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facts &

From their origins & conquests to their legacy

Welcome to

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The content in this bookazine has previously appeared in the Carlton books Viking
World: The Age of Seafarers and Sagas and The Viking Experience
All About History Book Of Vikings Second Edition 2015 Imagine Publishing Ltd

Part of the

bookazine series



Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII




he great white sail cracked as the

vicious Atlantic wind lashed against
it, but still the ship sailed on. Long and
sleek, the warship, crafted from mighty oak,
crashed through the waves, sending a sharp
spray of water across the deck. The men inside
rowed as one, their mighty muscles straining as
they plunged the oars deep into the water and
drove the ship forward through the turbulent
waves. Their strength alone brought the ship
to land and they poured out onto the beach.
Dressed in thick woollen tunics, the warriors
were armed with an array of weapons, from
long sharpened spears to hefty battle-axes.
With a booming voice one man yelled to the
others, thrusting his sword into the air, and
the rest bellowed in response. Then onward
he ran, as the united force thundered uphill
against the billowing wind. Their destination?
A coastal monastery bursting full of gold, gems
and hefty food supplies ripe for the taking, and
only a collection of quiet, unassuming monks
to protect it.
This image of monstrous invaders laying
siege to innocent monasteries and pillaging
them of their precious items is the irst one
that leaps to mind when many are confronted
with the word Viking. The portrayal of the

Norse tribesmen as rapists and pillagers is so

prevailing that its often forgotten that the word
Viking itself means to go on an expedition. It
is easy to fall into the assumption that these
people were nothing more than pirates taking
from those too weak to defend themselves. And
it is undeniable that this happened: the Viking
invaders sailed from Scandinavia to coasts of
the British Isles and beyond, invading villages
and monasteries, killing the inhabitants and
stealing their riches. Its spoken about in irsthand accounts and its still being evidenced
today in the reams of Viking hoards discovered
from anxious townsfolk who hurried to hide
their riches from the merciless invaders.
However, this only tells half the story. Two
things powered the Viking civilisation: the
vicious raids theyre famous for, and something
else trade. Not only did Vikings set up new
colonies in the lands they invaded, but they also
created powerful trade routes that helped their
nation to become one of the most prosperous in
the world.
For the majority of the year, the same Vikings
who had pillaged the towns worked the land,
tirelessly toiling in the ield, or creating intricate
and valuable ornaments and jewellery to fund
their blossoming civilisation.

Viking Raiders


Meet Scandinavias most

terrifying plunderers
Erik the Red 951 1003

Infamous for: Being

exiled from Iceland for
murder. He went on to
colonise Greenland

Guthrum Unknown 890

Infamous for: Waging
war against the king
of the West Saxons
Alfred the Great

Ingvar the Far-Travelled

Infamous for:
Pillaging the shores
of the Caspian Sea

Rodulf Haraldsson

Unknown 873
Infamous for:
Leading raids in
Britain, France
and Germany

Ivar the Boneless

Infamous for:
Invading AngloSaxon kingdoms of
England using the
Great Heathen Army

"Most people know that

Vikings did not actually
wear horned helmets,
yet for some reason the
myth persists"





enturies before Christopher Columbus

would stumble upon the land now
known as America, the Vikings had
claimed the Atlantic Ocean as their own
backyard. They had mastered Russias river
system and reached the Middle East; their
impressive voyages helped them to become
leaders of a rapidly developing world and this
new Viking civilisation thrived on the power of
a single creation: the ship.
The entire Viking society was built around
their ships, which were bigger, lighter and
faster than any before. These vessels had been
perfected over many years, with the power to
brave the vicious storms of the Atlantic Ocean,
but also the sleek construction to skim through
shallow rivers. These powerful and eicient
ships enabled their mighty passengers to create
colonies all over the world, and the building and
maintaining of these vessels became the basis
of Viking society.
Vikings were using their mighty sea power
to trade around the coast of Europe while
the British Empire was merely a collection of
scattered kingdoms unable to defend their
shores. The Viking sailors were aware that it
was often easier to take the same journey by
water rather than land, with some journeys
taking ive days by sea, compared
to a month on land, and they
used this to their advantage.
Longer voyages were carried
out by those settling in strange
and exciting foreign lands, and the
Viking civilisation spread to Iceland,
Greenland, and even to Canada and
North America.
The image of a Viking longboat
crashing through the waves with its
ierce dragon igurehead and its long,
sleek curves is certainly an inspiring one,
but for those onboard, life was not quite
so glamorous. With no shelter, at night the
sailors used the sail as a makeshift tent that
they would sleep under, shivering beneath
blankets or animal skin sleeping bags. The
only sustenance would be dried or salted

meat with water, beer or sour milk to drink.

The sinking of vessels was no great tragedy,
but rather expected on long journeys. There
would be no rescue sent as usually nobody
knew about sunken ships for weeks, months
or even years. It was not unusual for any
number of ships to go missing on voyages
across the brutal Atlantic Ocean. When Erik
the Red travelled to Greenland, only 14 of his
original 25 ships managed to arrive safely.
However, it was the determination and
hardiness of the voyagers willing to take
these risks that led the Vikings to valuable
and exotic treasures and trade lying along
the coastlines of the world. Toward the end
of the 8th century, Viking voyagers began
an invasion of England that would forever
determine the fate of the island nation. By 860
this pioneering spirit led them to the assault
of Constantinople, then some 20 years later, in
885, Viking ships attacked the mighty city of
Paris. Driven by the quest for trade, territory,
plunder and a thirst for adventure, the impact
of these historic voyages can still be felt
around the world today.

Frightening figurehead
The front of the ship was often
decorated with a carving of an
animal head, usually a mix
between a dragon and a snake.
These figureheads were removable
and would only be put up when
the ship was approaching land, as
they risked heavy damage while
out at sea.

Woollen sail
Longships featured
one large square sail
approximately ten
metres wide. These
were most likely made
from wool, though no
sails have survived to
confirm this. To keep
the sails shape when
it got wet, the wool
was covered with crisscrossing leather strips.

Wooden hull
All Viking ships were made in the
same way, using planks of oak or pine
overlapped and nailed together. The ships
were then reinforced and made watertight
by using tarred wool or other animal furs
to fill in the gaps between the planks.

Viking Raiders

Steering oar
This rudder-like oar, also known
as a steerboard, was attached
to the back of the ship on the
starboard side. It was used to
steer the ship and would require a
large amount of physical exertion
compared to modern alternatives.
The position of the steerboard
is where the term starboard
originated from.

Keel for strength

The keel of the ship would be made first
and provided the ship with strength
beneath the waterline, while also allowing
navigation in shallow waters. Sometimes
ships would feature a false outer keel,
which would take the brunt of the wear
when ships were drag ged onto beaches.

Oars for speed

Oars differed in length
depending on where they
would be used. There were no
seats on Viking ships, so the
oarsmen sat on storage chests.
Oars were usually used to gain
speed quickly when near a
coast or in a river, then stored
out of place when out at sea.


Small hold

The longship was designed for war, so it was vital for

it to be fast. Because of this, they had a small loading
capacity, with room for only high value goods and
booty. The merchant ships would be able to carry far
more cargo, with room for livestock.


These were holes for the oars

that ran along the entire
length of the ship on both
sides. The holes would also
be used to tie shields in place,
but only when the ships were
in port as the risk of losing
their vital protection while
the ship was in motion was
too great.

to make
to others who wished
the same jou
The only tools Viking
Before som
re bor
needed we
explorers in history we
le, a sun-shadow board
They would For examp
Vikings had already nav
to check
rld. But
would be used at noon
their way around the wo
sition of the stars
whether the shi
with no compasses, sat
and even the colour
used on
A sun-stone
of the
or radios, how did this
s when the Sun s not
to map the of the
m indication foggy day
Scandinavians manage
The answer
visible. This stone would
globe so impressively?
y were to land.
on of

ht expect
colour to indica
is simpler than you mig
rney was complete,
n rely
ir voyage the Sun beh
experience. Rather tha
sailors would recount the
devices, Viking travellers

Na vi gati o n

A dramatic Viking rai

on the Engli sh coast


hey had arrived in the dead of night;

the darkness had been so thick that
the monks had not seen their ship
into the halls, waking the monks from their
beds with shrill cries of The demons are here!
Theyre coming! Theyre coming! Some of
the brothers began to scream for help, while
others leapt into action, grabbing precious
items and concealing them in the folds of their
cloaks. But already the doors were down and
already the invaders were here. They were huge
bigger than any man the humble brethren
had ever seen with their wild blond hair
and mighty weapons grasped in hand. They
leapt upon the monks immediately, hacking
at their bodies with a frenzied ferocity. Some
pleaded for mercy, some did not have time
to plead. There was no time for negotiations;
how can one negotiate with pure, unbridled
violence? There was only death, destruction

and blood as they swung their axes and jabbed

their swords. One brother alone had managed
to escape the massacre. He speedily weaved
through the igures and threw himself down
into the tall grass outside. He watched as body
after body was thrown from the doors of his
home; he watched as men still alive were cast
of the high clif into the sea; and he watched
as the heathens set the holy walls alight with
lame. The hot wind lashed against his face and
robes in the lickering darkness. He grasped a
golden chalice in his hands numbly, the only
thing he had been able to rescue before leeing.
The invaders had the rest of it, all the precious
items loaded into sacks on their large ships.
And almost as quickly as they had arrived, they
slipped away from the shore and returned to
the darkness.
In 793, a Viking crew sailing near northeast
England raided a Christian monastery at
Lindisfarne. For the Vikings the strange,
exposed building packed full of valuable

treasures was an opportunity too good to miss,

but for many in England this shocking and
unprovoked attack marked the beginning of
the scourge of Viking raids. These sporadic but
violent assaults continued across the coasts
of England, and by 855 a force known as the
Great Heathen Army had arrived in East Anglia.
The army made their way across the country,
capturing cities as they went, overrunning
and overpowering the land. The Scandinavian
warriors also launched invasions across the
coasts of Ireland and all over mainland Europe.
These raids even stretched to the Baltic Sea
and Persia. The initial reasons for such rapid
expansion are hotly contested between
historians, with some believing the raids were a
brutal response to the spread of Christianity, or
that the Scandinavian population grew too large
for their land or perhaps they were the actions
of men simply drawn by the thrill of adventure.
Whatever the reasons, the invasions left a
lasting scar on those who lived to see them.

Viking Raiders


VIKINGS DID not strike

haphazardly; instead their raids
were planned down to the finest detail.
They would first identify a weak target
to attack along the coasts which they
knew perfectly. Because they had the
fastest ships in the world they would
launch their attack without any prior
warning, ensuring that no help could
reach their targets in time. Towards
the mid-9th century these attacks had
escalated to great fleets of three to four
hundred ships.

To see more of Stian Dahlslett s work visit




VIKING SHIPS were designed to

row up river, but if the target was
some distance away they would leave
their ships and travel by horse. With
no horses on the ships, they would
raid nearby villages for available
mounts. These would be used to
transport themselves and their booty
across the land.

THE PIOUS and humble

monks did not stand a chance
faced with their fierce opponents
armed with superior weapons. The
well-trained Vikings would launch
a sudden furious, vicious attack on
the monastery, slaying the holy men.
Some would be stripped naked, and
cast outside, some taken prisoner, and
others thrown into the sea.


ONCE THE monks were dealt

with, Vikings ravaged and
pillaged everything they could. They
plundered any valuables they could
get their hands on, including storages
of food, but especially precious relics.
However, they often ignored the
incredibly valuable bibles. Once they
had looted the buildings they set fire
to the monasteries and the villages
surrounding them.




LADEN DOWN with their

prisoners and booty, the Vikings
would ride back to their ships, load
them and sail away. They would
later sell the gold, jewels and sacred
emblems, and the monks would also
fetch a high price in the European
slave market.


Vikings did not, in

fact, have horned
helmets. Instead,
they were round
with a guard around
the eyes and nose.
There is only one
complete Viking
helmet in existence
others may have
been passed down
through families
then sold for scrap.


Long hair was

favoured by both
men and women.
It would also be
acceptable to shave
ones hair or to
wear it rolled in a
tight bun near the
nape of their neck.
Men would also
carefully groom
their moustaches
and beards.


Mail shirts or metal

armour would have
been very expensive
for the average
raider, as would
leather, so these
were reserved only
for those of high
status. Ordinary
Vikings likely
fought wearing their
everyday clothes,
made from wool.


Shoes were most

often made from
one long piece
of leather sewn
to the shape of
the wearers foot.
Leather straps
would be used to
secure the boot
to the foot, and
thick woollen socks
were worn to keep
heat in.

The attack on Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne is a holy island of the northeast

coast of England, and was a Christian hub
during the Middle Ages. However, in 793
Viking raiders sent a wave of dismay to
wash over Christians worldwide when they
invaded the monastery there and destroyed
Gods church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter. Although the
attack was not the irst in the country, it was unusual in that it attacked the
heart of the Christian nation in the north. A contemporary scholar wrote,
Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now sufered
altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God.


Round shields were

common and were
made from light
wood, such as fir
or poplar and were
reinforced with
leather or iron
around the edge.
Round shields could
get as large as
120cm in diameter,
but most were
around 75 to 90cm.


What were the goods worth?

= 1 COW AND 1 OX















Viking Raiders

Raiders or traders?
Stuart Perry, or Fastulf
Geraltsson as he is known
to the public, is the Jorvik
Groups Interactive Team
Leader. He manages a team of
Viking interactives at Jorvik
Viking Centre and archaeology
and history interpreters across
the groups five attractions


Vikings were
Evidence shows that
ny go ods
exp ert traders of ma



lthough raiding and pillaging

provided a quick intake of wealth,
it was not a stable way to live
or to build a civilisation. Instead, the
Vikings dedicated far more of their time
to building up a prosperous and powerful
trading network. Because of their
superior ship-building skills they were
able to travel to trade in faraway lands,
obtaining a host of exotic and valuable
goods. Their specially designed trading
ships were able to carry up to 35 tonnes of
cargo, including silver and even livestock.
Trading markets began to emerge
along the west Baltic Sea in the mid-8th
century where people came from far and
wide to trade an array of goods. As these markets
lourished, traders decided to settle permanently
along the routes and they transformed into trading
towns. Birka in Sweden, Kaupang in Norway and
Hedeby in Denmark all grew to be prosperous and
bustling trading settlements, with the inhabitants
all working as craftsmen and merchants. Prosperous
trading routes also emerged along the British
Isles, with York and Dublin two of the ports that
developed into major trading centres.
As the trade boom increased the Vikings travelled
further aield, across the Baltic Sea and along the
Russian rivers. They founded more trading towns in
Kiev and Novgorod. The Viking traders even went as
far as Istanbul, the capital of the mighty Byzantine
Empire across the Black Sea. This perilous journey
was one only the Vikings dared attempt, through

vicious rapids and battling hostile natives. The

Vikings continued their trading journey inland,
bringing their goods to Jerusalem and Baghdad.
The lure of the Silk Road and the exotic riches of the
East were too good to resist, and Vikings met with
traders from the Far East in their trading centres in
Russia, trading fur and slaves for silk and spices.
Silver coins were the most common form of
payment, but this was unlike todays currency
where diferent coins are worth a particular value.
The coins were weighed in scales to determine
their value; this is because a lot of coins were
melted down and crafted into intricate and
beautiful jewellery to trade on. The great extent of
the Viking trade network can be seen today in the
hoards of silver coins, created in England, which
have been found in Sweden, not to mention the
40,000 Arabic coins and the 38,000 German coins
also uncovered there. Nordic bowls, Mediterranean
silk and Baltic axe heads have even been
discovered buried under English soil.
This vast and illustrious trade network
attracted a wealth of eager and talented artists
and craftsmen. Viking bead-makers would import
glass from Western Europe to create an array of
simple and decorative beads for the wealthy to
adorn themselves with, while the ample supply
of amber from the Baltic lands was fashioned
into pendants and playing pieces. Skilled Viking
craftsmen transformed their imported bronze to
ine ornaments and mass-produced brooches, and
deer antlers could even be used to make delicate
and beautiful combs.


Sol 90 Images; Abigail Daker; Alamy

What was the motivation behind the Viking

invasions? Were they simply bloodthirsty
raiders, or did they have more civilised aims?
The motivation behind the Viking invasions was
simple; farmland. The Vikings, or Norsemen
which is a more accurate name since a Viking
was a sea-borne raider that specialised in hitand-run attacks were searching for land.
Scandinavia is not rich in arable land there
is simply too much water and too many
mountainous regions to support a population
over a certain size. The Vikings had been
raiding the coast of England since 793 the
famous attack on Lindisfarne and would
have had plenty of opportunity to see the
abundance of good farmland, healthy crops and
fat cattle all over the country. Combine this
with the riches presented in the monasteries
and towns they were so fond of raiding and
England became a perfect area for expansion.
As for being bloodthirsty raiders, there is
that element to the culture, yes, but it was
not simply for violence that the Vikings went
raiding. It was for profit. Rarely would the
Vikings destroy an entire settlement, and the
reason is simple; they wanted to come back
and do it again! Raiding was a job for young
impetuous men but it was not the main focus
of life in early medieval Scandinavia. It is this
message that we convey at every opportunity
here at Jorvik Viking Centre.

Chapter I

ISCOVER HOW the Scandinavian nations came

to be, and learn about the Viking origin myth,
alongside the reality of the Stone Age settlers.

Chapter I


CCORDING TO Snorri Sturluson,

writing in the thirteenth century, the
origin of the Norse gods can be traced
to a Trojan prince called Tror, grandson of King
Priam. Trors many times-great grandson was
Woden, whom the Norse called Odin. Odin had
the gift of prophecy and knew that if he travelled
to north west Europe he would be remembered
for all time, so he set of with a large following.
Odin stopped in Frankia where he fathered
three sons, who were the origin of the Vlsung

dynasty, known to many from Wagners Ring

Cycle. Then he travelled to Denmark, where he
established his son Skild as king and from him
the Skildung dynasty, which we know from
the Old English epic Beowulf, was descended.
Odin then travelled to Sweden, where he
established himself before moving on and
setting up sons as rulers of Sweden and Norway.
Thus, according to Scandinavian legend, all
rulers in the north were descended from Odin,
and, because of his success, Odin became
revered as a god.


In reality, settlers in Scandinavia irst arrived
in the Stone Age, following the end of the last
ice age. These settlers were nomadic huntergatherers, who followed the reindeer herds
and exploited the resources of vast territorial
areas up to approximately 100,000 square
kilometres (39,000 square miles). They had
reached southern Sweden by 14,000 years ago
and, over the following 5,000 years, worked
their way northwards, adapting their lifestyles

Bronze Age rock car vin

gs fro m Vitlyck e,
Sweden, of ships. Ro we
rs are depicted
kn eeli ng in them as up
right strok es. On e
ship in the centre has a
cre w that includes
wa rriors blo wing lur hor
ns. The design
of the ships is the same
as that of the Iro n
Age Hjortspring boat.

Origins of the scandinavian Nations


An iron helmet decorated with bronze plaques.

The helmet was found at Vendel, Sweden, and
dates from the mid-si xth centur y. The plaques
depict warrio rs fighting and may represent an
initiation ritual that the wearer underwent.
to the coastal landscape in which they found
themselves. From c. 8000 BC6000 BC, the
landscape of Scandinavia changed to resemble
more the landscape we know today, as forests
started to cover the tundra and the sea level
rose. Around 4000 BC agricultural practices
from central Europe began to be adopted,
although they did not become important
elements of the economy until c. 3100 BC.
Space for farms was cleared by burning the
vegetation, crops like wheat and barley began
to be cultivated and domesticated animals
were kept.
The Nordic Bronze Age (c. 1700 BC500 BC)
began rather later than the Bronze Age in the
rest of Europe. The raw materials of bronze (tin
and copper) were not available in Scandinavia
and must have been imported from the south.
The domesticated horse was also introduced to
Scandinavia at this time, quickly becoming an
important part of daily and religious life, as it
continued to be in the Viking Age.
Evidence for trade with distant countries
in the Bronze Age is present in the form
of swords from Germany, Hungary and

Romania, and miniature axes from the

eastern Mediterranean or Bulgaria. Similarly,
Scandinavian amber has been found as far
aield as Mycenae and Pylos in Greece. This
clearly shows that the Scandinavians did not
live in isolation from the rest of Europe and
that trade was an important part of life, as it
was later too.
Ritual life is represented by inds like the
Trundholm sun chariot (c. 1800 BC1600
BC) , discovered in Denmark in 1902,
which consists of a statue of a horse
and a bronze disc to represent
the sun, both mounted on a
wheeled carriage. Examples
of the lur, a type of curved
bronze horn, have been found
in Scandinavia and are also
depicted in petroglyphs, rock
carvings that show various
aspects of Scandinavian life.
Some of these petroglyphs are
thought to include igures who are
precursors of the gods depicted in
Norse mythology.

"Most people know that Vikings did not actually wear horned
helmets, yet for some reason the myth persists"

Most people know that Vikings did not wear

horned helmets, yet the myth persists and
the image of a stout Norseman with horned
helmet still appears in, among other things,
advertising and cartoons. This image arose in
the nineteenth century as part of Scandinavian
romanticism and has been credited to Carl
Doepler, who designed the costumes for the
irst production of Wagners Ring Cycle. Before
this time, and before the coining of the term
Viking Age in 1876, horned helmets were
the province of early Germanic warriors. They
had been depicted with these helmets from at
least the sixteenth century onwards, because
early scholars assumed that descriptions of
Celts wearing adorned helmets also included
the Germanic tribes. So, when the Viking took
centre stage in popular culture, he was quickly
associated with the horned helmet, even
though no examples of Viking Age helmets
with horns have ever been found.
Horned helmets do exist, however. A Bronze
Age statuette of a kneeling igure wearing a
helmet with large curving horns on its sides
was found at Grevensvnge in Denmark. Two
helmets found at Viks in Denmark, dating
from c. 1000 BC, conirmed that horned
helmets existed. Many of the Bronze Age

A helmet with horns dating from

c. 1000 BC. It, and another like it,
was found at Viks, Denmark. The
helmets were probably used in rituals
rather than in battle, because they show
no battle damage.


Chapter I

The body of the Graub

alle man fro m the
thi rd centur y bc, who
was preser ved in a
peat bog nea r Graub
alle, Denmark. Hi s
throat had been cut
and he was buried
nak ed in the bog.

petroglyphs also depict igures with horned

helmets. It is probable that these helmets were
not intended for use in combat but were worn
for ceremonial or ritual occasions, because
their functionality is severely impaired by the
presence of the horns.



The Iron Age in Scandinavia (c. 500 BCAD
1100) extends from the Bronze Age until the
end of the Viking Age. Before the Viking Age, it
is generally divided into three periods: the
Pre-Roman Iron Age (500 BC1 BC), the Roman
Iron Age (1 BCAD 400) and the Germanic
Iron Age (AD 400800). These divisions
correspond to the relationship that Scandinavia
had with the Roman Empire. The period is
characterized by social change from more
egalitarian tribal societies to the chiefdoms and
petty kingdoms that would become medieval
states as time progressed.
The Pre-Roman Iron Age shows great
contrasts in diferent areas. In the north, in
Finnmark, Norway, hunting and ishing were
the primary means of subsistence, as had been
the case for thousands of years. In the south in
Jutland, Denmark, for example villages that
were supported by agriculture and animal
husbandry had grown up. Near these villages,
ield systems that consist of larger ields divided
into smaller plots for individual farms have
been found. As the period progressed, large
areas of forest were cleared for new villages and

farms, and the soil appears to have become

exhausted, resulting in the abandonment of
farms and villages. Roman authors tell of a
southward migration by Germanic peoples,
leading to great battles with the Romans. It
seems likely that this was in part a result of
the poorer growing conditions and greater
diiculty in feeding people.
During the Roman Iron Age, Scandinavia
suddenly found itself on the border of the
Roman Empire. The Empire oicially ended
at the Rhine, but the tribes to the north of
it became Romanized and that culture was
passed on northwards by them. The
Romans sought alliances with the
Scandinavians so that they
could access the resources
of the north. They also
employed Germanic
to ight other barbarian
tribes in Europe. Burials

The face of Tollun d Man, a body

found preserved in a peat bog near
Tollun d, Denmark. He was killed
in the fourth century BC and still
had the noose that killed him
aroun d his neck.

show that the result of this contact was an

increase in the wealth of those at the top of the
social tree. They were buried with expensive
Roman artefacts as well as their own local
goods, while other burials remained as poor
as they had in earlier periods. This suggests
that kingdoms were more fully emerging now
under the leadership of these most wealthy and
powerful people.
The Germanic Iron Age followed the fall of
the Western Roman Empire, which resulted
from the migrations of Germanic tribes. At the
beginning of this period, the Anglo-Saxons had
just established their kingdoms in England,
while the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in

Origins of the scandinavian Nations

Detail of a male face wit

h curly hai r and
a moustache fro m the Ea
rly Iro n Age
Dejbjerg Wagon, whi ch
was sac rifi ced in
a bog in West Jutlan d. Th
e metal fittings
all have male faces lik e
this one.

