C.J. Adrien's Blog, page 21

The Vikings: Noble Savages, or Not?

Recent scholarship has done much to rescind many of the old paradigms of Norse history, particularly when it comes to their culture and the ideal of the Noble Savage. Historians and archeologists have created a new image of Viking Age Scandinavians, one in which they are clean, civilized, and honorable to a fault. But is this new view of these historical people accurate? Or has the pendulum of our cultural lens swung too far in the opposite direction? The answer is not simple, but there are a few things to consider before we radically change how we view the Vikings and their culture.

First, the word ‘Viking’ has evolved into a word most people use porously to refer to Viking Age Scandinavia as a whole, but the original intention of the word as used by early historians of the 19th Century was to designate a specific portion of the population: those who sailed away from home. The word ‘Viking’ is derived from the Norse word ‘Vikingr’ which translates loosely to sea rover or pirate. Viking Age Scandinavians did not often use this word, nor did they use it to describe themselves. Therefore it is important to make the distinction between those Scandinavians who stayed and those who left because they were generally entirely different people. Those who left we should call Vikings, and those who stayed we should call Scandinavians. With this distinction clear, we can now analyze each population individually to see if the ideal of the Noble Savage applies or not.

In general, the sedentary populations of Scandinavia were not noble savages. They were, in fact, nearly identical to their Northern Germanic counterparts the Saxons and the Angles, except for minor linguistic an cultural differences. From a religious standpoint, they derived their pantheon from the same germanic construct of their neighbors, and their warrior cultures drew many parallels. They were different however insofar as the Scandinavians lived much more on the waters of the Baltic. Particularly true for Norway, settlements only had contact with one another through sea trade because the mountainous terrain between them was much more difficult to travel. It is because of this difference over their northern Germanic cousins that led to their more developed seafaring culture. The scandinavians had extensive fishing fleets, complex agriculture, animal husbandry, and they were not in any way nomadic except for the expansion of settlements across the Northern territories. They were certainly not savages as the Christians deemed them at the time. In fact, their society was in many ways more advanced than their Christian counterparts whose only real advantage was a well developed written language. That is not to say Scandinavians at the time did not write—runes are evidence of a complex written system, but how prolific or universal it was across the populations of the time is still unknown. In any case, the Scandinavians of the Viking Age were not the noble savages they were depicted as in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Vikings, or Sea Rovers, left the North in search of new lands in a massive exodus that endured nearly three centuries. Initially, the lands they visited were lands they explored to trade. It was not until Christendom barred trade with non-Christians that these voyages turned violent. Due to the harsher weather conditions of Scandinavia, and particularly due to the short growing season, Scandinavians slowly became reliant on trade with the south to sustain their population. With this trade removed, they were forced to seek out what they needed by force. Raids began in Frisia, immediately south of Denmark, and expanded from there. What made the Vikings different from their Scandinavian homes was that they valued their warrior culture above all as it was necessary to carry out their new missions in foreign lands. The warrior culture was not new, but it certainly expanded and changed over the course of the 9th and 10th Centuries. Due to this, the depiction of them by the Christians they attacked resembled the ideal of the Noble Savage much more than the Scandinavians who remained up north. But, this does not mean that they were noble savages. Where they travelled they learned new skills, spread their own culture, and eventually integrated into the societies they had previously sought to conquer. One prominent example of this is Normandy where Vikings signed an agreement with the king Charles the Bald who granted them land rights. Those Vikings who settled Normandy christianized and developed a new advanced culture who would become the best example of western civilization of its time. The Vikings did more to ‘civilize’ Christendom than Christendom did to ‘civilize’ the Vikings. Therefore, the ideal of the Noble Savage when applied to the Vikings is totally wrong.

Has the pendulum swung too far in the other direction? No, it arguably has not swung far enough. Too often the Vikings are seen as a force of destruction in their world when in fact they were no more violent or vicious than any other cultures of the time. It was an age of violence. The last ten years have seen tremendous advances in our knowledge of the people we know today as the Vikings, and that knowledge is expanded upon every day. We are seeing the emergence of a much more complex and advanced civilization than previously thought, one which was nearly wiped out after the Christians converted Scandinavia. Only now with new discoveries and advances in technology are we discovering the true identity of the Vikings.

