C.J. Adrien's Blog, page 19

Powerplay: A Viking Woman’s Triumph Over Her Abusive Husband

A woodcarving from the Saga of Halfdan the Black

Viking women were strong. Their culture allowed them more freedom and social mobility than other societies in their day, and more responsibility was given to them in terms of the ownership and defense of the land. Yet often the women were, like their Christian neighbors, wronged by men; abused by husbands who regarded their wives as trophies in war. But the Vikings have many tales cautioning such men from doing harm to women. In particular, the Ynglinga Saga offers a poignant tale of caution in which one woman triumphed over her husband in a power play worthy of Game of Thrones.

It begins with an ambitious young man named Gudrød (also known as Guthröth) who inherited a petty kingdom in Norway around the turn of the century in 800 A.D. His father, Halfdan the Generous, had been a fair, albeit unassertive ruler who had spent most of his life raiding far-off lands. He died upon returning home from such an expedition from a “malady” and was buried in a mound at a place called Borró. Upon ascending the throne, his son Gudrød began immediately setting into motion his ambitious plans. He first married a girl named Alfhild, daughter of King Alfar of Alfheim. Through this marriage, Gudrød gained control of “half of Vingulmark” which is presumed to be a rather significant swath of land in the Oslofjord. Together they had a child, Olaf, and shortly after his birth Alfhild died. There is no mention as to the facts surrounding her death—perhaps it was another malady, perhaps murder. Gudrød certainly had the motive for murder. No sooner as she had died, he began negotiating with king Harald Granraude (the Red Beard) to marry his daughter, Asa, and in so doing acquire more land in the Oslofjord. Harald refused this offer.

Harald’s refusal gave Gudrød precisely the excuse he needed to initiate war with his neighbors. He attacked King Harald in a surprise assault at night and killed both Harald and his son Gyrd. He kidnapped Asa, forced her into marriage, and within a short time they had a son named Halfdan (later to be know as Halfdan the Black, who father Harald Fairhair, first king of Norway), who was presumably the product of repeated raping. But the new queen was displeased with her treatment with her new husband. In fact, she hated him for what he had done.

During an evening banquet at a neighboring farm, Gudrød drank himself into a stupor and stumbled to the edge of the water in the fjord to relieve himself. He was struck through the chest with a lance and “stumbling fell by Stiflu Sound.” When his men investigated the murder, they found it had been committed by Asa’s servant, and when asked about her involvement she, “did [not] conceal that is was done at her instigation.”

Gudrød’s men could not by law exact revenge on Asa, for she had not done the act of killing her husband. The servant, it is written, was killed on the spot. Asa returned to her father’s lands to raise her son and established herself as the ruler of those lands. Gudrød’s eldest son, Olaf, managed Gudrød’s lands until Halfdan came of age.

In the end, Asa triumphed over her husband. She had him killed with no consequence to herself, and lived in peace as ruler in her native lands. She raised a son who later consolidated his father’s lands as well as defeated his brother’s enemies to create a unified kingdom of Vestfold.

Asa’s power play is a central plot element in the novel The Line of His People.

For more on the Ynglinga Saga, you can read it HERE.

Shield Maidens: A Modern Fantasy?

Recently I’ve read a slough of articles from various sites stating that shield maidens were much more common than previously thought. Their arguments are based on not-so-recent findings using genetic testing correlated with archeological and textual evidence. Some articles go so far as to claim that shield maidens comprised up to 50% of those who left Scandinavia in search of raiding lands. What I see arising is a new mythology surrounding the shield maiden, one based in wishful thinking, but not based on an apt interpretation of new research.

First, the evidence: several recent articles shared around social media have sited THIS ARTICLE as the basis for their claims. In it, researchers found that up to 50% of Scandinavian migrants (not warriors) were women. From this article, however, many are seeing a fantastical revelation—they are seeing shield maidens. Unfortunately, the fact that genetic tests have revealed half of Norse migrants were female does not automatically or intrinsically indicate that these women were warriors by trade. All it really means is that when the Norse set out to colonize new lands, they recognized the need to bring a viable breeding population for the settlement to survive.

