VIKING CIVILISATION
The activities of the Vikings were all-embracing, and before any
attempt can be made to estimate their influence in the various
countries which came permanently under their rule, or were brought more
or less closely into touch with them, some account, however slight,
must be given of Scandinavian civilisation at this time, both on its
spiritual and on its material sides. For the former aspect we must
turn chiefly to the poems and sagas of old Norse literature, for the
latter to the results of modern archaeological research. So far as the
poems and sagas are concerned it is well to remember that they were to
a large extent composed in Iceland and reflect the somewhat peculiar
type of civilisation developed there at a period just subsequent to
the Viking age itself. This civilisation differs necessarily from that
developed in Scandinavia or in the other Scandinavian settlements, in
that it was free from Western influence, but this is to some extent
compensated for by the fact that we get in Iceland a better picture of
the inherent possibilities of Viking civilisation when developed on
independent lines.
At the beginning of the Viking age the Scandinavian peoples were in
a transitional stage of development; on the one hand there was still
much, both in their theory and in their practice of life, that savoured
of primitive barbarism, while on the other, in the development of
certain phases of human activity, more especially in those of war,
trade, and social organisation, they were considerably ahead of many
of their European neighbours. More than one writer has commented upon
the strange blending of barbarism and culture which constitutes Viking
civilisation: it is evident when we study their daily life, and it
is emphasised in the story of their slow and halting passage from
heathenism to Christianity.
We need not travel far to find examples of their barbarism. Their
cruelty in warfare is a commonplace among the historians of the period.
When the Irish found the Danes cooking their food on spits stuck in
the bodies of their fallen foes (_v. supra_, p. 55) and asked why they
did anything so hateful, the answer came 'Why not? If the other side
had been victorious they would have done the same with us.' The custom
of cutting the blood-eagle (i.e. cutting the ribs in the shape of an
eagle and pulling the lungs through the opening) was a well-known
form of vengeance taken on the slayer of one's father if captured in
battle, and is illustrated in the story of the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók
himself. Another survival of primitive life was the famous Berserk
fury, when men in the heat of battle were seized with sudden madness
and, according to the popular belief, received a double portion of
strength, and lost all sense of bodily pain, a custom for which Dr
Bugge finds an apt parallel in the 'running amok' of the races of the
Malay peninsula. Children were tossed on the point of the spear and the
Viking leader who discouraged the custom was nicknamed _barnakarl_,
i.e. children's friend.
In contrast to these methods of warfare stands their skill in
fortification, in which they taught many lessons both to their English
and to their Frankish adversaries, their readiness in adapting
themselves to new conditions of warfare (_v. supra_, p. 46), and their
clever strategy, whereby they again and again outwitted their opponents.
The same contrast meets us when we consider the position of women among
them. The chroniclers make many references to their lust after women.
We hear in an English chronicler how they combed their hair, indulged
in sabbath baths, often changed their clothes and in various ways
cultivated bodily beauty 'in order that they might the more readily
overcome the chastity of the matrons, and make concubines even of the
daughters of the nobility.' Wandering from country to country they
often had wives in each, and polygamy would seem to have been the
rule, at least among the leaders. In Ireland we hear of what seem to
have been veritable harems, while in Russia we are told of the great
grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian kingdom, that he had
more than 800 concubines, though we may perhaps suspect the influence
of Oriental custom in this case. Yet, side by side with all this, the
legitimate wife was esteemed and honoured, and attained a position
and took a part in national life which was quite unusual in those
days. In the account of an Arabic embassy to the Vikings of the west
(_v. supra_, p. 20) we have a vivid picture of the freedom of their
married life. Auðr, the widow of Olaf the White, after the fall of her
son Thorstein, took charge of the fortunes of her family and is one
of the figures that stand out most clearly in the early settlement of
Iceland. We have only to turn to the Icelandic sagas to see before us
a whole gallery of portraits, dark and fair alike, of women cast in
heroic mould, while the stone at Dyrna in Hadeland, bearing the runic
inscription, 'Gunvor, daughter of Thirek, built a bridge to commemorate
her daughter Astrid, she was the most gracious maiden in Hadeland,'
gives us one of the most attractive pictures of womanhood left to us
from the Viking age. It must be added however that beside the runic
inscription, the stone bears carvings of the Christ-child, the star in
the east and the three kings, and this may serve to remind us that the
age was one in which the peoples of the North passed from heathenism
to Christianity, though the passage was a slow one and by no means
complete even at the close of the period.
