Vikings

The name Viking is a borrowed word from the native Scandinavian term for the Norse warriors who raided the coasts of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century. Vikings traveled to the west and Varangians, who were best known as Varangian Guards of Byzantine, to the east. This period of European history (generally dated to 972 - 1066 AD) is referred to as the Viking Age.

The word “Viking” was introduced to the English language with romantic connotations in the 18th century. Today, somewhat controversially, the word is also used as a generic adjective, referring to the Viking Age Scandinavians. The medieval Scandinavian population, in general, is more properly referred to as Norse.

Etymology

The etymology of "Viking" is somewhat unclear. One path might be from the Old Norse word, vík, meaning "bay," "creek," or "inlet," and the suffix -ing, meaning "coming from" or "belonging to." Thus, viking would be a 'person of the bay', or "bayling" for lack of a better word. In Old Norse, this would be spelled vikingr. Later on, the term, viking, became synonymous with "naval expedition" or "naval raid, and a vikingr was a member of such expeditions. A second etymology suggested that the term is derived from Old English, wíc, ie. "trading city" (cognate to Latin vicus, "village").

The word viking appears on several rune stones found in Scandinavia. In the Icelandic sagas, víking refers to an overseas expedition (Old Norse farar i vikingr "to go on an expedition"), and víkingr, to a seaman or warrior taking part in such an expedition. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the 6th or 7th century in the Anglo-Saxon poem, “Widsith.”

In medieval use (eg. Widsith, and the writings of Adam von Bremen), a viking is a pirate, and not a name for the people or culture in general. Indeed, when Scandinavian raiders left their boats, stole horses and rode across country, they were never referred to as "vikings" in English sources.

The word disappeared in Middle English, and was reintroduced as viking during 18th century Romanticism. During the 20th century, the meaning of the term was expanded to refer not only to the raiders, but also to the entire period; it is now, somewhat confusingly, used as a noun both in the original meaning of raiders, warriors or navigators, and sometimes to refer to the Scandinavian population in general. As an adjective, the word is used in expressions like "Viking age," "Viking culture," "Viking colony," etc., generally referring to medieval Scandinavia.

During the last century, speculations began about whether foreign traders, known as varyags who had trade posts along the Russian rivers down to the Byzantine Empire were of Scandinavian origin, and since then, the term has been interpreted also to refer to tradesmen from Scandinavia who established colonies in Russia. Early Scandinavian colonies in North America are also labelled as "Viking" by modern English speakers. It should be noted, however, that no written sources, in the cases of Vinland, Rus, or Varyags, use the term "Viking."

Scandinavians, in general, were not Vikings. They were farmers, fishers and hunters, as were most other people in Europe. As the Scandinavian shores were attacked by enemy forces, they established the defence fleet called ledung, which was also used as protection against Vikings. Though a common practice today, calling all northmen (Scandinavians) Vikings, rather than reserving the word solely for those involved in piracy, can lead to misunderstanding and confusion. As members of the ledung fleet, as well as farmers and fishers now and then, were attacked by Vikings, most Scandinavians probably saw Vikings as their enemies and fought against them with all their effort.

Historical records

The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 787 AD when, according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a group of men from Norway sailed to Portland, in Dorset. There, they were mistaken for merchants by a royal official, and they murdered him when he tried to get them to accompany him to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods. The next recorded attack, dated June 8, 793 AD, was on the monastery at Lindisfarne on the east coast of England. For the next 200 years, European history is filled with tales of Vikings and their plundering.

Vikings exerted influence throughout the coastal areas of Ireland and Scotland, and conquered and colonised large parts of England (see Danelaw). They travelled up the rivers of France and Spain, and gained control of areas in Russia and along the Baltic coast. Stories tell of raids in the Mediterranean and as far east as the Caspian Sea.

Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen records in his book Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, (volume four): - :Aurum ibi plurimum, quod raptu congeritur piratico. Ipsi enim piratae, 'quos illi Wichingos as appellant, nostri Ascomannos regi Danico tributum solvunt. - :"There is much gold here (in Zealand), accumulated by piracy. These pirates, which are called wichingi by their own people, and Ascomanni by our own people, pay tribute to the Danish king."