Contrary to the popularized notion that the Vikings raped their way through Europe, they likely would have been culturally disinclined to interbreed with indigenous populations of the new lands they settled. Certainly there was interbreeding going on—particularly in England where predominantly (if not entirely) male  armies fulfilled their carnal desires on helpless women they captured. But in areas such as Dublin, Wessex, Cork, Limerick, Normandy, Iceland, even Scotland, Norse settlers, in my opinion, would have preferred their own women to any others for the purpose of colonization. Indigenous populations likewise would have not been inclined to intermix with settlers. On a similar note, Men were not the only victims of the changing climate, political strife, and upheavals that launched the Viking Age. Therefore, those who sought to leave and build new homes in new lands did so as a community of settlers rather than a raggedy band of marauders who simply refused to leave.

So, how common were shield maidens? The simple answer is we do not know. No one knows, and no one is entirely certain if shield maidens were an actual phenomena of the time, or instead the invention of the 12th and 13th century writings about them (specifically in the sagas by Snorri), and later the fantastical creation of the 19th Century’s romantic movement. There were no doubt brave Norse women, as there have been brave women in every culture in history. But I do not think, based on all the research that I have done, that the Vikings would have sent many women into battle considering their value to the community (i.e. procreation). Another factor that is often overlooked in today’s society is sexual dimorphism. This poses a tremendous problem to the idea that Norse women readily participated in raiding and major battles. By the end of puberty, a male human will (on average) possess twice the strength of a female human. This fact would have made warfare—especially hand to hand combat—a most precarious and dangerous venture for women of the day. In today’s world, with our advances in technology and weaponry, women can for the first time in history participate in major conflicts as soldiers. But prior to these advances, and prior to the very recent movement for women’s equality, the world was undeniably patriarchal, even in Pagan Scandinavia.

Therefore, to think that Norse women were actively engaged in warfare is, for now, a fantasy. Sure, there were likely exceptions to the rule, and I’ve written about them before, but to believe that half of all Viking warriors were women is not good history. It’s fiction.

Enjoy reading about the Vikings? Buy my novel:

The Greatest Viking

There are many famed warriors from the Viking Age who lived up successfully to the the reputation of their people, but perhaps none so much as Hastein, supposed son of Ragnar Lodbrok (but not likely), and scourge of the Somme and Loire. His life was lived for adventure, and although he did not carve out large swaths of territory for himself as some others had done, he built an enduring reputation for himself as a man of great prowess, largesse, and cunning.

Hastein’s story begins, as many in the Viking Age do, ambiguously. We do not know for certain who his parents were, although it is suggested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that he was a son of Ragnar Lodbrok. The Chronicle also suggests that he was a Dane, although that too is difficult to verify. His first raid of notoriety was that of the sack of Nantes in 843 A.D. in which he is named in the Annales D’Angoulême as being among the Vestfaldingi, or men of Vestfold. The sack of Nantes was a cataclysmic event which sent ripples throughout the Frankish Empire and marked the beginning of more aggressive Norse incursions.

Hastein was still a young man at this time, and raided with other companies for several years thereafter until he was able to put together his own expedition to explore lands not previously explored by his kin. In 859 with the help of Bjorn Ironside, another supposed son of Ragnar Lodbrok—although the two are not associated as brothers in primary sources—Hastein sailed to Spain where he hoped to gain fame and fortune pillaging the Moors. At first the expedition did not bode well. The Asturians of Northern Spain successfully fought them off, forcing the expedition to continue southward without any loot. They successfully pillaged coastal settlements until they sacked Cordoba, then continued into the Mediterranean Basin.

