Viking raiders, Scandinavian kingdoms and the wider world

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CHAPTER 1
Viking raiders, Scandinavian kingdoms and the wider world

This book begins and ends with the Scandinavian kingdoms reacting to a Roman Empire. We take as our starting point the way in which the Roman defeat at Teutoburg in AD 9 encouraged the formation of states and royal dynasties in Scandinavia.
We end with the manner in which these Scandinavian dynasties and states became the thirteenth-century champions of Christianity in northern Europe. The Scandinavian kingdoms thus effectively bypassed the Holy Roman Emperor and established a direct line of communication with the Roman papacy.

This book is the first study in English to take the discussion of the origins of the Scandinavian states back to the first century AD. It combines the approach of the archaeologist with that of the documents-based historian. The latest archaeological studies of Scandinavia (most recently in connection with the construction of a pipe-line across Denmark, which effectively put an 800-kilometre test trench through the country) and recent technological advances (such as earth radar, which allows the identification of submerged defensive structures) have caused a revolution in our understanding of the early history of Scandinavia. The sudden appearance of Scandinavian raiders in the written sources can now be shown to be the logical extension of political, cultural and economic contacts established in the pre-Viking Age.

A key feature of this book is the historical narrative which it provides for the whole of the Scandinavian westward colonisation. This narrative forms a spine upon which the analytical and discursive sections of the book are built. Past studies have focussed on comparatively short time-spans, mainly the so-called First or Second Viking Ages, or on geographically discrete or specialist subject-oriented studies, such as Viking Orkney or Viking Age art. Here, however, we offer a structured overview which traces the over-arching continuities in the histories of the Scandinavian diaspora and its impact on western mainland Europe, the British Isles and the other North Atlantic islands through thirteen centuries. This central narrative places the Viking Age firmly into its wider historical context and enables its origins, development and end to be viewed as part of a single process, freed from the artificial constraints of modern geographical or chronological parameters. No previous modern study has attempted such an ambitious chronological range.

The argument advanced is that Scandinavia saw an early centralisation of power around the first and second centuries AD which allowed its magnates to wage war at a level of intensity and sophistication previously unknown. They did this by employing Roman military technology and strategy (which some may have learned while serving as members of the Roman army). As a consequence, a professional class of warriors had developed by the third century. The third to the sixth centuries saw an increasing concentration of authority, which is demonstrated by the fortifications and arsenals found in connection with wars waged in this period. The emergent aristocracy of Scandinavia made and broke alliances from northern Norway to the Black Sea.

The seventh and eighth centuries witnessed a simultaneous professionalisation of the military and a decreased military activity which is evidenced by the lack of social stratification in sixth- to ninth-century graves in Denmark. The relative peacefulness safeguarded by the successful fortification of southern Scandinavia, combined with the improvements in the design of ships, allowed the Scandinavians to re-focus their attention overseas and become what we now call Vikings.

That period of European history traditionally called the Viking Age (most generally taken to run from c. AD 800 to c. 1050) saw the formation of the outlines of the political map of the Europe with which we are now familiar. At the beginning of this period it is only possible to recover the names of kings and construct an outline history of Scandinavia. However, it is not possible to talk about Scandinavian kingdoms with well-defined borders until the Christianisation of the north around 950, which we have therefore taken to be a convenient breaking point in our narrative.

When we resume the story of the Scandinavians and Europe we argue that although the new religion preached that it was the duty of every Christian to maintain the peace, the Danes and Norwegians still continued hostilities. These conflicts adversely affected the Scandinavian response to the conquest of England by William of Normandy and necessitated a restructuring of Scandinavian empire-building which saw them concentrate more on crusading in the Baltic. The integration of the Scandinavians into the wider community of Christendom and their enthusiastic embrace of the ideology of crusading and Christian reform made them less of a threat to their neighbours to the west and south-west, and these two factors mark the passing of the era of the Vikings.

The Vikings are imbued with the romance of sea travel and land conquest. One can hardly find anyone in the northern hemisphere who has not heard of and does not admit to a degree of admiration for the exploits of the Vikings. The discovery and settlement of the North Atlantic archipelago launched from the Scandinavian homelands and bases abroad —itself a feat only made possible by a highly developed maritime technology far in advance of that found in other contemporary northern European societies — is one lasting consequence of the era of the Viking Empires. The stirring tales associated with their voyages and the dangers that they faced as they braved the waters of the North Atlantic have left an indelible mark on the European psyche. From the badges of British cars to the Germanic operas of Richard Wagner, from the Holywood epics of the 1950s to the personal history of Anya, the ex-vengeance demon in Buffy the Vampire-Slayer, the image of the Viking and his love of freedom, individualism and predisposition towards violence have become an integral part of Western consciousness and culture.

The term Viking is of course problematical. The Oxford English Dictionary dates its first appearance in the English language to 1807 and its second appearance to 1827. It is not until the 1840s that it gains widespread currency.

1 This does not mean that the term cannot be found in contemporary sources. Indeed, it is used before the Viking Age, in the late seventh-century Old English poem Widsið, where it refers to a Germanic tribe, the Viking kin Heoþobeardan.
2 Tenth-century glosses on filfrics work also refer to pirata, uel piraticus, uel . . . wicing and to archipirata: yldest wicing.
3 Although the term is commonly found in Norwegian and Icelandic sources, and more rarely in Danish and Swedish writings, the phrase was evidently used throughout the Viking Empires, and it even survives in Frisian law codes regulating trade and maritime activity in the eleventh century.

In this book we use the term in recognition of the fact that the word has such common currency. However, when we use the word it should be understood as referring to a Scandinavian who participated in the settlement — peaceful or violent — of northern Europe and the Atlantic Islands during the period outlined above. Throughout this book we do not lose sight of the fact that the sea-faring capability of the Scandinavians was transmitted to the peoples native to the areas where they settled. Thus they extended an invitation to those peoples and their descendants to participate in the North Atlantic adventure.

This book also considers the end of a Viking Age. There are many dates given for this event: English historians put it around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, Danish historians prefer 1085, when King Canute IV assembled an invasion fleet of a thousand ships off the coast of Jylland (Jutland). In Scotland, Scandinavian earls continued to rule the islands and some of the mainland for hundreds of years. They were driven from the mainland in the mid-twelfth century but remained in the Northern Isles for another 300 years. Scottish historians date its demise to the Battle of Largs in 1263 and the subsequent Treaty of Perth in 1266. Historians accounts therefore have one thing in common: they focus on a single military event which is taken as the convenient breaking-off point for their narrative of the Scandinavian domination of northern Europe. This book puts forward the argument that there is no such conveniently dramatic end to the Viking Age. (...)

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