SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN THE EMPIRE AND ICELAND
Considering the long and devastating campaign of the Vikings within
the Frankish empire and more especially within its western portion, it
is surprising that they only formed permanent settlements in one small
area, leaving practically no marks of their presence elsewhere. Great
portions of the Low Countries were in almost continuous occupation by
them during the 9th century, but the opportunity was lost, and beyond
an important share in the development of the trade of Duurstede, the
Vikings hardly left a sign of their influence behind them.
The case of Normandy is different. Here we have a definite district
assigned to the invaders, just as the Danelagh was given to them in
England, and the whole of that territory is deeply impregnated with
their influence. Many of the Norman towns in -_ville_ contain as the
first element in their name a Norse personal name, e.g. Catteville,
Cauverville, Colleville, Fouqueville, Hacqueville containing the names
_Káte_, _Kálfr_, _Kolr_, _Fólki_, _Hákon_, while the suffixes -_bec_,
-_beuf_, -_dale_, -_ey_, -_gard_, -_londe_, -_torp_, -_tot_, -_tuit_,
-_vic_ as in Bolbec, Elbeuf, Saussedalle, Jersey, Eppegard, Mandelonde,
Torgistorp, Abbetot, Bracquetuit, Barvic go back to O.N. _bekkr_, _búð_
(booth), _dalr_, _ey_ (island), _garðr_, _lundr_, _þorp_, _topt_,
_þveit_, _vík_ (_v. supra_, pp. 124-5). The dialect of Normandy to this
day contains a good number of Scandinavian words, and others have been
introduced into the standard language. Some of these have also found
their way into English through our Norman conquerors, e.g. _abet_,
_baggage_, _elope_, _equip_, _jolly_, _rubbish_, _scoop_, _strife_
just as the _Bulbeck_ in Swaffham Bulbeck (Cambs.) and Bulbeck Common
above Blanchland in Northumberland is from the great Norman barony of
Bulbeck, so named after Bolbec in Normandy, of which they once formed
part. Norman law and customs also show many traces of Scandinavian
influence and so does Norman folk-lore.
The Normans still looked to Denmark as their home-land down to the end
of the 10th century, and at least twice during the reign of Harold
Bluetooth their Dukes received help from that country. The nobles soon
ceased to speak their old northern language, but it is probable that it
remained current on the lips of the people for some considerable time
longer.
The Vikings always showed themselves keenly sensitive to the influence
of a civilisation higher or more developed than their own, and this is
nowhere more apparent than in Normandy. Heathenism found a champion
as late as 943 when, on the death of William Longsword, a rising of
heathen Normans was crushed with the aid of the Frankish king, but
for the most part the Normans soon showed themselves devout sons of
the Church and were destined in the 11th century to be numbered among
the most ardent supporters of the Crusades. With the adoption of
Christianity they learned to respect and honour those homes of learning
which they had once devastated for their wealth of hoarded treasure,
and the famous school at Bec, whence came Lanfranc and Anselm, was only
one among many which they richly endowed and supported.
Their religious and artistic feeling found expression in that
development of Romanesque architecture which we know as Norman and
which has given so many famous buildings not only to Normandy but to
England, to Sicily and to Southern Italy generally. In literature the
Norman-French _trouvères_ did much towards popularising the romances
of war and adventure which play so important a part in medieval
literature, and when they settled in England it was largely due to
Anglo-Norman poets that 'the matter of Britain' became one of the great
subjects of romance for all time.
In its social organisation Normandy seems speedily to have been
feudalised. Rollo divided the land among a comparatively small number
of large landholders and the system of land tenure was quite different
from that in the English Danelagh with its large number of small
freeholders. On the other hand it was probably due to Norse traditions
of personal freedom that serfdom disappeared earlier in Normandy than
in any other of the French provinces.
Trade and commerce were fostered here as everywhere by the Vikings.
It was the Normans who first taught the French to become a power at
sea, many French naval terms are of Norman origin and from the Norman
province have come some of France's greatest sea-captains.
The Vikings like the Franks before them threw off their old speech
and submitted to the all-embracing power of Latin civilisation, and
the result was a race endowed with vigorous personality, untiring
activity, and the instinct for ruling men. The Normans may have become
largely French but they lost none of their old enterprise and spirit of
adventure. In the 11th century they conquered England and founded great
kingdoms for themselves in Sicily and South Italy. No Viking stock was
more vigorous than that which resulted from the grafting of Gallo-Latin
culture on the ruder civilisation of the Teutonic north.
