THE VIKING MOVEMENT DOWN TO THE MIDDLE OF THE 9TH CENTURY
England was possibly the scene of the earliest Viking raids, but after
the Dorchester raid, the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 (_v. supra_, p.
5), and the devastation of the monastery of St Paul at Jarrow in 794
we hear nothing more of Vikings in England until 835. The fate of
Ireland was different. Attacks began almost at the same time as in
England and continued without intermission. Vikings sailed round the
west coast of Scotland. Skye and then Lambay Island off Dublin were
invaded in 795, Glamorganshire was ravaged in the same year and the
Isle of Man was attacked in 798. Iona was plundered in 802 and again
in 806. In 807 invaders appeared off the coast of Sligo and made their
way inland as far as Roscommon, and in 811 Munster was plundered. In
821 the Howth peninsula near Dublin and two small islands in Wexford
Haven were ravaged. The Vikings had completely encircled Ireland with
their fleets and by the year 834 they had made their way well into the
interior of the island so that none were safe from their attacks. They
no longer contented themselves with isolated raids: large fleets began
to visit Ireland and to anchor in the numerous loughs and harbours
with which the coast abounds. Thence they made lengthy raids on the
surrounding country and often strengthened their base by building forts
on the shores of the loughs or harbours in which they had established
themselves. It was in this way that Dublin, Waterford and Limerick
first rose to importance.
Of the leaders of the Vikings at this time there is only one whose
figure stands out at all clearly, and that is Turges (O.N. Ðorgestr)
who first appeared in 832 at the sack of Armagh. He had come to Ireland
with a great and royal fleet and 'assumed the sovereignty over the
foreigners in Erin.' He had fleets on Lough Neagh, at Louth, and on
Lough Ree, and raided the country as far south as the Meath district.
Turges was not the only invader at this time: indeed so numerous were
the invading hosts that the chronicles tell us 'after this there came
great sea-cast floods of foreigners into Erin, so that there was not
a point thereof without a fleet.' The power of Turges culminated in
841, when he drove the abbot of Armagh into exile, usurped the abbacy,
and exercised the sovereignty of North Ireland. At the same time his
wife Ota (O.N. Auðr) profaned the monastery of Clonmacnoise and gave
audience, probably as a _völva_ or prophetess, upon the high altar.
Three years later Turges was captured by the Irish and drowned in Lough
Owel (co. West Meath).
The early attacks on England and the first invasion of Ireland were
alike due to Norsemen rather than Danes. This is evident from their
general course, from the explicit statement of the Anglo-Saxon
chronicle, and from the fact that the first arrival of Danes in Ireland
is definitely recorded in the year 849. The attack on Dorchester (c.
786-802), lying as it does near the centre of the south coast of
England, is somewhat strange if it is assigned to the traditional date,
viz. 787, but there is no authority for this, and if it is placed at
any date nearer to 802 (before which it must have taken place), it is
probable that the attack may be explained as an extension of Viking
raids down St George's Channel and round the S.W. corner of England.
In 835 the attacks on England were renewed after an interval of 40
years, but as they now stand in close connexion with contemporary
invasions of Frankish territory there is every reason to believe that
they were of Danish rather than of Norse origin. The attacks began in
the south and west but they soon spread to East Anglia and Lindsey.
In 842 the same army ravaged London, Étaples and Rochester. In 851
Aethelstan of Kent defeated the Danes at sea in one of the rare battles
fought with them on their own element, and in the same year they
remained for the winter in Thanet, probably owing to the loss of their
ships. The size and importance of these attacks may be gauged from
the fact that in this year a fleet of some 350 Danish ships sailed up
the Thames. It was probably that same fleet, with slightly diminished
numbers, which in 852 ravaged Frisia and then sailed round the British
Isles, came to Ireland, and captured Dublin. In 855 the Danes wintered
for the first time in Sheppey and we reach the same point in the
development of their attacks on England to which they had already
attained in Ireland. We pass away from the period of raiding. The Danes
now came prepared to stay for several years at a time and to carry on
their attacks with unceasing persistency.