Spain and southern France, and the Franks

in France and Germany were the strongest
kingdoms in Europe. These kingdoms all
claimed descent from Scandinavian tribes
and their leaders claimed to be descended
from the Germanic gods. Many medieval
legendary Icelandic sagas describe events of
this time, such as Hrlfs saga kraka, which
contains characters that are also described
in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It was also
in this period that the characteristic interlace
decoration that is associated with Viking Age
iconography developed.
This was an important time in which the
conditions for the Viking Age were forged.
The economic and political conlicts that
developed towards the end of the Germanic
Iron Age may have been the stimulus for the
irst Viking raids, as the diferences between the
Christian kingdoms to the south and the pagan
Scandinavian kingdoms became greater.


The discovery at Hjortspring Mose in southern
Jutland of a wooden plank boat from the Early
Iron Age (c. 350 BC300 BC) demonstrated the
warlike nature of Iron Age Scandinavians.

The Hjortspring boat was sacrificed in a bog together

with a collection of weapons, armour and animals. It
probably carried a crew of 22 men and was paddled
rather than rowed.

The boat contained many shields, shield

bosses, iron spearheads, iron swords and the
remains of several coats of mail. It was also
found with wooden paddles that would have
been used to propel the boat, wooden pots
(pyxides) that may have contained war paint, a
blacksmiths bellows and other everyday items.
A horse, a dog, a lamb and a calf were included
in the burial.
This area is now a peat bog, but would have
been a small lake at the time of the burial.
The ind has been interpreted as a sacriice
involving the weapons and armour of a
defeated invading warband. Analysis of the
inds suggests that the warband would have
consisted of about ten leaders, with swords,
and 8090 men, armed with spears. They
would have been carried in four boats,
including the one that was sacriiced in

The Trundholm Sun

Chariot from Denmark
may have been used as a
calendar but is probably
also of religious
significance. It dates to
c. 1800 BC.

Hjortspring Mose. The boat is of unusual

design, with two up-curved spines joined by a
stick at both prow and stern. These are purely
decorative elements that have no functional
use in the design of the boat. Its total length is
approximately 21 metres (68 feet) from stem to
stern. It is 2 metres (6 feet 6 inches) wide and
weighs about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds). It has
space for 22 men inside, who would have propelled
the boat with paddles.
The design of this boat is similar to petroglyphs
of boats from Scandinavia during the Bronze Age,
suggesting that this was a common style of boat
throughout that period and into the Iron Age.
Like the later Viking ships, it was clinker-built a
method of boat-building using overlapping planks
and so may provide a clue to the origin of this
design feature, which helped make Viking ships
so versatile.


Chapter I

789 AD 899 AD


The first recorded

Viking attacks occur
along the coasts of
northern Europe and
southern Britain.

Vikings carry out a brutal

attack on the monastery of
Lindisfarne, an island off the
north-east coast of England.


c. 860:

Danish Vikings
sack Paris in
France and
Hamburg in

The Viking
chieftain Rurik
the Rus becomes
ruler of Novgorod
in Russia.

900 AD 999 AD

The French
give Normandy
to the Viking
leader Rollo.

Eric Bloodaxe, the last
Viking king of York, is
killed at the Battle of
Stainmore in England.

1000 AD 1066 AD


Leif Erikson
explores the coast
of North America.

Origins of the scandinavian Nations

The Vikings
begin to attack
Scotland and

The Great Army
from Denmark
invades and
conquers much of


The Viking
city of Dublin
is founded in

Vikings settle the

Scottish islands of
Orkney and Shetland, and
discover the Faroe Islands.

c. 872:
Harald Finehair
becomes the
first king of


Vikings settle

King Alfred agrees a

boundary between his
kingdom and land in the
north and east of England
ruled by the Vikings
(known as the Danelaw).

c. 98285:

Harald Bluetooth
becomes king of
Denmark. He converts
to Christianity, and the
religion begins to spread
across Scandinavia.


Olaf Haraldsson
seizes the

The Vikings
attack Spain but
are driven away.


c. 958:

Erik the Red

discovers and
settles Greenland.


The Danish chieftain

Cnut becomes king
of England, and later
king of Denmark and



Danish rule in
England ends.

Harald Hardrada
becomes king of


Harald Hardrada, the last great Viking,

invades England but is killed in battle. The
Normans conquer England. The Viking age
draws to a close.


Chapter I


LTHOUGH THE Vikings did

not leave behind any written
documents, letters carved on stone
or wood called runes provide clues
about their traditions. More detail can
be found in the writings of people
who came into contact with the
Vikings, but since they were often
the victims of raids, their accounts
can be unreliable. The Vikings told
tales of their adventures that were
passed on and eventually written
down by Christian scholars in
books called sagas. These
writings tell us much about the
Vikings spirit of adventure.


This Swedish rune stone was erected

by a Viking in memo ry of his father.
There are over 6,000 known rune
stones across Scan dina via.

Whats i n at nwhaerme

e ab ou
Exp erts disagre
ing com es fro
the word Vik
is used for l
To day the word
e Viking p erio
ors e word vikin t
but the Old N
for those who
was used only
ndering, or
raiding and plu
vik m eant bay
In Old Nors e,
cam e
e word Vikin
and p erhaps th
iders som etim es
ab o
r victi ms in sh
in wait for thei
bays and inlets

Rui ns of the Brattahlid settl

ement on Greenland. Vikings
lived on this island for ove
r 400 years.

Origins of the scandinavian Nations

Objects such as these

coi ns,
shears, comb an d ar
m ring
provide clues about
Vikings way of life.

A page fro m the An
glo-Saxon Ch ronicle
descri bes ho w Ki ng
Aethelred 1 of
Wessex battled with inv
ading Vikings
during the ninth cen
tur y.

Clu es in the
lan dscape

The Anglo-Saxon

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a

collection of manuscripts written
by monks between the early ninth
century and 1154, and provides
a year-by-year account of what
happened in the British Isles during
this time. The writings contain vivid
descriptions of Viking raids. For
example, in 793 AD, the Chronicle
records: the ravaging of heathen
men destroyed Gods church at
Lindisfarne through brutal
robbery and slaughter

A Swedish p en
dati ng from th nt
e ea rly
Viking p eriod.

The best evidence about the Viking
way of life com es from archaeology.
Discoveries at sites such as Jorvik
(mo dern-day York in England) show
what Viking houses were like, while
ani mal bones and seeds provide clue
to what people ate. The
buried their dead with valued person
belongi ngs, and items found in graves
such as jewellery and weapons tell
us much about dai ly life. Beautifully
d in
preserved ships have been discovere
burial mounds, and exp erts are able
work out where the Vikings travelle

and traded by studying obje
as coins that they left behind.

Chapter II

NCLUDING JOURNEYS that would take them

across the globe, find out how and why the
Vikings spread their wings and discovered new lands
far and wide.

Chapter II



OME VIKINGS travelled extensively.

Others remained at home on their farms,
growing crops and ishing to survive, but
they still needed to travel occasionally, perhaps
to visit a neighbour or to go to the Althing, the
yearly assembly.
Horses were a common means of transport,
particularly in Iceland, where travel was easier
by land. Although the horses used were not
large and were certainly not war horses like
medieval knights used, they were a means of
travelling relatively quickly. The Vikings made
good use of this mobility in their forays abroad.
When they invaded East Anglia in the ninth
century, they promptly sought out stocks of
horses so that they could more easily travel and
raid with less danger of getting caught by the
Saxon army.
Archaeological evidence in the form of
ittings and tack for wagons, as well as rutted
roads and tracks, shows that the Vikings used
wagons. They were probably drawn either
by horses or oxen, although the Norse god
Thor is said to have driven a wagon pulled by
goats, while the goddess Freyja had one that

was drawn by cats. One particularly

A ninth-centur y
well-decorated wagon was buried with
bridle-mount found
the ship found at the Oseberg farm in
Li ncolnshire. It featur
Norway. This is a four-wheeled wagon
that was not actually fully functional;
en ds an d the decorativ
the design prevented the wheels from
that it was produced
turning properly. Therefore it was
in Irelan d, perhaps
probably built speciically for the funeral,
Viking Dubli n. Dubli
but the construction techniques used
are still valuable for understanding how
in the Li ncolnshire
wagons were built.
area during the ninth
an d tenth centuries.
In the winter, the Vikings used skis
This sort of decoratio
to cross snow, skates made of bone to
was commo n
cross iced-over lakes or sledges drawn
an d
by horses to carry themselves and their
goods or families.
Skis were wooden and the skier propelled
himself along with a single stick, in a process
Jamtaland early in the eleventh century. They
that was much like punting nowadays, unlike
were being pursued by enemies but were too
modern techniques involving two ski poles.
slow on their skis, so Arnljtr got both of them
Sometimes the skier would carry a passenger
to ride on the back of his skis and outdistanced
on the back of the skis, too. One episode from
their pursuers easily. Although ictionalized,
Snorri Sturlusons history Heimskringla
this idea of carrying passengers may relect
records that the Icelander oroddr Snorrason
actual practice.
and his companion met a Norwegian called
Skates were made of bone. They had a broad,
Arnljtr while on a tax-collecting expedition in
lat base, rather than the blades that we are
used to now, and were attached to the shoes
using leather thongs. The skater then propelled
himself over the ice with a pole in the same
manner as a skier.
These harn ess mounts
from Gotland,
The horses that drew sledges were shod
Denmark, depict a
with special spiked shoes to enable them to get
pair of eagles, a bird
traction in the poor going. The sledges could be
that was associated
quite simple in design, with up-curved runners,
with Odin. Together
and resembling a modern wooden sledge, or
with wolves and
ravens, they were the
might be highly decorated like the three from
three beasts of battle
the Oseberg burial. These were intricately
that poets described.
carved and had boxes on the main body that
A great ruler was
could have carried goods or a person. Ordinary
often said to feed
sledges might also have been itted with
these beasts well,
which meant he was
undecorated boxes for this purpose.
successful in battle.
Boats and ships were a part of daily life in
coastal areas. Some parts of Scandinavia were
most easily accessible by boat, so travel to those
areas was almost exclusively over water. Boats
were used to go ishing, to cross waterways

"The mast could be unshipped when not needed, such as when

passing under bridges or when approaching their target stealthily"
to visit other farms in the area, or to travel
great distances for raiding and trading. There
were a variety of diferent types of ship and
the number of names for ship in Old Norse
indicates how important they were. However,
it is diicult to determine whether a particular
word for a ship actually deines the type of ship
it was, because many terms are poetical and
others are used synonymously.
The dreki (dragon) was the famous longship,
a sleek warship the sole purpose of which was
to carry men into battle. It was also known as
the skei or snekkja. This ship could be rowed
at speed as well as being powered by a large
square sail. The mast could be unshipped when
not needed, such as when passing under low
bridges or when the Vikings wished to approach
their target stealthily. Examples of these ships
are the Oseberg and Gokstad ships, although
their design suggests royal ships of state rather
than actual warships. Ships 2 and 5 of the ive
found at Skuldelev in Denmark are more likely
to have been used in battle. One of the most
famous from literature was Olaf Tryggvasons

own ship, The Long Serpent, which was said to

be the largest warship ever built.
Cargo ships (knrr in Old Norse) were
broader than warships and designed to carry
larger loads, rather than a cargo of warriors.
Their greater draught required deeper
harbours. Examples of Viking Age cargo ships
were recovered from the jord at Skuldelev.
Reconstructions of these have shown that they
could be sailed by small crews of about six men
and that they could carry up to 5,000 pounds
of cargo, which indicates that they were trading
in everyday goods and not just luxuries.


The Vikings are famous for their seafaring
abilities. In part this is the result of the
clinker-built ships they used, which had a
lexibility that other nations ships did not
have. This meant that the ships could lex
with the waves and could be sailed in seas
where less well constructed ships could not
venture. Viking warships also had a

Icelandic horses in Iceland.

The breed has
changed little sin ce No rse sett
lers took them to
Iceland, because it was mad
e illegal to import
new stock in AD 982. They
only 136 centimetres (54 inch an average of
es) tall at the
sho ulder but are ver y stro ng
and could car ry a
fully armoured Viking.
shallow draught, which permitted them to
sail right up onto beaches, enabling a form of
amphibious landing.
Seafaring was also a signiicant part of the
Vikings own popular consciousness. Voyages
are integral to many of the Icelandic sagas
and their use in the narrative relects how
the Vikings perceived their own world and
their understanding of its geography. The
Vikings named the places they came to as they
explored. As we shall see, this is an important
part of transmitting navigational data.
Navigation was not commonly undertaken
away from land, because it was safer to follow a
coastline when sailing, but it was done and had
been done for a long time before the Viking Age:
the Iron Age Hjortspring boat appears to have
had similar sailing capacity to a Viking longship.
Trials have shown that it could have travelled
up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) in one day
across the Baltic and that its construction would
have enabled it to cope well even in rough seas.
It might have been used to visit, raid or trade on
any of the Baltic shores.


Chapter II

Sailo rs dressed as Vikings give a

cheer y wave from Hugin, a repli ca of
the Gokstad ship. Hugin was built in
1949 and was sailed to England by a
Dani sh crew, landing at Viking Bay
in Kent. She is now on display on the
cliffs above Pegwell Bay, Kent.

Traditionally, it was thought that the Vikings

used dead reckoning to calculate their position
when sailing out of sight of land. The magnetic
compass was not invented until the twelfth
century and little evidence was available to
show how else they might have navigated. It
was assumed that they would have been able to
estimate their speed based on their knowledge
of the ship they were sailing. Direction would
have been calculated based on the direction of
the sun or stars, and the wind and the sea swell.
However, a wooden disc found at Uunartoq
in Greenland in 1948 is now thought to have
been a compass. It has gnomonic markings on
it and the hole in the centre of the disc would
have held a wooden rod. This device functioned
like a sun dial; rotating the disc until the suns
shadow was aligned with one of the markings
on it would have shown in which direction the
ship was sailing.

Old Norse literature also mentions a

sunstone that helped the Vikings navigate
in poor weather. Its existence was doubted
until recently, but new research indicates
that they would probably have used Iceland
spar, a crystal that has polarizing properties.
By moving the crystal across the ield of
vision until a yellow pattern is seen, it is
possible to determine, within a few degrees,
the direction of the sun in cloudy or foggy
conditions, or at twilight.
In addition to these two aids, the Vikings
made use of landmarks when they were in
sight of land. They named many places for
their appearance, which would have aided
the navigator in determining where the
ship was and which direction to sail next.
Although Flki Vilgerarson is said to have
named Iceland for the ice loes in the jords, it
is more likely that it was so named because icy

glaciers were the irst thing to become visible

when sailing there on the main route from
Norway. Sanday in Orkney and Sandoy in the
Faeroe Islands mean sandy island. A sailor
heading to either of these islands would know
he had arrived because their names described
what he might expect to see upon reaching
his destination. Sailing was such an essential
part of Viking daily life that many places were
named for their appearance from a sailors
perspective. Using these names, it would be
possible to describe to someone the route to
take to a particular destination with some
reliability, despite the fact that the Vikings had
no charts from which to work out their course.
With all this in mind, it is clear that the
Vikings had relatively sophisticated means of
navigating at sea. They could calculate where
they were by using the sun, even in poor
weather, and their use of descriptive names for


the places to which they travelled made it easier

to identify if they were in the right place.

Viking exploration into Asia and through to

Byzantium and Baghdad.
The journeys of Swedish travellers are
commemorated in the legendary Saga of
Yngvarr the Far-Traveller, which records the
While the Norwegians and Danes largely
exploration of the river systems to the east
headed west and south, Swedish Vikings
of Russia. The saga is replete with fantastical
headed east across the Baltic and into northern
detail about the inhabitants along the route,
Germany, Poland and the Slavic lands. They
including giants and sorcerers, as well as many
both raided and traded there. Excavations
encounters with pagans. Although the Yngvarr
have shown that the Baltic was a thriving
of the saga is a legendary character, a Swedish
market before and during the Viking Age,
Viking called Ingvarr did travel to the east
and that trading posts had been established
and there are approximately 26 runestones
from early on. Towns like Mecklenburg in
that commemorate those who travelled with
Germany and Wolin in Poland were similar to
him and failed to return. His voyage is also
the major trading centre at Birka in Sweden and
mentioned in the Georgian Chronicles, which
would have fulilled the same function. Wolin
are a history of Georgia. Ingvarrs journey took
is the town that the Vikings called Jmsborg
place around 1040 and ended with many of his
and was the home of the Jomsvikings, a
men being killed while others succumbed to
famous Viking warrior brotherhood. These
disease, as is relected in the saga.
trading centres were the
From the towns on the
jumping-of points for
eastern side of the Baltic, the
ship in situ

The Oseb erg

n in 1904.
duri ng exca vatio the ster n
The vi ew is
or namented k ee
an d shows the
with the stee

Vikings could access the interior of Slavic

territories via the Oder and Vistula rivers. From
there, they were able to portage, or carry, their
ships to the Danube, because the ships were
light enough to be dragged around rapids and
waterfalls by their crews. Once onto the Danube
they could sail all the way to the Black Sea and
to Byzantium, although they did have to drag
their ships along some diicult paths to avoid
areas of the river they could not sail through.
Some Vikings travelled east through Finland.
Here they encountered plentiful game and
ishing, and were able to trade for furs, which
were always a valuable commodity. As they
travelled further inland, they were able to
portage their ships from lake to lake and
eventually into the Dniepr and the Volga, and
on to the Black Sea. This was important for the
settlement of what became Russia, because
trading posts were established along their main
routes and Scandinavians moved in to settle
and trade. Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg in Old


Chapter II
A tenth-century copp er alloy reinholder in the Borre style. There are
eight perfo rated lugs at the base of
the holder for attaching it to the
harn ess. It would have been used to
help prevent the reins of a draught
animal from getting entangled.

"As the capital of an empire, Byzantium was naturally

extremely wealthy and at the nexus of many trade routes"

Norse), which was one of the earliest trading

posts like this, has evidence for Scandinavian
occupation from the mid-eighth century. At
the same time, there is also evidence for
occupation by Finno-Ugric, Baltic and Slavic
peoples, showing that it was a multicultural
melting pot where people met to trade and
live together. The importance of trade and the
extent of the trading network to which it was
attached are emphasized by a hoard of Arabic
silver coins that were found there. The coins
dated to between AD 746 and AD 786, showing
that trade with the Abbasid Caliphate was
important even then.
Settlements at Kiev (Old Norse: Knugarr)
and Novgorod (Old Norse: Hlmgarr) were
probably founded in the ninth century as the
Scandinavians made inroads into Russia. The
Primary Chronicle, a Russian history compiled
in Kiev in the twelfth century, informs us that
the Vikings were making the local tribes pay
tribute to them at this time, but were driven
back and the tribespeople began ighting
among themselves once more. They could
not agree peace, so they sought aid from those
Vikings who had previously made them pay
tribute. Three brothers were chosen to rule over
the tribes: Riurik, Sineus and Truvor. Riurik

is said to have settled at Novgorod, Sineus at

Beloozero in northern Russia and Truvor at
Izborsk in western Russia. Shortly after this,
Riuriks brothers died and he took sole control
of the territory they had been given. The rulers
of the Kievan Rus were descended from him.
This story is legendary only, but it probably
indicates the general process of settlement
and dominance with occasional setbacks that
pertained in this area. It also provides a reason
for the naming of the area. The Vikings were
known as Rus by the Slavic tribes, so the area
was called Russia.


Once they had reached Russia and the great
rivers to the Caspian and Black Seas, the
Swedish Vikings sought out Byzantium, the
capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, which
they called Miklagarr, meaning big city.
Voyages to Byzantium are recorded on 30
Swedish runestones mentioning Byzantium
or its inhabitants. These runestones are
mainly late Viking Age and commemorate
people who died while there. Some were in the
Varangian Guard, the personal bodyguard of
the Byzantine emperor. Others were merchants

who had travelled to Byzantium because it was

a major trade centre in its own right.
As the capital of an empire, Byzantium
was naturally extremely wealthy and at the
nexus of many trade routes. Merchants could
buy goods from all over North Africa, Asia
and the Mediterranean. These goods included
silk from China, like silk caps found in York
and Lincoln. These caps would have been
worn, tied under the chin with linen ties, by
women. One was recovered at the Coppergate
site in York during excavations there; the
other was found at Saltergate in Lincoln. Both
caps were made from silk that had been cut
from the same bale, showing that the goods
travelled the great distance to England and
were then further traded within England. Other
luxury goods also travelled great distances, like
spices, fruit and wine that reached Scandinavia
from Byzantium.
Before a merchant could trade in Byzantium,
he irst had to get there. Emperor Constantine
Porphyrogenitus wrote that they sailed down
the Dniepr and had to negotiate seven rapids,
each with names like Gulper, Courser and
Yeller. These names have a visual or aural
quality that relects their attributes they
could gulp down ships careless enough to
stray into them, or they coursed dangerously
fast, or made a frighteningly loud noise as the
water ran through them. Their names indicate
their fearsome nature and the danger they


Seven hoa rds of treasure,

weapons and armour
have been found at
Gn ezdovo in western
Russia. Illustrated here
is a hoa rd containing
Arab dirhams made into
pen dants. These date
from the seco nd half of
the tenth centur y and are
eviden ce of trade between
Kie van Rus and the
Islamic world.

Chapter II

Calcite Iceland Spar, which may

have been used by the Vikings
to determine the direction of the
sun in poor conditions.


consisted almost entirely of

Scandinavian mercenaries
and they fought throughout
the Empire. Harald Hardrada,
who fought and lost at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge
in 1066, was a member of
the Varangian Guard in his
younger days. He is said to
have become so involved
in the politics of the court
that he had an afair with
the empress, as well as being
involved in a coup.
In addition to trading with
Byzantium, merchants also
traded with the Arab world.
The importance of this trade is
demonstrated clearly by the vast
number of Arab dirhams (silver
coins) that have been found in
Europe. Over 1,000 hoards that
include these coins have been
found and all are valuable because
they make it possible to give an approximate
date for the deposition of the hoard, as Arabic
coins were marked with the name of the ruler
for whom they were minted and with the date
of minting.
Contact with the Arab world was not limited
to trade. As with the other places they travelled
to, the Vikings also raided Arab settlements.
Arab historian and traveller Al-Masudi wrote
that a leet of Viking ships raided as far aield
as Azerbaijan in c. AD 913, killing many and
taking women and children as slaves. These

represented. Merchants also had to fend of the

assaults of Slavic raiders and then had to cross
the Black Sea. It is not surprising that so many
runestones were raised as memorials to those
who died on this route.
Despite these dangers, the Vikings were
not deterred and some even sought to attack
Byzantium to take its wealth by force. The
irst assault by Vikings was made in AD 860
and the last in 1043, with many
others between those dates.
Other Vikings sought wealth and
In the late Viking Age
glory in Byzantium as soldiers of
or early Middle Ages,
a man called Halfdan
fortune, an even more hazardous
carved his name followed
profession than being a merchant.
by a few more runes on
Byzantium was often at war and it
a marble parap et in the
needed new recruits all the time to
Hagia Sophi a in Istanbul.
replace losses. The Scandinavians
Another called Ari or
Arni did the same thing
skill at warfare had long been
on the balustrade in the
recognized, going back to the
northern gallery. This
days of the Roman Empire, and
Viking Age runic graffiti
the Byzantine emperors sought
of Scandinavian names
to recruit these doughty warriors.
not only illustrates Norse
presen ce in Istanbul, it
By the end of the eleventh century
also shows that several
the emperors personal bodyguard

of the Vikings who went

there knew how to read
and write at least their
own names.

raiders attacked all around the Caspian Sea and

stayed in their base among the islands of the
Naptha coast for many months, doing great
harm. It was only on their way home again
that the Muslim armies were able to attack and
defeat the Vikings, who were exhausted by their
raiding and burdened by all the loot they had
taken. Raids like this are recorded throughout
the tenth century and in each the Arab writers
emphasize the ferocity of the Vikings, their size
and strength and unwillingness to surrender.
Arab writers also give us some of the most
detailed descriptions of Vikings. Ahmad Ibn
Fadlan travelled north with a Rus party in
AD 921. He had been sent on a mission for the
Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga
Bulgars, and he recorded his impression of the
Vikings they met on their travels. He described
them as tall, strong, tattooed with dark green
designs and never parted from their weapons.
Although he stood in awe of their size and
strength, he also criticized their cleanliness,
claiming that they all shared one bowl of
washing water, so that the last to wash received
a bowl of ilth. Most famously he described the
burial rite of a wealthy man, who was laid to rest
in a ship that was then burnt. He related how a
slave girl was sacriiced with the man and how
the person who set ire to the ship had to be
naked and walk backwards to the ship with one
hand covering his anus while another held a
laming brand for lighting the pyre.
Contact with the Middle East was important
from the mid-eighth century, as the coin hoards
show. It grew signiicantly in the mid- to late
ninth century, before peaking in the mid-tenth


Eirksstaoir in Haukadalur,
Iceland. This is a
reconstruction of the Viking
Age house on the site where
Eirik the Red lived.

century. After that date it went into rapid
decline, because the silver mines of central Asia
were exhausted and there was less reason to
travel that far.

