The Cambridge Manuals of Science and
Literature
THE VIKINGS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
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[Illustration: The Gokstad ship]
[Illustration: Decorative title page, text follows]
THE VIKINGS
BY
ALLEN MAWER, M.A.
Professor of English Language and
Literature in Armstrong College,
University of Durham: late Fellow
of Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1913
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on
the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known
Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction 1
CHAP.
I. Causes of the Viking movement 4
II. The Viking movement down to the middle of the
9th century 12
III. The Vikings in England to the death of Harthacnut 22
IV. The Vikings in the Frankish Empire to the
founding of Normandy (911) 43
V. The Vikings in Ireland to the battle of Clontarf
(1014) 54
VI. The Vikings in the Orkneys, Scotland, the Western
Islands and Man 65
VII. The Vikings in Baltic lands and Russia 69
VIII. Viking civilisation 82
IX. Scandinavian influence in the Orkneys, Shetlands,
the Western Islands and Man 112
X. Scandinavian influence in Ireland 116
XI. Scandinavian influence in England 123
XII. Scandinavian influence in the Empire and Iceland 138
Bibliography 146
Index 148
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Gokstad ship _Frontispiece_
PLATE
I. Viking ship from the Bayeux tapestry _facing page_ 100
II. Ornaments of the Viking period " " 104
III. The Jellinge stone " " 111
The frontispiece is reproduced by kind permission of the photographer,
Mr O. Væring, of Christiania; plates II and III are taken from Sophus
Müller's _Nordische Altertümskunde_.
INTRODUCTION
The term 'Viking' is derived from the Old Norse _vík_, a bay, and
means 'one who haunts a bay, creek or fjord[1].' In the 9th and 10th
centuries it came to be used more especially of those warriors who
left their homes in Scandinavia and made raids on the chief European
countries. This is the narrow, and technically the only correct use of
the term 'Viking,' but in such expressions as 'Viking civilisation,'
'the Viking age,' 'the Viking movement,' 'Viking influence,' the word
has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and
convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity
and influence of the Scandinavian peoples, at a particular period in
their history, and to apply the term 'Viking' in its narrower sense to
these movements would be as misleading as to write an account of the
age of Elizabeth and label it 'The Buccaneers.'
It is in the broader sense that the term is employed in the present
manual. Plundering and harrying form but one aspect of Viking activity
and it is mainly a matter of accident that this aspect is the one that
looms largest in our minds. Our knowledge of the Viking movement was,
until the last half-century, drawn almost entirely from the works of
medieval Latin chroniclers, writing in monasteries and other kindred
schools of learning which had only too often felt the devastating hand
of Viking raiders. They naturally regarded them as little better than
pirates and they never tired of expatiating upon their cruelty and
their violence. It is only during the last fifty years or so that we
have been able to revise our ideas of Viking civilisation and to form a
juster conception of the part which it played in the history of Europe.
The change has come about chiefly in two ways. In the first place the
literature of Scandinavia is no longer a sealed book to us. For our
period there are three chief groups of native authorities: (1) the
prose sagas and the _Historia Danica_ of Saxo Grammaticus, (2) the
eddaic poems, (3) the skaldic poems. The prose sagas and Saxo belong to
a date considerably later than the Viking age, but they include much
valuable material referring to that period. The chief poems of the
older Edda date from the Viking period itself and are invaluable for
the information they give us as to the religion and mythology of the
Scandinavian peoples at this time, the heroic stories current amongst
them, and their general outlook on life. The skaldic poems are however
in some ways the most valuable historical authority for the period. The
_skalds_ or court-poets were attached to the courts of kings and jarls,
shared their adventures, praised their victories, and made songs of
lament on their death, and their work is largely contemporary with the
events they describe.
Secondly, and yet more important in its results perhaps, archaeological
science has, within the last half-century, made rapid advance, and the
work of archaeologists on the rich finds brought to light during the
last hundred years has given us a vast body of concrete fact, with the
aid of which we have been able to reconstruct the material civilisation
of the Viking period far more satisfactorily than we could from the
scattered and fragmentary notices found in the sagas and elsewhere.
The resultant picture calls for description later, but it is well to
remember from the outset that it is a very different one from that
commonly associated with the term 'Viking.'
With this word of explanation and note of warning we may proceed to our
main subject.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The word is older than the actual Viking age: it is found in
Anglo-Saxon in the form _wicing_. Some writers have said that it means
'people from the district of the _Vík_' in South Norway, so-called
from the long fjord-like opening which is found there, but the early
Anglo-Saxon use of the term forbids this derivation.