The course of events in the Frankish empire ran on much the same lines
as in England and Ireland during these years except that here trouble
arose on the land boundary between Denmark and the Franks as well as on
the sea-coast.
Alarmed by the conquest of the Saxons the Danish king Guðröðr collected
a fleet at Slesvík and in 808 he crossed the Eider and attacked the
Abodriti (in Mecklenburg-Schwerin), a Slavonic tribe in alliance with
the Franks. He also sent a fleet of some 200 vessels to ravage the
coast of Frisia, laid claim to that district and to Saxony, north of
the Elbe, and threatened to attack Charlemagne in his own capital.
The emperor was preparing to resist him when news arrived (810) of
the death of Guðröðr at the hands of one of his followers and the
consequent dispersal of the Danish fleet.
Soon after disputes over the succession arose between the family of
Guðröðr and that of an earlier king Harold. Ultimately the contest
resolved itself into one between the sons of Guðröðr, especially
one Horic (O.N. Hárekr) and a certain Harold. It lasted for several
years, the sons of Guðröðr for the most part maintaining their hold
on Denmark. At one time during the struggle Harold and his brother
Ragnfröðr went to Vestfold in Norway, 'the extreme district of their
realm, whose chiefs and peoples were refusing to be made subject to
them, and gained their submission,' showing clearly that at this time
Denmark and Southern Norway were under one rule and rendering probable
the identification of Guðröðr with Guðröðr the Yngling who about this
time was slain by a retainer in Stifla Sound on the south coast of
Norway. This king ruled over Vestfold, half Vingulmörk and perhaps
Agðir. Both parties were anxious to secure the support of the emperor
Lewis and in the end Harold gained his help by accepting baptism at
Mainz in 826. He promised to promote the cause of Christianity in
Denmark, while Lewis in return granted him the district of Riustringen
in Frisia as a place of retreat in case of necessity. The Danes thereby
gained their first foothold within the empire.
Sufficient has been said of the relation between Denmark and the empire
on its land boundary: we must now say something of the attacks made by
sea.
The first were made in 799 on the coast of Aquitaine and they were
probably due to raiders from Ireland who followed a well-known trade
route from South Ireland to the ports of Southern France. In 800
Charlemagne inspected the coast from the Somme to the Seine and gave
orders for the equipment of a fleet and the strengthening of the
coastguard against Northmen pirates. When Guðröðr's fleet plundered
the islands off the Frisian coast in 810, Charlemagne gave orders for
his fleet to be strengthened once more, but the results were meagre in
the extreme. The passage of the Channel was no longer safe, and year
after year, from some time before 819, Vikings harried the island of
Noirmoutier at the mouth of the Loire, commanding the port of Nantes
and the extensive salt-trade of the district. The Island of Rhé
opposite La Rochelle, was raided in similar fashion.
The Frankish empire was free from attack between the years 814 and
833. During the same time the English coast was also unvisited, and it
is probable that the struggles for the succession in Denmark had for
the time being reduced that kingdom to inactivity. About the year 830
the Danish king Hárekr seems to have established himself firmly on
the throne, while on the other hand the emperor Lewis was troubled by
the ambition of his sons Lewis, Pippin and Lothair. It is probably no
chance coincidence that these events synchronised with the renewal of
Viking attacks on Frisia. Throughout their history the Vikings showed
themselves well informed of the changing political conditions of the
countries which they visited and ready to make the utmost use of the
opportunities which these might give for successful invasion.
Frisia was the main point of attack during the next few years.