"We have many stories of these expeditions, and the memories

of how these places were discovered have been preserved"



Norse settlers arrived in the ninth century but

recent archaeological evidence conirms that
the Faeroe Islands were inhabited before the
Vikings arrived there. A Frankish monk, called
Dicuil, wrote in c. AD 825 that the arrival of the
Vikings led to the departure or extermination
of the Irish hermits who lived there. If the
islands Dicuil was describing were actually the
Faeroes, as seems likely, this means that Norse
settlers had arrived by that date. Freyinga
saga, the Saga of the Faeroe Islanders, informs
us that Grmr Kamban was the irst settler
there. His second name is of Irish origin, and
it may be that he had spent a lot of time in the
British Isles before settling in the Faeroes.
However, a runestone was found on the islands
dating from the thirteenth century and this
records that Torkil Onundarson from Rogaland
in Norway was the irst to settle the islands.
Whoever it was, they left evidence of their

Where the Swedes headed east and the Danes

largely headed south, the Norwegians set
out across the North Atlantic. Their primary
route was to Scotland and around to Ireland
and Wales via the Hebrides. However,
occasionally they sailed of course. During
these misadventures, they discovered Iceland,
Greenland and Vinland (an area of North
America), and settled not only these but also
Orkney, the Faeroe Islands and Shetland.
Thanks to the medieval Icelanders, who were
obsessed with writing histories of their country,
we have many stories of these expeditions,
and the memories of how these places were
discovered have been preserved.
Faeroe Islands means sheep islands, so
called because it is said the Vikings found
sheep when they irst arrived there. The irst

settlement in the form of houses and graves. At

the same time as the Faeroes were irst being
settled, the Orkney Islands and Shetland were
also being settled. They had been occupied for
thousands of years before the Vikings arrived
and were inhabited by the Picts up to the Viking
Age. The fate of the Pictish inhabitants remains
unknown they may have been killed, driven
out or assimilated into the Viking settlements
or they may even have left shortly before the
Vikings came.
Like the Faeroes, Iceland may have been
occupied by Celtic monks when it was
discovered by the Vikings. As with the Picts and
the hermits on the Faeroe Islands, their fate is
unknown, although in this case slendingabk,
the Book of the Icelanders, states that they
led from the Norse settlers. Two people are
credited with discovering Iceland by accident
in Landnmabk, the Book of Settlements:

Chapter II

ucted Norse
The reco nstr Anse aux
lo nghouse
ewfo un dlan d
irikso n
where Leif E lsefni attempted
D 1000.
to settle c. A


Naddoddr, a Norwegian, who was one of

the irst settlers in the Faeroes, and Garar
Svavarsson, a Swede. Flki Vilgerarson was
the irst person to try to settle in Iceland, but
he left after sufering a particularly cold winter.
The Book of Settlements stated that he named
Iceland for the ice loes he saw in the jords.
Inglfr Arnarson is credited with being the irst
permanent settler. It is said that he threw the
pillars from his high seat overboard into the sea
as he approached the land. He then sailed along
the coast until he found them and chose that
spot to settle. They landed near Reykjavik, and

he made his home there in what was to become

the capital of Iceland.
The discovery of Greenland is described
in Grnlendinga saga, the Saga of the
Greenlanders, and Eiriks saga raua, the
Saga of Eirik the Red. Gunnbjrn Ulfsson
Krku is credited with irst having sighted
Greenland. He was blown of course while on
his way to Iceland from Norway, and sighted
land. Eirik the Red set out to ind this land
after he was outlawed in Iceland for his
involvement in some killings. In AD 982 he
was banished for three years, which was

known in Icelandic law as the lesser outlawry.

Eirik spent the three years of his outlawry
exploring Greenland, before returning to
Iceland, where he gathered support before
setting out to colonize Greenland. The sagas
state that he named it Greenland to make it
sound more attractive to prospective settlers.
Eirik set out with 25 ships but only 14 made
landfall in Greenland. Some returned home
while others were lost at sea, a fate that was
always possible for the Viking sailor. This
was the start of the settlement, which was
divided into two, the eastern and western


settlements, both of which lay close to the

southern tip of Greenland.
One ship that set sail with Eirik for
Greenland included Herjlfr, the father of Bjarni
Herjlfsson. Herjlfr had settled in Iceland but
then decided to move to Greenland. Bjarni
sailed to Iceland to visit his father in the same
year that his father set of for Greenland, so
Bjarni decided to follow. On the voyage, Bjarnis
ship became lost in fog and he ended up sailing
of the coast of America. He did not land,
but instead, turned around and managed to
make his way to Greenland, where he settled.

Inspired by the tale that Bjarni told, Leif

Eiriksson set sail for this new land. When he
arrived there, he sailed down the coast, naming
the places they saw. Helluland, meaning
lat stone land, was probably Bain Island.
Markland wood land was probably the
Labrador coastline and inally Vnland, where
he settled, was named for the wild grapes that
grew there. He stayed the winter, and returned
home the following year. Leifs brothers both
attempted to settle in Vinland, but Thorvald
was killed by natives and Thorstein died before
he could get there. Thorinn Karlsefni was the

next successful settler. He stayed there for two

years, during which time the irst Viking child
was born in Vinland and he fought two battles
with the natives, who were called skraelings
by the Vikings. The last Viking expedition
to Vinland was led by Leifs sister, Freydis. It
ended in carnage and slaughter, most of which
was caused by or carried out by her. After
this, no more Viking settlement is known.
The excavations at LAnse aux Meadows in
Newfoundland, Canada, have proven that the
Vikings did reach America, but not whether it
happened as the sagas tell it.

Chapter II




HE VIKINGS were fearless explorers,

leaving the safety of their shores to travel
thousands of miles in search of new lands. These
adventurers were mainly from Norway where there
was a shortage of good farmland. As they braved
the icy waters of the North Atlantic, many
crews and ships were lost in terrible storms,
but this didnt stop the Vikings reaching
Iceland, Greenland
and eventually
North America.


L Anse aux Meadows


Th e Vi kin gs in
Icelan d

The first settler to arrive on

the volcanic island of Iceland
was a Norwegian cal led Ingolf
Arnarson. He took his fam ily
there around 874 AD and bu
a large farm on a bay. This
later becam e Icelands capita
Reykj avik. By 930 AD, more
than 10,000 Vikings had arrive
on the island. They lived ma
along the green and fertile
the harsh interior, with its
mountai ns, volcanoes and gla
remained uninhabited.

A statue of In
Arnarso n in
Reykja vik.

A reconstruction of a Viking longhouse in

Iceland. The origi nal was buried under
volcanic ash.










The Brattahlid settlement

in Greenlan d. Erik
the Reds home stood
some where here.

rst di scovered
The Vikings fi d Icelan d, then
Fa ro e Islands
further west to
made th
North Americ
G reen land an

Land of Ice and Snow

The most famous Viking to explore Greenland was Erik the Red.
This rocky island is covered in snow and ice, but Erik discovered an
ice-free region on the south-west coast with good grazing. To attract
settlers he named it Greenland. In 985 AD, he persuaded Icelandic
Vikings to move to the island with him and more soon followed.
Despite the harsh climate, the settlers were able to grow barley,
and keep sheep and cattle. Walrus tusks, arctic fox furs and
polar bear skins were exported and exchanged for metals, tools
and timber. The Vikings thrived in Greenland for over 400
years experts are not sure why they eventually deserted
the island, but perhaps isolation and the increasingly cold
climate drove them away.
Arctic fox fur

Erik the Red

Chapter II


ERHAPS ONE of the most famous explorers of all time, Leif

Erikson is remembered in the sagas as a daring hero. Travelling
across the stormy Atlantic Ocean, he became the first European to
reach North America around 1002 ad. Fellow Vikings believed that
Leif was surely favoured by the gods. The sagas tell that on one sea
voyage Leif rescued a shipwrecked crew, which earned him the name
Leif the Lucky.

The Lan d of Win e


Leif grew up hearing about the famed land

that lay west of Greenland. As soon as
he was able, the young explorer gathered
a crew together to retrace Bjarnis route.
Along the way, Leif found and named
three lands. Helluland (Flatstone Land)
was probably Baffin Island and Markland
(Land of Woods) was almost certainly
Labrador in Canada. Eventually the men
found a suitable place to set up camp
and named this lush new land Vinland
(Vineland) after the wild grapes growing
there. After several months, Leif and his
crew returned safely to Greenland,
but other Vikings later
journeyed to Vinland,
some staying for
years at a time.

Born to explore
Leif was born into a family of explorers
around 980 AD. His father was the great
adventurer Erik the Red who first settled
Greenland around 985 AD. Around this
time, Erik heard the intriguing tale of an
Icelander named Bjarni Herjolfsson who
set sail for Greenland but was blown
far off course. Sailing west, Bjarni
was amazed to glimpse a new
coastline and returned
to Greenland
with the



Th e Myste ri ous Lan d

ed that the
For centuries, scholars bel iev
ng more than
stories of Vinland were nothi
ing settlement
fables. However, in 1961, a Vik
x Meadows in
was uncovered in LAnse Au
ving the Vikings
northern Newfoundland pro
had indeed reached Am erica.
so where is
this area was no land of wi ne
e of its exact
Vinland? Nobo dy can be sur
e it must lie
location, though exp erts bel iev
of what is now
som ewhere along the coastl ine
eastern Canada and USA.

A reco nstr uctio n
a Vi
Anse Aux

Chapter III
ITH A reputation as fearless and often brutal
warriors, the Vikings spread their empire across
the globe, doing battle with anyone who stood in their
way, often leaving a trail of destruction in their path.

Chapter III

This illustration
depicts the Vikings
as fea rso me fighters,
who wo uld fight to the
death to achieve vi cto



HE STEREOTYPICAL Viking is a large

man with a big beard, who is heavily
armed (see picture left of vikings at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066). Typical images
include a helmet, a coat of mail, a sword, a
shield and often a large axe. In fact, the axe may
well be the most common weapon with which
Vikings are shown. The reality is that, while
axes were used, Vikings aspired to owning good
swords in the same way as we might aspire to
a big house. Bows and spears were common
weapons. Most of our knowledge of Viking
weapons comes from burials and it can be
diicult to diferentiate between weapons and
tools in some cases. Axes, for example, were
used as tools and weapons. Where they were
included in burials, they may have been there
as tools. However, sometimes they are clearly
high-status weapons, like the beautifully
decorated axe found during the excavation of a
grave in Mammen, Denmark. Similarly, bows
were both hunting and war weapons and it can
be diicult to be sure of their purpose.
A good sword cost a lot and so they were the
province of the wealthy. Poorer quality swords
were certainly available for those who could
not aford the best. The Vikings valued most
highly old swords; many of these had names
like Grsia (grey-lank), Leggbitr (leg-biter)
or Nar (adder). These swords were valued in
part because of their history, but also because
an old sword that had survived had proved
its superior quality. A warrior would not wish
to trust his life to a poor-quality weapon, like
the one used by Kjartan in Laxdla saga.
Each time he struck with his sword, he had

"A good sword cost a lot,

so they were the province of
the wealthy. Poorer swords
were available for those who
couldnt afford the best"

to stand on the blade to straighten

it again.
Viking swords typically had
distinctive tri-lobed or ive-lobed
pommels which were most
often hollow and attached to an
iron upper guard. In some cases
swords had solid pommels and
no separate guard. In the early
part of the Viking Age swords
could be single-edged, but
the double-edged blade was
more common and was almost
universal by the end of the
Viking Age. Swords were made
using a technique called patternwelding, which involved
twisting together bars of iron
and forming the sword blade
with those. The cutting edge of
the sword blade was attached
separately and was made from
hard steel. This process ensured
that the blade was strong and
lexible with a good cutting edge.
The Viking spear was designed to be used
both as a throwing weapon and as a thrusting
weapon. The head could be up to half a
metre (1 feet) long and its shape varied. The
head was usually made of iron sometimes
decorated with silver inlay and could be made
using pattern-welding, like a sword blade. The
shaft of the spear was made of wood and the
spearhead was attached to it with a small rivet.
Grettis saga tells us that Grettir detached the
rivet from his spear in one battle so that, when
he threw it, his opponent would not be able to
throw it back at him. Other sagas record that
certain great warriors were renowned for their
ability to throw two spears at once, or to catch a
spear thrown at them and throw it straight back
to kill the original spear thrower.
Bows were made of wood, such as yew,
which is lexible and well suited to this use. A
bow made of yew found at Hedeby in Denmark
measured 1.92 metres (6 feet 3 inches) long,
making it larger than the average English or
Welsh longbow, although its draw weight was
similar. Arrows were made with iron heads, a
wooden shaft with a notch in the end, and the
letching, or feathers, was tied on.

Few examples of Viking Age shields

have been found. The tenth-century ship
found at Gokstad in Norway included them
as part of the burial. They were arrayed along
the gunwales of the ship, in the same manner
as they would have been carried while the ship
was at sea, and were painted yellow and black
alternately. Old Norse literature records that
shields were painted and includes references
to shields with stories from mythology
depicted upon them, such as the one in the
poem Ragnarsdrpa. The tenth-century
poem Haraldskvi tells us of the lhenar
(wolfskins) who carried bloody shields.
This probably means that their shields were
painted red, rather than dripping with the
blood of their enemies, because other Old
Norse sources also refer to red shields. Viking
shields were round and made of wood with a
central metallic boss, where the warrior held
it while in battle. Some may have been faced
with leather and some featured metal ittings
like those on the shield found at the Sutton Hoo
ship burial in Sufolk. The planks of the shield
were probably held together by the leather
covering and by the wooden ittings behind
the shield.

A colourful depiction
of a Viking ship with
drago n prow in a
tenth-centur y Anglom
Saxo n manuscript fro
No rth

The best armour

available to a Viking
was mail, made of metal rings joined together.
This was expensive and time-consuming to
make, so only the wealthy would have owned
it. Mail provided protection from the neck to the
knees and would have been worn with a leather
coat underneath. Those Vikings who could
not aford mail would have worn either leather
coats or no armour, relying only on their shields
for protection.
The typical Viking helmet was a metal cap.
The only surviving example of a Viking Age
helmet is the one excavated from a farm called
Gjermundbu in Norway, which features a pair
of metal spectacles attached to the front of
the helmet to provide additional protection.
This helmet is not decorated, but it is possible
that some Vikings had decorated helmets like
those found at Vendel and Valsgrde in Sweden,
which date to the period immediately before
the Viking Age. Towards the end of the Viking
Age, helmets became conical with a nasal guard
providing more facial protection, like those
depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. Many Vikings
may have used leather caps, because they could
not aford metal helmets.



The Ridgeway Hill burial pit

contained the remains of at least
54 Vikings. They may have been
a raidi ng crew, and were probably
executed by the Anglo-Saxons.

Orkneyinga saga tells of

Svein Asleifarson, who
lived on Orkney in the
twelfth century after
the end of the Viking
Age. Despite being born
after the Viking Age, he
followed the path of the
Viking and his activities
may be used to shed
light on normal practice
for Vikings. He had 80
warriors, whom he
kept with him through
the winter. He worked
his farm in the spring,
planting crops and
tending to his home
afairs. Once he had
ensured that the crops
were planted, he would
go on a spring voyage
to plunder the Hebrides
and Ireland, returning
home just after mid-summer to
harvest the crops and ensure that there was
enough food for the winter.

After that he would go on his autumn voyage

to undertake more raiding and would return
only at the beginning of winter. It is likely
that this is how many raiders would have
functioned. They had homes and farms that
needed to be cared for and, if they failed to get
their crops planted and harvested, they would
face a hard winter, with little food.
The irst recorded attack by Vikings was in
AD 789, when three ships arrived at the island
of Portland from Scandinavia. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle records that they were crewed by
Northmen from Hordaland in Norway. When
the local reeve sought to make them report to
the nearby royal town of Dorchester, they killed
him. Four years later, in AD 793, the famous raid
on Lindisfarne occurred and the churchmen of
England began to pray to be protected from the
fury of the Northmen. Summer raids continued
in England throughout the irst half of the ninth
century, but the pattern changed completely in
the second half, when the Viking raiders, whose
armies had grown much larger by then, began
to overwinter in England and to seek land to
settle on.
In the same decade as Lindisfarne was irst
attacked, Viking raiders descended on the
western coast of the Frankish Empire for the
irst time. As in England, they kept returning
every summer for many years but, on the
continent, the raiding phase continued much
longer than in England. Internal politics in

A replica of the Cammin

Casket. The original
was destroyed during
the Second World War.
It was a large wooden
box decorated with sheets
of carved elk horn.
The sheets of horn were
secured by gilt-bronze
bands. It was made in
Southern Scandinavia,
decorated in the
Mammen style and was
found at in Cammin,
Pomerania. Dating
from the early eleventh
century, it was probably
used as a reliquary.

Raiding and Trading

"The monks who

wrote the annals
recorded numerous
examples of Viking
atrocities and
painted a picture
of a reign of terror,
but the number of
recorded attacks is
actually quite low
for the early period
of the Viking raids"

the Frankish Empire, following the death

of Charlemagne in AD 814, created disunity,
which led to neglect of the coastal defences.
Furthermore, the coastal area of Frisia in the
north was not readily defensible. The Vikings
were sensitive to such opportunities and
took full advantage of them. They began to
navigate the larger rivers like the Rhine and
the Seine, plundering as they went. Some
towns, like the rich Frisian trading town of
Dorestad, were raided almost annually for a
while. With the death of Louis the Pious in
ad 840, matters in the Frankish Empire
worsened as civil war ensued, which further
played into the hands of the Viking raiders.
They even allied with Frankish nobles, as at
the raid on Nantes in AD 843, where a rebel
Frankish count aided them. To combat Viking
raids, the Frankish kingdoms sought to settle
Vikings in the coastal areas. These settlers
were supposed to prevent new raids but often
proved unreliable.
The Irish annals announce that in AD 795 the
heathens burnt Rechru and laid waste to Skye.
This is the irst speciic reference to Viking raids
in Ireland. The attacks continued thereafter
with such a great efect that the monks from
the monastery at Iona chose to lee rather than
face the wrath of the Norsemen. Those who
remained faced new attacks and we are told that
68 of them were slain in AD 806. The monks
who wrote the annals recorded numerous
examples of Viking atrocities and painted a
picture of a reign of terror, but the number of
recorded attacks is actually quite low for the
early period of the Viking raids. In the 820s, the
Vikings did indeed step up the number of their
raids on Ireland and this continued until, in AD
841, a Viking warband overwintered in Ireland
and set up a camp, which was to become the
town of Dublin. Before that there were no towns
at all in Ireland, but other Viking camps soon
followed to provide a base for Viking raids and
to act as trading centres for selling on the
stolen goods.
Although the Viking raids were ferocious
and swift, the Vikings did not have things all
their own way; there are also many instances
of raids that ended in a
Viking defeat. Egbert of
The ni nth-centur y
Ho n Hoard was fou
Wessex defeated a large raid

A bronze Buddha from

the sixth or seventh
century AD was found
at Birka, Sweden
proof that trading
contacts reached into
northern India.

or way in 1834. It
near Ho n,
an d torcs, on e of wh cluded gold coi ns, broo ches
ich weighed 1.1 ki
log rammes (2
po un ds 6 ounces)
. Th
England, Franki a, e coi ns in di cate contact with
Byzantium an d th
e Caliphate.


Chapter III

This gi lded si lv
trefoil broo ch from
the Hon hoard
was probably ma
in Fran
impo rted to Nor

Raiding and Trading

These coins from the early ninth century

were probably minted at Hedeby,
Denmark but were found at the tradi ng
centre of Birka. Two depict ships while
the third shows a beast motif.

in Cornwall in AD 838 and other raids ended

in disaster as happened on Jarrow in AD 794,
when some of the raiders ships were damaged
by bad weather and drowned. Those Vikings
who did not drown and made it to shore were
slaughtered by the locals. Thus, although they
had a fearsome reputation, the Vikings were not
always victorious.


Anglo-Saxon decoration
found in a womans grave
at Bjrke in Norway. Much of
our knowledge of Viking
treasures comes from
hoards that were buried
and never collected again,
presumably because the
people who had buried
them did not survive to dig
them up or were unable to
return to the area.
A hoard found at Stenness in Orkney in
1870 consisted of four gold rings, but most
hoards consist solely of silver. The Silverdale
hoard, found in Lancashire in 2011, was
made up of some 200 items, including silver
jewellery and coins. It is thought to have been
buried c. AD 900. The Cuerdale hoard, also
from Lancashire and also dating to the early
tenth century, was even larger, with around
8,600 items including silver jewellery, coins,
ingots and hacksilver. Hacksilver was pieces
of silver cut from other items. The Vikings
did not initially have a coin-based currency
and would sell goods for a given weight of
silver or gold instead. To make up the right

largest slave markets in Europe were in Spain.

The Vikings took slaves from the British Isles
and traded them to the rest of Europe, around
the Baltic states and to the Byzantine Empire.
They also took slaves in eastern Europe and
around the Mediterranean to trade in western
Europe. For example, Moorish slaves captured
in Spain during a ninth-century raid were sold
in Ireland. The slave trade lourished during the
Viking Age and the Vikings were not the only
slavers. English kings captured Vikings
and sold them as slaves and most other
countries eagerly took part in this trade.
In addition to slaves, the Vikings
traded the goods they captured and
also those they produced at home.
Evidence for this may be seen in silks
from Byzantium that were found in
Viking York and a bronze Buddha
from India that was found in the
Swedish town of Birka. Arabic coins
from the Caliphate in Baghdad
have been regularly found among
Viking hoards. Most of these will
have passed through many hands
to reach the Vikings, but some
may have been brought home
by Viking
They also
closer to home. Dorestad an
important trading centre in
what is now the Netherlands
was not always raided but
was also a trading hub visited by
the Vikings. As well as importing
exotic goods from further aield,
Vikings bought tin, wheat and honey
from England, glass, weapons and
wine from the Frankish kingdoms,
and fur and amber from the eastern
Baltic areas. Soapstone was imported
from Shetland, while walrus ivory
was sourced from Greenland. The
Vikings traded with the Smi
peoples in the north of Scandinavia

"The goal of a Viking raid was to acquire portable wealth easily,

which was one reason for targeting churches and monasteries"

The goal of a Viking raid was to acquire portable

wealth easily, which was one reason for
targeting churches and monasteries, because
these institutions were vulnerable and rich. The
possibility of a vigorous defence was generally
low and monasteries like Lindisfarne were far
enough from the nearest settlement for the
raiders to attack and escape before the locals
could respond. The fact that they targeted
churches and monasteries may be one of the
reasons the Vikings gained such a terrible
reputation; the monks who wrote the annals
that tell us about Vikings would have been
inclined to paint those who attacked the
Church in the most unfavourable of ways.
Treasure would generally have been
anything portable, so gold, silver, livestock and
slaves were all viable targets. The Vikings would
even prise the decorated mounts from books,
like the gilt-bronze mount with eighth-century

weight, they would cut up items and use the

pieces as money.
Slaves were an important target for Viking
raiders. Evidence for slavery takes the form of
chains and collars that were used to control the
slaves and we ind mention of Irish women in
the Icelandic sagas. These women may have
been taken as slaves to Iceland, because DNA
analysis shows that many modern Icelandic
women are of Celtic descent. Slaves would
not all have been taken back to Scandinavia.
Many would have been sold at one of the slave
markets in Europe, shipped as far aield as
Byzantium, or ransomed back to their family if
they were of high enough status.
Although the modern focus is generally on
their raiding, trade was already important to
the early Vikings. Bristol, though little more
than a village at this time, was known as a slave
market, as was Rouen in Normandy, and the

t Viking sp ea
Although mos made of iron,
would ha ve
d has
e of bronze an
this on e is mad et. Weapons were
a deco rated so
as a mark of


Chapter III

"The towns of Spain were well fortified, which made it much more
difficult to attack them than the potential profit justified"
for furs too. Viking merchants had wide-ranging
contacts and were connected to a network of
other traders that spanned Europe, North Africa
and Asia.