Rune stones

Rune stones bear the letters or characters of old Teutonic and Scandinavian alphabets, that are supposed to be magical and mysterious at the same time. The runes are an ancient oracle, dating before the New Testament. The runes are the equivalent of the tarot, and the Chinese book of changes. According to Norse mythology, the creation of the runes came about at the beginning of the creation of the world when the first man emerged out of the ice. He was given the name Ymir. Another man was freed from the ice two days later, called Buri. He had a son named Bor who married Bestla, who was the daughter of the giant Bolthum. Bor and Bestla had three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. There was great strife between the offspring of Ymir and the children of Bor and Bestla. Odin led his brothers against Ymir and they killed him. Ever since that time, there has been hatred and enmity between the gods and the giants. Odin and his brothers dragged Ymir's body into the void (Ginnungagap). His flesh became the earth; his blood, the sea; his bones, the mountains; his hair, the trees; and his teeth became the rune stones.

Viking magic was prevalent in Norse culture as it was practiced by diviners, also known as rune masters, magicians, and berserkers (magical warriors). When divining using the runes, a number of stones are drawn at random from a bag, and laid out in a pattern representing the past, present, and future. The pattern of symbols is then interpreted to provide insight and help with decision making. The Vikings had great respect for accomplished runemasters, considering them to be blood relatives to Odin. The traditional costume of a runemaster was a blue cloak and a brass-tipped wooden staff, mirrored in the same image of Odin’s cloak and blackthorn wood staff. However, most of the knowledge and wisdom died with the rune masters. Norse mythology and tradition is filled with magical elements such as earth, air, fire, water, and the spirit of the gods, giants, dwarves and ancestors. Odin is characterized as the god of magic, the god of the runes, and when the rune stones are raised, they are in memory of fallen warriors, making Odin the god of the dead as well.

Yggdrasil is the world ash tree that connects all of the Nine Worlds of Norse mythology, namely, Asgard, Alfheim, Vanheim, Niflheim, Midgard, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, and Hel. The tree survives the torment of Nithog nibbling at its roots, while the stags and goats tear the leaves and bark from the tree. The Norse sprinkle water from Urd's Well upon the roots, which helps the tree stay fresh and green.

Od has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, which he believes is power. He wants to bestow this gift to his followers. In order to discover the meaning of the runes, Odin sacrifices himself with his spear, named Gungnir, on the Yggdrasil, and remains hanging on the tree for nine days to discover the meanings of the runes. On the last day, an eagle drops words out of his mouth, including "egg, sword, and fire." Odin tells the bird that he knows about the existence of these objects already, but his plea is rendered helpless as the eagle flies away. Odin, by being the father of the gods and possessing so much power that he was feared all over Scandinavia, is able to act as the major link between the gods and mankind, passing on knowledge to the Norse through the runes.

Many rune stones in Scandinavia record the names of participants in viking expeditions. Other rune stones mention men who died on viking expeditions. "Today the runes are strange symbols scratched into ancient tools and weapons in some museum showcase; names of warriors, secret spells, even snatches of songs, appearing on objects as diverse as minute silver coins and towering stone crosses, scattered from Yugoslavia to Orkney, from Greenland to Greece." (Ralph W.V. Elliot, Runes)

Icelandic sagas

Norse mythology, Norse sagas and Old Norse literature tell us about their religion through tales of heroic and mythological heroes. However, the transmission of this information was primarily oral, and we are reliant upon the writings of (later) Christian scholars, such as the Icelanders Snorri Sturluson and Sæmundr fróði, for much of this. An overwhelming amount of the sagas were written in Iceland.

Vikings in those sagas are described as if they often struck at accessible and poorly defended targets, usually with impunity. The sagas state that the Vikings built settlements and were skilled craftsmen and traders.

13th century

King Harald I of Norway finally was forced to make an expedition to the west to clear the islands and Scottish mainland of Vikings. Numbers of them fled to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but the Norse sagas are rather subjective in their descriptions, and hence the Vikings in those sagas are sometimes characterized as heroes, later shaping the attitude towards Vikings during the 18th century Romantic period. Still, in Scandinavia, Vikings were not seen as an accepted part of society. They may even have been considered outlaws - several sources name Vikings in association with Jomsborg or Julin, which, according to modern history, was a refugee center for Slavic pirates, as opposed to the descriptions in the Norse saga.