It is probable that the first real knowledge of 'the white Christ'
came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade--Frisians
trading with Scandinavia, and Danes and Swedes settling in Frisia and
elsewhere for the same purpose. St Willibrord at the beginning of the
8th century and Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims in 823, as papal legate
among the northern peoples, undertook missions to Denmark, but it was
in 826, when king Harold was baptised at Mainz, that the first real
opportunity came for the preaching of Christianity in Denmark. Harold
was accompanied on his return by St Anskar, a monk from Corvey and a
man filled with religious zeal. After two years' mission in Denmark St
Anskar sailed to Sweden, where he was graciously received at Björkö by
king Björn. He made many converts and on his return home in 831 was
made archbishop of Hamburg and given, jointly with Ebbo, jurisdiction
over the whole of the northern realms. Hamburg was devastated in 845
and St Anskar was then appointed to the bishopric of Bremen, afterwards
united to a restored archbishopric of Hamburg. He laboured in Denmark
once more and established churches at Slesvík and Ribe. He conducted
a second mission to Sweden and his missionary zeal remained unabated
until his death in 865; his work was carried on by his successor and
biographer St Rimbert and by many others. Their preaching was however
confined to Jutland and South Sweden and there is no evidence of any
popular movement towards Christianity. Gorm the Old was a steadfast
pagan but Gorm's son Harold Bluetooth was a zealous promoter of
Christianity. His enthusiasm may have been exaggerated by monastic
chroniclers in contrast to the heathenism of his son Svein, but with
the accession of Cnut all fears of a reversion to heathendom were at an
end. Cnut was a devout son of the Church.
The first Danish settlers in England were entirely heathen in
sentiment, but they were soon brought into close contact with
Christianity, and the terms of the peace of Edward and Guthrum in the
early years of the 10th century show that already Christianity was
making its way in the Danelagh. In the course of this century both
archbishoprics were held by men of Danish descent and the excesses of
the early 11th century were due, not to the Danish settlers, but to the
heathen followers of Olaf Tryggvason and Svein Forkbeard. Similarly the
Danish settlers in Normandy were within a few years numbered among
the Church's most enthusiastic supporters, and Rollo's own son and
successor William was anxious to become a monk.
The story of the preaching of Christianity in Norway is a chequered
one. The first attempt to establish the Christian faith was made by
Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri (_v. supra_, p. 36). Baptised and educated in
England, he began warily, inducing those who were best beloved by him
to become Christians, but he soon came into conflict with the more
ardent followers of paganism. At the great autumn festival at Lade when
the cups of memory were drunk, Earl Sigurd signed a cup to Odin, but
the king made the sign of the cross over his cup. Earl Sigurd pacified
popular clamour by saying that the king had made the sign of the hammer
and consecrated the cup to Thor. The next day the king would not eat
the horse-flesh used in their offerings nor drink the blood from it:
the people were angry and the king compromised by inhaling the steam
from the offering through a linen cloth placed over the sacrificial
kettle, but no one was satisfied and at the next winter-feast the king
had to eat some bits of horse-liver and to drink crossless all the
cups of memory. Hákon died a Christian but Eyvindr Skaldaspillir in
_Hákonarmál_ describes how he was welcomed by Odin to Valhalla.
Earl Hákon Sigurdson, nicknamed _blót-jarl_, i.e. sacrifice-earl,
was a zealous heathen, but Olaf Tryggvason after his succession in
995 promoted the cause of Christianity by every means in his power,
and it was largely to this that he owed his ultimate overthrow. Then,
after a brief interval, the crown passed to St Olaf, greatest of all
Christian champions in Norway, and during his reign that country became
definitely Christian, though his rough and ready methods of conversion
were hardly likely to secure anything but a purely formal and outward
adhesion to the new faith.
Sweden was the most reluctant of the three northern realms to accept
Christianity, and the country remained almost entirely heathen until
the close of the Viking period.
