C.J. Adrien's Blog, page 13

Norway’s Crumbling Viking Longships: Can They Be Saved in Time?

As Jan Bill contoured the sides of a Viking longship in late October for an interview, he pointed to cracks that have appeared in the hull. “This damage is only the beginning of something that is going to get worse,” he said. His expression was cheerless and bleak. Jan is the co-curator of Oslo’s museum of cultural history, and he’s been worried about the condition of the ships for some time. The vessels survived for 1,200 years underground, preserved by low oxygen conditions in the soil. Now, displayed in the museum in an oxygen-rich environment, the wood’s age is beginning to catch up with it. As the ships continue to crumble, efforts to fund their preservation have come up short. 

In October 2018, Jan had the opportunity to speak with researchers involved with the discovery of a new longship found in Østfold. It had been hoped the new artifact would find a home among the museum’s other ships. Their rapid rate of decay, however, has caused many to rethink the move. Jan explained the situation at the museum and the efforts being taken to save Norway’s most extensive collection of longships. “We are taking necessary action when we deem it necessary, such as the building of support underneath the Gokstad ship, but these are short term solutions. The challenge for us is to find a long-term solution…but we have not implemented long-term preservation efforts because we simply lack the resources,” he explained in the interview.

Since 2014, museum curators, researchers, and preservationists have warned of the decaying condition of the ships. They proposed the construction of a new museum that could better preserve the vessels, and they received public support for their plan. When the government unveiled a new budget plan for this year, however, everyone was left in shock. Not a single penny was allocated to funding the new museum.

“It is clearly the talk of the day,” said Ellen Marie Næss, an archaeologist and a university lecturer who works at the Viking Ship House. Given the funding shortfall, she has grown weary of transporting the new discovery from Østfold to the museum. “The conservation conditions are probably better in the soil than here,” she said.

To make matters worse, the funding shortfall has slowed progress on restoration efforts that could protect the ships until the building of a new museum. At the current rate, even if a new museum were built, the damage to the boats could make them unsalvageable for display. “We risk ending up in a situation where – when a museum is ready – we will not have come far enough to understand what the ships will need to survive,” Jan said. 

Read Jan Bill’s original interview here: forskerforum.no

Much to the relief of all involved, on January 17, 2019, the Norwegian government passed a unanimous resolution to fund the construction of the new longship museum, to be built at Bygdøy. Svein Stølen, Rector of the University of Oslo, expressed relief at the decision: “We had many sleepless nights at the University. This work is important for our national culture and our understanding of Norway.”

The government’s change of heart will fund research and preservation for future finds, but Norway’s crumbling Viking longships are far from out of the woods. As Jan Bill pointed out, the rate of decay could spell disaster for several of the ships on display today before the new museum ever opens. Whatsmore, funding for the new museum has become a pawn in the politics of government, and it could be taken away as quickly as it was given.

You can read the original news story here: uniform.uio.no

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What Caused the Viking Age?

The first recorded attacks at Lindisfarne in 793 A.D., in Ireland in 795 A.D., and in France in 799 A.D. are widely considered the beginning events of what historians call the Viking Age. Though the Viking Age lasted for nearly three centuries, the initial raids between the years A.D. 793 and 835 occurred peripherally, meaning they remained contained to coastlines (in contrast, the second half of the 9th century was marked by invasion attempts and conquests). This is the period that is most romanticized in popular culture: longships filled with rugged bands of marauders suddenly appearing on the horizon to sack and loot monasteries for their silver. That they appeared suddenly in the historical record has launched historians, archeologists, and various fields of science on a quest to answer the question: What caused the Viking Age?

In The Two Lives of Charlemagne, by Notker the Stammerer, the emperor of the Carolingian Empire allegedly witnessed an early attempted raid off the coast of France: “Charlemagne, who was a God-fearing, just and devout ruler, rose from the table and stood at the window facing East. For a long time, the precious tears poured down his face. No one dared to ask him why. In the end, he explained his lachrymose behavior to his war-like leaders. ’My faithful servants,’ said he, ‘Do you know why I wept so bitterly? I am not afraid that these ruffians will be able to do me harm, but I am sick at heart to think that even in my lifetime they have dared to attack this coast, and I am horror-stricken when I foresee what evil they will do to my descendants and their subjects.’”

Most historians question whether Charlemagne indeed witnessed such an event, but the message conveyed to us by Notker is clear: the Vikings posed a real threat to the coastlines of Western Europe even before the accession of Louis the Pious. The terror they struck in the hearts of their victims paints a picture of a threat that no one in Christendom had predicted.

The authors of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the attack on Lindisfarne, in 793 A.D., this way: “In this year terrible portents appeared over Northumbria, and miserably frightened the inhabitants: these were exceptional flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these signs; a little after that in the same year on 8 [June] the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughter.“

Most historians draw upon a combination of several hypotheses to explain the cause of the Viking Age. Hypotheses range in scope from territorial disputes to diplomatic tensions with neighbors, and nearly all of these factors seem to have played a part. Not unlike Europe on the eve of World War I, Scandinavia in the late 8th century appears to have been ready to boil over, and all the situation needed was a catalyst. Unfortunately, attempts to define a single catalyst or trigger event have all proved unfruitful. A 2010 paper by the archeologist James Barrett called such attempts “unrealistic” and proposed the start of the Viking Age could only be defined by combining numerous factors into a broader, more general theory. 

What caused the Viking Age? The best we can say is that it was a combination of numerous factors, including climate change, trade, political strife, social stratification, among other causes. Here I will explore a few that served as likely significant contributors to what started the Viking Age.

Climate Causes

For as long as the study of the Vikings has existed, historians have proposed a short period of climatic warming as a primary longue-durée cause of the Viking Age. Indeed, most books about Viking history will include some variation of the hypothesis. While not a catalyst for the events of the late eighth century, the warming period may have contributed to societal developments in Scandinavia that came under duress during the ensuing cooling period. 

The long-term effects of climate, however, have come under scrutiny from several camps. A 2013 study by the historians Morgan Kelly and Cormac Ó Gráda argues too little evidence exists to correlate climate with social and political changes in the early medieval period. They acknowledge the impact climate change would have had on medieval society if it were a provable phenomenon. More research must be conducted to keep the climate hypothesis alive.

Social and Cultural Causes

Several leading theories on what caused the Viking Age focus on the social causes born from early Scandinavia’s stratified society and warrior culture. In a 2015 paper, historian Steven Ashby proposed social capital acquired through fame and glory drove sea captains to raid abroad. In the article, he writes, “In the flexible hierarchies of the Viking Age, those who took advantage of opportunities to enhance their social capital stood to gain significantly. The lure of the raid was thus more than booty; it was about winning and preserving power through the enchantment of travel and the doing of deeds. This provides an important correction to models that focus on the need for portable wealth; the act of acquiring silver was as important as the silver itself.”

Other social traditions may have also played a significant role in encouraging young men to raid abroad. The bride price — the price paid by a man to a woman’s family for her hand in marriage — may have precipitated the desire by young men to join sea captains on raids. The treasures they brought home would have paid the bride price for the woman they wanted to marry. In a 2017 paper, historians Ben Raffield, Neil Price, and Mark Collard proposed operational sex ratios driven by polygyny and concubinage led to the need for young men to seek treasures abroad to afford the bride price and increase their chances at marrying. 

In a 2016 essay, Søren M. Sindbæk proposes silver was used to establish and maintain social networks over time in Viking Age Scandinavia, bride prices being an example of such networks. If true, then the influx of Islamic silver from the East and controlled by the elites likely contributed to the need for young men to seek their own treasures in the West to compete.

Political Causes

In 782 A.D. Emperor Charlemagne was just wrapping up his conquest of modern-day Poland when the Saxons, under the leadership of a man named Widukind, rebelled against him. Charlemagne’s response was swift and bloody. During their battle near the Elbe River, the Franks took 4,500 prisoners. To teach the rebels a lesson, Charlemagne ordered the prisoners be baptized in the Elbe, where the priests recited their benedictions, and the Frankish soldiers held their victims underwater until they drowned.

The event, after that dubbed “The Massacre of Verdun” was no more gruesome than many of the other acts committed by the Carolingians. Forced baptisms and conversions were commonplace under Charlemagne’s rule. But this event was different. Widukind, the leader of the Saxons, was brother in law to the king of the Danes, Sigfred. News of the massacre undoubtedly reached his court, and as such would have (and this is conjecture) deeply angered them. It was yet another brutal, violent display of power by Charlemagne, the latest in a long series spanning decades.