Hastein was of course ambitious and sought to sack Rome itself. Unfortunately, the walls of the city were too tall and well fortified. Thus he hatched one of the more notorious plans to take the city by creating a ruse to trick the “naïve” Christians. They arrived at the city and sent a messenger to inform the bishop that their leader had been mortally wounded and, in his dying moments, wished to be baptized so that he may reach salvation. The bishop took pity on him and organized the ceremony. A day later, the Norsemen returned to the city to inform the bishop that their chieftain had died, and that he had requested to be buried in the city. Again, the bishop took pity on them and organized the funeral. Hastein’s body was placed on a bier and carried by his men into the city. A gathering of noblemen and clergymen joined them to begin the ceremony when Hastein rose from the dead, snatched the sword beside him, and cut down the bishop. His men of course followed suit and slaughtered the Christians.

The ruse had proved successful and the Vikings under Hastein loaded their ships with loot, proud that they had sacked the famed city of Rome. Yet as they sailed from the city, they realized they had made a navigational error. The city they had sacked was not Rome, but rather the smaller city of Luna some two hundred miles north of their intended target. Nevertheless, their ships were filled to the brim with plunder, so Hastein ordered a return to his base on the Loire. As they attempted to sail past Gilbraltar however, the Moors intercepted them with a fleet of ships, destroying a significant portion of Hastein’s fleet. The chieftain survived and returned to his base on the island of Herius (today called Noirmoutier) with twenty ships, a mere third of the ships he had departed with three years earlier.

This Mediterranean voyage lives in infamy as one of the most ambitious and creative expeditions in Viking history. Hastein went on to have a successful career as the scourge of the Somme and Loire rivers, helped to establish the kingdom of Normandy, slew Robert the Strong in the wars of Brittany, and even fought as an opponent of Alfred the Great as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He eventually disappeared from history around 896 A.D. The conditions surrounding his death remain a mystery. Nevertheless, he left his mark on the world he lived in, and might be considered the most archetypal example of a Viking chieftain and warlord, and perhaps the greatest Viking of them all.

The Most Interesting Viking You’ve Never Heard Of

The man considered to have been the first king of Norway, Harald Fairhair, would likely not have succeeded in his rise to power if not for a powerful warlord from northern Norway in the district of Lade. The only source we have for this man is the Heimskringla, but enough information is contained therein to inform us that the men from Lade played an important part in Harald’s rise to Norwegian hegemony. Håkon Grjotgarson, also known as Håkon the rich, helped Harald in many engagements by providing men and money.

The ties between the two men had not been so certain in years prior. Lade was a populous region and had Håkon decided to rally the other leaders in neighboring lands, Harald might not have had the resources or the manpower to overcome them. But as fate would have it, the Earl of Lade chose to offer his allegiance to Harald. As part of the alliance, Håkon was named earl of his district and Harald married Håkon’s daughter Asa. Their alliance swiftly brought the other petty kings of Norway to their knees. Immediately following Håkon’s pledge, Harald won a string of decisive victories and consolidated power, making him the first king of all of Norway.

Why then did Håkon chose to support Harald? The Heimskringla does not say why, but given the political climate of Norway during Harald’s rise to power, it is not too difficult to surmise that Håkon had a great deal to gain in an alliance with him. To stand against the young ruler would have meant years of divisive warfare between Lade and the rest of Norway. With his daughter married to Harald, Håkon’s bloodline would at least carry on in the dynasty, and the ensuing peace meant not having to sacrifice his riches in all out warfare. Additionally, pledging himself outright to the future king would gain him favor in the king’s court, and Håkon likely had a suspicion that Harald would eventually become king whether he stood with or against him.

Read about Håkon in the Heimskringla. (beginning on page 63)

Viking Age Burial Site Yields Two Men Holding Hands

Image Source: The Norway post

Archeologists from the University of Norway Oslo have discovered the skeletal remains of two people holding hands in a burial found 17km from the town of Trondheim in Northwestern Norway earlier this week. Evidence of their gender initially led researchers to conclude that the couple were a man and a woman. Following laboratory tests of several samples, however, it was revealed that both skeletons were those of men. The find has trumped scientists.

“It’s a very odd thing to have discovered, really,” said lead researcher Dr. Ole Grjotgardsson at a press conference in Oslo Monday. “The fact that they’re buried together changes a great deal about what we know in terms of how homosexual couples were regarded by Norse society. These were men of high status, which means that at some level such unions were accepted by certain communities.”

