches in towns such which were built around a wax model of the could be offered in the market.
as Hedeby.

Clay moulds for casting bronze ornaments, such as

brooches, were generally produced from wax or clay
models, although simple moulds could be made by
pressing an object directly into clay.

More clay was pressed into the cloth-lined part to

form the back of the mould. When this had dried the
two parts were separated and the cloth removed,
leaving a narrow gap within the mould (when the parts
were reunited) into which the bronze was poured. Such
moulds had to be broken to release the finished casting.
The upper part of the two-part mould was formed by
pressing clay over the model of the brooch to be cast, a
plug being fitted at one end to establish a hole through
L eft A clay mould for
which the molten metal would later be poured.
an Urnes-style brooch
(a cheaper version of
the one from Lindholm
Hóje on page 151), and,
below , an unfinished
bronze casting from such
a mould. Both were found
discarded in an early izth-
century workshop in Lund.

Once the clay had dried the model was removed (if a
wax model had been used, the mould was heated and
the wax poured off). The newly impressed mould was
baked to harden it. A layer of clay-impregnated cloth
was then inserted inside it, over the impressed face, as a
means of determining the thickness of the casting.

10 6
 Left This set of
blacksmith’s tools formed
part of the grave-goods of
a wealthy Norwegian
Viking - demonstrating
the high status and
rewards enjoyed by a
good smith in Viking
society. Here, around
his anvil, have been
grouped tongs, hammers,
files, chisels, shears, a
wire-drawing plate and a
tool for making nails.

Below Soapstone was

quarried and carved into
cooking and storage pots,
wherever it occurred
naturally in the Viking
world. In Norway it had
even replaced the use of
pottery.

Soapstone
The quarrying of soapstone and manufacture
of soapstone vessels became major industries
in the Viking Age, particularly in Norway
where soapstone was used as a substitute for
pottery. It was exported to Iceland and to
Jutland, as far south as Hedeby.

Whetstones
Another Norwegian export, both to Jutland
and to the British Isles, was superior schist of
the type favoured for whetstones, essential for
sharpening weapons, tools and knives. Stone
from the well-known quarries at Eidsborg,
Telemark, in southern Norway, has been
found at several sites in England, including
York. A ship that sank at Klåstad on the coast
of Vestfold had some whetstones among its
cargo. It may have been bound for Kaupang
whence Norwegian schist was exported.

107
 MERCHANTMEN

The eastern routes

Scandinavian merchants
travelling south to
Byzantium gathered each
year in Kiev, on the west
bank of the river Dnieper,
while they waited for the
spring flood waters to
subside. The city is
overlooked in this view
by a statue of Prince
Vladimir, of
Scandinavian descent,
who consolidated the
city-state of Kiev. He was
converted to Christianity
in 988.

o reach the Black Sea and the Ilmen is reached. The river Volkhov

«
Caspian, and so to tap the which flows out of this lake enters the
wealth of Byzantium or the great Lake Nevo [Ladoga]. The mouth
Eastern Caliphate of the Arab of this lake [river Neva] opens out into
Empire, Scandinavian mer­ the Varangian Sea [the Baltic].
chants had to follow river routes,The
not southern
always part of this route is described in
greater
through friendly territory, and often detail by the Byzantine Emperor
involv­
ing overland portages to transferConstantine
from one Porphyrogenitus. He wrote that
river to another, or to bypass rapids. Wide in the tenth century the Rus (as the Scan­
though such rivers as the Dnieper and the dinavians in Russia were called, and after
Volga are, such difficulties would have made whom Russia came to be named) took at
it necessary to use smaller craft than the least six weeks to make the journey down the
North Sea trading vessels. But the vital Dnieper, for there were rapids to be negotiated,
trading commodities of slaves and furs would and hostile tribes to be fought off.
not necessarily have been carried from Seen from the other end, the Scandinavian
Scandinavia; they might equally have been merchant setting out from the Baltic might
acquired forcibly, or otherwise, on the way. have joined this route either by way of the
The Russian Primary Chronicle describes river Dvina, which flows out into the Gulf of
the route that Scandinavian merchants would Riga, or by the Gulf of Linland and the river
have followed on their return from the Byzan­ Neva, as described above. The town of
tine Empire (the ‘Greeks’) : Staraja (Old) Ladoga, known to the Scan­
Starting from the Greeks, this route dinavians as Aldeigjuborg, lies just off Lake
proceeds along the Dnieper, above Ladoga, eight miles up the river Volkhov.
which a portage leads to the Lovat. By This small site, defended by an earthen ram­
following the Lovat, the great Lake part, has been excavated; Swedish material

108
was found but its wooden buildings are Kiev on at least two occasions. Raiders were
not Scandinavian, being of a block-house also active on the Caspian Sea between 910
type, built of logs with notched and over­ and 912, and again in the middle of the
lapping ends, so that the ethnic identity of its century. These later raiders will have travelled
earliest inhabitants is unknown. The popu­ along the second of the great eastern routes.
lation of the south-east Ladoga area is This route from the Baltic to the Caspian
thought to have been essentially Finnish, but was joined either by way of Staraja Ladoga
the Viking Age saw intrusions by Scan­ and Novgorod, or by way of Lake Onega, to
dinavians, Slavs and Balts. The barrow bring one down the Volga to Bulgar at its
burials in this district demonstrate beyond bend. This was the market-place of the
reasonable doubt that there were Scandin­ Bulgars, to which the fur-traders came from
avians, but they were gradually integrated the Perm forests in the east, to which Arabic
into the local population. silver came by caravan from Khiva to the
Further down this route is Gnezdovo, south of the Aral Sea, and which served as one
where a cemetery has been investigated that terminus for the caravans of the silk-route
belonged to the Viking Age predecessor of from China. From Bulgar, merchants or
Smolensk. Flere, as at Kiev, the burials raiders might voyage on to Itil, the capital of
contain a fair amount of Scandinavian the Khazars, and thus reach the Caspian, with
material, among much more that is not. Kiev the possibility of travelling on to Baghdad by
and Novgorod, situated between Gnezdovo camel-train from Gorgan. Alternatively, they
and Staraja Ladoga, were the two settlements might join the trans-European land route to
of greatest importance to the Scandinavians Mainz, Kiev, Cracow and Prague.
in Russia. However, major excavations in
Novgorod, known to the Scandinavians as
Holmgarðr, have revealed superimposed
timber streets lined with block houses. There
is little material that is Scandinavian in the
areas of the town that have been investigated,
but an early Viking settlement might well
have been situated on the lower ground on the This bronze brazier was
other side of the river. found in Sweden in 1943,
hidden beneath a rock. It
Kiev, situated on the steep west bank of the was probably made in
Dnieper, was even more important than Baghdad about the year
Novgorod, becoming the centre of the medi­ 800 and thus may have
travelled the Volga route
eval Russian state. It was ruled by Scan­ in the hands of a Viking
dinavian princes — though its population was merchant.
also mainly Slavonic —and it was here that the
Scandinavian merchants gathered each year
before setting out in June for Byzantium,
when the spring floodwaters had subsided
sufficiently to allow them a safe passage. At
the mouth of the Dnieper, they stopped at the
island of Berezany, then sailed on across the
Black Sea to reach their goal.
Not all the Vikings who travelled the
Russian rivers were bent on peaceful pur­
poses. Byzantium was attacked by fleets from
 MERCHANTMEN

The silver trade

Over 60,000 Arabic coins
have been found in
Scandinavia from the
Viking Age. These are
sometimes called Kufic
coins because the script
they bear is named after
the city of Kufah in
Mesopotamia. Their
legends are particularly
useful since they generally
record the name of the
mint and date of issue.

hile the Scandinavians may difficult and it led straight to the silver
have exercised some control supplies of the Eastern Caliphate. It was on
over the Dnieper route to the Volga that Scandinavian merchants met
Byzantium, on the Volga Arabs, such as Ibn Fadlan, who have left
they had to pay tribute to descriptions of their wares and their ways.
both the Bulgars and the Khazars; but the Furs, honey, wax, weapons and slaves were,
rewards were rich, for the journey was less we learn, the stock-in-trade of the silver-
hungry Scandinavian merchants.
In the late tenth century there was a shift
away from this Eastern route, for reasons
that are not altogether clear. There might
have been political problems, but the change
in trading pattern might equally have been
caused by practical commercial consider­
ations — the great silver mines of the Eastern
Caliphate were rapidly being exhausted,
while new sources were being exploited much
nearer home, in the Harz mountains of cen­
tral Germany.
While it lasted, the volume of trade with the
Viking traders were East must have been enormous. Over 60,000
equipped with a small
pair of scales for Arab coins have been found in Scandinavia;
weighing out the silver Samarkand, Tashkent and Baghdad are all
needed for a deal. These
mints that are strongly represented. But the
were ingeniously
designed to fold up and Arabic silver that reached Scandinavia was
fit into a small box. rarely kept as coins.

no
 Much of the silver and
gold that reached
Scandinavia in the Viking
Age, from both East and
West, was made into
ornaments. These
magnificent rings are
from Denmark. The large
neck-ring was found at
Tissd in 1977; it is the
heaviest known, being
made from nearly a
pound (0.5 kilo) of gold.

Use of precious metals Viking silver hoards, buried for safe­

Throughout the Viking Age most of Scan­ keeping in the ground by owners who were
dinavia was without a coin-using economy; never able to return for them, thus consist of a
silver and gold were treated as bullion, to be great variety of objects: coins and ingots,
weighed out as required by a merchant in his brooches, pendants, neck-rings, arm-rings,
portable (and ingeniously folding) scales. finger-rings, both complete objects and their
Under such circumstances there was no point fragments (or so-called ‘hack silver’). Well
in keeping precious metal in the form of coins. over a thousand hoards of silver and a few
It would have been melted down and cast into of gold have been found in Viking Age
ingots, for more compact storage and ease of Scandinavia, when there were no native
handling, or, most often, made into jewellery, sources of these metals being worked. Faced
thus providing the owner with an opportunity with such evidence, we can entertain no
for conspicuous display of his wealth. Both doubts as to the success of the Vikings in
ingots and jewellery could be cut up at a later accumulating wealth in large quantities,
date if small change was required. whether by fair means or foul.

Ill
1 12 .
Home Life

Horse-drawn carts and wagons provided an important form of

land transport in the Viking Age. Wooden harness-bows were
placed across the horses’ backs, with metal mounts through
which the reins could be more easily controlled. This matched
pair of bows, found at Mammen in Jutland, is richly ornamented
with gilt-bronze, although the wood is modern.

I 13
 H O M E LIFE

Clothing & jewellery

ur knowledge of dress in the chief and a head-dress. Such details as
Viking Age is derived from neckerchiefs or underwear mentioned in the
three quite different sources l iterary sources are of particular interest since
of evidence, all of which of their nature they do not appear on picture-
suffer from severe limitations stones or tapestries and do not survive burial.
and must be treated with caution. Firstly, Lastly, and most tangible, there are the
there are contemporary representations, such excavated remains of cloth and clothing, and
as the figure pendants or the people of the of the brooches that held it together.
Gotlandic picture-stones or the Oseberg Archaeological evidence for textiles is
tapestry. Since there existed no tradition of confined to scraps, for under normal burial
naturalism in Viking art, these figures are conditions they rot away rapidly in the
somewhat stylized and lacking in detail, but ground. But there are important fragments
on a general level they provide direct evidence from graves that have been preserved through
for the cut of clothes of which we would contact with brooches or other metal objects
otherwise be ignorant. Secondly, there are - reserved in their corrosion products or
mentions of dress in the literary sources. impregnated with metal salts - and also finds
Human figures are rare in
Viking art and always Given that most of these date from the later from waterlogged Viking Age deposits, as at
stylized, but the few medieval period we cannot be sure that in Lund and York, that can tell us much about
known examples provide
such details they are not drawing more on the quality and variety of available cloth. The
direct evidence of
contemporary styles of current fashions than on memories from arrangement of brooches on a fully clothed
dress. This Viking woman several generations before. But Rígsþula, a corpse is a matter of vital concern to the
(a Swedish pendant) wears
a trailing dress and shawl
poem that was perhaps composed in the tenth archaeologist. Brooches were first and fore­
with a festoon of beads century (although preserved in an Icelandic most dress-fasteners; it is thus possible to
hanging probably from a manuscript from about 1350), describes a deduce something about the number and
brooch on each shoulder.
Her hair falls loosely from farmer’s wife as wearing some kind of a nature of the clothes in use from the number
a knot behind her head. smock, with shoulder-brooches, a necker­ and disposition of the brooches needed to
hold them all together. Unfortunately for the
study of dress, this important source of
information dries up during the later Viking
Age, with the adoption of Christianity and the
abandonment of the practice of burying the
body fully clothed and equipped. The result is
that comparatively speaking we know a great
deal about dress in the ninth and tenth
centuries and virtually nothing about fash­
ions in the eleventh.

The Viking woman

The figure representations make it clear that
An impressed gold foil
the basic costume of a Viking woman
from Norway (here much consisted of a long chemise over which the
enlarged), depicts dress was worn; either or both might be so
embracing figures. The
man wears an arm-ring long as to trail behind her. A shawl, cloak or
and a long cloak typically jacket would complete the basic ensemble,
fastened with a large and aprons were also sometimes worn.
brooch on the right
shoulder, thus leaving the Archaeological evidence demonstrates that
sword arm free. the chemise was of wool or linen, the latter
sometimes pleated, with short sleeves or no
sleeves at all. The dress was woollen and was
worn suspended from shoulder-straps, in the
form of paired loops held together by a pair of
brooches.

Brooches
Given the necessity for wearing brooches as
fasteners, the opportunity was naturally
taken to turn them into objects of adornment
and display - according to the means of the
wearer. Fashion played a part here. New
types and shapes of brooches were developed
from time to time, several of them inspired by
Western European fashions, and their orna­
ment was continually being modified to
reflect the developing styles of Viking Art.
Brooches survive that are individual
masterpieces of the gold- and silversmith’s
craft, clearly produced on commission for
wealthy patrons; there are also plenty from
the other end of the scale, which were
produced in standard series made of base
metals for the poorer members of the
community. Typically the cheaper brooches
were coarse copies of the finer specimens,
imitation often being carried to the extent of
gilding or tinning bronze brooches to give
them the appearance of gold and silver. Any
bronze brooch would in fact have com­
manded some price, for such metal had to be
imported into Scandinavia during the Viking
Age. No doubt old or broken brooches were
part-exchanged for new so that the jeweller
might melt them down in his crucibles to cast means; the pin and catch are concealed from Brooches were both
essential fasteners and
again into the latest models. sight within the dome. decorative ornaments.
During the ninth and tenth centuries the Oval brooches were produced in pairs, as These four are basic types
the dress style dictated. Nearly all such that any Scandinavian
shoulder-brooches used by Scandinavian
woman might have
women to fasten their dresses were almost all brooches are covered with stylized animal owned. The pair of large
of a type that was domed and oval in shape, ornament, of varying degrees of complexity oval brooches were worn
and coherence; in addition some were gilt, or one on each shoulder to
somewhat resembling the shell of a tortoise. hold up the dress, while a
This has led to their becoming known, rather were embellished with bosses and twisted smaller brooch - often
misleadingly, as ‘tortoise brooches’, a usage silver wires. Some types were literally mass- trefoil-shaped or ‘equal­
armed’ - fastened the
best abandoned. Such oval brooches were cast produced, one brooch being used as the model shawl or cloak. Similar
in bronze in one or more pieces, and with for many others. About 1,000 copies of the brooches are found in
commonest variety are known, and have been women’s graves through­
ornament of a greater or lesser degree of
out the Viking world.
elaboration depending on the customer’s found from Iceland in the west to Kiev in the
 H O M E LIFE/Clothing and jewellery

Styles in shawl brooches

varied with the fashions.
A bove A round gold
brooch imitating an
imported coin - a solidus
of Charlemagne’s son,
Louis the Pious. Right
Tenth-century equal­
armed brooches from
Birka. The larger one at
the top is very ornate and
was no doubt specially
commissioned.
east. Many of the most recent oval brooches brooches that Viking settlers found being
are the crudest of the whole sequence; this worn in Scotland and Ireland.
might well be because the wearing of a shawl During the tenth century large round
had become such an established fashion that brooches for cloaks and shawls, often elab­
the brooches were nearly always covered in orately ornamented with gold or silver
use, so that their surface appearance was no filigree, became increasingly popular. They
longer so important. No new types of oval were produced in various patterns and styles,
brooch were created in the late Viking Age some even being based on coins. This brooch
and they fell out of use in Scandinavia. type continued to be made and used in the late
Only in the island of Gotland did Scandi­ Viking Age, and after. Small round brooches
navian women of the Viking Age eschew the worn at the neck, to fasten the opening of the
fashion for oval shoulder-brooches. They chemise, were also in use during the tenth
preferred instead a pair of smaller bronze century; this is usually the only type of brooch
brooches resembling animal heads, with found in a child’s grave.
This Danish penannular squared-off snouts and projecting ears. With Thus, in the middle of the Viking Age, a
or ring-brooch, with
these they also wore their own distinctive wealthy woman might have displayed four
terminals in the form of
moustached Vikings’ forms of additional brooches, pins and brooches, to which she would have added a
heads, probably fastened necklaces. necklace of beads, with maybe some pen­
a man’s cloak. The style
was adapted from a
The Viking woman’s shawl or cloak was dants, and quite possibly a ring or two as well.
Scottish or Irish type of fastened by a third brooch, which she wore on
dress-fastening. her chest between her'oval brooches. This Beads and necklaces
took a variety of forms. During the early In many cases beads were worn as festoons
Viking Age, particularly in Norway, it was strung between the oval brooches, but com­
fashionable to wear brooches adapted from plete necklaces are also found. Once again the
pieces of metalwork brought back by raiders nature and variety of such ornaments would
from Britain and Ireland. More usual were have depended on the family’s wealth, for the
brooches with two or three arms, trefoil beads might include imported cornelians and
brooches being inspired by West European crystals, although they were more usually of
strap-mounts. Other styles were modelled on amber or glass. The latter were certainly

116
 L eft Beads were often
suspended between the
oval shoulder-brooches,
but necklaces were also
worn. These two rare and
expensive examples come
from the Baltic. The outer
one is Slav; its beads
are decorated with
minute silver granules in
finer workmanship than
could be achieved by
Scandinavian craftsmen
of the time. The inner
necklace, with crystal
pendants set in silver, is
influenced by Slav
designs, but was probably
made on Gotland.

being produced in Scandinavia from imported gether a series of matching mitre-shaped

raw glass, although some of the finest pendants. The Gotlandic silver hoards con­
multicoloured specimens may have come tain a number of splendid necklaces made up
from the Rhineland and elsewhere in Western of filigree-ornamented beads with pendants
Europe. On Gotland several strings of small of silver-mounted crystals, in the style of
Slav jewellers of the eastern Baltic. Another An elaborate silver cloak-
beads might be worn together, held apart by
pin from Birka was
spacer-plates; elaborate collars were also Slav fashion adopted by a very few was for fastened by a cord tied to
fashionable there, formed by threading to­ wearing elaborate earrings, also skilfully the small ring.

I I 7
 H O M E LIFE/Clothing and jewellery

Silver arm-rings were embellished with silver filigree to a degree of

worn by men and women
precision never quite mastered by Scandi­
and are often discovered
in Viking hoards. These navian jewellers.
two from Sweden display
animal designs of late
Viking art.
Neck-rings and arm-rings
Although earrings were rare in Viking Age
Scandinavia, rings of other kinds were worn
by both men and women. Rods of gold or
silver were twisted or plaited together to form
neck-rings and arm-rings, while miniaturized
versions were used for finger-rings. Other
B elow Two necklaces types of massive ring were cast and ornamen­
found at Birka. The outer
is of glass beads attached ted with complex stamped patterns. The
to a small round brooch purpose of many such rings would have been
of the type used to fasten the display of wealth. This attitude to
the neck of the chemise;
the inner necklace has ornaments is brought out well by the tenth-
beads of imported crystal century Arab writer Ibn Fadlan, describing
and cornelian, and is
hung with trinkets
the appearance of the women with a party of
acquired in the course of northern merchants whom he met travelling
foreign travels. on the river Volga:
Round her neck she wears gold or silver
rings; when a man amasses 10,000
dirhems he makes his wife one gold ring;
when he has 20,000 he makes tw o ; and so
the woman gets a new ring for every
10,000 dirhems her husband acquires, and
often a woman has many of these rings.
Silver rings were certainly much commoner
than gold, for the dirhems were the silver
Arabic coins that provided the raw material
for their manufacture. But then, what was the
use of a bag full of silver coins in an economy
that was not coin-using ? It might be buried in
the ground for safekeeping, but if the silver
was only going to be weighed out when
needed for some transaction, the coins might
as well be melted down and turned into
ornaments. These could always be cut up
later if small change was needed; meanwhile
they could be displayed for the prestige they
would bring.

The Viking man

Apart from such rings, male jewellery was
essentially confined to brooches and pins for
fåstening the cloak, although pendants on
chains (such as Thor’s hammers) might be

118
worn by either sex. Furs, hides, and shaggy Gloves and hats of wool or leather would
woollen cloaks were all worn by men and have completed the outfits of both men and
would have required a massive brooch or pin women when the weather so dictated. Both
to accommodate such heavy material, when sexes might hold their hair back with a band
they were not simply tied in place with of ornamented silk or linen, although married
thongs. The Vikings rapidly adopted and women appear to have kept their hair covered
adapted the large pins and ring-brooches that with a scarf or head-dress.
were used for such purposes in Britain and
Ireland. Smaller cloaks were worn fastened Personal appearance
with simpler pins of bronze or bone on the Many of the female representations often
right shoulder, so that the sword arm could be depict women’s hair worn long, but knotted
kept free for any emergency. at the back of the head. That men might take
Men’s clothing was basically simple, con­ great care of their beards and moustaches can Unlike the popular image
sisting of a shirt and trousers or breeches, of a Viking raider, this
be seen from the carving of the Sigtuna
warrior of carved elk-
with a simple tunic over all. The repre­ warrior. If the Arab merchant Al-Tartushi is horn, found at Sigtuna in
sentations of male figures suggest that there to be believed, and he did visit Hedeby about Sweden, has no horns on
his helmet. He wears his
was considerable scope for choice over the cut the year 950, then its inhabitants prepared ‘an moustache and beard
of one’s trousers. Although in the West they artificial make-up for the eyes; when they use neatly trimmed.
seem to have been cut both broad and narrow, it their beauty never fades, on the contrary it
some worn in the Baltic were baggy, even increases in both men and women.’
billowing, following Eastern fashions. Cloaks Saturday was bath-day; baths might take
and tunics could be brightly coloured and the form of a sauna in a small bath house like
edged with tablet-woven braids, perhaps even that at Jarlshof. But what one is to believe
including the use of gold threads. A single about the cleanliness of the Vikings depends
bead was sometimes used as a button to close at first sight on which source one chooses to
the shirt opening at the neck. A knife, as consult. If you pick Ibn Fadlan, then you learn
maybe a purse, would be hung from a belt, or that they were ‘the filthiest of God’s crea­
on a cord around the neck. Similarly a woman tures’, because to his mind they did not wash
of status would hang such objects as keys and often enough and when they did they all
toilet implements from a brooch. shared the same bowl of water. In England,
Slaves, we learn from Rígsþula, were more on the other hand, it was observed that the
simply dressed in cloth of undyed wool. One Danes combed their hair, bathed and changed
imagines a poncho-like garment, tied around so often that they were particularly successful
with a cord or thong. No doubt children were with the ladies. Obviously in such a personal
dressed in a similar simple manner, although matter standards varied enormously; in any
little is known about their clothing. case one would not expect them to have been
the same for a party of ship-borne merchants
Shoes, gloves and hats far from home, as for a young man about
Footwéar was of calf- or goatskin, laced town with an eye for the girls. But cleanliness
around the ankle. Boots and shoes have only does seem to have been expected. A collection
occasionally been found, but then again their of poems of Viking Age origin, known as
preservation normally depends on damp soil Hávamál (High One’s Speech, meaning the
conditions. Recent excavations in towns such words of Odin), says that a guest is met by his
as Lund, Hedeby, York and Dublin have all host at the table ‘with water, a towel, and a
produced much debris left by shoemakers and hearty welcome’, and goes on to advise that
cobblers - including wooden lasts from both one should always be ‘freshly washed’ when
York and Hedeby, the latter being child-sized. setting off for the Thing.

I19
 H O M E LIFE

fr Weaving &■cloth designs

S p in n in g and w e a v in g w e re th e year-ro und a th re a d .T h is w a s th e n w o u n d into a ball, o r a
tasks o f Viking w o m e n , both to clo the th e ir skein if it w a s in te n d e d fo r dyeing. Skeins w e re
fam ilie s and to produce cloth fo r o th e r essential m a d e w ith th e aid o f a reel - a han d le w ith a
purposes, such as th e sails fo r Viking ships. curved bar a t e ith e r end, on to w h ich th e w o o l
Special c o m b s w ith long iron tee th w e re used to w a s w o u n d crossw ise fro m co rn er to corner.
card the rou ghly cleaned w o o l. It w a s then T h e finished w o o l w a s w o v e n on a w a rp -
attached to a d is t a f f - a w o o d e n stick held in the w e ig h te d lo o m - a n u p rig h t lo o m leant ag ain s t
left hand or th e crook o f th e a rm - and fibres the w a ll o f th e house. A w e ave r's o th e r tools
teased fro m it w e re fastened to a spindle, consisted o f a s w o rd -like w e a v in g -b a tte n o f
w e ig h te d at th e b o tto m w ith a s p in d le -w h o rl of w o o d , w h a le b o n e o r iron, and sm all p o in ted
clay or sto ne.T he sp indle w a s set tu rn in g and, as p in -b eaters o f w o o d or bone, used to m ake
it dro pped to th e ground, d re w o u t th e w o o l into d etailed a d ju s tm e n ts to th e threads.

Plain (or tabby) weave and twill were the main

weaves used in Viking Age Scandinavia. Plain weave
is the simpler: single weft threads are passed
alternately over and under the warp threads. In twill,
above, the weft threads pass over one warp thread,
then under two or more others, producing a
diagonal effect.

Shaggy woollen cloaks

were a major export
from Iceland (where this
example was found). short lengths of wool
The tufted cloth was into the warp during
produced by inserting weaving.
1 c ro s s b e a m
2 re s t
3 u p r ig h t No Viking Age warp-weighted loom survives, but it weaver passes the weft (horizontal threads) through
4 h e d d le - b a r may be reconstructed on the basis of those still used the gap in the warp, then beats it upwards with a
5 re s t in primitive communities. In such looms the warp weaving-batten.The lower warp threads are tied to a
6 lo w e r w a r p t h r e a d (vertical threads) is held taut by weights and divided heddle-bar, supported on two rests. By pulling this
7 u p p e r w a r p th re a d into two layers by a beam near the bottom. The out to the end of its rests (as in the drawing above),
8 b e a m d i v id in g t h e w a r p upper warp threads hang in front of the beam at the the weaver draws the lower threads through the
9 w e ig h t o f b a k e d c la y o r same angle as the loom, while the lower threads upper, thus changing their position before the weft is
s to n e hang vertically. Working from the top down, the passed back in the opposite direction.

izo
THE OSEBERG TEXTILES fíe/oi/i/Five design
In the royal burial-chamber of the Oseberg ship were motifs of varying
found fragments of wall-hangings with pictorial complexity
designs - unique survivals of perhaps a widespread reconstructed from the
art of woven tapestry among Viking women.These textiles in the Oseberg
narrow bands may have adorned the chamber as royal grave.
once they had hung in a royal hall. Whatthe scenes
represent is unknown. Riders and horse-drawn carts
move in procession from right to left, between
borders patterned with geometric motifs. Yellow, red
and black predominate, the contours being
emphasized by threads of other colours.The
drawing, right, is a reconstruction of one tapestry, of
which the photograph, below, shows a portion.

Right: Tablet-woven braid (enlarged) from Birka in

Sweden; several examples have been preserved by
their use of gold and silver threads. In tablet-weaving
the warp threads are passed through holes at the
fourcorners of a numberof rectangular plaques of
wood or antler. These are twisted a quarter-turn at a
time to alter the position of the warp threads, so
producing the intricate patterns. Such braids were
used to edge cloaks and tunics or to tie back the hair.
In the Oseberg grave fifty-two tablets were found,
set ready for weaving.