The story of the Norse settlers in Ireland and the Western Islands
in their relation to Christianity was very much that of the Danes
in England. Celtic Christianity had a firm hold in these countries,
and from the earliest period of the settlements many of the Vikings
adopted the Christian faith. Among the settlers in Iceland who came
from the West were many Christians, and Auðr herself gave orders at her
death that she should be buried on the sea-shore below the tide-mark,
rather than lie in unhallowed ground. Most of the settlers undoubtedly
remained heathen--in 996 a ring sacred to Thor was taken from a temple
in Dublin and in 1000 king Brian destroyed a grove sacred to the same
god just north of the city. But side by side with incidents of this
kind must be placed others like that of the sparing of the churches,
hospitals and almshouses when Armagh was sacked in 921, or the
retirement of Anlaf Cuaran to the monastery at Iona in 981. In Ireland
as elsewhere there seems to have been a recrudescence of heathenism in
the early years of the 11th century and the great fight at Clontarf was
regarded as a struggle between pagan and Christian.
Outwardly the Scandinavian world had largely declared its adhesion
to Christianity by the close of the Viking period, but we must
remember that the medieval Church was satisfied if her converts passed
through the ceremony of baptism and observed her rites, though their
sentiments often remained heathen. Except in purely formal fashion it
is impossible to draw a definite line of demarcation between Christian
and heathen, and the acceptance of Christianity is of importance not
so much from any change of outlook which it produced in individuals,
as because it brought the peoples of the North into closer touch
with the general life and culture of medieval Europe. Leaders freely
accepted baptism--often more than once--and even confirmation as part
of a diplomatic bargain, while their profession of Christianity made
no difference to their Viking way of life. Even on formal lines the
Church had to admit of compromise, as for example in the practice
of _prime-signing_, whereby when Vikings visited Christian lands as
traders, or entered the service of Christian kings for payment, they
often allowed themselves to be signed with the cross, which secured
their admission to intercourse with Christian communities, but left
them free to hold the faith which pleased them best.
Strange forms and mixtures of belief arose in the passage from one
faith to the other. Helgi the Lean was a Christian, but called on Thor
in the hour of need. The Christian saints with their wonder-working
powers were readily adopted into the Norse Pantheon, and Vikings by
their prayers and offerings secured the help of St Patrick in Ireland
and of St Germanus in France in times of defeat and pestilence, while
we hear of a family of settlers in Iceland who gave up all faith
except a belief in the power of St Columba. On sculptured stones
in the west may be found pictures of Ragnarök, of Balder and of
Loki together with the sign of the cross. Some of the heathen myths
themselves show Christian influence; the Balder story with its echoes
of the lamentations for the suffering Christ belongs to the last
stage of Norse heathendom, while a heathen skald makes Christ sit by
the Fountain of Fate as the mighty destroyer of the giants. When
the virtue had gone out of their old beliefs many fell a prey to the
grossest superstition, worshipping the rocks and groves and rivers
once thought to be the dwelling place of the gods. Others renounced
faith in Christian and heathen gods alike, and the nickname 'godless'
is by no means rare among the settlers in Iceland. Of such it is often
said that they believed in themselves, or had no faith in aught except
their own strength and power, while in the saga of Friþjof we hear how
the hero paid little heed to the sanctity of the temple of Balder and
that the love of Ingibjorg meant more to him than the wrath of the
gods. For a parallel to such audacious scepticism as that of Friþjof
we must turn to southern lands and later times with Aucassin's 'In
Paradise what have I to win? Therein I seek not to enter, but only to
have my Nicolete, my sweet lady that I love so well.' For some the way
of escape came not by superstition or by scepticism, but in mystic
speculation, in pure worship of the powers of nature. Thus we hear of
the Icelander Thorkell Mani, whom all praised for the excellence of
his way of life, that in his last illness he was carried out into the
sunshine, so that he might commend himself into the hands of the god
who made the sun, or of the _goði_ Askell who, even in the hour of
famine, deemed it was more fitting to honour the creator by caring for
the aged and the children, than to relieve distress by putting these
helpless ones to death.
One other illustration of the declining force of heathenism must be
mentioned. It is to the Viking age that we owe the poems of the older
Edda, that storehouse of Norse mythology and cosmogony. They are almost
purely heathen in sentiment, and yet one feels that it could only be in
an age when belief in the old gods was passing away that the authors
of these poems could have struck those notes of detachment, irony, and
even of burlesque, which characterise so many of them.