Danish raids along the coast of Frisia (modern-day Netherlands) appear to have intensified almost immediately, leading to an infamous assault on Dorestad. The very next decade, an attack on Lindisfarne occurred, and what happened there has led some to believe that there may have been a connection between the two. A source on the attack by the twelfth century English chronicler, Simeon of Durham, who drew from a lost Northumbrian chronicle, described the events at Lindisfarne this way:

“And they came to the church at Lindisfarne, laid everything to waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted steps, dug up the altars and seized all the treasure of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers, took some away with them in fetters, many they drove out, naked and loaded with insults, some they drowned in the sea… “

Some have proposed the drownings symbolized the forced baptisms at Verden. The evidence, however, is light. What is undeniable is that interactions between the Danes and the Franks, and the kingdoms of the British Isles, predated the official start of the Viking Age. Political strife may have served as an important trigger.

Trade

More recent scholarship on the subject has revealed less apparent causes for the start of the Viking Age. A 2018 study by Irene Baug, Dagfinn Skre, Tom Heldal, and Øystein J. Jansen examines the location and provenance of whetstones to establish probable trade ties between geographic regions across the Baltic region. Most of the whetstones analyzed came from the settlements of Lade and Borg in what is today Northern Norway. Dating of the quarry sites and the stones reveals the whetstone trade had likely established ties between these remote regions of Scandinavia and the more urbanized southern Baltic regions, such as Ribe, beginning in the early 8th century. The study authors offer further evidence of these ties by citing the discovery of reindeer antler combs from Norway found in Ribe, Denmark that predates the presupposed timeline for the establishment of trade.

If trade between Lade and the English Channel, even if not direct, had been established in the 8th century, the resulting contact from that trade could have inspired sea captains to shift their focus from trading to raiding, as was often done when the latter proved more worthwhile. As the study authors note: “This evidence, set in the context of the contemporary surge in production and trade around the southern North Sea and English Channel, the early urbanisation in southern Scandinavia and the Baltic, and the political integration in southern and western Scandinavia, allows us to suggest immediate reasons for why Viking ship commanders turned their activities overseas in the late 700s. The evidence also sheds light on why, after the initial ‘scouting phase,’ raiding in three decades since c. 806 took place predominantly in Ireland and Scotland, and why Vikings in the mid-830s began overwintering overseas and took up raiding in England and the Frankish Empire.”

Bringing it all together: What caused the Viking Age?

No single event or trend caused the Viking Age. Why sea captains and their crews launched from Scandinavia to raid abroad has its roots in a wide breadth of social, political, environmental, and cultural trends. Much more research is needed to peal back the shroud of mystery surrounding why longships appeared so suddenly off the coasts of England, Ireland, and France in the late 8th century.

 

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New Study on Whetstones Proposes Trade as Probable Cause of the Viking Age.

What caused the Viking Age? Historians, archeologists, and other academics have long sought to clearly define its root causes. What inspired the Vikings to raid? What triggered their sudden expansion across the world? Theories to explain it abound, from climatic changes in the early medieval period to political causes, such as the Massacre of Verden. Sociological reasons have been proposed as well, including the idea that a bride price had to be paid to a woman’s family for marriage, and so young men left home to raid to afford it. While all of these may have played a part, a new study suggests the root cause of the Viking Age may have had less to do with all of these problems and more to do with trade.

The study, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, examines the location and provenance of whetstones to establish probable trade ties between geographic regions across the Baltic region. Most of the whetstones analyzed came from the settlements of Lade and Borg in what is today Northern Norway. Dating of the quarry sites and the stones reveals the whetstone trade had likely established ties between these remote regions of Scandinavia and the more urbanized southern Baltic regions, such as Ribe, beginning in the early 8th century. The study authors offer further evidence of these ties by citing the discovery of reindeer antler combs from Norway found in Ribe, Denmark that predates the presupposed timeline for the establishment of trade.

What makes the analysis of the whetstones significant is their geographic dispersion. Where the antler combs have only been found in Southern Denmark (to date), the whetstones have been found at sites all along the English Channel (see map below).

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If trade between Lade and the English Channel, even if not direct, had been established in the 8th century, the resulting contact from that trade could have inspired sea captains to shift their focus from trading to raiding, as was often done when the latter proved more worthwhile. As the study authors note: “This evidence, set in the context of the contemporary surge in production and trade around the southern North Sea and English Channel, the early urbanisation in southern Scandinavia and the Baltic, and the political integration in southern and western Scandinavia, allows us to suggest immediate reasons for why Viking ship commanders turned their activities overseas in the late 700s. The evidence also sheds light on why, after the initial ‘scouting phase,’ raiding in three decades since c. 806 took place predominantly in Ireland and Scotland, and why Vikings in the mid-830s began overwintering overseas and took up raiding in England and the Frankish Empire.”

The study authors make clear that trade, while potentially a driving factor for setting off the Viking Age, remains but one of a multiplicity of causes that have already been examined. In their own words, “The paucity of evidence regarding the acute constraints and opportunities of Viking-ship commanders of the 780s–850s is probably the main reason why, compared to general conditions, the search for immediate causes, or ‘trigger factors’, has been less intense and successful—Barrett finds the enterprise ‘unrealistic.’”

To read the full study, CLICK HERE.

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Viking Sword Found in Patara, Turkey.

A recent discovery has created a great deal of buzz at Akdeniz University, in Turkey. Nestled among other artifacts belonging to a 9th and 10th-century naval warfare excavation in the city of Patara, archeologists uncovered a hilt and a pommel of what they believe is a Viking sword. 

“It’s definitely Viking,” said Feyzullah Şahin, a classical archeology professor at Akdeniz University. “The characteristics of the knob, tang and crossguard can be evaluated within the group of swords that was described by Jan Petersen as ‘K type’ or ‘O Type,'” he further explained. “Until today, one Viking sword that was discovered during the excavation works carried around Yumuktepe (district) of Muğla (province) was the only material culture remnant that indicated the existence of Vikings in Anatolia.”

According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, the Varangian Guard served as an elite bodyguard to the Byzantine emperors, but they were initially more broadly used as a mercenary force. Although too early to form any definitive conclusions, the discovery further reinforces the claim by the Russian Primary Chronicle of the use of the Varangians as mercenaries. The new sword find could be evidence of the more widespread use of Varangians across the Byzantine Empire than previously thought.

About the Varangian Guard

Vikings were formidable warriors. They were so fierce, in fact, the Byzantines hired them as mercenaries to carry out their most dangerous missions—or so says the Russian Primary Chronicle. Historically, the Russian Primary Chronicle has posed several problems. Its fantastical claims have called into question its reliability and the veracity of some of the events it claims to recount. Hence, historians have treated the text carefully, and have required abundant archeological evidence to support its narrative.

Initially, the Varangians were hired from among the Vikings known as the Rus, who founded the city-states of Kiev and Novgorod. The Rus frequently raided Byzantine lands and even attempted to sack Constantinople. Impressed by their prowess in battle, the Byzantine emperors hired them as mercenaries after the signing of two treaties in the late 9th and early 10th century. The hiring of the Varangians as mercenaries was likely a ploy to redirect their attention from Constantinople toward other targets, but over time they proved their worth and increased in place and reputation. Eventually, Vikings from all over Scandinavia joined the mercenary force, including, most famously Harald Hardrada of Norway. For three centuries, they fought the wars of the Byzantine Empire until its end in the 13th century. 

The discovery was first reported by The Daily Sabah.

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L’Histoire des Vikings à Noirmoutier

En 793, le moine Alcuin, originaire de la ville de York, réside à la cour de Charlemagne où il reçoit une lettre envoyée par l’un de ses compatriotes. Cette lettre, qui n’existe plus aujourd’hui, l’informait d’une attaque dévastatrice sur le monastère de Lindisfarne à l’extrême nord de l’Angleterre. Les païens, venus de l’autre côté de la mer du Nord, ont pillé la maison de Dieu et tué l’abbé. Cette nouvelle est un choc pour le monde chrétien. Alcuin écrit une lettre à son collègue, Higbald de York, pour lui dire à quel point il est navré «…vos souffrances tragiques m’apportent chaque jour du chagrin, puisque les païens ont profané le sanctuaire de Dieu, versé le sang des saints autour de l’autel, ravagé la maison de notre espérance et piétiné le corps des saints comme des excréments dans la rue. »1

La Chronique Anglo-Saxonne nous dit que le monastère de Lindisfarne a connu de violentes tempêtes à la veille de l’arrivée des Vikings. Elle parle de « terribles présages » et depuis tous les écrits contemporains sur l’attaque, il est clair qu’à l’époque les moines ont cherché des causes surnaturelles et religieuses pour expliquer ce qui leur est arrivé.2 Même Alcuin, qui a sympathisé avec les victimes, écrit dans sa lettre que, « cela n’est pas arrivé par hasard, mais c’est le signe d’une grande culpabilité ». Il insinue à plusieurs reprises que Dieu a dû envoyer les Vikings pour punir les frères de Lindisfarne de leurs péchés.