I2 I
 HOME LIFE

Household activities
Ihe main occupation of Viking from a hollow bird bone, suspended from a
women, aside from the pre­ brooch. But cloth was required for many
paration of food, will have other purposes than just clothing; there were
been clothing the family. Even tents and wagon covers to be made and,
in those households that could above all, the sails for the Viking ships. Those
afford to purchase the finest woollen cloth ladies with time to spare might devote
imported from Frisia, or silks from Byzan­ themselves to tablet-weaving ornamental
tium, spinning and weaving would have occu­ braid, or even to embroidery.
pied several hours of the day, although for In southern Scandinavia flax was grown,
such ladies many of the chores would have and its preparation for making linen would
been done by slaves. For this lengthy task have been another time-consuming task.
begins with the combing of the plucked or Certain glass bun-shaped objects are usually
shorn wool, which then needs to be spun; the thought to have been used for smoothing
yarn might be dyed before being woven (in seams in linen garments. The use of a number
which case vegetable dyes had to be prepared, of finely ornamented plaques of whalebone,
or even mineral ones, as noted at Stöng). The occasionally found in wealthy women’s
woven cloth would be finished by being graves (where there might also be a weaving
shrunk in water to close up the gaps and sword, for instance), is less obvious. It has
possibly by being fulled, that is soaked in an been suggested that they were used as
alkaline of detergent property, such as cow smoothing boards, but in only one instance
urine, to reduce its oil and dirt content. has such a plaque been found together with a
The cloth was cut to shape with small glass smoother. It could be that they were
textile-shears, which would have been kept used in mangling washing, or for pleating
carefully for that purpose in a casket, or even linen by winding folded strips of wet cloth
in their own specially shaped box. Needles around them and leaving these to dry.
too needed protection and were sometimes
carried in a small cylindrical container, made Food and drink
All these household tasks would have had to
be fitted around the preparation of the twice-
daily meals, served morning and evening. It is
hard to generalize about diet, for it would
have varied considerably from one part of the
Viking world to another, depending on the
resources available in each region. Certain
foods were traded, both locally and over long
distances. A fish factory was operating in
Carved whalebone
York; a find of rye at Fyrkat is presumed to
plaques have sometimes have been imported (probably from Russia);
been excavated from the and a walnut in the Oseberg ship burial must
graves of rich Viking
women, particularly in have come from farther south. In fact the
Norway; they were royal lady of Oseberg was well provided with
possibly boards for
food in her grave (not to mention her entire
mangling, smoothing or
pleating cloth. The bun­ kitchen - and an aged retainer to do the dirty
shaped glass smoother is work). There were two oxen, some wheat and
of a type also found in
women’s graves and may
oats, cress, wild apples and hazelnuts, and
have been used for even herbs and spices, cumin, mustard and
pressing seams in linen. horseradish. Other wild fruits, including

122
cherries, plums, sloes, elderberries, black­ the farmstead (as were dogs and cats). Kitchen utensils of iron
and wood. B elow A long-
berries, raspberries and strawberries, have Nets, hooks, floats and sinkers from many handled roasting-fork ”
been found at Hedeby. Viking settlements show the importance of and baking-plate; below
Cabbages, peas and onions, including fishing in both seawater and fresh waters. The left, a cheese-making
drainaway with a bowl
garlic, were the most common vegetables Baltic herring was clearly as much enjoyed as and spoon from Lund.
grown. Some Swedish bread that has been it is today. Fish seems to have been parti­
analysed was found to consist of dried peas cularly important in helping to feed the
and pine bark; scarcely a delicacy, this was concentration of mouths in urban centres,
probably a poor man’s substitute for grain. A such as Hedeby, Birka, Lund and York, all of
lot of grit had become incorporated in it, as which have produced evidence that sub­
was the case in another Swedish find of bread, stantial quantities of fish were being con­
which was shown to be made of coarsely sumed. Cod, haddock and herring were the
ground barley flour. This grit came from the principal fish brought to York by North Sea
coarse stone of the hand querns, which fishermen, but locally caught fish, especially
crumbled into the flour as the grain was eels, were also available.
ground. With such a quantity of grit in their Meat and fish were both preserved to
bread it is scarcely surprising that the Vikings’ provide food for the winter, or for provision­
teeth were gradually worn down. Rígsþula ing boats. Slaves would be put to boiling
refers to ‘thin loaves, white, of wheat’, so the seawater to obtain salt for such purposes. But
rich at any rate were able to afford fine wheat these vital supplies were also pickled in brine
flour rather than the usual barley bread. or whey, wind-dried and possibly smoked.
The dough was kneaded in wooden Fresh food was eaten raw or cooked in a
troughs, like those among the Oseberg number of different ways, both indoors and
kitchen equipment, and then baked on the out. A great cooking pit was discovered
embers on the long-handled iron pans known outside the hall at Hofstadir, no doubt to
from several women’s graves. The grinding cater for the feasts. Some farmsteads, like that
and baking would have been a daily chore, for at Jarlshof, appear to have had separate
this unleavened barley bread needed to be kitchens but in most the cooking would have
eaten at once while it was still hot, before it taken place on the long-hearth in the hall.
became rock hard. Bread ovens have been Cauldrons of iron or soapstone, and
excavated in both Hedeby and Lund, so occasionally pottery, were suspended over the
perhaps in the larger Viking towns there were
already men who baked for their living.
Mutton and lamb, beef and veal, pig, goat
and horse were all eaten by the Vikings,
although such domestic animals were bred for
a variety of uses: for their wool and hides, for
their dairy products, for riding and for
traction. In addition there were many others
that were hunted: elk, deer, wild boar and
bear, and in the north also reindeer, whales
and seals. Smaller game such as hares, and
birds such as ducks, were trapped or shot to
add variety to the menu. In the Atlantic
islands seabirds and their eggs provided an
essential addition to the diet of the Viking
settlers. Chickens and geese were kept about

12 3
H O M E LIFE/Household activities

flames from a tripod or hung on chains or Making bread was a daily

chore for Viking women,
thongs from a roof-beam; other clay pots and
as the flat loaves of
soapstone bowls would be placed among the unleavened barley bread
embers on the stone-lined hearths. In them quickly became hard and
inedible. Rotary hand
would have been prepared substantial meat querns were used for
stews, broths or porridge. Meat and fish grinding the coarse flour.
might also be baked in the ground or in ovens The dough was kneaded
in a wooden trough and
heated with warm stones; that at Jarlshof then baked on a long-
seems to have been used for fish - ling, saithe handled iron plate among
and cod. Meat was certainly roasted on spits the embers of an opett

or long-handled forks; such would have been

the ‘meat well browned, and fully cooked
birds’ served by the noble lady in Rígsþula, on
silver-mounted dishes brought to a linen-
draped table.
Milk was drunk or made into butter and
cheese - the separated whey being used in
pickling. Great vats, like those set in the dairy
at Stöng, were used for storage and their
contents ladled out into buckets for service at
table into wooden cups and bowls. The
women also brewed beer for the feasts and
parties that accompanied the pagan festivals
and that helped to pass the winter months,
with their long northern nights. Honey was
used as the base for sweet, fermented mead;
beer was made from malted barley and hops
might be added for flavour (they have been
found at Hedeby). Fruit wines would have
provided the strongest alcoholic drinks
known to the Vikings, for the secret of
distillation had not then reached Scandinavia.
Many a drunken party is recalled in the sagas,
but the voice of experience speaks to us still
from Hávamál. The observation that ‘beer is
not so good for men as it is said to be; the
more a man drinks the less control he has of
his thoughts’, is followed later by the warning
to ‘be cautious but not over cautious; be most
cautious with beer and another man’s wife.’
Beer and mead were drunk from the horns
of cattle, some of which were elaborately
ornamented with metal mounts around the
rim. Drinking from horns is an art to be
mastered, for otherwise the first trickle
becomes a sudden tidal wave; another
problem is that they cannot be put down until

124
125
 H O M E LIFE/Household activities

emptied, so unless they are being circulated a vertically into the ground to serve as pre­
man must drink the contents in one. All of fabricated linings for wells (as the water table
which would certainly have led to ‘a rapid was high they were just the right size). Pottery
breakdown of reserve, a jovial relaxation of jugs and glass vessels were also imported from
defences, a mutual revelation of the same the Rhineland to serve the wine from, but
human instincts and needs’, which one silver bowls, which are sometimes found in
modern commentator believes was central to sets, were probably made for the same
the purpose of the cult feast. purpose. Food was usually served in wooden
Small silver cups, like that from Jelling, bowls from which it was eaten with spoons of
may have been used for fruit wine, for they wood or antler. But meat would have been
have no other obvious purpose. True wine eaten in the fingers, off a flat wooden trencher,
was imported, particularly from the Rhine­ with the help of one’s personal knife; forks
Board games were much land, but it would only have been served at the were certainly not in use.
enjoyed by the Vikings. tables of the richest. It travelled in barrels of
A bove A whalebone
‘king’ from an Icelandic the type seen on the Bayeux Tapestry, being Hospitality and entertainment
gaming set; below , Birka loaded by William’s army, for such have been Liberality with food is one of the qualities
playing pieces of coloured found at Hedeby. There, once the contents praised in the epitaphs on the Swedish rune-
glass; bottom , two men
seated at a board, from a had been sold or consumed, the bottoms of stones. Generosity in a man was certainly
Swedish rune-stone. some were knocked out and the casks sunk admired by the Vikings, and the provision of
hospitality was thought essential. As the
Hávamál advises, ‘When a guest arrives
chilled to the very knees from his journey
through the mountains, he needs fire, food,
and dry clothes.’ Besides, one never knew
when one might be dependent on others for
hospitality oneself. It was not uncommon to
be delayed for weeks by bad weather on a
journey, or even to be forced to over-winter
away from home if on a long voyage.
Winter evenings would have been passed
not only in eating and drinking. There were
poems to be recited, verses to be composed
and the family sagas to be retold so that they
would continue to be passed on down the
generations (until eventually written down
many years later). There would also have
been singing and dancing. Board games were
played by firelight, or else by the light of
simple oil lamps. Pieces of bone or glass were
moved over wooden boards, in a variety of
games similar to draughts and fox-and-geese.
In some sets of playing pieces there is an
obvious ‘king’ who would have had to be
protected by his men against an attacking
force, in a game called hnefatafl. Chess would
not, however, have been known in
Scandinavia until the end of the Viking Age.
=The farmer & smith
ith the coming of spring,
those Vikings who were
planning to depart for a
summer’s raiding or trading
would have needed not only
to prepare their ships and gear —forging new
weapons and tools in their own smithies from
bog iron, dug up and smelted locally - but
also to see to the ploughing and sowing of the
fields for harvest when they returned to their
farmsteads in the autumn.

Agriculture
Small or steep fields would have been
cultivated by picks and hoes with iron blades
on wooden shafts, or dug with simple wooden
spades. Larger fields were ploughed with an Grain was harvested with a sickle, both A Danish field of the late
ard, the simplest form of plough, consisting of men and women joining in. It was also Viking Age was found at
Lindholm Hdje in the
a point dragged through the ground by one or important to ensure an adequate supply of mid-1950s. The
more animals, while being guided by a man. food for as many cattle as possible for the excavators stripped off a
Since the ard merely produces a groove and duration of the snowy winters. Here of course deep layer of blown sand
to reveal the furrows left
does not turn a proper furrow, the ground there was a wide variation in practice, from its final cultivation,
was sometimes cross-ploughed. Not many between say southern Denmark and Iceland, still traversed by Viking
instances of Viking ploughing have been cart-tracks.
because of the climatic differences. In
excavated, though.parts of fields have re­ Denmark there was plenty of pasture for most
cently been discovered under the Danish animals, but in Iceland the cattle needed to be
towns of Ribe and Viborg. In quite another sheltered in byres and provided with about
context, the grooves left by the ploughshare 5,5oolb (2,500kg) of hay each for the winter,
can be seen in ninth-century levels of the so the weaker beasts would be killed off
Viking settlement in the Udal in the Hebrides, beforehand and the meat preserved, as
where dark midden material has been plough­ described above. Sheep and goats would
ed down into the white sand. Dunging fields survive outdoors, except during prolonged
was a job done by slaves, who also herded the storms. All this hay was cut with scythes; it
beasts and did heavy work like digging peat was supplemented when necessary with
for fuel or bog iron ore; they would also have foliage cut down with broad-bladed tools
provided materials and labour for building. rather like billhooks.
The proper plough, with a coulter or iron It was during the Viking Age that the
blade fixed in front of the ploughshare to slice practice developed of driving both cattle and
the ground so that the pointed share can sheep up into the mountains during the
undercut it, and with a mould-board to turn summer months to exploit untouched pas­
the furrow, appears to have been known in tures. This meant of course that more ground
Scandinavia at least in the later Viking Age. could be cultivated and more hay cut around
Such a plough may have been used to create the farmsteads while the hungry beasts were
the best-known Viking field, at Lindholm elsewhere. This was particularly a Norwegian
Hdje, which was inundated with sand while mountain phenomenon, to be contrasted once
the tracks of the last cart to cross it still again with the flat and extensive pastures of
showed clearly over the furrows. southern Jutland where herds of cattle could

Í27
 H O M E LIFE/Household activities

easily be reared, sufficient even for export. It is Such smithies would have to have been
thus impossible to generalize about the provided with a basic tool kit, including
agricultural economy of the Vikings, apart bellows and protective furnace stone; tongs
from observing that it was mixed - part and hammers were needed for handling and
arable, part pastoral, part based on hunting shaping the hot iron, with an anvil to beat it
and fishing. The balance depended on what upon. Shears were required for cutting sheet
part of the Viking world one lived in and its metal. Chisels and files were essential, and
available natural resources. nail-making was done with a special per­
The decorated body of
the wagon found in the forated iron tool to help finish the head.
Oseberg ship burial rests Ironworking There were also travelling smiths who
on a pair of cradles that
terminate in human
Iron-smelting and ironsmithing were basic could have been specialists in certain work,
heads. Similar wagons tasks carried out on many, if not all, farms like making weapons, or who might have had
can be seen in use on the to provide everything from weapons and a line in bronze-casting and jewellery-making.
Oseberg tapestry on page
h i ; their bodies could be
tools to boat rivets and nails. We have seen, Some appear to have been jacks of all trades;
lifted from the wheels for instance, that both Jarlshof and Stöng the man whose tool chest has been recovered
and, in southern were provided with their own smithies for from the bog at Mästermyr on Gotland was a
Scandinavia, were
sometimes used as coffins working iron smelted from bog ore. Higher- carpenter and smith, for his tools included a
for wealthy women. quality iron was traded in the form of bars. saw, axes, adzes, augers, gouges and rasps.

128
=TraveI
The royal lady of
Dseberg was provided
with four sledges for use
3ver snow in winter and
*rass in summer. One of
:hese horse-drawn sledges
was an ordinary
workaday model, but the
Dther three were richly
:arved.

t is possible that the Mäster- widespread during the Viking Age. Most
myr smith lost his chest during remarkable of all is the survival of the wagon
the winter while crossing the in the Oseberg ship burial, although it was
ice; perhaps it fell from his crushed flat on discovery and has needed to be
sledge. Several such sledges patiently pieced together. Its richly carved
were buried at Oseberg, some of them most body befits its royal ownership, but such
ornately carved. Simple sledges would doubt­ wagons in simpler forms were common
less have been used all the year round, but enough in southern Scandinavia for their
they would have been particularly useful in removable bodies to have served as coffins in a
the winter. In fact in some parts of Scand­ number of female burials.
inavia it was easier to get about by travelling No one can deny that the Vikings were
on the lakes and rivers once they had frozen great travellers. But it is almost as if the
fast, and since furs are at their best in winter, Oseberg lady was expecting to be in perpetual Skating over frozen rivers
this may well have been one of the busy motion. Not only was she buried in a ship; she and lakes was a common
way of travelling in
periods for a trading centre such as Birka. was provided with the wagon and four winter. B elow A leather
Skates made of horse and cow bones are sledges, with at least ten horses to cover her ankle-boot found in the
sufficiently common finds to show the impor­ needs on dry land; not to mention her York excavations rests on
a skate of animal bone.
tance of this form of transport; the skater wooden saddle, her two tents and the The skater propelled him­
propelled himself with a pole. Skis have also travelling bed for camping on the way! self with the aid of a pole.
been found. Horses’ hoofs were fitted with
small iron spikes for walking over ice.
As can be seen on the Oseberg tapestry and
the Gotlandic picture-stones, horseback was
the normal form of transport, with heavy
loads being carried on pack-horses or in carts
and wagons. This is amply borne out by the
many finds of riding gear and harness
equipment, although not of saddles, which
would have been of wood and leather. The
use of stirrups was only gradually becoming

12-9
130
Viking A rt

A grotesque animal head bares its fangs on the end of a wooden

harness-bow, from Sbllested in Denmark, in the tradition of
Scandinavian art, which was based on stylized animals. The
skills of Viking artists and craftsmen are clear from the superb
quality of this three-dimensional, richly gilt bronze casting.
Viking art is non-representational, for with few exceptions it did
not seek to tell a story or to record people and things, but (as
here) consists of the elaborate embellishment of functional
objects used by the Vikings in their daily life.

131
 V IK IN G A R T

A r t & ornament
he vigour and vitality that the in the pagan graves — such as weapons,
Q$ Vikings displayed in all their brooches, horse-harness, and other objects
if exploits spilled over into their of everyday importance for the Vikings. The
art. Viking art often has a rest­ richest among them, like the royal lady buried
s ' less quality, much of it being at Oseberg, who could afford to patronize
characterized by seething masses of surface skilled craftsmen, would even have had their
ornament created from the bodies of stylized ships, wagons and bedsteads carved in the
animals. Contorted and distorted animals style of the moment. This source of infor­
had formed the basis of Scandinavian art mation dries up in the later Viking Age with
from the fifth century a d , and so it continued the decline of pagan burial practices. We have
throughout the Viking Age. The art of the instead to turn to fine silver objects buried
Vikings was thus rooted in a centuries-old in hoards, and finds from the developing
tradition. At the same time it was open to new towns such as Trondheim and Lund. But
impulses: it was a confident art able to draw additionally, there is a whole new range of
on inspiration from outside, absorbing new artifacts associated with the Christian re­
motifs borrowed from Western Europe and ligion. Stone sculpture, for instance, was
adapting them according to its own conven­ virtually unknown in Scandinavia outside the
tions, without slavish imitation. This process island of Gotland before the second half of
continued until, with the waning of the energy the tenth century. Then, under Christian in­
that had characterized the Viking Age, the fluence, there developed the range of rune-
native art developed a decadent quality. incised and ornamented stones set up to
Then, as Scandinavia was drawn into the commemorate good deeds and dead men.
brotherhood of Christian nation-states, it
succumbed to the new Romanesque art that The first style: Broa and Oseberg
was sweeping Europe. The animals used by Scandinavian artists at
There is little in Viking Age Scandinavia the beginning of the Viking Age were cur­
that we can recognize as fine art. Nearly all vaceous creatures, zoologically quite unidenti­
Viking art is applied art, the decoration of fiable because of the advanced degree of their
functional objects. But the Vikings had a love stylization, although birds are numbered
of ornament, so their woodcarvers and metal­ among them. The two main finds of ornamen­
workers were given the fullest scope to prac­ ted objects in the first Viking art style are
tise their skills in the production of objects quite contrasted: the royal burial at Oseberg,
and jewellery that would bring flash and with its unparalleled wealth of woodcarving,
colour to daily life. and a grave at Broa on Gotland, where a man
Our sources for the study of Viking art are was buried with a bridle ornamented with a
limited because of the small number of objects set of twenty-two metal mounts.
that survive. We know all too little of the The Broa mounts of cast bronze, heavily
textile arts, although the Oseberg tapestry gilt, are the wor|c of a master craftsman with
alerts us to what we must be missing; simi­ a gift for design. He made full use of the
larly most woodcarving has perished, and we curvaceous animals, with their small heads,
have only traces of painted decoration on frond-like feet, and multitude of tendrils,
wood. The skald Bragi describes in his poem which formed the essential part of his Scandi­
The six main Viking
Art styles are summarized Ragnarsdrápa a shield painted with scenes navian artistic heritage. But on a few of the
here in tabular form, including Thor fishing for the world-serpent, mounts there appears a new motif consisting
giving a general idea of though none such survives. Most of our
their respective
of a much chunkier animal with paws that
durations; it is impossible ornamented objects from the ninth and tenth grip the frame around it - the so-called
to give them absolute dates. centuries are ones that were originally placed ‘gripping beast’.

132
The earliest Viking art
style is displayed on these
gilt-bronze mounts from
a bridle, found in a man’s
grave at Broa on Gotland.
Sinuous animals cover
each of the mounts, but
that at the bottom right
has a chunkier ‘gripping
beast’ at its centre. These
two types of animal form
the main motifs of what
we may call the Broa/
Oseberg style. It was from
this first Viking style that
the others developed.

133
 VIKING ART

The Oseberg carvings

he Oseberg woodcarvings - the
ornament of the ship, wagon,
sledges, bedsteads, and animal-
head posts - represent the
work of a royal ‘school’ of
Norwegian carvers in Vestfold. The designs
include what may be described as the work of
traditionalist master carvers, alongside that
of their more experimental apprentices. As
on the Broa mounts, the traditional sinuous
animals predominate, but ‘gripping beasts’
make their appearance on a number of pieces.
One of the animal-head posts is covered with
a writhing mass of them; other carvers chose
to ignore them completely. One of the most
conservative pieces, the post carved by a man
who has been nicknamed the ‘Academician’,
because of his meticulous style, is considered
to be the finest carving from the burial.
The purpose of these animal-head posts is
unknown, but their fearsome aspect, with
open jaws, suggests that they were intended to
ward off evil spirits. The animal-head posts
are the most sculptural of the Oseberg carv­
ings in their concept and execution. The detail
of the workmanship is extraordinary but the
Vikings’ love of extravagant ornament did
not rest at elaborately carved surfaces, for
some of the Oseberg pieces are further
embellished with silver-headed rivets.
The ornament of the great wagon includes
a remarkable series of designs, for the most
part unparalleled among the other carvings.
These range from the naturalistic human
heads of the trestles to the interlacing snake­
like creatures down its sides. On either end
there are scenes with figures that bring to
mind those of the Oseberg tapestry. There is a
man entangled with snakes — perhaps the
legendary hero Gunnar, who was thrown into
a snake pit - and an enigmatic scene between
a woman, a man and a horseman.
The splendour of the Oseberg carvings and
the skill of their workmanship remind us how
much of the best Viking art we must be
missing, given the small amount of Viking
Age woodwork that has survived.

134
Two remarkably carved animal-head posts from the
Oseberg ship burial display the two main motifs of the
earliest Viking art style (as seen in metalwork on the
Broa mounts). The head on the right has a traditional
and controlled design of gently curving animals in the
manner of pre-Viking art. Its conservative style, and
the skill with which it was designed and executed, has
led to its artist being nicknamed the ‘Academician’.
The other head, a b o v e , is covered with a profusion of
‘gripping beasts’ —the vigorous new motif that marks
the true beginnings of Viking art.

135
VIKING ART

The 'gripping-beast'motif
ugged, forceful and spirited, placed on its fore- and hindquarters, which
the ‘gripping beast’ is an apt are linked by the slimmest of bodies. The legs
symbol for the Vikings, for its are short in comparison with the massive
first appearance is what most paws that grip its own body and the border. A
clearly distinguishes the ear­ few carvings in jet and amber of similar beasts
liest Viking art from that which had gone have been discovered in Scandinavia.
before. Such was its appeal to Viking taste Having once invented the gripping beast it
that it remained a hallmark of much Viking is not surprising that Viking artists wished to
art for a century and a half. Even after that it experiment with this figure, for it made an
did not quite disappear for it re-emerged as a original and lively motif, and moreover the
motif in Scandinavian art in later centuries. parts of its body were easily rearranged to fit
As its name implies, the chief features of the whatever space was available on the object
gripping beast are its paws that clutch the to be decorated. The gripping beast was thus
borders around it, parts of its own anatomy, refined to form one of the two principal
or neighbouring animals. Its pedigree is motifs of the Borre style (the art style that
obscure but it occurs in a somewhat tentative followed Broa, named after the ornament
manner on the Broa mounts, and on some of on bronze bridle-mounts placed in another
the carvings from the Oseberg burial it is used Norwegian ship burial, at Borre in Vestfold).
with abandon to form dense scrummages of A Swedish find, a pendant from the Vårby
interlocking animals. Such was the invention hoard that was buried about 940, shows in
of the Oseberg school of carvers that it is simple form the characteristics of the Borre-
found there in many guises, even in human style gripping beast. The centre of this
form on part of the ship’s ornament. pendant is formed from a single beast with its
Some of the most splendid of the early body arranged in a pose typical of this style.
gripping beasts are those that decorate a pair The ribbon-shaped body is placed in an arc
of oval brooches from Lisbjerg in Jutland, one beneath the mask-like head, which has a pair
of which is illustrated below. A geometrical of protruding ‘Mickey Mouse’ ears. As
framework surrounds each animal, which is before, emphasis is placed on the fore- and
carefully executed in all its details. The head hindquarters, and the ever-gripping paws.
is shown full face with a grin like a Cheshire Although enclosed within a circle, this design
cat’s; it has a long curling pigtail. Emphasis is is essentially triangular in shape.
Right Cheerfully
throttling himself, a
gripping beast grins from
the top of one of a pair of
c>th-century Danish
brooches. The family of
gripping beasts consists
of a variety of such
contorted animals, with
paws that clasp their own
bodies, each other, or the
framework around them.

A bove Artifacts found in

the Oseberg ship burial
show some of the earliest
known gripping beasts,
carved in wood. Among
them are unusual human
versions, as shown, left, on
a panel from the ship itself.
 L eft Four sinuous gripping beasts are grouped with
their faces to the centre on each of these two 10th-
century silver brooches from Sweden. The triangular
heads are prominent, a feature of the Borre style, with
bulging eyes and ‘Mickey Mouse’ ears.

Two gilt-silver pendants from a hoard hidden at

Vårby, Sweden, in about 940, illustrate the gripping
beast in different, though contemporary, forms. A bove
A single animal appears in a characteristic Borre-style
pose —mask-like head looking towards us over an
arched body. Below A pair of animals in the Jellinge
style have heads in profile, pigtails and ribbon-shaped
bodies, but also gripping paws, which reveal their
mixed breeding.

A pair of tenth-century Swedish brooches The Borre style was for much of its currency B elow Amber gripping
show the new-style gripping beast in all its contemporary with the Jellinge style, named beasts from Norway
show this motif adapted
glory. One, a quatrefoil brooch on a chain, after a find from a royal burial. The Jellinge to the round.
has its surface divided by a cross, with an style proper makes no use of the gripping
animal mask at the end of each arm. Within beast, preferring ribbon-shaped animals seen
each quadrant can be seen an example of the in profile. But the two styles are often found
Borre-style beast, arranged as on the Vårby together even on the same object. Not sur­
pendant except that the head looks in towards prisingly, mating of the animals sometimes
the centre of the brooch. The other, a silver took place, resulting in interesting Borre/
filigree-ornamented brooch in the form of Jellinge hybrids. A second pendant from the
a disc, omits the dividing cross so that the Vårby hoard well illustrates this cross­
snouts of the four animals touch at its centre. breeding; it consists of a pair of backward­
The bodies have become more ribbon-like looking Jellinge-style beasts, with pigtailed
than ever, being made from silver wires, their heads in profile and thin, hatched bodies, that
expanded hips filled with tiny granules; the grip themselves frenetically in the manner of
paws are reduced to u-shaped elements. their Borre-style cousins.

I 37 .
 VIKING ART

Woodcarving & painting

The quality of the fancied themselves as carvers. There can be
Oseberg carvings, from little doubt that the portals, gables and
the beginning of the 9th
century, can be interiors of the houses were often decorated
appreciated from this with both carvings and paintings, but wood
detail of a sledge, on
does not survive well and little remains of the
which a seemingly
haphazard jumble of typical ornament that must have formed part
ornament turns out to be of the everyday experience of the Vikings.
a carefully controlled
pattern of animals.
Professional carvers
The ornament of the ninth-century Oseberg
finds and the eleventh-century Urnes church
in Norway is not everyday carving but the
work of professionals - and supremely gifted
ones at that. Thus despite the fact that wood
rots away so rapidly under normal burial
conditions, we are fortunate to have from the
he natural abundance of tim­ beginning and end of the Viking Age some
ber in Scandinavia has always remarkable examples of elaborate orna­
provided its inhabitants with mental carving to demonstrate the Viking
wood as their principal raw sculptor’s ambitions and achievements. We
material. Every farmer in the have already seen the quality of some of the
Viking Age will have been his own carpenter- Oseberg ornament; however, this was carv­
indeed every man will have carried a knife and ing on a domestic scale, and therefore hard to
there must have been many who whittled compare directly with the monumental de­
away at a stick or a log of an evening and coration on the Urnes church. The Urnes
designs are nevertheless still based on tradi­
tional stylized animals, though now with
curved bodies of almost greyhound-like pro­
portions, intertwined with snakes. Two
techniques were used: firstly, a low flat relief
on the gables, and secondly, a high, rounded
carving on the portal and wall itself.

The use of colour

A piece of wood excavated at Hórning church
in Denmark is carved with a snake whose
body is elegantly looped in the manner of
those of the Urnes church. Its eye is painted
red and the background is black. Red, blue,
The 11th-century portal brown, black and white seem to have been
of the church at Urnes in the common colours in painted decoration.
western Norway is deeply They are found also on rune-stones, as is
carved with an ambitious
composition of demonstrated by finds from the island of
continuously curving Oland and the Viking stone at St Paul’s in
lines —all of which belong
London. Yellow was also used, as on some
to the bodies of animals
and snakes that are biting of the shield boards from the Gokstad ship
one another. burial, and on the wooden fragments found in

138
 tendrils. These planks probably formed part
of a piece of household furniture.
We also know that houses were themselves
ornamented with carving, both within and
without. The animal heads that project from
the ends of the house-shaped Cammin casket
(see page 207) suggest that such houses may
have had their gable ends decorated in this
manner. A late tenth-century poem, com­
posed in Iceland, describes the scenes carved
on the wall panels of a chieftain’s hall, and it
is from Iceland that we can get at least an idea
of what such planks may have looked like.
For some eleventh-century carved planks
were re-used to from a ceiling in a farm at
Flatatunga in the north (see page 191). Below
a foliage pattern is a row of saints, so it seems
likely that these were salvaged from a church
rather than taken from an earlier hall.
Fine though such masterpieces are, the acci­
dents of survival have left us without wood­
carving of significance from much of the ninth
and tenth centuries. To follow the develop­
ment of Viking art, we must therefore turn to A bove A plank from
Trondheim, ornamented
the products of the metalworker. in the Urnes style, may
the Danish royal burial mound at Jelling. Few pieces of Viking well have formed part of
woodcarving survive and a piece of furniture-
These Jelling fragments are in the style of traces of original painting perhaps a chair or a chest.
the ornament on Harald Bluetooth’s stone, are even rarer, although it
also at Jelling. One is an openwork tendril may have been normal to
colour all forms of
pattern, but the other (shown here) is in the sculpture, as these
form of a bearded man, although only his examples suggest. A bove
left A single Urnes-style
head and trunk survive; across his waist run
snake carved on a beam
bands, bound with a ring, in the manner of the from Hdrning church in
interlace that surrounds the body of Christ on Denmark was painted red
to stand out against its
the stone itself. black background.

House furnishings and ornamentation

Recent excavations of the damp deposits of
the medieval town of Nidaros, beneath the
modern Norwegian city of Trondheim, have
produced a couple of planks with animal
ornament in the eleventh-century Urnes style.
The finer plank lost its end when a sewer
trench was dug in 1914 but the animal’s head Right The stylized red
and yellow figure of a
is to be seen at the centre of the fragment, with
bound man, found in the
an almond-shaped eye (point forwards), sur­ royal burial mound at
rounded by and intertwined with narrow Jelling in Denmark

139
 VIKING ART

Metalworkers of the Borre style

Ornamented with
gripping beasts in filigree,
Danish gold and silver
brooches demonstrate
that the Borre style is seen
at its best on fine
metalwork.

B elow ‘Gaut made this

and all in M an’ boasts the
runic inscription on this
cross-slab from Kirk
Michael on the Isle of
Man. Gaut is the first
Viking artist whom we
can recognize by his own
name. Among his
favourite patterns was the
ring-chain motif - a hall­
mark of the Borre style. It
is seen here running up
the shaft of the cross.

he ornaments produced by But the skill with which the Borre-style artist
jewellers provide our main could handle the techniques of filigree and
source of evidence for the granulation is very evident from such master­
history of Viking art. The pieces as the Værne Kloster gold spur and
development of ‘fashionable’ two Danish disc brooches illustrated here.
styles may be traced through the products of Filigree consists of beaded wires. To make
the gold- and silversmiths who worked to them, plain wires were first drawn through
order for rich patrons, or sold their work to holes of decreasing size (this part of the
customers looking for means for ostentatious technique is the same today). They were then
display of their wealth and rank. The cheaper given the appearance of rows of tiny beads by
bronze metalwork often found in graves is not being impressed between grooved surfaces.
as useful: much of it is flashy and vulgar, and Alternatively, the indentations might be
generally its ornament cannot be fitted readily made more crudely by crosshatching with
into the mainstream styles. a knife. The tiny gold or silver grains used in
clusters, to produce what is known as
Filigree and granulation granulation, were made by cutting short
The bronze bridle-mounts after which the pieces of wire and placing them on a bed of
Borre style is named, though representative of charcoal; when heated they melted and took
their style, are themselves imitative of finer on a spherical form. The beaded wires were
pieces and therefore do not show the orig­ often combined with plain and twisted wires
inality of design or quality of workmanship of to build up elaborate lines and borders, and
for example the earlier mounts from Broa. the grains or granules were used to fill in

14 0
areas of the pattern. Both were soldered to a The unique gold spur
base-plate of the same metal (whether gold or from Værne Kloster in
Norway is a masterpiece
silver), which was sometimes already im­ of filigree work,
pressed in relief with the main outlines of combining the Borre-style
ring-chain with animal
the pattern to be created.
heads in an original and
A feature of Borre-style metalwork in cast unusual design.
bronze is that the contours of the ornament
normally have nicked edges; this was an
attempt to imitate filigree for the mass
market. When possible the object was also
gilded, to carry the imitation a stage further.

The Borre-style motifs

The Danish disc brooches show well the
Borre-style gripping beast, as already iden­
tified on brooches from Sweden (on page
137). The heads are, as on the Swedish
brooches, at the centre, although on the Below This drum-shaped
smaller brooch (from the Vester Vedsted brooch from Gotland was
made after the Borre style
hoard, deposited about 925) they are placed had gone out of fashion
in an unusual position below rather than for most of its ornament is
above the arched bodies. in the Ringerike style, but
its magnificent gold
The second main motif in the Borre style is filigree has Borre-style
an interlace pattern, known as the ‘ring- characteristics.
chain’. It may be seen here on a Viking cross­
slab from the Isle of Man, carved by a man
named Gaut, who used only interlace in his
work in patterns that are very similar to those
found in the sculpture of north-west England,
where he may have learnt his craft. Interlace
also appears running round the outside of the
Værne Kloster spur, although in this case it is
further embellished with animal heads, in
profile. These profiled heads belong more
properly to the beasts of the Jellinge style; it is
the mask-like animal heads, also occurring on
the spur, that are characteristic of the Borre
style.
The Borre style was popular for the best
part of 150 years. Not unnaturally, over this
period it spread throughout the Viking world,
including Russia. The ring-chain motif was
the aspect of it that became particularly popu­
lar in Britain and Ireland. It may be seen, for
instance, on a gaming board found at Ballin-
derry (page 101), on several Manx stones, and
on the Gosforth cross in Cumbria (page 74).
 VIKING ART

The jellinge style

he Jellinge style takes its name way of Borre. It is in effect a more coherent
from the ornament on a silver species of the same genus, which seems to
cup found, together with the have evolved during the ninth century,
wooden fragments already de­ remaining in fashion for most of the tenth.
scribed on page 139, in the Scandinavian settlers introduced the
north mound of the Danish royal site at Jellinge style into Britain, where it was pre­
Jelling, in the burial chamber thought to be ferred to the Borre style, except for the Borre
that of King Gorm and Queen Thyri. This ring-chain. It was used by the Anglo-Scandi-
small cup stands on a pedestal foot and is navian carvers of Yorkshire, but generally in
decorated only around its bowl, where a pair rather a debased version (as on the back of the
of interlocked animals are to be found. Middleton cross). On the Isle of Man there
These s-shaped creatures are typical were sculptors in the mainstream of the style
Jellinge-style beasts. Their bodies resemble and it might well have been there that the
ornamental ribbons - of constant width and finely ornamented brooches were made that
with a ladder pattern running along them. came to be buried at Skaill, on Orkney,
The head is shown in profile, with open jaws around 950 or a little after. Incised on these
and a characteristic curlicue or fold to the silver brooches are animals with all the
upper lip. The long pigtail and spiral hip joint characteristics of those on the Jelling cup, but
are also characteristic of Jellinge-style ani­ with the addition of tendril-like offshoots
mals. Such curvaceous creatures are clearly from their bodies - signs of metamorphosis
descendants of those of the Broa style, by into the beasts of the ensuing Mammen style.