Viking ships and Viking longships

There were no specific "Viking ships" or "Viking longships"; Vikings used any of the common Scandinavian longships. These boats were identical to those used by the Scandinavian defense fleets, known as the ledung. The term "Viking ships" has entered common usage, however, possibly because of its Romantic associations.

It is suspected that most Viking ships had an average length/width ratio of 4.5:1. Scholars also debate whether or not Vikings had cooking fires onboard their ships.

There is no evidence connecting any discovered longship to any particular classical Viking raid. Nor has any "Viking" boat construction site, or harbour, been found or excavated. Thus, our knowledge of the actual boats Vikings used is limited.

The Viking Age

See main article Viking Age.

The period of North Germanic expansion, usually taken to last from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, is commonly called the 'Viking Age.' The Vikings may be seen as late joiners in the Migrations period, and thus the period links Late Antiquity with the high Middle Ages. Geographically, a "Viking Age" may be assigned not only to the Scandinavian lands (modern Denmark, and southern Norway and Sweden), but also to territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly the Danelaw, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Ireland. Contemporary with the European Viking Age, the Byzantine Empire experienced the greatest period of stability (circa 800–1071) it would enjoy after the initial wave of Muslim conquests in the mid-seventh century.

Viking navigators also opened the road to new lands to the north and to the west, resulting in the colonialization of Shetland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and even a short expedition to Newfoundland, circa 1000 C.E.

During three centuries, Vikings appeared along the coasts and rivers of Europe, as raiders, but increasingly also as traders, and even as settlers. From 839, there were Varangian mercenaries in Byzantine service (most famously Harald Hardrada, who campaigned in North Africa and Jerusalem in the 1030s). Important trading ports during the period include Birka, Hedeby, Kaupang, Jorvik, Staraja Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev. Generally speaking, the Norwegians expanded to the north and west, the Danes to England, settling in the Danelaw, and the Swedes (called the Rus) to the east. But the three nations were not yet clearly separated, and still united by the common Old Norse language. The names of Scandinavian kings are known only for the later part of the Viking Age, and only after the end of the Viking Age did the separate kingdoms acquire a distinct identity as nations, which went hand in hand with the christianization. Thus it may be noted, that the end of the Viking Age (9th–11th ct.) for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages.

See also: History of Denmark, List of Danish monarchs, History of Iceland, History of Norway, List of Norwegian monarchs, History of Sweden, List of Swedish monarchs. Viking ship Museum of Norway

Viking invasions, a commercial war ?

According to Joel Supéry, the french author of “Le Secret des Vikings”, the attacks against the frankish empire were not the fact of adventurers looking for gold and silver, but of armies applying a strategy. Long before the beginning of the invasion in 840, Scandinavians were present on the Northern shore of Spain in Asturias where they fight with the local king against the Saracens. It was in 795. In 799, Franks attacked them in Noirmoutier ; in 812, a fleet is seen in front of Perpignan in the Mediterranean Sea. In 816, they’re in Pampelona fighting with navarrese army against the Saracens. In 823 and 825, they are recorded in the Ria Mundaka in Biscaya. According to the author, these Vikings were intending to create a route to the Mediterranean Sea, centre of the world trade.

The main commercial route between the South and the North was the Rhine-Rhone axe. The Franks began a kind of commercial blockade to weaken Danish kingdom. So the Danes decided to create their own route to the south along the Frankish coast. On this route they met the Saracens who were the masters of the Strait of Gibraltar. This route was too risky. This is the reason why they decided to reach the oriental trade across the Pyrenees. At the beginning the route was passing by Mundaka (Guernika), Pampelona and then Tortosa which was the main slave market in Europe. In 840, the attacks began. Not on the Seine but on the Adour.

Gascony fell under their complete control as soon as 844. The chief of the area was the leader of the invasion: Björn who gave his name to Bayonne. En 845, Asgeir began to settle in Saintonge in Aquitania and Hastein occupied Noimoutier in 843. In 845, all the Bay of Biscay was under Danish control.

Then the war in the north of France began with two objectives: weakening King Charles the Bald and preventing the Franks from attacking in the south. In 858, after having crushed the Frankish kingdom, Björn concluded a treaty with Charles the Bald. According to the author, Björn received officially all the country south of the river Garonne which is no longer mentioned in Frankish annals after that.