The condition of faith and belief in the Viking age was, then, chaotic,
but, fortunately for purposes of clear statement, there was, to the
Norse mind at least, no necessary connexion between beliefs and
morality, between faith and conduct, and the ideas on which they based
their philosophy and practice of life are fairly distinct.
The central ideas which dominate the Norse view of life are an
ever-present sense of the passingness of all things and a deep
consciousness of the over-ruling power of Fate. All earthly things
are transitory and the one thing which lasts is good fame. 'Wealth
dies, kinsmen die, man himself must die, but the fame which a man wins
rightly for himself never dies; one thing I know that never dies,
the judgment passed on every man that dies,' says the poet of the
_Hávamál_, the great storehouse of the gnomic wisdom of the Norsemen.
'All things are unstable and transitory, let no man therefore be
arrogant or over-confident. The wise man will never praise the day
before it is evening.' Prudence and foresight are ever necessary. All
things are determined by a fate which is irrevocable and cannot be
avoided. Every man must die the death that is appointed for him, and
the man whose final day has not yet come may face unmoved the greatest
danger. This sense of an inevitable fate must lead to no weakening
of character or weariness of life. Death must be faced with cheerful
stoicism and our judgment of the worth of any man must depend on
the way in which he awaits the decree of fate. Place no great trust
in others whether friend or foe, least of all place trust in women.
'Wommennes conseils been ful ofte colde,' says Chaucer in the _Nun's
Priest's Tale_, using an old Scandinavian proverb. 'Be friendly to
your friends and a foeman to your foes. Practice hospitality and hate
lying and untruthfulness.' With their enemies the Vikings had an evil
reputation for cunning and deceit, but when we study the incidents on
which this charge was based--as for example the story of the capture
of Luna (_v. supra_, p. 47) or the oft-repeated trick of feigning
flight, only to lure the enemy away from safe ground--one must confess
that they show an enemy outwitted rather than deceived. This aspect
of Viking character perhaps finds its best illustration in the figure
of Odin. His common epithets are 'the wise,' 'the prudent,' 'the
sagacious'; he is a god of witchcraft and knows all the secret powers
of nature and stands in contrast to the simple-minded Thor, endowed
with mighty strength, but less polished and refined. The development
of the worship of Odin in Norway belongs specially to the later Iron
Age, and it is worthy of note that his worship seems to have prevailed
chiefly in military circles, among princes and their retainers.
The Vikings were guilty of two besetting sins--immoderate love of
wine and of women. Of their relations to women enough has been said
already. Their drunken revelry is best illustrated by the story of
the orgie which led up to the death of St Alphege in London in 1012,
when, after drinking their fill of the wine they had brought from
abroad, they pelted the bishop with bones from the feast, and finally
pierced his skull with the spike on the back of an axe. Of sin in the
Christian sense the Vikings had no conception. An Irish chronicler
tells us indeed that the Danes have a certain piety in that they can
refrain from flesh and from women for a time, but a truer description
is probably that given by Adam of Bremen when he says that the Danes
can weep neither for their sins nor for their dead.
The chief occupations of the Vikings were trade and war, but we must
beware of drawing a too rigid distinction between adventurers and
peaceful stay-at-homes. The Vikings when they settled in England and
elsewhere showed that their previous roving life did not hinder them
in the least from settling down as peaceful traders, farmers, or
peasant-labourers, while the figure of Ohthere or Óttarr, to give him
his Norse name, who entered the service of king Alfred, may serve to
remind us that many a landed gentleman was not above carrying on a good
trade with the Finns or undertaking voyages of exploration in the White
Sea.
Trading in those days was a matter of great difficulty and many risks.
The line of division between merchant and Viking was a very thin one,
and more than once we read how, when merchants went on a trading
expedition, they arranged a truce until their business was concluded
and then treated each other as enemies. Trade in Scandinavia was
carried on either in fixed centres or in periodical markets held in
convenient places. The chief trading centres were the twin towns of
Slesvík-Hedeby in Denmark, Skiringssalr in S.W. Norway, and Björkö,
Sigtuna and the island of Gothland in Sweden, while an important market
was held periodically at Bohuslän on the Götaelv, at a place were
the boundaries of the three northern kingdoms met. A characteristic
incident which happened at this market illustrates the international
character of the trade done there. On a certain occasion a wealthy
merchant named Gille (the name is Celtic), surnamed the Russian because
of his many journeys to that country, set up his booth in the market
and received a visit from the Icelander Höskuldr who was anxious to buy
a female slave. Gille drew back a curtain dividing off the inner part
of the tent and showed Höskuldr twelve female slaves. Höskuldr bought
one and she proved to be an Irish king's daughter who had been made
captive by Viking raiders.