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The Vikings in…Georgia?

No, the Vikings did not venture as far as the southern state of Georgia in the United States. Georgia in this case refers to the country of Georgia on the coast of the Black Sea wedged between the countries of Russia and Azerbaijan. Still, when one thinks of this small country and its history, the Vikings are not the first historical people to come to mind. Nevertheless the Vikings had a great deal to do with the development of the nation-state that would become Georgia, as well as the political landscape of the entire Eastern Caucasus region, including the Caspian Sea.

Varangian trade routes Circa 9th Century. Click to expand.

As early as the mid 9th Century, Viking explorers known as the Varangians (also known as the Rus’) sailed up the Volga and Dnieper rivers toward the East. They established numerous trade routes from Sweden to Byzantium (Turkey), and even to the Caliphates in the Middle East. One of their trade routes took them directly through lands situated in modern day Georgia. At first these foreign explorers were well received for their lucrative trade goods, but this did not last long. The ambitious leaders of the Rus’ who required fame in battle and large amounts of wealth to maintain legitimacy to their leadership and titles began to plunder the lands of the Slavs, the Khazars, and the Byzantines. Georgia at this time was occupied by the large and influential empire of the Khazars who had classically maintained dodgy relations with the Byzantines. The arrival of the Rus’ initially unified the rulers of these empires to repel them, but the early successes of the Northmen forced a wedge between their diplomatic relations, creating new conflicts which allowed the Rus’ to sail unabated through their lands. Because the Rus’ were so successful in raiding and plundering the lands of the Khazars, the empire began to lose integrity. Small kingdoms under their dominion began to rise up out of fear that their overlords were powerless to stop the Rus’.

Khazar Empire up to 850 A.D. Click to expand.

To abate this loss of control, the leaders of the Khazars fragmented their empire and placed friendly monarchs on the thrones of each territory. Thus, in 888 A.D. as the Vikings were sacking the capitals of Europe, a new monarchy emerged in Georgia: the Bagrationi Dynasty. The politically fragmented empire of the Khazars then came under attack from other nomadic peoples from the East. The combined pressures of both fronts, against the Rus’ and the Seljiuk tribes, caused a complete collapse by the 11th Century. Once the empire of the Khazars collapsed, the Bagrationi dynasty was able to maintain autonomy from the Byzantines as well as the Seljiuk tribes for two centuries in what is considered a “Golden Age” for Georgia. Unfortunately, a new menace led to their demise. The Mongol invasions in the early 13th Century saw the obliteration of the kingdom.

What does this all mean? How can all this information be digested into an easy-to-explain dinner party blurb? Georgia owes its existence to the Vikings. That’s a bold statement, and a complex one to support in any academic discourse. But, it is a safe one to use because in fact the Vikings created the conditions which allowed the historic monarchy of Georgia to be restored when it was well on its way to being snuffed out of history. The Khazars were content in allowing the Bagrationi dynasty to disappear, but the Rus’ ensured their survival by destabilizing the empire. They reestablished monarchy flourished for two hundred years, allowing the people of the kingdom to develop their own sense of identity, language, and culture free from the influences of a dominating (and predominantly Muslim) empire.

Sources:

Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (1980). Burke’s Royal Families of the World: Volume II Africa & the Middle East.

Moss, Walter (2002). A History of Russia: To 1917. Anthem Russian and Slavonic studies. Anthem Press.

Noonan, Thomas S. (1999). European Russia c500-c1050. The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. Cambridge University Press.

Shepard, Jonathan (2006). Closer Encounters with the Byzantine World: The Rus at the Straits of Kerch. Cambridge University Press.

Verlag, Otto Harrassowitz. Pre-modern Russia and its world: Essays in Honour of Thomas S. Noonan. Cambridge University Press.

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5 Questions Viking History Experts Hear Every Day (and answer).