Spain and settlements on the Mediterranean

coast sufered the least from Viking raids, but
they did sufer. In AD 843, Frankish sources
tell us that the Vikings raided Nantes. There
they learnt about the riches of Spain, and so
the following year many Vikings headed south
with reinforcements from Scandinavia. Their
target was the wealth of the Umayyad Caliphate
in Spain, or al-Andalus as the Arabs called it.
The Caliphate had its centre in Damascus, but,
at its greatest extent, ruled Spain and North
Africa in the west to Afghanistan in the east.
As a result, its holdings were rich in treasure,
but the Vikings were after more than gold: the
biggest slave markets in Europe were in Spain
at this time. This raid into Spain was a large
one Arabic chroniclers stated that 54 ships
took part. They sailed from their base on the
Loire in AD 844 and attempted an attack on
the Christian kingdom of Galicia and Asturias,
but were driven of, so they headed south
to Lisbon, which they sacked successfully.
Spurred on by their success, they attacked and
plundered Cadiz, Medina Sidonia and Seville in
quick succession, then spent some ive weeks
pillaging the surrounding countryside. The
Arabic chronicler Ibn Hayyan described the
assaults in detail. He tells us that the Vikings
remained in Seville for seven days, killing the
men and enslaving the women and children.
They then ransomed some of the prisoners back
to the Muslims, before setting of again, only
to be attacked by a Moorish army that had now
been gathered. The Viking raiders were defeated
and had to abandon 30 ships because they did
not have men enough to crew them. According
to Ibn Hayyan, 1,000 Vikings were killed and
400 captured. These survivors were beheaded.
As part of this voyage, the town of Asila on the

coast of Morocco was also attacked, but little is

known of this assault and it appears that only
part of the expedition was involved.
Despite this setback, further Viking raids
against Spain and the Mediterranean were
undertaken. In AD 859 the Swedish king
Bjrn Ironside instigated the only other
major expedition into the Mediterranean.
His outward journey along the coast of Spain
was not particularly successful, but, as soon
as his ships entered the Mediterranean, their
luck changed. They plundered Algeciras in
Spain before raiding al-Mazimma in Morocco.
They continued their voyage, pillaging the
coasts of Spain and the south of France before
overwintering in the Camargue. In the spring of
AD 860, they continued to sail eastwards in the
Mediterranean as far as Italy, where they sacked
the town of Luna. Dudo, the Norman historian,
reported that they attacked Luna because they
thought it was Rome. After sacking two more
towns in Italy, the expedition sailed further
eastwards and may have made assaults on
settlements in the eastern Mediterranean, but
its movements are not clearly recorded.
It is not certain where they spent the
winter of AD 860861, but we do know that in
AD 861 Bjrn and his crews sailed westwards
once more. As they travelled past Spain, they
were attacked and defeated by a Muslim
leet. The Arab ships in this encounter were
equipped with Greek ire a type of napalm
that was launched by catapult, to which
wooden ships were especially vulnerable and
they used it to set alight the Viking ships. The
survivors sailed on, sacking Pamplona on the
way, and capturing the king of Navarre. They
ransomed him for 70,000 gold coins before
returning home. Of 60 ships that set out, only
20 returned.
After Bjrn Ironsides expedition, only a
small number of further raids were made,
presumably because these expeditions had
proven so costly to the Vikings. The towns of
Spain were well fortiied, which made it much
more diicult to attack them than the potential
proit justiied. Moreover, the Caliphate was

better organised than the Frankish

kingdoms, so it was able to respond
to Viking raids better. Although
there were few raids, the Vikings
still engaged in activities in the
Mediterranean. Harald Hardrada
(Old Norse harri, ruthless) was
a member of the Varangian Guard
in Byzantium from c. 10351044. As
a member, and ostensibly a leader,
of this elite body of Scandinavian
warriors, he took part in campaigns in
and around the Mediterranean. Snorri
Sturluson recounts how Harald took the
Guard on campaign in the Land of the
Saracens (Asia Minor) and conquered
many towns there and, in doing so,
became very wealthy. Harald is also
credited with conquering towns in Sicily
by various stratagems. One involved
capturing the birds that nested in the
thatched roofs of the town and attaching
burning wood shavings to them. When
the birds lew home to their nests, they set
light to the towns roofs and the townsfolk
were so dismayed by this that they
surrendered. Although Haralds adventures
may be exaggerated, they belong to a
tradition of stories about him that certainly
bolster the image of the man described as
the last of the Vikings.


In AD 865, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records
that a Danish army overwintered in England
for the irst time. Known to the Anglo-Saxons
as the Great Army, this was led by Ivar the
Boneless, Halfdan and Ubbi, the sons of the
legendary Norse king Ragnar Lothbrok, and
marked the beginning of the conquest of the
area of northern and eastern England known as
the Danelaw.
At this time, England was divided into the
kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria
and Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states
that the East Anglians were able to buy peace
by giving the Vikings horses, which they rode
northwards the following year to attack York.
There was an internal dispute in Northumbria

St Edm un d w
by Viking raid marty red
ers in the
ni nth centur y,
when he
refused to fi gh
t th
Thi s fifteenth-c em.
painti ng from tury wall
of St Peter an e Church
d St Paul
in Pi ck ering,
depi cts the Vik rkshire,
medie val Eng gs as
lish archers.

Chapter III

Raiding and Trading

A lithograph of the St
Brices Day Massacre, by
Alfred Pearse. One of the
victims was supposed to
have been Gunnhild, sister
of Svein Forkb eard, and
this was claimed to be one
reason why he invaded
England in 1013.

in AD 866, because the Northumbrians had

deposed King Osberht, and taken as king lla,
who was apparently not of the royal line. This
discord meant that the Northumbrians were
slow to respond to the Viking attack on York.
When they did, they were able to break into the
town, but then the Vikings slaughtered them
and killed both their kings in the battle. The
survivors had to make peace.
In AD 867, the Vikings rode to Nottingham,
which was in Mercia. There they occupied
the fortiication and the combined might of
Mercia and Wessex could not shift them, so
the English had to broker a peace treaty. The
Great Army returned to York the following
year and then in AD 869 rode once more to
East Anglia, where they took up quarters at
Thetford and fought a battle with Edmund,
the king of East Anglia. They defeated and
captured Edmund, and are said to have
amused themselves after the battle by
shooting arrows at him and then beheading
him, because he would not renounce his

"The Great Army continued to

wreak havoc across the English
countryside until, in AD 871,
they attacked Wessex"
Christianity. For this death, Edmund was
declared a saint and martyr.
Following this, the Great Army continued
to wreak havoc across the English countryside
until, in AD 871, they attacked Wessex,
supported by another army that had arrived
under Guthrum. They were beaten by an army
under Ealdorman Aethelwulf at Engleield near
Reading, but continued their invasion. King
Aethelred and his brother Alfred attacked the
Great Army near Reading and were beaten,
but rallied their army and met the Vikings four
days later at Ashdown, where they defeated the
Great Army. Asser a Welsh monk who became
Bishop of Sherborne and later was a member of
Alfreds court wrote a life of Alfred in which
he declares that Alfred had to begin the battle
without Aethelred and his men, because
Aethelred refused to ight until he had inished
hearing mass. Shortly after Easter of AD 871,


Chapter III

Aethelred died and Alfred succeeded to the

kingdom. The Great Army fought several more
battles against the West Saxons that year and
won more often than not, so the Saxons sued
for peace and presumably had to pay the Great
Army to stay away. This peace treaty ensured
that Wessex was left in peace for ive years.
In subsequent years, the Mercians were
alicted by the Great Army. They too bought
their peace at great price two years in


succession, but their bribery did not work

and the kingdom collapsed when the Great
Army occupied the royal centre at Repton in
Derbyshire. A mass grave excavated in the
vicarage garden at Repton during the 1980s
contained approximately 250 skeletons, the
majority those of men in the prime of life,
while a small number were women. The
dating evidence suggests that this mass grave
was for members of the Great Army who had
succumbed to disease while the army was
overwintering there.
With Mercia and Northumbria in Viking
hands, it was only to be expected that Wessex
would follow. Half the Great Army chose to
settle on the lands they had conquered, but
the other half chose to attack Wessex. This
army was led by Guthrum. It marched through
Wessex and seized Wareham in Dorset. Alfred
in turn besieged the army but could not force
it to surrender. In the end a treaty was agreed
and the Vikings swore on a sacred arm ring to
uphold the peace. Alfred, a Christian king, had
sought to use the Vikings own pagan ritual
of swearing oaths on a sacred ring to bind
them to the treaty. The two armies also
exchanged hostages as a token of their
commitment to the treaty. However,
Guthrum and his troops slipped away
at the irst opportunity after killing
all the hostages they held. Alfred
was only able to enforce peace when
reinforcements for the Viking army
were wrecked as they tried to sail to
meet it.
The peace did not last long. Guthrum
returned in AD 878 and caught Alfred
by surprise. Alfred was forced to lee into
the marshes of Athelney, from where he
might try to rebuild his army. When he
was ready, Alfred sought out the Vikings
and fought a great battle at Edington,
where he defeated them in the ield and
besieged those who retreated into their fort
until they surrendered. Guthrum agreed to
be baptized, taking the name Aethelstan as
part of that baptism, and Alfred accepted him
as his adoptive son. With this victory and the
resultant treaty Alfred
4), no w at
secured his kingdom.
Thi s rune
weden, is on e
esta church, S
ed The Vikings who did not

O rk
orating a man
a pair co mmem io n says that he
Ulfr. The insc egeld in England
had collected
th ree ti mes.

wish to settle sought easier plunder in France,

which resulted eventually in the break-up of
the Carolingian Empire in AD 888. Alfred still
had to contend with Viking raids, but not on the
scale that had previously assailed him.
At home, King Alfred set about reforming his
kingdom. He introduced military reforms that
would enable his son Edward the Elder and his
grandson Aethelstan to conquer England. The
reforms included establishing a network of forts
(burhs in Old English) to protect Wessex. Alfred
began building a leet to defend his realm at
sea and he introduced educational reforms to
ensure that as many people as possible could
read. Alfred also began translating books into
his own language. At some point shortly after
conquering London in AD 886, Alfred also
drew up a treaty with Guthrum that deined
the Danelaw, the kingdom where Danish law
prevailed. The boundary between the two
kingdoms was to be along the Thames to the
Lea, from the Lea to Bedford and then up the
Ouse to Watling Street. South of this line was
Wessex, north was the Danelaw.


The Icelandic manuscript Fagrskinna (meaning
fair parchment) records that Olaf Tryggvason,
who was to become king of Norway in AD
995, set out with a leet on a raiding voyage in
the late tenth century. He circumnavigated
the British Isles, raiding as he went, before
travelling to France to raid there. The AngloSaxon Chronicle records that Olaf Tryggvason
led the Viking band that landed at Maldon in
AD 991 and fought Ealdorman Byrhtnoth. This
battle is commemorated in the Old English
poem The Battle of Maldon, which is thought
to have been written shortly after the battle.
The poem describes how the Vikings defeated
Byrhtnoth and names those Anglo-Saxons who
ran from the battle irst as well as the heroes
who stood and died beside their leader. To make
the Vikings go away, King Aethelred, who is
known to us as the Unready, paid them 4,500
kilograms (10,000 pounds) of silver. According
to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this was the irst
time that Danegeld a tax to save a land from
ravage was paid, but it was not to be the last.

by James
efies the Waves
King Canute D To co nvin ce hi s
Edwin McCon
was not all-po w d
co urtiers
seat on the be
no wi ng
Canute set hi s
ves to retreat, k
co mman
that they wo uld

Olafs voyage was not the irst in the resurgence

of raiding, but it is certainly one of the best
documented, not least because it culminated in
his baptism and conversion to Christianity. This
raiding voyage was part of a new era of raiding
that was to cause signiicant political problems
for England.
The second series of Viking raids on Britain
was probably partially a result of increasing
centralization of power in Scandinavia and
partially a result of the exhausting of silver

reserves in the Middle East. Arabic silver had

been a mainstay of the Scandinavian economy
but, as it ran out, so did the eastern trade routes
and new sources of wealth had to be found.
Combined with the weakness of the English
crown, conditions were perfect for a renewed
assault following 26 years of relative peace.
Raids started to occur once more in the AD
980s and increased in size to the extent that
Olafs raid in AD 991 was said to consist of 93
ships. Paying Olaf of didnt prevent others from

raiding England, and Olaf himself returned

just three years later in company of Svein
Forkbeard, King of Denmark. They had
94 ships and attacked London itself. They
were driven of from London, but continued
to harry the countryside until King Aethelred
ofered them 7,250 kilograms (16,000 pounds)
of silver and the provisions they needed in
return for leaving.
Olaf never returned to attack England, but
others, including Svein, were continued to

Chapter III
elfth-centur y
The late tw estr y depicts
Baldi shol T s of the year.
p er
the yo ung m s
On the
holdi ng a fl ri ght, the
Ap ri l. On th sents May.
p re

raid and extort Danegeld from the English.

The raids reached such a peak that King
Aethelred, fearing a conspiracy to oust him
from his throne, ordered that all the Danish
men in England be slaughtered on St Brices
Day (13 November) in 1002. Evidence for the

extent of this massacre is sparse: a charter

to St Frideswides Abbey in Oxford refers to
Danes being slaughtered and the bodies of
3438 young men, who died around this time,
were found at St Johns College, Oxford, in
2008. Other evidence for wholesale massacre

of Danes is not present, which suggests the

massacre was more localized. It also seems
unlikely that Aethelreds orders would have
been carried out at all within the Danelaw
areas. Legend tells us that Svein Forkbeards
sister was one of the victims and that his later

Raiding and Trading

invasion of England was partly motivated by

this. If the massacre did occur, it did not deter
the Vikings from continuing their depredations.
Raids continued for another ten years and the
Danegeld paid in 1012 was as much as 21,700
kilograms (48,000 pounds) of silver. England
was in a poor state by this time, although its tax

collection system had been reined and made

more eicient as a result of the Viking raids.
In 1013 Svein Forkbeard returned to England
as an invader, not as a raider. Much of England
submitted to him very quickly, but the
south held out longer until Aethelred led to
Normandy at Christmas time. Svein was now

the ruler of England and Denmark,

but was to enjoy his reign for only
ive weeks before he died. Aethelred
returned to rule England and did so
until Cnut, Sveins son, invaded in
1015. Cnut seized Northumbria and
prepared a campaign to take the
rest of England. Aethelred died in
April 1016 and his son, Edmund
Ironside, succeeded to the
throne. Edmund fought a largely
successful campaign against
Cnut all through that year until he
was betrayed to Cnut by his own
people at the battle of Ashingdon.
Shortly after that, he and Cnut
agreed a treaty that divided the
country between them. Edmund
retained Wessex, while Cnut got
the rest of the country. Edmund
lived only until November 1016,
after which Cnut gained the
whole of England and ruled
it until his death in 1035. He
was a strong and efective king
who introduced some Danish
customs to England, but England
also inluenced Denmark. For
example, Cnut appointed several
Englishmen as bishops in
Denmark, and even today most
of the ordinary Danish words of
church organization are English
in origin. At the height of his
power, Cnut ruled an empire
that consisted of Denmark,
England, Norway, Orkney and
south western Sweden.
Cnut appointed his son
Harthacnut as his heir, but his
other son Harald was chosen
by the English as king. Cnuts
Norwegian holdings were lost
to Magnus the Good, whom
the Norwegians took as king.
Harthacnut took the throne in
England only when his brother died in 1039,
and he was succeeded by Edward the Confessor
in 1042. With that, Danish rule in England
ended, but the Viking Age would not end until
1066, when Harald Hardrada, king of Norway,
fell in battle at Stamford Bridge.


Chapter III


N 793 AD, Viking warriors ran their longboats ashore on Lindisfarne
(an island off the east coast of England) and attacked the Christian
monastery there. Terrified, the monks desperately tried to fend off the
Vikings, but they were brutally slaughtered and the buildings left in ruins as
the warriors escaped with the monasterys treasures. This was the start of
the Vikings long reign of terror across Europe.

This stone from Lindisfar ne is thought
show Viking
monastery in 793 AD.


Viking conquerors
At first, the Vikings fought in small
groups raiding easy coastal targets
during the summer months.
However, they soon became more
daring, spending the winters
in places they had captured.
The Vikings sailed up the
rivers of Europe and attacked
great cities such as Paris
and Hamburg. Across the
British Isles, they established
themselves as rulers in areas
they had attacked, and in
the north west of France the
area around Rouen became
known as Normandy (Land
of the Northmen). Viking
fleets even sailed as far as
the Mediterranean, raiding
the coasts of Spain, Italy
and North Africa.

The priory that stands at

Lindisfarne today was built on top
of the ruins left by the Vikings.


The terror of Europe

Viking raids were swift and ruthless, and usually
came as a total surprise. Warriors would appear
suddenly on their longboats and storm ashore.
Well armed and fearsomely brave, the Vikings
nearly always got what they wanted, and the
lightning speed of their attacks made fighting
back almost impossible for the unfortunate
victims. However, during the second half of the
ninth century, European leaders began to
build defences such as castles and fortresses
to resist invasion.

The speed and brutality of the Vikings attacks made it difficult for their
victims to fight back.


The Dan egeld

Europ ean leaders were desperate to

stop the Vikings violence. In 845 AD,
the French king, Charles the Bald,
paid an enormous sum of silver to the
Viking leader Ragnar Hairy-Breeks to
make him leave Paris. During the tenth
century, English kings began to pay
huge sums to Danish Vikings known
as Danegeld. These bribes didnt work
though the Vikings took the money,
but repeatedly returned for more riches.
Millions of Anglo-Saxon coins
were handed over to the Vikings as
Danegeld bribes.

An eighth-century Anglo-Saxon
helmet from York, a city which was
conquered by the Vikings.

Chapter III


RIC BLOODAXE was the ruler of the

Viking kingdom of Northumbria in England.
The son of the Norwegian king Harald Finehair,
Eric is said to have started his fighting life aged
12. According to the sagas, he was a ruthless
warrior, his savagery shocking even his fellow
Vikings. However, other sources suggest
Eric was under the thumb of his evil wife,
Gunnhild, and blame his harsh rule on
her wicked influence.


A bloodthirsty murderer
The eldest and favourite son of his father, Eric earned his
fearsome nickname by slaying his four brothers in order to take
the Norwegian throne for himself. However, he was a ruthless
and unpopular king, and his surviving brother, Hakon the Good,
sailed from England to Norway to claim the throne. Eric fled to
England where he became king of Northumbria with a palace
in the capital city of York.

raiding and trading

King of Northumbria
In 947 AD, Eadred, King of England, launched
an attack on Northumbria to fight off his Viking
rival. As Eadreds soldiers moved south again,
Eric Bloodaxes soldiers caught up with them and
slaughtered many. In revenge, Eadred promised to
destroy Northumbria and succeeded in persuading
its people to reject Erics rule. However, when the
Dublin Viking Olafr Sigtryggson took control of
Northumbria in 952 AD, Eric Bloodaxe responded
furiously by seizing the throne for a second time.
His rule did not last long though, and in 954 AD
he was killed at the battle of Stainmore. His
death marked the end of Viking rule at York.


Egill Skallagrim
an d po et, an d a on was a great Viki ng wa rrio r
swor n en em y of
W hen he fell into
Erics hands, Eg Bloodaxe.
ill sa ved hi s
own life by co mp
osing a po em in
prai se of the ki ng

Chapter IIII


NLIKE MODERN soldiers, Viking warriors did not wear

a uniform but dressed and armed themselves. Many wore
leather tunics and hard leather caps for battle, although these
would not have prevented injury from sharpened swords and
arrows. Chain-mail shirts made from interlocking iron rings and
metal helmets gave much better protection, but were expensive
and probably only worn by rich and powerful leaders.


Raiding and trading


Helmets and Shields

Very few helmets have survived from the Viking age. Made from iron, they
had rounded or pointed tops, and an eye and nose guard or just a simple
nose-bar. Warriors carried round wooden shields that protected most of the
body. Up to 1 metre across, they would have been painted and may have been
covered in leather. An iron knob in the centre known as the boss protected
the warriors hand. Since wood rots, the boss is usually the only part of the
shield that archaeologists ever find.

Chapter III


WARRIORS most treasured possession was

undoubtedly his sword, though he needed to
be trained to fight with a variety of weapons. Dead
Vikings were often buried with their weapons a
beautiful sword, richly decorated with silver and gold,
showed that its owner was wealthy and powerful.


Bows and Arrows

Wooden bows and iron-tipped arrows
were used for hunting and sometimes in
battle. Bolt-like arrowheads could pierce
through chain mail causing lethal injuries.

Warriors carried different sizes of spear.
Lightweight throwing spears or javelins
could be thrown at the enemy, while
heavier thrusting spears with broader
blades were used in close combat.

Raiding And Trading

Battle axes
The Vikings used a variety of axes in battle. Some could
be thrown from a distance, and others were used to hack
at an enemy in close hand-to-hand fighting. Axes were
long-handled with broad blades. When used with two
hands, the axe was a weapon of terror for it could cut
through armour, and slice off heads and limbs.

Most warriors carried a small, single-edged knife with a
handle made from bone or wood. This was usually carried in
a leather sheaf attached to a belt. The knife was an essential
everyday tool but could also be used in close fighting.

Chapter III


ARRIORS TREASURED their swords and often gave them

names such as Leg-biter or Fierce. A Viking sword had
a double-edged blade that was strong as well as flexible, meaning it
would not shatter when struck by the enemy. The swords
hilt (handle) was often beautifully decorated.

When this once-magnificent sword first

emerged from its ancient resting place,
I shivered to think upon the battles it
had seen. Whose hands once gripped
the decorated hilt, and was this weapon
perhaps named to celebrate the strength
and sharpness of its blade?
Robert Macleod

Raiding And Trading


Chapter III



IKING SOCIETY was divided into three main classes. At

the top of the social pyramid was the king along with noble
landowners called jarls. Beneath the jarls were the karls or
freemen who were usually farmers, merchants, craftsmen or
warriors. The lowest of the low were the slaves known as thralls.
Slaves had no rights at all they could be bought and sold like
property, and were often captured in raids and battles.




In Viking society, power was held by the jarls. Most people were karls who owned or rented
some land. The thralls at the bottom of the heap had no freedoms at all.

Kings and kingdoms

In early Viking times, Scandinavia was divided into small kingdoms
ruled over by local kings and jarls. Rulers were expected to protect
their communities but often struggled to keep power. The Vikings
held open-air meetings called Things where important issues
were discussed any free person could take part. However, over
time kings became more and more powerful and the importance of
these meetings began to lessen. By 880 AD, Harald Finehair had
brought all of Norway under his reign, and by the end of the tenth
century, powerful kings ruled over Denmark and Sweden too.

Raiding And Trading

Family feuds

Vikings take part in a

discussion at the Thing.

A Vikings honour and good name were highly

valued, and family ties were very important. Men
were prepared to fight to the death if it meant
protecting their familys reputation, and disputes
were often settled by duels. Violent blood-feuds
between families often lasted for generations.