The chief exports were furs, horses, wool, and fish while the imports
consisted chiefly in articles of luxury, whether for clothing or
ornament. There was an extensive trade with the Orient in all such
luxuries and the Vikings seem eagerly to have accumulated wealth of
this kind. When Limerick was re-captured by the Irish in 968, they
carried off from the Vikings 'their jewels and their best property, and
their saddles beautiful and foreign (probably of Spanish workmanship),
their gold and their silver: their beautifully woven cloth of all
colours and all kinds: their satins and silken cloths, pleasing and
variegated, both scarlet and green, and all sorts of cloth in like
manner.' They captured too 'their soft, youthful, bright, matchless
girls: their blooming silk-clad young women: and their active, large,
and well formed boys.' Such captives whether made by Irish from
Norsemen or Norsemen from Irish would certainly be sold as slaves, for
one of the chief branches of trade in those days was the sale as slaves
of those made prisoner in war.
The expansion of Scandinavian trade took place side by side with,
rather than as a result of, Viking activity in war. There is evidence
of the presence of traders in the Low Country early in the 9th century,
and already in the days of St Anskar we hear of a Swedish widow
of Björkö who left money for her daughter to distribute among the
poor of Duurstede. Jómsborg was established to protect and increase
Scandinavian trade at Julin, and there were other similar trading
centres on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic.
The Viking might busy himself either with war or trade, but whatever
his occupation, living as he did in insular or peninsular lands, good
ships and good seamanship were essential to his livelihood. Seamen
now often abandoned that timid hugging of the coast, sailing only by
day time and in fair weather, which characterised the old Phoenician
traders, and boldly sailed across the uncharted main with no help save
that of the sun and stars by which to steer their course. It was this
boldness of spirit alone which enabled them to reach the lonely Faroes,
the distant Shetlands and Orkneys, and the yet more remote Iceland.
Irish monks and anchorites had shown similar fearlessness, but their
bravery was often that of the fanatic and the mystic rather than the
enterprise of the seaman. Boldness of seamanship led to boldness in
exploration. From Iceland the Vikings sailed to Greenland, and by the
year 1000 had discovered Vinland, the N.E. part of North America.
Ottarr rounded the North Cape and sailed the White Sea in the 9th
century, while Harold Hardrada in the 11th century made a voyage of
Polar exploration.
Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from the
remains of actual ships preserved to us. The custom of ship-burial,
i.e. burial in a ship over which a grave chamber, covered with a how
or mound, was erected, was common in the Viking age, and several
such ships have been discovered. The two most famous are those of
Gokstad and Oseberg, both found on the shores of Christiania Fjord.
The Gokstad vessel is of oak, clinker-built, with seats for sixteen
pairs of rowers, and is 28 ft. long and 16 ft. broad amidships. It
dates from about 900, and in form and workmanship is not surpassed by
modern vessels of a similar kind. There is a mast for a single sail,
and the rudder, as always in those days, is on the starboard side. The
gunwale was decorated with a series of shields painted alternately
black and gold. The appearance of the vessel when fully equipped can
perhaps best be judged from the pictures of Viking ships to be seen in
the Bayeux tapestry. There we may note the parti-coloured sail with
its variegated stripes, and the rich carving of stem and stern. These
magnificent sails were a source of much pride to their possessors, and
the story is told of Sigurd Jerusalem-farer that on his way home from
Jerusalem to Constantinople he lay for half-a-month off Cape Malea,
waiting for a side wind, so that his sails might be set lengthwise
along the ship and so be better seen by those standing on shore as he
sailed up to Constantinople. The stem often ended in a dragon's head
done over with gold, whilst the stern was frequently shaped like a
dragon's tail, so that the vessel itself was often called a dragon.
The Oseberg ship is of a different type. The gunwale is lower and the
whole vessel is flatter and broader. It is used as the grave-chamber of
a woman, and the whole appearance of the vessel, including its richly
carved stem, indicates that it was used in calm waters for peaceful
purposes.