Vikings are cool. We can all admit it. They sailed on ships with dragon heads and terrorized villages and monasteries for two centuries, and are revered as fearsome warriors characterized as “Noble Savages.” Because of their popularity, folks always seem curious and full of questions when they meet someone who knows a great deal about them. The following are five questions Vikings History experts hear without fail at every dinner party they ever attend.

1. Why did the Vikings wear horns?

They didn’t. The horns on the helmet are an invention of a 19th century costume designer named Carl Doepler who wanted his “Vikings” to appear more barbaric during the 1876 Berlin staging of Richard Wagner’s opera The Ring of the Nibelung (the most famous song being Flight of the Valkyries). Unfortunately, the horns stuck, and here we are today answering this question.

2. Did the Vikings call themselves Vikings?

No. The word “Viking” is a derivation of the old Norse word “Vikingr” which literally means “Sea-Rover.” It was used during the 19th century by historians to describe the Scandinavian raiders of the early medieval period, but of course once it got out into the general public the word came to signify all Scandinavian peoples of that era. In reality, the Vikings would have called themselves after their home region. For example, the Annales D’Angoulême mention a group who attacked Nantes in 843 C.E. as referring to themselves as Vestfaldingi, or Men of Vestfold (a region in Norway).

3. What made them so cruel?

They lived in an age of violence. The Christians they attacked were no more peaceful than they. In fact, it was not uncommon for high ranking church officials to hire mercenary armies to attack noblemen who owed them money (which was often the case). Charlemagne, the most powerful ruler of the Christian world at the outset of the Viking Age, was notorious for massacring non-Chritians mercilessly. There is even a case where he captured some 3000 pagan Saxons and forcibly baptized them in the Elbe river where he ordered his men to drown them. The Vikings were not the only raiders of this time either. In the East, the Slavs frequently raided the land of Louis the German, and in the West the Bretons frequently raided across the Breton March in Brittany. So in reality, they were no more cruel than those they attacked.

4. Weren’t the Vikings really dirty?

Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings were cleaner than their Christian counterparts. The Middle Ages got its stinky reputation from the fact that Christianity viewed bathing as a sign of vanity, and therefore sin. There is a great quote from a French monk who said, “the more pious we are, the more we stink.” Before the Christianization of Scandinavia, it was culturally dictated that one should bathe at least once per week. Archeological finds have revealed a wealth of grooming items as well, which have indicated that the Vikings took personal hygiene and grooming very seriously. So in reality, the Vikings were clean, whereas the people they attacked stunk. Perhaps this explains why they slaughtered priests so easily–they thought they were infected with a pestilence.

5. Who is you favorite Viking god?

My favorite NORSE DEITY is Freyir, god of the hunt, war, and sex. He liked to eat meat, whoop ass, and romp. That’s my kind of guy. And he was very popular during the Viking Age for the same reason. He is often depicted as a statue with an erect phallus, which is both symbolic of how he was viewed by the Vikings, and good for a laugh among historians.

Personally, I am overjoyed that there is a renewed interest in the Vikings and I do not mind answering any questions about them in the least. I hope other Viking History experts feel the same. We have learned more about the Vikings in the last 20 years of research than in the previous two centuries of studies combined, and the discoveries are only increasing. It is an exciting field of history to be in, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

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Viking Berserkers: Fact vs Fiction

You have raised your shield and interlocked with your friends. From behind it you peer across the battlefield on a cold, foggy day looking for the enemy. From the unseen depths of the mist you hear the howls of enraged men, driven mad before battle. Then you see them. A horde of bellicose warriors in wolf’s clothing charging with little armor and large two handed weapons aimed at your head. In fear you cower behind your shield with the hopes the shield wall holds in the face of this frightful enemy. You are a Saxon warrior who has mustered at your king’s command to fight, but the aggression of the Northman Berserkers was too great. The stories of their resistance to fire and imperviousness to sharpened blades has made you tremble like a leaf. To save your own skin, you break and run as the limbs and heads of your allies are cleaved in the whirlwind of the enemy’s charge.

Fact or Fiction: Did the Berserkers really exist?