What has confused researchers further is the apparent use of female clothing by one of the two men, leading some to conclude cross-dressing may have also been an existing trend during the Viking Age. The findings are sure to change a great deal of what we know about Norse society during the period, shattering certain pre-conceived notions held by historians and archeologists. Among the finds are the usual burial offerings, including sacrificed animals, weapons, and jewelry.

“We’re certainly going to raise a few eyebrows, but we are on the precipice of several interesting discoveries in the near future at this site,” said Dr. Grjotgardsson in his concluding remarks. His findings are to be published later this month in the Journal of Modern Archeology.

April Fool’s!

Taillefer: The Minstrel Who Ended the Viking Age

Battle of Hastings, 1066

The most widely accepted dates to demarcate the Viking Age are its beginning in 793 A.D. to its end in 1066 A.D. Each date has been carefully chosen to reflect events which historians could agree stood to characterize a new trend in the socio-political fabric of Europe of the day.

The Beginning

The attack on Lindisfarne in 793 A.D. was by no means the first instance of Norsemen making incursions into Western Europe. Raids had already occurred on the coast of modern day Netherlands, then known as Frisia, and there is even evidence for an attack in England which preceded Lindisfarne. Yet Lindisfarne is the accepted precipice for the Vikings’ continent-wide excursions so famous today because it marked a definite change in both how the people outside Scandinavia viewed the Norsemen, and how the Norsemen interacted with Christendom. At the time, the monastery at Lindisfarne was an academic powerhouse—the oxford of its day. News of its destruction quickly spread throughout Europe’s clergy, alerting the power elite to the new danger presented to them. The Viking Age had begun.

The End

The end of the Viking Age was less an end of an era and more the beginning of a new one. The Norman invasion of England saw the implementation of Norman law, an early prototype of the feudal system of the medieval period. The Normans are also credited with the invention of the Motte-and-Bailey, the base design for the medieval castle. Politically, the Normans established the English monarchy, or at least the monarchy of the England we know today (although their line has since been replaced a few times). Their lands in Normandy and fealty to the house of Capet was the beginning of the many variable oaths of fealty which would dominate the political spectrum of the Middle Ages in France, England, Germany, Italy, even Spain. The battle of Hastings, which led to it all, was the precipice for the historical period we know today as the Middle Ages.

The battle of Hastings itself was an innovation. William of Normandy (or The Conqueror) brought with him an entirely new style of warfare. Against him were the Saxons, formidable warriors steeped in a tradition of heavy infantry fighting. At Hastings, they stood in a tactically sound position atop a hill with their shields interlocked to form a wall. As the Normans marched upon them, victory seemed certain for the defenders. They had no reason to think that the Normans, French speaking Vikings with a similar military tradition, would confront them with anything other than heavy infantry. What they had not anticipated was the large force of heavy cavalry–prototypes of the medieval knight, called Knits–whose presence in addition to their heavy infantry allowed for an unexpected victory. (It should be noted that the defenders had recently fought a battle against the Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, then hastily marched to Hastings. Their fatigue undoubtedly played a role in their defeat as well.)

The Minstrel At the Center of It All

Taillefer, the Norman minstrel, followed beside the Norman troops singing the “Chanson de Roland” to inspire them. When it came to the battle, both sides stared at each other in a standstill. With no one else willing to engage the other, Taillefer took it upon himself to ride forward and perform a juggling act with a lance and a sword. At the end of the act, he hurled the lance into the enemy line, killing one of the defenders. After that, the battle began.

There is no mention of Taillefer in the Bayeux Tapestry, or in many of the sources on the battle we have today, but he is mentioned by such historical figures as Guy D’Amiens, Geoffroy Gaimar, Wace, Robert de Torigni, Benoît de Sainte-Maure and even Henri de Huntingdon, thereby making his existence (and this story) likely.

The battle of Hastings, the event which marks the end of the Viking Age, was thus begun my a minstrel who performed a juggling act.

Further reading:

Faral, Edmond (1964). Les jongleurs en France au Moyen Âge. Champion.