Their influence on France as a whole is not nearly as great as the
influence of their kinsmen in England, probably because English
government was centralised (under Norman rule) much sooner than French
government, and their influence was thus able to make itself felt
outside the actual districts in which they settled. The settlement of
Normandy helped however towards the consolidation of power in the hands
of Charles the Bald and his successors, much as the settlement of the
Danelagh helped in establishing the final supremacy of Wessex.
It remains to speak of one great home of Viking civilisation to
which more than one reference has been made in previous chapters,
viz. Iceland. The story of its settlement is a very simple one. It
commenced about 870, when many great Norwegian noblemen sought there
for themselves and their followers a freer life than they could obtain
under the growing power of Harold Fairhair. It was greatly strengthened
by settlers both from Norway and from Ireland and the Western Islands
when that power was firmly established by the battle of Hafrsfjord,
and by the year 930 the settlement was practically complete. Iceland
was more purely Scandinavian than any other settlement made during the
Viking age. Here we have not the case of one civilisation grafted on
another and earlier one as in England, Ireland or the Frankish empire,
but the transference of the best and finest elements in a nation to
new and virgin soil where, for good or ill, they were free to develop
their civilisation on almost entirely independent lines. Settlers from
the Western Islands and from Ireland may have brought Celtic elements,
and Christianity was not without influence, when it was introduced
from Norway at the close of the 10th century, but on the whole we see
in Iceland just what Viking civilisation was capable of when left to
itself.
At first the settlers lived in almost complete isolation, political
and religious, from one another, but they soon found that some
form of organisation was necessary and groups of settlers began by
choosing from among their number a _goði_, or chieftain, half-priest,
half-leader, who was the speaker at their moot and their representative
in negotiation with neighbouring groups. Then, continued disputes and
the lack of a common law led to the establishment of a central moot
or _alþing_, with a speaker to speak one single law for all. But the
Norsemen were much better at making constitutions and enacting laws
than they were at observing them when instituted, and the condition of
Iceland has been vividly if roughly summarised as one of 'all law and
no government.' The local _þings_ or the national _alþing_ might enact
perfect laws, but there was no compelling force, except public opinion,
to make them be obeyed. Even the introduction of Christianity made no
difference: the Icelanders quarrelled as bitterly over questions of
ecclesiastical as of civil law and the authorities of the medieval
Church were scandalised by their anarchic love of freedom. In the words
of Professor Ker 'the settlers made a commonwealth of their own, which
was in contradiction to all the prejudices of the middle ages and of
all ancient and modern political philosophy; a commonwealth which was
not a state, which had no government, no sovereignty.' 'It was anarchy
without a police-constable.' The result was that the rich men grew
richer, the poor became poorer, the smaller gentry died out and the
large estates fell into fewer and fewer hands. The great men quarrelled
among themselves, intrigued against one another and played into the
hands of the Norwegian kings who were only waiting their opportunity.
It came in the days of Hákon the Old. 'Land and thanes' were sworn into
subjection to that king at the Althing in 1262, and in 1271 the old
Icelandic common law was superseded by a new Norse code.
The failure of the Icelandic commonwealth is amply compensated for
by the rich intellectual development of Icelandic literature, which
owed many of its most characteristic features to the fact that it was
written in a land almost completely isolated and detached from the
main currents of Western medieval thought and the general trend of
European history, but in itself that failure is full of deepest import
for a right understanding of the part played by Viking civilisation in
Europe. Powerful and highly developed as that civilisation was in many
ways, it only reached its highest and best expression when brought into
fruitful contact with other and older civilisations. There it found
the corrective for certain inherent weaknesses, more especially for
certain tendencies of too strongly individualistic character leading
to political and intellectual anarchy, while at the same time by its
own energy and vigour it quickened the life of the older civilisations
where they were tending to become effete or outworn. The Germanic
peoples had done much for the development of European civilisation in
the time of the wanderings of the nations, but by the end of the 8th
century they had lost much of their pristine vigour through contact
with the richer and more luxurious civilisation of the Roman world. It
was reserved for the North Germanic peoples, or the Northmen as we can
more fitly describe them, in the 9th and 10th centuries to give a yet
more powerful stimulus to European life, if not to European thought,
a stimulus which perhaps found its highest expression in the great
creations of the Norman race in the world of politics, the world of
commerce, the world of architecture and the world of letters.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[The appended bibliography does not attempt to deal with primary
authorities, with the large mass of valuable periodical literature
which has been published within the last thirty years, or with books
only incidentally concerned with the movement. It is much to be
regretted that so few of the important Scandinavian books on the
subject have been translated into English.]
