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n 793AD medieval Europe was hit by a bolt from the blue, an event that had as wide an impact as the 9/11 attacks did in our world.  The event was the Lindisfarne raid.  Simon of Durham wrote: “And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted feet, dug up altars and seized all the treasures of the holy church.”

The raid on Lindisfarne came to be considered an attack on civilization itself, basically because Lindisfarne was a major center of Christian learning. The Viking Age had begun and no longer did monks sleep soundly in their beds. The Vikings, with their swift ships and fierce warrior culture, were the dominant problem of European nations until 6pm on Saturday, 14 October 1066 when William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinsson (the grandson of a Viking) at Hastings and the Normans—their Viking culture changed by 150 years of feudal rule in France—gained control of England.  Harold had, three weeks earlier, foiled the last major attempt at foreign expansion from a Viking ruler from Scandinavia by defeating King Haraldur Sigurdsson of Norway at Stamford Bridge in Northumbria.

However, between English place-names (anything ending in by, or streets with gate, for example), various major Irish towns and the founding of Iceland, the legacy of the Viking era remains. The image of the Viking warrior also serves as a unifying symbol for Scandinavian identity, particularly for those who emigrated from the Scandinavian countries to the New World in the19th and 20th centuries.

But is the common view of blood thirsty raiders wearing horned helmets with little or no culture intent on rape and plunder the correct one?

As one of the last pagan peoples of Europe, the Vikings were held out to be demons and the cause of much misery for the Christian monks who were the chroniclers of the period. After all, the Vikings had the temerity not to respect the church and did regularly sack churches taking the gold and other objects. This was particularly true of the Viking experience in the West where they did not have a strong infrastructure or things to trade other than slaves. In the East, in Byzantium, the Vikings were far more peaceable traders and eventually formed the core of the Varangian guard—an elite troop of soldiers within the Byzantine army. There are also some contemporary Muslim sources who may, or may not, be accurate chroniclers.  For example, Ibn Fadlan wrote an account in the year 921AD of his trade mission to the Rus (today known as Russia) in the Middle Volga region.

As the Vikings mostly wrote in runes and had an oral tradition, there is little primary source documentation except for the Icelandic sagas. Perhaps unique in mythology, the Norse gods knew their fate and which ones would survive the coming destruction of the world and which ones would not.  But these sagas were written after the Christianization of the Nordic region and in some ways reflect this late medieval culture rather than the earlier culture.

In the early 19th century, these sagas were rediscovered and inspired authors and artists such as Wagner to create a whole new Viking mythology complete with horned helmets. There is no evidence that Vikings ever fought in horned helmets. All helmets discovered thus far are singularly lacking in horns! 

  Norse literature with its family feuds and tales of daring-do  does have broad appeal. The Laxdaela saga written sometime around 1245AD was aimed at women and features a captive Irish princess, a loyal wife and one of the most interesting characters in medieval literature, Guthrun.  Guthrun is a four times married beauty who eventually becomes a nun.  

The other main sources have been various archaeological excavations.  However the best preserved sources have been the Viking ships found in the Oslo region in the late 19th century.  In particular. the Oseburg ship with its wealth of wooden objects.  The ship dates from the early Viking period and thus we know a great deal more about this period than the later periods where most of the evidence is from the trading settlements.

 

From all the evidence, it is possible to determine that the Vikings were exceptionally skilled at boat building and seamanship. They used thin pieces of iolite to create a sun compass and were therefore able to sail across oceans.  Much of the raiding and expansion into foreign countries was a result of population pressure and consolidation of power in their home land.  Later in the period, the Vikings suffered from poor harvests and were forced to take to their boats as much of the wealth was dependent on foreign adventuring. One result of the independent thinking is that the Scandinavian countries boast some of the oldest parliaments. The Althing—the national parliament of Iceland—dates from around 930AD.

 The typical image of the Viking women is they stayed at home to look after the farm while their husbands, sons or brothers went out on expeditions to trade or raid, in other words, viking. There is a certain truth to this view as there is very little evidence that women did go on raids, despite several sagas being written about warrior women.  However, women’s graves have been found in most Viking settlements and the Oseburg ship burial contained two female skeletons. Mostly women were involved in the necessary women’s work of cooking and clothing which included making the cloth for the sails.  Women also appear on the sidelines of sagas as they cheer men on or provide a reason for men to go to war or out raiding. Viking women could inherit wealth through their children.  However, they could also divorce quite easily. Indeed, several of the sagas turn on the fact that women divorced their husbands.

If this article has piqued your interest in the Viking period, Magnus Magnusson’s The Vikings provides a good overview of the period. If you are interested in Viking women try Judith Jesch’s Women in the Viking Age.  The Prose and Poetic Edda as well as the other Icelandic sagas such as The Laxdaela have strongly influenced authors such as Tolkien and Wagner.

 

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Vikings walking the oars

The movie, The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas has a fantastic scene of the men walking the oars.

 

 

Michelle Styles’ latest historical romance about the early Viking period, The Viking’s Captive Princess is a 12/09 release from Harlequin Historical. Michelle has written ten other books for Harlequin Historical, including two other Viking set romances: Taken by the Viking and Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife. She is currently working on an early Victorian romance for Harlequin Historical.  Please visit Michelle at www.michellestyles.co.uk

 

Editor's note: For your convenience, book & movie titles have been linked directly to Amazon.com.

 

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