Crime and

Thi s eng raved arm ring belo
to a high-ranking Viking.

People suspected of crim es

were som etim es forced to
take tests called ordeals.
Stones had to be picked out of
boi ling water or red-hot iron
carried for several seconds.
The Vikings bel ieved that the
gods would help the innocent
and so those who failed the
tests were considered gui lty.
The Thing usually decided a
crim inals punishm ent he or
she might be fined, banished
from society or forced to
becom e a slave.

Chapter IV

N THE lookout for new places to call home, the

Vikings travelled overseas in order to establish
new colonies, often to the displeasure of the existing
inhabitants which often led to conflict.

Chapter IV


HE NORSE did not go abroad only to raid

or trade as Vikings, they also settled and
founded Norse colonies in various parts
of the Viking world. Some of the areas they
settled were relatively uninhabited, like Iceland,
while others required a lot of contact with
the existing population, resulting in a certain
amount of assimilation, such as in England.




In the early to mid-ninth century, the

Vikings reached the Faeroe Islands in the
Atlantic. The islands had much to ofer: good
pastures, enough land to grow crops, and a
large population of seabirds on the clifs. The
Vikings had to import wood, but the sea would

also have supplied driftwood. Most of the

archaeological inds of household and luxury
items were imported from Norway, Shetland
or England. The Viking settlers were very well
connected to the rest of the Viking world. In
the early phase of the settling, farmsteads
and outhouses were built further up the hills
for seasonal use, and in the eleventh century
the descendants of the Norse settlers built a
wooden church.
The Vikings discovered Iceland in the midto late-ninth century. They found a practically
uninhabited land, with good pastures and
ishing grounds. There also were, like today,
natural hot-water basins and spectacular
geysers. Less attractive, though equally
fascinating, must have been the reeking
sulphur pools and the rough, yet eerie, lava
ields. The glaciers that covered most of the

alta r
A vi ew from the
Bi rsay. Th
bited by
pi cture
Pi cts, who left a orse
settlers di
se an d
The church is N
the rema
e on the
tio ns
Brough. Exca va s of a
Pi cti sh
the Norse chur

island were of course familiar to Norwegian

Vikings and, contrary to popular belief, the
Vikings did ind trees there. The forests were,
however, much less sustainable than in
Norway and, as trees were felled to serve as
timber for houses and fuel, the soil eroded so
that the wooded areas could not recover from
deforestation. The land was quickly surveyed
and the settlers claimed jords, valleys and
headlands for themselves.
Two important books were written
about this period in the twelfth century.
slendingabk (The Book of the Icelanders)
and Landnmabk (The Book of Settlements)
mention who the irst settlers were and how
they divided the land. There was no substantial
native population the Vikings had to interact
with, but they still made some changes to
their customs and culture, most notably in
how they organized themselves politically
in the new country. It seems the irst settlers

The Ring of Brodga r at Ste

nness, Ork ney, would have
been a lan dmark for Ork ney
Vikings. Thi s Neolithic
henge would have been kno
wn to the Ork ney pilg rims
mention ed in Ork neyinga sag
a. On e of the stan ding
ston es is car ved with a run
ic inscription in twi g-r unes
similar to those in Maeshowe
, but it is uncertain if this
is a genuin e inscription from
the Viking Age or early
Middle Ages.

claimed large pieces of the best land.

Subsequent newcomers were then allocated
parts of these lands. Despite this hierarchy,
the Icelanders felt equal to each other there
is no evidence of people who established
themselves as signiicantly more rich and
powerful than the others. This egalitarian
society also resulted in the establishment of
the Althing, the yearly general assembly
which every free man had to attend. The
assembly was held at Thingvellir, a sheltered,
yet accessible place with natural acoustics
and plenty of camping space. It was at the
Althing that law was spoken and it was also
where the Icelanders oicially accepted
Christianity in the year 1000. The Icelanders
kept in close contact with their homelands, not
only to trade and import the necessary goods,
but there was also a lourishing tradition of
Icelandic poets trying their luck at the courts of
Norwegian kings.

"This egalitarian society also resulted in the establishment of the

Althing, the general assembly which every free man had to attend"
Greenland was irst settled by Eirik the Red,
who was convicted of murder and banished
from Iceland for three years. The existence and
rough location of Greenland were known, but
Eirik was the irst to explore the island to see if
it was worth settling, and after his banishment
he returned to Iceland to recruit a party of
settlers. The settlers are said to have found
traces of the indigenous population, but there
seems to have been limited contact between
the two, occurring only when the Norse
went further north on long-distance hunting
expeditions. Eventually, there were two
extended settlements on Greenland, which
became Christian even before Iceland and the
colony lourished for several centuries until
conditions changed.

From Greenland, Vikings regularly travelled

to the coast of North America. They established
a small settlement at LAnse aux Meadows,
which was short-lived, however. It seems it was
not maintainable because of the long distance
to Greenland and too many hostile encounters
with the native populations.

There are no written sources that date the
irst Norse settlement in Scotland or that
document the nature of the settlement process.
The archaeological material, however, shows
that a permanent Norse presence emerged in
parts of Scotland from the mid-ninth century

Norse raiders attack the great

monastery at Clonmacnoise,
Ireland in the early ninth
century. This raid took place in
the AD 830s, one of many in
that decade.

Settlement Abroad

Birsay Bay, Orkney. The Brough of Birsay

on Birsay Bay was home to Pictish, Norse
and later settlements between the seventh
and thirteenth centuries.

onwards. The settlers came mostly from

Norway, and the Northern Isles are only two
days sailing distance from there. The landscape
of the islands and the Scottish west coast,
though much less mountainous, resembles the
Norwegian coastal region in the way the sea
inluences the weather and in the presence of
small islands from which sea routes and access
to land could be controlled.
It is often assumed that the
Vikings irst established bases
on Scottish territory to serve as
stopovers or starting points for
attacks on more southern parts
of the British Isles. At this time, Scotland was
inhabited by Celtic peoples being, roughly,
from north to south the Picts, the Scots and
the Britons of whom many were Christian.
Norse leaders seems to have replaced the
leading Celtic classes relatively quickly and it
is uncertain what happened to these peoples
under Viking rule.
It is clear that the Vikings quickly established
a successful colony and prospered from
efectively controlling the seascape around
Scotland and the Irish Sea. Norse settlers
exploited the natural resources and they also

introduced (not always on purpose) some

animals, like particular types of ield mice,
and plants, such as lax, from Scandinavia
to the natural environments, though on
a smaller scale than in Iceland. There are
remains of several settlements, such as Jarlshof
on Shetland, high-status burials, such as at

also rather telling that Norse settlers in the
Western Isles were quite happy to give their
children Gaelic names (which also suggests
marriages between Vikings and Celts), while
Pictish personal names were not taken into
use by the Scandinavians who settled in the
Northern Isles.
This period features in several
historical and literary sources from
the twelfth century and later, such
as Irish and Frankish monastic
annals, Orkneyinga saga, the life of
St Magnus, and Eyrbyggja saga. Some of the
sources are very succinct, others contradict
each other and they are all rather far removed
from the events, in time or in place or both. The
Scandinavians did leave runic inscriptions by
their own hand, mostly on Orkney, but also
some on Shetland and mainland Scotland.
These inscriptions are also not from the
time of the settlement, but date to the later
Viking Age. And, although Orkneyinga
saga describes travellers taking refuge from
harsh winter storms in the Neolithic burial
chamber Maeshowe (Orkahaugr in the

"The Vikings quickly established a successful colony

and prospered from effectively controlling the seascape
around Scotland and the Irish Sea"
Scar, Sanday, Orkney, and a few rich silver
hoards, among them the one from Skaill on
the Scottish mainland. Norse farmsteads and
cemeteries were often located at pre-existing
sites, such as on the Brough of Birsay, Orkney,
where there had been a Pictish settlement.
In the Northern Isles, there are many more
place-names of Scandinavian, rather than
Pictish, origin. This shows that there was
much less interaction with the people who
lived there than in the West Highlands and
Isles, where the place-names show a far greater
mix of the Norse and Gaelic languages. It is

Chapter IV

These gaming pieces were fou

nd on the Isle
of Lewis in 1831. They wer
e made in No rway
from walrus ivo ry in the thir
d qua rter of the
twelfth centur y, most lik ely
for export to the
No rse rulers of the Scottish
Isles. The collection
compri ses pieces from up to
four gaming sets for
both Chess and the Viking
game of tafl.


saga) and mentions that two men went mad

while sheltering there, we cannot be certain
whether the twelfth-century carvers of the
approximately 33 Old Norse runic inscriptions
in the chamber were travelling Scandinavians,
or people whose families had settled in Orkney
generations ago. There are a small number of
cross slabs and commemorative stone crosses
with Old Norse runic inscriptions that illustrate
how the Scandinavian tradition of raising
runestones as memorials for the dead and the
native tradition of Christian stone sculpture
were combined.


The Viking settlement in Ireland had a diferent
character. Where the settlement in Scotland was
mostly of a rural character and the nature of the
contact with the Celtic inhabitants is unclear,
in Ireland the Vikings founded urban trading
centres, most importantly Dublin, and they
traded extensively with the Irish and England.
They also met with ierce resistance from the
Irish kings when they tried to expand.
Dublin was irst used in the ninth century by
the Vikings as one of their several longphorts

in Ireland, camps where they could gather for

further raids. After this phase, when Dublin
became a place of permanent settlement, the
Scandinavians undertook a reorganization of
the settlement. Houses were built on fenced
plots all facing the streets. There were defensive
ramparts around the town, on the other side
of which were further living quarters and the
hinterland that supplied the town with food
and resources. It is unknown to what extent
this land was also in Scandinavian hands, but
if not, there was certainly a lot of what seems to
be peaceful interaction with the surrounding
population. The Norse settlers used Dublins
strategic situation on the Irish Sea to its full
advantage and the town became a very
wealthy trading centre, so raiding became less
and less important. The silver hoards that were
buried in the area show that the Dublin Norse
began to adopt an economy with payments
in coins rather than in bullion or hacksilver
relatively early, compared to the Scandinavian
homelands. This was probably a result of their
extensive contact with the English economy.
The Isle of Man also knew a strong Norse
presence. The Viking settlers came from
Norway, Denmark, Scotland and Ireland,

but the island was most closely tied to the

Northern Isles. The Earls of Orkney held power
over the Isle of Man and later the Manx kings
ruled the Hebrides. At a later stage the trade
contacts with the Western Isles, Dublin and
Chester became more important and the silver
hoards of the wealthy Isle of Man again show
an early preference for coins over bullion.
On Man, as in Ireland and England, there
was much more interaction with the Manx
population of Christians. This resulted, for
instance, in a hybrid type of commemorative
stone monument. The Viking settlers became
Christians in the course of the tenth century
and then adapted the Manx tradition of
memorial stones. They added their art styles
and motifs, which were also used on the
runestones and picture stones of Scandinavia,
such as Sigurd the Dragonslayer. Runic
inscriptions in Old Norse are carved on several
of these monuments.


After the irst phases of raiding, the Vikings
established bases where they could overwinter
and undertake further raids, such as at Repton.

Settlement Abroad

"The Viking settlers became Christians in the course of the tenth

century and then adapted the Manx tradition of memorial stones"

Parts of two runic inscriptions carved inside Maeshowe. Both

refer to treasure. The upper line is a response to the claim
that treasure lies to the north of this spot, and states that it
has been a long time since any treasure was here. The second
line is part of a third response, which announces that anyone
that found gold here would be happy. The fourth response
(not shown) informs us that Hkon took the treasure.


Chapter IV

"A truce was settled between the AngloSaxons and the Scandinavians and a treaty
was drawn up, resulting in the establishing of
what became known as the Danelaw"
Oval bro oches by chains of
beads were typical pieces
of womens jewellery. They
were always ornate and
a chain would hang from
them with the keys to the
house on it. In the Viking
Age, women had cha rge of
the keys. These bro oches
were found in Sweden.


This meant that from the mid-ninth century

the Vikings became a permanent presence
in England. From AD 866 onwards, the Vikings
went to England in greater numbers than
before. They became more focused on taking
land and settling there. In a time of internal
power struggles among the people of East
Anglia, Northumbria and Wessex, the Vikings

were able to win large parts of the country

relatively quickly. Just over a decade later,
the Vikings controlled Northumbria, East
Anglia and Mercia. The lands previously
held by the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and
the Church were now distributed by the
war leaders among their Vikings, and the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that they

proceeded to plough and support themselves.

All the while the Vikings were also trying
to conquer Wessex, when inally they lost battle
in AD 878 against King Alfred. A truce was
settled between the Anglo-Saxons and
the Scandinavians and a treaty was drawn
up, resulting in the establishing of what
became known as the Danelaw. King Alfred
held Wessex and part of Mercia, while
Northumbria, East Anglia and the rest of
Mercia were oicially under Scandinavian
control. This truce was fragile, however, and
the Vikings based armies at strategic places to
consolidate their power. Such places were not
only politically signiicant, they were
also centres of economic importance. These
towns, such as Derby, Leicester, Lincoln,
Nottingham and Stamford, naturally became
important in the English campaign for
recovering the country.
The Vikings quickly recognized the
importance of coins in claiming and
maintaining leadership over an area. They
employed minters from the continent to imitate
the coins that King Alfred issued. The Viking

d is visible in the
A Viking Age cord roa on in Dubli n, Irelan d.
foreground of thi s exc
at the Battle of Clon
Even after bei
continued to live in
in 1014, the Vikings

This stone cross at St Marys church,

Gosforth, was carved in the tenth century.
The area saw an influx of Viking settlers
arriving in the ninth and tenth centuries.
Norse influence on Anglo-Saxon stone
sculpture is visible in the decoration, which
includes scenes from Norse mytholog y as
well as the crucifixion of Christ.


Chapter IV

Thi ngvelli r in Iceland. xa

r (A
through the middle of Thi ngv xe River) runs
elli r, where the
Icelandic annual national ass
embly (Althi ng)
was held. The area is now
a national park,
where the remains of the ass
embly-goers booths
are still visible.

Settlement Abroad

Ruins of the Norse

Christian church at Hvalsey
(Q aqortukulooq), Greenland.
This church was the site of
the last Christian marriage
ceremony conducted in
Greenland before the colony
died out.

coins were, like the Anglo-Saxon tradition,

struck in name of patron saints, but some
designs also incorporate images of a sword and a
Thors hammer.
Despite the violent colonization process,
the Vikings integrated quickly in their new
Anglo-Saxon homelands. They converted to
Christianity and soon adopted the customs
and conventions. This quick integration,
however, does not mean the Scandinavian
culture was totally dissolved. On the contrary,
there are many indications that a new AngloScandinavian culture emerged.
The most striking result of this is
demonstrated by stone sculptures, which
shows remarkable innovation. Anglo-Saxon
stone monuments were produced in a
monastic context for the upper ranks of the
Church and the aristocracy. By contrast, the
Scandinavian memorial stone tradition was

much more secular and included a wider

section of society. The Viking inluence
took the stone sculpture out of the monastic
context. Memorial stones and grave
monuments were now carved by secular
professionals who also served a wider, though
still elite, clientele. Scandinavian art styles
and motifs were introduced and new shapes
and forms of monument were developed.
The most conspicuous of these new
monument types are gravemarkers called
hogbacks. They seem to originate in Yorkshire,
and they are mostly found in that region,
but there also are a few in Derbyshire, Scotland
and Ireland.
York was a signiicant town for the Viking
settlers. It was important for controlling
north-west England and was already an
established trading centre. The town was
developed further under Viking reign as a

well-organized production centre and its place in

the Viking Age trading network grew.
It remained in Viking hands even after the
English had taken the Five Boroughs these
were the ive main towns of Mercia: Derby,
Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford
and by AD 920 it was all the Danish Vikings
had left since they had lost more and more of
their territory to the English under the reign
of King Edward and his sister Aethellaed. In
subsequent decades, while the rest of England
was mostly under English rule, York repeatedly
changed hands between Dublin Vikings and
the English, until Eric Bloodaxe was defeated
at Stainmore in AD 954. Although the whole of
England was now united under one English king,
the descendants of the Great Army remained an
important part of the population, and close to a
century of Viking rule left marks in the language,
landscape and culture.

Chapter IV


In the early tenth century, the Viking presence
on the river Seine was becoming so disruptive
that the Frankish ruler made the strategic
decision to grant land to the leader of one of the
bands of Vikings if they would settle there and
defend Frankia against attacks by other Viking
troops. Hrlfr, or Rollo in French, and his men
settled accordingly on their land in the east of
what is now called Normandy. Subsequently,
Rollo and, after him, his son William Longsword
and their Vikings expanded their territory via
political negotiation and raiding and deined
modern Normandy.
Rouen was a very important administrative
centre, where William Longsword established

his mint, and a lourishing trading centre

that was well connected to the international
trading networks. The place-name evidence
from Normandy suggests that some of the
settlers were Vikings from Scandinavia,
particularly Denmark, and some were
actually Vikings from Ireland. The
archaeological material shows that, as in
England, the settlers were rather quick to
convert to Christianity, which undoubtedly
helped with the rapid assimilation between
the Scandinavians and the Frankish
population. This part of the Frankish Empire
remained under Viking rule, which soon
merged into Norman rule, and the duchy of
Normandy grew strong enough to conquer
England in 1066.


In the late ninth century the Rus state had
expanded southwards from the Novgorod
region to include Kiev as its capital. The
population of the Rus state was predominantly
Slavic, but the rulers had Norse names. In
the early- and mid-tenth century the Kievan
Rus tried to expand further into Byzantium
by attacking Constantinople, but they had to
settle for treaties which gave them trading
privileges. In AD 988 the Kievan ruler converted
to Greek Orthodox Christianity and married the
Byzantine emperors sister, which improved the
Rus relations with Byzantium even more, and
by this time the Rus already had a much more
Slavic than Scandinavian identity. This even
happened in the settlements of Staraja Ladoga,
Gorodice and the town of Novgorod,
which were situated much closer
to Scandinavia. The latter town
especially knew a sophisticated, rich
artisan and merchant milieu with
a well organized political system.
The Scandinavian early Rus mostly
focused on expanding their territory
and the lucrative long-distance trade,
but Viking warriors also enrolled
in the armies of the Byzantine
Emperor. When the emperor
formed a new personal guard in
the late tenth century, many of the
elite ighters were Scandinavians,
the Varangian Guard. There were
also Vikings in this Varangian
Guard who came directly from
Scandinavia, and they had a much
stronger Norse identity than the Rus
at this point. Being in the Varangian
Guard was a high-status job, which
came with many privileges and
good payment. Several runestones
in Scandinavia commemorate
men who travelled to and often
died in the east, and it is thought
that some of these men served
in the Varangian Guard or may
have travelled there on trading or
raiding expeditions.

An eleventh-centur y fresco
in the Cathedral of Sai nt
Sophia in Kie v. It depicts
a fight between two
war riors, one masked and
stripped to the wai st. The
fresco probably reco rds the vis
it of the Pri ncess Olga
to Byzantium in AD 953,
when Viking Rus war riors
performed a swo rd dan ce as
entertainment. The masked
man may be one of the only
depictions we have of a
Viking berserk er.

xar Waterfall near

Thingvellir, Iceland. The
waterfall lies a little to the north
of the Althing site.

Chapter IV



Ba ffin Bay




S RAIDERS, traders
and explorers, the
Vikings ventured far
beyond their Scandinavian
homelands. They
attacked monasteries and
towns across Europe,
and crossed vast areas
of unknown waters to
explore and settle lands
in the west. In the East,
the Vikings made long
and dangerous journeys
along the rivers of central
Europe into Russia, finally
reaching the great cities of
Constantinople (the heart
of the Byzantine empire)
and Baghdad.
Wherever they settled,
the Vikings left behind
not only archaeological
remains and artefacts
but a rich legacy that
can be seen today in
place names, folk tales
and local customs.


L Anse aux



Viking homelands
Viking routes
Viking settlements


settlement abroad



North Sea







Lindis farne








Caspian Sea


Black Sea
Byzantine Empire




Mediterranean Sea


Chapter IV


NE OF the most feared rulers in Europe, Harald Hardrada was the king
of Norway from 1046 to 1066. His true name was Harald Sigurdsson,
but the kings reputation for crushing enemies earned him the nickname
Hardrada or the Ruthless. Harald ruled his kingdom with an iron first
but first and foremost he was a warrior, a man who showed no mercy to
those he conquered.


Harald the Ruthless

Harald was the half-brother of the

Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson. In
1030, when he was just 15, he fought
with his brother at the battle of
Stiklestad where Olaf was defeated.
Harald escaped from Norway to the
Russian state of Kiev and became a
military commander. Later, he fought
for the Byzantine Empire and made a
fortune through raiding. In 1045, Harald
returned to his homeland and became
joint ruler with his nephew, King
Magnus. When Magnus died in 1047,
Harald became all-powerful and now
made a claim for Denmarks throne. He
spent the next 20 years raiding that
countrys coast and repeatedly fighting
its king.

settlement abroad

The Last Viking

In 1066, Harald Hardrada set off on his last great

campaign to conquer England. Leading a fleet of
300 ships across the North Sea, he won a brutal
battle at Fulford. From here the Viking king marched
his army towards Stamford Bridge, but he was
surprised there by the English king who had rapidly
moved his army north. In the battle that followed,
Harald was killed. Although occasional Viking
attacks on England took place after this time, many
historians view 1066 as the end of the Viking age,
and Harald is often seen as the last great Viking.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge

pitted the forces of the English king
Harold Godwinson against those of
Harald Hardrada.


Battle relics

Just outside the Viking city of York

, clos e to
the road that led to Ful ford, a church
cem etery
was discovered containing 11 skeleto
ns of young
men. Up on their bones were the terr
ible scars of
battle injuries. Might these be the rem
ains of the
Anglo-Saxon soldiers who died def
ending their
land from Harald Hardradas Viking
army? If so,
a mystery surrounds their burial: mo
re than 1,500
probably died on the battlefield, so
why have
so few graves been discovered?

Chapter IV



N VIKING times, most people were farmers and

hunters who lived in the countryside. Animals
such as sheep, pigs and cows were raised for food
and milk, and crops such as barley and wheat were
grown. Conditions in the Viking homelands could be
very difficult the weather was often bitterly cold
and in Norway there was a lack of good farmland.
This is one of the reasons why the Vikings left their
shores in search of new lands.

This reconstructed
Viking village is at
Hedeby, Germany. Once
part of Denmark, Hedeby
was a great Viking town.

Sheep and cattle

were farmed for their
milk and meat.

Settlement Abroad

Tow n lif
lem ents grew up near rivers and
The Viking settlement of
Jarlshof in Shetland was
discovered after storm
damage revealed a number
of stone walls.

Viking sett
the sea where ships could be easily
y in
Som e trading centres such as Hedeb
am e
Denmark and Dublin in Ireland bec
bustling towns. The narrow, muddy
would have been crowded and noisy,
goo ds.
with houses and market stal ls sell ing
wel ls
Fresh water cam e from springs and
but towns must have been dirty and
mp ed
places. Farm ani mals were kept in cra
s would
conditions, smoke from household fire
age was
have hung thick in the air, and sew
thrown into holes in the ground and


Viking towns were often built next to the

sea where
longships and trade vessels could be harb

Chapter IV



HE VIKINGS developed a way of writing

using marks or letters called runes. The 16
letters were made up of straight and diagonal
lines so that brief messages could easily be
carved into stone, bone and wood. The Viking
alphabet was known as futhark after the first
six sounds. Glorious battles and heroic warriors
were celebrated in memorial stones known as rune
stones, which have been found across the Viking
world. The word runes means something secret
or hidden, and Vikings
thought runes
had their own
powerful magic.

A picture stone from

Gotland, Sweden.
Odins eight-leg ged
horse, Sleipnir, can be
seen carrying the god.


This is the Danish version of the futhark.

Runes were often used in magic - for example,
the arrow shaped letter tyr, named after
the god Tyr, was sometimes carved on weapons
in the hope that this god would bring victory
in battle.

Settlement Abroad

This Viking tombstone was found outside St

Pauls Cathedral in London. The runes on the
side refer to Ginna and Toki who may have been
Viking warriors.

Rune stones
often celebrated
the glory of dead Vikings.
This stone was put up by a
man named Varin for
his son Vermod.