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Rabanus Maurus (à gauche), soutenu par Alcuin (au milieu), présente son travail à Otgar de Mayence (à droite) Manuscrit du IXe siècle Österreichische Nationalbibliothek de Vienne

Nous savons aujourd’hui que les péchés des moines n’avait guère de relations avec les activités des Vikings à la fin du 8e siècle. Ces derniers se sont attaqués aux monastères en Angleterre, en Irlande et, plus tard, en France parce que ces édifices se trouvaient à proximité des endroits peuplés, et ils contenaient beaucoup de richesses ( surtout de l’argent). Noirmoutier ne faisait pas exception. Depuis le 7e siècle, les moines de Saint Philibert avaient colonisé l’île et prospéré sous la protection de l’empire Carolingien. Six ans après la première attaque sur Lindisfarne, en 799, les Vikings renouvelèrent leur attaque avec le même succès sur le monastère de Saint Philibert. Cette fois, le monde chrétien reconnut qu’il ne s’agissait plus d’une attaque isolée, mais d’une nouvelle menace régulière de maraudeurs païens. 

Lindisfarne est le site que les historiens considèrent comme le début de l’âge viking (circa 793-1066). Noirmoutier est le début de deux siècles d’attaques, de conquêtes et d’occupations Vikings en Bretagne, qui commence avec l’attaque sur Saint Philibert et se termine avec la reconquête de la Bretagne par Alain Barbetorte. 

Qu’est-ce qu’un Viking ?

Le mot Viking est originaire de l’ancien norrois (une langue morte). Bien que ses origines ne soient pas bien définies et que les historiens soient divisés sur l’origine précise du mot, nous savons que le mot n’était pas un nom propre, mais un verbe. La saga d’Egill Skallagrimsson nous offre l’un des exemples les plus convaincants de l’utilisation originale du mot. Selon cette saga, un homme nommé Ulfr avait «í víkingu og herjaði,» c’est-à-dire, approximativement, « avait erré et s’était battu ». Dans ce contexte, le mot Viking décrit une activité. Plus précisément, il décrit l’activité à laquelle nous associons les Vikings aujourd’hui : la piraterie.3

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Sculpture sur pierre à Lindisfarne Photo Christophe Adrien

Personne ne sait avec certitude à quel moment l’usage moderne du mot Viking a commencé. Au Moyen Age, l’ancien norrois a évolué vers les langues nordiques modernes et, à notre connaissance, le mot Viking est tombé en désuétude. L’historienne Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough propose dans son livre, Beyond the Northlands, que la première utilisation moderne du mot Viking, enregistrée en 1807, vient de l’anglais.4 Cette première utilisation était en tant que nom propre et il se référait à l’ensemble du monde nordique au début du Moyen Age, ce que nous appelons aujourd’hui « l’âge viking ». C’est cette forme du mot que nous utilisons aujourd’hui pour décrire non seulement les rôdeurs qui ont terrorisé les côtes de l’Europe pendant trois siècles, mais aussi leurs compatriotes qui sont restés chez eux. Pour éviter des problèmes de nomenclature, et pour les besoins de ce bref article, nous utiliserons le mot uniquement pour décrire les Scandinaves qui ont quitté leurs terres pour aller à l’étranger à la recherche de richesse.

Nous avons aujourd’hui une image assez opaque de la culture des Scandinaves de l’âge viking. Les Vikings posent plusieurs problèmes du point de vue historique. D’abord, ils ne disposaient pas d’une langue écrite comme celle dont disposait le monde chrétien. Les runes, symboles écrits des pays scandinaves du Moyen Age, étaient rudimentaires et n’étaient pas utilisées pour écrire des récits. Ainsi, les seules œuvres que nous avons sur les Vikings de l’époque nous sont parvenus par l’intermédiaire des moines chrétiens. Nous pourrions dire que c’est une tragédie de l’histoire que presque tout ce que nous savons à leur sujet ait été écrit par leurs victimes. Leur réputation moderne de malfaiteurs tient principalement au fait que, du point de vue des sources historiques, ils n’ont laissé aucun témoignage et ne peuvent pas apporter d’éléments pour justifier leur comportement.

Les origines de l’âge viking

Les historiens ont plusieurs hypothèses sur les origines de l’âge viking. La plus répandue et reconnue, ou du moins celle qui est le plus souvent considérée comme une cause profonde, est le changement climatique survenu au début du Moyen Age. Le réchauffement du climat en Europe du Nord au milieu du huitième siècle a provoqué une augmentation rapide de la population en Scandinavie. Ceci a provoqué une surpopulation et quand le climat a refroidi à la fin du siècle, la terre ne pourrait plus nourrir tout le monde. A partir de ce moment-là, le besoin de partir et d’effectuer des expéditions est devenu une question de survie. La plupart des historiens s’appuient sur une combinaison de plusieurs hypothèses, chacune faisant partie d’un ensemble complexe de facteurs, notamment des disputes territoriales, des tensions diplomatiques avec leurs voisins et une structure sociale stratifiée. Tous ces facteurs semblent avoir joué un rôle.

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Aubin défendant Guérande et folio 7r “flotte normande”, manuscrit du XIe siècle provenant de l’abbaye d’Angers – BNF

Malgré ce que les chroniqueurs chrétiens suggèrent dans leurs textes, les Vikings n’étaient pas plus violents que les autres peuples de cette époque. L’empire carolingien avait de nombreux ennemis, dont les Huns, les Saxons, les Obrotites, les Bretons et les Maures. Charlemagne lui-même avait poussé à la violence au nom de sa religion, et du point de vue de ses victimes, c’était lui le plus violent. Prenons, par exemple, le fameux massacre de Verden. En 782, Charlemagne achevait sa conquête de la Pologne lorsque les Saxons, sous la direction d’un homme nommé Widukind, se rebellèrent contre lui. La réponse de l’empereur fut rapide et sanglante. Pendant leur bataille près de la rivière Aller, les Francs ont capturé 4 500 prisonniers. Pour punir les rebelles, Charlemagne donna l’ordre de les baptiser dans la rivière. Tandis que les prêtres récitaient leurs bénédictions, les soldats francs ont tenu leurs victimes sous l’eau jusqu’à ce qu’ils se noient.

L’événement, surnommé par la suite Le Massacre de Verden, correspondait au comportement des Carolingiens. Mais cet événement avait cependant un caractère particulier. Widukind, le chef des Saxons, était beau-frère du roi des Danois, Sigfred. Les nouvelles du massacre sont sans doute parvenues à la cour de Sigfred. Les attaques danoises le long de la côte de la Frise (les Pays-Bas modernes) se sont intensifiées presqu’immédiatement jusqu’à une terrible attaque sur Dorestad, dont Charlemagne aurait été témoin. La décennie suivante a eu lieu l’attaque de Lindisfarne.5

Simeon de Durham, un chroniqueur du douzième siècle qui a tiré ses informations des annales de Northumbrie — qui n’ont pas survécu jusqu’à aujourd’hui —décrit ainsi les événements de Lindisfarne : « Et ils vinrent à l’église de Lindisfarne, ils ravagèrent tout et pillèrent avec cruauté, piétinèrent les lieux saints avec des marches polluées, déterrèrent les autels et s’emparèrent de tous les trésors de la sainte église. Ils tuèrent certains des frères, en mirent aux fers, en chassèrent beaucoup, nus et couverts d’insultes, ils en noyèrent certains dans la mer ... » .6 Ce dernier passage est souvent cité comme preuve que les premières attaques sur les monastères auraient été des représailles contre les violences commises par les chrétiens envers les païens. La noyade des moines, selon certains historiens, renvoie à la noyade des Saxons à Verden. 