Right and below With

heads in profile, spiral
hips, pigtails and curling
upper lips, the pair of
interlaced ribbon-like
animals encircling the
Jelling cup embody the
characteristics of the style
that bears its name. Far
right A more developed
version of the Jellinge
style is displayed by
animals with tendril-like
offshoots, which decorate
a silver brooch found at
Skaill on Orkney. The
bird at the bottom is to be
compared to that on the
Mammen axe.

142
 The Jellinge style had in fact developed The Spillested harness-
bow on pages 130—1 is
these florid tendencies in Scandinavia as well superbly ornamented in
as in Britain, as can be seen from the orna­ the Jellinge style. On its
ment of a Danish harness-bow, one of a pair central mount, above,
back-to-back animals
found at Sdllested on Fyn. It is evident from support a small panel
this bow that Jellinge-style metalworkers containing two facing
human figures.
followed the Borre-style practice of making
cast ornaments imitate filigree work.
True filigree work in the Jellinge style is
also found, as on a disc brooch from Tråen in
Norway, from a silver hoard concealed about
the year 1000. As Swedish and Danish filigree-
ornamented brooches in the Borre style have This filigree brooch from
Norway, left, is a Jellinge-
already been examined (see pages 137 and
style reinterpretation
140), with this Tråen brooch we have the of a familiar Borre-style
opportunity of making a direct comparison type.
between objects of identical form and tech­ lip and a long pigtail; the three large granules
nique ornamented with the same composition that form the eyes of the three animals are the
in two different styles. The Tråen brooch has clearest guide to the locations of the heads.
three animals laid out in the same way as on In the manner of the Borre-style brooches
the earlier brooches, with their heads at the from Sweden, the heads are placed above the
centre, but the pattern can only be understood arched bodies, forequarters to the right and
in detail by reference to the Borre brooches, hindquarters to the left; elongated tails com­
for at first appearance it looks chaotic. plicate the intertwined pattern even further.
As is to be expected, in the Jellinge style, the There are no gripping paws, however, but
heads are shown in profile, with a curled upper simply u-shaped feet.

M 3
 V IK IN G A R T

The Mammen style

he Mammen-style animal grew Ringerike style. Certainly the Mammen style
imperceptibly out of that of the does not seem to have been in fashion for
Jellinge style. The two can be more than a couple of generations. However,
difficult to tell apart and in­ it is marked out as innovatory in the history of
deed during the transitional Viking art in one important respect.
period it would be a mistake to try to separate Throughout the Broa and Borre styles there
them. Gradually the animal’s body becomes was no detectable interest in the use of plants,
more substantial, taking on more naturalistic or of their leaves or tendrils, as a basis for
proportions than those of its emaciated ornamental motifs: animals and abstract in­
predecessors, and its spiral hip joints are terlace sufficed. In the Jellinge style there was
increased in size. To match this body growth, a suggestion of stubby tendrils providing
there is an increase in the patterning needed to decorative appendages to the animals’ bodies.
fill it: on the slender body of a Jellinge-style In the Mammen style there appears for the
animal there had been no room for more than first time the full use of foliate patterns.
a single row of bars or beading. There need be no surprise at this develop­
Important though these developments are ment, for elaborate foliate patterns based
they do not really break new ground, and one on vine scrolls and on acanthus leaves were
might be tempted to dismiss the Mammen commonly used in Western Europe during the
style as little more than a transitional phase ninth and tenth centuries. The great gold
linking the Jellinge style with the subsequent mount from the Hon hoard (see page 33) gives
evidence that Carolingian acanthus-leaf pat­
terns were reaching Scandinavia from the
ninth century. At that early stage a small
amount of imitation was attempted, but it
came to very little. In the later tenth century
the time was apparently ripe for a step in this
new direction, for one side of the Mammen
axe, to which the style owes its name, is
entirely given up to a straggly foliate pattern.
This splendid iron battle-axe found at
Mammen in Jutland is inlaid with silver wires
on both sides: one with a foliate pattern, and
the other with a bird. The bird has a spotted
body and a massive spiral hip; its wings and
tail are drawn out into elongated, curving
tendrils. At the very top of the axe is a pair of
round eyes above a large nose, beneath which
are moustaches, and a spiral-marked beard.
The same human mask stares out at us from
the catch of one of the Mammen-style
A bove The best work in masterpieces: the Bamberg casket.
The Mammen style is to be The Mammen style with its tremendous
seen in carved ornament,
of which there is no finer use of detail was particularly well suited for
example than the Bamberg carving, as can be seen from the walrus-ivory
casket. Right A Mammen-
panels of this casket. Tradition has it that this
style human mask
decorates a sword-mount was the jewel box of Kunigunde, the wife of
from Sigtuna in Sweden. the German Emperor Henry 11.

144
The Mammen style is
named after the designs
on an axe found in the
grave of a Danish Viking.
On one side is a ragged
pattern of tendrils; the
other displays a human
mask and a bird design
(illustrated here). The
bird’s head is thrown
back over its body and its
outspread wings are of
interlacing tendrils.

145
 VIKING ART

Stone sculpture
t the beginning of the Viking
Age, the carving of stone
monuments was already an old
tradition on Gotland, but it
was rarely practised in Sweden
and was unknown in Norway and Denmark.
In the ninth and tenth centuries even the erect­
ing of rune-stones was uncommon. But with
the spread of Christianity all this changed and
the eleventh century stone monuments
re common throughout Scandinavia. By

A bove A pair of Urnes- The fashion for erecting

style beasts frame a stone monuments in
human figure on a rune- Scandinavia was perhaps
stone from Ardre on established by King
Gotland. Harald’s memorial to his
parents at Jelling, left.
One side of this massive
stone depicts a proud
beast fighting a snake that
is coiled around its neck
and body. Its tail and
pigtail are treated as
tendrils in the manner of
those on the Mammen
axe, ultimately borrowed
from Western European
art. The rune-stone from
Skårby, a b o v e , also has
an animal at its centre.
But this seated figure of
the lion-like ‘great beast’
is a pale imitation of that
at Jelling. The paint on
both stones is modern.

146
then new fashions had been set, and the The Alstad stone from
the Ringerike area of
majority of ornamented stones are decorated
Norway stands nearly 9ft
in the Ringerike and Urnes styles; often an (2.75m) high with
animal’s ribbon-shaped body is used to carry ornament on both faces.
The scene of birds,
a runic inscription. horsemen and dogs, left,
may be drawn from the
The Jelling stone Sigurd legend. Right
The foliate pattern of
Harald Bluetooth’s memorial stone at Jelling regularly crossing tendrils
is important not only for its runic inscription with basal spirals is
characteristic of the
and depiction of the Crucifixion, but also for
Ringerike style.
the ‘great beast’ that occupies its third face.
Here we see an animal in the Mammen style,
big-bodied and with a foliate crest and tail,
engaged in a struggle with a snake that is
entwined around its body. Where royalty
leads, noblemen follow suit. Such a massive
boulder as Harald’s, in the largely stone-free
Danish landscape, would have been a source
of wonder and admiration, and it soon had its
imitations. An example from Skårby in
southern Sweden is illustrated.

Left An 11th-century
rune-stone from
Lingsberg, in Uppland,
Sweden, bears a cross,
marking it out as a
Christian memorial. The
bodies of two Urnes-style
animals carry the runic
inscription, while an
effete version of the ‘great
beast’ occupies the centre
of the stone.

147
 VIKING ART

148
The Ringerike style
he Ringerike style, which grew
naturally out of the Mammen
style during the first half of
the eleventh century, emerged
at a time when the custom of
erecting stone monuments was spreading. It is
in fact named after the carved slabs of a rich
district of Norway to the north of Oslo, of
which the Alstad stone illustrated on page 147
is one. The heavy spirals at the base of the
foliate design on this stone have their origins
in the spiral hips of the Mammen style; the
tendrils themselves have become elongated,
and cross each other regularly as they curl
gracefully upwards. The gradual develop­
ment of foliate patterns that took place in the
Mammen style has become the principal
feature of Ringerike. The Jellinge great beast
however, was far from forgotten, as is clear
from the Söderala vane.
This gilt-bronze vane from Söderala in
Sweden will once have swung from the prow
of an eleventh-century Viking ship. There is a
‘great beast’ mounted on top to keep watch
ahead, while the holes along its curved edge
were for the attachment of jangling chains or
for streamers to act as wind indicators. Vanes
of this type are shown in use on a thirteenth- The Söderala vane is a
century carving from Bergen. Its subsequent fine example of Ringerike
style. The frame surround­
use was as the ornament on a church spire, ing its openwork central
as was the case with two similar vanes from panel is ornamented with
incised patterns against a
the same period, from Norway and Gotland. background of stamped
The three writhing animals in the central dots. At the centre of the
openwork panel of the vane continue the tra­ vane, among the dense
undergrowth of tendrils,
dition of a combat motif, first established in is a large dragon-like
Scandinavia by the sculptor of Harald’s stone animal, with its foreleg
at Jelling. Something rather similar orna­ extending into the
bottom corner. Around
ments the end of the stone monument in St this leg is looped a
Paul’s churchyard in London (see page 161). smaller animal with its
jaws clamped firmly
As on the vane, a lesser animal is looped to the foot. Harder to
around the front legs of a great beast, spot is the third animal
although the two do not appear to be engaged that completes this
swirling composition. Its
in actual conflict. The St Paul’s stone is one of snout touches the curved
the finest monuments in the Scandinavian edge just below the main
Ringerike style and shows how, under Cnut, animal’s looped
hindquarters; its snaky
England was once again introduced to the body tapers away into a
mainstream of Viking art. series of tendrils.

149
 VIKING ART

The Urnes style

the Urnes style we reach
the last phase of Viking art.
Like the other late styles, it
consists of a further direct
development from its pre­
decessor; Urnes is thus a refinement of
Ringerike. It depends for its effects on an
interplay of gracefully curving lines of differ­
ent widths — sometimes swelling, sometimes
tapering, but always on a curve. The tendril
clusters so beloved of the Ringerike artist are
abandoned; indeed foliate patterns have
altogether had their day.
The Urnes style must have developed
shortly before the middle of the eleventh
century, for the animal ornament on a fluted
silver bowl from a hoard at Lilia Valla in
Gotland, buried about 1050, displays all its
principal characteristics. This elegant bowl
is an exceptionally fine masterpiece of the
silversmith’s craft; moreover, its design
shows a restraint that is unusual in Viking art
and it may thus appeal to modern eyes more
than the crowded surfaces appreciated by the
patrons of the day. It was hammered into
shape from a flat sheet of silver and then the
thirty-two grooves of its fluted body were
beaten out; a ring was also raised from be­
neath the base to form a roundel in its
interior, which is ornamented with an in­
terlaced animal. The other ornament is
confined to a band below the rim, around
The sculptor of the which eight elongated animals in confronted
first wooden pairs are linked together into one continuous
church at Urnes
used three animal row by palmettes - bud-like devices that
motifs to build up represent the sole survivals of the Ringerike
his curving
foliate patterns. The ornament was incised
composition. A
greyhound-like and its surface left plain against a stippled
quadruped is seen background; finally, both the ornamented
here biting the
neck of a lesser
areas were lightly gilded.
beast with only a The Urnes style takes its name from the
single foreleg and woodcarving at the little church of Urnes in
hindleg. Around
them thin ribbons western Norway. This building is a stave-
(with occasional church (that is, it is built of tree trunks split
animal heads)
vertically in two) dating from the twelfth
snake their way
through the century, but incorporated into its fabric are
looping design. re-used portions of its predecessor, including

150
the eleventh-century carvings. These carvings A small silver brooch
found at Lindholm Hóje
were described on page 138; however, it will
displays the true elegance
be useful at this point to look more closely at of the Urnes style.
the motifs.
Basically, the artist has created a new
design based on the old combat motif, for the
animals and snakes are all biting their
neighbours. But see what has happened to the
Ringerike great beast. Given the new Urnes
look, he has become an effete and disdainful
creature; every detail has been attenuated.
Nevertheless, he is possessed of a certain
elegance, and this becomes even more evident
when he takes on a life of his own (with a
single snake looped around his feet), as on an
openwork brooch from Lindholm Hóje.
The carvings at Urnes are a unique
survival, but such would have been the style
adopted for many of the first churches in
Scandinavia. The wooden fragment from the
church at Hérning in Denmark (see page 139)
indicates that the style was widespread during in use to ornament major pieces of household
its century of popularity. In Sweden it is furnishing (see page 139), but also that its
common on rune-stones, while on Gotland popularity was such that it was adapted at an
there developed a particularly lively variant. everyday level for use on objects such as pins
To a great extent the Urnes style will have and spoons. And at the late Viking town of
been disseminated from the towns that were Lund there has been excavated the workshop
then developing apace over much of Scandi­ of a jeweller who was casting bronze versions
navia. Excavations at Trondheim in Norway of the Lindholm Hdje brooch during the early
show how the fully developed Urnes style was part of the twelfth century.

Although unusually
restrained in its ornament
for a piece of Viking art,
this fluted silver bowl
from a Gotlandic hoard at
Lilia Valla carries a band
of Urnes-style animals
around its gilded rim.
 VIKING A R T

Late Viking art in England £t Ireland

known. On the other hand the Bibury slab
cannot compare with one from Otley in West
Yorkshire, which has excellent Ringerike-
style tendrils of a quality nearer to that of the
St Paul’s stone.
The Urnes style never enjoyed the same
popularity as Ringerike in England, but there
is a small series of openwork brooches and
mounts (such as that recently found in Lin­
coln) to show that there were Viking settlers
who still wished to follow their native styles.
It is rather more surprising to find it firmly
established in sculpture outside the old area of
Scandinavian settlement. The animals at the
feet of a figure of Christ carved in the East
Sussex church of Jevington have typically
Urnes-style features.
More remarkable still is the popularity of
the Ringerike and Urnes styles in Ireland, for
until the later eleventh century native Irish
art had remained virtually untouched by that
of the Viking inhabitants of the new towns
in their midst. We know, however, that in
Dublin during the tenth and eleventh cen­
turies there were artists trying out designs in
both Scandinavian and Irish styles. Perhaps the
skill and success of these metropolitan metal­
An nth-century English he St Paul’s stone in London workers led to their receiving commissions
manuscript has an initial is evidence that England was for work to be sent all over Ireland, so
letter ‘d’ in the form of a
Ringerike-style snake, introduced to the Ringerike popularizing the Ringerike and Urnes styles.
showing how Anglo- style while the Danish King In fact the final flowering of the Urnes style
Saxon art became
influenced by that of
Cnut was on the throne. took place in Ireland, and under its influence
Scandinavia under the Anglo-Saxon art of the time used foliate pat­ some of the very finest pieces of Irish metal­
Danish King Cnut. terns in abundance, drawn originally from the work ever to be made were produced in the
art of the Frankish Empire, so it was com­ late eleventh and twelfth centuries. Among
patible with the Ringerike style favoured by these pieces is the Cross of Cong, a pro­
the followers of Cnut, and the two were on cessional cross made as a reliquary for a frag­
occasion successfully blended. ment of the True Cross, as its inscription
A late Anglo-Saxon' manuscript preserved records; it was commissioned by the King of
in the Cambridge University Library contains Connacht, about 1123.
an initial ‘d’ in the form of a snake, which
is quite as fine as the snake-like creature Romanesque
around the legs of the ‘great beast’ of the St Although Viking art remained true to its
Paul’s stone (see page 161). The manuscript traditions for three centuries, despite borrow­
may have been written and ornamented in ings from other cultures, by the twelfth
Gloucestershire, where a rather crude slab century the vitality had gone out of it. So
from Bibury shows that the style was certainly there was no resistance in Scandinavia to the

152
impact of the new Romanesque art. Roman­ The Urnes-style Cr
esque art, with its robust qualities and of Cong, from the <
12th century, is on<
occasional grotesqueries, in fact had much the finest pieces ev<
that appealed to Scandinavian taste; while at fashioned by Irish
metalworkers.
the same time it is hardly surprising that
elements of the Urnes style occasionally found
their way into the Romanesque of
Scandinavia, Ireland and England.
Indeed in the remoter valleys and fjords
of Scandinavia the motifs of Viking art lived
on. A Norwegian wooden harness-bow of
the twelfth century or later is covered with
a gripping-beast motif; the Borre ring-chain
continued to turn up all over the place in
Scandinavian folk art.
But Viking art itself faded as the Viking Age
faded. In this as in so many other ways it was
a reflection of its period; by its study we can
approach closer to the Viking people and
appreciate their self-assurance, their ex­
trovert nature and their technical skills. The
fact that their art may be beyond our im­
mediate comprehension should not lead us to
neglect its study.

Evidence that Viking

styles lingered on in
Scandinavian folk art
after the Viking Age was
over is provided by this
12th-century Norwegian
harness-bow, which is
decorated with gripping
beasts.

153
154
Rune-masters
&■Skalds

The rock-carving at Ramsund, Södermanland, Sweden, shows

the hero Sigurd stabbing the dragon Fafnir through the belly.'
The outlines of the dragon’s body frame a runic inscription made
by a woman called Sigrid in memory of her husband Holmger.

155
 RUNE-MASTERS A N D SKALDS

The Viking script

t is often thought that the be easy to manipulate or store. But for short
Vikings were illiterate until texts it was ideal.
they became good Catholics
and learned the Roman al­ Runes on wood, metal, bone and stone
phabet, but to make this as­ The alphabet the Vikings used is called
sumption is to take a simplified view of ‘runic’, each letter known as a ‘rune’. Later
literacy, thinking of it only as the type of medieval Norse sources often mention runic
reading and writing we do today. From the messages cut on sticks, but unfortunately
second century a d - and perhaps earlier - the wood does not preserve well over the
northern nations had had a script, as indeed centuries, and until recently few runic wood­
had many of the other Germanic peoples. It en objects from early times had been found.
was not intended for writing in ink or Then, from the excavations of medieval
parchment, but rather was designed for Bergen, came a great collection of pieces of
cutting on wood with a knife-point. The wood with runes on them, a few of them
English language retains a memory of this, for letters on business, personal or political
the word ‘write’ originally meant ‘to score subjects. Further finds of this sort have
with a sharp tool’. appeared elsewhere, even occasional ones
The advantages of the ancient northern from the Viking Age, which suggests that
method of recording over that used by many of the Vikings may have used this form
Christian scribes are obvious when you think of correspondence.
of the practical considerations. A medieval Nobody knows exactly when or where the
man wishing to write a manuscript had first to runic characters were invented. It was several
prepare the parchment from animal skin, then centuries before the Viking period and
make the ink from oak galls and metallic salts, probably somewhere near the Roman
then the pen from a goose quill, and finally Empire, since many of the letters of the early
rule the surface with a sharp implement, inscriptions resemble those of the Roman
before he was ready to begin. A Viking carried alphabet; although, because they were de­
a knife and could pick up a twig anywhere. He veloped for cutting on wood, they have their
shaved the twig until he had produced one or own characteristic shapes. Curves were
more smooth sides on which he could incise avoided because they were hard to cut, and so
his letters from one end to the other. If he were horizontal lines that might coincide with
The damaged rune-stone
from Tu, Jæren, Norway,
made a mistake he could easily cut it away. Of the wood grain and be difficult to make out.
dates from the late ioth course, there were disadvantages in recording Consequently, the earliest runes consisted
century. Its inscription a message in this way. You could not write a largely of vertical stems that were cut against
tells that ‘Helgi raised
this stone in memory of very long one, for that would need one or the grain, and sloping lines that would stand
his brother Ketil.’ more long pieces of wood, which would not out clearly from it. By the beginning of the

156
 Tw o versions of the
fu th a rk : above, the
Common or Danish
runes; below, the Swedo-
Norwegian runes. Several
runes have variant forms
(not given here).

Viking Age the Scandinavian rune-masters in runic spelling as thurmutR. From this it
had developed an alphabet quite distinct from will be seen that runic inscriptions are not
those of other Germanic peoples, such as the easy to read, and there is a good deal of
Anglo-Saxons, the Frisians and the Contin­ dispute about the meanings of some of them.
ental Germans. It had sixteen letters, and Though the runic characters were orig­
from the values of its first six characters is inally designed for cutting on wood, they
called the futhark. Even within Scandinavia were soon adapted for other materials, many
there was no standard form of the letters, and of them more durable. Consequently, there
the different inscriptions vary a good deal. survive a lot of runic inscriptions on metal,
The Vikings used two main types of runes, bone and stone. Here the carvers could use
with numbers of lesser or local variants. One different techniques for cutting the letters,
type is called the Common or Danish futhark since they were no longer dealing with a
(although it also occurs outside Denmark), fibrous material and did not have to worry
and the other is the short-twig or Swedo- about the direction of grain. Cutting curves
Norwegian futhark (although again it is not was less of a problem on stone, and so the
confined to those countries). loops of letters like th, b and r were rounded.
A quick glance at these two alphabets will Different stones required different tools. The
show that they are not very efficient. They fairly soft slates of the Isle of Man were
need more letters, and they need them better probably incised with a heavy knife. Danish
distributed over the sounds of the language. inscriptions were often picked out with the
For instance, although there are characters point of a small axe. At Bridekirk, Cumbria,
for t, k and b, there are none for d, g and p.
Although there are two symbols for different
types of a, there are none for e and o. In the
post-Viking Age the rune-masters invented
new symbols to fill up these gaps, but the
Vikings remained content with sixteen letters.
Consequently, the spelling of their runic
inscriptions is very peculiar. When the carver
wanted to represent d, he had to use t instead;
for g he used k ; for p he used b ; and he had to
manage as best he could when it came to The font at Bridekirk,
vowels. Thus the Danish King Gormr (Gorm) Cumbria, has a line of
Norse runes near its base
appears on his memorial stone as kurmR, and giving an English text.
the Danish King Svein (Swein) is suin. The carver has portrayed
himself in the bottom left
Moreover, since the spelling practice allowed
corner, chipping away at
a rune-master to omit n when it came before a his work with a mallet
consonant, a man called Thormundr appears and chisel.

157
 RUNE-MASTERS AND SKALDS/The Viking script

A bove The runes of the scriptions that they find hard to interpret are
stone from Dynna, magic), as on the Ribe skull fragment; this has
Norway, commemorate a
girl, Astrid, who was led some to suggest that runes were in origin a
m ær bqnnurst á magic script, though the theory is now largely
H adalandi, ‘the handiest,
[that is, most skilful] girl
discounted. How many Vikings could read or
in Hadeland’. She was write runes we do not know, nor how they
apparently a Christian, acquired the skills. Nor do we know what sort
since the face of the stone
has a group of Epiphany of man the rune-master—the man who cut the
scenes carved on it. runes — was, how trained, how professional
and how highly regarded.
Right This piece of a
human skull was found at
Ribe, Jutland. It dates Painted rune-stones
from c. 800, and its
Inevitably, many runic monuments are now
inscription shows early
letter forms. The text is is a rune-incised font that shows the carver hard to read because of the damage, corrosion
hard to interpret, but chipping away at the stone with a mallet and or weathering they have suffered over the
seems to be a charm,
invoking Odin and chisel. On metal, runes could be incised, years. The rune-stones have deteriorated in
others, to give protection scratched or punched. Some later Viking another important respect. In some —perhaps
against sickness. kings issued coins, and here the legends would most — cases they were meant to be painted.
be cut in reverse on dies from which the coins Nearly all this colouring has worn off with
were stamped. Occasionally the die-cutters exposure to the weather, but here and there
used runes for their legends, as in issues of the tiny traces remain that encourage recon­
eleventh-century Danish King Svein Estrid- struction. The chief colours used were red,
sson. Altogether in the Viking Age runes were brown, blue and black, and the traditional
used for quite a wide range of texts: colour for the letters themselves was red. A
memorials, boundary posts, marker-stones dragon pattern on a rune-stone in London
for bridges and roads, owner’s or maker’s shows the beasts coloured in dark red and
marks, as well as for casual graffiti by Vikings black against a creamy background, the
whiling away the time. Runes were also used animals’ bodies spattered with white spots.
in magic formulae (although there is a Presumably the runes were painted too, but
tendency for epigraphists to think that all in­ no colouring remains. For evidence of this we

158
 On a painted rune-stone
from Köping church,
Oland, different parts of
the sentence have been
picked out in different
colours. The subject, ‘the
brothers’ (at the left), is in
red; the verb, ‘had put
up’, in white; the object,
‘a stone’, in red; and so on.
must turn to fragments of painted rune-stones
that have been discovered in Sweden, most of
them embedded in the walls of medieval
churches where their paint was protected.
From Köping church, Öland, came about
sixty bits of stone, with both incised lines and
decorative features coloured. In the texts
different words would sometimes be given
different colours, which helped the reader to
divide up a sequence of letters into its
individual words, and in one case the painter
used different colours to draw attention to
different parts of the sentence, so that the
painting assisted the interpretation. Any
errors or uncertainty that the carver left in his
runes could be amended or clarified in the
painting. However, in most cases such aids
towards reading inscriptions are now lost.

Significance of runic inscriptions

The runic inscriptions from the Viking Age
are important for three reasons. They record
early stages of the Scandinavian tongues, and
so tell us something of the language the
Vikings spoke. Their distribution throughout
the world is some indication of the geographi­
cal areas the Vikings visited. Their content
shows us aspects of the Viking Age that are
not recorded elsewhere; from them we know
how the Vikings saw themselves.

159
 RUNE-MASTERS A N D SKALDS

Runic finds in Scandinavia & overseas

he scatter of their runic in­ tell us what lands the Vikings travelled in
scriptions plots the voyages of and settled. O f course, the evidence is not
the Vikings. Here, of course, as simple as this, for the use of runes was
Below One of two major spread unevenly through the various peoples
the runic stones are the most
stones at Lingsberg,
Uppland. Three men set important since they are the and through their different social classes.
them up to mark a least portable. An inscribed weapon or jewel Denmark has some two hundred Viking Age
causeway over a marsh,
could pass from hand to hand, be sold or rune-stones, distributed fairly evenly over the
and this one
commemorates Ulfrik stolen, and end up far from its place of origin, country. Norway has only about forty, less
‘who took two payments so that the site of its discovery may have little evenly scattered, with something of a con­
of geld in England’.
to do with the Vikings; but few would think centration in the south-west province of
Below right The carved of lugging a heavy chunk of inscribed stone Jæren. Sweden’s rune-stones number thou­
boulder at Sjusta, from one place to another. Thus the distri­ sands, with particular groupings in Uppland,
Uppland, is a memorial to
a man who died at bution of the rune-stones (and of Viking Västergötland and Östergötland, as well as
Novgorod. inscriptions on standing monuments) should the islands of Gotland and Öland.
Overseas, too, the distribution was
inexplicably uneven. We know from written
sources that Iceland was settled largely by
Vikings of Norwegian stock in the years
870—930, but that island has as yet yielded no
Viking Age runic inscriptions, although the
script was used there in the later Middle Ages.
Normandy, a Danish colony, has no runic
texts at all. From the Faeroes, also occupied
by Norsemen, only a couple of rune-stones
are known. From Ireland, where the Vikings
kept a strong presence for centuries, there are
only three or four rune-stones, although there
is also a rune-inscribed sword-fitting and the
recent Dublin excavations have produced
informal scratchings on bone and wood. In

160
 The runes on a bone
comb-case found at
Lincoln. They read
k a m b : k o th a n : k ia r i:
T horfastr, ‘Thorfast
made a good comb.’
England, the Danelaw and the Norwegian
settlements of the north-west left behind a
handful of rune-stones, mostly battered and
fragmentary, though important among these
are the early eleventh-century gravestone
from St Paul’s churchyard, London, and a
fragment of a stone found at Cnut’s capital,
Winchester, while from Lincoln comes a bone
comb-case that boasts in runes that ‘Thorfast
made a good comb.’ Mainland Scotland and
the Hebrides show a small scatter of rune-
stones, as do the Shetlands and the Orkneys
(the Orkneys were to produce many more
inscriptions in the post-Viking period). In
contrast to this sparsity is the remarkable case
of the Isle of Man, which has nearly thirty
runic stones and crosses whose characters
show similarities with those of Jæren in the
south-west of Norway.

Runes in the New World ?

Further west are the settlements on Greenland
(whose runes are mainly post-Viking) and the
American continent. Americans, particularly
those of Scandinavian descent, have long
yearned to find runic confirmation of their
ancestors’ exploits in the New World to
parallel the authentic archaeological discov­
ery of a Viking site in Newfoundland. This
has sometimes led them to interpret as runes
marks on standing stones, or even on early
buildings, that are accidental, weathering, or
Three views of a Viking
graffiti of some other origin. However, no rune-stone found in St
expert runologist has yet accepted any Paul’s churchyard,
American inscription as genuine. A famous London, in 1852. The
middle picture shows the
fake is the Kensington stone from Minnesota, remaining vestiges of
whose text claims that a group of Swedes and Viking Age paint, while
Norwegians visited there on a voyage of that at the top is a
reconstruction of how the
discovery in 1362. (or according to some colouring may have
1462). After decades of publicity and a good originally appeared. The
runes are cut in two lines
deal of controversy, the Minnesota historian on the edge of the stone,
Theodore C. Blegen finally exposed the im­ and tell that ‘Ginna and
posture in a book written in 1968. Toki had this stone set up.’

161
 RUNE-MASTERS AN D SKALDS/Runic finds in Scandinavia and overseas

Eastern discoveries (‘Brand made this stone coffin for his partner
From the East the finds, although sparser, are Karl . . . ’) and is something of a legal
in some ways more exciting. There are a announcement recording that Brand had
couple of casual discoveries of inscribed taken over the business and was responsible
bones at trading posts at Liibeck and Kamien to Karl’s heirs for his share of the profits.
Pomorski on the south Baltic coast and four Further south again, at Piraeus near Athens, a
known inscriptions from Russia. The most
northerly of the Russian finds is a wooden
stick from an occupation level at Staraja
Ladoga. Cut on it is a verse inscription,
presumably Swedish, dated to the early
Viking Age. Since such an object has no
intrinsic value, it is unlikely to have been
brought into Ladoga from outside, and so
was probably cut there by a Scandinavian
speaker for Scandinavian readers; which
suggests that a Swedish community lived in
this Russian market town. Further south, in
Novgorod, an eleventh-century Swedish
visitor used a piece of bone, perhaps from his
dinner, on which to cut a futhark, although
why we do not know. The most important of
the Russian inscriptions is on a memorial
stone found on the island of Berezany at the
mouth of the river Dnieper. It records the
death of one of a pair of trading partners

In 1687 the Venetians

carried home a marble
lion from Piraeus, Athens,
as a prize of war. While
still on its Greek site it
had been seen by a visiting
Swede who carved on it
a runic text. Part of the
badly worn inscription
can still be traced.

162
travelling Viking came upon the marble figure is not in doubt. Perhaps the most evocative of A view of the great
church of Hagia Sophia,
of a lion, and cut on it a serpentine band these Eastern inscriptions is a casual graffito Istanbul, from the gallery
enclosing a runic text. The lion is now in on the marble ledge of a gallery of the great on which a Viking
Venice, but the figure is so badly worn and church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. A series scratched his name. The
runes can be seen on the
weathered that its letters are practically of rough scratches, it is only partly legible, but balustrade at the bottom
illegible, although their identification as runes the name ‘Halfdan’ has been read. of the picture.

16 3
 RUNE-MASTERS AND SKALDS

Runes recording Viking activities__

he rune-stones of Scandinavia stone, now broken into fragments, was put up
confirm this picture of wide­ by Arnstein in memory of his son Bjor ‘who
spread activity, and show the met his death in the army when Cnut attacked
Vikings in their various capaci­ England’. A man called Ali of Väsby, Upp­
ties of pirates, professional land, Sweden, was luckier: he survived to
soldiers, merchants, and farmers who brought erect a stone in his own honour, recording as a
home the profits of their expeditions to invest memorable fact that he ‘took a payment of
in land and stock. A silver neck-ring from a danegeld from Cnut in England.’ Another
hoard found in Senja, Troms, northern Nor­ Uppland stone, from Yttergärde, is in mem­
way, carries a verse runic text that looks as ory of a man called Ulf who ‘took three
thought it probably records the source of the payments of geld in England. The first was the
hoarder’s wealth. one that Tosti paid, then Thorkel, then Cnut.’
Fórum drengia Fríslands á vit Here he names in turn three leading Viking
ok vigs ÍQtum vér skiptum. commanders. Although he was a professional
killer, Ulf was a Christian, or at any rate those
We went to meet the lads of Frisia who commemorated him were, for they ask
and we it was who split the spoils of war. that ‘God and God’s mother help his soul.’ At
Both Norwegians and Swedes were among Valleberga, Skåne (now in Sweden, but in
the mercenaries who joined Cnut’s army to Viking times part of Denmark), is a stone that
plunder England in the early eleventh century. two men put up ‘in memory of Manni and
In Galteland, Aust-Agder, south Norway, a Sveni: God help their souls, but they lie in
London’ - as presumably did the unknown
man after whom Ginna and Toki put up their
dragon-carved stone in St Paul’s churchyard
in that city.