This bone found in Lund, Sweden

is carved with the 16 runes of the
Viking alphabet or futhark.

Chapter V

IKING LIFE wasnt all about conquering new lands

and expanding their empire. They had their own
social structure, beliefs and rituals, and expressed their
artistic side through the likes of poetry and crafts.

Chapter V


ORWAY, SWEDEN and Denmark

did not exist as clearly deined
countries until the late Viking Age.
The social and political organization could
vary by region and the varying landscapes and
diferent contacts with other peoples made the
Scandinavian culture in the Viking Age less
homogenous than it is often thought to be.
In Sweden, the regions of Gtaland in the
south, Svealand (central Sweden, Blekinge,
part of the coastal region to the north and
land) and Norrland in the north had their
own leaders throughout the Viking Age.
The island of Gotland was practically
independent from the Scandinavian
mainland. Through its ofshore


location in the Baltic Sea, the island had a

distinctly individual culture. There is, for
instance, the unique type of memorial stones,
albeit related to the runestones of mainland
Scandinavia: the Gotlandic picture stones. The
jewellery also difers from that worn in the
rest of Sweden. The northern half of Sweden,
Finland and north Norway were the territory
of the Smi (previously also called Lapps).
There were distinct similarities between
certain beliefs and rituals of the Smi and the
Germanic Scandinavians. Archaeology and
written sources show that there was extensive
interaction between them that went beyond
trading. Examples of cross-cultural marriages
are known and graves with both Smi and
Nordic characteristics have been found.
The diferent regions had their own social
and legal organization. The local things

assemblies held at set times at a central

place, often a mound were an important
institution. This is where people would gather
to discuss important decisions
and pass laws.
The southern parts
of modern Sweden,
Skne and Halland, were
part of Denmark, which
also included the part of
northern Germany that
is now Schlewig-Holstein.
Jutland was the centre
of a strong centralized
power already in the
eighth century. This
is demonstrated
by large-scale
defences and

Visito rs walk alo ng a cor

d road,
made of logs, past a rec
Viking house at Hedeby,
an area that
is now in Germany but
which was in
Denmark in the Viking

infrastructures such as a series of fortresses, the

Danevirke earthwork ramp and the Kanhave
canal, which allowed ships to pass from
one side of the island of Sams to the other.
Denmark had close contacts with the Frisians,
Saxons and the larger Frankish Empire and
later also with England.
Of Norway, only the southern part, coastal
region and the jords were inhabited. The irst
time the diferent parts were united under
one ruler, King Harald Finehair, was in c.
AD 880. His death was followed by unstable
successors, rebelling jarls (nobles) and periods
of subjugation under Danish rule, which
disrupted this uniication again. Norway looked
distinctly westwards and there was cultural
interaction with the British Isles and, of course,
the Icelandic colony.
In Denmark, people mostly lived together
in villages, but there were single farmsteads
too. The farms and villages were generally selfsupporting and any surplus produce could be
traded for luxury items or silver. The settlement
pattern was similar in the fertile plains of
Vstergtland in Sweden and the valleys in
southern Norway. In the Swedish Mlarvalley,
however, there were mainly single farmsteads,
just as in the less fertile mountainous areas of
Norway and Swedish Norrland.
The diferent regions had their own social
and legal organization. At this time law was
passed on orally, but some runic inscriptions
give us a glimpse: at Oklunda, a man called
Gunnar recorded by carving in a rock that he
sought sanctuary at a vi (an assembly site
where law was administered or a cult site)
after committing, and admitting to, a crime.
The oldest evidence we have for a Viking
Age legal system is the Forsa rune ring from
Hlsingland in Sweden. This ring has been
hanging from a church door since the Middle
Ages, but in the early Viking Age it had a
diferent function. The ninth-century
runic inscription proclaims what
ines were payable if the vi was not
maintained properly. That this law
is referred to as being of the people
and not, for example, issued by a king,
indicates that there were ancient laws of
the land that would apply to the people of
a certain region.

An employee at
Hedeby, Germany,
dressed in
authentic Viking
clothes, stands in
front of one of
the reconstructed

Iceland was settled by Scandinavians,

mainly from Norway, but also from Britain
and Ireland, from c. AD 870 onwards. As we
have seen, they met Irish hermits there, but
these men left at the arrival of the Norsemen
and there does not seem to have been much
cultural interaction. With nearly three-quarters
of Iceland covered in glaciers and volcanic
ields, only the coastal regions and the wider
valleys in the south and south-west are it for
habitation and agriculture. The island was
divided into districts and all free men had a
vote in the regional assemblies. The districts
were represented by the most powerful men
that is, the richest with the most land at the
yearly general assembly where justice was


administered and decisions about the country

were made more or less democratically.


Most Viking Age Scandinavians were farmers.
Even those who were Vikings in the true sense
of the word had to come home to tend to their
farms. Inluence and power were connected to
landownership and other wealth, which could
be accumulated by raiding and trading during
the seasons. This developed into a system
where local chieftains or magnates owned an
area with several farms, occupying the largest
themselves. Place-names can clearly illustrate
the social organization in the landscape, when

Chapter V

Srfjorden, Hordaland,
Norway. The Scan dina vian
visitors who killed the
reeve in Dorset in AD
789 travelled from the
fjords in this part of
south-west Norway.

they refer to the chieftains or kings farm
among other farms, assembly places, sacred
groves, cult sites, smithies and so on.
Although not all farmers were also
landowners, they were still free men. Other
free men were merchants, craftsmen, hunters,
ishers or poets, or a combination of any of
these with farmer and/or Viking. Chieftains and
kings held households, which could include
bodyguards and stewards, and kings liked to
employ one or more skalds (poets). Kings could
call upon local chieftains to provide them
with ships and men if needed for battles or
expeditions. It could be a good career for young
adventurous men to ind fame and fortune in
the retinue of a king or jarl before taking over
the family farm.
The people lowest in rank were slaves. Slaves
were mostly traded, but wealthy landowners
could aford to have a slave work for them on
their farm. A runestone in Hrning, Denmark,
was raised by a man called Toki the smith, to
commemorate Thorgisl who gave him gold and
freedom. This is a case of a slave who became a

free man, well-of enough to commemorate his

former master when he died.
Women played an important role in running
the farm and household, since men could be
away for most of the year. It is assumed that
this role is symbolized by the iconic keys
that are often found as part of a womans
attire. Women were fairly independent: they
could own and inherit landed property and
they could choose as well as divorce their
husbands. Several written sources mention
a woman called Aud the Deep-minded, who
went to Iceland as one of the early settlers in
the late ninth century to claim land after her
husbands death. There are several extremely
rich Viking Age female burials, testifying that
women could be as highly placed as men,
sometimes perhaps even higher. The most
famous of these graves is the Oseberg ship
burial, which was more impressive than any
male burial in that region. Two women were
buried in the large ship, accompanied by a
wealth of grave goods, including richly carved
sleighs, an elaborately decorated wagon,

imported silks and the famous tapestries. The

grave had been disturbed (probably robbed,
for there were no precious metals left) and any
clues as to the relation between the younger
and the older woman have been lost. Other
pre-Christian burials, together with written
sources, indicate that Viking Age women could
also be cult leaders and prophetesses. Towards
the later Viking Age, some women like men
commissioned runestones to commemorate
husbands, sons and daughters. From these
inscriptions we also read that they were proud
Christians, who had bridges and causeways
built and went on pilgrimage.
Among kings and chieftains it was common
to have a son fostered by another family.
This was a good way to forge and strengthen
diplomatic bonds between families. Otherwise
children were prepared for their future roles
in society at home. Much of what children
played with would have been made from
natural materials such as wood, bone and cloth.
None of these survive very well, but some
miniature objects have been found and these

Everyday Life
Ha rald Fai rhair, the kin
g who united
No rway in the ninth cen
tur y, at sea with
his wa rriors. Hi s hai r is
shag g y because he vo wed empt and
not to comb his
hai r until he ruled over
all of No rway.
Illustration by Mo rri s
Meredith Wi lliams.

are interpreted as childrens toys. There are

wooden dolls, horses and ships and child-size
wooden swords.
Adults also liked a good game. Gaming pieces
for board games of diferent materials, quality
and wealth have been found. One memorial
stone from Sweden even has a depiction of
two men sitting at the games table with their
drinking horns. Another favourite pastime was
probably sports. People from the highest social
strata went hunting with birds for leisure. In the
long, dark winter, people entertained each other
by telling stories and reciting poetry.


Viking Age spirituality and beliefs were very
much part of daily life, interwoven with all
aspects of Viking culture. For a long time,
a book compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the
early thirteenth century was taken as a sort
of bible of pagan Viking religion, but this is
now considered to be an outdated approach.
Although Snorris Edda contains a compilation
of stories about Viking gods and heroes
and a general introduction to Viking Age
mythology, he tells these stories as part of
the broader purpose of the book: as reference
and instruction for poets to retain the art
of skaldic poetry. Many of the kennings, or
circumlocutions, that are used in skaldic poetry
describe things or people with reference to
these mythological and legendary stories.
Snorri wanted to stimulate young poets to keep
the old skaldic art alive, so knowledge of these
stories was as important for understanding
and composing the poetry as knowledge of the
intricate metres and rhyme-schemes, which he
also explains.

m Jutlan d, Denmark
The Mammen Axe fro
is a sup erb example
de of iro n inlaid with
the Vikings. It is ma
tur y.
dates to the tenth cen
silver, an d probably

The Edda contains tales

about Odin, Thor, Frey,
Freyja and other gods,
giants, and trolls. Snorri
also presents a history of
Viking mythology and
a detailed description of
the mythological world,
with diferent realms for
gods, men, giants, and an
underworld, all centred
round the tree of life. This
is very much inluenced by
how the Christian religion
was presented, which Snorri,
as a learned Christian scholar,
was familiar with. This
reconstructed mythology
does not relect the place
of the Viking Age beliefs
in daily life. We must look
to other sources such as
burial customs, place-names
and runestones to clarify
and complete the picture.
Snorri writes about Odin
as the main god, but in
Sweden, for instance, there
are many more place-names
containing the element
thor while many inds
have been made of amulets
that take the form of small Thors hammers.
A handful of runestones also call upon this
god to consecrate or protect the monument
(or possibly the family involved in raising it).
Clearly, not every god played the same role
throughout Viking Age Scandinavia.
There was also an enormous
diversity in the Viking Age burial

Chapter V
An upright loom, as would have been used
Borg in Lofoten, Norway.


practices. In pre-Christian times, most of those

given a funeral were cremated, although some
were buried. A variety of objects and animals
could be buried with either the ashes and bones
or the complete body. The grave itself could vary
from a simple hole in the ground to a structure
best described as an underground chamber.
The way burials were marked varies too from
mounds to stone settings in the shape of the
outline of a ship. The description by the Arab
traveller Ibn Fadlan of a chieftains funeral
among the Viking Rus is an important source
for the kinds of ritual that were performed at
these occasions. The preparation, construction
and execution of burials could take a long time.
Recent research explores how the placing of
objects in graves and the ritual slaughtering of
the animals were part of performing funerary
drama. Interestingly, though some rites
seem to be linked to the social position of the
deceased and the time they lived in, other
customs appear to be speciic for an individual
local community or village.
Rituals and beliefs came into play not only
when dealing with the dead; they were also
very much a part of daily life. For instance,
norns that could inluence a persons fate and
spirits that dwelled in natural features had to
be dealt with on a daily basis. For men going
into battle, other beings became important,
such as Odins valkyries. There were people
who specialized in interacting with the spiritual

A view of the interior of a reconstructed

Viking Age house at LAnse aux Meadows
The layout is
e is
Scan dina via in this period. In the centr
a fire pit. Peopl
setts (ben ches) on either side of the centr
fire. There was
Age house. Ever yone lived, ate and slept
withi n the same space.

world of gods and other invisible beings. These

sorcerers and sorceresses were also called upon
to inluence and resolve domestic afairs and
issues in wider society.


We call the language of the Vikings Old
Norse, but there were substantial regional
variations in the language that was spoken
in Scandinavia. These versions of Old
Scandinavian grew further and further apart
during the Viking Age, but people from
diferent parts of Scandinavia could still
understand each other. The variations in
spoken languages are also relected in the runic
writings of the later Viking Age.
Runes were in use as a writing system in
Scandinavia from c. AD 200. They were used
by Germanic peoples all over Europe, including
Anglo-Saxon runes in England, but they
remained in use the longest in Scandinavia.
Like the Roman alphabet, each runic character

represents one or more sounds from the spoken

language. The rune-row is called the Futhark,
named after the irst ive runes (the th-sound is
represented by the -rune). In the early Viking
Age, the Scandinavian rune-row underwent a
reform. By the beginning of the eighth century,
the Older Futhark, which consisted of 24 runic
characters, had been transformed into a 16-rune
rune-row, called the Younger Futhark. In the
new system, the individual runes represented
a larger number of sounds and, over time,
diferent systems that allowed for more
distinction were developed.
Although there were many conventions in
how to carve a runic inscription, especially to
be eicient with writing material, there was no
standardized spelling and words were largely
written how they sounded. Consequently,
because how words were pronounced is
relected in how they were written, regional
variations in the language can be identiied.
Individual carvers also adapted the system to
suit their needs, and possible cases have even
been identiied where the spelling seems to
relect the carvers speech impediment.
Viking Age runic writing consists of various
types of text. Many inscriptions have survived

Everyday Life

on the iconic Viking Age stone monuments

called runestones. These memorial inscriptions
generally state who had the monument made
in memory of whom and often information
is added about lands that were owned by the
deceased (possibly as claim to inheritance),
expeditions, battles or pilgrimages they were
involved in, or they mention that a
causeway or road was constructed
as part of the monument. Some
runestones explicitly record the
Christianization of certain areas,
and many of the eleventh-century
runestone inscriptions end with a Christian
prayer for the soul of the commemorated. The
majority of the runestones from the later period
are also decorated with a Christian cross. At the
same time there is a handful of runestones
that invoke the god Thor to consecrate or
protect the monument or that are decorated
with a Thors hammer.

Another common genre of runic inscription

consists of names on objects. This can be
the name of the owner, of the producer, and
sometimes of the object itself. Sometimes they
added protective phrases for example, against
theft as on a copper box for storing scales found
in Sigtuna in Sweden.

love letters and exchanges of glee about rude

graiti. Some of the more oicial letters use
phrases that were common in the letters and
charters of medieval Europe. Although a very
small number of runic sticks have survived
from Viking Age Hedeby, there is not enough
comparable material from the Viking towns
to conclude that the runic script
was used for administrative and
informal writing to the same extent
as later in the medieval towns.
A common misconception
is that runes were considered
magic characters in the Viking Age. This
misunderstanding seems to stem from the
fact that many of the inscriptions in the
Older Futhark have a ritual character and
a connection between Odin and runes in
mythology. Also in the Viking Age a runecarver could, for instance, invoke Thor in an
inscription on a memorial stone. This, however,

"Although there were many conventions in how to

carve a runic inscription, there was no standardized
spelling and words were written how they sounded"

The reconstructed hall at Borg

in Lofoten, Norway, stands near the
site of the largest Viking Age hall
yet disco vered.

Because of their angular shape, runes were

also very good for carving in wood and bone
and this is how less monumental messages
were exchanged. From the early medieval
town of Bergen an enormous number of runic
sticks pieces of wood with runic inscriptions
have survived. Among the messages are oicial
letters about politics and afairs as well as secret

Chapter V
The late-tenth-centur y Karlevi
run esto ne in lan d, Sweden, is
the only monument to combine
the medium of ston e with the
medium of skaldic verse with
its tight metre and ken nings.

The inscription reads:

This stone is placed in memory of Sibbi the
good, Fuldarrs son, and his retinue placed on
... ...
He lies concealed,
he who was followed
by the greatest deeds (most men knew that),
a chieftain (battle-tree of [the Goddess]
in this howe;
Never again shall such a battle-hardened
sea-warrior (Viourr-of-the-Carriage of [the
Endills mighty dominion ( = God of the
vessels of the sea) ),
rule unsurpassed over land in Denmark.


Two examples of Thors

hammer amulets. They
were probably worn
as a sign of devotion
to Thor and their
popularity may partly
have been a reaction
to the wearing of
crucifixes by Chri stians.

does not make the runic script itself any more

magical than writing a spell in our modern
Roman alphabet would. To those who could
not read the runes, the symbols may have had
a mystic character and we do not know how
much of the population could read runes. Still,
in the Viking Age runic writing was mainly
used on memorial stones and objects to record
and boost ownership, provenance and purpose
and only to a lesser extent to invoke certain
powers, Christian as well as pagan.

Most information was transmitted not

in written form, however, but orally. News
travelled by word of mouth and lawspeakers
played an important role in the Scandinavian
legal system. These oicials had as their main
task to remember the law codes and recite
these every year when judgement was to be
passed at the assembly.
In this largely oral society, story-telling and
reciting of poetry were important. Many of
the mythological poems that were recorded

onto vellum in the Middle Ages had their roots

in Viking poems; these are called the Eddic
poems. Another type of poetry is more about
current events, praises kings and leaders and
records the outcome of battles. These poems
were composed by professional (court) poets,
skalds, whose names are often transmitted with
their verses as they were quoted as sources in
medieval sagas. The skalds used an extremely
intricate poetic form with a strict metre and
complex poetic language such as kennings.

Everyday Life

This tight poetic form ensured accurate

transmission of the content, because the one
cannot be changed without corrupting the
other. Skaldic poetry is not only about recording
and transmitting information correctly; there is,
for example, also love poetry. Using the skaldic
metre and diction both correctly and originally
was a challenge that made the poets highly
appreciated artists.


Vikings not only appreciated well-wrought
verse, they are also known for their love of
artistic decoration and skill in producing
beautiful objects. From the late eighth century
to the mid-twelfth century the Oseberg, Borre,
Jelling, Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes art
styles named after the inding places of
signiicant objects succeeded each other
with, of course, a notable degree of overlap
and regional variation. The Viking Age
Scandinavian art styles are characterized by
interlacing zoomorphic motifs, which partly
goes back to a pan-Germanic style of animal
ornament. In the subsequent Scandinavian
styles the ribbon-animal, (long ribbons ending

in an animal head), gripping-beast and Great

Beast (a creature similar to a dragon), make up
the various phases of animal ornament. Other
popular pictorial elements were naturalistic
or stylized human faces or full-body human
igures. There are also narrative scenes that
can combine several human igures, animals,
ships, buildings or other objects. Some of the
recurring igures and scenes from Viking art
can be identiied. The female igures with
trailing dresses and often a drinking horn
have been interpreted as valkyries. We can
recognize Sigurd the Dragonslayer a number of
times, as well as Thor ishing for the Midgard
Serpent and possibly Odin at Ragnark.
Christian motifs and scenes were also popular.
For instance, small cross pendants with a
cruciied Christ were produced and the large
runestone at Jelling, on which King Harald
Bluetooth proclaims he has Christianized
all of Denmark, is decorated with a large
igure of Christ in a cruciied position. Other
common motifs and scenes include armed
men and riders on horseback in hunting or
warrior context, crewed ships, processions,
igures that have human as well as animalistic

"Vikings not only appreciated

well-wrought verse, they are also
known for their love of artistic
decoration and skill in producing
beautiful objects"
characteristics, birds of prey, dogs and wolves.
These motifs and scenes were used to decorate
a wide range of objects and materials, from
brooches and helmets to ships and from
metalwork and wood to wall hangings. In
particular, Thors hammers and valkyrie
igurines were cast as amulets. There are also
small statuettes that may represent gods: Frey
from Rllinge, Sweden; Thor from Eyrarland,
Iceland; Freya from Lejre, Denmark; and an
armed valkyrie from Hrby, Denmark.
The specialized craftsmen who produced
these decorated objects and their plain
counterparts used a variety of techniques.
Archaeological inds show that there was a
market for mass-produced objects as well


tap estries, whi ch

Detail from the verhogdal
Th ey may depict
date from the Viking Age.
between the gods
Ragnark, the fina
and the giants, but oth er inte
the cycle of
sug gest they dep
slayer, or
stories abo ut Sig urd the Dra
missionary acti vit

Chapter V

The eleventh-century runestone at

Altuna, Sweden (left) and the
carved stone at Gosforth, England
(right), are both decorated with
Thor fishing for the Midga rd
Serpent. This indicates that the
myths brought by the Norse settlers
were known and appreciated in
England. The monuments contain
details that match the different
versio ns of the story that have
been written down. On the Swedi sh
monument, the god is depicted with
his hammer Mjlnir. The force of
his strug gle with the monster on his
fishing line is such that his foot goes
through the bottom of the boat. On
the Gosforth fishing stone, Thor is
accompanied by a giant, who cuts the
line when Thor is about to heave the
serpent out of the waters.

Everyday Life

as for unique masterpieces, presumably

manufactured for a speciic person.
The working of wood and iron, both materials
that generally tended to be locally available,
was very important for constructing ships,
buildings, weapons, utensils and the tools to
make these things. Smaller household items
and personal objects like needles, spindle
whorls and combs were carved out of antler
or bone. The rarer material of whale bone
could be used to fashion larger decoratively
carved plaques that were probably used as
smoothing boards.
Horn is a softer material that
does not have to be carved, but
can be cut and moulded into
objects such as spoons. Horns
could also be used to make the
iconic Viking drinking vessels.
Drinking glasses were not produced locally, but
were imported as exclusive luxury items. There
was, however, a Scandinavian glass-working
tradition for producing brightly coloured beads
out of imported broken glass. Pottery was also
imported in particular, highly decorated jugs
from the Rhineland but simple pottery, such as
bowls, was produced locally. These objects could
also be made out of soapstone.
Leather must have been commonly produced
and used, especially for shoes. However,
little of this survives other than remains of
leatherworking workshops in towns. Textiles
for clothing and household use were mainly
produced locally too. Wool and lax were
spun by hand into threads that were woven
into fabric. Clothing was often very colourful
and decorated in various ways, by dyeing and
applying intricately woven bands or embroidery.
The Vikings produced a very wide range of
jewellery. Silver, gold and bronze were made
into arm rings and inger rings, pendants
and brooches. The techniques used include
casting, carving or stamping the metals, which
could then be embellished by applying niello,
iligree and granulation. Foreign trinkets and
coins could be incorporated into the jewellery,
especially in the strings of beads and pendants
that hung between the brooches on womens
outits. It was mainly through jewellery that
people expressed their regional identity and
social standing. The same techniques were used

to decorate high-status armour, weapons and

horse equipment.

The reconstructions of Viking Age houses
are mainly based on archaeological
excavations. Anything above the ground has
left far fewer traces than those parts that were
dug into the earth. However, the positions
of post-holes outline the curve of the walls
and indicate the size of the building and
the number of internal supporting pillars.

on occasion. In relatively close proximity

to the farmhouse buildings, archaeologists
ind domestic waste deposits and burials,
the contents of which can provide additional
information about life on that particular farm.
Most people lived in small agricultural
settlements, but early towns where people
made a living from producing and trading
non-agricultural goods began to emerge. The
development of trade routes stimulated the
further growth of early towns on strategic
locations, such as Ribe and Hedeby in Denmark,
Kaupang in Norway and Birka in Sweden. Town
houses were smaller rectangular
houses with separate workshops
and they were often situated along
streets leading to the harbour, on
individually fenced plots. The towns
themselves tended to have a defence
structure and kings or chieftains were involved
in guaranteeing the safety of the inhabitants
and visiting merchants. The quality of goods on
ofer attracted many foreign merchants, such
as Frisians, Saxons, Slavs, Eastern Europeans
and Spanish Arabs. This is illustrated by the
burial of some of them at Hedeby and Birka
and, of course, by the goods and coins that they
brought. The towns functioned as marketplaces
for the surrounding area, on which they
relied for agricultural supplies. The economic
signiicance of towns translated to political
importance, making it desirable for chieftains
and kings and the Christian Church to have a
strong hold over them. Later towns such as
Schleswig and Roskilde in Denmark, Sigtuna
and Visby in Sweden and Trondheim in
Norway might have had additional functions
as assembly sites, religious or administrative
centres with, for instance, kings mints. Also in
areas of Norse settlement abroad, there were
towns with a distinctly Scandinavian character
and Scandinavian street names, such as Dublin,
York, and Lincoln. In addition to the real towns
with a permanent population of people living
from manufacture and trade there was a large
network of trading posts or seasonal markets
(emporia) which extended beyond the Viking
homelands and the areas of Norse settlement.
To the east, for example, along the river Volga,
trading posts were founded by Vikings at
Staraja Ladoga and Novgorod.