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Egill Skallagrímsson dans un manuscrit islandais du XVIIe siècle conservé
à l’Institut Arni Magnusson en Islande

Il est possible que ce soit le cas, mais la chronique anglo-saxonne nous donne la preuve évidente que l’âge viking commençait, que Charlemagne en soit la cause ou non. En 789, quatre ans avant Lindisfarne, un navire danois était arrivé au port de Portland, au sud de l’Angleterre. La rencontre, qui devint presqu’immédiatement sanglante, nous montre que les Vikings visaient déjà les îles britanniques bien avant la première attaque

 à Lindisfarne. Il est probable que cette expédition avait pour mission de faire une reconnaissance en Angleterre avant de tenter une attaque directe. Il n’existe donc pas une seule cause du début de l’âge viking, mais il est probable qu’une multitude de causes y ont contribué.

Les Premiers Vikings à Noirmoutier

Selon les Chroniques Carolingiennes, en 799, une flotte de « drakkars » apparut au large de l’île de Noirmoutier.* Ils avaient comme cible le monastère de Saint Philibert. Les moines furent pris par surprise et avec violence, et peu d’entre eux y échappèrent. Un tel voyage et une telle attaque n’aurait pas semblé possible. L’événement a néanmoins suscité une forte riposte de Charlemagne qui commanda la construction d’une nouvelle flotte et la (fortification) protection des rivières dans son empire. Il savait bien que les Vikings constituaient une menace importante pour l’avenir de sa dynastie. Selon Notker le Bègue, biographe principal de Charlemagne, celui-ci était très angoissé : « Je n’ai pas peur que ces bandits puissent me faire du mal ; mais le fait qu’ils aient osé attaquer cette côte me rend malade et je suis frappé d’horreur car je pressens le mal qu’ils vont faire à mes descendants et à leurs sujets.»7

Les Vikings ont, au cours de leur trois siècles d’affrontements avec les Carolingiens, contribué à la déstabilisation de l’empire et exploité les failles sociales et politiques pour s’enrichir. C’était surtout le cas en Bretagne. Dès la mort de Charlemagne en 814, Louis le Pieu eut du mal à préserver l’intégrité de l’empire qu’il avait hérité. En Bretagne, la mort de Charlemagne a suscité de nouvelles rebellions contre les Francs. Cette nouvelle dynamique politique a laissé la porte ouverte pour des incursions plus massives des Vikings. Il semble, ainsi que nous pouvons l’analyser aujourd’hui, que les Vikings ont suivi de près les événements majeurs de l’empire et ont lancé des raids en conjonction avec les crises politiques. Cette première phase, commençant en 799 et se terminant en 836, est caractérisée par des attaques sporadiques, car l’ensemble de l’empire carolingien était toujours plus ou moins bien défendu.

L’exemple le plus flagrant est l’attaque de l’île de Bouin. Les Chroniques Carolingiennes mentionnent qu’en 820 une flotte de drakkars tenta de remonter la Seine, mais elle fut repoussée par les unités de défense Carolingiennes. Cela n’a pas découragé les Vikings qui ont contourné la Bretagne pour trouver une cible moins bien défendue. Ils s’attaquèrent à l’île de Bouin, pas loin de Noirmoutier, et ils retournèrent chez eux avec un « immense butin . »8

Sur l’île de Noirmoutier, les choses ne s’améliorent pas. Les moines de Saint Philibert sont victimes d’attaques régulières. Dès 819, l’abbé Arnulf écrit que l’ordre de Saint Philibert souffre « des incursions des barbares qui ravagent fréquemment le monastère ». Face aux attaques répétées, les moines ont adressé une demande à Louis le Pieux afin de faire construire un nouvel établissement sur le continent. En 830, les attaques sont si régulières que les moines quittent l’île au printemps et y retournent en automne pour éviter les raids saisonniers des Vikings. Enfin, en 836, les moines prennent la décision d’abandonner définitivement le monastère de l’île.9

Selon le moine Ermentaire, par son ouvrage Epitre à Hilduin, l’empereur Louis le Pieux a accepté de fortifier l’île en 830 et a fait construire un Castrum pour défendre le monastère.10 Ermentaire aurait été témoin d’un combat en 834-835 que les Vikings ont gagné, ce qui a conduit à la décision d’abandonner l’île. Plus tard dans sa vie, Ermentaire écrit à propos de l’abandon de l’île : « Mais en vérité, voici ce qu’ils craignaient le plus : que les hommes infidèles fouillent la tombe du béni Philibert et dispersent tout ce qu’ils y trouvent ici et là, ou plutôt le jettent dans la mer. Nous savions que cela s’était passé en Bretagne avec les reliques de certains saints.»11

Mon roman historique sur les Vikings à Noirmoutier. Cliquez l’image pour en savoir plus.

Révolte, guerre Civile et une bonne opportunité pour un Viking entrepreneur.

Depuis les invasions du roi carolingien, Pépin le Bref, les Francs ont eu du mal à contenir les Bretons. En 824, ils répriment une nouvelle rébellion bretonne fomentée par le chef Wihomarc. L’empereur Louis le Pieux lui-même conduit l’invasion. Les Francs dévastent la Bretagne, ce qui oblige Wihomarc à se rendre à Aix-la-Chapelle pour faire la paix. C’était la fin de près de dix ans de tumulte, et la Marche de Bretagne connut enfin la paix.12 Mais cette paix fut brève, car l’empire était à la veille d’un bouleversement politique : la guerre civile. Les disputes entre Louis et ses fils au sujet de l’héritage s’intensifient en 829 avec le nouveau partage de l’empire décidé à l’assemblée de Worms. La première révolte éclate en 830, menée par le fils aîné de l‘empereur, Lothaire.

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Une représentation plus récente des Vikings :Pirates normands au IXe siècle, huile sur toile, par Evariste-Vital Luminais (1821-1896) Musée Anne de Beaujeu à Moulins

En 841, l’empire subit un désastre jamais connu auparavant. A Fontenoy-en-Puisaye, l’aristocratie franque est décimée dans une bataille particulièrement sanglante. Parmi les morts se trouve le Duc de Nantes, Ricuin. Sa disparition provoque une lutte pour le pouvoir qui conduit le chef breton Nominoë à se révolter contre les Carolingiens.13 Nominoë s’allie à Lambert, le fils d’un précédent détenteur, contre Renaud, l’homme nommé par Charles le Chauve pour succéder à Ricuin. En mai 843, les armées des Francs et des Bretons se préparent à la violence. Selon la Chronique de Nantes, Renaud a gagné une victoire immédiate contre les Bretons à Messac. Avec un excès de confiance, il retourne vers Nantes sans savoir que Lambert le suivait. Tandis que l’armée de Renaud se reposait près du village de Blain, Lambert, voyant que les Nantais étaient dispersés, lance sa contre-attaque. Ils massacrent les francs et Renaud est tué au combat. Lambert, victorieux, prend Nantes. Mais il est rejeté par les Nantais qui ne veulent pas de lui. Pour se venger, il rejoint un campement de « Danois et de Norvégiens » pour les convaincre d’attaquer la ville.** La chronique de Nantes décrit Lambert comme « inventeur de maux » et le soupçonne d’avoir promis plus de richesse qu’il n’y en avait.14

C’est ici que l’histoire devient compliquée. Aucune autre source contemporaine des événements ne mentionne l’alliance entre Lambert et les Vikings, ce qui conduit les historiens à penser que c’était peut-être une fiction. Mais cela n’a pas empêché de nombreux historiens d’affirmer que le fameux Hasting, fils supposé du chef danois légendaire Ragnar Lothbrok, était le chef des Vikings alliés à Lambert et Nominoë et qu’ils ont attaqué Nantes. Néanmoins, plusieurs chroniques, dont la Chronique de Nantes, une chronique fragmentée d’Angers, les Annales D’Angoulême (Annales Engolismenses), les récits d’Ermentaire, et les Annales de Saint Bertin (Annales Bertiniani) confirment, dans l’ensemble, que l’attaque s’est produite le 24 juin 843 pendant les fêtes de la Saint Jean. Les Annales D’Angoulême décrivent les attaquants comme Westfaldingi, autrement dit des hommes du Vesfold, une région de Norvège près d’Oslo.15 Que l’histoire de l’alliance avec Lambert soit vraie ou pas, ce qui est clair est que la dissolution de l’empire et le conflit entre les Bretons et les Francs a ouvert les portes aux Vikings opportunistes.