Fact. Berserkers, their name named derived from the Old Norse for “wearing of bear clothing,” would have been a frightful spectacle, if everything said about them in the sagas is to be believed. Outside of the many sagas in which they appear, they are seldom mentioned by Christian sources, except in the case of Harald Fairhair who used them as shock troops during battle. There is enough textual evidence to conclude that an elite force of warriors known as Berserkers did in fact exist and helped to shape the geo-political landscape of their day.

Fact or Fiction: Berserkers ingested drugs to induce their psychotic state.

Fiction. While there is a theory that they may have consumed psychedelic mushrooms to induce their transformation of behavior, the only mushrooms available to them with such properties would have been lethal in the doses required to “go berserk.” Instead, it is more widely accepted that Berserkers consumed copious amounts of alcohol and participated in a semi-religious ritual to evoke the mental transformation of the warriors into a state of hyperarousal.

Fact or Fiction: Berserkers wore wolf skins into battle.

Fact. Most attestations make mention of their wolf or bear skin clothing which was used during their ritual preparation for battle as the symbol for their transformation. It is surmised that they sought to become the animal which they wore to take on its beastly aggression. The skin would have also been an unusual form of battle regalia, and would have lent to their intimidating appearance. Berserkers would have relied heavily on their reputation to instill fear in their enemy, a kind of psychological warfare often used in antiquity.

Fact of Fiction: Berserkers were impervious to fire and edged weapons.

Fiction. While their frenzied state may have been truthful, the practical application of the name Berserker would have been used in most contexts as a means to deter an enemy or to describe their own ferocity. Although attestations describe them as having the ability to devour hot coals and chew through iron shields, it is not likely they would have truly possessed such powers.

Despite much of their reputation being embellished and exaggerated, the Berserkers were fearsome warriors in their day. Their rituals made them transform into ravenous beasts capable of causing significant damage to their enemy. We do not know exactly how this would have looked, especially since the sagas tend to be magical in their descriptions of them, but we do know for sure that they existed, that they scared the living daylight out of their enemy, and that they were used precisely because of their prowess by certain monarchs. So dangerous were they that the Jarl Eirik Hakonarson of Norway outlawed them in 1015 for fear that they might lose their minds and turn on their leaders.

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5 Must-Do’s for Viking Lovers

If you love the vikings, here are the five must-do’s you must add to your bucket list. (Click the pictures for more information on each place on their own site)

5. L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada

This groundbreaking site in the Americas continues to provide new and fascinating evidence in the lives of the Norse Settlers who lived there. Today you can find a recreation of a longhouse in the same dimensions and using the same materials found in excavations. This is certainly a must-see spot for any lover of Viking history.

4. Puy du Fou, France

This historical theme park features a one of a kind show about the Vikings. Although they stray into fantasy (it is after all a show), the choreography and costumes will have you entertained to the end. If you want to see a Viking raid live with fire and explosions, this is the place to go.

3. Lofotr Viking Museum, Norway

Nestled in the fjords of northern Norway, this museum offers a state of the art recreation Longhall fit for the kings of old set among the background of beautiful Norway. If the countryside and recreation village aren’t enough, take a tour of the fjords on a professionally sailed Longship to feel the wind in your hair and the salt on your face.

2. Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark

Learn everything there is to know about Viking ships through an array of captivating exhibits. The museum also hosts guest exhibits and even offers sailing lessons so that you can learn how to sail a Longship. Think you have what it takes to sail one? Try your metal at Roskilde.

1. Jorvik Viking Festival in York, England

This is the big show in the Viking world. Their festival trumps all others, boasting hundreds of reenactors dressed in historically accurate garb, a reenactment village where one can watch true artisans creating a variety of crafts, longships to ride, and an overall complete Viking atmosphere that is an envy to museums across the globe. The Jorvik Viking Festival is everything a viking lover could ever want.

There are of course several other Viking centers of note, all of which are not featured in this list but worth a look, including the museum in Oslo. Enjoy!

5 Signs You Might Be a Viking

In a previous blog, I discussed the propensity for various populations to have a smudge of Viking blood. But to be a Viking is a way of life, not a strict genetic affiliation. The Vikings recruited among the people they visited and often brought those people back North with them. Thus, anyone can potentially be a Viking, and the following five signs may indicate that you are one.