BJÖRKMAN, E. Scandinavian Loan-words in Middle English.
Halle. 1906.
BUGGE, A. Vikingerne. 2 series. Christiania. 1904-6.
(German trans. of 1st series. Leipzig. 1896.)
---- Vesterlandenes Inflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden.
Christiania. 1905.
---- Norges Historie. Vol. I, Pt. II.
Christiania. 1910.
COLLINGWOOD, W. G. Scandinavian Britain. London. 1908.
CRAIGIE, W. A. The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia.
London. 1906.
DIETRICHSON, L. and MEYER, S. Monumenta Orcadica.
Christiania. 1906. (Abridged English edition.)
DU CHAILLU, P. B. The Viking Age. 2 vols. London. 1889.
GUSTAFSON, G. Norges Oldtid. Christiania. 1906.
HENDERSON, G. The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland.
Glasgow. 1910.
KEARY, C. F. The Vikings in Western Christendom. London.
1891.
KERMODE, P. M. C. Manx Crosses. London. 1907.
MAURER, K. Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes. 2 vols.
Munich. 1855-9.
MONTELIUS, O. Sveriges Historia. Vol. I.
Stockholm. 1903. (German tr. Kulturgeschichte Schwedens. Leipzig.
1906.)
MÜLLER, S. Vor Oldtid. Copenhagen. 1897. (German tr.
Nordische Altertümskunde. 2 vols. Strasburg. 1897-8.)
OLRIK, A. Nordisk Aaandsliv i Vikingetid. Copenhagen.
1907. (German tr. Nordisches Geistesleben. Heidelberg. 1908.)
STEENSTRUP, J. C. H. R. Normannerne. 4 vols. Copenhagen.
1876-82.
---- Danmarks Riges Historie. Vol. I. Copenhagen. 1876-82.
THOMSEN, V. The Relations between Ancient Russia and
Scandinavia. Oxford. 1877.
VOGEL, W. Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich.
Heidelberg. 1906.
VOGT, L. J. Dublin som Norsk By. Christiania. 1906.
The Publications of the Viking Club (Saga-Book and Year Book) include
papers on various aspects of the movement and notices of the literature
of the subject as well as descriptions of various archaeological
discoveries.
INDEX
Aethelflæd of Mercia, 29, 32, 57
Aethelstan, 35-6
Alfred the Great, 25-8
Altar-ring, 26, 89
_Althing_, 116
Anlaf Godfreyson, 35;
Sihtricsson (Cuaran), 34, 36, 56, 60-1, 90
Arabic historians, references in, 20, 76, 109
Auðr the deep-thoughted, 20, 66, 68, 85, 89
_bautasteinar_, 110
Björkö, 86, 96, 98
Björn Ironside, 22, 44, 46
Black Foreigners, 10
Brian Borumha, 56, 62-4
Brunanburh, 35, 61, 64
Burial ceremonies, 99-100, 108-10
_carucates_, 132-3
Christianity, 16, 37, 41, 83, 86-93
Clontarf, 63-4, 67, 98, 120
Cnut, 41-2, 87, 101
_Daci_, 10, 134
Danegeld, 38-9, 48
Danelagh boundaries, 27, 128-9;
reconquest, 29-32
Danes, _passim_
Denmark, 5, 16, 22-3, 44, 86-7
_drengs_ 135-6
_Dubh-gaill_, 10
Dublin, 15, 23, 33-4, 55, 59-60, 64, 89, 103, 120-2
East Anglia, 11, 14, 27-8, 32, 134-5
Eddaic poems, 2, 93-4
Edmund Ironside, 40-1
Edward the Elder, 29, 31
England, invasion of, 12, 22-43;
influence in, 123-37
Eric Blood-axe, 36-7
Ethelred the Unready, 37-40
Faroes, 6, 98
_Fin-gaill_, 10
Five Boroughs, 11, 30, 36, 134-6