Le rôle de Noirmoutier durant les invasions Viking.

La Chronique de Nantes et les Annales de Saint Bertin mentionnent que les Vikings qui ont mis Nantes à sac ont pris une île proche de l’embouchure de la Loire comme base pour stocker leur butin. L’île en question est très certainement l’île de Noirmoutier, appelée Herio. Depuis cette base, les Vikings ont lancé des attaques régulières en Bretagne et le long de la Loire. Certains signes nous indiquent que cette base aurait peut-être aussi servi de colonie. Une des preuves les plus extraordinaires est le témoignage d’une délégation musulmane se dirigeant vers l’Irlande pour mieux connaître les Vikings.

En 844, les Vikings lancent une attaque sur la ville de Séville, en Espagne. Comme lors de l’attaque de Nantes, ils mettent la ville à sac. En réponse, l’Emir Abd al-Rhaman II envoie des troupes pour les repousser. Elles les encerclent avant qu’ils puissent s’échapper. Cette victoire oblige les Vikings à se rendre et à faire la paix. Au lieu de les massacrer, l’émir envoie l’ambassadeur al-Ghazal pour observer les Vikings et établir des relations diplomatiques avec eux. Al-Ghazal embarque sur un drakkar et les accompagne vers le nord. Au cours de leur voyage, ils s’arrêtent et prennent un repos d’une semaine sur une île au large de la France. Il est probable, selon ce que nous savons des activités des Vikings, que cette île était Noirmoutier. Al-Ghazal rapporte que cette île était habitée par une communauté de Vikings florissante.16

Il est possible aussi que les Vikings aient établi plusieurs bases dans la baie de Biscay. L’aspect le plus important du témoignage d’al-Ghazal est l’idée que, dès cette période (de 843-846), les Vikings ont commencé de coloniser la région, comme ils l’avaient déjà fait en Irlande. En 847, ils lancent une invasion en Bretagne et gagnent trois batailles successives contre les Bretons. Cette année est le début d’une période où les Vikings s’imposent en force dans la région jusqu’à l’occupation de Nantes en 853 où ils établissent une base permanente sur l’île de Betia (aujourd’hui l’île de Nantes). Ils se sont si bien intégrés dans la région qu’en 873 ils se voient accorder une autorisation royale d’établir un marché. A partir de 919, Nantes est devenue le centre administratif d’un territoire sous occupation viking qui comprenait presque toute la péninsule de la Bretagne.17

L’île de Noirmoutier, elle, aurait servi de base militaire pour lancer les premières invasions en Bretagne. Mais elle n’est plus mentionnée à partir du moment où les bases vikings s’implantent sur le continent. Son rôle d’étape intermédiaire pour les premières attaques scandinaves se situe assez tôt dans l’histoire des Vikings en Bretagne et, selon les sources contemporaines, n’a plus eu d’importance stratégique au-delà des années 850.

L’héritage historique des Vikings à Noirmoutier

L’histoire des Vikings repose sur deux sources importantes : les écrits contemporains et les sites archéologiques. Les écrits contemporains sont utiles pour nous aider à construire une chronologie approximative des événements, alors que l’archéologie nous révèle des détails importants sur la culture des Vikings et nous permet aussi de vérifier le contenu de certains textes. A Noirmoutier, il n’existe pas de sites archéologiques viking, donc notre connaissance sur le sujet repose uniquement sur les écrits contemporains. L’exemple de l’alliance de Lambert avec les Vikings nous prouve que les sources ne sont pas toujours fiables et souvent se contredisent. Alors, en ce qui concerne les Vikings à Noirmoutier, nous devons procéder avec prudence.

Cela dit, l’héritage historique de l’île de Noirmoutier est analogue à celui de Lindisfarne. Les deux îles ont annoncé des événements plus dramatiques dans leurs régions respectives, mais n’ont pas joué un rôle crucial dans le déroulement des faits au-delà. Noirmoutier aurait peut-être joué un plus grand rôle, mais il nous manque des preuves pour l’affirmer. Les écrits contemporains mentionnent l’île a plusieurs reprises, mais il reste toujours un doute sur leur véracité. Nous pouvons néanmoins dire avec un certain degré de confiance que l’île a été utilisée comme base pendant plusieurs décennies. Est-ce que les Vikings ont colonisé l’île ? Ont-ils emmené leurs femmes et leurs enfants comme ils l’ont fait en Irlande et en Angleterre ? Impossible de le savoir sans études archéologiques poussées. Certains pensent que les analyses d’ADN pourraient révéler la présence génétique des Vikings en Bretagne, mais ces analyses posent plusieurs problèmes, surtout celui des migrations constantes de populations entre la Bretagne et la Normandie. Nous savons que les Vikings sont venus à Noirmoutier, mais la question demeure, sont-ils restés?

Christophe Adrien est auteur de fictions historiques sur les Vikings. La série Kindred of the Sea est un best-seller. Ce sujet est actuellement d’une grande actualité en raison de l’exposition “Nous les appelons Vikings” qui se tient jusqu’au mois de novembre au château des Ducs de Bretagne à Nantes et c’est pour nous l’occasion de donner la parole à ce jeune historien d’outre Atlantique.

Cet article apparu dans la revue trimestrielle Lettre Aux Amis N° 191, publié par L’Association des Amis de Noirmoutier. Pour plus d’articles sur l’histoire de la région de Vendée et de l’île de Noirmoutier, abonnez vous sur leur site web: Les Amis de Noirmoutier. Cet article a été republié sur ce site avec permission.

Bibliographie

Alcuin of York, Letter to Higbald, trans. by S. Allott, Alcuin of York (York, 1974). Reprinted in Paul Edward Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (Ontario, 1993). Pg. 124.
Swanton, Michael. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle. New York: Routledge, 1998. Pg. 55.
Þórðarson, Sveinbjörn. Icelandic Saga Database: Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar. Retrieved July 12, 2018: http://sagadb.org/egils_saga.is
Barraclough, Eleanor Rosamund. Beyond The Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas. Oxford University Press, 2018. Pg. 16.
Ferguson, Robert. The Vikings: a History. Penguin Books, 2010. P. 83.
Douglas, David Charles., and Dorothy Whitelock. English Historical Documents. Eyre Methuen, 1979. Pg. 273.
Thorpe, Lewis G. M., et al. Two Lives of Charlemagne. Penguin Books, 2003. Pg. 159.
Scholz, Bernhard Walther, et al. Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories. University of Michigan Press, 2000. Pg. 108.
Cartron, Isabelle. Les Pérégrinations des Moines de Saint-Philibert. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009. Pg. 34.
Cartron, Isabelle. Les Pérégrinations des Moines de Saint-Philibert. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009. Pg. 64.
Herlihy, David. ‘Ex Ermentarii Miraculis Sancti Filiberti’ extraits traduits et publiés dans The History of Feudalism. Humanity Books, 1998. Pg. 9.
Smith, Julia M. H. Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians. Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pg. 66.
Cassard, Jean-Christophe. La Bretagne Des Premiers Siècles. J.-P. Gisserot, 1994. Pg. 30.
Merlet, René. La Chronique De Nantes (570 Environ-1049)… / [Éd.] René Merlet. [S.n.] (Paris), 1896. Pg. 12.
Nelson, Janet L. The Annals of St-Bertin. Manchester University Press, 1991. Pg. 55.
Allen, W.E.D. The Poet and the Spae-Wife. Titus Wilson and Son, Ltd. London, 1960. Pg. 27.
Cassard, Jean-Christophe. Le Siècle des Vikings en Bretagne. J.-P. Gisserot, 1996. Pg. 80-83.

Notes

*La première attaque est aussi attesté dans la Chronicon de Regino Prüm et dans une lettre d’Alcuin à Charlemagne.

**L’alliance entre Lambert et les Vikings est considéré une fabrication de l’auteur de la Chronique de Nantes.

À propos de Christophe Adrien

[image error]Christophe Adrien est un auteur de best-sellers en fiction historique sur les Vikings. Sa série Kindred of the Sea a été inspirée par des recherches menées en préparation d’un programme de doctorat sur l’histoire des Vikings en Bretagne, ainsi que son admiration pour les écrivains de fiction historique tels que Bernard Cornwell et Ken Follett. Mr. Adrien possède un Masters dans l’enseignement des humanités, and est prof d’histoire en Oregon, aux USA. Ses romans et son expertise lui ont valu des invitations à plusieurs conférences internationaux, dont le Congrès international médiéval de l’Université de Leeds.