5. On occasion, you drink in the morning.

In the Dark Ages, water was often putrid and undrinkable. Although they did not know about germs specifically, the Vikings knew that when they mixed a little mead with whatever they were drinking, they were less likely to run off to the cesspit with dysentery. This led to a wonderful phenomena called morning drinking. While morning drinking is no longer a necessity, it remains a culturally Viking behavior.

4. You can sleep through ANYTHING.

Life was difficult on the open sea, and longships weren’t known as luxury cruise lines. Only the most rugged survived long voyages for their ability to sleep anywhere and through anything to be able to get good rest. They also didn’t worry too much about anything while sleeping. In fact, the Vikings had a saying about sleep:  “A fool is he who lets his troubles keep him awake at night, for he will be too tired to fix them the next day.”

3. No matter where you live, you yearn for the sea.

The Vikings lived and died by the sea. Although some travelled up rivers into mountainous areas, their roots originated on the waves of the great big blue. The salty spray from the ocean is familiar to Vikings, and something they miss if kept away too long.

2. You have built your own shield.

To an experienced warrior, shield building is an elementary skill. While essential in combat, Viking shields were light and disposable, and often broke after one use. Warriors had to build many shields over their lifetime (if they were any good at fighting), and building a shield was a necessary skill taught to young warriors to make them self sufficient. Building a shield also demonstrates a propensity for craftsmanship, a trait the Vikings possessed which allowed them to build their ships, arms, and tools.

1. You love to travel and learn (and acquire new things).

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.” If you don’t like to travel, you are not a Viking.

10 of the Most Influential Rulers of the Dark Ages.

This list is not exhaustive. It is intended to introduce prolific rulers of the Dark Ages to readers who then may feel inspired to research these important characters of history further and on their own.

10. Nominoë

Nominoe’s Vow, a Victorian illustration to a ballad about Nominoe in Barzaz Breiz in which he vows vengeance on the Franks for killing a Breton emissary

An early Duke of Brittany, Nominoë revolted against the Frankish Empire successfully while cunningly allying himself with the Danish invasions of Normandy. Brittany would retain its independence from the French crown for more than five hundred years thereafter.

9. Totila

Leader of the Ostrogoths in the 6th Century, he successfully turned the tide of war against the Byzantine Empire who at the time had reclaimed a significant portion of the former Roman Empire. His skill as a tactician and as a politician earned him great renown with all the other German tribes.

8. Oleg of Novgorod

Although never the official ruler, he sat upon the throne of Novgorod as regent until the heir apparent was old and wise enough to rule. Oleg moved the capital of the Principality of Novgorod to Kiev and consolidated royal power for the Varangians over the Slavs, and is considered the architect of the later Russian Dynasty.

7. Harald Bluetooth

This king of Denmark consolidated power in a formerly divided territory and influenced the development of several other kingdoms including Sweden, Norway, England, and Normandy. His legacy is mixed as he was defeated later in his reign, but his influence on the politics of Northern Europe helped to shape that region into what it became in the Medieval period.

6. Charles Martel

Charles’ legacy remains one of the greatest in European history. It is he and his army who stopped the Islamic army from invading Europe at the battle of Tours (which was actually closer to Poitiers). He was one of the most successful Frankish rulers of the time whose family would reshape Europe.

5. Alfred the Great

At the height of his power, Alfred was the most powerful man in Britain. His successful resistance to the Vikings earned him political favors among neighboring kingdoms. His military genius was renown, and he presided over the most advanced intellectual centers in Christendom of the day.

4. Clovis

The first to unite the Frankish tribes, Clovis carved out a kingdom in the former Roman province of Gaul in the vacuum following the collapse of the Roman Empire. His military genius was unmatched in his life. He is most remembered for his early conversion to Christianity which allowed Christendom to expand and flourish further north. Without his influence, Christianity may have died out in many parts of Europe.