CHAPTER I
CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT
The period of Scandinavian history to which the term Viking is applied
extends roughly from the middle of the 8th to the end of the 10th or
the first half of the 11th century. Its commencement was marked by the
raids of Scandinavian freebooters upon the coasts of England, Western
Scotland and Ireland and upon Frankish territory. Its climax was
reached when in the course of the 9th and 10th centuries Scandinavian
rule was established in Ireland, Man and the Western Islands, the
northern and midland districts of England, Normandy, and a great
part of Russia. Its close was marked by the consolidation of the
Scandinavian kingdoms in the late 10th and early 11th centuries under
such mighty sovereigns as Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf the Holy in Norway,
Olaf Skötkonung in Sweden, and greatest of all, king Knut in Denmark,
who for a brief time united the whole of Scandinavia and a great part
of the British Isles in one vast confederacy.
The extent and importance of the movement is indicated from the first
by the almost simultaneous appearance of trouble in England, on the
coast of France, and on the Eider boundary between Denmark and the
Frankish empire.
In the reign of Beorhtric, king of Wessex (786-802), three ships of
the Northmen coming from Hörðaland (around Hardanger Fjord) landed
near Dorchester, in June 793 Lindisfarne was sacked, in March 800
Charlemagne found himself compelled to equip a fleet and establish a
stronger coastguard to defend the Frankish coast against the attacks
of the Northmen, and from 777 onwards, when the Saxon patriot Widukind
took refuge with the Danish king Sigefridus (O.N. Sigröðr), there was
almost constant friction along the land-boundary between Denmark and
the Frankish empire.
This outburst of hostile activity had been preceded by considerable
intercourse of a varied character between Scandinavia and the countries
of Western Europe. Early in the 6th century the Danes or, according to
another authority, the Götar from Götaland in south Sweden, invaded
Frisia under their king Chocilaicus. Reference is made to this raid
in the story of Hygelac, king of the Geatas, in _Beowulf_. Professor
Zimmer suggested that the attacks of unknown pirates on the island
of Eigg in the Hebrides and on Tory Island off Donegal, described
in certain Irish annals of the 7th century, were really the work of
Scandinavian raiders. The evidence of Irish legend and saga goes
to prove that in the same century Irish anchorites settled in the
Shetlands but were later compelled by the arrival of Scandinavian
settlers to move on to the lonely Faroes. Here they were not to be
left in peace, for the Irish geographer Dicuil, writing in 825, tells
us that the Faroes had then been deserted by the monks for some thirty
years owing to the raids of Northmen pirates. Dr Jakobsen has shown
that the forms of place-names in the Shetlands point very definitely
to a settlement from Scandinavia in pre-Viking days--before 700--while
the sculptured stones of Gothland show already at the end of the 7th
century clear evidence of Celtic art influence. Possibly also merchants
of Scandinavian origin were already settled in the Frankish empire and
it is certain that there was considerable trade between Scandinavia and
the West.
Most of the intercourse thus demonstrated was slow in development,
peaceful and civilising in character. How came it that in the later
years of the 8th century this intercourse was suddenly strengthened and
intensified, while at the same time it underwent a great change both in
methods and character?
The traditional explanation is that given by Dudo and by William of
Jumièges in their histories of the settlement of Normandy and by Saxo
in his account of Danish settlements in Baltic lands in the 10th
century, viz. that the population of Scandinavia had outgrown its means
of support and that enforced emigration was the result. There may be a
certain element of truth in the tradition but when it says that this
excess of population was due to polygamy we have every reason to doubt
it. Polygamy does not lead to an over-rapid growth of population as
a whole, and it is fairly certain that it was practised only by the
ruling classes in Scandinavia. It is quite possible, however, that the
large number of sons in the ruling families made it necessary for the
younger ones to go forth and gain for themselves fresh territories in
new lands.
A clearer light is perhaps thrown on the matter if we examine the
political condition of the Scandinavian countries at this time. In
Norway we find that the concentration of kingly authority in the hands
of Harold Fairhair after the middle of the 9th century led many of the
more independent spirits to leave Norway and adopt a Viking life in the
West or to settle in new homes in Iceland. So strong was the spirit of
independence that when Harold Fairhair received the submission of the
Vikings of the West after the battle of Hafrsfjord, many of them rather
than endure even a shadowy overlordship abandoned their Viking life and
settled down to peaceful independence in Iceland. It is quite possible
that earlier attempts at consolidation on the part of previous petty
Norwegian kings may have had similar results.
Of the condition of Sweden we know practically nothing but we have
sufficient information about the course of events in Denmark at this
time to see that it probably tended to hasten the development of the
Viking movement. Throughout the first half of the 9th century there
were repeated dynastic struggles accompanied probably by the exile,
voluntary or forced, of many members of the rival factions.