In memoriam for Eastern adventurers

Many Swedish rune-stones record exploits in
the East, supplementing the meagre written
sources in this field. At Veda, Uppland, is a
stone in memory of Irenmund who ‘bought
this farm, and he made his money i Gqrdum.’
The last phrase means literally ‘in the towns’,
and is the common expression for the
Scandinavian trading strongholds of western
Russia. At Mervalla, Södermanland, is a
monument to the skipper of a trading vessel;
it breaks into v$rse as it records his fame:
Hann oft siglt til Simgala
dýrum knerri um Domisnes.
The rune-stone that Ali
put up in his own honour He often sailed to Semgallen
at Väsby. He was one of
the Swedes who took part round Domesnäs in his fine ship.
in the attacks on England Domesnäs is the point of Courland, and this
in the early n th century,
and here he records how
Swede made a regular journey into the Gulf of
he ‘took Cnut’s geld in Finland, where the great river Dvina affords
England.’ an entry into Russia. More adventurous were

164
those who made the perilous journey through They feasted the eagles on the enemies they
Russia and across the Black Sea to Byzantium killed in battle. And they died in the south far
(which the Vikings called Mikligardr, the from their homeland.
Great City), or who penetrated far into the
East in search of wealth. At Ed, Uppland, is a Rights and virtues
stone whose runes were commissioned by a Not all inscriptions describe this active Viking
man, Rognvald, who says that ‘in Greece he life. Some reveal its more peaceful and
was captain of the host.’ By ‘Greece’ the domestic aspects; such a one is the stone at The Gripsholm stone,
Södermanland, in
Vikings meant the Eastern Roman Empire, Dynna, Norway, put up in memory of Astrid memory of Harald, who
and since Byzantium had a force of Viking who was ‘the most skilful girl in Hadeland’. died on his brother
Imperial Guards in the eleventh century, it is Or an inscription may record a man’s Ingvar’s ill-fated Eastern
expedition. The runic
likely that Rognvald was one of their officers. possessions and his contribution to the band is in the form of a
A group of nearly thirty rune-stones from the amenities of his neighbourhood. An example snake, the text beginning
at its head. At the top
region of Lake Mälar stresses the dangers of is a group of stones in Uppland, Sweden,
right begins the verse
these expeditions. From them we learn that in erected by a local magnate, Jarlabanki; at section, its first word set
the first half of the eleventh century a major Täby, still beside the road that it com- outside the band.
expedition set out to seek fortune in the East,
under the command of a man called Ingvar.
Few —perhaps none —returned, and the stones
commemorate the young lads of wealthy
families who perished far from their homes.
One example is at Svinnegarn, Uppland,
where a group of stones was put up in
memory of Banki, ‘who had a ship of his own,
and steered it east in Ingvar’s host’. Another
stone, at Lundby, Södermanland, tells of
Skardi, ‘who went from here east with Ingvar;
son of Eyvind, he lies in Serkland.’ Serkland is
not a very precise place-name, but it is used to
mean the land of dark-skinned peoples round
the Mediterranean and in the Middle East,
and here probably refers to part of the Arab
dominions. Most impressive of these Ingvar
inscriptions is the one from Gripsholm,
Södermanland, put up in memory of Ingvar’s
brother Flarald by his mother Tola. Follow­
ing the memorial text there is a verse
inscription:
þeir fóru drengila fiarri at gulli
ok austarla arni gáfu
dóu sunnarla á Serklandi.

Like men they journeyed far for gold

and in the east they fed the eagle,
in the south they died, in Serkland.
The poet sees the adventure romantically.
These young men travelled in search of gold.
 RUNE-MASTERS A N D SKALDS/Runes recording Viking activities

Right The runic face of memorates, is one that reads ‘Jarlabanki put
the greater Jelling stone, up this stone in his own lifetime, and made
dating from the ioth
century. King Harald this causeway for his soul, and he alone
Bluetooth set it up for possessed the whole of Täby: may God help
his parents. B elow One of his soul.’ The great inscription at Jelling,
Jarlabanki’s stones at Täby.
The inscription begins at Jutland, glorifies a royal dynasty: ‘King
bottom centre and curls Harald had this monument made in memory
round to the left (iarlabaki of his father Gorm and his mother Thyri:
lit raisa stain thisa atsik
kuikuan), continuing from this was the Harald who won for himself all
the bottom round to the Denmark and Norway, and made the Danes
right. B elow right The
runes on the Hunterston
Christians.’ A stone may also act as a legal
brooch give the undivided document, as does the Berezany text. A
text, m albrithaastilk, similar case is an inscription at Nora,
‘Melbrigda owns this
brooch’, followed by arbitrary Uppland, Sweden, which asserts a claim to
forms to fill in the rest of land: ‘Bjorn, Finnvid’s son, had this rock
the space available.
carved in memory of his brother Olaf. He was
treacherously killed on Finnveden. God help
his soul. This farm is the rightful estate and
the family inheritance of the sons of Finnvid
at Älgesta.’ As well as these formal texts cut in
runes, there are homely ones, inscriptions
naming the maker of an object - as on the
Lincoln comb-case - or its owner. A splendid
Celtic-style brooch found at Hunterston,
Strathclyde, has on it inscribed in runes
‘Melbrigda owns this brooch.’ Though the
possessor had a Celtic name, the language is
Scandinavian, and this may give a hint as to
the way the Norsemen were integrated into
the communities of west Scotland.

166
A cultural record
o much for the Vikings’ activi­ Brœðr váru þeir beztra manna
ties. Equally important to the á landi ok í liði úti,
historian is to know something heldu sína húskarla vel.
of the temper of the Viking Hann fell í orrostu austr í GQrðum,
Age, the sort of behaviour that liðs foryngi landmanna beztr.
the Vikings admired; and this, too, the runic
memorials tell us. They describe a society that These brothers were the best of men
knew it was aristocratic and heroic, its at home and abroad on expedition.
members bound together by the ties of family They maintained their retinue well.
relationship or by the duties that were Thorstein fell in battle east in Russia,
expected, on either side, by lord and man. army leader, best of landmen.
They praise the heroic virtues of valour,
endurance, generosity, loyalty, respect for
The remaining runes on
honour and truth to one’s word. Not of
the face of the cross at
course that Vikings always held to these Braddan, Isle of Man.
virtues. A fragment of a runic cross at The text begins abruptly
at the left of the lower
Braddan, Isle of Man, has preserved for ever line: n ro s k itil:u ilti:i:
triku, then continues on
the upper line: aithsoara:
siin. In standard Old
Norse this becomes \e\n
Hrossketill vélti i tryggu
eidsvara siin : literally,
‘and Hrosketil deceived
under trust his oath-
sworn [friend].’

the name of a man who behaved villainously, Presumably what pleased the huskarlar was
and there is no doubt that the carver intended, that Thorstein was a generous lord, supplying
not only to cut the name (now lost) of the his men with plenty of good things. On the
dead man, but to publicize this shameful other hand, a Viking might win respect by
behaviour: ‘ . . . but Hrosketil betrayed under fighting to the death and refusing to surren­
trust a man bound to him by oaths.’ Inevit­ der, like the man commemorated at Sjörup,
ably, however, it was those who did their Skåne. This inscription begins simply, ‘Saxi
Viking duty whose fame was most often put up this stone in memory of his comrade
recorded. A king might recognize the loyalty Asbjorn, Toki’s son’, and then goes on to a
of a retainer, as on one of the stones from short verse that explains why Asbjorn both
Hedeby, north Germany: ‘King Svein set up needed and deserved commemoration:
this stone in memory of his retainer Skardi, Sá fló eigi at UpsQlum
who had taken part in an expedition west­ en vá meðan (hann) vápn hafði.
wards, but now met his death at Hedeby.’
Often the thought of these heroic virtues He did not flee at Uppsala,
inspired the inscriber to poetry. A stone at but fought while he could hold weapons.
Turinge, Södermanland, keeps the memory of
Thorstein, one of a pair of brothers well Skaldic verse
respected in the neighbourhood. Among The poems quoted so far are in a fairly simple
those who subscribed to the monument were verse form that relies heavily on alliteration
the huskarlar, the household retinue. The for its effect. However, there are some runic
verse of praise reads: monuments that record a more complex form
RUNE-MASTERS A N D SKALDS/A cultural record

of verse, of the type known as skaldic. Thrud of battles is therefore a war goddess or
‘Skaldic’ derives from the Icelandic word valkyrie. The tree of the valkyrie is a warrior,
skåld, poet, though that word is used in who stands firm in battle like a tree rooted to
English to mean a Norse court poet, or a the ground. Endil is a sea king, so his spacious
writer who composed a similar sort of ground is the ocean, and the ocean’s chariot is
elaborate verse. A runic example of skaldic a ship. The Odin, god, who controls the ship
poetry is cut on the late Viking memorial is its captain. If we substitute these expla­
stone at Karlevi on the Swedish island of nations for the kennings we get a simple set of
Öland. After a simple commemorative in­ comments: ‘Hidden in this mound lies the
warrior whom — as most people knew — the
scription in prose, the text breaks into a verse
in praise of the dead man. It is given here ingreatest virtues followed. No ship’s captain,
strong in battle, more free from fault, will rule
normalized spelling and in literal translation:
Fólginn liggr hinns fylgðu land in Denmark.’
- flestr vissi þat - mestar As a historical statement this is not much,
dæðir dolga Þrúðar though it does tell us that a Viking sea
draugr í þeimsi haugi. warrior who was buried with ceremony on a
Munat reið-Viðurr ráða Swedish island was a landowner in Denmark,
rógstarkr í Danmarku and from that we might conclude that the
Endils ÍQrmungrundar various Viking countries were no more
órgrandari landi. separate entities than are their modern
counterparts. But the inscription does reveal
Hidden lies he whom followed an important piece of cultural information.
- most have known that - the greatest The elaborate verse with its intricate word-
virtues, of the Thrud of battles order and its complex images was meant to be
the tree, in this mound. read and understood, otherwise there was no
No chariot-Odin will rule point in cutting it. That means there must
battle-strong in Denmark have been a literate audience who had been
of Endil’s spacious ground, educated to understand verse as difficult as
more free from fault, land. this. However, we have still not seen just how
Read straight through, the translation does difficult this verse form is. Examine the stanza
not make much sense, for two good reasons. in detail and you will see its complexity. It is a
Each half-stanza has two or three phrases typical example of a commonly used metrical
mixed up together, and the reader has to pattern called dróttkvcett, which means
disentangle them; the poet, instead of using something like ‘court metre’. The stanza has
everyday language, has employed elaborate eight lines. Each line has six syllables, and
images, known as ‘kennings’, which the three of them are stressed and three un­
reader has to be taught to understand. If we stressed, although the stress patterns vary
rearrange the wording of this stanza we get from line to line. In each even line there
the following statements: ‘Hidden in this are two syllables that rhyme {flestr/mest-;
mound lies the tree of the Thrud of battles draugr/haug- ; -starkr/-mark-; -grand-/land-).
whom - as most people knew - the greatest In each odd line there are two stressed
virtues followed. No chariot-Odin of EndiPs syllables with part-rhyme, that is the syllables
spacious ground, strong in battle, more free end with the same consonant but contain
from fault, will rule land in Denmark.’ different vowels (fólg-lfylg-; dæð-/Prúð-;
So much for the reordering, but what about reið-/ráð-; End-/-grund-). Moreover, in each
the meaning of the kennings? Thrud is the odd line there are two stressed syllables that
name of Thor’s daughter, a minor deity. The begin with the same sound, and these
 money, to make important connections or to
alliterate with the first syllable of the follow­
ing even line {fólg-/fylg-/flestr; dceð-/dolg-/win a reputation. If he could compose good
draugr; and so on). To get all this detail verse he was welcome at any of the great
into a taut stanza form requires a skilled and courts of northern Europe, with the Viking
trained poet. Indeed, it requires a school of kings of Norway or of Sweden, Denmark,
poets, and also an audience that knows what Dublin or York, or the great earl of the
to look for in a verse; from which we may Orkneys. He would be made a member of the
conclude that the Vikings were not just a prince’s retinue, and would serve in return as
crowd of axe-happy hooligans, as they are so recorder of his lord’s great deeds, as public
often portrayed, but people with a literature entertainer or as private counsellor. At some
that demanded sophistication and culture. time or other he would be expected to
A single verse was hard enough, but a produce a poem in his lord’s honour, a long
complete long poem might have twenty or poem with a pattern of refrains known as a
forty such stanzas divided into an introduc­ dråpa, if it were for a king, or perhaps a
tory section, a concluding section and a shorter poem without refrain, a flokkr, for
number of groups in between, each with its someone of lesser importance. A poem might The memorial stone of
the Viking chief Sibbi the
own refrain. It would be too long to record in praise a living king, or be a funeral ode Good, at Karlevi, Öland.
runes, and had to be preserved in the poet’s recording his exploits for his children, and it is Its long and detailed
memory. Indeed, the elaborate rhyming and these poems that supply much of the his­ inscription begins with a
prose passage naming the
alliteration were conventional devices to help torical fact known about Viking kings. Poems dead man, and then goes
the composer to memorize his poem. such as this have often survived only by being on to a strophe of skaldic
quoted in Icelandic sagas, and especially in poetry in his praise.

The skald and his poetry those called konunga sqgur, the sagas of
Skaldic poetry was in the main occasional kings. The thirteenth-century Icelander Snorri
poetry. It showed the poet’s reaction to Sturluson, author of the most famous col­
current events, to something that had just lection of these sagas, Heimskringla, re­
happened to him, or to a prince he was counted in his introduction his sources of
visiting. Many poems consist of a single verse knowledge of the early kings of Norway. The
- the Karlevi stone gives an example — and most important evidence, he thought, was:
very often these verses have been preserved in . . . what is said in those poems that
manuscript texts of a rather later date. In were declaimed in front of the princes
particular they are found in the Icelandic themselves or their sons. We accept as
prose narratives called sagas, which were true all that those poems tell about their
written in the thirteenth or fourteenth cen­ travels and battles. For it is the practice
turies. The sagas suggest that a skilled poet of skalds to praise most the man whose
could compose one of these dróttkvcett presence they are in, and nobody would
stanzas on the spur of the moment, to record dare to tell the man himself about deeds
his instant reaction to some notable ex­ which everybody who heard —even the
perience. Nearly all we know of the life-style man himself —knew to be lies and
of the skald derives from these later sagas. deceit. That would be scorn, not praise.
Although they cannot be relied upon as his­ Nobody who has sat through after-dinner
tory, we can probably believe something of speeches in honour of public men will be
what they tell us about skalds. For most of much convinced by this argument, but even if
the Viking Age skaldic poetry seems to have the poems do not tell the truth about the kings
been an Icelandic speciality. The poet was a they praise, and certainly not the whole truth,
young man of good family in Iceland travel­ at least they show what qualities Viking poets
ling abroad for fun, experience, adventure, thought a king should be praised for.

169
 RUNE-MASTERS AN D SKALDS/A cultural record

Odes and praise poems In two ways Eyvind’s poem is not a typical
Sometimes the saga-writer cited a long section skaldic praise poem. It is in simpler form than
of the poem, perhaps even all of it. An the common dróttkvcett, and it tells a story.
example is Hákonarmál, a funeral ode to the Most skaldic poems are not strict narrative.
tenth-century Norwegian King Hakon, and Instead of describing events, they allude to
quoted in his various sagas. Hakon was them, and these allusions are often tanta­
brought up at the court of King Athelstan of lizing. The skald assumed his audience knew
Wessex, and so was, at least in name, a what he was talking about because they knew
Christian: hence his title ‘the Good’. Despite their prince’s history, so he would describe a
The top part of this this, when he died of wounds after one of battle or a voyage conventionally and with a
incised stone from a
grave-field near
those inter-Scandinavian skirmishes that minimum of detail. Here in literal translation
Stenkyrka, Gotland, were so common in the Viking Age, his skald is a single verse from a poem that Ottar the
shows a mounted warrior wrote a pagan poem about him. The skald’s Black composed about Olaf Haraldsson of
and before him a woman,
perhaps a valkyrie, name was Eyvind, and he was nicknamed Norway (St O laf):
offering a drinking horn. ‘Despoiler of Skalds’ because, having few Prince, I learned that heavy
ideas of his own, he pinched those of others, your army far from ships,
and this ode on Hakon is one of his thefts, for reddened Ringmere Heath,
it bears a marked resemblance to a rather piled up a heap of slain, with blood.
earlier poem commemorating King Eirik, Fell before you, before it ceased,
nicknamed ‘Bloodaxe’. Eyvind’s poem shows people of the land, in the shields’ clashing,
Hakon in his last battle. Odin, god of war, the army of the English, to the earth,
sends out two valkyries to choose from the frantic, and many in flight.
warriors on show someone valiant enough to Sorted into sentences (and there are slightly
come and live in his hall at Valholl. They pick different ways of doing this), this becomes:
Hakon, and direct the battle so that he holds Prince I learned that your army, far
the field and puts his enemies to flight. Then from their ships, piled up a heavy heap
they summon him to join Odin (the poet’s of slain and reddened Ringmere Heath
way of saying that he dies from the effects of with blood. Before it ceased, the people
the fight). Hakon tries to refuse, and com­ of the land, the army of the English,
plains that Odin should not seize him in his frantic, fell to the earth before you in
moment of triumph, but in the end his wrath the shields’ clashing, and many in flight.
is turned away and the gods welcome the All of which says little more than that Olaf
mighty soldier. The ode ends with verses Haraldsson beat the English at Ringmere
glorifying Hakon as a king without equal: Heath in Norfolk.
Mun óbundinn Another skald, Sigvat, also wrote a poem to
a ýta sjQt Olaf and included a verse on the same battle.
Fenrisulfr of fara In straightforward prose this says:
áðr jafngóðr Once more Olaf, for the seventh time,
á auða troð set up a sword-meeting in Ulfcetel’s
konungmaðr komi. land, as I shall tell. All the English stood
arrayed at Ringmere Heath as Harald’s
Freed from his bonds son stirred up trouble. Men fell there.
to the home of men Equally conventional, this adds another bit of
the wolf Fenrir will run information, that Ringmere was in Ulfcetel’s
before there comes so good land. Anglo-Saxon historians know Ulfcetel
a man of royal birth well, for he was the East Anglian commander
to the desolate fields. who fought bravely against marauding

170
Vikings in the early eleventh century. No vowed, as King of Norway, to keep:
contemporary English source locates a battle Great prince, who is urging you to go
at Ringmere, but the twelfth-century chronic­ back on your promises ?. .. A king who
ler Florence of Worcester names it, and this is will hold his people must stick to his
the battle of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry word. It is unseemly, lord, for you to
for io io in which the Vikings routed an entire break your oaths. Who, king, is urging
English army except for the Cambridgeshire you to slaughter your servants’ cattle ?
levy, which stood firm. The Chronicle calls It is unjust for a ruler to behave like this
the Viking army a Danish one, but these in his own country. Never before has a
verses show that there was a contingent of young king been so advised. Your men
Norwegians fighting under their future king. are getting weary of this robbery. The
By probing the skaldic poems in this way we people are angry, prince.. . . There is
can find out a lot of detail about the Viking one thing that everybody is saying, ‘My
Age that is not recorded elsewhere, though it lord is taking the rightful property of
has to be disentangled from turgid tributes to his servants.’ The noble landowners are
the valour of the princes who paid the poets. rising in wrath.
Sigvat criticized his king fearlessly, but it was
Skald and lord in a poem that asserted the positive values on
A skald’s poems were not always syco­ which the Norse kingdom was built: a
phantic, for he had a certain freedom of contractual relationship of mutual help
speech with his lord, and courtiers would between lord and people, a respect for laws
sometimes use him to break unpalatable news and promises within a Viking community
or give advice that would be ill received from (whatever you might do to people outside it),
anyone else. Magnus, son of the royal martyr and a recognition of the importance of the
Olaf, took control of Norway in 1035 on the family and the continuity of its estates.
death of Cnut of Denmark. According to his
saga he began by taking revenge on those who Skaldic verse as poetry
had opposed his father, stripping them of O f course it is unfair to treat skaldic verse in
their goods and honours in defiance of the this way, simply as a source of historical
law. Not surprisingly, he became widely knowledge. It was intended as literature, and
unpopular and there was danger of revolt. no literal translation can give the original’s
The King’s friends chose his skald Sigvat to richness of texture and its poetic quality. To
tell the King that his behaviour was impolitic, find something of the poetry we must turn to a
and he did it in a series of verses called version made by a modern poet, further from
BersQglisvtsur (Plain-speaking Verses). From the detail of the Old Norse but getting its
them we get a clear picture of the state of the general sense and feeling. Here is how John
kingdom in the 1030s, and the relationship Lucas translates a vigorous Viking verse by
between monarch and people. Sigvat began the great tenth-century Icelandic poet Egil
by asserting his loyalty to Magnus, and his Skallagrimsson:
willingness to fight for him. He listed the I’ve been with sword and spear
kings who had preceded Magnus, showing slippery with bright blood
that they were respected because they had where kites wheeled. And how well
kept the legal contract with their subjects and we violent vikings clashed!
protected them from exploitation. Then, Red flames ate up men’s roofs,
asking forgiveness for his bluntness, he told raging we killed and killed;
him how the landowners were complaining and skewered bodies sprawled
that Magnus had broken the law he had sleepy in town gate-ways.
172.
From Odin
to Christ

Among the Viking Age burials at Lindholm Hdje in Jutland,

Denmark, are about zoo marked by stones set in the form of a
ship - symbolizing the idea of death as a voyage into the unknown.

173
FROM ODIN TO CHRIST

Paganism=
t the start of the Viking Age
virtually everyone in the Scan­
dinavian countries was still
pagan; there having been very
little contact with Christianity.
Through the following centuries knowledge
of Christian belief came to these countries in
a variety of ways. Raiders who plundered
and killed in church and monastery looted
artifacts of Christian significance such as
crosses and chalices. These were usually
melted down for the value of the metal, but
some fine objects were brought home as
souvenirs. Christian men and women were
among those captured and taken back as
slaves; their religion may have had little
influence on their captors, but must have
added something to the general knowledge.
The Viking traders met and had peaceable
dealings with Christian merchants abroad,
in both the Roman West and the Greek
Byzantine East. Viking mercenaries served in
the armies of Christian leaders, and were
sometimes required to undergo provisional
baptismal ceremonies. Finally, Christian
missionaries came to Scandinavia, and their
teaching was carried on to Scandinavia’s
Atlantic colonies, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland
and Greenland. The process was gradual, but
by the eleventh century most of Scandinavia
had been formally converted, though Sweden
remained intermittently pagan almost into later, the diligent analysis of a trained
the twelfth, and doubtless traces of paganism antiquarian or anthropologist. But these
lingered elsewhere. stories and poems give us many merry
anecdotes and legends about the nature and
Sources of evidence activities of gods and goddesses such as Thor
We need to remain aware that Viking and Odin, Frey and Freyja, as well as
paganism did not exist in total isolation from descriptive accounts of the creation and end
contemporary Christian Europe, and in fact it of the world according to Norse mythology.
is from later Christian Norsemen, specifically Many of our general concepts about Viking
from the Icelanders, that we get the fullest belief, about mead-drinking in Valholl, or the
information on pagan practice and belief — valkyries riding the air to choose the slain,
though sometimes these excellent storytellers derive from this medieval Icelandic literature.
may be more concerned with the story than The written observations of foreigners also
the record. It is not fair to expect from poems tell us something about Viking paganism,
and prose tales about the old gods, written though we cannot always be sure whether
down by Christians of the twelfth century or their records are from first-hand observation
 Uppsala was the famous centre of pagan worship in
Viking Age Sweden. In place of the original temple a
Christian church now stands near the huge 5th- and
6th-century royal burial mounds. Below Adam of
Bremen’s graphic description of Uppsala (based on
hearsay) inspired this elaborate imaginary
reconstruction by Olaus Magnus in 1555, which shows
the temple, bound by golden chains, the sacred
evergreen tree and the spring in which a man was
drowned as a sacrificial victim.
or travellers’ tales. Adam of Bremen, writing
in the eleventh century about Swedish pa­
ganism, gives detailed accounts of sacrifices at
Uppsala, but had not seen these himself. The
Arab chronicler Ibn Fadlan, who described a
pagan Viking funeral on the Volga, doubtless
gave as exact an account as he could. But in
this area Viking practices may have been
influenced by neighbouring Slav ones, and the
Arab’s interpretation of what he saw was
probably partly hindered by communication
problems. For instance, the word for
‘Paradise’ occurs several times in his account,
the place described as ‘green and beautiful’.
This is scarcely Valholl as described in west
Norse sources, and it is doubtful what other

175
 FRO M O D IN T O CHRIST/Paganism

It was common pagan Norse word ‘Paradise’ could be translating. thought of as a journey, and even when actual
practice to bury men and Detailed and precise knowledge comes to ships were not used, graves were often
women with the objects
they had needed during us from the archaeologists, for it was marked by stones set in the form of a ship.
their lifetime on earth. common pagan practice to bury men and Excavation of settlements can also turn up
The Vikings were no
exception and the
women with the objects they had needed artifacts of pagan significance, amulets, for
excavation of their grave during their lifetime on earth, presumably in example, and talismans. We find tiny figures
sites provides us with the belief that they would still be needed in the of the gods themselves, and miniatures of
considerable evidence of
both beliefs and daily afterlife. The excavation of a burial gives us their more distinctive possessions such as
activities. The contents of information on three levels: firstly it shows us Thor’s hammer. Excavation of temple sites is
the grassy burial mounds what ordinary objects were in daily use in the a chancy operation, since where building was
at Birka, above, clearly
reflect the town’s Viking Age - for many of the artifacts show in wood remaining evidence is minimal and
importance as a trading signs of such use, and were clearly not made hard to interpret. But many scholars have
centre; finds have
specifically for the death-ceremony; secondly tried their hand at drawing reconstructions of
included coins, luxury
goods, merchants’ scales it shows us the actual funeral customs the Uppsala temple, though nothing now
and warriors’ gear. operating in specific areas of pagan Viking survives above ground.
Scandinavia, the method and manner of the Place-name evidence can add to that of
burial; thirdly it demonstrates something archaeology, showing which different gods
about the beliefs of the people who carried and goddesses were worshipped and where,
out such customs. The use of the ship in or what places were considered sacred.
burials probably means that death was Helgafell, the Holy Mountain, is a type of
 This plan is of one of the
richest female burials
excavated at Birka. Along
one side of the wooden
chamber lay a bronze
bowl, a casket
(containing a comb and a
glass linen-smoother), a
wine jug and drinking
glass from the Rhineland,
and two buckets. In the
opposite corner was a
whalebone plaque (see
also page 122). The
woman was buried fully
clothed with her brooches
and beads in place,
including the large equal­
armed brooch illustrated
at the top of page 116. An
iron ring with Thor’s
hammer pendants was
found under the skull and
presumably had been
placed around the neck of
the dead woman.

name that often recurs, indicating a feature of distribution pattern. The extent to which
general sanctity rather than a cult site for one Odin names are found in Denmark suggests a
specific deity. There were also sacred groves dominant Odin cult there, a fact that may
and islands, pastures and rivers. One useful have political significance, since Odin was
aspect of the place-name evidence is its regarded as the god of kings and warriors.

177
 FRO M ODIN T O CHRIST

The worship of Odin

Right A metalworker’s he source that most clearly
die from Oland, for defines the position of Odin is
impressing foils to
ornament a pre-Viking the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturl­
helmet (such as that on uson, an Icelander writing at
page 15), depicts a young the beginning of the thirteenth
man in a horned helmet
taking part in a weapon century, at a time when Iceland had been
dance for Odin —the Christian for about zoo years, and knowledge
warrior’s god.
of pagan traditions implied no sort of belief in
The bronze figure from them. Snorri says:
Lindby in Skåne, below , Odin is the highest and oldest of the
appears to be one-eyed
and may thus represent gods; he rules all things, and however
Odin, who is said to have powerful the other gods are they all
given an eye for serve him as children their father . . . .
understanding.
Odin is called All-father, because he is
the father of all the gods; he is also
called Valfather because his chosen that will be let loose, the brood of Loki, the
sons are all those who die in battle. wolf Fenrir, the world-serpent Midgardsorm.
Valholl is for them. Hávamál (High One’s Speech), gives what
The word valr, the first element of Valholl purport to be Odin’s own descriptions of his
and Valfather (and valkyrie) means ‘the slain’ search for and attainment of knowledge: ‘I
and is used of men killed in battle. Snorri also began to grow and to become wise’ ; ‘I took
gives a list of names by which Odin is known, up the runes, shrieking I grasped them.’ The
drawn from the poem Grímnismál. These poem cites many accomplishments appar­
names include ‘god of the hanged’, ‘helmeted ently claimed by the High One himself: the
one’ and various others connected with battle ability to blunt the weapons of adversaries,
and death. Odin’s birds and animals are those to loosen fetters, to quieten wind and wave.
that feed on corpses, the ravens and wolves, Some are enigmatic, such as the claim to
though his ravens Huginn and Muninn, control ‘those who ride the homesteads’,
Thought and Memory, relate also to his other others less cryptic, such as his statement that
function as a god of wisdom. ‘If I see a corpse hanging on the gallows I can
A group of poems known collectively as the carve and paint such runes that he walks and
Poetic Edda (or sometimes Elder Edda, since speaks with me.’ A curious source of wisdom,
it precedes Snorri who drew heavily on this one might think, but Odin is also said to have
material), difficult to date, but surviving in a hung on the ‘windswept tree’ himself, ‘offered
thirteenth-century manuscript a good deal to Odin, myself to myself’, and on another
younger than its contents, has many poems occasion to have given an eye in exchange
centred on Odin’s search for wisdom and for understanding.
understanding. Vafþrúðnismál describes a Odin’s other major function as god of poets
contest of knowledge between Odin and the and poetry rests on a long and complex story
giant Vafthruthnir, who claims to have visited told to us in various forms. Basically in
nine worlds and penetrated the depths of Snorri’s lucid version, the story is that dwarfs
Niflhel, the realm of the dead; from him Odin made a powerful mead drink out of honey
learns many secrets of the world before and the blood of a murdered man, Kvasir,
winning the contest by a disgraceful trick ‘who was so wise there was no question he
question. Vqluspa records what the sibyl told could not answer’. Those who drink this
Odin about the end of the world, the des­ mead become poets. By stealing the drink
truction of men and gods and the monsters Odin made it accessible to gods and men, and
poetry is therefore Odin’s gift, Odin himself from them can be applied to Odin worship
being patron of all poets. Skalds refer throughout Scandinavia. Fascinating ad­
frequently to their art in these terms. Egil ditional evidence comes from the carved
Skallagrimsson mentions two of Odin’s stones of Gotland. One friendly detail in
functions in his poem HQfuðlausn (Head- Snorri’s account of Odin is the description of
Ransom), which he recited in York to win his his grey, eight-legged horse Sleipnir, and the
life as recompense from Eirik Bloodaxe. Egil name Sleipnir is also found in several Eddie
claims to have carried Odin’s mead (that is his poems. In Baldrs Draumar for example, ‘Up
poem) to English fields, and, when describing rose Odin. . . . And he on Sleipnir laid the
Eirik’s victories, he says that Odin watched saddle.’ The ninth-century Gotland picture-
where the dead (valr) lay. stones show a rider on an eight-legged horse,
Since so much of our material comes from and it is a pleasing conjecture that we have
late and literary Icelandic sources, it is here a Scandinavian depiction of the god
difficult to know how much of what we learn himself and his splendid beast.
Obviously related to the
figure on the Oland die, is
a Viking Age amulet from
a woman’s grave in
Uppland in the form of a
warrior with a horned
helmet, sword and spears.
The horns on these ritual
helmets have birds’ head
terminals.

Carved stones from

Gotland, as well as
depicting ships, provide
evidence of Odin worship
and may illustrate aspects
of life after death. On this
8th-century stone from
Tjängvide, Alskog, the
man riding an eight­
legged horse may be
Odin on Sleipnir, the
figures with drinking
horn or spear perhaps
valkyries, and the
building in the
background possibly a
symbolic representation
of Valholl.