3. Tariq ibn Ziyad

This early Muslim ruler conquered the Christian Visigothic kingdoms of Iberia and saw the expansion of Islam reach the feet of the Pyrenees. He was a keen strategist, and instituted a system of governance in Cordoba that endured nearly seven hundred years (until the end of the Reconquista in 1492). His legacy is more than visible in Spain today where evidence of his rule is still apparent in the culture, architecture, and some linguistic vestiges as well.

2. Justinian I

Ruler of the Byzantine Empire (formerly known as the Eastern Roman Empire) in the 6th Century, Justinian had ambitions to reestablish the Roman Empire to its former glory. His numerous successful military campaigns saw his power reach as far as Carthage in North Africa and Rome in Italy. His exploits would likely have been successful, and he might have reconquered all formerly Roman lands if not for the awful luck of having had the Bubonic Plague infest his capital city. Justinian himself died from it.

1. Charlemagne

No doubt the most famous ruler of the Dark Ages, Charlemagne conquered the largest amount of territory in Europe since the Roman Empire. He instituted a strict law code across his lands and formed a new, more efficient type of hierarchy to rule over his lands which would later become the model for Feudalism. His armies carried with them more than just weapons as well. Charlemagne saw himself as a messenger of God and forced the people he conquered to convert. He is also credited as having invented public education, but of course this was reserved for the upper classes and not the peasantry. So important was he that the knights of the High Middle Ages legitimized their claim to the nobility by tracing their ancestry back to Charlemagne. If a knight could not trace his family tree back to Charlemagne, he was not considered nobility and was barred from being eligible to be a knight. It must be noted that most of these ancestral claims were fictitious and were frequently fabricated…at a price.

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The Top 10 Most Notorious Warlords of the Viking Age

This list is not of legendary warriors from myth (such as Ragnar Lodbrok), but of the true, historically verifiable men who lived during the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries.

10. Gudrod the Hunter

This petty king from Vingulmark (in the Oslo Fjord) conquered all his neighbors with ruthless determination. He is the father of the famed Halfdan the Black, and grandfather to Harald Fairhair, the first ‘King of Norway.’

9. Rurik, Prince of Novgorod

Rurik is credited as having founded the city-state of Novgorod and as having begun the Varangian dynasty which ruled over Kievan Rus (modern day Ukraine). His seizure of lands in the 9th century made his personal fiefdom one of the largest in land area of the time. His people’s reputation of unmatched prowess earned them an invitation to fight as mercenaries for the Byzantines, and were aptly named the Varangian Guard.

8. Harald-Klak

As a rival claimant to the throne of Jutland (Denmark), this warlord converted to Christianity in the early 9th century to rally the support of the Franks for his claim. His rival King Horik eventually conceded to Harald and split the rulership of Jutland so that there could be two kings at once. Harald was then given the title of king of Jutland, and was able to travel to far-off lands to raid at his leisure. Harald-Klak is thought to have travelled as far as North Africa during his exploits.

7. Guthrum, King of Danelaw

Guthrum began his career as a mercenary who fought in the British Isles. With an understanding of the political structure of kingdoms there, he led the invasions of East Anglia by the Danes and through force of brawn carved out the territory we know today as Danelaw. Though he was eventually defeated, his reign was on marked by brutality and relentless expansion.

6. Bjorn Ironside

Son of the legendary king Ragnar Lodbrok, he gained tremendous wealth through raids and Danegeld payments in France and Britain. He eventually became a king in Sweden. He is considered semi-legendary because most of what we know of him comes from various Sagas, but his name and reputation are verified by clerical sources from the 9th century, indicating a flesh-and-blood man who had a successful career in raiding.

5. Turgeis

A prominent figure in Irish history, Turgeis had a successful raiding career before founding Dublin, and in doing so beginning the Viking invasions of Ireland. His reputation was one of fear and trepidation for all who stood in his wake. Interestingly, he was a learned man who enjoyed learning about new cultures. He even accepted a Moorish diplomat into his court who wrote about him at length, even though he was more under the impression that the diplomat was his wife’s new favorite pet.

4. Olaf the Brash

Olaf was a chieftain from Sweden who conquered Denmark in the early 10th Century. He founded the house of Olaf which would rule over Denmark from then on. Although his reputation is not explicitly stated in the sources about him, his ability to quickly and effectively conquer Denmark—home to several others on this list—is a testament to his prowess.