Lawson, M.K. (2002) The Battle of Hastings: 1066. Tempus.

Marren, Peter (2004) 1066: The Battles of York, Stamford Bridge & Hastings. Leo Cooper.

Menegaldo, Silvère (2005). Le jongleur dans la littérature narrative des XIIe et XIIIe siècles : Du personnage au masque. Honoré Champion.

Pre-Viking Brittons ‘Varied’, Study Finds.

A recent genetic study published in the journal Nature has found that before the arrival of the Norse and the Saxons, the Briton or ‘Celt’ populations in the British Isles did not belong to a single, homogenous ethnic group. Researchers have found slight genetic variances in non-Saxon populations which indicate that the Britons were not one people, but instead were comprised of many sub-groups. This find reinforces a proposed theory that Britons self-identified as ‘Celts’ more in the national sense rather than as an ethnic group; not unlike self-identifying as British today regardless of ethnicity.

While some have questioned the finds of the researchers, the genetic tests confirmed previously well understood genetic origins of the U.K. Among the finds, over one quarter of the population derives some genes from the conquests of the Vikings, making them one of the largest ethnic groups to have lent their genetic makeup to the modern Brits.

You can read the study HERE.

Were the Vikings Dirty?

A skaldic verse from Egill Skallagrimson paints the picture of what once was considered the perfect Viking; created impatient from birth, presumptuous, and with a burning desire for a far-off adventure:

“My mother promised me, and soon she will buy me, a vessel and oars, to leave to distant lands with the Vikings…and to strike and fight.”

These early explorers are today remembered as brave, rustic men with long beards and flowing hair.  As historians of the 19th century would have it, the Vikings were uncivilized in their pre-Christian culture, thus making them unclean.  The notion of the Romantic Savage prevailed until well into the latter half of the 20th century, and arguably remains part of popular culture’s view of the Vikings.  What most people do not know, however, is that grooming was a central feature in Viking Age Scandinavian culture.

The Arab chronicler Ibn Fadlan, who encountered the Rus along the Volga River, described them exactly as we might expect: dirty. He wrote:

“Every day they must wash their faces and heads and this they do in the dirtiest and filthiest fashion possible: to wit, every morning a girl servant brings a great basin of water; she offers this to her master and he washes his hands and face and his hair — he washes it and combs it out with a comb in the water; then he blows his nose and spits into the basin. When he has finished, the servant carries the basin to the next person, who does likewise. She carries the basin thus to all the household in turn, and each blows his nose, spits, and washes his face and hair in it.”

In interpreting this passage, we must consider the cultural lens from which the Arab chronicler wrote. In Bagdad, his home, Ibn Fadlan was a writter. His position earned him a high place in society, and he considered himself an above average figure. Arab society at the time — especially among the elites — prided itself on cleanliness. In fact, their fixation with cleanliness and elaborate costuming was heavily chastised by their Christian Byzantine neighbors for being vain.  It is then not surprising that Ibn Fadlan would consider the Rus as dirty, but he did help us in understanding their customs by describing a few of their grooming habits. We learn from his writings that they practiced some form of grooming at least once a day. This is a stark contrast to the popular conception of the Vikings being dirt clad savages.

The grooming began with combing of the hair and beards. They rinsed their mouths and faces with fresh water from the river (although, it was shared). If read in the proper context, Ibn Fadlan’s account provides us with a fantastic insight into how the Vikings viewed and practiced grooming.  They were, in fact, quite clean for the times. Although the Rus are one among many different tribes of Scandinavians, it can be deduced that many of the Vikings had similar grooming practices. For example, in what is modern day Finland, archeologists have found and dated Viking Age saunas used to bathe. It is surmised that many villages across Scandinavia would have known how to build and use saunas for cleansing.  There is even evidence that saunas were built in the new world settlements as well, which hints heavily as to the importance of cleanliness in Viking culture.