179
 FROM ODIN T O CHRIST

The worship of Thor

used of Thor. In a manuscript account of the
pagan law at the time of the settlement of
Iceland an important and binding oath is cited
calling to witness ‘Frey, Njord and the
almighty god’. Almighty is a term so familiar
to us in Christian belief that it is difficult to
grasp its significance in the context of a pagan
pantheon, but here again the appeal is
probably to Thor in his protective role. This
protective aspect of Thor is predominant in
Snorri’s tales in the Prose Edda. The gods
themselves are vulnerable without Thor,
though even Thor is vulnerable without his
beloved hammer, Mjollnir. Eddie poems
about Odin’s search for wisdom tend to be
heavy with solemnity, but the poem Þrym-
skvida, which describes Thor’s journey to
recover his lost hammer, is a most cheerful
comedy. The giants, perennial enemies of the
gods, have stolen Mjollnir, and will only
return it if Freyja is brought to their lord as
bride. Thor’s immediate reaction seems to be
that this is fair exchange, but Freyja, goddess
of love, makes it clear that her desperation for
a husband is not yet such that she need look
Thor’s hammer amulets hough Snorri so clearly places for one among the giants. The solution
from 10th-century
Odin as All-father, the highest reached is that Thor, god of physical strength,
Sweden, both made of
silver. A bove A splendidly of the gods, it seems that Odin most masculine of the gods, disguises himself
stylized version from did not invariably hold this in bridal clothes, puts on Freyja’s distinctive
Skåne (enlarged), with the
glaring eyes associated
position. The eleventh-century and recognizable gold necklace, and drives off
with Thor in many Eddie English homilist Ælfric, writing about heathen to the giants amid the appropriate accom­
tales; below , a plain silver gods, equates Thor, not Odin, with the chief paniment of fire and earthquake. His be­
pendant from Uppland.
Roman deity Jupiter, and he is more likely to haviour on arrival lacks feminine delicacy —at
be basing his statements on the paganism of the bridal feast he consumes an ox, eight
contemporary Viking invaders than vague salmon and three barrels of mead — but
recollections of the far-distant pre-Christian eventually the hammer is brought in ‘to
past of Anglo-Saxon England. The German hallow the bride’ . Thor’s ensuing destruction
chronicler Adam of Bremen, describing the of the giants is vigorous and rapid, ‘and so
images of the gods in the Uppsala temple, one Odin’s son got his hammer back.’
of which is Odin’s, tells us that another is of Whether Thor’s hammer was genuinely
Thor, the most powerful of the gods. When part of a wedding ritual may be doubted, but
the poet Egil Skallagrimsson calls on the gods memorial stones survive with the runic
to drive Eirik Bloodaxe out of Norway his use formula ‘May Thor hallow’, or with Thor’s
of the term ‘land god’ twice in separate poems hammer as part of the design carved on them.
is commonly thought to be an appeal to Thor. The veneration that the Viking pagans
There is some evidence for thinking that when accorded this symbol may also be seen in the
the phrase ‘the god’ is used on its own it is miniature hammers, usually of silver, that still

180
survive. Some of these amulets were apparent­ The legend of how Thor
went fishing for the
ly designed to be worn as pendants, most are
world-serpent
ornate, but others have no value and can only Midgardsorm is carved
have been symbolic of their owners’ beliefs. on stones in Sweden and
England. Right Thor
The widespread popularity of Thor is stands in a boat with
shown in a number of ways. He it was in raised hammer near the
particular whose name was taken abroad by bottom of an n th -
century rune-stone from
the Vikings to be honoured in the place- Altuna, put up in memory
names of their new settlements. Iceland has a of two men burnt in their
range of Thor’s harbours and headlands house. From his left hand
dangles the ox-head bait,
(Thorshofn and Thorsness) and many,of the while the serpent coils
personal names of Norsemen contain the below.
element Thor, as in Thorgrim and Thorstein.
That it is not only Icelanders who remember
the Thor legends is shown by a range of
carvings illustrating Thor in one of his best-
remembered fights. According to Snorri he
has a number of encounters with the world-
serpent Midgardsorm, and at the end of the
world and the doom of the gods each will be
the death of the other. Eddie prose and poetry
recount how Thor went fishing, baited his
hook with the head of an ox, and caught the
world-serpent on his line. The widespread
popularity of the legend is shown by its
appearance on carved stones as far apart as
Altuna, Sweden, and Gosforth, England.

Left A similar fishing

scene is depicted on a
stone at Gosforth in
Cumbria. Here the
second figure in the boat
may be the giant Hymir -
Snorri’s version of the
story includes him in
this adventure.

181
 FROM ODIN TO CHRIST

O ther deities

The bronze figure from Rällinge in Sweden, left, must here is scarcely space to look at
represent the fertility god Frey, who may also be all the gods and goddesses of
depicted, wooing the giantess Gerd, abov e (enlarged),
on gold plaques found at Helgö. Below A walrus-ivory, the Viking pantheon, at Frigg,
beard-clutching figure from Lund (also enlarged), has wife of Odin, at Idun, keeper
been identified variously as Frey or Thor, but may
simply be a ‘king’ for a board game.
of those excellent apples that
preserve the youth of the gods, at Baldr the
beautiful and beloved, for whose death all
created things were asked to weep that they
might win his release from Hel. Some, like
Tyr the one-handed, whom English sources
equate with Mars, the war god, seem to be
important figures in the early period but to
fade a little in the later centuries of the Viking
Age. Frey, his sister Freyja and their father
Njord form a distinct group connected with
fertility and prosperity. Place-name evidence
suggests that their cult was particularly strong
in Sweden, but there is evidence too that they
were worshipped in Norway, and there is
much in Icelandic literature about individuals
who venerated Frey. One story about the
early settlers of Iceland says that snow would
not lie on a certain grave because Frey loved
the dead man too dearly to let frost come
between them. Sagas, like Snorri’s Edda, are
written down by Christians in a period much
later than the events they describe, but even
where the incidents themselves may be
fictional, the writers are more likely to be
remembering than inventing traditions about
the paganism of their ancestors. In Egils Saga,

18 2
the daughter of Egil, anticipating death, says This silver amulet from
Sweden consists of a ring
T have not eaten and shall not till I am with from which are
Freyja.’ Such a comment may be reminiscent suspended miniature
of a belief that whereas dead warriors went to weapons and tools of
unknown significance:
Odin’s Valholl, women were welcomed by two swords, three staffs,
Freyja, but the Eddie poem Grímnismál and a strike-a-light or
claims more astringently that Freyja shares fire-steel.

the spoils of battle with Odin.

The valkyries
In this capacity Freyja may be linked with the
valkyries. Their name means ‘chooser of the
slain’, although literature has romanticized
and tamed them. The tenth-century poem
Eiriksmal describes the valkyries as welcom­
ing the heroes with wine and it may be that
this feminine occupation of theirs is repre­
sented in the carvings and amulets of women
carrying drinking horns. But as minor deities
of death, they are given as proper names the
ordinary words for battle, such as the old
Norse word hildr, and many a skaldic poet
refers to battle as the play or storm of Hild.

A Swedish pendant in the

form of a woman holding
out a drinking vessel may
represent a valkyrie
welcoming a dead
warrior to Valholl.

The moustached face

carved on a furnace
stone, found on the beach
at Snaptun in Jutland,
may be that of Loki, who
precipitated the last battle
by killing Odin’s favourite
son Baldr. There are lines
cut across the closed
mouth, and Loki was
once punished on losing a
wager by having his lips
sewn together.

183
 FROM ODIN TO CHRIST

The Sigurd legend £r the world's end

part of the romanticization pro­ sucking his blistered thumb, and learning
cess begins with the transform­ thereby to understand the tongue of the birds.
ation of valkyries into women
involved with mortal heroes. The last battle
The famous Sigurd legend Sigurd’s father, Sigmund, is named in the poem
contains an example of this, for the Brynhild Eiriksmál as the hero who welcomes Eirik to
to whom he becomes betrothed both has the company in Valholl. Sigmund asks Odin
ordinary human ancestry, and at the same why they are expecting Eirik and gets the
time is one of Odin’s valkyries. Icelandic enigmatic answer: ‘Because of uncertainty:
literature explains that Brynhild’s long sleep the grey wolf looks at the home of the gods.’
behind a flame-barrier was Odin’s punish­ The grey wolf Fenrir will be the death of Odin
ment because she awarded victory against his in the last battle of the gods and men against
instructions. Sigurd himself is a hero of giants and monsters, as a whole range of
supernatural stature and the full legend cycle prophecy in the Eddie prose and poetry tells
surrounding him interweaves tales of pre­ us, but it is hard to know how much of this
history and tales of the gods. The popularity
of the legend can be gauged from the fact that
Sigurd roasts neat steaks
of dragon’s heart over the
flames and licks his burnt
thumb, on a 10th-century
stone from Kirk Andreas,
Isle of Man.

Stone-carvers also delighted in Sigurd, apocalyptic vision is part of genuine Viking

especially in the episode of the dragon fight. Age belief, and how much is subsequent
Sigurd himself, his horse Grani, the dragon literary creation, partly influenced by Chris­
Fafnir and the treacherous smith Regin are tian thinking about the end of the world
found on any number of carved stones and Doomsday. Snorri tells the tale with
throughout the Viking world. A favourite dramatic relish:
detail for the artist was the standard folklore The wolf will swallow the sun . . . then
motif of Sigurd roasting the dragon’s heart, a second wolf will seize the moon and

184
 he too will do great damage. The stars the destruction and will people earth again;
will disappear from the heavens . . . . some of the gods will live, sons of the dead
The wolf Fenrir will then be free. The Odin and Thor, and ‘They find in the grass
sea will invade the land because the golden playing pieces the gods once
Midgardsorm turns in a giant rage owned’ - a hopeful evocation of a new era.
intending to come ashore. It is not clear how much this sophisticated
Natural violence such as earthquakes will be mythology had to do with the beliefs of those
paralleled by degeneracy among men, wars, buried in ships or mounds or more humble
slaughter of kin and incest. Nevertheless, graves throughout the Norse world. But at
Snorri’s version, based on Vafþrúðnismál least some Vikings had playing pieces, if not
and VQluspá promises the rising of a new and golden ones, buried with them, and harvest­
lovelier world after the destruction of*the old. ing implements too, as well as weapons,
The sun before she was swallowed by the wolf indicating perhaps that their hope of the
had given birth to a daughter who will travel future life included something other than the
the skies in her place; two mortals survived continuous fighting and drinking of Valholl.

Another 10th-century
Manx stone depicts Odin
with his raven and spear,
being attacked by the
grey wolf Fenrir - who, it
is prophesied, will cause
his death at the last battle.
Left The dragon-killing
episode from the Sigurd
legend is told on the
Ramsund rock in
Sweden (also shown on
pages 154-5), Sigurd’s
adventures being largely
contained within the
band of runic text that
forms the dragon’s body.
He killed Fafnir, the story
tells, by hiding in a pit
and stabbing upwards
with his sword as the
dragon crawled above
him. This scene appears
at the bottom right of the
carving, while to the left,
within the runic band, lies
the dead Regin, Sigurd’s
betrayer, with his smith’s
tools. Beside him Sigurd
sits roasting the dead
dragon’s heart over the
forge fire, his burnt
thumb to his mouth.
‘When the blood from the
dragon’s heart touched
his tongue he knew the
language of the birds.’
Birds perch in the tree
behind to which his
horse Grani is tethered.

185
 FR O M O D IN T O CHRIST

Pagan to Christian
o the Vikings living and travel­
ling in a Europe that was
almost entirely Christian, con­
version did not come as a
single explosive event. If we
think of the earlier situation in England,
where Christianity obliterated virtually all
recorded knowledge of pagan thought and
practice, the way in which some Norsemen
remained coolly balanced between two re­
ligions, examining the merits of both, and in
some cases trying to get the protective benefits
of both, is a fascinating study. It is presum­
ably one of the results of this detachment, that
even after conversion there is still this
willingness among the converted to re­
member and write about paganism rather
than discarding it simply as error, idolatry
and devil-worship.
The transition period between paganism
and Christianity leaves traces in carving,
literature and metalwork. Whether Vikings
first started to wear a Thor’s hammer round
their necks because Christians wore pendant
crosses and crucifixes, or whether the tradi­
tion is independent of Christian influence,
cannot now be determined. But certainly
there was enough of a market for both for one
enterprising smith to leave behind him in
Denmark a single soapstone mould for the
production of both cross and hammer amu­
lets. Most of the surviving pendants are
clearly identifiable as either hammer or cross,
but there are examples where the design of the
one seems to have influenced the other, even
one example where we are not sure which it
was meant to be. Whether the canny Viking
who wore it intended the ambiguity is not
certain. Among saga characters with such
On the most complete of
ambivalent attitudes, most noticeable is
the crosses at Middleton Helgi, one of the early Icelandic settlers, who
in Yorkshire, England, is named his farm Kristnes, Christ’s Headland,
this fine representation of
a helmeted Viking but did not entirely abandon Thor, whom he
warrior surrounded by was accustomed to invoke in serious matters.
his weapons. This scene
A Viking poet somewhat sadly renounces the
may represent his dead
body laid out for burial in heathen gods in his verse. He confesses that he
the pagan style. cannot entirely hate them, ‘though Christ I

18 6
 From hammer to cross:
the enterprising 10th-
century metalworker at
Trendgården in Denmark
who made the soapstone
mould was clearly ready
to cater for clients of both
persuasions.

serve now’. This seems to be exactly the appropriate nomenclature for Christ along­
attitude of the men who commissioned or side that for pagan deities. For example, one
carved stone crosses such as those at Gosforth section of his work on poetic diction asks how
in Cumbria and Middleton in North York­ it is proper to name Freyja, and the answer he
shire. Middleton has several crosses and cross gives is that ‘She may be called daughter of
This Icelandic silver
fragments of Viking date with characteristic Njord, sister of Frey, wife of Od, mother of pendant with its fierce
Viking ornamentation. The most impressive Hnoss’, and so on. A later section asks how it animal-head suspension-
shows on one panel a representation of a is proper to name Christ and the answer loop, could be a stylized
Thor’s hammer or
helmeted man surrounded by his weapons. It begins: ‘He can be called creator of heaven perhaps a barbaric cross.
is a reasonable supposition that the newly and of earth, of angels and of the sun, ruler of
converted took time to adjust to the thought the world and of the kingdom of heaven and
of burial without grave-goods, and that at of angels, king of the heavens and of the sun
least on this occasion they demonstrated on and of angels and of Jerusalem and of
the Christian symbol itself the style of Jordan’, and so forth. Snorri of course is
furnished burial to which they were accus­ writing in a Christian environment well after
tomed. At Gosforth, though again the cross the transition period, but it is interesting that
itself is an indication of Christian belief, the first poet he quotes of those who refer to
carvings on it appear to derive from pagan Christ is Eilif Gudrunarson, an Icelander
myth and legend: for example, the portrayal living around the period of Iceland’s con­
of a woman with a drinking horn, so like her version, who is known to have written
sisters on the Gotland stones, and the figure Þórsdrápa, a poem recounting one of Thor’s
confronting a serpent, perhaps Sigurd, dragon- adventures against the giants, and whose
killer, perhaps Thor and Midgardsorm. poem referring to Christ, quoted by Snorri,
Snorri sees no difficulty in describing the uses imagery from pagan myth.

187
 FRO M O D IN T O CHRIST

Christianity
Left Silver crucifixes found
in Sweden display a
stylized figure of Christ
wearing trousers and
bound to the cross. The
small filigree version is
from a grave at Birka, the
other from a Gotlandic
silver hoard.

Below A gilt brooch from

Hedeby also depicts the
crucifixion. The first
churches at Hedeby and
Birka were built by St
Ansgar in the 9th century,
but little progress was
made with conversions
until much later in the
Viking Age.

he Vikings who settled in such The conversion of Scandinavia, Iceland and

Christian countries as Eng­ Greenland
land, Ireland or Normandy In the meantime, at home in Denmark,
rapidly adopted the religion of Christianity was also making its impact felt.
the land they lived in. Danes Harald Bluetooth died in 986 and what
who had settled in northern districts of Harald believed himself to have achieved in
England during Alfred’s reign were thought in the service of the Christian God is proudly
the mid-tenth century to need protection recorded on the.great rune-stone at Jelling,
against pagan Norwegian invaders, at any where Harald declares that he ‘won for
rate by the writer of one poem in the Anglo- himself all Denmark and Norway, and made
Saxon Chronicle. The poem, entered in the the Danes Christians.’
Chronicle under the year 942, claims that the It may be noted that though he claims to
Danes were captive in the chains of the have ‘won’ Norway there is nothing in this
heathen, under the Northmen, until King statement about making the Norwegians
Edmund released them; this maybe reflects Christian. In fact Earl Hakon, who held
the patriotism and religion of these settlers as Norway under Harald, was a firm supporter
much as it does the writer’s view. of pagan cults, but in 995 Hakon was

188
succeeded by Olaf Tryggvason, a vigorous, but the decision was finally put into the hands
even an aggressive Christian. One of his poets of the Lawspeaker, who was at that time
describes him as a destroyer of heathen still heathen himself. ‘He lay down and drew
sanctuaries, and a reliable twelfth-century his cloak over him and lay there that whole
Icelandic historian credits him with the day and the night after, not speaking a word.’
conversion of Iceland as well as of Norway. By then he had come to a decision. His first
Later Icelandic saga-writers attribute to him thought was that the country must not be split
On one face of King
the conversion of Greenland as well. His was - all must agree to follow one law, for division Harald’s great rune-stone
a short rule, four years or five, and there was of law meant breaking of peace and laying at Jelling in Denmark is
undoubtedly much opposition to his impo­ waste of land. The ‘law’ he chose for his this representation of the
bound Christ. The figure
sition of Christianity, especially in the gemote countrymen to follow was that of Christian­ is again formalized with
areas of Norway where pagan thought had ity, and all those in the land who had not yet no attempt at naturalistic
scarcely been challenged. But his achieve­ undergone the baptismal ceremony were to detail, the formality being
emphasized by the sym­
ments in that time must have been consider­ do so. But he also made provision for those metrical ribbon interlace
able, since Olaf Haraldsson - St Olaf - who who were unwilling to forsake their old ways, around Christ’s body.
took over Norway in 1015, was able to
consolidate the conversion.
On mainland Scandinavia, if we accept
what the sagas say about Olaf Tryggvason
and St Olaf, there was inevitable opposition
to the introduction of Christianity and some
ferocity, even brutality, in establishing it.
There was opposition in Iceland too, but the
story of the eventual conversion of Iceland
brought about so calmly and rationally makes
pleasant reading. The twelfth-century his­
torian Ari, a good scholar and a man careful
to quote his sources, describes in detail
Iceland’s conversion in the year 1000. Initially
things did not look too good for Iceland or
Icelanders, since the first priest sent by Olaf
Tryggvason to convert them baptized a
number of influential men, ‘but when he had
been here one year he went away, having
killed two or three men who had slandered
him.’ A turbulent priest! His report to Olaf
implied that the conversion of Iceland would
be a problem, and Olaf reacted with violence,
threatening to kill or maim all Icelanders then
in Norway. He was persuaded out of this plan
by a couple of admirably clear-headed
Icelanders who put their minds to the
conversion of their country and the averting
of O laf’s anger. They returned to Iceland and
planned matters for the next meeting of the
Althing, Iceland’s national assembly. Here
Christian and heathen might have fought,

189
 FRO M ODIN T O CHRIST/Christianity

and allowed men still to sacrifice to their attempts to take Christianity even further
pagan gods in secret if they so wished. west, for the Icelandic annals record that in
the early twelfth century one bishop tried to
The building of churches sail to Vinland. Among the stories recorded
According to the saga of Erik the Red, the about the eleventh-century voyages of dis­
discoverer of Greenland, Eirik’s son Leif covery from Greenland along the North
was sent by Olaf Tryggvason to preach American coast there is a curiously convinc­
Christianity in Greenland. Eirik did not wel­ ing anecdote concerning friction between
come the new faith, but his wife Thjodhild Christian and heathen. During a food short­
‘accepted immediately and had a church built, age men prayed to God for supplies, but one
not too near their home. It was called unpopular character called Thorhall dis­
Thjodhild’s church.’ When archaeologists appeared to make his own private devotions.
excavated Brattahhd, Eirik’s farm on Green­ When a whale was washed ashore Thorhall
land, a little way from the main homestead claimed, ‘Wasn’t the Redbeard of more use
and hidden from it by the lie of the land, the than your Christ? This is my return for the
remains of Thjodhild’s sm^Jh^turf-walled poem I composed for my patron Thor.’ The
church and its accompanying cemetery were saga^'writer says that when the men knew this
discovered. '* to be Juror’s gift thgy threw it over the cliff
In jpme the Gre^pf^^^^tlements niwn- *apd^usted in G m s mercy, but since he has
beiéd, in addition to TZfijojlhild’s, approxi- >aidrj8^%fting it m ad ej^ fn ill there
rmnejly seventeen s^j^Kuilt churches jp i may“)J*a^been a strongly pra^iøfil^lement in
(ik^ing^^athedmEjan^^rdar. There were the gesture. EiríksÆéga reyondsynow in the

The tiny Viking church

at Brattahlid in
Greenland was built for
Thjodhild, wife of Kfrik
the Red, in about 1001.
Its bow-sided walls of
turf, wooden panelling
and fixed benches are
characteristic of local
building traditions. Ip
this sketch of t lj^ f y ^
surroundingteméfery,
the sex of tffe'íkeletons
(where determined) has
been indicated by the u^i
of different colours: blut
for men and red for
women. Green denotes
children and adolescents

190
 Right Carved wooden
panels from the farm at
Flatatunga in Iceland may
originally have been part
of an nth-century church.
Above are interlacing
tendrils in the Ringerike
style, below, a row of
saints’ heads.

The izth-century tympanum of St Michael’s church at Hoveringham

in Nottinghamshire, England, shows St Michael fighting a dragon.
But the coils of the beast are so much in the Anglo-Scandinavian
tradition that it must have been expecting to confront Sigurd
or Thor rather than an archangel.

I9 I
 FROM O D IN T O CHRIST/Christianity

Greenland colony itself, when the harvest had God’s mother help his soul.’ Here too are
been poor and food was short, the men asked records of those who died on pilgrimage to
a pagan prophetess to tell the future for them. Jerusalem. One competent woman, Ingerun,
What happened next demonstrates again the had her own memorial stone carved before
tolerance that could exist between Christian she left home: ‘She intends to go east and out
and pagan. When the prophetess needed to Jerusalem.’ The settlement at Kiev, part
someone to sing certain specific songs, Slav and part Viking, was converted to
Gudrid, the only woman present who knew Christianity not from the West but from
them, refused, ‘for I am a Christian woman’. Byzantium, though at this date there was no
She was persuaded to do so however by the formal split between Roman and Greek
telling argument that she could both give help Orthodox Churches and their differences
‘and be no worse a woman than before’. It is were of ritual rather than theology. Artifacts
pleasant to note that the prophetess subse­ of religious significance showing the influence
quently foretold for Gudrid a splendid future of Byzantine ritual and Byzantine art came
back in Iceland, ‘and over your descendants back to Sweden by way of trade or gift, or
shine brighter rays than I can see with clarity.’ private devout purchase.
Indeed, one of these descendants turned out
to be a bishop. The effects of Christianity
As the countries of Scandinavia became
The Eastern influence Christian there followed the inevitable effects
The Christianity of Scandinavia and its on culture, law codes and conduct. Such
A bove Eastern influence Atlantic colonies came largely from the West, effects do not take place immediately, and
can be seen in the design
of this silver reliquary,
a considerable part being played by English indeed it seems to have been a good deal more
from Gåtebo on Óland, and German missionaries and teachers. But difficult for the Vikings to renounce their code
although its Urnes-style there was also a strong Viking movement of vengeance, for example, than to renounce
details show that it was in
fact made in Scandinavia. eastward and contacts especially between their heathen gods. In the Icelandic saga
Sweden and Byzantium. Swedish rune-stones literature we find many examples of people
B elow ‘Resurrection’ eggs record men who died in Grikkland and often conscious that their honour and that of their
found in Sweden were
made as Christian symbols have a cross as part of the design as well as the family depends on killing someone who has
in the Kiev area. formula ‘God help his soul’ or ‘God and slandered or injured them, and some people
conscious also of the tensions between the
demands of honour and the demands of their
religion. In Njáls Saga Flosi, not the most
important character, but perhaps the one
making the most important decision, says
succinctly:
We have two alternatives, neither of
them good; the one is to turn back,
which will result in our deaths; the
other is to kindle fire and burn them in
their house, which is a great
responsibility in the sight of God and
we are Christians. Now let us kindle
fire as quickly as possible.
What Christianity would hope to achieve
was a modification of the desire for ven­
geance, a willingness to allow fine and

192
compensation to take the place of killing.
Christian saga literature sometimes demon­
strates and applauds the greater courage and
goodness shown by those willing not to
pursue vengeance. The passive courage of the
martyr is contrasted with the active courage
of the warrior. The Njal of Njáls Saga, whose
home Flosi is burning, has words of Christian
comfort for all his household: ‘Believe also
this, that God is merciful and he will not let us
burn in this world and in the next.’ He
combines the old heroism and new trust in
God, refusing to accept safe exit from his
house, ‘because I am an old man and unfit to
avenge my sons, but I will not live in shame’,
after which he and his wife lie down in the
burning house, cross themselves and com­
mend their souls to God. This is of course the
saga-writer’s interpretation many years after
the event, but the tensions inherent in two sets
of values must have been a reality for many in
the conversion period and later. The first
surviving translation into Norse of the Bible
demonstrates how parts of the Old Testament
seemed naturally to accord with Viking
ethics, and in particular the translation of the
Book of Joshua reads as if it might well have
fitted into the saga of some Christian warrior
king such as Olaf Tryggvason or St Olaf.

Viking saints dedicated to St Olaf. The Anglo-Saxon St Olaf, King of Norway,

was struck down at the
The Viking Olaf was not the only one among Chronicle has an entry for 1055 which runs: battle of Stiklestad in a d
the first generations of Norse Christians to be ‘In this year Earl Siward died in York, and he 1030. This event is
awarded the accolade of sainthood, but he is buried in the minster which he himself had depicted in an illuminated
initial from a folio of the
was among the earliest and also among the built and consecrated in the name of God and manuscript Flateyjarbók,
most popular. In pagan times kings had Olaf.’ A Swedish rune-stone records of one written in Iceland in the
adventurer that ‘He died in Holmgard 14th century.
sometimes been raised to divine status after
their deaths. In the early Christian period, [Novgorod] in O laf’s church.’ Holmgard on
though missionaries frequently become saints the Viking road east reminds us again of
and martyrs, there is some national pride Byzantium at the end of that road. Here the
involved in the acquiring of a national and Viking mercenaries, the bodyguard of the
especially of a royal saint. The Norwegian Byzantine Emperor, were said (admittedly as
Olaf seems to fulfil the role of patron saint or usual by an Icelandic historian) to have had
favourite saint for all newly Christian Scan­ their own church dedicated to St Olaf, where
dinavia. His cult, early established in Norway above the altar hung the sword that Olaf
and Iceland, is found also in the British Isles, carried in his last battle at Stiklestad in
where many churches of an early date are Norway in 1030.

193
194
Nation-states

The Viking Age republic of Iceland was administered by a system

of regional assemblies, or Things, together with a national
assembly, the Althing, which met annually for a fortnight each
summer at Thingvellir. It was presided over by an elected
Lawspeaker who had a special place at the LQgberg, or Law
Rock, indicated here by the white flagstaff.

195
 NA TIO N -STATES

Government & kings

hroughout Scandinavia during followed the royal blood, but succession was
the Viking Age the basic unit of not automatic, for any Candidate for the
government was the Thing, the throne had to be acceptable to the free men
public assembly of free men of assembled at their Things.
each district that met at regular
intervals to consult on matters of importance Denmark
to the area (including royal elections) and to It seems likely that the kings of Denmark
legislate and administer justice. A plaintiff belonged to a single dynasty, established
would bring his complaint to the Thing and it before the beginning of the Viking Age.
appears that, originally at any rate, the whole Denmark appears to have been a more or less
assembly was responsible for delivering a united kingdom as early as the reign of
verdict. Once this had been given it was then Godfred, at the beginning of the ninth
up to the injured party to exact his own century. Godfred’s immediate successors,
redress. Each province or region also had its Hemming and Horik, seem also to have been
own Thing, and in time these came to rank kings of a united Denmark. However, we do
higher than the district Things, so that a not know to what extent this remained the
pyramidal structure developed, with the king case, or whether any king between Horik,
at its apex. who died 853/4, and Gorm the Old, who
In republican Iceland there was a national came to the throne c. 936, was able to hold the
body, the Althing, the assembly of the whole country as one kingdom. O f Gorm himself
Icelandic nation, which met annually for a we know little that is not in the realm of folk­
fortnight each summer at Thingvellir. This tales. But we do know that he was a king
open-air gathering could be attended by all in Denmark, he was a pagan, he raised a
free men, so that it also served as a fair and a family memorial, and he begat a line of power­
social occasion. In its original form, there ful kings: Harald Bluetooth, Svein Fork-
existed within the assembly a legislature beard, Cnut the Great, Harthacnut and Svein
consisting of thirty-six chieftains under the Estridsson.
chairmanship of a Lawspeaker, whom they Cnut the Great was the most powerful of
elected every three years and who had a all the Scandinavian kings to rule during the
special place at the Lqgberg, or Law Rock. Viking Age. It has been said of him that he
Justice was administered by a separate ‘court’ ‘came nearer than anybody to establishing a
of thirty-six judges, who were also elected by real North Sea Empire.’ For he was king not
the chieftains. only of Denmark and England but for the last
Things were established elsewhere in the years of his reign of Norway also; that his
Viking settlements overseas. That for the supremacy was also acknowledged in Sweden
Faeroes, which met at Thorshavn, is also is indicated by coins struck at Sigtuna carry­
known to have been presided over by a ing the inscription Cnut rex Sv[eorum]. But
Lawspeaker. That in the Isle of Man, whose this great kingdom was a personal creation,
descendant still meets annually on the mound without cohesion or unifying organization, so
at Tynwald, has already been mentioned, it proved short-lived, disintegrating within a
while the Thing mound at Dublin was stand­ few years of his death in 1035.
ing until the seventeenth century. Some have
left their traces in place-names, such as Norway
Tingwall in both Orkney and Shetland. Norway was not united until much later than
Denmark. During the ninth century there was
Viking kings a major royal family of Swedish origin ruling
In all the Scandinavian countries kingship around the Oslofjord; we are familiar with

196
 The martyrdom of St
Olaf is the subject of this
painted wooden panel of
the 14th century from
Trdndelag in Norway.
The royal saint stands in
the centre of the panel
holding an orb and an
axe; the scenes on the left
show his death at
Stiklestad in 1030 and his
later enshrinement.

them archaeologically from the outstandingly Faeroes, Iceland and Greenland. In Norway
rich ship burials of Oseberg and Gokstad. In the actual process of conversion was com­
Trdndelag on the other hand authority was pleted by O la f’s successor, Olaf Haraldsson,
wielded by the earls of Lade. The other areas but religious and political conflict, fostered by
of Norway also had their chieftains. Towards Danish claims to the throne, led to a revolt
900 King Harald Finehair of Vestfold set against him. Olaf met his death in 1030 at the
about becoming the sole ruler of Norway and battle of Stiklestad in Trdndelag; it was
successfully established his control down its followed by such marvels that a year later his
west coast, after which it seems to have been remains were translated to Trondheim and he
accepted that Norway should have one king. became the first of the royal martyrs and
It was said that many men left for Iceland in saints of Scandinavia - to be followed in the
order to escape the imposition of Harald late eleventh and twelfth centuries by the two
Finehair’s rule, choosing to create in that Cnuts of Denmark and Eirik of Sweden (not
country a republic. forgetting Magnus in Orkney).
Olaf Tryggvason, the great-grandson of Notable also in Norway’s royal line was
Harald Finehair, was a fierce Christian who Harald Hardrada (the Hard-ruler), who was
was later credited with the conversion not St O la f’s half-brother. He had escaped
only of Norway, but also of Orkney, the wounded from Stiklestad at the age of fifteen,

197
 NATION-STATES/Govemment and kings

and Germany. Harald’s family connections

thus reached throughout Europe.