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10 Viking Artifacts You Never Knew Existed

Most of the artifacts we encounter online and in history books focus on war: swords, shields, helmets, other artifacts of war. Less focus is placed on everyday items, such as, interestingly enough, tweezers. Yet, everyday items offer us a far better glimpse into life in Viking Age Scandinavia. The breadth of tools and items the Vikings used that mirror today is astounding. As far as we think we have progressed in 1,000 years, many things, such as telling our children not to run with scissors, have not changed. Here are 10 Viking artifacts you never knew existed.

Bronze Buddha 

Trade was an essential part of Scandinavian civilization during the Viking Age. Objects from all over the world made their way back to Scandinavia, including this bronze statue of Buddha discovered in Sweden. Archeologists have dated the figure to the 6th century and believe it came from northern India.

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Viking Age artifact found in Sweden of a Buddha statue from India. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Glass Pearl Necklaces

Personal style took a central role among Viking Age Scandinavians. Particularly in regards to jewelry, Viking Age finds have revealed a myriad of valuable objects, including this glass pearl necklace found in Gotland, Sweden. Glass was not readily made in Scandinavia at the time, and so the beads to make the necklace were likely imported. 

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Glass pearl necklace found in Gotland, Sweden. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Keys

With so many valuable objects, Viking Age Scandinavians devised many ways to protect their wealth. Locks and keys were common, and often resembled this key, found in Sweden. The key is made of bronze, a sturdy metal that does not rust like iron or steel.

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Viking Age Bronze key displayed at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne exhibit. Photo credit: C.J. Adrien.

Keychains

With so many keys and no locksmiths a phone call away, Viking Age Scandinavians made keychains to organize and store their keys. Pictured here is a keychain attached to a brooch, which would have been worn by the head of the household. Women ran the home, and so they held all the keys.

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Bronze keychain attacked to brooch. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Jewelry Boxes

Keys must open something. Pictured here is a jewelry box found in Gotland, Sweden. What makes this jewelry box so interesting is that it combines several motifs, including a combination of pre-Christian and Christian iconography. The box dates to the latter part of the Viking Age.

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Viking Age jewelry box with Christian and pre-Christian motifs. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Iron Neck Collars

Slavery was central to Viking Age Scandinavian society. Proof of the use of slaves abounds, including this iron neck collar thought to have been used to keep a slave. Slaves were captured from all over the world and sold at markets across Scandinavia to allow farmstead owners to boost their labor supply. 

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Viking Age Iron Neck Collar as displayed at the exhibit at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne, Nantes, France. Photo credit: C.J. Adrien.

Urns

Funeral practices in Viking Age Scandinavia crucially differed from their Christian neighbors: where Christians buried their dead, Scandinavians cremated them. Except for the super-wealthy elite who could afford a ship burial, most of the dead were cremated and their remains stored in urns. Pictured below is an urn found in Sweden in which the ashes have (partially) remained preserved. 

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Viking Age Urn and Ashes. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Bronze Weathervane

Ships harnessed the wind to sail the seas, and no tool has helped sailors more over the centuries than weathervanes. Weathervanes help sailors determine the direction of the wind to help them set the sail correctly. Pictured is a bronze weathervane that would have been placed atop the mast of a longship. The weathervane shows Viking Age Scandinavian motifs and was likely made somewhere in Sweden.

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Viking Age Bronze Weather Vane found in Sweden. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Scale

A crucial part of the Viking Age was trading, and part of the trade was currency. Most people are familiar with the more popular artifacts of Viking Age trade, such as Arabic coins, hack silver, and buried hordes. Wealth, however, had to be measured, and like other civilizations of the time, precious metals held their value by their weight. Pictured is a scale (without its plates) used to weight silver and gold.

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A Viking Age scale (without its plates) used to weight silver and gold. Photo credit: The Swedish History Museum.

Scissors

Making clothes meant utilizing the various tools of the textile industry. Scissors were essential to cut fabric and to work over a variety of materials. Pictured are scissors found in Sweden and displayed at the recent exhibit at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne in Nantes.

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Viking Age Scissors as displayed at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne in Nantes, France. Photo Credit: C.J. Adrien.

Bonus item: Grooming Kit

Grooming was paramount to Viking Age Scandinavians, and among all the things they used for personal care – combs, brushes, scissors, etc. – they also had tweezers for plucking unwanted hair and ear scoops to clean their ears. Pictured is a personal care display featuring many items from the Viking Age, including a pair of tweezers that are similar to those we use today (lower left), an ear scoop (lower right), and a few other items you might expect, such as a bronze bowl, combs, a brooch, and a makeup container.

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Viking Age Grooming Kit as displayed at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. Photo credit: C.J. Adrien

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How fast did Viking Longships Sail?

In The Two Lives of Charlemagne, by the biographer Notker the Stammerer, we encounter a deeply troubled Charlemagne who witnessed an unusual event in southern France. A fleet of Northmen sailed up the coast to raid but, seeing a garrison of Franks stationed where they had hoped to strike, they fled. The Franks sent a fleet to pursue them, but they could not match the Northmen’s speed. Notker tells us Charlemagne recognized the imminent threat of the Vikings on his empire when he said, “I do not fear that these bandits will do me any harm; I am sick at heart to think that, even in my lifetime, they dared to attack this coast, and I am horror-stricken when I think of the harm they will do to my descendants and their subjects.”

Already in his lifetime, we learn that the Vikings’ longships had a reputation for sailing much faster than those of the Franks. All the people who bore witness to the raids and invasions of the Vikings convey awe at the speed of their ships. Until recently, however, historians did not know precisely how fast their ships could sail. First, in the 19th century, historians did not have a real boat to work with—the first ship burial was not discovered until the early 20th century. Over the course of several decades, more and more vessels were pulled from the ground, yet speeds for these were merely educated guesses. How Fast Did Viking Longships Sail? Not until the first full reproductions did historians learn the actual speed capabilities of the longships. 

The Viking Ship Museum’s Reconstructions

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, has built five reproduction ships which they have used to test average and top speeds of the various ships they have from Viking Age burials. Below are the five ships and the information the museum lists about them:

Skuldelev 1 – The ocean-going trader

Skuldelev 1 is a sizeable ocean-going cargo ship from Sognefjord in western Norway. The vessel is built of heavy pine planks and has a rounded form that gives it a high loading capacity and great seaworthiness on the North Atlantic. It was repeatedly repaired with oak in Norway and Denmark. The ocean-going trader could have sailed all over the North Sea and the Baltic as well as in the North Atlantic. The ship and its cargo may have been owned by a chieftain or by a group of merchants sailing it on trading expeditions. The ship had decks fore and aft as well as an open hold.

Age: ca 1030
Length: 15.84 meters
Breadth: 4.8 meters
No. of oars: 2-4
Crew: 6-8 men
Sail area: 90 m2
Average speed: 5-7 knots
Top speed: ca 13 knots

Skuldelev 2 – The great longship

Skuldelev 2 is a warship built to carry warriors at high speed from place to place. With a crew of 65-70 men, it was a ship owned by a chieftain or king, like those praised in the sagas. Tree-ring analysis of the timber shows that the vessel was built of oak in the vicinity of Dublin around 1042. Vikings settled in Ireland in AD 800 and established several fortified bases along the Irish coast. These bases developed into towns, which today are among the largest in Ireland.

Age: ca 1042
Length: approx. 30 meters
Breadth: 3.8 meters
No. of oars: 60
Crew: 65-70 men
Sail area: 112 m2
Average speed: 6-8 knots
Top speed: 13-17 knots

Skuldelev 3 – The coastal trader

Skuldelev 3 is a small, elegant, and sturdy trading ship built for carrying goods across Danish coastal waters and throughout the Baltic. The ship is the best preserved of the five Viking ships found in the Roskilde Fjord and was built with Danish oak. It had decks of loose planks fore and aft and an open hold with room for about 4 tons of cargo. The ship may have been used when the owner and his associates or family traveled to a market or meetings at the assembly.

The wind was the most important means of powering the ship, but the oars could be used when maneuvering or when traveling short distances in calm weather. 