Frisia, 15-8, 49
France, invasions of, 17-21, 43-53;
influence in, 138-42
Frisians, 8
_Gaill-Gaedhil_, 56, 65, 67
Galloway, 65, 116
Gokstad ship, 99
Greenland, 99
Guthrum of East Anglia, 26-7
Hásteinn (Hastingus), 28, 44, 46, 50
Hafrsfjord, 7, 56
Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri, 35-6, 88
Halfdanr, 22, 25, 33, 58
Harold Bluetooth, 37, 70-2, 87
Harold Fairhair, 7, 35, 58, 67, 142
Harold Hardrada, 42, 81, 99
Harold of Mainz, 16, 18-9, 86
Heathenism, 83, 86-93
Hebrides, 5, 60, 65, 67-8, 114
_Hiruath_, 11
_holds_, 135
Hörðaland, Hörðai, 5, 11
_hows_, 108
Iceland, 83, 85, 117, 142-4
Ireland, attacks on, 12-13, 15, 54-64;
Danes and Norsemen in, 54-8;
influence in, 116-23
Ívarr the boneless, 22, 24-5, 57-8
_jarls_, 103, 134
Jellinge stone, 111
Jómsborg, Jómsvikings, 70-2, 98, 102
jury, presentation by, 136
Ketill Finn, 67
Ketill Flatnose, 56, 67
_lawmen_, 103, 116, 136
Limerick, 59, 62, 98, 120
_Lochlann_, 10
_Ludwigslied_, 47
_Madjus_, 20
Maeshowe, 23, 113
Maldon, battle of, 38
Man, Isle of, 12, 39, 63, 65-8, 114-5
_nithing_, 137
Noirmoutier, 17, 19, 21
Norsemen, Norwegians, _passim_
Northumbria, 11, 24-5, 28, 83-4, 37, 41, 60, 63, 126-8
Normandy, 52-3, 138-42
Norway, 7, 16;
Christianity in, 88-9
Odin, 88, 95, 115
Ohthere, Óttarr, 96, 99
Olaf Tryggvason, 4, 38, 87, 89, 101
Olaf the White, 20, 57-8, 66, 68
_ore_, 133
Orkneys, 23, 63, 65, 112-3, 117
Ornamentation, style of, 79, 106-7
Ornaments, 104-6
Oseberg ship, 99-100
_Ostmen_, 122
_Oðal_, 67, 113
Paris, 21, 49-50
Place-names, influence on Scottish, 114;
Irish, 118-9;
English, 123-9
_prime-signing_, 91
Ragnarr Loðbrók, 21-4, 44, 57, 102
Rhôs, 19, 47, 73-4
_ridings_, 131
Rollo, 9, 53, 103
Runic inscriptions, 23, 81, 85-6, 110-1, 113-5
Rus, 73-9
Russia, founding of, 73-80
St Anskar, 70, 86
St Edmund, 25
St Olaf, 41, 89
_Scaldingi_, 11
Scandinavian loan-words in English, 130-1
Sculptured stones, 91, 111, 114-5
Seven Boroughs, 40
Shetlands, 5, 6, 65, 112-3, 117
Ship-burials, 99-100
Ships, 29, 98-100
Shires, origin of, 31 _n_., 134
Sigurd of the Orkneys, 63, 66-7
Slesvík, 15, 87, 96
Sodor and Man, 65
Stamford Bridge, 42
_Suðreyjar_, 65
Svein Forkbeard, 37, 39, 40, 87
Sweden, 7, 96
Swedes, 9, 19, 72-9
_thing_, 103, 115-6
Thor, 89, 95, 115
Trade, character of, 96-8;
Oriental, 71, 79-80;
Russian, 75-80;
Irish, 120
Turf-Einar, 67
Turges, 13, 20
Tynwald Court, 115
_udal_ and _udaller_, 113
Varangians, Variags, 73, 77-9
Vestfold, 11, 16
Viking, the term, 1
Viking movement, causes of, 4-11
Vinland, 99
_Wapentake_, 132
Weapons, 101-2
Wedmore, peace of, 27
_Westfaldingi_, 11
White Foreigners, 10
Women, position of, 54-6, 94
York, 24, 31, 33
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Transcriber's Notes
Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
Inconsistent hyphenation fixed.
P. 67: Murray -> Moray.
P. 147: Nordisk Aaandsliv -> Nordisk Aandsliv.
P. 148: Cnut, 42-2 -> Cnut, 41-2.