Sweden
Adam of Bremen, writing about 1070, said
that the Swedes had kings of ancient lineage,
although their authority in most matters was
subject to the power of public opinion, except
in times of war. We know very little of the
kings in Uppsala during the ninth and tenth
centuries, or of royal administration, but as
elsewhere in Scandinavia they would have
been peripatetic, moving round from one
royal estate to another. In Sweden we know
of over sixty such farms all with the name
Husaby — the element bus means ‘building’,
and presumably refers to the size or number
of them required to cater for a royal retinue,
or for the storage of local taxes paid in kind to
await the king’s consumption or distribution.
They would also have served as centres for
assembling the local levies.
One of the first Swedish kings known to
have been active on the international scene
was Olaf Sköttkonung, who died about 1022.
He was the first to be named king over both
the Svear and the Götar, and his overlordship
appears to have been recognized in eastern
Norway. His daughters were married to King
An nth-century wall- fleeing to Novgorod. From there he went on Yaroslav and St Olaf of Norway. During his
painting from the church
of St Sophia in Kiev
to join the Varangian Guard, returning to reign Christianity obtained a permanent
depicts Elizabeth, Norway in 1046 to inherit half the king­ footing in Sweden, with the establishment of a
daughter of Yaroslav and dom, and succeeding to it all a year later. His missionary bishop at Skara.
grand-daughter of
Vladimir, who had further ambitions met with little success, for
converted the people of attacks on Denmark failed to lead to conquest Coinage
Kiev to Christianity. She and he met his death at Stamford Bridge in The first royal coinages of Viking kings were
married Harald
Hardrada of Norway — Humberside during an invasion attempt on struck towards the end of the ninth century in
the last great Viking king. England. He was without doubt one of the England, where Scandinavian settlers took
last great figures of the Viking Age. While over Anglo-Saxon mints. Viking merchants
in Russia Harald had married Elizabeth, a will have learned to use coins as counted
daughter of Yaroslav, King of Novgorod- money in their dealings overseas, even if for
Kiev, whose wife was Ingigerd, the daughter much of the Viking Age they continued
of King Olaf Sköttkonung of Sweden. Yaro­ among themselves to treat them as no more
slav’s other daughters were also married well - than lumps of bullion. So it is not surprising
one to King Andrew 1 of Hungary, and an­ that the first native coinage of Scandinavia
other to King Henry 1 of France - while four of was struck at Hedeby, with designs based on
his sons married into the courts of Byzantium coins of the Frisian merchants with whom the

198
 The first royal coinages of
Viking kings were struck
in England, where
Scandinavian settlers
took over Anglo-Saxon
mints. Above A Thor’s
hammer, a raven, a bow
and arrow, a standard,
and a sword decorate
coins struck for various
10th-century rulers of
York; the coin with the
sword reads e r i c r e x
(King Eirik Bloodaxe).
Danes had been in contact since the eighth the patterns based on the letters of c a r o l u s The three ‘portraits’ are in
century. The coin workshops at Hedeby and DORSTAD. They were light and thin (with fact of Anglo-Saxon
the design struck from one side only), so must kings, but have been
appear to have been active from sometime borrowed for use on
around 825 to the middle of the ninth century. have been somewhat impractical in use. How­ coins of Cnut, centre, and
Some coins, based on the Carolingian coinage ever, they proved popular for they are found his sons. All the coins are
enlarged.
minted at Dorestad, have shapes imitating the from north Sweden to south Poland.
letters of the names c a r o l u s (Charlemagne) Increase in royal authority, together with Below A Frisian trading
and D O R S T A D (Dorestad), which were placed the growth of trade, led to the establishment ship is depicted on this
9th-century coin minted
on either side of the originals. Other Frisian of national coinages in Scandinavia at the at Hedeby.
coins of the period bore pictures of animals, end of the tenth century, with issues in the
masks, temples and ships - designs that were names of Olaf Sköttkonung at Sigtuna, of
also copied and transformed by the Hedeby Svein Forkbeard in Denmark and of Olaf
craftsmen. After a gap in production, coin Tryggvason in Norway. No coins were struck
workshops were again operating at Hedeby during the Viking Age in Iceland, nor in the
from the end of the ninth century and through Norse settlements in Scotland, but in Dublin
much of the tenth. Their products were they were first minted for King Sigtrygg
cruder than before and had no figures, only about the year 997.

199
 NATION-STATES

Royal Jelling
T w o great mounds
dominate the Danish
royal necropolis of Jelling
in Jutland. Between them
stands a medieval stone
church, with the two
rune-stones before it,
now surrounded by the
modern graveyard.
Massive stones found
beneath the south mound
have been placed in rows
between the mounds to
suggest an early sacred
enclosure.

he Royal Danish necropolis at chamber had clearly been entered in antiquity

Jelling in Jutland is one of the and its contents removed. But the objects that
most impressive and fascinat­ do survive all point to a mid-tenth-century
ing monuments of the Viking date for its use; Gorm himself was dead by
Age. At the centre stands a 950. It therefore seems beyond reasonable
medieval stone church on the site of that doubt that it was Gorm who had the north
built by King Harald Bluetooth in the 960s. mound at Jelling built, to provide a tomb for
Before it are the two rune-stones that tell us Thyri - and for himself to occupy in due
much, but by no means all, we need to know course. So what became of their bodies ?
about the site and its creation. Their son Harald Bluetooth, as king,
The smaller of the two stones has no formally received the Christian faith about
ornament, but its inscription states that ‘King 960 and would have been anxious that his
Gorm made this memorial to his wife Thyri, parents should be given Christian burial.
glory [or adornment] of Denmark.’ What When his church was built, a large grave was
memorial it was that Gorm raised to the dug at its centre, the north mound was
queen who predeceased him is not disclosed. entered and the bodies were transferred to
On either side of the church, dominating their new Christian resting place. Such we
the site of Jelling, stand two massive mounds. may suppose the events to have been; the
In that to the north was found a large, low details are not yet available of the recent
chamber of wood divided by a plank across excavations within the church that located
the middle. There were, however, no bodies the central grave, containing the disarticu­
in what looks as if it should have been a lated bones of two skeletons together with
double grave. The few objects recovered, gold-ornamented fabrics.
although of high quality (among them were There remains to be explained the south
the carvings and the silver cup described on mound and a setting of large stones found
pages 139 and 142.), were scattered finds. The beneath it. This mound has also been

200
excavated, with the result that we can be sure King Harald had this monument made
that it never contained a burial, although in memory of his father Gorm and his
there are traces of a post-built structure on mother Thyri: this was the Harald who
top. Other such empty mounds are known won for himself all Denmark and
elsewhere, so there is little strange about that. Norway, and made the Danes Christians.
They are usually thought to be memorials or Scholars are divided as to the precise dating of
cenotaphs. Was it built for such a purpose by the stone. It could perhaps have been set up at
Harald himself? For he wished to be buried in the end of Harald’s reign after he had ‘won for The mounds and church
at Jelling have all been
his new cathedral church at Roskilde. himself all Denmark and Norway’ ; or it is excavated. The north
The standing stones found beneath the possible that the stone was erected when he mound, built over a
mound formed an open-ended triangle^point- redesigned the complex in the 960s, and the prehistoric mound,
contained a wooden
ing southwards. It has been suggested that its second part of the inscription was added later. burial chamber. This was
sides once extended as far as the north Be that as it may, Harald’s boast was a true empty, the bodies having
been transferred to a
mound, so forming a sacred enclosure as part one, even though the unification of Norway
grave in the first timber
of Thyri’s memorial. But there is no satisfac­ with Denmark was to be short-lived. At the church that lies beneath
tory evidence for this and it would certainly back of his claim to glory seems to have been a its stone successor. The
south mound contained
be an enclosure without parallel. It is more thorough organization of his own kingdom of only a light timber
probable that what the archaeologists found Denmark, for the latest research indicates framework, but a
that the great Danish fortresses, and possibly wooden structure had
stood on its top and there
other engineering works, described below, were the remains of a
were undertaken during his reign. stone setting beneath it.

was one end of what had once been a large

ship setting. The stones have been re-erected
between the south mound and the church.
The larger of the two rune-stones in front
of the church is the famous Jelling stone,
erected by Harald. Its carvings are shown on
pages 146,166 and 189. The inscription reads:
 N A T IO N -S T A T E S

The Viking fortresses

Right An aerial view
shows the site chosen for
the Viking fortress at
Fyrkat - on a ridge in a
marshy valley. The
ramparts, which were
ploughed out, have been
reconstructed and the
post-holes of the
buildings and streets have
been marked with
concrete. One quadrant
of the fortress remains
unexcavated.

The excavators’ plan and oyal authority must have been Fyrkat
reconstruction of Fyrkat ' í ' i behind the planning and con- The fortress at Fyrkat was built on a ridge in a
demonstrate at a glance
the precise and regular struction of the four remark- marshy valley, although the chosen ridge was
layout of the fortress. able circular fortresses built in not large enough to accommodate the precon­
The identical buildings
Denmark during the middle or ceived plan without its first having to be
grouped around court­
yards appear to have second half of the tenth century. Although levelled and extended. In fact the southern
been used for a variety of one fortress is on Sjælland, one on Fyn, and portion of the fortress stands on several feet
functions, evidence that
Fyrkat was not simply a
the other two in Jutland, they are all slight of built-up soil that would have had to be
military barracks. variations on one basic plan. In this plan the transported by the cartload across the site.
main buildings are surrounded by a timber- The unit of measurement used in the plan is
laced turf rampart forming a circle, with an based on the Roman foot; this was employed
external ditch around those parts of the in the laying out of all the fortresses, although
fortress that were not naturally protected by its exact length varies slightly from site to site
marshy ground or a steep drop. This rampart (the unit used at Fyrkat measured a little over
has four gateways for axial streets, paved n^in, 29.5cm).
with timber. The buildings within each quad­ The timber-strapped rampart, comprising
rant are arranged in fours to form square at least 353,000 cubic feet (10,000 cubic
courtyards and they are all of the same type. metres) of turf and stone, has an internal
Let us first examine one of the fortresses in diameter of 394ft (120m), that is, 408 Fyrkat
detail in an attempt to understand just what feet. At its base it measured 39ft (11.8m) wide,
was their significance. O f the four, the best but its original height is unknown; it has been
and most recently excavated is that at Fyrkat, reconstructed to a height of 11ft (3.5m),
near Hobro in Jutland. but may well have been higher originally.

202
 produced finds of a domestic nature. They
have thus been interpreted as dwellings. Two
buildings lining the north—south street were
possibly workshops; they also had hearths,
but these were associated with craftsmen’s
debris, including that of jewellers, and con­
tained very little domestic rubbish. Two of
the buildings facing the rampart were found
to have hearths (one quadrant of the fortress
has been left unexcavated); again these may
have been used as workshops, or smithies.
The other bow-sided buildings produced few
finds of any sort and had no hearths; they are
most likely to have been storehouses and
barns. Central planning thus seems to have
extended beyond the precise layout of the
fortress, even to the use of the buildings
within it: decreeing that dwelling houses
should face the main east-west street, while
service buildings faced the rampart. The
houses on the other axial street might well
have been planned as dwellings, even if they
were then used as workshops.
Outside the north-east part of the rampart
Presumably it would have had a breastwork was situated the cemetery for the occupants of
in addition; this might have run across the the fortress. Men, women and children were
tops of the four gateways, which are set like all represented among the thirty-odd graves
the points of a compass, dividing the interior that were located by the excavators. Some
into quadrants. were buried in coffins, others in cart-bodies,
On the outer face of the rampart were laid and one even in a chest. All in all, they seem to
heavy tongued-and-grooved timbers to pre­ represent a perfectly ordinary (if well-to-do)
vent attackers from scaling the wall, thus Jutlandic community of the middle or later
trapping them in an exposed position on the tenth century. There is thus no evidence from
berm —the area between the rampart and the either the cemetery or the fortress that Fyrkat
ditch. The ditch was 23 ft (7 m) wide and 6 ^ft was used exclusively as a military barracks, as
(2 m) deep and surrounded the fortress, except might be assumed from its plan and defences.
where the land fell away sharply. The finds from the other fortresses support
Inside the fortress were two crossing main this observation.
streets paved with wood, and another that The excavation at Fyrkat also tells us
ran round the inside face of the rampart. something about the length of its occupation,
Within each of the quadrants bordered by for no material necessarily of eleventh-
these streets was placed a block of four large century date was found. Moreover, the
bow-sided buildings around a central court­ timber buildings showed no signs of having
yard, with a smaller rectangular building been repaired at any stage, suggesting that
standing at its centre. they cannot have had a lifetime of much more
The buildings that lined the mam east-west than thirty years. The fortress must have
street all contained central hearths and quickly rotted; there was then a fire after
 NATION-STATES/The Viking fortresses

The plans of the Viking

fortresses of Denmark are
so similar that they must
be the work of a single
authority, no doubt that
of the king. Trelleborg,
right, has the same
number of houses within
the fortress as Fyrkat, but
also has an annexe
containing fifteen more.
Aggersborg, below , is
twice the diameter of
Fyrkat with three times as
many buildings.

which it was never rebuilt. Its date and the

reasons for its construction are best con­
sidered in the light of the three other Danish
fortresses of the Viking Age.

Aggersborg, Trelleborg and Nonnebakken

Aggersborg, overlooking the Limfjord in
northern Jutland, is the largest of the Danish
fortresses. This has an internal diameter twice
that of Fyrkat, making room for three times as
many buildings;. Trelleborg, in west Sjælland,
contained the same number of houses within
the fortress proper as Fyrkat, but it had an
annexe with an additional fifteen houses, pro­
tected by a rampart concentric with that of
the fortress itself, together with a dog-leg in
front of the main entrance to accommodate
'the cemetery. With an internal diameter of
468 Roman feet and a rampart 60 Roman feet
thick, Trelleborg is also slightly more massive*

20 4
 Like Fyrkat the fortress of
Trelleborg in western
Sjælland was set on a
ridge with marshy ground
on either side. The annexe,
containing additional
buildings and also the
cemetery, which lay in front
of the fortress, can be
seen in the background
of this photograph.

than Fyrkat. Nonnebakken, the fourth for­ is an accurate circle of the same size as
tress, lies today beneath the suburbs of Trelleborg, with the same four gateways, but
Odense on Fyn. It is presumed to have been of once again does not have the regularly
similar size and type to Fyrkat, but being built planned interior.
over, it has proved difficult to examine its The precise plan and the fortifications of the
features in any detail. Danish fortresses suggest, at first sight, that
These great Danish fortresses are without they were intended purely as military works.
exact parallel in Western Europe and their Yet, as we have seen at Fyrkat, they were not
sudden appearance throughout much of simply barracks; their function must there­
Denmark in the tenth century suggests a fore have been more complex. They clearly
common origin for all four under the organi­ could have served as centres where, in times of
zation of a central authority. The inspiration trouble, armies might be assembled and the
for such fortresses is most likely to have come local population find refuge. In peacetime
from those of the Slavs and of the Saxons, they may have served as centres of royal
although they were smaller and lacked the administration where taxes could be gath­
characteristic internal layout of the Danish ered, and from which the court could be
series. Nearer to them in size is a string of supplied. For, all things considered, there can
seven forts constructed on the Dutch coast, be little doubt that these were royal works;
probably as refuges against Viking attacks. and, since the evidence suggests that they
That at Souburg, on the island of Walcheren, were constructed and used within the period

205
 NATION-STATES/The Viking fortresses

This reconstruction of a
so-called Trelleborg type
of house is based on the
excavations of buildings
in the Viking fortress of
Fyrkat. These were 96
Roman feet long and
built with shingled roofs.
The curved roof ridge is a
characteristic feature
resulting from the use of
bow-sided long walls.

950 to 1000, it seems that they are to be which would have produced a distinctively
attributed to Harald Bluetooth, or, less curved roof ridge. A clear impression of the
probably, to his son Svein Forkbeard. over-all shape of such a building may be
gained from a large casket (possibly made as a
The Trelleborg house type reliquary) that was long preserved in the
Further evidence of the The standardization of the house type found treasury of Cammin cathedral in Pomerania,
Trelleborg house type is in the Viking fortresses of Denmark has but which was destroyed in the Second World
provided by a Hedeby
coin, found at Birka, resulted in its being known as the Trelleborg War. Its elk-antler panels have Mammen-
which shows a building type, after the best known of them. At Trelle­ style carvings comparable in quality to that of
with a curved roof and
external buttresses. There
borg, a full-size reconstruction was built the Bamberg casket (see page 144). The
are also large animal following the excavations of the post-holes projecting animal heads in gilt-bronze at each
heads carved on the gable that are almost the sole surviving remains of end show how the gables of such houses
ends, similar to those on
the Cammin casket. these timber buildings. Unfortunately, im­ might have been ornamented, bringing to
pressive though this reconstruction is, it is mind the animal-headed finials of the later
now known to be completely misleading in at stave-churches.
least one vital respect: the external posts that Other house-shaped objects can also be
surround the house inclined inwards and used to assist in the reconstruction of the
therefore cannot have formed part of an Trelleborg type of house. A fine series of
external gallery of the type that has been tenth-century tomb-covers from the area of
reconstructed at Trelleborg. Scandinavian settlement in northern England
The essential feature of the Trelleborg type has proved particularly illuminating. Among
of house is its elongated bow-sided form, these so-called ‘hog-backed’ tombstones are

206
some that are closely modelled on houses,
although their gables are obscured by the
bear-like creatures that, by a peculiar con­
vention, clasp their ends. Those at Brompton
in North Yorkshire clearly have their roofs
covered with shingles (tile-like plates of split
wood), of similar type to an example found at
Trelleborg. Alternatively, such houses might
have been thatched. The long sides of one of
the Brompton hog-backs are panelled, with
broad plait-ornamented sections divided by
plain vertical strips. This is suggestive of the
typical wall construction of these houses,
which consisted of timber-framed panels of
wattle-work. In contrast, the walls of the
Trelleborg houses themselves were of stave
construction, made of halved tree trunks with
the rounded sides set outwards.
At Trelleborg the houses were ioo Roman
feet long and were entered by doorways at
opposite ends of the long walls (one from the
street and the other from the courtyard),
which gave direct access to the large central
hall. At Fyrkat, all such doorways seem to
have been provided with porches. In the gable
ends there were further doors that opened Above The house-shaped
Cammin casket has
into small rooms on either end of the hall. projecting animal heads
A coin found at Birka, although struck at suggesting that the gable
Hedeby, shows such a house with its curved ends of timber houses
may have been
ridge, with the addition of inclined posts, or ornamented in this way.
buttresses, on either side. The holes for such The photograph is of a
outer posts were found around the Trelleborg replica.

houses, and it was these that were originally

misinterpreted. Further researches (particu­
larly at Fyrkat) demonstrated that the posts
set in the outer of the two parallel lines of
holes had indeed been set at an angle. Two
new interpretations are thus possible: either
that they were buttresses to the tops of the
walls to help support the weight of the roof;
or that they carried sloping roof-posts.
This type of bow-sided house is known in
timber throughout Denmark and in southern
Sweden (as will be seen below, at Lund). It is ‘Hog-backed’ grave-covers
in northern England are
also that represented by the turf and stone shaped like bow-sided
buildings found in Norse settlements in the houses with shingled
Atlantic islands, though without buttresses. roofs and wattle walls.

2.07
 N A T IO N -S T A T E S

Defence fr communications

A ditch and rampart of he Danish fortresses are but Denmark and Sweden. However, this is but
the Danevirke still cut one aspect of a developing part of a tradition o f sea-defence that seems to
across the flat landscape
at the base of the Jutland trend for the construction of go back to before the Viking Age.
peninsula. This great fortifications in Scandinavia Land-defences involving the construction
series of earthworks once
protected the Viking Age
during the later tenth century, of ramparts also existed well before the tenth
kingdom of Denmark as we have already seen represented by the century. Hedeby and Birka appear to have had
from southern invaders building of ramparts around both Hedeby their small hill-forts in the ninth century, while
and cattle-rustlers.
and Birka. This trend is probably, best the trading centre of Löddeköpinge in Skåne
understood as a reflection of the growth of was defended then with a rampart. More
centralized authority in the form of royal important, the earliest phase of the Danevirke
power. Other towns, such as Arhus, in has now been shown to date from the eighth
Denmark, are also known to have been century, before the Viking Age.
defended at this period, while the Skuldelev
blockage of sunken ships represents a sea­ The Danevirke
ward defence for Roskilde in the late Viking During the Viking Age the southern border of
Age. Underwater fortifications in the form the Danish kingdom was protected against
of piles were also being built at that time in the Germans by a series of linear earthworks

208
 earliest phase of the Danevirke was in fact
constructed very much earlier, about 737.
There are seven distinct elements belonging
to the three main phases of the Danevirke,
which together measure some nineteen miles
in length. The first phase is thought to consist
of the Main Wall, the North Wall, and the
East Wall, which together cut off this Scandi­
navian peninsula from the rest of Europe.
p h a se I
Secondly, there is the Kovirke (the Cow-
p h a se I I __________ work), which runs to the south of Hedeby.
p h a se III
This is undated, but might be the work of
1 M a in W a ll Godfred referred to in the Frankish annals, for
2 N o rth W a ll
3 East W a ll he would surely have wished to protect the
4 K o v irk e
5 C ro o k e d W a ll
overland trade of his newly founded port at
6 C o n n e c tin g W a ll Hedeby. The third construction phase took
SÉ8 ro y a l n e c ro p o lis
place after 968 (from tree-rings again), when
H fo r tr e s s two further elements were added: the
^ b rid g e Crooked Wall, which is an extension to the
\/ ro a d Main Wall, and the Connecting Wall, which
linked Hedeby’s new rampart into this
network of defences.
The final result was a formidable barrier
A bove The builders of the that retained a military significance into the
Danevirke made full use nineteenth century. Its origins, however, back
of natural obstacles to
complete the barrier
in the eighth century, may have had a less am­
across the neck of the bitious purpose — perhaps it was intended as
Jutland peninsula. Recent an official line of demarcation for the control These three diagrams are
studies have grouped its reconstructions of the
seven elements into three
of trade and the prevention of cattle-rustling. ramparts and ditches of
main construction phases. The ‘single gate’ referred to later in the Frank­ each of the main phases
that cross the neck of the Jutland peninsula, ish annals was left for the great Hærvej, the of the Danevirke:

linking natural obstacles; these are known as main land route that ran the length of the I A timber-faced rampart
with a u-shaped ditch
the Danevirke. The Danevirke appears first in Jutland peninsula, as far as Viborg. (Main Wall, North Wall
the historical record in the Frankish annals, and East Wall).
under the year 8o8, where it is said that the Inland waterways II A timber-faced
Danish King Godfred, The sea, rivers and lakes remained the normal rampart with buttresses
and a v-shaped ditch
. . . decided to fortify the border of his arteries of Scandinavian communication and
(Kovirke).
kingdom against Saxony with a transport in the Viking Age, but the need for
III An earthern rampart
rampart, so that a protective bulwark overland traffic developed apace during these
with a palisade and a u-
would stretch from the eastern bay centuries. Overland portages of ships had shaped ditch (Crooked
always been a feature of travel (as on the Wall, Connecting Wall
called Østersalt [as far as the western
and Hedeby Rampart).
sea], along the entire north bank of the southern route from Birka), but an unusual
Eider, broken by a single gate through refinement was the construction of a canal,
which wagons and horsemen would be just over half a mile in length, across the
able to leave and enter. Danish island öf Samsé. This cutting was 36ft
However, it has been demonstrated by the (urn) broad and 4ft (1.25m) deep; for part of
study of the tree-rings of the timbers that the its length its sides had to be lined with oak

209
 N A T I O N - S T A T E S /D e f e n c e a n d c o m m u n ic a tio n s

that recently excavated at Risby in Denmark,

although this was in fact combined with a
small timber bridge across a stream. Such
community works had particular Christian
significance during the late Viking Age
because they would have opened up access to
the first few churches and, more importantly
at that date, have made it easier for priests to
travel between the scattered communities.
Road- and bridge-building was certainly
being carried out in Denmark on some scale
during the tenth century, for the remains of a
true bridge, about half a mile in length, have
been discovered at Ravning Enge, not far
from Jelling in Jutland and possibly as­
sociated with the Hcervej. It ran across the
marshy valley of the river Vejle, supported on
piles set in rows of four, with an angled post
at either end to help support the trackway;
this will have been 16—20ft (5—6m) wide. The
lines of piles were set 8ft (2.4m) apart, so in all
some 2,500 posts were required. What is most
impressive, however, is the accuracy with
which the whole construction was designed
and executed. The load-bearing piles were all
one Roman foot square in section and the
rows had been precisely laid out with the aid
of ranging poles, some of which were found in
position. It is thus not very surprising to
discover that the Ravning Enge bridge is
broadly contemporary with the Danish for­
A Viking Age stone planks, which have given a radio-carbon date tresses, for a similar mentality seems to have
causeway under
of 800 ad + 100, suggesting that it was indeed been at work. Study of the tree-rings has given
excavation at Risby on
Sjælland. Its two sides a Viking Age construction. Its significance can a date for its construction within a couple of
were linked by a small only be guessed at, but its purpose must have years of 979. Perhaps again we should detect
wooden bridge, beneath
which were discovered a
been to move ships rapidly, as necessary, from the hand of royal power, for the control and
simple wooden sledge the western to the eastern passages between defence of a kingdom depends in great part on
and a wagon wheel. Jutland and Sjaelland. But whether this was a the rapidity with which men and instructions
royal project for the defence of the kingdom, may be moved, and thus on the quality of its
or whether it represents private enterprise for roadways and bridges.
piratical purposes, remains an open question. It appears that Harald Bluetooth may have
initiated a whole series of engineering pro­
Roads and bridges jects, remarkable for their time, that are as
Eleventh-century Scandinavian rune-stones much his memorial as Jelling. They do, how­
often record the building of bridges as ‘good ever, seem to have fallen rapidly out of use —
works’. Most of these will have taken the form Ravning Enge, like the fortresses, shows no
of causeways across boggy ground, such as signs of ever having been repaired.

210
Scandinavian new towns
Lund in Skåne was
founded as a town by
Cnut the Great in about
iozo. Large-scale
excavations have revealed
a small part of its history
in the late Viking Age: in
one area several buildings
(including a large bow­
sided house) were cleared
away during the n th
century for a stave-church
to be built in their place.

lthough a king’s wealth de­ Viborg, Ålborg and Roskilde, in Denmark,

pended in part on his military were all established during the Viking Age. In
successes, his ability to raise Norway, Bergen, Trondheim (or Nidaros as it
taxes whether in cash or in kind was then called) and Oslo are all foundations
provided the means by which from the end of the period.
he ordinarily maintained the organization Lund, in southern Sweden (then still within
and defence of his kingdom. As we have seen, Denmark) is likely to have been typical of
from the beginning of the Viking Age royal these late Viking Age towns in many respects.
interest in trade as a source of income by Here a settlement was turned into a township,
taxation led to the establishment and pro­ functioning as a local market and manufac­
tection of towns. The foundation of new turing centre, by Cnut the Great in about
towns throughout Scandinavia was a parti­ 1020. It had narrow streets of wattle-and-
cular feature of the late Viking Age. They daub houses, although one larger building of
were intended not only as markets, but also to the Trelleborg type has been excavated. This
serve as religious and administrative centres. was replaced on the same site, during the
An obvious example in Sweden is Sigtuna, eleventh century, by a stave-built church.
the successor to Birka in terms of its functions A great stone cathedral was started about
as an internal trading and manufacturing 1080, succeeding another wooden church
centre; for a royal mint was located there, and (that may have served as the first cathedral) of
it also became a bishop’s seat. Similarly c. 1060. Lund was later chosen as the seat for
Hedeby was replaced by Schleswig. Arhus, the first Scandinavian archbishop.

211
 NATION-STATES

Churches
he earliest churches in Scandi­ Urnes, so it too probably dates from the
navia would have been built in twelfth century. But its characteristic profile,
timber, and archaeological ex­ with stepped roofs and animal-headed finials,
cavations have revealed the is the result of thirteenth-century additions,
traces of a series of eleventh- although these are a logical outward exten­
century buildings in Norway, Sweden, Den­ sion of its internal structure. The eleventh-
mark and England, all of which share a basic century carvings from the first church at
similarity in plan and all of which are stave- Urnes suggest that a fully developed tradition
built. There was of course nothing new or of church adornment existed even then.
peculiar about the technique of stave con­ But in following through the development
struction, for it had been in use, for example of the stave-church, we have passed way
at Hedeby and Trelleborg, at an earlier date. beyond the Viking Age.
The only problem for buildings intended to be
permanent was that the lower parts of the The end of the Viking Age
planks, being set directly in the ground, rotted The formation of true nation-states in Scandi­
away before very long. The result is that the navia, with the growth of royal power and the
only surviving remains above ground of such adoption of Christianity, were the processes
eleventh-century churches are where walling that together marked the end of the Viking
was trimmed and re-used at a later date in a Age. With the shaping of the three northern
church on the same site - as at Urnes in Christian kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and
Norway and Greensted in England — for in Denmark, the Viking movements overseas,
these later buildings the planks were set in sill- for whatever purposes, had gradually petered
beams and so were raised above ground level out, but only after their impact had been felt
to overcome this problem. O f the churches of across a major part of the northern hemi­
the first missionaries in the ninth and tenth sphere - in many cases leaving a permanent
centuries no traces have yet been discovered, imprint. The discovery and exploration of
while those built in the Viking settlements part of North America, the settlement of
overseas (as at Brattahlid) were adapted to, Greenland, the creation of the Icelandic
local building traditions. The stave-churches nation and the peopling of the J aeroes were
are,' however, a distinctive group of buildings their distinctive achievements in the far West.
with their origins in the late Viking Age. In Western Europe, Norse and Danish blood
The plans of the eleventh-century churches and culture were inextricably mingled to
are simple, consisting of a rectangular nave lasting effect with those of Britain, Ireland
with an approximately square chancel; in and Normandy. In the East, during the
some instances these were both aisled. In the forging of links with the worlds of Byzantium
first church at Urnes, there were four central and Islam, the Vikings, as the Rus, played a
posts in the nave that may have served to vital role in bringing into existence the Slav
heighten the roofi; this is certainly the func­ kingdom that was to perpetuate their name in
tion of the nave posts in its standing twelfth- that of Russia. But the end result for Scandi­
century successor. Multiple raised roofs navia of the establishment of this great net­
were characteristic of the later Norwegian work of settlements and contacts that made
churches, as were elaborate carvings. up the Viking world was to ensure that it was
The best-preserved and most authentic of ultimately drawn within the bounds of Euro­
these Norwegian churches is that at Borgund, pean Christian civilization, in the process
at the inner end of Sognefjord in western relinquishing most of the pagan barbarian
Norway; it has an internal structure not very culture that had made the Viking Age such a
different from that of the second church at spectacular phase in northern history.

212
The stave-churches of
Scandinavia form a
distinctive and original
contribution to European
architecture. They
originated in the Viking
Age, but found their most
elaborate expression in
the izth and 13th
centuries, as here at
Borgund in Norway.