The following year, Björn captured the king of Navarre to obtain a treaty allowing the Danes to cross Navarre to reach river Ebro and Tortosa. Then, he sailed with Hastein to the Mediterranean Sea. While Hastein was destroying the trade in the Rhine valley and Italy, he attacked Constantinople after having made the junction with the Swedish Varegues coming across Russia. He obtained a commercial treaty from the Basileus to attract the trade from the Rhone to the Ebro. In 863, Dorestad in Frisia, the main commercial place on the Rhine was definitively destroyed. The first Viking war was over: they had created a new road and destroyed the older one.

Then a new war began. The chiefs tried to imitate the success of Björn in Gascony and to create their own overseas Kingdom: Northumbria, Mercia, Frisia, Aquitaine, Bretagne and Normandy were concerned by these attempts of Viking settlements.

Gascony stayed under Vikings’ control for 140 years. Their army was defeated in 982 by armies from Gascony, Périgord and Navarre. The Gascons of Nordic origin were allowed to stay in the country which had become rich under their rule, but they were condemned not to mix with the others. They became the Agots or Cagots. Their presence explains why Basks have so many traditions like whale hunting with Nordic origins… and why they reached America one hundred years before Christopher Colombus.

Decline

After decades of trade and settlement, Christianity was introduced into Scandinavia by the 11th century, and the process of Christianization was mostly completed during the Middle Ages. However, elements of the old faith and secret blóts remained until the 19th century (and played a role in the emergence of Asatru in the mid 20th century). The influence of the Norse, seeing themselves then as part of wider European civilization, as well as technical advances in warfare, made the Viking raids less desirable and less profitable, and eventually the political structures based on them were replaced by structures based more on continental feudalism.

Modern revivals

See also 19th century Viking revival.

Early modern publications, dealing with what we now call Viking culture, appeared in the 16th century, e.g. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Olaus Magnus, 1555), and the first edition of the 13th century Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus in 1514. The pace of publication increased during the 17th century with Latin translations of the Edda (notably Peder Resen's Edda Islandorum of 1665).

Romanticism

According to the Swedish writer, Jan Guillou, the word Viking was popularized, with positive connotations, by Erik Gustaf Geijer in the poem, The Viking, written at the beginning of the 19th century. The word was taken to refer to romanticized, idealized naval warriors, who had very little to do with the historical Viking culture. This renewed interest of Romanticism in the Old North had political implications. A myth about a glorious and brave past was needed to give the Swedes the courage to retake Finland, which had been lost in 1809 during the war between Sweden and Russia. The Geatish Society, of which Geijer was a member, popularized this myth to a great extent. Another author who had great influence on the perception of the Vikings was Esaias Tegnér, another member of the Geatish Society, who wrote a modern version of Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna, which became widely popular in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and Germany.

A focus for early British enthusiasts was George Hicke, who published a Linguarum vett. septentrionalium thesaurus in 1703–1705. During the 18th century, British interest and enthusiasm for Iceland and Nordic culture grew dramatically, expressed in English translations as well as original poems, extolling Viking virtues and increased interest in anything Runic that could be found in the Danelaw, rising to a peak during Victorian times.

Richard Wagner's works are strongly influenced by Norse mythology.

Fascism

The Romanticist heroic Viking ideal and the Wagnerian mythology also appealed to the Germanic supremacist thinkers of Nazi Germany as reflected, for example, in the runic emblem of the SS, the neo-Nazi youth organization Wiking-Jugend, and its Odal rune symbol (see also fascist symbolism).

Living History

Since the 1960s, there has been rising enthusiasm for historical reenactment. While the earliest groups had little claim for historical accuracy, the seriousness and accuracy of re-enactors has increased dramatically during the 1990s, including many re-enactment groups concentrating on an accurate representation of the Viking Age.