Age: ca 1040
Length: 14 meters
Breadth: 3.3 meters
No. of oars: 5
Crew: 5-8 men
Sail area: 45 m2 
Average speed: 4-5 knots
Top speed: 8-10 knots

Skuldelev 5 – The small longship

Skuldelev 5 is one of the smallest longships and was likely used as part of a war fleet. It was ideal for sailing in Danish coastal waters and through the short, choppy waves of the Baltic. Unlike the other Skuldelev ships, it was built using both new wood and recycled timber. A few years before the ship sunk, it was repaired with both new and recycled wood. We do not know why the ship was built this way, but the construction and repairs were carried out by skilled boatbuilders.

Age: ca 1030
Length: 17.3 meters
Breadth: 2.5 meters
No. of oars: 26
Crew: 30 men
Sail area: 46 m2
Average speed: 6-7 knots
Top speed: 15 knots

Draken Harald Hårfagre

The Draken Harald Hårfagre is the largest reconstruction ever made and has sailed across the Atlantic as far as New York. The project was meant to create a ship that adhered to the descriptions of the largest longships found in the sagas with the building techniques discovered in actual burial ships. The website for the Draken Harald Hårfagre warns, “Draken Harald Hårfagre is a clinker-built Viking longship. She is not a replica of a known ship, she is a reconstruction of what the Norse Sagas refer to as a “Great ship”. Knowledge of history, and especially the Norse sagas, archeological findings and Norwegian boatbuilding traditions combined created the world’s largest Viking ship sailing in modern times.” 

It is essential to understand that this ship is not the best source for understanding the speed of the longships of the Viking Age because she is not a replica of a known ship, and is much larger than any of the ships ever found. However, the experiment has shown us a profound trend: bigger does not equal faster. The top speed recorded for the Draken Harald Hårfagre is 14 knots, a full three knots shy of the Skudelev 2’s top speed. While an impressive ship, its size certainly affects its top speed and maneuverability.

How Fast Did Viking Longships Sail?

How Fast Did Viking Longships Sail? While modern replicas offer us some evidence for the top speeds of Viking longships, it remains a debatable subject. Replicas have topped 17 knots in ideal weather, but most sail in the 8-12 knot range. Some historians have proposed ships built in the Viking Age may have topped 24-25 knots, but no modern replica, to my knowledge, has attained such speeds. Considering speeds of 24-25 knots are extremely difficult and rare even for modern sailboats, as well as sailboats with two hulls, it is highly unlikely Viking longships reached such speeds. From the evidence, the 17-21 knot top-speed appears the most reasonable range until a new replica proves otherwise.

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Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate?

It is a question I am often asked when someone finds out I am passionate about and make my living writing about the Vikings: is the movie The 13th Warrior historically accurate? In social circles that know anything about the Viking Age and have seen the movie, the answer is a resounding no, and the movie has picked up quite a few detractors over the years. Yet, the movie is not entirely without merit. In this article, I will deconstruct The 13th Warrior with a historical eye and point out both accuracies and inaccuracies for educational purposes.

The 13th Warrior as Good Historical Fiction

Let’s start with the most obvious fact about The 13th Warrior: it is historical fiction, not historical fact. The film is based on a bestselling novel by Michael Crichton — the guy who did Jurassic Park — called Eaters of the Dead. Eaters of the Dead was intended as an adventure-filled retelling of the Beowulf legend told through the narrative of an outside observer from the Middle East. As far as the storyline is concerned, it is your typical Michael Crichton romp with just enough history or science to set up the story before taking readers (and viewers) through the meat of the plot. Broadly, it is considered historical fiction, and in my opinion, it is a good historical fiction insofar as the narrative is concerned. Michael Crichton spins a good yarn. The book is a fun read, and the movie makes for great entertainment.

What The 13th Warrior Gets Right

In typical Micheal Crichton fashion, the movie introduces a fair amount of historicity to set up the story at the beginning. Both the novel and the film begin with the narrator of the story, a character named Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan was a real historical figure, and in regards to the Viking Age, he wrote one of the more interesting and insightful primary sources on the Vikings who navigated along the Dnieper and Volga rivers and were called the Rus. The Rus traded as far Constantinople and perhaps even Baghdad. 

Ibn Fadlan’s account about his encounter with the Vikings on the shores of the Volga River covers a myriad of subjects, from grooming habits he observed to their unusual trade customs. Unlike the film, the real Ibn Fadlan was not an exile, but instead the chronicler of the voyage of his superior, Susan al-Rassi, who traveled to the land of the Bulgars to preach the word of Islam. They were missionaries of sorts, and so it is no surprise that when they encountered the Rus, they attempted to establish peaceful relations.

The most famous passage of the Ibn Fadlan account is his description of the funeral of a chieftain. It is from this passage, and indeed most of the text of Ibn Fadlan’s account of the Rus, that Michael Crichton composed the first three chapters of his novel. Below is a passage from the account, which coincides well with one of the opening sequences of The 13th Warrior film:

“Then the closest relative of the dead man, after they had placed the girl whom they have killed beside her master, came, took a piece of wood which he lighted at a fire, and walked backwards with the back of his head toward the boat and his face turned toward the people, with one hand holding the kindled stick and the other covering his anus, being completely naked, for the purpose of setting fire to the wood that had been made ready beneath the ship. Then the people came up with tinder and other firewood, each holding a piece of wood of which he had set fire to an end and which he put into the pile of wood beneath the ship. Thereupon the flames engulfed the wood, then the ship, the pavilion, the man, the girl, and everything in the ship. A powerful, fearful wind began to blow so that the flames became fiercer and more intense.”

From a historical standpoint, the 13th Warrior film holds some merit, or at least just enough to earn credibility among a wider audience. For a lack of a better analogy, it is akin to how Michael Crichton established a minimum of scientific precedent — based on lofty science, to say the least — to establish the premise of his book, and later film, Jurassic Park.

Where The 13th Warrior Gets It All Wrong

A keen observer will note that many of the more contestable features of Ibn Fadlan’s account made it onto the big screen, including the way the Rus bathed in the morning after a hard night of drinking. Michael Crichton stayed true to Ibn Fadlan’s narrative but neglected to research how historians regard these descriptions. When dealing with primary sources, it is important not only to consider the writer’s testimony but also their credibility and cultural lens. Hence, both the novel and the film depict a highly debatable testimony of Viking culture that clashes with many of the other primary sources on the same subject.

Whoever decided to adapt the novel to the big screen appears to have tried extremely hard to appear historically accurate, but also appears to have had no knowledge of the time period. Every detail the film attempts to pass off as a small history lesson is woefully wrong. Casting Antonio Banderas as a clean-shaven Ibn Fadlan aside (a man of his status would undoubtedly have had a beard following at least one pilgrimage to Mecca), we are first led to believe that the Rus rode mighty horses that put the Arab horses to shame. Historically, Scandinavian horses were small, while the world of Islam had a rich culture of husbandry whereby they bred large, gallant steeds. The 13th Warrior got that fact backward.

The historical inaccuracies abound from there. Many of the twelve Scandinavian warriors wear armor that would not have been available to anyone at the time, let alone them. The costume designers appear to have lazily borrowed equipment from other sword-and-sandal films such as Gladiator and Braveheart to compose the equipment of some of the characters. What audiences should understand is that when the main characters arrive in Hrothgar’s kingdom, the film (and book) essentially become complete fantasy. From the fatalistic belief system that is espoused by the main characters to the botched attempt at a holmgang, nearly every attempt at world-building deviates from the academic understanding of the Viking Age. 

Interestingly, the antagonists, called the Vendol, appear to be an amalgam of sorts. The name is obviously borrowed from the Vendel, which were the people who lived in Sweden in the period preceding the Viking Age. In character, they display the characteristics of cavemen and, curiously, the idea of the noble savage (an American concept applied to native tribes). And where did they get all the horses?! Michael Crichton is exceptionally imaginative. 

Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate?

Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate? Absolutely not. But it’s a whole lot of fun. As I discussed at length through several posts, historical fiction does not necessarily need to be all that accurate. In my interview with Bernard Cornwell, for example, he explained that as a historical fiction writer his first objective is to tell a compelling story and to be historically accurate second. In that spirit, Michael Crichton’s story about an Arabic man who travels to Sweden to fight flesh-eating cavemen is a successful attempt at entertaining the masses. Personally, I enjoyed the film for what it was: a fun adventure story.

Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate?