Four times was the rich trading town of Duurstede ravaged; fleets
sailed up the Veldt, the Maas, and the Scheldt; Antwerp was burned
and the Island of Walcheren plundered, so that by the year 840 the
greater part of Frisia south of the Vlie, was in Danish hands and
so it remained till the end of the century. The Danish king Hárekr
repeatedly denied all complicity in these raids and even promised to
punish the raiders, but it is impossible to tell how far his denials
were genuine. Equally difficult is it to say how far Harold in his
Frisian home was responsible for these attacks. The annalists charge
him with complicity, but Lewis seems to have thought it best to bind
him by fresh gifts and (probably about 839) granted the district
around Duurstede itself to him and his brother Roric (O.N. Hroerekr)
on condition that they helped to ward off Viking attacks. All the
efforts of the emperor to equip a fleet or to defend the coast were to
no purpose, and there was even a suspicion that the Frisian populace
were in sympathy with the Vikings. So great was the terror of attack
that when in 839 a Byzantine mission, including some Rhôs or Swedes
from Russia, visited the emperor at Ingelheim, the Swedes were for a
time detained under suspicion, as spies.
On the death of Lewis the Pious in 840 things went from bad to worse.
The division of the empire in 843 gave the coast from the Eider to
the Weser to Lewis, from the Weser to the Scheldt to Lothair, and the
rest to Charles, removing all possibility of a united and organised
defence, and soon these princes entered on the fatal policy of calling
in the Vikings to assist them in their quarrels. Thus Lothair in 841
endeavoured to bind Harold to his cause by a grant of the Island of
Walcheren and Harold is found in the following year with Lothair's army
on the Moselle.
The Viking expeditions to England and France stand now in close
connexion. In 841 the valley of the Seine was ravaged as far as
Rouen, in 842 Étaples in Picardy was destroyed by a fleet from
England, while in 843 Nantes fell a prey to their attacks. From their
permanent quarters at Noirmoutier the Vikings sailed up the Garonne
and penetrated inland as far as Toulouse. In 844 we hear from Arab
historians of their vessels swarming on the coasts of Spain like 'dark
red sea-birds,' but while they effected landings at Lisbon and Cadiz
and at Arzilla in Morocco, and captured Seville, with the exception of
its citadel, the Mussulman resistance was too stout for them to effect
much.
As a result of this expedition the Emir of Cordova, Abd-ar-Rahman
II sent an embassy to the king of the _Madjus_ (i.e. the magi or
the heathen, one of the commonest Arab names for the Vikings). The
ambassador found the king living in an island three days' journey from
the mainland, but we are told that the heathen occupied many other
neighbouring isles and the mainland also. He was courteously received
by the king and became an especial favourite with the queen Noud (? O.N.
Auðr). His companions were alarmed at the intimacy and as a result the
ambassador paid less frequent visits to court. The queen asked him why,
and when he told her the reason she said that, owing to perfect freedom
of divorce, there was no jealousy among the Madjus. The details of the
story are too vague to admit of certainty, but it would seem as if
the embassy had visited the court of the great Turges and his equally
remarkable wife Auðr in Ireland, or perhaps that of Olaf the White and
his wife Auðr (_v. infra_, p. 66).
In 845 Hárekr of Denmark sailed up the Elbe and destroyed Hamburg,
while in the same year the dreaded Ragnarr Loðbrók, most famous of
all Vikings, sailed up the Seine as far as Paris. While on its retreat
from Paris, after the usual devastation, a strange and deadly disease,
possibly some form of dysentery due to scantiness of food resulting
from a hard winter, broke out in the Danish army. Various legends
arose in connexion with this event, and it finds a curious echo in the
story told by Saxo Grammaticus of an expedition made by Ragnarr among
the Biarmians (in Northern Russia) when that people by their prayers
called down a plague of dysentery upon the Danes in which large numbers
perished. In the end the historical plague was stayed when Hárekr
commanded the Vikings on their return to Denmark to refrain from flesh
and meat for fourteen days. Whether as a result of the plague or from
some other cause Hárekr now showed himself ready to come to terms with
Lewis, and for the next eighty years there was complete peace along
the Eider boundary. The whole of the coast was still open to attack
however; Frisia was hardly ever free from invaders; Brittany was
obliged to buy off Danish attacks in 847, while Noirmoutier continued
to form a basis of attack against Southern France in the Gironde
district. The Viking invasions in France had attained much the same
stage as that to which we have already traced them in England and
Ireland.