The story of the escape of Hárek of Thjotta through Copenhagen Sound
after the battle of Helgeäa in 1018 illustrates the difference between
a trading-ship and a ship of war. Hárek struck sail and mast, took down
the vane, stretched a grey tent-cloth over the ship's sides, and left
only a few rowers fore and aft. The rest of the crew were bidden lie
flat so that they might not be seen, with the result that the Danes
mistook Hárek's war-galley for a trading-vessel laden with herrings or
salt and let it pass unchallenged.
[Illustration: _PLATE I_
Viking ship from the Bayeux Tapestry]
In the last years of the Viking period ships increased greatly both in
size and number. Olaf Tryggvason's vessel, the _Long Serpent_, in which
he fought his last fight at Svoldr, had thirty benches of oars, while
Cnut the Great had one with sixty pairs of oars. This same king went
with a fleet of some fourteen hundred vessels to the conquest of Norway.
In battle the weapons of defence were helmet, corselet and shield.
The shields were of wood with a heavy iron boss in the centre. The
corselets were made of iron rings, leather, or thick cloth. The weapons
of offence were mainly sword, spear and battle-axe. The sword was of
the two-edged type and usually had a shallow depression along the
middle of the blade, known as the blood-channel. Above, the blade
terminated in a narrow tang, bounded at either end by the hilts.
Round the tang and between the hilts was the handle of wood, horn, or
some similar material, often covered with leather, or occasionally
with metal. Above the upper hilt was a knob, which gave the sword
the necessary balance for a good steady blow. Generally the knob
and the hilts were inlaid with silver, bronze, or copper-work. The
battle-axe, the most characteristic of Viking weapons, was of the
heavy broad-bladed type.
Next to warfare and trade, the chief occupation of the Viking was
farming, while his chief amusement was the chase. At home the Viking
leader lived the life of an active country gentleman. His favourite
sport was hawking, and one of the legendary lives of St Edmund tells
how Ragnarr Loðbrók himself was driven by stress of storm to land on
the East Anglian coast, receiving a hospitable welcome from the king,
but ultimately meeting death at the hands of the king's huntsman who
was jealous of his prowess as a fowler.
Of the social organisation of the Vikings it is impossible to form a
very definite or precise picture. We have in the laws of the Jómsborg
settlement (_v. supra_, p. 71) the rule of life of a warrior-community,
but it would be a mistake to imagine that these laws prevailed in
all settlements alike. The general structure of their society was
aristocratic rather than democratic, but within the aristocracy, which
was primarily a military one, the principle of equality prevailed.
When asked who was their lord, Rollo's men answered 'We have no lord,
we are all equal.' But while they admitted no lord, the Vikings were
essentially practical; they realised the importance of organised
leadership, and we have a succession of able leaders mentioned in the
annals of the time, to some of whom the title king was given. These
kings however are too numerous, and too many of them are mentioned
together, for it to be possible to give the term king in this connexion
anything like its usual connotation. It would seem rather to have
been used for any prince of the royal house, and it was only when
the Vikings had formed fixed settlements and come definitely under
Western influence that we hear of kings in the ordinary territorial
sense--kings of Northumbria, Dublin, Man and the Isles, or East Anglia.
We hear also of _jarls_ or earls, either as Viking leaders or as
definite territorial rulers, as for example the Orkney-earls and more
than one earl who is mentioned as ruling in Dublin, but these earls
usually held their lands under the authority of a king. By the side of
kings and earls mention is made both in the Danelagh and also in the
Western Islands of _lawmen_. It is difficult exactly to define their
position and function. Originally these men were simply experts in
the law who expounded it in the popular _thing_ or assembly, and were
the spokesmen of the people as against the king and the court, but
sometimes they assumed judicial functions, acting for example in Sweden
as assessors to the king, who was supreme judge.
In their home life we find the same strange mixture of civilisation
and barbarism which marks them elsewhere. Their houses were built
of timber, covered with clay. There was no proper hearth and the
smoke from the fire made its way out as best it could through the
turf-covered roof. The chief furniture of the room consisted in beds,
benches, long tables and chests, and in the houses of the rich these
would at the close of our period often be carved with stories from the
old heroic or mythologic legends, while the walls might be covered with
tapestry. Prominent in the chieftain's hall stood the carved pillars
which supported his high-seat and were considered sacred. When some
of the settlers first sailed to Iceland they threw overboard their
high-seat pillars which they had brought with them, and chose as the
site of their new abode the place where these pillars were cast ashore.