"The quality of goods on offer attracted many foreign

merchants, such as Frisians, Saxons, Slavs, Eastern
Europeans and Spanish Arabs"
This information can be used to calculate,
for instance, the height of the building. The
remains of ire pits and internal structures
indicate which types of activity took place
in the diferent parts of the house. Modern
reconstructions have been important for
inding out about air circulation and smokeholes. The building materials timber, turf
and stone varied regionally, depending on
availability, but the shape of the farmhouses
was pretty much uniform throughout
Scandinavia. The size of the houses also varies
and this relects to a certain extent how they
were used.
The early Viking Age longhouses housed
dwelling space and animal byre under
the same roof. In the course of the Viking
Age, however, the internal structure of the
farmhouses changed. The side walls carried
more of the roofs weight so the internal pillars
disappeared. The byre became a separate
building and it became more common to have
smaller buildings for speciic purposes, such
as smithying and weaving. The longhouses
had a large rectangular hearth in the centre
which was used for heating and cooking.
Benches along the walls provided place for
sitting, working and sleeping. Particularly
large longhouses could contain a permanent
space for feasting, ceremonies or other public
gatherings, often called a hall. But smaller
farmhouses could also fulil this function


Chapter V



OST VIKING families lived in long, low

farmhouses consisting of one main room.
Depending on the region and materials available,
houses were built of stone, wood or turf, and
often had thatched or turf roofs. Floors
consisted of flattened earth, and
walls could be made of wattle
(branches woven together),
which was smeared
with mud or dung
to keep out the
wind and rain.

Home comforts

Most Viking homes would have been very crowded

with three or more generations living under one roof.
Houses were dark and smoky with only a dim light
given out by the cooking fire and lamps hung on
ropes. In the bitterly cold winters, many families were
forced to share their living space with farm animals
that were penned in at one end of the house.

A reconstruction of a Viking home at L

aux Meadows, Canada. Interior posts supp
a heavy sod roof made of earth.

Everyday Life

A reconstructed Viking
home in Iceland. Houses
here were usually built
from stone and turf.


e hearvarth
Aro unbuidldinthg mat

Food was prepared in clay

cooking pots like this one.

the layout of houses was sim ilar acro
the Viking world. At the centre of
e in
hom e was a large fireplace with
the ceil ing above through which smo
could escape. Raised platforms
walls were used for sitting and slee
Wealthier hom es usually had sma
rooms on each side of the mai n hal l
could be used as bedrooms, stor
or kitchens, and the richest Vikings
own wooden chairs and beds. We
and tools were hung from the roof,
belongi ngs hidden away in lock
and foo dstuffs were stored in barrels

Chapter V


N VIKING times, family ties were

strong. A man was head of his
household, but women took charge when
their husbands were away. Children
didnt go to school, but instead helped
in the fields and with cooking, weaving
and spinning. Families and communities
needed to provide for themselves,
and children learnt
important skills
from a young age.


Over a thousand years have passed since

this buckle fastened a warriors belt. Made
of bronze and dulled by the passing
centuries, it was likely once decorated to
show its owners importance.
Robert Macleod

All Vikings wore

leather footwear.

Everyday Life

Viking fashions
The style of clothing changed
very little during the Viking age.
Men wore woollen trousers and
linen shirts, and over these a longsleeved tunic and belt. When the
weather was cold, heavy cloaks
and furs kept them warm. Viking
women clothed themselves in long
dresses, and apron-like overdresses
fastened with a pair of brooches.
Outside they might cover up with
shawls and long woollen cloaks.
Both men and women wore flat
leather shoes or boots. The
wealthy could afford
richly coloured cloths
and beautiful gold and
silver jewellery. Poorer
Vikings made do
with plain garments
and ornaments made
from bronze or

Viking women
were skilled
spinners and
weavers. They
used vertical
looms similar
to this one to
weave plain or
patterned cloth.

Meal ti me

A tenth-century gold
brooch from Denmark.

in the mo s had two main m
eals a day
, one
who lived ing and one in the
near the
Thos e
and co d
daily. Fis ea ate fish such as
h and m e
p ork wer
at su
outside to alted, smoked ove ch as b ee f or
as b oar a res erve them. Wil ires or dried
nd deer w
d animals
ere hunte
walrus es
d, a
of p orrid d whales. The Vik s were s eals,
barley bre made from barley gs ate a lot
ad. B eer
and oats,
hops, and
p eople als made from barley
drink ma
de from h o enjoyed an alcoh and
oney call
ed m ead lic

Ba rley

Fish an d m
in the sun t were salted an d d
ri ed
to p reserv
e them.

Chapter V



HE VIKINGS believed the universe was

ruled over by many gods and goddesses, and
that amazing creatures lived in its various parts.
At the centre of the universe was Yggdrasil, an
ash tree that held everything together. Humans
lived in Midgard, which was surrounded by
an ocean containing a giant serpent. The gods
were found in Asgard and Vanaheim, while
giants, trolls and other dreadful beings lived in
separate kingdoms. At the bottom of the tree was
Niflheim, an icy place of eternal darkness.

The Chief Gods

The most important Viking god was

Odin, whose one eye was said to blaze
like the sun. The god of war and
wisdom, Odin was thought to possess
many amazing powers. Thor, the
god of thunder, was incredibly
strong though not as clever as
Odin. Happy to take on any
challenge, Thor once held a
drinking contest with giants and
swallowed so much sea that the
tide went out. Frey was the god
of fertility and birth. People
called on him for good crops,
and hoped for his blessing
when they got married.
Frey was believed to
bring good fortune.

Vanaheim, the world

of the Vanir gods

Bifrost, the burning

rainbow bridge connecting
Midgard and Asgard

Svartalfheim, the land

of the dark elves

Nidavellir, the
land of the dwarfs

Muspell, the
world of fire

everyday life

Asgard, the world of the most

important Aesir gods

crifichelde in the
re usually

ap ons and jewellery
op en air. Gi fts such as we
_ these have been found
were offered to the go ds
they were thrown.
preserved in bogs where
le were also sacrificed to
Animals and even peop
ve been found to contain
the go ds. Some graves ha
o were probably kil led to
the bo dies of people wh
ing buried.
accompany the person be

Valhalla, the majestic hall

ruled over by the god Odin

The Shap eshiftin g G od

Alfheim, the land

of the light elves

Midgard, or Earth, the

realm of human beings

The mischievous Loki was part god

and part
devil. In one legend, Loki foolishly
entered a bet
with two dwarfs to see who could cre
ate the most
wonderful treasures for the gods. Lok
i transformed
himself into a fly and tried to distract
his rivals,
stinging them as they worked. How
ever, the dwarfs
stil l won the bet and Loki was pun
ished by having
his mouth sewn shut.

Jotunheim, the
land of the giants

Niflheim, the icy

underworld of the dead

Thi s tenth-centur y forge ston

e discovered on a Danish
beach sho ws Loki with his
lips sewn together.

Chapter V


HE VIKINGS loved to tell each other thrilling legends of gods

and monsters, and tales of heroic warriors and battles. Some
stories recounted the adventures of kings while others were gripping
accounts of ordinary families. The legends werent written down by
the Vikings themselves it was not until the thirteenth century that
writers began to record these stories in books called sagas.

The Story of Burnt Njal


This famous saga about an Icelandic family has much to tell

us about Viking beliefs. Honour was all-important and minor
disagreements could result in years of bloodshed. The tale is
about two friends Gunnar and Njal. Their close friendship is
tested when Gunnar, a powerful warrior, marries an evil widow
who begins a deadly feud with Njals wife. As the conflict
spreads far beyond the family, the wise and peace-loving Njal
frequently attempts to make amends
but eventually Gunnar is murdered.
The second half of the saga
centres upon Njal and his sons. As
they seek revenge for Gunnars
death, the men are led down a
dark and dangerous path until
finally spiteful Icelanders
set their home on fire
and they are killed in
the flames.

An illustration depicting the saga of Burnt

Njal. Vengeful Icelanders look on as Njals
house is set on fire.

This beautifully carved pendant was surely

once treasured. In Norse myths, Thors
hammer defended both gods and humans from
harm. I imagine this silver relic hanging around
its owners neck - on stormy seas and in battle,
did he feel certain of Thors protection?
Robert Macleod

Everyday Life

The Theft of
Thors Hammer

One morning the mighty god

Thor awakes to discover that his
powerful hammer, Mjollnir, has
been stolen. The thief is Thrym,
king of the giants, who says he
will only return the hammer if the
beautiful goddess Freya marries
him. The gods hatch a plan and
agree that Thor should dress as
Freya with Loki disguised as her
bridesmaid. The two set out for
Thryms castle where they are
welcomed with a feast. Thor almost
gives himself away by consuming an
entire ox but Loki assures Thrym
that Freya is just hungry. When
the giant lifts his brides veil to kiss
her, he is alarmed at her burning
eyes. However, Loki tells Thrym
that Freya is merely tired excited
about her wedding, she has not
slept or eaten for eight days. As
the giant fetches the magic hammer
to bless the marriage, Thor seizes
his prized weapon and sets about
beating Thrym and several other
giants to death.

Thor beating the

giants to death.

Chapter V

everyday Life


N VIKING myths, the god Loki had three monstrous children: the wolf
Fenrir, the dreadful goddess Hel, and Jormungand, a giant serpent also
as the Midgard Serpent. Even the gods were afraid of Jormungand,
and Odin decided to get rid of this terrible creature by tossing it into the
ocean. Here the serpent grew so large that eventually it encircled the entire
world. Sailors venturing across the seas were ever fearful that the Midgard
Serpent would rise up from the ocean depths and crush their ships in its
massive jaws or destroy them with its deadly venom.

Chapter V


HE VIKINGS believed in the

afterlife and so they buried their
dead with all kinds of objects that
might be needed in the next world.
Prized weapons, tools, clothes and
jewellery were all common grave
goods. Ordinary people were buried in
simple graves, often beneath an earth
mound, but wealthier Vikings were
frequently buried in boats or ships
to carry them safely to the afterlife.
Sometimes the vessel was set alight
and burnt in a funeral pyre. Animals
and even slaves were sacrificed and
buried with important Vikings.

The imp ressive figurehead of the

Oseb erg
buri al ship foun d in Nor way.

Lindholm Hoje is a dramatic burial site overl
the Danis
graves from the Iron and Viking Ages.

everyday life

A ship fit for a Queen

In 1903, archaeologists uncovered a beautiful ship at the Oseberg burial mound

near Oslo in Norway. Like the Gokstad ship discovered in 1880, blue clay
surrounding the vessel had preserved it. The ship was made almost entirely of
oak, and the prow and stern were finely decorated with carvings of animals.
At the centre of the boat was a wooden grave chamber containing the remains
of two women believed to be a queen and her maid. The ship contained many
fine objects including a full set of 30 oars, beds, four sleighs,
a beautifully decorated wagon and a loom.

This bearded head was

carved on a post on
the wagon found inside
the Oseberg ship.

Beautiful carvings cover

the prow and stern of
the Oseberg ship.


The richly decorated

wagon discovered within
the Oseberg ship.

Chapter VI

ITH SCANDINAVIA becoming part of Europe

plus the spread of Christianity it was the
beginning of the end for the Vikings

Chapter VI




N THE late Viking Age, Christianity came

to Scandinavia, but Vikings had known
about the Christian religion for a long time,
as the rest of Europe had been Christian since
the early Viking Age. Vikings irst became
familiar with Christianity abroad, and Christian
merchants frequented the Scandinavian
trading centres. Vikings regularly chose to
be baptized on expeditions when trade or
diplomatic contacts were at stake. They were
not exactly converted: Christ, the holy trinity
and the saints were simply added to the existing
system of beliefs. Scandinavians who settled
abroad, like many did in England, Scotland and
Ireland, adopted the Christian religion there.
Frankish, Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic sources
record the Christianization of Scandinavia, each
from a diferent perspective. Archaeological
evidence suggests that there was a long
transitional period in Scandinavia during which
the pagan and Christian cultures existed side
by side. The runestones show, and sometimes
speciically state, when Christianity became
important in a region. Some runestones

A silver pen ny of
Cnut struck at York.

mention that an area had converted to

Christianity while others say that an individual
had gone on pilgrimage. Many inscriptions
include a Christian prayer for the soul of the
dead and often, especially on eleventh-century
runestones, the decoration includes carvings of
Christian crosses.
Missionaries had come to Scandinavia from
the eighth century onwards. The Frankish
emperor Louis the Pious supported the
exiled Danish king Harald Klak, who had
converted to Christianity, and helped him
onto the Danish throne twice (ad 812814 and
AD 819827), sending missionaries with him.
Ansgar, later archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen,
was the most successful of these. He also went
to Birka in Sweden. The results of Ansgars
mission in Denmark did, however, not reach
further than south Jutland and it was not
until King Harald Bluetooth (who reigned c.
AD 958986) that Denmark was Christianized.
King Harald was pressured by the Frankish
emperor Otto to convert. Bishoprics were
already established in several of his royal
power centres and it is clear that King Haralds
conversion and his Christianization campaign
were strategic decisions in order to consolidate
his power. After his conversion, King Harald
changed the royal burial monument at
Jelling. He built a church there and placed,
between the two mighty burial mounds,
an imposing runestone. The monument is
decorated with a lion and an image of an
heroic Christ. The inscription commemorates
Haralds parents and states that he made all of
Denmark Christian.
In Norway, Harald Fairhair (who reigned
AD 872930) realized that Christianity was
important to unite Norway and establish good
international contacts. He had his son fostered
by the Christian King Aethelstan in England
and subsequent generations of kings tried to

convert Norway with Anglo-Saxon support

before Olaf Haraldson (who reigned 10151028
and later became St Olaf) succeeded through a
combination of evangelization, legislation and
force. The local chieftains resisted conversion
because Christianity was better suited for a
centralized power structure than the old faith.
Vikings were happy to be baptized abroad for
diplomatic reasons, but living in a Christian
country would diminish their independence.
Iceland was an independent republic, but
still bound to Norway through family ties
and trade. The Norwegian kings had enough
power to inluence the Christianization there.
slendingabk, the twelfth-century Icelandic
chronicle, tells us that it was decided to adopt
Christianity at the Althing (national assembly)
in the year AD 9991000. It is likely that the
Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvasson put a lot
of pressure behind this decision, precisely
because it gave him more inluence over the
island. The colony in Greenland seems to have
been Christian from an early time; shortly after
the Vikings arrived there in c. AD 985 a church
was built in Brattahl.
The conversion period took the longest
in Sweden. The irst Christian king was Olof
Sktkonung, who reigned AD 9951022, but
Olofs successors did not have suicient power
to Christianize the whole of Sweden until the
thirteenth century. The German medieval
chronicler Adam of Bremen, writing c. 1070,
mentions a large pagan cult in Old Uppsala.
He never visited this area and his story is
exaggerated, but archaeological material
suggests that customs related to the old beliefs
were indeed practised for a long time there.
The multitude of eleventh-century Christian
runestones that were erected in Uppland and
Sdermanland, however, show that there
simultaneously were many Christians there.
In the late Viking Age, the Christian kings and

This example of a stave church

can be found in Fagusnes,
Borgund in Norwary

The cemeter y at Jelling Chu

rch, Den ma rk. In the
backg round is the gra ve mou
nd of King Go rm the
Old, whi ch was raised in the
late tenth centur y. The
larger and younger of
the two Jelling run esto nes
that stan d outside the church
Ha rald Bluetooth bro ught Chr rd how King
isti anity to Den ma rk.
Ha rald is supposed to hav
e moved the bon es of his
father Go rm from the pagan
burial mound into the
original church that stood
on this site.


the Church together introduced Christian laws

and regulations. Conversion was no longer just
accepting the new religion, but also included
denouncing the old beliefs, customs and rituals.
In this phase of Christianization women played
an important role, as they were the ones who
supervised the daily running of the household,
including the spiritual matters.
The conversion of the Nordic countries also
meant many changes in the daily life. Oferings
to the gods and spirits became taboo and burial
rites changed. Strict regulations with regard to
marriage, sexuality and diet were introduced.
The days for feasting and fasting that
constituted the Christian religious year changed
the yearly routine. Finally, the hierarchical
structure of the Christian religion and Church
and the introduction of the concepts of sin and
redemption inluenced the Viking mentality
and world-view.
Alongside these changes there was a
signiicant continuity between the old and the
new religion. Aspects of the Christian faith were
explained to appeal to, and connect with, the
Norse culture and mentality. For instance, a
connection was made between the Germanic
hero Sigurd the Dragonslayer and Christ as
conqueror of evil. Continuity was also created
between old customs and traditions and the
Christian feasts, and between places of worship

and power by building churches at cult or

assembly sites.

The establishment of the Scandinavian
countries as monarchies with centralized
power went hand in hand with the
Christianization of the Viking homelands.
The irst Scandinavian churches were
established in trading centres, where there was
already some familiarity with the Christian
religion, by Frankish and Anglo-Saxon
missionaries. Later, when the Scandinavian
kings had converted and were Christianizing
their realms to increase their power and
strengthen diplomatic relations with rulers
elsewhere in Europe, they had churches
built too. They often chose locations that
were already important political centres or
cult sites, such as Jelling and Old Uppsala.
The authority of such places relected on the
Christian institute and it was simultaneously
a clear power statement by the king. Local
magnates followed and had churches built
on their estates, initially for private use. The

irst churches in Scandinavia were made of

wood. The iconic Norwegian stave churches
were produced into the thirteenth century,
while from the twelfth century onwards stone
churches were starting to be built in Denmark
and parts of Sweden. The Scandinavian
churches and monasteries fell under the
Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen until the irst
Scandinavian archbishopric was established
in Lund in 1104. In the course of the twelfth
century Norway and Sweden also got their
own archbishoprics, recognizing them as
independent Christian states.
From 10161035 King Cnut ruled what was
known as the Danelaw in England. From
there, he also took up the Danish throne
and took measures to consolidate his AngloScandinavian empire. He married Emma of
Normandy, Aethelreds widow, and continued
his laws and taxes. Cnut also had similar coins
minted for England and Denmark, emphasizing
the extent of his realm. Towards the end of his
reign Cnut was a strong presence in medieval
European politics, also ruling Norway and parts
of Sweden at some point.
This carefully forged Anglo-Scandinavian
empire did not last long after Cnuts death in
1035. In 1042 Edward the Confessor, Aethelreds
son, who had been exiled in his mothers
native Normandy for 25 years, claimed the
English throne. When King Edward died in
1066, King Harald Hardrada of Norway, an
ambitious Viking known as the Ruthless,
prepared a campaign to conquer England.
He was supported by the Earl of Orkney and
the exiled Earl of Northumbria and the attack
came as a surprise for the English King Harold
Godwinson. Nevertheless, Godwinson raised
an army larger and more quickly than Harald
expected. On 25 September 1066, a ierce battle
at Stamford Bridge took place and Harald was
defeated. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us
the Norwegians arrived with a leet of some

"Cnut was a strong presence in medieval European politics, also

ruling Norway and parts of Sweden at some point"

The End of the Viking Age

300 ships, of which they needed only 24 to take

the survivors of the battle home.
King Harold Godwinson of England only
had a little time to recover, for William of
Normandy, a descendant of the Viking
ruler Rollo, had similar ambitions to Harald
Hardrada. If the winds had been diferent that
September, history might have taken a diferent
course. Harald and William had prepared their
leets at the same time, but William could
not sail out until after the battle at Stamford
Bridge, at which the English army sufered
severe losses. When they faced the Norman
army just over a fortnight later near Hastings
on 14 October, King Harold nevertheless put
up a ierce defence. Williams host, however,
was stronger and after his victory at Hastings
the rest of England was conquered quickly.
The story of the victory was embroidered on a
commemorative tapestry in Bayeux, probably
ordered by bishop Odo, who was Williams halfbrother. The Norman conquest was the end of
Scandinavian rule over England. In subsequent
years, attempts to reclaim parts of England
failed because the Scandinavian armies were
too depleted after decades of internal power
struggles and by Harald Hardradas inal
campaign. The descendants of the Viking

settlers in England had in the meantime

integrated in the cultural melting pot of the
King Magnus Barelegs of Norway (who
reigned 10931103) brought the independent
earldoms and kingdoms in the Northern and
Western Isles (Orkney, the Hebrides and the
Isle of Man), most ruled by descendants of
the independent Viking settlers, under
Norwegian rule. In subsequent centuries,
however, the various islands changed hands
between Manx, Scottish and Norwegian
kings, until they were all, with Orkney last,
eventually sold or mortgaged to the Scottish
kings in the course of the twelfth to the
ifteenth centuries.
The Scandinavian countries never were
truly feudal states. But, following on from
the new centralized power structure crafted
with the introduction of Christianity, the
tithe system (already in practice in the rest of
medieval Europe) was introduced to Denmark
in the twelfth century. Taxes were collected
and obligations to Church and king became
connected to landownership. The kings
granted lands in exchange for military
services. Soon, the same development took
place in Norway and Sweden. In the thirteenth

King Harold Godwinsson was said to have been killed

by an arrow in the eye at the Battle of Hastings, but the
histories of the time do not agree. The Bayeux Tapestry
shows him being struck near the eye and then in the next
scene being cut down by a Norman knight (right of image).

A ston e mould used by a Vik

ing smith to
cast both crosses and Thors
hammers. Thi s
illustrates a ver y pragmatic
the co-existence of the Christi roach to
an reli gio n
and pre-Ch ristian beli efs.
century, the unstable political situation in
Iceland gave the Norwegian king Hkon IV
the opportunity to subject the republic to
his rule. The proitable Greenland colony
fell under his reign too. In the following
centuries a combination of climate change
and new sources for the luxury goods like
ivory and furs that had been exported from
Greenland led to the abandonment of the
colony and thus the gateway across the Atlantic
to the far west.
The conditions that created the opportunities
for raiding and taking lands for settlements had
changed. The surplus of men and the element
of surprise had gone and the advantage of
having innovative fast boats was not enough.
Instead, the Scandinavian countries had
established themselves as worthy partners in
the political, religious and trade networks of the
medieval world.


Chapter vi



URING THE eleventh century, Viking raids became

less successful as European leaders built up armies and
defended their territories. In Scandinavia, the spread of
Christianity led to more stability and people began to reject
old ideas. Raiding was no longer encouraged by powerful
Scandinavian kings and elsewhere Viking settlers became part
of new communities with different beliefs and traditions.

The coming of the Normans


In 1066, the defeat of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge came to
symbolize the death of Viking power. In the same year, the Normans who were in
fact descendants of Viking settlers in Normandy invaded England, and William
the Conqueror took the English throne. Norse raids did not altogether stop at
this point, though they became much less common. The great age of Vikings was
drawing to a close, though the Viking spirit lives on in sagas and legends.

A scene fro m the Ba
No rman
Tap estry
invasion of Engla

The End Of The Viking Age

This Ch ri
cross has a n
dragons h
the old Vik d in
b eliefs wer g
slo w to die

The No rwegian king Olaf

Ha raldsso n attempted to con
people to Christi anity. Known his
as Olaf
the Sto ut during his lifetime
, afte
death he was made the patron r his
of No rway.

The Gosfo rt
Cross mixes
scen es from
the Bible
with Viking
m ytholog y.

As Christianity took
hold in Scandinavia,
wooden churches
began to appear built
from upright planks
(staves). This is the
Borgund Stave Church
in Norway dating from
around 1180.


Chapter VII
AR FROM disappearing into the annals of time,
the Vikings left a lasting legacy that lives on today,
from archeological material to the legendary myths that
still prove popular nowadays.

Chapter VII



Do you go berserk with anger when your frecklenosed husband eats the egs you need to bake a
cake for your guests? Then you speak Old Norse!