2 .1 3
Bibliography
This list is intended for the general reader and contains no references to the WESTWARD VOYAGES
many important papers and excavation reports in learned journals. Only Ingstad, H. "Westward to Vinland
works in English and French are included; many have detailed bibliographies. (Jonathan Cape, London, and St
Martin’s Press, New York, 1969)
Jones, G. The Norse Atlantic Saga
GENERAL LITERARY SOURCES
(Oxford University Press, Oxford,
Almgren, B. (ed.) The Viking Campbell, A. Skaldic Verse and Anglo-
1964)
(C. A. Watts, London, 1966) Saxon History (University College,
Krogh, K. J. Viking Greenland
Arbman, H. The Vikings (Thames and London,1971)
(National Museum, Copenhagen,
Hudson, London, 1961, revised 1962; Dasent, G. W. (trans.) The Story o f
1967)
Westview Press, Boulder CO, 1961) Burnt Njal (Everyman, London,
Magnusson, M. Viking Expansion
Brdndsted, J. The Vikings (Penguin, reprinted 1971; E.P. Dutton, New
Westwards (Bodley Head, London,
London and Baltimore, i960, revised York, 1976)
and Henry Z. Walck, New York,
1965) Fell, C.E. (trans.) Egils Saga (Everyman,
Foote, P.G. and Wilson, D.M. The London, and University of Toronto 1973)
see also, above, Eirik the Red and Other
Viking Achievement (Sidgwick and Press, 1975)
Icelandic Sagas and The Vinland
Jackson, London, 1970, revised 1979; Johnston, G. (trans.) The Saga ofGisli
Sagas
Praeger, New York, 1970) (Everyman, London, and University of
Graham-Campbell, J. and Kidd, D. The Toronto Press, 1963)
Vikings (British Museum Jones, G. (trans.) Eirik the Red and ART
Publications, London, and The Other Icelandic Sagas (Oxford Anker, P. L’ Art Scandinave, Vol. I
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New University Press, Oxford and New (Zodiaque, France, 1969). Translated
York, 1980) York, 1961) as The Art o f Scandinavia, Vol. I (Paul
Jones, G. A History of the Vikings Magnusson, M. and Pálsson, H. (trans.) Hamlyn, Feltham, 1970)
(Oxford University Press, London and The Vinland Sagas (Penguin, London Wilson, D.M. and Klindt-Jensen, O.
New York, 1968) and New York, 1965) Viking Art (George Allen and Unwin,
Kendrick, T.D. A History of the Vikings Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Haraldr the London, and Cornell University Press,
(Methuen, London, and Scribner, Hard-ruler and his Poets (H. K. Lewis, Ithaca NY, 1966)
New York, 1930) London, 1966)
Musset, L. Les Peuples Scandinaves au Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Scaldic Poetry RUNES
Moyen Age (Presses Universitaires de (Oxford University Press, Oxford and Elliott, R.W. V. Runes, an Introduction
France, Paris, 1951) New York, 1976) (Manchester University Press, 1959)
Musset, L. Les Invasions: Le second Young, J.I. The Prose Edda o f Snorri Jansson, S.B.F. The Runes o f Sweden
assaut contre l’Europe chrétienne Sturluson (University of California Phoenix House, London, and
(VIT—XT siedes) (Nouvelle Clio, 12. Press, 1964) Bedminster Press, Totowa NJ, 1962)
bis, Paris, 1965) Musset, L. Introduction ä la runologie
Sawyer, P.H. The Age of the Vikings SHIPS (Aubier-Montaigne, Paris, 1965,
(Edward Arnold, London, and St Brdgger, A. W. and Shetelig, H. The revised 1976)
Martin’s Press, New York, 1962, Viking Ships (Dreyer, Oslo, 1951; Page, R.I. An Introduction to English
revised 1971) C. Hurst, London, and Arthur Runes (Methuen, London, and Barnes
Simpson, J. Everyday Life in the Viking Vanous, Riveredge NJ, 1971) and Noble, New York, 1973). Mainly
Age (Batsford, London, 1967; Christenson, A.E. Boats o f the North on the Anglo-Saxon material, but with
Carousel, London, 1971) (Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 1968) a chapter on Norse runes in England.
Wilson, D.M. The Vikings and their Crumlin-Pedersen, O. and Finch, R.
Origins (Thames and Hudson, From Viking Ship to Victory M YTH O LO G Y
London, 1970, revised 1980) (National Maritime Museum, Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Gods and Myths of
Greenwich, 1977) Northern Europe (Penguin, London,
ARCHAEOLOGICAL McGrail, S. and McKee, E. Building and 1964 and New York, 1965)
BACKGROUND Trials o f the Replica of an Ancient Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Scandinavian
Hagen, A. Norway (Thames and Boat: the Gokstad Feering. National Mythology (Paul Hamlyn, Feltham,
Hudson, London, 1967) Maritime Museum Monograph No. 1969)
Kivikoski, E. Finland (Thames and i i (Greenwich, 1974) Turville-Petre, E.O .G. Myth and
Hudson, London, and Praeger, New Olsen, O. and Crumlin-Pedersen, O. Religion o f the North (Weidenfeld
York, 1967) Five Viking Ships from Roskilde Fjord and Nicolson, London, 1964;
Klindt-Jensen, O. Denmark before the (Vikingeskibshallen, Roskilde, 1978) Greenwood Press, Westport CT,
Vikings (Thames and Hudson, 1975)
London, and Praeger, New York,
1957)
Stenberger, M. Sweden (Thames and
Hudson, London, and Praeger, New
York, 1963)
214
Index
(Numbers in italic refer to maps, art, character and development, 18, Bornholm (Denmark), r i, 12 Charles the Bald, King of West
figures and illustrations) 132—52; decline, 152; styles, 132, Borre (Norway), map, 11; art style, Frankia, 31
132; see also individual styles 7 4 , 1 0 1 , 136-7,137,140-44, Charles the Simple, King of France,
Athelstan, King of Mercia, 170 140- 41,153 32-
A axes (weapons), 24,24-6, 145 ; Bothnia, Gulf of, 11,14, 88—9 Chester (England), 27,74 , 8 8 -9 , 101
Adam of Bremen (German cleric), (tools) 52,52-3 Braaid (Isle of Man), 72,73 China, trade with, 8 8-9,9 1
i z - i 3,88,96,175,180,198 Braddan cross (Isle of Man), 167, Christensen, Arne Emil, 41, 54
Adelsö (Sweden), 96 i6y Christianity, and conversion of
Ælfric (English homilist), 180 B Bragi (skald), 132 Vikings, 10,29,71-2,78,174,178,
Æthelred, King of England, 35 Baghdad (Iraq), 8 8 - 9 , 107-10 ,109 Brattahlid (Greenland), 66—7, 82-3, 186-93, i8 y ~ 9 ,1 9 0 -Z , 197-8,212,
Aggersborg fortress, Jutland Baldr the beautiful (god), 182 83,19°, 190,212 213 ; effect on art, 132; effect on
(Denmark), 11,13, 204,204, Baldrs D rau m ar (poem) ,179 bread-making, 123,124-5 Viking code, 192—3; knowledge of,
zo8 Balearic Islands (Spain), 23, 34 Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, 174; and literacy, 156; missionary
agriculture, 15-16,127-8, izy ;s ee Balladoole, ship burial (Isle of Man), 28-9 activities, 174; saints, 1 9 1 , 193,
also farmsteads 7 Z~ 3 , 73 Bridekirk font, Cumbria (England), 19 3 , J9 7 ', and Viking raids, 10,22;
Aland Islands (Finland), ir , 14 Ballateare (Isle of Man), 72 157 , i 5 7 see also under individual countries
Alborg (Denmark), 2 11 Ballinderry (Ireland), 101,141 bridges, 165-6,210; see also roads churches (buildings), 138,190-91,
Alcuin (English monk), 26 Baltic Sea, map, 11; amber from, Bristol (England), 27,74 , 88-9 200-201,z i i , 212,213
Alexander in, King of Scotland, 73 104; and Denmark, 13; and British Isles, map of, 27; art in, 140, Clontarf (Ireland), Battle of (1014),
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, 29, Russian trade routes, 108; trade in, 14 1- 3 ,142,15Z—3 ; loot from, z8, 27,28-9
30,188 16,88,91, 30,30; and North Sea trade, 99; cloth, 88—9 , 122; see also textiles
Algeciras (Spain), 23, 34 Bamberg dasket (Germany), 144,144, raids on, 10,22,26-30,27, 35; and Cnut Sveinsson (the Great), King of
Al-Ghazal (Arab emissary), 32 206 St Olaf, 193; settlers in, xo, 66-75, Denmark, England, and Norway,
Alstad rune-stone (Norway), 147, Battle o f M ald o n , The (poem), 24,35 66—y, 2x2; towns, 28-30, 35, 35,196; coinage, 199; develops
149 Bayeux (France), 23, 27, 32; 100-101 , 100—101; see also Lund, 2 1 1 ; runic records of, 164;
AI-Tartushi (Arab merchant), 92, tapestry, 49, 51,60—6 3 ,IZ 6, ships individual countries and Viking art, 149,152
119 on, 40,43,49,52,63, weapons on, Broa (Gotland), art style, 132,133, coins, 17,33, 58,5 8 ,8 6-y, n o - 1 1 ,
Althing (of Iceland), 78,189,196 2-4 134,136,140,142,144 n o , 199, Z 06, 207; Anglo-Saxon,
Altuna carved stone (Sweden), 181, beads, manufacture of, 102—4, io z—3 ; Brompton hog-backed tombstones, 198-9,199; in Frisia, 16,198-9;
181 in necklaces, 116—17, N. Yorkshire (England), 207,207 and kings, 198-9,199; Kufic, 86-y,
amber, 88—9 , 104, 1 0 4 , 136,137 Benfleet, Essex (England), winter bronze, casting of, 106, 106,128 no
America, North, discovery and camp, 27 brooches, 25, h i , 140, 140-3,143, Cologne (Germany), 31
exploration of, 16,67,82-5,190, Beorhtric, King of Wessex, 26 1 5 1 ,1 5 1 -2 , 166, lyy, 188; in dress, colour, in art, 138—9; see also
212; fake rune-stone, 161 Berezany island (Russia), 88—9 , 109; 6 9 ,1 1 4 -1 6 , 115—iy, 118-19; painting
amulets, 176 ,179,18 0 -8 1, 1 8 1 ,183, rune-stone, 162,166 gripping-beast motif on, 136-7, combs, 104,1 0 5 , 1 6 1 , 161,166
186,187 Bergen (Norway), maps, ir , 23, 136—y, 140, 14 1; manufacture of, Cong, Cross of (Ireland), 152,153
Andreas, Kirk, carved stone (Isle of 66—y, 88—9-, carving from, 149; 106, 106, 128 Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
Man), 184 established, 2 1 1 ; runes from, 156 Brynhild (legendary figure), 184 Emperor, 108
Andrew 1, King of Hungary, 198 Bersqglisvisur (verses), 171 Buckquoy (Orkney),69 cooking, 123—4; utensils, 123,
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 26,29, 35, birds, in art, 142,144,145,147; in Bulgar (Russia), 88—9,109 124-5 >see a^so f°°d and drink
1 7 1 ,188,193 Broa style, 132 Bulgars (people), 109-10 Copenhagen reliquary, 30
Anglo-Saxons, art of, 26,30,152, Birka (Björkö, Sweden), maps, 11, burial, 18 -19 ,1 1 4 ,122,176; at Birka, Cork (Ireland), 23,27,28,66-7, 8 8-9,
1 5 2 ,15 6 ;coinage,198-9, 199 ; 23, 66-7, 8 8 -9 ,9 6 ; Christianity at, 96-7,176-7; in France, 32; Fyrkat 101
fighting style, 24; raids on, 26; in 188; coins from, 8 6-y, n o , zo6, cemetery, 203; in Greenland, cosmetics, 119
Varangian Guard, 34; see also 207; crafts and industries, 96; 1 9 0 -1 ; at Hedeby, 94; in Ireland, crafts and craftsmen, 102-7, 1Q2—y,
England development as trading town, iz , 28; in the Isle of Man, 72,73 ; at 132; see also filigree; painting;
animals, in art, 1 6 , 18 , 1 1 8 ,130-53, 17, 88,96-7,97,209; fortifications, Jelling, 200-1,201; at Kaupang, smiths; stone sculpture;
132,134,136-8,14 1 -4 ,147, 96,96-7,208; graves, 94,96-7, 99; at Lindholm Hóje, 19,19, woodcarving
149-52, 1 6 1 ,i 8 y , 206,207 176—7; harbours, 96,96-7; hill- 172-3 ; and paganism, 176,176-7, crosses, 2 4 ,74 ,75 , 1 4 0 , 1 4 1 ,152,153,
Annagassan (Ireland), 27,28 fort at, 94,96,96-7; replaced by 1 8 6 , 187; Trelleborg cemetery, 181, 186-7, 1 86 -8 ,192
Anse aux Meadows, 1’ Sigtuna, 211 ; textiles, i z i ; Viking 204; at Uppsala, i y 4 S ; at York, croziers, 79,91
(Newfoundland), 66-7,84; finds finds at, 10,22,24, 9 0 - 1 , 94,96,99, 100; see also ships and boats Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole, 40,42, 51
from, 84,8 4 116, n y , 1 1 8 , 123,126,129, 188, Bygland tools (Norway), loy Cuerdale hoard (England), 27,75
antlers, manufactures from, 102,104, Z06 Byzantium, raided, 109; runes in, Cumbria (England), 7 5 ,1 5 7 ,181
105 Birsay, Brough of (Orkney), 27,69, 1 6 Z -3 , 163; trade with, 17,91,
Aquitaine (France), 23,31-2 69,72 8 8 - 9 , 108-10,165,192; Viking
Arabs, coinage, 8 6 -y , 88, n o , n o ; Bjarni Herjolfsson, sights America, influence on, 10,212; see also D
trade with, 8 6 -y , 88,9 1 ,9 1 , 97, Varangian Guard Danegeld, in England, 29, 35 ; in
83-5
1 0 1 ,108, n o , n o ,s e e also Islam; Björkö (Birch Island) see Birka France, 31; runes recording, 35,
Muslim Empire Bjorn Ironside (Vikingleader), 34 164
Ardre rune-stone (Gotland), 146 Black Earth, 96-7,96-7,99 c Danelaw, (England), 27,30, 35
Århus (Denmark), 1 1 , 208,211 Black Sea, 10, 8 8 -9 ,108 Cadiz (Spain), 23 Danevirke, (Germany), u , 12,92,
Ari Thorgilsson (Icelandic Blekinge (Sweden), part of Viking Cammin casket (Pomerania), 139, 208-9,208—9
historian), 189 Denmark, 12 206,207 Denmark, maps, 11,23,66-7, 88—9,
Arklow (Ireland), 27,28 Blindheim, Charlotte, 99 canals, 209 Z08—9 ; agriculture in, 16,127;
Arles (France), 23, 34 Blue Hill Bay, Maine, coin, 84 Carolingian Empire, 3 1 ,10 1,199 ;see Christianity in, 10,188, 1 88, 212;
armour (body),24 Bohuslän (Sweden), 14 also France churches in, 212; coinage, 58,58,
arm-rings, 32,33, 8 6 -y , i n , h i , 118, Bordeaux (France), 23,31-2 Caspian Sea, map, 88-9; raiders in, 198-9,199, 206; crafts, 96,102,
118 Borgund stave-church (Norway), r i, 109; trade to, 10,91,108—9 104,106, i8 y ; defensive measures
arrow-heads, 25, 84,8 4 212,213 casting (metal), 106,106 in, 208-9,2.08-9 i emergence as a
215
 State, i o ; finds illustrated, 30,113, Elizabeth, Queen of Norway (wife of 198-9; raids on, 29, 31; trade with, ! 4 3 , 153, ! 5 3
1 3 0 -3 1 , 143,145,153,183; Harald Hardrada), 198,198 16, 31,91-2,100; Viking Gripsholm rune-stone (Sweden), 165,
fortresses in, 13,202.-7,202-5; England, maps, 23,27,66-7, 8 8 - 9 ; mercenaries in, 34 165
inland waterways in, 209-10; calligraphy in, 152; Christianity furs and fur-trade, 16,34, 8 8 -9 ,9 1 , Grobin (Latvia), ir , 88,88—9
jewellery from, h i , 1 1 6 ,1 36 ,14 0 ; in, 187; churches in, 212; coinage, 97,102,108-10 Groenlendinga Saga, 68
kingship in, 196,200; Odin cult in, 198-9,199; pays Danegeld, 29, 35; futhark, 1 57,157,162; see also runes Groix, lie de (Brittany), 32
177; overseas movement from, 16; frontier with Danes defined, 29; Fyn (Denmark), 10,11 Gudrid (Greenland woman), 192
raids from, 26,28-9; roads and missionaries from, 192; raids on, Fyrkat fortress, Jutland (Denmark), Gunnar (hero), 128 ,134
bridges in, 208-10,2 0 8 -1 0 ; royal 16,22,23,26,29,35; runes in, 157, i i , 19,122,202-7, 2 0 2 -3 ,2 0 8 Gunnbjorn, sights Greenland, 82
necropolis in, 200-201, zoo—2 0 1 ; 158. 161.161, 167; on sea route, Guthrun, Danish King in East
rune-stones in, 147,157,160,166, 16; ship burial, 42,42; towns in, G Anglia, 29
166; ship finds in, 40-3,40,43, 29-30, 35,100, 100 ; Viking art in, Galteland rune-stone, Aust-
46-7,49; terrain, 10 -13,1 3 ; towns 30 .74.75.14 9.152 .152.1 6 1 .1 61, Agder (Norway), 164 H
in, 13,16 -17,9 2 -5 ,9 2 -5 ,2 1 1 ; 1 8 6 , 187,191,206-7,207; Viking gaming boards and pieces, 25,101, Hæ rvej, 12,92,92, 2 0 8 , 209-10
trade, 16; woodcarving in, 139, mercenaries in, 34-5; Viking rule 126,126, 182 Hagia Sophia runes, Istanbul
139 in, 30; Vikings settle in, 30,74-5, Garonne, River (France) ,23,31 (Turkey), 162-3,163
Derby (England), 27,30 187; see also British Isles; and Gåtebo silver cross reliquary Hakon the Good, King of Norway,
Dicuil (Irish monk), 77-8 individual places (Öland), 192 170
Dnieper, River (Russia), 10, 88—9, entertainments, 126; see also Gaut Bjornson (Viking artist), 140, Hakon Hakonsson, King of Norway,
108-10 gaming boards
141
78
Dorestad (Frisia), maps, 23,66-7; Ethandun (Edington, England), Germany, map, 88—9 ; missionaries Hakon Sigurdsson, Earl of Lade, 188
mint at, 199; raided, 16,29, 31; Battle of (879), 27,29 from, 192 H áko n arm ál (poem), 170
Viking finds at, 32 exploration and settlement, map of, glass, in bead-making, 102,102-3 > Halfdan (Danish leader), 29,75
Dorset (England), 26,29, 35 66—7 gaming pieces, 126; imported, 17, Halland (Sweden), part of Viking
dråpa (poetic form), 169 Eyvind (skald), 170 8 8 -9 ,9 0 -9 1 ,9 1 , 102; in jewellery, Denmark, 12
dress, 10 , 14,112—19,114—16; 116-17 , 118 H ålogaland (Norway), 11 ,16
warriors’, 24 F Gnezdovo (Russia), 8 8 -9 ,109 Hamburg (Germany), 23, 31
drink see food and drink Fcereyinga Saga, 68 Godfred, Danish king, 31,92-3,196, Harald (Rorik’s brother), 32,34
Dublin (Ireland), maps, 23,27,66-7, Faeroes (Ecereyjar), maps, 66-7, 209 Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark
8 8 -9 ; Christianity in, 174,197;
88—9 ; art styles in, 1 0 1 , 152; boat gods and goddesses, 174-82; see also and Norway, and Christianity,
timbers from, 42; coinage in, 199; farmhouses in, 19,77,77; individual gods 188; engineering projects, 210;
crafts and industries, 10 1,105; government of, 196; rune-stones Godthåb fjord (Greenland), 66-7,82 and Jelling mounds, 200-201; as
house plan, 101 ; ship graffito, 59; in, 160; on sea routes, 16,101; Gokstad, Vestfold (Norway), maps, king, 196; and royal fortresses,
and slave trade, 22; Thing mound, Viking settlers in, 67,76—7,77-8 i i , 38 ; burial ship, 18, 38,39,42, 206; rune-stone record of, 139,
196; Viking finds at, 19,25,59, Fafnir (mythological dragon), 46-7, 50-51,55-6, 58,139,197; 147,149,166,166,188
1 19,160; as Viking trading town, i 5 4 ~ 5 , i 84 ) 184-5 1893 ship replica, 59-60 Harald Finehair (of Vestfold), King
28-9,74,99-101 farmsteads, 1 8 , 19 , 6 8 , 70-71,70,75, gold, hoards, 31,33, h i , r r i ; for of Norway, 78,197
Dynna rune-stone (Norway), 158-9, 7 5 ,7 7 ,7 7 , 79-8 i >8 0 -8 1 , 139, 191; jewellery, 17, h i , i n , 115—16, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway,
1 5 8 -9 ,165 see also agriculture; houses 1 1 6 ,1 1 8 ,140-41,1 40—4 1 ; as loot, 34-5,94,197—8; his wife Elizabeth,
Fenrir (legendary wolf), 184-5,285 31,33 ; plaques, 1 14 , 182; trade in, 198,i 98
E filigree, 1 1 7 , 140-41, 1 4 0 -4 1 , 143, 88—9; use of, h i Harold, King of England, 35
Eadred, King of Wessex, 30 143,188 Gorm the Old, Danish king, 142,157, Harthacnut, King of Denmark and
East Anglia (England), 29-30, finger-rings, 31,33, h i , h i , 118 166,196,200-201 England, 196; coinage, 199
170-71 Finland, 1 1 , 14 , 88-9 Gosforth sculpture (England), 74,75, Harz mountains (Germany), n o
Ed rune-stone, Uppland (Sweden), fish, 8 8 - 9 , 123-4 1 4 1 ,1 8 1 , 181 , 187 Hastein (Viking leader), 34
165 Five Boroughs, The (England), 27, 30 Götaland (Sweden), 14 Hastings (England), Battle of
Eddas, 178-81,184; see also Poetic Flatatunga panels (Iceland), 139, 191 G ötar (people), 13—14 (1066), 27,35
E d d a; Prose Edda Flateyjarbók (Icelandic manuscript), Gotland (Sweden), map, 11; finds hats, 1 19 ;see also helmets
Edmund, King of England, 188 193 from, 133 , 151 , 188 ; importance, H ávam ál (collection of poems), 119,
Edward the Confessor, King of Floki, names Iceland, 78 14; jewellery in, 17,116 —17, IT7> 124,126,178
England, 35 flo kkr (poetic form), 169 1 4 1 ; picture-stones, 58,114,129, Hebrides (Sudreyar), maps, 23,27,
Egernsund boat, Flensburg, Florence of Worcester (chronicler), 132,146,146,1 5 1 , 1 7 0 , 179,179, 6 6 -7, 88—9 ; ceded to Scotland, 72;
(Denmark), 11,43,43 171 187; rune-stones, 1 4 6 , 160; vane, rune-stones in, 1 6 1; on sea routes,
Egil Skallagrimsson (Icelandic food and drink, 8 8 - 9 , 91,122-4, 149; see also Broa 1 6 ,10 1; Viking settlements in, 71,
poet), 1 7 1 ,179-80 1 24 -5 , 126 Grani (Sigurd’s horse), 184,185 72
Egils Saga, 182; verse translation fortresses and fortifications, in graves see burial Hedeby (Denmark), maps, 11,23,
from, 171 Denmark, 1 3 , 19,202-9,2.02-9', Greece, 162,163,165; see also 6 6-7, 8 8 -9 ,9 2 ,2 0 8 -9 ', abandoned,
Eider, River (Germany), 12,209 and town defence, 92-3,^92-3, Byzantium 95 ; buildings in, 9 4 - 5 , 212;
Eidsborg quarry, T elemark 96-7,96,100,208 Greenland, map, 66-7; Christianity Christianity at, 94, 1 88 ; coins
(Norway), 107 France, maps, 66—7 , 88—9 ; kings of, in ,174,18 9,190 ,192,197;church struck at, 5 8 , 198-9,199,206,207;
Eilif Gudrunarson (Icelandic poet), 31-2; pays Danegeld, 31; raids on, and graves, 1 90-91; exploration crafts and industries, 92,104;
187 22, 31-2; Viking traces in, 32 and settlement of, 16 , 64—5 , 67, development as trading town, 13,
Eirik Bloodaxe, Norwegian king, 30, Frankish Empire, art of, 33,152; 82-5,83,212; navigation to, 60; 88,92-5,97,99; fortifications,
170,179-80;coinage, 199 exports, 90,90-91; raids on, 31, rune-stones in, 16 1; in Vinland 92-3,92—3,208—9 >Frisians in, 16;
Eirik the Red, settles Greenland, 34; Vikings defeated by, 29; Map, 85 replaced by Schleswig, 211; rune-
82-4,190 Viking settlers in, 10 Greensted stave-church, Essex stones at, 167; Viking remains at,
Eirtks Saga Rauða, 68,190 Frey (god), 174,180,182 ,182 (England),212 x 19»9 4 - 5 >9 9 . 1 19, i i i - 4
Eiriksfjord (Greenland), 66-7,82 ,83 Freyja (goddess), 174,180,182-3, 187 Grím nism ál (poem), 178,183 H eim skringla (of Snorri Sturluson,
Eiríksm ál (poem), 183-4 Frigg (goddess), 182 ‘gripping-beast’ motif, 104,132,133, Icelandic lives of the Norse Kings),
Eketorp fortress (Öland), r i, 19 Frisia, maps, 23, 88—9 ; use of coins, I 3 4 ) 1 3 4 -5 , 13 6 -7, 13 6 - 7 ,1 4 0 , 141, 169
Hekla, Mount (Iceland), 79 in, 28,1 0 1 ,1 4 1 ,152,153; high Kiev (Russia), 88-9,108,109,192, 88—9 ; established as town, 2 1 1 ;
Helgi the Lean (settler in Iceland), crosses, 75; Norse towns in, 28-9, 192,198 houses at, 207,2 1 1 ; Viking finds
186 100-101; raids on, 16,22, 2.6—9 >on Kilmainham-Islandbridge cemetery at, 19 , 1 0 6 , 1 1 4 ,1 1 9 ,123,123,151,
Helgö (Sweden), i j , 17,88-9,91,182 sea route, 16; Viking mercenaries (Ireland), 23,28 182
Helluland (Baffin Island), 66-7,84 in, 34; Viking settlers in, 28-9,66, kings, 18,196-8,2 1 1 ; and coinage, Lundby rune-stone, Södermanland
helmets, 15,24 ,24 ,34 , 178-9 72,74,10 1,212; see also Dublin 198—9 , 199; in Denmark, 196; in (Sweden), 165
Hemming, Danish king, 196 iron, 51,55,88-9,128; see also Norway, 196-7; in Sweden, 198
Henry 1, King of France, 198 smiths Kirkwall (Orkney), 72 M
Henry 11, Emperor of Germany, 144 Islam, 10,16—18,212; see also Arabs; Klåstad, Vestfold (Norway), 107 Magnus, St (of Orkney), 197
hides, 88-9,100 Muslim Empire knives, 24,52,32 Magnus Olafsson, King of Norway,
Hjalmar, Lake (Sweden), 14 IslendingaSqgur (Icelandic family konunga sqgur (sagas of kings), 169 171
Hofstadir (Iceland), 79,123 sagas), 68 Köping church rune-stone Mainz (Germany), 66—7 ,8 8 -9 ,1 0 9
HQfuðlausn, 179 Islendingabók (Icelandic history), 68, (Öland), 159,139 Malar, Lake (Sweden), ir , 12,14,96,
Hog-backed tombstones, 206-7,207 78 Kunigunde (wife of Henry 11), 144 165; see also Birka
Hollingsted (Germany), 92 Istanbul (Turkey), 162-3,16 3;see Kvalsund boat (Norway), 42 Maldon (England), Battle of (991)
Holmgard see Novgorod also Byzantium Kvivik (Faeroes), 76-7,77,79 27, 35; see also Battle o f M ald o n ,
Hon gold hoard, Buskerud Italy, 23,34; runes from 162,163 The (poem)
(Norway), 31,33,144 Itil (Khazar capital), 88-9,109 L Mammen (Denmark), art style, 142,
honey, 88-9,91, n o Labrador, 10,66-7 i 4 4 - 5 >I 4 4 ~ 5 , 14 7 , 14 9 , 2o6;
Hordaland (Norway), ir , 26
Horik, King of Denmark, 196
J
Jæren (Norway), 1 1 , 15-16; rune-
Ladby (Denmark), ship, 49,60
Lade (Norway), 1 1 ; earls of, 197
harness-bows from, 112-13
Man, Isle of, maps, 23,27; art styles
Hdrning woodcarving (Denmark), stones, 156,160-61 Ladoga, Lake (Russia), 108—9 in, 1 4 0 , 141—2; crosses in, 167,167,
x3 8 , 139 ,I 5 I James hi, I^ing of Scotland, 72 Lambay Island (Ireland), 26 184-5 j rune-stones in, 15 7 ,161,
horses, 22,24,49,129,147,170; Jankuhn, Prof. Herbert, 94 Landnámabók (Icelandic history), 167,167; on sea route, 16; ship
bridle-mounts, 16,133,133; ja rl, 18 68,78 burial, 72,73; Viking parliament
harness-bows, 112-13,130-31, Jarlabanki rune-stones, Uppland Lappland, 1 r ; trade, 97 (Tynwald) in, 72-3,196; Viking
143, 143; mythical, 179,179 (Sweden), 165-6 ,1 66 Lapps (people), 14,16 settlers in, 66,72.-3,73
houses, in Dublin, 101 ; furnishings Jarlshof (Shetland), 27,70-71,70-71, Largs (Scotland), Battle of (12631,72 Margaret, Princess of Denmark
and ornamentation, 139 ,13 9,151, 7 9 ,I23,i28 Larne (Ireland), 27,28 (Queen of James hi of Scotland),
1 91 ; in Hedeby 94—5,95; in Lund, Jarrow, Northumbria (England), 23, Ledberg rune-stone, Östergötland 7Z
z i i ; Trelleborg type 206,206—7, 26,27,34 (Sweden), 34 Markland (Labrador), 6 6 -7 ,84
2i i ; see also farmsteads Jelling, Jutland (Denmark), maps, Leicester (England), 27,30 Mästermyr tools (Gotland), 32-3,
Hoveringham church tympanum, 11,208; Jellinge art style, 100,137, Leif Eriksson (the Lucky), 84-5,190 128-9
Nottinghamshire (England), 191 13 7 ,13 9 , 139,141-4, i 4 2- 3 , 149; Lilia Valla bowl (Gotland), 150,131 Mediterranean Sea, 23,34
Humber, River (England), 27,35 burial site, 18; Viking finds from, Limerick (Ireland), 23,27,28,66-7, Mersea Island (England), winter
Hunterston brooch (Scotland), 166, 139 , 1 3 9 , 142,142,200; plan of, 88-9, IOI camp, 27
166 z o i ; as royal site, 200-201,200; Lincoln (England), map, 27; brooch Mervalla rune-stone, Södermanland
rune-stones at, 139,146,147,149, at, 152; comb-case at, 1 6 1 , 161, (Sweden), 164
I 166,166,188,i 89,200-201, zoo 16 6;as Viking borough, 30 Middleton cross, N. Yorkshire
Ibn Fadlan (Arab emissary), 110,118, jet, 104, 1 0 4 , 136 Lindby bronze figure, Skåne (England), 24,142,186,187
i i 9 > x75 Jevington church, Sussex (England), (Sweden), 178 Midgardsorm (mythological
Iceland, map, 66-7; absence of runes, 152 Lindholm Hdje, Jutland (Denmark), serpent), 180,1 8 1 , 185,187
160; agriculture in, 127; jewellery, 10 , 1 7 ,3 0 ,3 3 , 84, i n , 132, map, i i ; burials at, 19 , 19,172-3 ; Miklebostad bronze figure
Christianity in, 78,79,174,178, field at, 12 7, 127 ; silver brooch
x3 5 ) I 3 5 , x3 6 , t 3 7 , 14 ° ~ 3 , I 4 I ~ 3 , (Norway), 28
186,187,189-90, 1 9 1 , 197; cloth 151, 131, 166 ,166,183; in dress, from, 151,131 M iklig arð r (Byzantium), 165
from, 120; and colonization of 1 14 -19 , 1 1 4 -1 8 ; manufacture of, Lindisfame (England), 20-21,23,27; Milford Haven (Wales), 74
Greenland, 82,85; farmhouses in, 102—4, Ioi>>106, i n , 128; trade in, raided, 22,26, 30; stone at, 24,26 monasteries, raided, 22,26,28,
19,79-8 1,80 -81, 191; Frey cult in, 88-9; see also amulets; brooches linen, 1 14 ,122 30-32
182; game from, 126; national Julianehåb Bay (Greenland), 82 Lingsberg rune-stones, Uppland Moors see Arabs; Spain
assembly (Althing), 78,189,196; justice, administration of, 196 (Sweden) 147,160 Muslim Empire, 23
navigation to, 60; and Norse trade, Jutland (Denmark), map, 66-7; Lisbjerg brooches (Denmark), 136, mythology, 174-85
99,10 1; and Norwegian described, 10 , 1 1 , 12; see
136
kings, 189; 197; Parliament Plain also Denmark Löddeköpinge, Skåne (Sweden), 19, N
(Thingvellir), 73,78-9,78-9, i 9 4 ~ 5 208 Nantes (France), 23,31
196; sagas and histories of, 68, K LQgberg (Iceland), 1 9 4 -5 , 196; see National Maritime Museum,
193; on sea route, 16; and skaldic Kanhave canal, Samsó also Althing; Thingvellir Greenwich (England), 41,59,63;
poetry, i6 9 ;T h o r cult in, 18 1 ,186; (Denmark), 208-9,2.09-10 Loire, River (France), 23,31,66-7, boat replica built at, 41,41
and trade, 91; Viking heritage in, karl, 18 88-9 Navarre, Prince of, 34
10; Viking settlers in, 67,78-82; Karlevi rune-stone (Öland), Loki (god), 178,183 navigation, 60-62
woodcarvings in, 139, 191 168-9,169 London (England), maps, 23,27, necklaces, 1 16 -1 7 , 117-18
Idun (goddess), 182 karl, 18 66—7 , 88—9; raided, 35; rune-stone neck-rings, 33, h i , h i , 118
Im m e G ram (replica ship), 49,60 Kaupang (Norway), 1 1 , 19,23,66-7, at, 158,16 1, 161 ; Vikings control, Neva, River (Russia), 108
industries, 102-7 88-9,98-9,98-9,107 29; see also St Paul’s rune-stone Newfoundland (Canada), discovery
Ingigerd (wife of King Yaroslav), Kells (Ireland), 22,27 longphorts, 28 and settlement, 10 , 66—7 , 84,16 1;
198 kennings (in skaldic poetry), 168 Lothar (son of Charles the Bald) ,32, finds from, 84,84,16 1; Viking sails
Ingolf Arnarson, settles Iceland, 79. Kensington stone (Minnesota), 161 34 to, 5 9
Ingstad, Helge, 84 Kent (England), 26 Liibeck (Germany), 162 Nidaros (Norway), 139
Ingvar (Viking leader), 165,165 Ketil the Foolish (settler of Lucas, John, 171 Nimes (France), 23, 34
Iona (Scotland), 22,26,27 Iceland), 78 Luna (Italy), 34 N jáls Saga (Icelandic family saga),
Ireland, maps, 23,27,66-7,88-9; art Khazars (people), 109-10 Lund, Skåne (Sweden), maps, 11, T92-3
Njord (god), i8o, 182. dialects in, 72; and North Sea Ramsund rock, Södermanland St Ninian’s Isle hoard (Shetland), 69
Noirmoutier, Ile de (France), 2.2., 23, route, 16; as part of Princess (Sweden), 154-5,184-5 St Paul’s rune-stone (London), 35,
31,66-7 Margaret’s dowry, 72; rune-stones Rathlin Island (Ireland), 74 138 ,149,152,158 ,1 6 1 ,1 6 1 ,164
Nonnebakken fortress, Odense in, 16 1; Thing in, 196; on trade Ravning Enge bridge, Jutland saints, 139, 1 9 1 , 19 3 , 1 9 3 , 197,197
(Denmark), i i , 204-5, zo8 routes, io i ; Viking settlers in, (Denmark), 1 1 ,2 0 8 -9 , 210 Samarkand (Russia), 88-9, n o
Nora rune-stone, Uppland (Sweden), 68-9,69 , 7 7 Regin (legendary smith), 184,184 Samsd canal (Denmark), 2 08 -9 ,
166 Orkneyinga Saga, 68 Repton (England), winter camp, 27 209-10
Normandy, map, 27; absence of Oseberg, Vestfold (Norway), maps, Reric ( PRostock), 92 Sandnes arrow-head (Greenland),
runes in, 60; ceded by treaty (911), 11,38; animal-head posts from, Reykjavik (Iceland), 66-7,78-9, 84,84
27, 32; Viking settlers in, 10,212 134 , 134—5; art style and carvings, i? i , i93 Santiago de Compostella (Spain), 23,
Norrland (Sweden), 11,14 i 3 2>* 3 4 , i 3 4 - 5 >J3 6, J3 <>, 138, 138i Rhine, River (Germany), 22,23,31,
34
North Sea, 11,23,27,66-7,88-9; as burial ship, 18,38,38-9,46-7, 66-7,88-9 Scandinavia, map of, 11
route, 16; and Viking raids, 22 122-3,129,197; construction of Rhone, River (France), 22,23,34 Schietzel, Dr, 94
Northumbria (England), loot from, ship, 42, 55-6, 58,58,63; sledge Ribblehead, Yorkshire (England), Schleswig (Germany), 11,211
30; raids on, 22,26,27,29; Viking from, 129,129,138; tapestry, 114, 27 >7 5 , 75 Scotland, maps, 23,27,66-7,88-9;
rule in, 29 Ribe, Jutland (Denmark), 1 1 , 16-17,
1 2 1 , 1 2 1 , 129,132,134; textiles, boat graves in, 43; farmhouses in,
Norway and Norse, maps, 11,23, 66-7,88-9,127; amber from, 104;
1 2 1 , 121 ;wagon from, 1 4 ,1 2 8 , 129, 19.68—7 2 , 68—70; and North Sea
66-7, 8 8 - 9 ; brooches in, 1 16 , 151 ; 134 bead-making, 102; skull route, 16,26; raids on, 23,26;
Christianity in, 10,188—9, z 9 7 > Oslo (Norway), maps, 1 1 , 6 6 - 7, fragment, 158,158 rune-stones and runes in, 1 6 1 ,166,
212; churches in, 212,213; 88-9; established, 211 Rígsþula (poem), 1 1 4 ,1 1 9 ,123—4 166 ; Viking settlers in , 26,66,
coinage, 33,199,199; defeated at Oslofjord (Norway), 1 1 , 15,98-9 ‘ring-chain’ motif, 74, i o i , 140-41, 68—72
Largs, 72; emergence as state, 10; Östergötland (Sweden), 1 1 , 14; rune- MG 153 Scott, Sir Walter, 70
finds illustrated, 107,1 14 ,122,137, stones, 35, 160 Ringerike (Norway), map, u ; art- sculpture see stone sculpture;
1 4 1 ,142; kingship in, 193,196-7, Østersalt (Baltic Sea),209 style, 1 4 1 ,14 4 ,14 7,14 7, 148-9, woodcarving
197,201; land and people, 8-9,12, Otley carved stone, Yorkshire 149-52, 1 5 2 ,191 Seine, River (France), 22,27,31,66-7
14—16; livestock herding in, 127; (England), 152 Ringmere Heath, Norfolk (England), Senja silver neck-ring, T roms
loot from Britain and Europe in, Ottar the Black (Icelandic poet), 170 Battle of, 170-71 (Norway), 164
2 8 , 30,30,33; manufactures in, 99, Ouse, River, Yorkshire (England), Risby road (Denmark), 11,208—9, Serkland (part of the Arab
107,107; overseas movement 27,100,100 210,210 dominions), 165
from, 16; raids from, 26,28; rune- roads, 12,165,16 6,210 , 2 10 ; see also Seville (Spain), 23, 32
stones in, 156,158-9,160,165; P bridges; H æ rvej; Risby Shannon, River (Ireland), 22,27
settlements in, 15,18 ,19 ; settlers paganism, 174-80,186-90,192,212; Rollo, ist Duke of Normandy, 27,32 Sheppey, Isle of (England), 29
in Ireland from, 28; ship burials in, see also Christianity; and Romanesque art, 152.-3 Shetland Islands, maps, 23,27,66-7,
38,38-9,42; shipbuilding in, 54; individual gods Rorik (Viking leader), Walcheren 88—9; Norse dialects in, 72; and
stone sculpture in, 149; towns in, painting, on stone, 146,158-9, 161, ceded to, 32,34 North Sea route, 16; as part of
98~9 ,9 9 , 211 ; trade, 16,9 9,101, 189; wall, 198; on wood, 138-9, Roskilde (Denmark), maps, 1 1,4 0; Princess Margaret’s dowry, 72;
104,107; woodcarving and 139 defences, 208; fjord, 40-41,40; as rune-stones in, 16 1; shipbuilding
painting in, 134,136-9,136-9, Paris (France), 23,27,31,66-7,88-9 royal seat, 13; status as town, 211; in, 54; Thing in, 196; on trade
150 ,153,153,197 Paviken (Gotland), 1 1 , 17,88-9; Viking ships from, 40-42; see also routes, i o i ; Viking settlements in,
Nottingham (England), 27,30 bead-making, 103 Skuldelev 68.68- 71,70 ,77
Novgorod {Holmgarðr or Holmgard, pendants, 10 ,17 ,3 0 , 1 1 4 , 1 1 7 ,136, Rouen (France), 23,27,31 shields, 24,24,34,58; bosses, 25
Russia), runic inscriptions, 162, 137,183; see also amulets runes and rune-stones, 34,35,126, ships and boats, in burials, 19,38,
193; on trade route, 88—9,109; Périgord (France), 32 1 4 6 -7 , 15 4 -7 1, 1 5 4 -6 7 ,1 6 9 -7 0 , 38-9,42-3,42,72,73,172-3,176;
Viking settlement in, 10 pewter, 106 1 8 1 ,184—5', character of, 156—9; cargo, 48-9,48-9; on coins and
Nydam boat, South Jutland Piets (people), 68—9 ,72 Christian symbols on, 192; colour seals, 43,43, 58,58,199,199;
(Denmark), 42 Piraeus (Greece), runes from, 162, on, 138,158-9, 159,161-, conditions on, 48-9; construction,
162 distribution of stones, 160-63 5as 38-43,41,48, 50-58,54-9;
o Pisa (Italy), 23, 34 records, 164-7 >significance of, graffito, 59; horses in, 49,49;
Odense see Nonnebakken fortress place-names, and mythology, 176—7, 159-60; skaldic verse in, 167-8, inland, 43,108,209-10; landing
odes, 170 181-2 169; and stone sculpture, 132, and anchoring, 6 0 -6 1 , 62-3,62-3;
Odin, 24,174; amulet, 179; cult of, plants, as art-motif, 144,14 7, 148-9, 1 4 6 -7 ,1 4 6 -7 , 1 5 1 , 184-5 quality and performance, 17,
177-80,183—5 >illustrated, 178, 149, i 5 ° , i 52 ,191 Russia, map, 88-9; Christianity, in 59-60; sizes and types, 43,46-8,
1 7 9 , 1S5 plough-marks, 127 108,192; merchants in, 108-10, 46-9, 54; stone settings, 1 9 , 172-3,
Offa, King of Mercia, 26 Poetic Edda (Elder Edda), 178 118 ,175; recorded on Swedish 176; and Viking raids, 22,48;
Olaf Haraldsson, King of Norway (St poetry, 168-70; see also odes; rune-stones, 160,164—5 >runic visual glossary of, 44—5,44—5
Olaf), and Christianity, 189,193, skaldic verse inscriptions in, 162,166; Shoeburyness (England), winter
197; death and sainthood, 193, Portland Bill (England), 23,26,27 Scandinavian finds in, 109; towns camp, 27
i9 3 , *9 7 ,1 9 7 ; poems on, 170 pottery, 88-9 in, 108,108-9; trade routes shoes, 1 19,129
O laf Sköttkonung, King of Sweden, Primary Chronicle (Russia), 108 through, 108-10; Viking influence Sigtrygg Silkenbeard, King of
198-9 Prose Edda (of Snorri Sturluson), o n ,212 Dublin, 28,199
O laf Tryggvason, King of Norway, 178,180,182 Sigtuna (Sweden), maps, 1 1 , 23,
35,71,189,193,197,199 s 88-9; finds from, 1 1 9 ,1 1 9 ,144; as
Öland (Sweden), 11,14 ; finds from,
178,192; rune-stones in, 138,
Q sacrifices (pagan), 175 trading centre, 9 7,211
Quentowic (France), 23,27,31,66-7, sagas, and Christian code, 192-3; on Sigurd (hero), 154 -5 , 184, 184-5, 187
159-60, 159,168,169 88-9 navigation, 61-2; and pagan gods, Sigurd the Stout, Earl, 72
Onega, Lake (Russia), 109 182; on ships and shipbuilding, 40, Sigvat (skald), 170-71
Ó Riórdaín, Breandán, io i R 54; and skaldic verse, 169; on silk, 88-9,91
Orkney Islands, maps, 23,27,66-7, Ragnarsdrápa (poem), 132 Viking exploration and silver, 132,140,140-41, 1 4 2 , 143,
88-9; art styles in, 142,142; raids on Western Europe, map of, 23 settlement, 67-8; see also 150; crosses, 188,192; as
Christianity in, 71-2,19 7; Norse Rällinge bronze figure (Sweden), 182 individual sagas Danegeld, 31,35; figures, 22;