In clothing and adornment there can be no question that our Viking
forefathers had attained a high standard of luxury. Any visitor to the
great national museums at Copenhagen, Stockholm or Christiania must be
impressed by the wealth of personal ornaments displayed before him:
magnificent brooches of silver and bronze, arm-rings and neck-rings of
gold and silver, large beads of silver, glass, rock-crystal, amber and
cornelian. At one time it was commonly assumed that these ornaments,
often displaying the highest artistic skill, were simply plunder taken
by the Vikings from nations more cultured and artistic than themselves,
but patient investigation has shown that the majority of them were
wrought in Scandinavia itself.
[Illustration: _PLATE II_
Ornaments of the Viking period]
The most characteristic of Viking ornaments is undoubtedly the brooch.
It was usually oval in shape and the concave surface was covered with
a framework of knobs and connecting bands, which divided it into a
series of 'fields' (to use a heraldic term), which could themselves
be decorated with the characteristic ornamentation of the period. The
commonest form of oval brooch was that with nine knobs on a single
plate, but in the later examples the plate is often doubled. The
brooches themselves were of bronze, the knobs usually of silver with
silver wire along the edge of the brooch. These knobs have now often
disappeared and the bronze has become dull with verdigris, so that it
is difficult to form an idea of their original magnificence. The oval
brooches were used to fasten the outer mantle and were usually worn in
pairs, either on the breast or on the shoulders, and examples of them
have been found from Russia in the East to Ireland on the West. Other
types of brooch are also found--straight-armed, trilobed and round.
Such brooches were often worn in the middle of the bosom a little below
the oval ones. Other ornaments beside brooches are common--arm-rings,
neck-rings, pendants. One of the most interesting of the pendants is a
ring with a series of small silver Thor's hammers which was probably
used as a charm against ill-luck. All these ornaments alike are in
silver rather than gold, and it has been said that if the post-Roman
period of Scandinavian archaeology be called the age of Gold, the
Viking period should be named the age of Silver.
The style of ornamentation used in these articles of personal adornment
as well as in objects of more general use, such as horse-trappings, is
that commonly known to German archaeologists as _tier-ornamentik_, i.e.
animal or zoomorphic ornamentation. This last translation may sound
pedantic but it is the most accurate description of the style, for we
have no attempt to represent the full form of any animal that ever had
actual existence; rather we find the various limbs of animals--heads,
legs, tails--woven into one another in fantastic design in order to
cover a certain surface-area which requires decoration. 'The animals
are ornaments and treated as such. They are stretched and curved,
lengthened and shortened, refashioned, and remodelled just as the
space which they must fill requires.' This style was once called the
'dragon-style,' but the term is misleading as there is no example
belonging to the Viking period proper of any attempt to represent a
dragon, i.e. some fantastic animal with wings. Such creatures belong to
a later period.
The zoomorphic style did not have its origin during the Viking
period. It is based on that of a preceding period in the culture of
the North German peoples, but it received certain characteristic
developments at this time, more especially under the influence of
Irish and Frankish art. Irish art had begun to influence that of
Scandinavia even before the Viking period began, and the development
of intercourse between North and West greatly strengthened that
influence. To Frankish influence were due not only certain developments
of _tier-ornamentik_ but also the use of figures from the plant-world
for decorative purposes. One of the finest brooches preserved to us
from this period is of Frankish workmanship--a magnificent trilobed
brooch of gold with acanthus-leaf ornamentation. This leaf-work
was often imitated by Scandinavian craftsmen but the imitation
is usually rude and unconvincing. Traces are also to be found of
Oriental and more especially of Arabic influence in certain forms
of silver-ornamentation, but finds of articles of actual Eastern
manufacture are more common than finds of articles of Scandinavian
origin showing Eastern influences in their workmanship.
Buried treasure from the Viking period is very common. It was a
popular belief, sanctioned by the express statement of Odin, that a
man would enjoy in Valhalla whatsoever he had himself buried in the
earth. Another common motive in the burial of treasure was doubtless
the desire to find a place of security against robbery and plunder.
Treasure thus secreted would often be lost sight of at the owner's
death. To the burial-customs of the Viking period also we owe much of
our knowledge of their weapons, clothing, ornaments and even of their
domestic utensils.