3. Halfdan the Black

Son of Gudrod the Hunter, Halfdan inherited the throne of Vesfold as a child. His mother Asa (of Osberg ship fame) raised him to be a ruthless ruler. By the age of 17, he had already fought several successful engagements against his neighboring rival Gandalf, who eventually capitulated to the young man’s ambitions. Not only were his military exploits successful, but he also knew how to conduct diplomacy effectively. Through careful negotiations, he added his half-brother Olaf Geirstad-Alf’s lands to his own, making him the first ruler of a united Vingulmark (Oslo fjord). His exploits paved the way for his son Harald Fairhair to unite Norway and become the first recognized king of all of Norway.

2. Hastein

A supposed son of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, Hastein is a verified force of history. He had successful exploits in France, Britain, Spain, and even Italy. He is most famous for his travels to the Mediterranean Basin in which he fought the Moors, the Asturians, the Berbers, among others. He is credited as having used the Island of Noirmoutier as a base to raid the Loire River Valley. Hastein disappeared from history around 896, but by then had earned the reputation of a “lusty and terrifying old warrior of the Loire and the Somme.”

1. Rollo, Duke of Normandy

While perhaps not as adventurous as Hastein, Rollo is the founder of Normandy and its first duke. His ability to win over political rivals (such as the King of France) made him a formidable foe who could not always be dealt with in the simple terms of battle. His descendants became the Dukes of Normandy, the most famous of which was William, the founder of the English crown. Therefore, Rollo has earned this top spot as most notorious Viking because he carved out his place in history forcefully as the father of the Kings of England and Normandy.

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The Allure of the Vikings

The world has produced many civilizations worthy of close study and adoration, but none have done so quite as serendipitously as the Vikings. All curricula of schools of Western countries include some mention of the Vikings, whether it be a small albeit interesting footnote about the Middle Ages, or a more in-depth analysis of their activities in countries such as France and England. Regardless of the depth, the mere mention of them tends to be entrancing to all who first encounter them. This all begs the question: What lends to their appeal?

The answer: The Vikings have classically been the Antagonists of history. Their demise was used as the symbol for the triumph of civilization over the “Noble Savage.”

For most, the Vikings are a mysterious people. Not everyone has the time to study their culture and history in depth. What they know of the Vikings comes from popular culture snippets such as those offered by the History Channel or the BBC. In this light, they are portrayed as a barbaric group who savagely carved their way through Christendom leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The Vikings have thus earned an appeal as frightening figures in history capable of giving a good scare. They make excellent antagonists in fictional stories and their reputation is effective at stirring the emotions of those who see or hear those stories. That is their allure today, as made evident by the plethora of Viking-themed media.

This reputation for bloodlust and violence we have today stems of course from another source. Beginning in the 19th century, historians began to explore the history of the Vikings in more depth. The sources they had to formulate their arguments for the structure of Norse society were primarily the writings and chronicles of Christian writers. These writers did not paint a positive light of the Vikings who often raided monasteries for their riches. This would all have been for naught if the political climate in Western Europe in the 19th Century had been different. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Europeans were in the full swing of their imperial exploits, desiring to achieve wealth and to spread their culture across the globe. As historians produced more works about the Vikings, the people of Europe began to read them, and in doing so began to shape their views of the Vikings through the cultural lens of their time.

Seeing the Vikings as savages from the north, the Christians of the 19th century saw an opportunity to make a historical analogy to the conquests of the day. In America, the European immigrants on the East coast were pushing west as part of their “Manifest Destiny” and encroaching on the lands of the Natives already living there. Similarly, European settlers in Indonesia, Australia, Africa, and South America were attempting to reconcile their bellicose takeovers of their new lands with the decimation of indigenous human populations. Alas, they found their shining example from history which they could use to justify their exploits: the Vikings. In the Vikings they saw savages akin to those they met in far-off lands. Yet despite this dehumanizing categorization of an entire population, they recognized them as having a moral code, or a code of honor. Thus was born the idea of the “Noble Savage.”