Other sources allude to the bathing rituals of the Vikings, including one John of Wallingford, prior of Saint Fridswise. In his writings he expressed discontentment with the Northmen who combed their hair, bathed every Saturday, and changed their clothes regularly. How then did Vikings earn a reputation for uncleanliness? Several theories exist to answer this question, but the most convincing is the theory of negative propaganda.  Most of what we know about the Vikings is still taken from what was written about them. The only people capable of writing anything of substance at the time were priests (such as our friend John) who were the Vikings’ preferred victims. It must be recognized that the Christians of the time avoided bathing specifically because they considered too much cleanliness to be a sign of vanity, which was sin. Thus the infamous smelliness of the medieval period began. Not until the christianization of Scandinavia did the people from that region stop grooming as extensively as they had previously done.

Were the Vikings dirty? I suppose by today’s standards they would not appear as clean as, say, a person who showers and shampoos every day; but for the times, they appear to have been the cleanest of the European cultures.

Further reading:

On Ibn Fadlan:

Frye, Richard N. (2005) Ibn Fadlan’s Journey to Russia: A Tenth-Century Traveler from Baghdad to the Volga River. Princeton: Marcus Weiner Publishers.

Flowers, Stephen E. (1998) Ibn Fadlan’s Travel-Report: As It Concerns the Scandinavian Rüs. Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven.

On saunas in the Viking Age:

Nordskog, M., Hautala, A. (2010)The Opposite of Cold-The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition. University of Minnesota Press.

On John of Wallingford:

Vaughan, R. ed. “The Chronicle Attributed to John of Wallingford.”  Camden Miscellany 21 (1958): pp. 1-67.

For more information on cleanliness in the Middle Ages in Europe, read this fun article about how Buddhists and Muslims thought of the Christians as dirty:

http://www.salon.com/2007/11/30/dirt_on_clean/

Why the Vikings?

A personal note from author C.J. Adrien

Beginning at an early age, I took an interest in history–particularly in the medieval period. In college I majored in history and studied Medieval Europe, Medieval Japan, and worked for two years on Ancient Russia. It is in my studies of the Rus, the people who lent their name to the modern day country of Russia, that I happened upon the intrinsically fascinating world of the Vikings. During a trip to visit family in France, my grandparents asked what I was studying at school. When I told them I had begun to research the Viking Age, they casually informed me that our family was partly descended from Norwegians from the time. Initially, I was skeptical. They directed me to my great aunt Nadette who was a school teacher, and had put together a genealogy of the family’s history stemming back to the 1600’s. While impressive, this was in no way indicative of Viking blood existing in the family. Yet she argued that there were no major migrations, exoduses, or major population movements between the time of the Viking settlement (they colonized the region quite heavily), and the earliest record of the name Adrien. Thus, she argued, it is likely we are descended in part from the Vikings.

I was still not entirely convinced, so I decided to research the subject myself. Short of a DNA analysis, I could never be certain, but the subject gripped me. The idea that Vikings–legendarily fearsome warriors who are often little more than a footnote in the history books–had visited the island of Noirmoutier where I had spent nearly every summer of my life was an exciting prospect. Back at school, I continued my studies and became more and more interested in the Vikings as a historical subject. I even put together a research proposal for a doctoral program specifically regarding the history of the Vikings in Noirmoutier, which was tentatively accepted by my university to begin a doctoral program. I withdrew my application however to pursue my other passion: teaching. Instead of continuing in the field of history, I entered a Master’s program to become a school teacher like my role model, my middle school history teacher Mr. Boyd. He inspired my passion for history and I too wanted to inspire the next generation to embrace history (or at least have a marginal interest in it).

I finished my Master’s degree in 2011 and began my new adventure in education. As I worked in my field, I continued to research the subject of the Vikings in Brittany and eventually decided to put all of it to good use. I created a framework for a story using real history, developed characters, and set out at the ripe old age of 23 to write a historical fiction novel for teens and young adults about what could have been my own family history. The intent for the novel The Line of His People was to create a story akin to the historical fiction greats such as Bernard Cornwell and Ken Follett, but write it in such away that it would be engaging and accessible to school children. It is my belief that good young adult historical fiction has the potential to inspire children to want to learn.

Origins of the Word “Viking”