Y THE end of the Viking Age, the

Scandinavians who had settled in
the British Isles had been mixing with
the people there for a couple of generations.
The result was a distinct Norse inluence in
regions where many Vikings had settled,
such as the former Danelaw and the Northern
Isles. We can still see this in, for example, the
dialects and place-names in those regions.
Norn is an extinct language closely related to
the Old Norse of the Vikings settlers. It was
spoken in the Northern Isles and the far
north of Scotland and declined only in the
late fourteenth century when it was superseded
by Scots.
Norn actually continued to be spoken up
to the eighteenth century and certain Norn,
as well as Old Norse, inluences still remain
in the Orkney dialect. Present-day English is
also partly made up of words originating from
Old Norse:

The landscape in the Scandinavian

homelands is scattered with archaeological
material from the Viking Age. There are
remains of buildings, cemeteries (most well
preserved is Lindholm hje, which is north
of the city of Aalborg in Denmark), assembly
sites (the largest is Thingvellir in Iceland)
and many runestones, especially in central
Sweden. The Viking heritage is also exploited
in the Scandinavian tourist industry and is
often expressed in local arts and crafts. This
can be in a reinvented form, where historical
accuracy is less important than the creation
and expression of a cultural identity.
Many products and companies choose
a Viking-inspired name or logo. The
connotations of Viking in this context
are clearly positive. Apparently Vikings are
perceived by the marketing industry as strong,
bold, efective, innovative and independent,


but also, maybe more surprisingly, as reliable.

Viking Lines Ferries and NorthLink Ferries, the
irst named after the Vikings and the second
with a Viking as their trademark, both create a
connection between their ferry service and the
seamanship of the Vikings.
The strong sentiment connected to
identifying Viking heritage also lies behind
the interest in participating in genetic studies.
Major academic research into Viking ancestry
has been undertaken using DNA sampling.
In combination with information from
archaeology, surnames and place-names, it
is now possible to draw conclusions about
the history of Viking immigration in a region.
This research conirms, for instance, that
the English Wirral Peninsula and west
Lancashire were heavily settled by Norse
Vikings. A Norse ancestry can be recognized
with a fair amount of certainty, but Danish
Viking can not yet be distinguished from
Anglo-Saxon control groups.
People in areas of previous Viking settlement
are generally interested in or even celebrate
their Norse past. On Shetland, the yearly Upp
Helly Aa ire festival combines a parade of men
in fantasy uniforms with Viking elements
with the burning of a specially built Viking
ship. This particular tradition has its roots in
the nineteenth century when unruly yuletide
celebrations became a regulated festivity to
which a lavour of a romanticized Viking
history was added in the twentieth century.
At roughly the same time in Normandy, in
1911, a historic festival celebrated the 1,000
years since the granting of land to Rollo the
Dane. In Russia, the Viking legacy has been
researched and celebrated only since the
communist regime ended in the 1990s. Before
that, history was dictated to be a purely Slavic
afair, without any foreign contributions or
positive involvement.
Also part of the cultural legacy of the Vikings
are the fake artefacts created to illustrate,
enhance or even invent a Viking past. One
such example is the Kensington runestone

A Viking longship is bur nt

Edinburghs annual Hog man
(New Yea r) celebrations.

The Viking image

an d mytholog y is
sti ll visible in today
in the lik es of the
Thor mo vi es.

from Minnesota in the USA, which still

generates discussion about its provenance,
despite having been identiied as a nineteenthcentury creation.

The medieval Icelanders also felt a strong
connection with their Viking ancestors. Written
down in this period were the famous Icelandic
sagas, many of which take place in the Viking
Age. This does not, however, mean they
originated entirely from the Viking Age. They
were written down from approximately 1150
onwards in the centres of religion and learning
which had developed in medieval Iceland, such
as Hlar, Sklholt, Haukadal and Oddi. The
most famous sagas, however, were written in
the thirteenth century and in a more secular
setting, often with partly political motivations.
Scholars tend to group the sagas into several
categories. The fornaldarsgur (legendary
sagas) relate legends of ancestors from the
ancient, mythical past. The konungasgur
(sagas of kings) tell stories about the kings of


"People in areas of previous Viking settlement are generally

interested in or even celebrate their Norse past"
Norway and the slendingasgur (sagas of
Icelanders or family sagas) are mainly about
prominent Viking Age Icelanders. The saga
narratives tend to span several generations
and the latter two types in particular include
extensive genealogies for many of the
characters, showing how they are related to
each other and often to the medieval Icelandic
families of the day.
Various aspects of the content and form of
many sagas suggest that they are based on
oral tradition. The fornaldarsgur contain or
retell Eddic poems about mythical heroes. An
example is the Vlsungasaga about the hero
Sigurd the Dragonslayer, the Vlsungs and
Gjukungs and the famously ill-fated Rhine
gold. A collection of Eddic poems has also
survived in a manuscript called the Codex
Regius and some of them are dated to the
Viking Age. The kings and family sagas are

often based on the information recorded in

skaldic poetry and many skaldic verses are
quoted in these sagas. These poems were
generally composed by skalds to praise a king.
Because of their strict metre, rhyme scheme
and particular vocabulary, these poems could
be transmitted orally without changing much.
So a skaldic poem about a king was deemed
to be an appropriate source for the writer of
a saga about that particular king. Similarly,
sagas about famous Viking skalds, such as the
illustrious Egill Skallagrmsson (Egils saga),
contain poetry attributed to them.
Other types of sagas show that the medieval
Icelanders were familiar with medieval
European and classical literary traditions. There
were romances and chivalric tales, translated
and retold from Middle English and French
for instance, about Sir Arthur and the Knights
of the Round Table and Charlemagne. There

Chapter VII

A sti ll of Amali e M
un nhilde
ce of
in the first perfo rm
Wagn ers
took place in 1876. Th ed
as Br un nhilde fro m
to Ne w York.

The Viking Legacy

were saints lives and sagas about

bishops. There were translations of
classical historical works and Icelandic
medieval chronicles. These types
of saga (and their inspiration) have
also inluenced the more indigenous
fornaldarsgur, konungasgur and
Although some kings and
family sagas are irmly rooted in
the genealogies, landscape and
historical events, they should not
be taken as historical sources. We
do not know, after all, precisely how
and what sources, foreign literary
traditions and political agendas
have inluenced the story. Nor do we
know how the compiler balanced
their aims of entertaining, recording
and instructing. However, the
composition of the sagas and the
place of these stories in the Icelandic
narrative and manuscript tradition
clearly relect an interest in the Viking Age that
is unique for medieval times. Above all, though,
these narratives about moody, wise, heroic
and treacherous characters, and their dealings
with magic and monsters, their loves and
losses, political intrigues and personal feuds are
literary works in their own right.
Visitors to Iceland today can explore various
saga landscapes. Saga tours provide us with
the opportunity to get a taste of the Icelandic
perception of the landscape as embedded with
narrative. The famous Njls saga is mainly set
in the south of Iceland, while the protagonist of
Gsla saga travelled widely in the Westjords as
an outlaw. Adventurous travellers can descend
into Surtshellir, a cave formed by lava, which
has been used as a hideout by outlaws since the
Viking Age. It is mentioned in Landnmabok
and a small number of sagas. Archaeological
remains from the Viking Age, such as large
quantities of animal bones and interior
constructions, testify to its intensive use.

From the sixteenth century onwards, people in
Britain were interested in Anglo-Saxon history,

viewing the Anglo-Saxon period as a golden

age of freedom. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
and other texts described the wars with the
Vikings. There was no structured approach to
investigating this period and much of the work
undertaken was pure guesswork, which led
to many sites being labelled as Viking without
any real grounds for doing so. For example, the
large number of earthworks around Britain
were identiied as Danish camps, though
most pre-date the Viking Age. Some serious
scholarship was attempted in the seventeenth
century by scholars such as Thomas Bartholin
and Ole Worm in Denmark and Olof Rudbeck
in Sweden, while in Britain the eighteenth
century saw a dramatic rise in interest in the
Vikings. In fact, the earliest recorded use of
the word Viking was 1807. However, it was the
Victorian period that brought more serious
attention to the Vikings and to some extent
it is fair to say that the Victorians efectively
invented the modern Viking.
The driving force for nineteenth-century
interest in the Vikings was largely national
romanticism. This was a period when nation
states were being formed and the Vikings, with
their vigorous activities, provided a vehicle

an islan d shaped lik
Drangey, Icelan d, is
rth. It is
an ar row pointing no
s on ce the hideout of
, a notorious outla w.
Grettir As mundarsson Grettir lived here
As told in Grettis sag
brother, Illugi, an d
for three yea rs with his
his sla ve, Glaumr.
for inventing national identities. To this end,
people like Sir Walter Scott drew on Norse and
Anglo-Saxon imagery to promote their own
ideas about identity; in Scotts case this was a
Scottish identity, of course. Images of noble,
upright, seafaring Vikings, like the paintings of
Frijof by T H Robinson, similarly promoted an
English identity. As a seafaring race, the English
could identify with this sort of Viking.
The appearance of the Viking in iction
and art was matched by scholarly interest.
Translations of Old Norse works had appeared
in the eighteenth century, but these came to
English via Latin, because English scholars
had not yet learnt Old Norse. From one of
these comes the idea that Vikings drank from
the skulls of their enemies. When, in one of
his Runic Odes in 1748, Thomas Warton used
the lines:
Where luscious Wines for ever flow,
Which from the hollow Sculls we drain,
Of Kings in furious Combat slain.


Chapter VII

The Viking Legacy

he was perpetuating and increasing

the audience for Magns lafssons
Latin mistranslation of a kenning
for drinking horns in the Old
Norse poem Krkuml. Only in the
mid-nineteenth century did
English readers learn that Vikings
had not, in fact, drunk from the skulls
of their enemies.
As archaeological discoveries were
made throughout the nineteenth
century, knowledge about Vikings was
expanded and better communications
between Scandinavia and Britain
enabled each to learn from the other.
Scholars began to learn Old Norse
and read the sagas in the original
language, which improved on earlier
misunderstandings. This did not hinder
speculative eforts, though. There were
still attempts to trace Queen Victorias
lineage back to Odin and to prove that
the Princess of Wales was related to the
great Danish king Harald Bluetooth.
Enthusiasm for the Vikings continued
strongly into the twentieth century.
As in the nineteenth century, people
found the virtues they wanted in the
Vikings, leading to a whole mythology
of Vikingness that was used for both
good and evil. In Nazi Germany, the
Vikings were considered to be of the
same blood as the Germans and the
Viking myth was used to bolster Nazi
ideology. In Russia, after the revolution,
it was denied that the Vikings had
ever inluenced Russian culture or
history at all.
In the present day, Vikings have
been rehabilitated from these negative
elements. The image of the plundering,
pillaging Viking is still with us, but it is
counterbalanced by greater awareness
of the other aspects of Viking life, such
as the technologies they used and their
poetry. The Viking legacy speaks to us
all in diferent ways, but it cannot be
denied that it is present and enduring,
however it is perceived.

of the Shetlan d
Up Helly Aa is a celebration
ch has tak en place
Islands Viking heritag
finale is the bur ning
each Januar y sin ce 1870. Its
of a Viking longship.


Chapter vii


HE VIKINGS were skilled craftsmen, expert at shipbuilding,

metalworking and woodwork. In every home, essential tools
were made and repaired while women spun and wove to make the
familys clothes. Both men and women wore jewellery and many
beautifully crafted pieces have been discovered. Gold and silver
were a sign of wealth, while cheaper pieces were made from bronze,
copper, carved animal bones and coloured glass.


Viking gold

Both men and women wore rings like

this gold piece (right). This mount to
put a horses bridle on (left), is made
of bronze covered in gold leaf.

Animal bone

Skilled craftsmen carved intricate

patterns into animal bone. This
carving from Denmark is thought
to be the bone handle of a
walking stick.

the viking legacy

Carved wood


This beautiful rock crystal pendant

was discovered in Gotland, Sweden.
Wearing expensive jewellery was a
sign of wealth and status
in Viking communities.

A detail showing the beautiful wood

carvings on the stern of the Oseberg
ship. This ship burial was one of
the finest Viking finds ever made.



This stunning brooch is from

Aker, Norway. Its made
from silver-plated iron inlaid
with precious stones.

Chapter vii

the viking legacy


HIS DETAIL (below) is a copy from

one of two rune stones discovered at
Jelling in Jutland, Denmark. The threesided stone was raised by the Danish king
Harald Bluetooth in honour of his royal
parents over 1,200 years ago. An inscription
on one side reads: King Harald commanded
this monument to be made in memory of
Gorm his father and in memory of Thyre his
mother that Harald who won the whole of
Denmark for himself and made the Danes
Christian. The figure shown here is the
earliest Scandinavian image of Jesus Christ
Harald became a Christian around 960 AD.

Chapter VIII

HIS COLLECTION of rare documents provides

a fascinating insight into the Viking culture and
lifestyle, including drawings, maps and manuscripts,
along with translations.

Chapter VIII




A ninth-century sketch of a Viking Ship on slate, found at a farm on the Shetland
Islands north of Scotland. Vikings began to settle permanently in the Shetland
Islands from the ninth century onwards.



In the sixteenth century Sigurd Stefansson from Sklholt marked the sites of the ancient Norse discoveries on a
map. His original map has not survived, but a copy made in 1690 by Thordur Thorlaksson is in the Danish Royal
Library.Stefanssons positioning of Vinland encouraged archaeological digs at LAnse Aux Meadows in the 1960s.


Chapter VIII



This page describes the attack on
Lindisfarne in ad 793. It relates how
terrible portents were seen over
Northumberland: great lashes of
lightning and dragons were seen
in the sky. A great famine (mycel
hunger) alicted the people, and
then the Vikings descended on Gods
holy church on Lindisfarne. The
manuscript actually states that the
attack happened on 8 January, when
in reality it took place on 8 June.


Translation of first three paragraphs:
d Bishop of
A.D. 791. This year Baldulf was consecrate
ds of Aug ust, by
Whitern, on the sixte
Archbishop Eanbald and Bishop Ethe
ia, commanded that
A.D. 792. This year Offa, King of Merc
Osred, who had
King Ethelbert should be beheaded;
home after his
been king of the Nort
eenth day before
exile, was apprehended and slain, on
the calen ds of Octob
ds of
Ethelred this year, on the third day
Octob er, took unto
foreA.D. 793. This year came dreadful
the people most
the land of the Northumb rians, terrifying
rushi ng through
woefully: these were immense sheets
flying across the
the air, and whirl
followed by a
firmament. These tremendo us token
before the
great famin e: and
ds of
ides of January in the same year, the
God in
heathen men made
died on the eighth
Holy-islan d, by rapin e and slaughter. Siga
day before the calen
latio n.
With thanks to Studiemeesters for the trans



[Lo, it is nearly 350 years] that we and our fathers have
inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has
terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from
a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad
the sea could be made. Behold, the church of St Cuthbe
spattered with the blood of priests of God, despoi led of
its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain
given as a prey to pagan peoples; And where first, after
the departure of St Paulinus from York, the Christian
religio n in our race took its rise, there misery and calami
this as if his countr y were captured? Foxes pillage the
chosen vine, the heritage of the Lord has been given to
a people not his own; and where there was the praise
God, are now the games of the Gentiles; the holy festivi
has been turned to mourning. Consider carefully, brothe
and examin e diligently, less perchance this unaccustomed
and unhea rd-of evil was merited by some unhea rd-of
practi ce. I do not say...



Alcuin of York was a learned cleric in the eighth century. He is known to us from his many writings, among which are a large
number of letters. He was living at the court of Charlemagne when the Vikings attacked Lindisfarne in ad 793 and he wrote
several letters decrying this act. This one is the letter he wrote to King Aethelred of Northumbria. In it he blames the Viking
attack on the decadent nature of Anglo-Saxon society and the way that people indulged their baser desires. He also criticized
the desire to follow Scandinavian fashions, especially in the way they cut their hair and trimmed their beards.

Chapter VIII


This drawing was made as part of the excavation report. The drawing shows the colourful variety of
beautiful bright glass beads that were worn by Viking women.




In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Earl
Alfred, and my wife Werburg procured these
books from the heathen invading army with our
own money; the purchase was made with pure
gold. And we did that for the love of God and
for the benefit of our souls, and because neither
of us wanted these holy works to remain any
longer in heathen hands. And now we wish to
present them to Christ Church to Gods praise
and glory and honour, and as thanksgi ving for
his sufferings, and for the use of the religious
community which glorifies God daily in Christ
Church; in order that they should be read aloud
every month for Alfred and for Werburg and
for Alhthryth, for the eternal salvation of their
souls, as long as God decrees that Christianity
should survive in that place. And also I, Earl
Alfred, and Werburg beg and entreat in the name
of Almighty God and of all his saints that no
man should be so presumptuous as to give away
or remove these holy works from Christ Church
as long as Christianity survives there.
Alfred Werburg Alhthryth their daughter
Sweets Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse,
rev. Dorothy Whitelock (Oxford: Clarendo n,
1967), p. 205.



This richly decorated text in the Stockholm Codex Aureus begins with the words Christi autem generatio (Now the birth of
Jesus Christ). This text lies near the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The manuscript was produced in
England in the eighth century, probably in Canterbury but was stolen by Vikings in the ninth century. It was then purchased back by
Ealdorman Alfred of Surrey and Waerburh, his wife, because they were not willing to leave them in the hands of the Vikings. They
thought that buying the manuscript back would be good for their souls.

Chapter VIII




A Viking boat burial in the
Carn nan Bharraich (Cairn
of the Men of Barra) was
excavated in 1891 and again
in 1913. The boat, indicated
by rivets, contained three
burials, probably two
women and a man. The
objects they were buried
with included brooches, a
knife, a pair of shears and
possibly a bone needle-case.
The drawing of the plan
and proile of the mound
shows the three trenches
excavated in 1891 and
indicates the locations of
the two central burials
and artefacts.




There was a Norse settlement at this pre-existing Pictish location from the ninth
century onwards, with a longhouse, and several other houses and outbuildings.
Several stone slabs with incised drawings were found here, including this one of a
dragons head at the prow of a Viking ship.

Chapter VIII





Snorris Edda was a manual for poetry written by the Icelandic scholar and poet
Snorri Sturluson in the early thirteenth century. Snorri was concerned that the
knowledge to understand Viking Age poetry was being lost, because the poetic
language relied heavily on allusion to pagan mythology, which was not being
passed on in Christian society. Therefore he collected together examples of poetry
and the stories from mythology into one place. He also discussed the technicalities
of writing poetry in the Norse style. Most of our knowledge about Norse mythology
is gleaned from his work. The pages here show the Prologue, in which Snorri
explores the origins of Norse mythology and draws parallels with other religions.


Chapter VIII




Chapter VIII



The Icelandic thirteenth-century Codex Regius contains a large collection of Norse mythological and legendary
poems, called the Poetic Edda. For many of the poems this manuscript is the only source. The poems were thus
preserved in a thirteenth-century written form, but they go back to much older oral traditions, which can be
shown through linguistic analysis and literary parallels.



This is an image of Icelandic houses as seen by William Morris on one of his trips to Iceland
in the 1870s.Morris was an English textile designer, artist and writer who developed a
love for Iceland on his travels. Morris was the irst to make many of the Icelandic sagas
accessible in English.


Chapter VIII


The settlement at Buckquoy,
facing the Brough of Birsay,
was excavated in 197071.
Remains from the Norse
phase of the settlement
include a mid- to late-tenthcentury grave dug into the
mound that was formed by
the ruins of three successive
Norse long-houses. The man
was buried with, among other
things, a bronze ring-pin
and half of a silver penny of
Edmund (AD 9406), while
the inds from the houses
include bone combs, lat
spindle whorls and a stone





This drawing shows the locations of the graves around the church at Brattahli
(Qassiarsiuk), Greenland. This is a Christian burial ground that surrounds the
church that Eirik the Reds wife, Thjodhild, had built, while Eirik the Red was still
a pagan. The skeletons in the graveyard were all buried in the Christian fashion
with their heads to pointing west. Analysis of the bones shows that the average life
expectancy here was 35 years and that most people did not live past 45 years of age.
Several of the skeletons had head injuries consistent with being hit by a sword or
axe, and one had a knife blade between its ribs.

Chapter VIII


Most of the Icelandic sagas
about Norse Kings are
collected in this fourteenthcentury manuscript. The
irst page shows the end of
the Saga of Eirik the Farfarer, who is supposed to
have travelled to Byzantium
and India. The red text with
the illuminated initial H
annouces that the Saga of
Olaf Tryggvason begins
here. The picture is of
Harald Fairhair and the saga
begins with a short history
of his reign. The second
page describes the birth
and baptism of Olaf. The
illuminated initial shows
his mother Astrid in the bed
with the infant Olaf.



Chapter VIII

The Vinland Map was irst discovered
in 1957, around the same time as the
excavations of the Viking settlement at
LAnse aux Meadows. It was presented
as a ifteenth-century mappa mundi
with Vinland, the part of North America
discovered by the Vikings marked on it.
The map was initially met with suspicion,
but it gradually gained credibility. Chemical
analysis of the ink and the parchment,
however, indicates that the map is most
likely a nineteenth-century fake. The
debate about this is regularly given new
impetus, for instance when new possible
sources for the fake are identiied.


have been included with
hotographs from the following sources
their permission;

rfoto, Alamy, Marvin Dembinsky

AKG-Images, Bildarchiv Steffens, Inte
recht Music and Arts Photo
Photo Associates, David Gowans, Leb
hivo, Berig via Wikipedia
Library, The Picture Desk, Prisma Arc
: Giraudon, Musee de la
Commons, The Bridgeman Art Library
lection, Universal History Archive/
Tapisserie, Bayeux, France, Private Col
The British Museum Images:
UIG, Bromr via Wikipedia Commons,
m, Corbis: Christel Gerstenberg,
The Trustees of the British Museu
lton-Deutsch Collection, Charles
Gianni Dagli Orti, Christian Kober/Hu
st Light, National Geographic
& Josette Lenars, Yves Marcoux/Fir
gery, Body Philippe/Hemis, Carmen
Society, Robert Harding World Ima
l Souders, Ted Spiegel, Stapleton
Redondo, Carsten Rehder/EPA, Pau
man Archive, Getty Images, AFP,
Collection, Homer Sykes, Werner For
rsal Images Group, HeritageUIG, Werner Forman Archive/Unive
Archive/National, Hog Vikutsnitt,
Images: CM Dixon, Werner Forman
Kjell Ove Storvik, Moscow, State His
Museum, Natural History Reserve, Ox
Archeology, Sven Rosborn, Wolfgang
Dave Bartruff/Genesis Photos, Walter Bibikow,
Sauber,, The Granger
tophe Boisvieux, Ashley Cooper, Roland Gerth,
Heritage Images, Chris Hills/Demotix, Yves Marcoux/
Bildarchiv Monheim, Interfoto, Erich
First Light, Ted Spiegel, Tim Thompson, Werner
Lessing, Sambraus, The Art Archive
Forman, Getty Images: /Bridgeman Art Library, Sissie
Collection Dagli Ort
berg/National Geographic, Andy Crawford/
Dorling Kindersley, Rachid Dahnoun, De Agostini
Dagli Orti, Pre
re Library/Dagli Orti, Danita Delimont/Gallo
es, John Elk/Lonely Planet Images, Hulton
Flemming Bau
Archive, David Lomax/Robert Harding, Gary
Ancient Art and Architecture Collect
Ombler/Dorling Kindersley, Universal Image Group/
Ltd, Arni Magnusson Institute, Reykjav
Werner Forman, Duncan Walker, Media Militia,
Iceland, Neil Holme
Picture Library, De Agostini Picture Library,
Oslo, No
Metropolitan Museum, Thinkstock, The Grainger
Scotland, Nation
ction, ImageWorks, Stapleton Historical
Collection/Heritage-Images, University of Oslo,
Viking Ship Mu
um of Cultural History, Viking Ship Museum,
ilde, Denmark, Wiki Commons, Thinkstock
Kira Hagen,
or more information regarding the rights and
ownership of specific images within the book,
please conta


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From their origins & conquests to their legacy

Origins and exploration

Raids and conquests

The Viking legacy

Historic artefacts

Separate the myth from reality and discover how the Scandinavian
nations formed, chart the rise of the Vikings, and see how they
travelled far and wide to explore new lands

See how the Norse seafarers left a lasting legacy that is still visible
in cultures across the world today, from their language and beliefs to
their architecture and stories

Known to be fearless warriors, discover how the Vikings expanded

their empire, challenging all those who stood in their way and doing
whatever it took to achieve victory

Experience Viking life first-hand with this incredible collection

of ancient exhibits, including rare documents, manuscripts, maps,
drawings and illustrations

Minat Terkait