218
 hoards, 18 -19 , 33,35, 86-7, Stenkyrka rune-stone (Gotland), 170 Thorkel the Tall (Viking leader), 35, V
no-111, i n , 132., 143 ; inlay, 25, Stiklestad (Norway), Battle of (1030), 3 5 ,164 Værne Kloster gold spur
144,145; for jewellery, 115-16, Í9 2 ,193,193,Í9 7 ,197 Þórsdrápa (poem), 187 (Norway), 140-41,141
117-18,118 ,137,14 0 ,14 3 ,151, Stolpe, Hjalmar, 97 Thorshavn (Faeroes), 196 Vdfþrúðnismál (poem), 178,185
180,18 3 , 187; trade in, 18 , 88—9, stone sculpture, 7 4 ,75 ,13 2 , 1 4 0 , 141, Thorwald (Leif Eiriksson’s brother), Valence (France), 34
, 91,97,109-10; use of, h i \seealso 146-52, 146—7 , 1 6 1 , 1 6 6 , 18 1 , 181, 84 Valholl (Hall of the Slain), 174-5,
*
coins 184-5, *$9 i see a^so Gotland; prcell, 18; see also slaves 178,179,183-5
Siward.Earl, 193 rune-stones Þrymskvida (poem), 180 valkyries, 170 , 1 7 0 , 178,179,183,183
Sjælland (Denmark), 10,11,13,204, Stöng (Iceland), map, 66-7; Thyri, wife of King Gorm of Valleberga rune-stone, Skåne
204—5 ,2i o , 210 reconstructed farmhouse at, 80-81, Denmark, 142,200-201 (Sweden), 164
Sjörup rune-stone, Skåne (Sweden), 80—8 1 , 122,128 Tingwall (Orkney and Shetland), Valsgärde burial site, Uppland
167 Sudreyjar (the Southern Isles), 72; see 196 (Sweden), 11,18 ; helmet from, 15;
Sjusta rune-stone, Uppland also Hebrides Tissó neck-ring (Denmark), n o mount from, 16; spears from, 25
(Sweden), 160 Sutton Hoo ship burial, Suffolk tools, 41, 52,52-3,107,128,157 Väner, Lake (Sweden), 11,14
Skaill brooches (Orkney), 142,142 (England), 42,42 Tournus (France), 22 Varangian Guard, 34,193,198; see
skaldic verse and skalds, 167-71; and Svear (people), 13,17 towns, crafts and industries in, also Byzantium
Viking mythology, 179,183 Svein Estridsson, King of Denmark, 102-107, 1 0 2 -1 0 7 ; established, 28, Vårby pendants (Sweden), 136,137
Skåne (Sweden), finds from, 178, 12,35,158,196 88-9,211 ; fortification of, 208; see Väsby rune-stone, Uppland
180; part of Viking Denmark, 11, Svein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, also individual towns (Sweden), 164,164
12—13; towns in, 211,211 196,199; raids England, 35; and trade, 16—17 , z z , S8—9 , 88-91; Västergötland (Sweden), n , 14;
Skara (Sweden), 11,198 royal fortresses, 206 centres of, 91-102; in craft goods, rune-stones, 160
Skårby rune-stone (Sweden), 146, Svinnegarn rune-stone, Uppland 102—7 ,10 3 , 104 ; to East, 108-10, Veda rune-stone, Uppland
147 (Sweden), £65 n o ; and Irish, 28; and taxation, (Sweden), 164
skates and skis, 129,129 Sweden, maps, 1 1 , 23,66—7 , 88—9; 88,211; tribute for, n o ; to West, Vendel burial site, Uppland
Skuldelev, Roskilde (Denmark), acknowledges Cnut, 196; 82—3,91; see also individual towns (Sweden), ir , 18
maps, i i , 38,40; defences, 208; Christianity in, 10 , 1 8 8 , 192,192, trade routes and centres, map of, Vester Vedsted brooch (Denmark),
ships, 40,42,43,46-7,49, 52, 56-8, 198,212; churches in, 211,211, 88-9 140 , 141
62-3 212; coinage, 86—7, n o , 199; Tråen brooch (Norway), 143,143 Vestfold (Norway), 18,134; carvers
slaves, agricultural work by, 127; emergence as a state, 10; exports travel and transport (land), 128—9, in, 134,135; ship burials in, 38,
Christian, 22,174; dress of, 119; iron, 97; finds illustrated, 15,16, 129,209-10,2 10 ; see also ships 38-9; see also Gokstad; Oseberg
household activities, 122—3>status 22,25, 1 0 6 ,1 1 9 ,1 2 6 ,1 4 4 ,1 4 8 -9 ; and boats Viborg (Denmark), ir , 12,127,209;
of, 18; trade in, 18,22, 34,88, jewellery from, 10 , 114,116-18, Trelleborg, Sjælland (Denmark), town status, 211
88-9,91,108, n o 157,180,183 ; kingship in, 198; maps, i i , 208—9 ; fortress, 204-5, Viking (1893 replica ship), 59
sledges, 129,129,210; see also under land and people, 12,13-14; 204-5, z° 6 ; house type, 206-7, Vikings (vikingr), defined, 10
Oseberg overseas movement from, 16; 206—7 , Z I1 , 2.II-I2. Vinland, 66—7 , 84-5,190; see also
Sleipnir (mythological horse), 179, paganism in, 174-5, J75~^5 ', royal Trendgården mould (Denmark), 187 America, North
seat, 1 7 4 -5 , 198; rune-stones in, Trier (Germany), 31 Vinland Map, 84-5,85
*79
Småland (Sweden), 11 ,13 34,35, 1 5 1 ,154-5, *5 9 -6 0 ,1 5 9 -6 0 , Trdndelag (Norway), 11,15 ,19 7, Vladimir, king in Kiev, 108
smiths, 102, 107,128; see also iron 164—5 , 164—6 ,16 9,18 4 —5 ; ship 197 Volga, River (Russia), 10,16,88—9,
smoother, glass, 122, 122 burials in, 18; stone sculpture in, Trondheim (formerly Nidaros, 108-10
smoothing plaque, bone, 122,122, 146, 1 4 6 -7 , 1 5 1 ; temple at Norway), maps, 1 1 , 66—7 ; Volkhov, River (Russia), 108
177 Uppsala, 1 7 5 , 176; towns in, 17, decorated plank from, 139,139; VQÍuspá{ poem), 178,185
Snaptun furnace stone (Denmark), 9 6 -7,9 6 -7, 1 7 6 -7 , 211,2 i i -,trade, excavations at, 1 9 ,1 5 1 ; founded, Vorbasse, Jutland (Denmark), n ,
183 1 6 ,9 0 -1 ,9 1 ,1 0 9 211 19
Snorri Sturluson (Icelandic writer swords, 24,24,25,34,144,179 Tu rune-stone (Norway), 156
and historian), 169; on Christ, Tune ship burial (Norway), 42 w
187; on gods, 178-82,184-5 T Turinge rune-stone, Södermanland wagons, 14,128,129,210; see also
soapstone, production of vessels, 99, tablet-weaving, 1 2 1 ,122 (Sweden), 167 under Oseberg
10 7, 107; trade in , 88-9 tapestry, 1 1 4 ,1 2 1 , 1 2 1 , 129,132 Tynwald (PingvQllr, Isle of Man), Walcheren (Netherlands), 32,34,
Söderala vane (Sweden), 148-9, Tara (Ireland), Battle of (980), 27,28 72-3,196 205
149 Tashkent (Russia), 8 8 -9 , n o Tyr (god), 182 Wales, 23,27,66-7,74
Södermanland (Sweden), 154-5, taxes, 88,211 Wallace, Pat, 101
16 4 -5, 165,16 7 , 184-5 textiles, 88-9,114,120,120,122,132; U walrus ivory, 88-9,144,182
Södertälje (Sweden), 97 from Birka and Oseberg, 121 ,121 Udal, The (Hebrides), 27,71,72, Waterford (Ireland), 27,28,74,101
Sognefjord (Norway), 15,212 Thanet, Isle of (England), 27,29, 35 127 wattle and daub, 94-5,95,10 1,207,
Sdllested harness-bow, Fyn Thing (parliament), 73,196; see also Ulfcetel, Ealdorman of East 207
(Denmark), 130-31,143,143 Althing; Thingvellir; T yn wald Anglia, 170 wax, 88-9,91,106,110
Souburg, Walcheren (Netherlands), Thingvellir (Iceland), 66-7,73, Uppland (Sweden), map, 11; weapons, 24,24,25,145; trade in,
205 78 -9,78 -9 , 194-5,196 boat graves in, 17; finds from, 15, 88—9 ,9 1, n o ;s e e also individual
Southampton (England), 27,3 5, 88-9 Thjodhild (wife of Eirik the Red), 179,180; rune-stones in, 35,147, weapons
Spain, 23,32,34,101 190 160,160,164-6, 1 6 4 ,166; Svear in, Wearmouth, Northumbria
spears, 24,25,34,179 Thjórsárdalur (Iceland), 79 13; see also Uppsala; Valsgärde (England), 27,30
Stamford (England), 27,30 Thor (god), in art, 132; cult of, 174, Uppsala (Sweden), maps, 11,66-7, weaving, 120-21, 120—21 ,122
Stamford Bridge (England), Battle of 180-81, 1 8 1 -2 , 185-7,190; 175; as royal seat, 1 3 ,1 7 , 174-5, Westness (Orkney), 27,69
(io 66),27, 35,198 hammer amulets, 1 8 0 , 180-81, 198; sacrifices at, 175; temple at, Wexford (Ireland), 27,28,101
Staraj a Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg, 186,187; in place-names, 181 175,176 ,180 whalebone, 122,122,126
Russia), 88-9,108-9,l62 Thorfinn Karlsefni, winters in Urnes (Norway), map, 11; art style, whetstones, 88—9,107
stave-built houses, 94—5,96,101, Vinland, 84 79 , 1 0 6 ,1 4 6 -7 , 147,150-53, Whitby, Yorkshire (England), 27,30,
207 Thorfinn the Mighty, Earl of 1 5 0 -5 1 ,1 5 3 ,1 9 2 ; church 104
stave-churches, z n , 212,213 Orkney, 69,72 carvings, 138-9, 1 3 8 -9 ,1 5 0 , 212 White Sea, 10 , 88—9
Wicklow (Ireland), 27,28 women, burials, 122,177; dress and Y Viking kingdom of, 19, 30,75
William the Conqueror (Duke jewellery, 114-18 ,114-18; Yaroslav, King of Novgorod- Yorkshire (England), farmstead in
William of Normandy), 24, household activities, 122-4, Kiev, 198 75.75 ?iet exported from, 104,
35 . 12-6 124-5 >see also Oseberg York (England), maps, 23,27, 6 6 -7 , 104 ; sculpture in, 7 5 ,14 2 , 186,
Winchester (England), 2 7 ,161 woodcarving, 1 4 , 1 2 8 -9 , 1 32. z34. 88-9-, coins, 199; as trading 187
wine, 8 8 - 9 , 91,126 1 3 4 -6 , 138-9, 1 3 8 -9 ,1 5 0 ,191 town, 99-100,100; Vikings Ytre Moa (Norway), 1 1 ,1 8 ,19
Wollin (Poland), u , 23, 66—7,88, wool, 88—9, 120, 122 capture, 29; Viking finds at, 19, Yttergärde rune-stone, Uppland
88-9 Wulfhere, Archbishop of York, 22 100,1 0 0 , 10 7,1 1 4 ,1 1 9 ,122-3, IZ 9 j (Sweden), 35,164

Acknowledgments
The publishers would like to thank the 190-1 Ian Stewart and Dave Pugh (after Tourist Board 114 (t) Photo L L /S H M /© FLP: (b) Photo 161 (t) and (c) Courtesy Eva W ilson: (b)
following individuals and organizations for K. Krogh) 38 Royal Norwegian Embassy. London Ann-Mari Olsen/HMB Museum of London
their assistance: 201 Dave Pugh (after Skalk magazine. 39 (tl) and (b) U 00: (tr) Photo WFA/Viking 115 Photo L L /U 0 0 /© FLP 162 ATA
(t = top, b = bottom. I = left, r = right, 1974. ill. J. Kraglund) Ship Museum. Bygdøy/U00 116 (tl) Photo LL/SG S/© FLP: (tr) Photo 1 6 2-3 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA
c = centre) 202, 204 Dave Pugh (after H. Schmidt) 41 National Maritime Museum,London L L /S H M /© FLP: (cl) Photoresources/NMC 165 Photo Gosta Glase
206 Ian Stewart (after H. Schmidt) 42 By courtesy of the Trustees of the British 1 1 7 ,1 1 8 Photos L L /S H M /© FLP 166 (t) Royal Danish Embassy. London: (I)
207 Kevin Middleton Museum, London 120 (t) Photo Bay Hippisley/Counesy Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund: (r) National
ARTWORK 2 08-9 Dave Pugh 43 (t) Photo Vikingeskibshallen i Roskilde: Kulturen, Lund: (b) National Museum of Museum of Antiquities ol Scotland,
Back jacket and page 34 Dave Pugh 209 Dave Pugh (after F. Bau) (c) National Maritime Museum. London Iceland. Reykjavik Edinburgh
11 Eugene Fleury 211 Dave Pugh (after A. Andrén) 48—9 Photo Michael Holford 121 U00 169 ATA
18 Dave Pugh (after E. Bakka) 50 National Maritime Museum. London 122 Photo Ann-Mari Olsen/HMB 170 Photo Michael Holford
23. 27 Eugene Fleury PHOTOGRAPHS 5 1 -3 Photos Michael Holford 123 (c) and (b) Photo LL/Kulturen. L u n d/© 1 7 2 -3 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA
34, 35, 38 Dave Pugh The publishers wish particularly to extend 58 (t) Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archive/U00: FLP: (r) Photo Ann-Mari Olsen/HMB 1 74-5 Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund
40 Venner Artists (after 0. Olsen and their thanks to Lennart Larsen. (b) Photo LL/Royal Coin Cabinet. 126 (c) Photo L L /S H M /© FLP: (b) Photo 175 From Historia de Gentibus
0. Crumlin-Pedersen) Stockholm /© FLP Sten-M. Rosenlund Septentrionalis, Olaus Magnus. 1555
43 Kevin Maddison (after 0. Crumlin- ATA = Antikvarisk Topografiska Arkivet, 59 NMI 127 Ålborg Museum. Denmark 176 Photo James Graham-Campbell
Pedersen) Stockholm 60 (I) Photo Vikingeskibshallen i Roskilde 128 ,1 2 9 (t) Viking Ship Museum, Bygdøy/ 177 From Birka: Die Graber. H. Arbman,
4 4 -5 ,4 6 -7 Venner Artists FLP = Frances Lincoln Publishers 6 0 -1 ,6 2 -3 Photos Michael Holford U00 1943
48 Kevin Maddison HMB = Historisk Museum, Bergen 64 Photo WFA 129 (b) Photo Mike Duffy/York 178 (t) Photo W FA/SHM ; (b) Photo LL/
50 Jenny Smith Universitetet 68 Photo Dennis Courts Archaeological Trust S H M /© FLP
5 2 -3 Kevin Maddison (after B. Almgren) JHA = John Hillelson Agency 69 Photo John Dewar/Sconish Development 130 Photo LL/NMC 179 Photoresources/SHM
5 4 -7 Venner Artists LL = Lennart Larsen Dept 133 Photo Sören Hallgren/SHM 180 Photo L L /S H M /© FLP
6 6 -7 Eugene Fleury NMC = Nationalmuseet. Copenhagen 70 Photo Aerofilms 1 34-5 Photo WFA/Viking Ship Museum. 181 (I) Photo Axel Poignant/Gosforth
70 Dave Pugh (after J. FI. C. Hami Iton) NMI = National Museum of Ireland 72 Photo James Graham-Campbell Bygdøy/U00 Church. Cumbria: (r) Photo Sten-
71 Kevin Maddison SGS = Schleswig-Holsteinisches 73, 74 Photos C M. Dixon 135 Photoresources/UOO M. Rosenlund
75 Dave Pugh (after A. King) Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorp, Schleswig 75 Photo Alan King 136 Photo LL/NMC 182 (tc) and (tr) Photo L L /S H M /© FLP;
77 Dave Pugh (after S. Dahl) SHM = Statens Historiska Museet, 7 6 -7 Photo Erich Hartmann/Magnum/JHA 137 (I), (tr) and (cr) Photos L L /S H M /© (b) Photo LL/Kulturen, L u n d /© FLP
81 Ian Stewart (after M. Stenberger) Stockholm 7 8 -9 Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund FLP: (br) Photo L L /U 0 0 /© FLP 183 WFA/Moesgård. Denmark
8 8 -9 Eugene Fleury U00 = Universitetets Oldsaksamling. Oslo 79 Photo G. Gestsson/National Museum of 138 (t) Courtesy Prof. B. Almgren. Uppsala/ 1 8 4 ,1 8 5 Photos WFA/Manx Museum
92 Dave Pugh (after H. Jankuhn) WFA = Werner Forman Archive Iceland. Reykjavik Viking Ship Museum. Bygdøy/U00: (b) 186 Photo C. M. Dixon/Middleton Church.
9 4-5 Ian Stewart 80 Photos James Graham-Campbell Photo WFA N. Yorks
96 Dave Pugh (after H. Arbman) Front jacket Viking Ship Museum, Bygdøy/ 83 Photo WFA 139 (tl) and (b) Photos L L /N M C /© FLP: 187 Photo LL/NMC
101 Dave Pugh (after B.Ó Riórdaín) U00 84 (t) Photo Parks. Canada; (b) Photo (tr) Photo LL/Trondheim M useum /© FLP 188 (I) and (c) Photo L L /S H M /© FLP; (r)
102 Annie Winterbotham Half-title page Photo Eric Kay L L /N M C /© FLP 140 Photo LL/NMC LL/SG S/© FLP
106 Kevin Maddison (after H. Brinch- Title page Photo G & P Corrigan/Robert 85 © 1965 by Yale University (from The 141 (t) Photo Claus Hansmann/SHM; (b) 189 Photo Christina Gascoigne/Robert
Madsen) Harding Associates Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation by Photo L L /S H M /© FLP Harding Associates
110 .1 1 9 Kevin Maddison Contents page Photo Horst Munzig/Susan R.A. Skelton, T.E. Marston and 1 4 2 .1 4 3 (t) Photos LL/NMC 191 (tl) Photo C. M. Dixon/Hoveringham
120 (I) Kevin Maddison (after Griggs Agency G. D. Painter, publ. by Yale University Press)
143 (b) Photo L L /U 0 0 /© FLP Church. N otts; (r) National Museum of
M. Hoffman): (c) Jenny Smith (after Foreword Photo C. M. Dixon 86-7, 90-1 Photos L L /S H M /© FLP 144 (c) Photo Claus Hansmann/Bayer Iceland, Reykjavik
E. E. Guðjonsson) 8 -9 Photo Paolo Koch/Vision International 93 (t) Photo Dr Uwe Muuss: (b) Photo Nationalmuseum, Munchen; (b)ATA/ 192 Photos LL/SH M /©FLP
121 (t) Jenny Smith: (r) Jenny Smith 10 Photo L L /S H M /© FLP James Graham-Campbell Sigtuna Museum 193 Stofnun Arna Magnussonar. Reykjavik
(after S. K rafft); (b) Jenny Smith (after 1 2-13 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA 97 Photo Avddir. B. Ambrosiani/SHM 145 Photo LL/NMC 1 94-5 Photo C M. Dixon
A. Geijer) 13 Photo Torkild Balslev 9 8 -9 Photo Knut Einar Oskarsen, Kodal. 146 (tr) Photo Claus Hansmann: (b) 197 Courtesy Trondheim Cathedral
1 2 4 -5 ,1 2 6 Kevin Maddison 14 (t) Photoresources/Viking Ship Museum, Norway Photoresources 198 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA
132 Eugene Fleury Bygdøy/U00; (b) Courtesy Prof. B. Almgren, 100 (t) Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund: (b) Photo 147 Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund 199 (br) Photo LL/Royal Coin Cabinet,
136 (I) Kevin Maddison (alter S. Krafft): (c) Uppsala/Viking Ship Museum. BygdØy/U00 Woodmansterne/Yorkshire Museum, York 1 48-9 ATA/SHM S tockholm /© FLP; 'portrait'-head coins
Jenny Smith 1 5 ,1 6 Photos LL/Gustavianum, U ppsala/© 101 NMI 150 Photo Riksantikvaren, Kirkegate 14-18, Photos M ichael Holford/British Museum,
137 ,1 4 0 Jenny Smith FLP 103 Courtesy Per Lundström, Statens Oslo London; others Photos R.A. Gardner/British
142 (I) Jenny Smith (after E. W ilson): (r) 17 Photo L L /S H M /© FLP Sjöhistoriska Museum. Stockholm 151 (t) Photo LL/Ålborg Museum, Denmark: Museum. London
Jenny Smith (after J. Graham-Campbell) 19 Photo George Gerster/JHA 104 (1!) Photo Mogens Bencard/Sydjysk (b) ATA/SHM 200, 2 0 2 -3 . 2 0 4 -5 Photos Torkild Balslev
146 ,1 4 7 Jenny Smith 20-1 Photo C. M. Dixon Universitetscenter, Esbjerg, Denmark: (r) 152 Cambridge University Library/Ms 206 Photo LL/Royal Coin Cabinet,
153 Dave Pugh 22 Photo L L /S H M /© FLP Photo LL/SGS/ © FLP: (bl) Photo Ann- Ff.1.23, f 37 verso S tockholm /© FLP
157 Jenny Smith 24 Photoresources/Middleton Church, Mari Olsen/HMB 153 (t) N M I: (b) Nordiska Museet, 207 Photo courtesy Skalk magazine
1 5 9 ,1 6 0 Dave Pugh N. Yorks 105 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA/NMI Stockholm 208 Photo Dr Uwe Muuss
161 Jenny Smith 25 (I) NMC: (r) Photo LL/Gustavianum, 106 (tl) Photo LL/Kulturen, L u n d /© FLP: 154-5 Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund 210 Photo Mogens Schou Jørgensen.
164 Dave Pugh U ppsala/© FLP (br) Photos LL/SG S/© FLP 156 HMB Copenhagen
167 Jenny Smith 26 Photo Axel Poignant/Lindisfarne Priory 107 (t) UOO: (b) WFA/NMC 157 Photo R.l. Page/Bridekirk Church. 213 Photo WFA
175 (t) Dave Pugh (after S. Lindqvist) Museum 108 Photo Ted Spiegel/JHA Cumbria
Lines on back jacket and page 171
179. 180 ,1 8 2 Kevin Maddison 28, 30 )l) Photos Ann-Mari Olsen/HMB 109 Weidenfeld Er Nicolson Archive/Gävle 3 5 8 (c) Photo Erik Moltke/Antikvarisk
Translation by John Lucas (from Egils Saga,
183 (t) Kevin Maddison: (r) Jenny Smith 30 (r) Photo L L /N M C /© FLP Museum. Sweden Samling. Ribe
trans. C.E. Fell, Everyman, 1975)
1 8 4-5 Dave Pugh 33 U00 110 Photo L L /S H M /© FLP 1 5 8 -9 UOO
187 Kevin Maddison 3 6 -7 Photo Wedigo Ferchland/Danish 1 1 1 ,1 1 2 -1 3 Photos LL/NMC 160 Photo Sten-M. Rosenlund Index by Douglas Matthews

220