Myths about Vikings

File:DenmarkViking.jpg

Danish Viking Toy

Horned helmets

There is little evidence that the Vikings on any occasion wore horned helmets. Apart from two or three representations of helmets with protrusions that may be either snakes or horns, no depiction of Viking Age warriors' helmets, and no actually preserved helmet, has horns. The idea of horned Viking helmets is, rather, a latter-day myth created by national romantic ideas in Sweden at the end of the 19th century, notably the Geatish Society, blending the Viking Age with glimpses of the Nordic Bronze Age some 2000 years earlier for which actual horned helmets, probably for ceremonial purposes, are attested both in petroglyphs and by actual finds (See Bohuslän [1]). The cliche was perpetuated by cartoons like Hägar the Horrible and Vicky the Viking.

Skull cups

The use of human skulls as drinking vessels is also unhistorical. The rise of this myth can be traced back to a mistranslation of an Icelandic kenning. In the Latin translation of the Krákumál by Magnús Ólafsson (in Ole Worm's Runer seu Danica literatura antiquissima of 1636), warriors drinking ór bjúgviðum hausa [from the curved branches of skulls, i.e. from horns] were rendered as drinking ex craniis eorum quos ceciderunt [from the skulls of those whom they had slain]. (Scandinavian skalle: skal means simply "shell" or "bowl".) The skull-cup allegation has some history also in relation with other tribes. The Scythians, for example, are reported by Herodotus and Strabo to have drunk from the skulls of their enemies.

Uncleanliness

The image of wild-haired, dirty savages, sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture, has hardly any base in reality. The Vikings used a variety of tools for personal grooming such as combs, tweezers, razors or specialised "ear spoons". In particular, combs are among the most frequent artifacts from Viking Age graves, and one can conclude that a comb was the personal equipment of every man and woman. The Vikings also used soap, long before it was reintroduced to Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

The Vikings in England even had a particular reputation of excessive cleanliness, due to their custom of bathing once a week, on Saturdays (as opposed to the local Anglo-Saxons). As for the Rus', Ibn Rustah explicitly notes their cleanliness, while Ibn Fadlan is disgusted by the women sharing the same vessel as the men to wash their faces in the morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is thus probably motivated by ideas of personal hygiene particular to the Muslim world (for instance, Muslims are required to wash only with running water), while the very example intended to convey the disgusting customs of the Rus' at the same time records that they did in fact wash every morning.

Famous Vikings

Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1976). T*Askold and Dir (legendary Varangian conquerors of Kiev)
Björn Ironside (pillaged in Italy and son of Ragnar Lodbrok)
Bo Pedersen, son of Eric the Rude, plundered ladies, gentlemen and animals of england.
Egill Skallagrímsson (popular icelandic warrior and skald, see also Egils saga)
Erik the Red (discoverer of Greenland)
Gardar Svavarsson (discoverer of Iceland)
Guthrum (colonised England)
Harald Finehair (founder and first king of Norway; some dispute, as part of the etymological dispute discussed above, whether he really merits the label "Viking" at all)
Harald Hardrada (king of Norway and member of the Varangian Guard)
Ingvar the Far-Travelled (the leader of the last great Swedish viking expedition, which pillaged the shores of the Caspian Sea).
Ivar the Boneless (disabled son of Ragnar Lodbrok who, despite having to be carried on a shield, nevertheless conquered York)
Ingólfur Arnarson (colonised Iceland)
Leif Eriksson (discoverer of Vinland)
Oleg of Kiev (conquered Kiev, founded Kievan Rus' and attacked Constantinople)
Ragnar Lodbrok (captured Paris)
Rollo of Normandy (founder of Normandy)
Rurik (founder of the Rus' rule in Eastern Europe)
Skagul Toste (the first Viking to exact the Danegeld)
Styrbjörn Sterki (conqueror of Jomsborg)
Thorfinn Karlsefni (colonizer of Vinland)

- Source: “Famous Vikings of Northern Europe by Harmondsworth: Penguin. New edition 1990 by Penguin Books. ISBN 0140206701.

Bibliography

Brøndsted, Johannes (1960). The Vikings, trans. Kalle Skov. Harmondsworth: Penguin. New translation 1965. ISBN 0140204598.
Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1964). Gods and Myths he Viking Road to Byzantium. London: Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0049400495.
Graham-Campbell, J. (date?). The Viking World.
Rosedahl, E. (date?). Viking Age Denmark.
Sawyer, P. H. (date?). Medieval Scandinavia
Sawyer, P. H. (1962). The Age of the Vikings

External links

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