External causes also were certainly not without influence. From the
6th century down to the middle of the 8th, the Frisians were the great
naval and trading power of North-West Europe. They had probably taken
some part in the conquest of England and, during the 7th and 8th
centuries, the whole of the coast of the Netherlands from the Scheldt
to the Weser was in their hands. Their trade was extensive, their
chief city being Duurstede a few miles south-east of Utrecht. The
northward expansion of the Franks brought them into collision with the
Frisians in the 7th century. The struggle was long and fierce but in
the end the Frisians were defeated by Charles Martel in 734 and finally
subjugated by Charlemagne in 785. The crushing of Frisian naval power
and the crippling of their trade probably played no unimportant part
in facilitating the Scandinavian advance, and it is curious to note
that while there is considerable archaeological evidence for peaceful
intercourse between the west coast of Norway and Frisian lands in the
8th century, that evidence seems to come to an end about the year 800,
just when Frisian power finally declined. There can be no doubt also
that the conquest of the Saxons by Charlemagne at the close of the
8th century, bringing Franks and Danes face to face along the Eider
boundary, made the latter uneasy.
There has been much arguing to and fro of the question as to the
respective shares taken by Danes and Norwegians in the Viking movement.
That of the Swedes can fortunately be determined with a good deal more
certainty. The Swedes were for the most part interested only in Eastern
Europe and there by way of trade rather than of battle: we learn
from runic inscriptions and other sources that some Swedes did visit
England and the West, but these visits were due to individual rather
than national activity. The question as between Dane and Norwegian
has been to some extent made more difficult of settlement through the
national prejudices of Scandinavian scholars; e.g. Danes for the most
part decide in favour of the Danish origin of Rollo of Normandy, while
Norwegians decide in favour of his Norwegian birth. Such differences
of opinion are unfortunately only too often possible owing to the
scantiness of the material upon which we have to base our conclusions.
Medieval chroniclers were for the most part unable or unwilling
to distinguish between Danes and Norwegians; they were all alike
'Nordmanni' to them and the term 'Dani' is practically interchangeable
with it. The vagueness of their ethnographical knowledge is manifest
when we find the Norman Dudo at the beginning of the 11th century
tracing back the Dani (or Daci) to an original home in Dacia. The
Irish annalists did, however, draw a very definite distinction between
Norwegians and Danes--Finn-gaill and Dubh-gaill as they called them,
i.e. White and Black Foreigners respectively[2]. They seem never
to confuse them, but exactly on what grounds they gave them their
distinguishing epithets it is now impossible to determine. They do not
correspond to any known ethnographical differences, and the only other
reasonable suggestion which has been offered is that the terms are used
to describe some difference of armour or equipment as yet unknown to
us. The Irish annals also distinguish between Daunites or Danes and
Lochlanns or men from Lochlann, i.e. Norway; but again the origin of
the term Lochlann as applied to Norway is obscure. The writers of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle seem to use the term _Norðmenn_ very definitely
of Norwegians, just as Alfred does in his translation of Orosius, but
the term _Dene_ came to be used more vaguely and uncertainly. It is
only very rarely that the chroniclers vouchsafe us precise information
as to the home of any particular group of Viking raiders. We have
already mentioned the presence of Norwegians from Hörðaland in England
at the very opening of the movement[3]: once we hear of 'Westfaldingi,'
i.e. men from Vestfold in South Norway, in an account of attacks on
Aquitaine, and in one passage the Vikings are called 'Scaldingi,' but
it is disputed whether this means Vikings who had been quartering
themselves in the valley of the Scheldt, or is a term applied to the
Danes from the name of their royal family, viz. the Skjöldungar[4].
Speaking roughly we may however assert that Ireland, Scotland and the
Western Islands were almost entirely in the hands of Norwegian settlers
(Danish attacks on Ireland failed for the most part). Northumbria was
Norwegian, but East Anglia and the Five Boroughs were Danish. The
attacks on France and the Netherlands were due both to Norwegians and
Danes, probably with a preponderance of the latter, while Danes and
Swedes alone settled in Baltic lands.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] The name _Finn-gaill_ survives in Fingall, the name of a district
to the north of Dublin, while _Dubh-gaill_ is the second element in the
proper names MacDougall and MacDowell.
[3] The name _Hiruath_ given by Celtic writers to Norway probably
points also to a tradition that many of the Viking invaders of Ireland
were Hörðar from Norway.
[4] A third explanation has recently been suggested by Dr Björkman,
viz. that it is a Low German word meaning 'shipmen' which came to be
used specially of the Vikings.