The dead were as a rule cremated, at least during the earlier part of
the Viking period. The body burned or unburned was either buried in a
mound of earth, forming a 'how,' or was laid under the surface of the
ground, and the grave marked by stones arranged in a circle, square,
triangle or oval, sometimes even imitating the outlines of a ship.
The 'hows' were often of huge size. The largest of the three 'King's
hows' at Old Upsala is 30 ft. high and 200 ft. broad. A large how was
very necessary in the well-known ship-burial when the dead man (or
woman) was placed in a grave-chamber on board his ship and the ship
was drawn on land and buried within a how. Men and women alike were
buried in full dress, and the men usually have all their weapons with
them. In the latter case weapons tend to take the place of articles of
domestic use such as are found in the graves of an earlier period, and
the change points to a new conception of the future life. It is now a
life in which warriors feast with Odin in Valhalla on benches that are
covered with corselets. A careful examination of Norwegian graves has
proved fairly definitely the existence of the custom of 'suttee' during
the Viking period, and the evidence of the Arab historian Ibn Fadhlan
seems to show that the same custom prevailed among the Rûs. Horses,
dogs, hawks and other animals were often buried with their masters, and
the remains of such, burned or unburned, have frequently been found.
The varying customs attending burial are happily illustrated in the
two accounts preserved to us of the burial of king Harold Hyldetan,
who died c. 750. The accounts were written down long after the actual
event, but they probably give us a good picture of familiar incidents
in burial ceremonies of the Viking period.
One account (in a late saga) tells how, on the morrow of the great
fight at Bravalla, king Ring caused search to be made for the body of
his kinsman Harold. When the body was found, it was washed and placed
in the chariot which Harold used in the fight. A large mound was raised
and the chariot was drawn into the mound by Harold's own horse. The
horse was now killed and Ring gave his own saddle to Harold, telling
him that he might ride or drive to Valhalla just as it pleased him
best. A great memorial feast was held, and Ring bade his warriors and
nobles throw into the mound large rings of gold and silver and good
weapons before it was finally closed.
The other account (in Saxo) tells how Ring harnessed his own horse to
Harold's chariot and bade him drive quickly to Valhalla as the best in
battle, and when he came to Odin to prepare goodly quarters for friend
and foe alike. The pyre was then kindled and by Ring's command the
Danes placed Harold's ship upon it. When the fire destroyed the body,
the king commanded his followers to walk round the pyre and chant a
lament, making rich offerings of weapons, gold and treasure, so that
the fire might mount the higher in honour of the great king. So the
body was burned, the ashes were collected, laid in an urn and sent
to Leire, there to be buried with the horse and the weapons in royal
fashion.
There are many curious coincidences of detail between these accounts
and that given by Ibn Fadhlan of the burial of a Rûs warrior, and
every detail of them has at one time or another been confirmed by
archaeological evidence.
[Illustration: _PLATE III_
The Jellinge stone]
The dead were commemorated by the how itself, but _bautasteinar_,
i.e. memorial stones, were also erected, either on the how or, more
commonly, elsewhere. In course of time these monuments came to be
inscribed with runes. Usually the inscription is of the most formal
type, giving the name of the dead person, the name of the man who
raised the memorial, and sometimes also that of the man who carved the
runes. Occasionally there is some more human touch as in the wording
of the Dyrna runes (_v. supra_, p. 85), and in the latter part of the
Viking period we often find pictures and even scenes inscribed on
the stones. This is true of the Dyrna stone (_v. supra_, p. 86): the
Jellinge stone has a figure of Christ on it, while there is a famous
rock-inscription in Sweden representing scenes from the Sigurd-story
(Regin's smithy, hammer, tongs and bellows, Sigurd piercing Fafnir with
his sword, the birds whose speech Sigurd understood) encircled by a
serpent (Fafnir) bearing a long runic inscription. The runic alphabet
itself was the invention of an earlier age. It is based chiefly on the
old Roman alphabet with such modifications of form and symbol as were
necessitated by the different sounds in the Teutonic tongues and by the
use of such unyielding materials as wood and stone. Straight lines were
preferred to curved ones and sloping to horizontal. During the Viking
period it was simplified, and runic inscriptions are found from the
valley of the Dnieper on the east to Man in the west, and from Iceland
on the north to the Piraeus in the south.