It is a question I am often asked when someone finds out I am passionate about and make my living writing about the Vikings: is the movie The 13th Warrior historically accurate? In social circles that know anything about the Viking Age and have seen the movie, the answer is a resounding no, and the movie has picked up quite a few detractors over the years. Yet, the movie is not entirely without merit. In this article, I will deconstruct The 13th Warrior with a historical eye and point out both accuracies and inaccuracies for educational purposes.

The 13th Warrior as Good Historical Fiction

Let’s start with the most obvious fact about The 13th Warrior: it is historical fiction, not historical fact. The film is based on a bestselling novel by Michael Crichton — the guy who did Jurassic Park — called Eaters of the Dead. Eaters of the Dead was intended as an adventure-filled retelling of the Beowulf legend told through the narrative of an outside observer from the Middle East. As far as the storyline is concerned, it is your typical Michael Crichton romp with just enough history or science to set up the story before taking readers (and viewers) through the meat of the plot. Broadly, it is considered historical fiction, and in my opinion, it is a good historical fiction insofar as the narrative is concerned. Michael Crichton spins a good yarn. The book is a fun read, and the movie makes for great entertainment.

What The 13th Warrior Gets Right

In typical Micheal Crichton fashion, the movie introduces a fair amount of historicity to set up the story at the beginning. Both the novel and the film begin with the narrator of the story, a character named Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan was a real historical figure, and in regards to the Viking Age, he wrote one of the more interesting and insightful primary sources on the Vikings who navigated along the Dnieper and Volga rivers and were called the Rus. The Rus traded as far Constantinople and perhaps even Baghdad. 

Ibn Fadlan’s account about his encounter with the Vikings on the shores of the Volga River covers a myriad of subjects, from grooming habits he observed to their unusual trade customs. Unlike the film, the real Ibn Fadlan was not an exile, but instead the chronicler of the voyage of his superior, Susan al-Rassi, who traveled to the land of the Bulgars to preach the word of Islam. They were missionaries of sorts, and so it is no surprise that when they encountered the Rus, they attempted to establish peaceful relations.

The most famous passage of the Ibn Fadlan account is his description of the funeral of a chieftain. It is from this passage, and indeed most of the text of Ibn Fadlan’s account of the Rus, that Michael Crichton composed the first three chapters of his novel. Below is a passage from the account, which coincides well with one of the opening sequences of The 13th Warrior film:

“Then the closest relative of the dead man, after they had placed the girl whom they have killed beside her master, came, took a piece of wood which he lighted at a fire, and walked backwards with the back of his head toward the boat and his face turned toward the people, with one hand holding the kindled stick and the other covering his anus, being completely naked, for the purpose of setting fire to the wood that had been made ready beneath the ship. Then the people came up with tinder and other firewood, each holding a piece of wood of which he had set fire to an end and which he put into the pile of wood beneath the ship. Thereupon the flames engulfed the wood, then the ship, the pavilion, the man, the girl, and everything in the ship. A powerful, fearful wind began to blow so that the flames became fiercer and more intense.”

From a historical standpoint, the 13th Warrior film holds some merit, or at least just enough to earn credibility among a wider audience. For a lack of a better analogy, it is akin to how Michael Crichton established a minimum of scientific precedent — based on lofty science, to say the least — to establish the premise of his book, and later film, Jurassic Park.

Where The 13th Warrior Gets It All Wrong

A keen observer will note that many of the more contestable features of Ibn Fadlan’s account made it onto the big screen, including the way the Rus bathed in the morning after a hard night of drinking. Michael Crichton stayed true to Ibn Fadlan’s narrative but neglected to research how historians regard these descriptions. When dealing with primary sources, it is important not only to consider the writer’s testimony but also their credibility and cultural lens. Hence, both the novel and the film depict a highly debatable testimony of Viking culture that clashes with many of the other primary sources on the same subject.

Whoever decided to adapt the novel to the big screen appears to have tried extremely hard to appear historically accurate, but also appears to have had no knowledge of the time period. Every detail the film attempts to pass off as a small history lesson is woefully wrong. Casting Antonio Banderas as a clean-shaven Ibn Fadlan aside (a man of his status would undoubtedly have had a beard following at least one pilgrimage to Mecca), we are first led to believe that the Rus rode mighty horses that put the Arab horses to shame. Historically, Scandinavian horses were small, while the world of Islam had a rich culture of husbandry whereby they bred large, gallant steeds. The 13th Warrior got that fact backward.

The historical inaccuracies abound from there. Many of the twelve Scandinavian warriors wear armor that would not have been available to anyone at the time, let alone them. The costume designers appear to have lazily borrowed equipment from other sword-and-sandal films such as Gladiator and Braveheart to compose the equipment of some of the characters. What audiences should understand is that when the main characters arrive in Hrothgar’s kingdom, the film (and book) essentially become complete fantasy. From the fatalistic belief system that is espoused by the main characters to the botched attempt at a holmgang, nearly every attempt at world-building deviates from the academic understanding of the Viking Age. 

Interestingly, the antagonists, called the Vendol, appear to be an amalgam of sorts. The name is obviously borrowed from the Vendel, which were the people who lived in Sweden in the period preceding the Viking Age. In character, they display the characteristics of cavemen and, curiously, the idea of the noble savage (an American concept applied to native tribes). And where did they get all the horses?! Michael Crichton is exceptionally imaginative. 

Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate?

Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate? Absolutely not. But it’s a whole lot of fun. As I discussed at length through several posts, historical fiction does not necessarily need to be all that accurate. In my interview with Bernard Cornwell, for example, he explained that as a historical fiction writer his first objective is to tell a compelling story and to be historically accurate second. In that spirit, Michael Crichton’s story about an Arabic man who travels to Sweden to fight flesh-eating cavemen is a successful attempt at entertaining the masses. Personally, I enjoyed the film for what it was: a fun adventure story.

The post Is The 13th Warrior Film Historically Accurate? appeared first on C.J. Adrien.

The Danevirke Receives World Heritage Site Status

One of the most important sites for the study of the Viking Age has received recognition this month from the Unesco World Heritage committee. The Danevirke, designated a world heritage site in July of 2018, was discovered in 1897 and has contributed tremendously to our understanding of the Vikings. A world heritage site designation will help to protect and preserve the site for future study and may secure funds from Unesco to further future research. 

What is the Danevirke?

Lorenz Frølich’s impression of Thyra Dannebod ordering the foundation of the Danevirke.

The Danevirke is a 40 kilometer (25 miles) long series of ditches and fortifications along the southern border of the Danish peninsula, Jutland, which effectively separated what was once the kingdom of the Danes and the Carolingian Empire. Archeological research estimates the first sections of the Danevirke as having been built as early as the sixth century. Current scholarship theorizes that the building of the fortifications was encouraged by constant internecine warfare between the inhabitants of the peninsula and their southern Germanic neighbors, the Saxons, and the Franks. In fact, this same period of conflict is cited by scholars as a significant cause for the departure of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to Britain.

Theories for what the Danevirke was are many-from a simple wall, akin to Hadrian’s wall, to a canal that served as a shipping channel. Interestingly, a recent find has helped to further the idea that the Danevirke may have been an important shipping route before and during the Viking Age. In 2010, archeologists discovered a (the) gateway through the wall, about five meters wide, that correlates with written descriptions of the gateway that connected Jutland with Charlemagne’s empire, and is described as having had an inn and a bordello (Read more about the discovery). The find helps to support the idea that the primary sources about the gateway through the Danevirke are, in fact, reliable.

Archeological evidence shows further fortifications began in the early 9th century, also described in the Royal Frankish Annals. They explain the Danish king Gudfred rebuilt the Danevirke specifically to repel a Frankish invasion. Archeological finds place more extensive construction in the time of Harald Bluetooth, and scholars disagree over which monarch was most responsible for the expansion of the more extensive fortifications that earned the Danevirke its later reputation as a symbol of the separation between the Danes and their southern Germanic neighbors.

The Future of the Danevirke as a World Heritage Site

To date, archaeologists believe they have uncovered less than five percent of the Danevirke, and that many more finds, such as burials and settlements, have yet to be discovered. The Danevirke is believed to have been a crucially important structure during the early medieval period for both warfare and trade. Located in Northern Germany, many parts of the structure are believed to lie beneath modern construction and infrastructure. As a world heritage site, archeologists may have a better chance of preventing more construction projects from permanently covering or destroying more of the Danevirke. 

You can read more about the new designation, as well as other sites that received the same honors this month, at smithsonianmag.com.

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