The Vikings were savages who threatened the “civilized” peoples of Europe for over a century. In the end they were brought into the fold and converted to Christianity for their own betterment. This was the narrative to be used and applied to encounters with other hostile peoples across the globe. In the United States, the “Noble Savage” ideal was applied to the Plains Indians who to this day are woefully the most overused exemplification of Native Americans whose true cultural complexity is mostly lost on a majority people. As the idea of the Noble Savage proliferated European culture, so did the Vikings. Suddenly, there were books, plays, and even entire symphonies dedicated to the Noble Savages of Scandinavia, not the least being Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Niebelung.” It was in the production of this opera in Berlin in 1889 that the Vikings earned their horns which were an invention of the opera’s prop manager.

Noble Savages were the antagonists to civilization. Their demise was used as the symbol for the triumph of civilization over the “Noble Savage.” Europeans unashamedly considered themselves more civilized than the peoples they encountered across the globe and thought it their duty to bring those people into the fold of their worldview. One need look no further than Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” for evidence of this. The Vikings were used as a metaphor to spread these ideals and to justify them. We now know that the Vikings were not necessarily the bad guys (although they did a lot of bad stuff—but who didn’t in those days?). Historians are increasingly realizing that the true villains during the Viking Age were in fact the “civilized” peoples. There is no truer statement than “history is written by the winners.” This unfortunately is how the Vikings earned their reputation and came to have such an allure to society. Today there is much revision being conducted in the field of Scandinavian history. Their story is being rewritten outside the narrow vision put forth by scholars of the 19th century. Increasingly, people are beginning to view the Vikings less as Noble Savages and more as the complex, culturally rich people they actually were. This same assertion is true for the study of many cultures around the world. It is an exciting time to learn about the Vikings for there seems to be new discoveries every day which are adding to our breadth of knowledge of this previously under-understood people in history. For now, however, the idea of the “Noble Savage” is still the most alluring aspect of them to the majority of people.

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Three Facts You Didn’t Know About the Vikings

Fact 1: In marriage, women were endowed with land ownership.

According to findings, women had defined roles in knitting and cooking, but also in managing thralls (slaves) and running the farm. If a woman’s husband were away for war or raiding, she also took the role of defender of the land and would have taken up arms to defend that land if attacked. Upon a warrior’s death, his land and belongings went to his wife who had no real obligation to remarry and therefore could, if she so pleased, take over her late husband’s role as the head of household. If a warrior and his wife died without a male heir, the land and property would be passed on to the eldest child regardless of gender. The reason the Vikings gave their land to their wives upon their death is because a marriage in Scandinavia was a contract in which both parties entered as equals.  All material possessions were recognized as given to the newlywed wife for protection.

Sources:

- Jochens, Jenny M. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1995.

- Macnamara, Jo Ann and Suzanne Wemple. “The Power of Women through the Family in Medieval Europe, 500-1100.” in Clio’s Consciousness Raised: New Perspectives on the History of Women. eds. Mary Hartman and Lois Banner. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

Fact 2: The Vikings sometimes used ships as roofs in winter.

There is mention in the Russian Primary Chronicle and select other sources that during long stays in the East, the Rus sometimes flipped their ships and used them as the roofs of temporary buildings. This was most common during trade meetings, and they did not stay long. The practice earned them the name of warrior-tradesmen among the Slavs who never knew if the Rus came to trade or raid.

Sources:

- Blöndal, Sigfús. The Varangians of Byzantium. London: Cambridge. 1978.

- Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1976.

- Holthoer, R. Birch-Bark Documents from Novgorod Relating to Finland and Scandinavia. Acta Universitatis Uppsaliensis 19. Uppsala: University of Uppsala. 1981.

Fact 3: The Vikings Nearly caused the utter annihilation of Christianity in Iberia.

When most people think of Spanish history, they tend to remember the Moorish conquests, the reconquista, El Sid, etc… Rarely are the Vikings evoked. However, the Vikings were heavily present in Spain (as well as pretty much everywhere in the known world at that time) and affected the social-political didactic that existed there in the early 9th century. In fact, a Viking raid on Seville in 844 AD, which was under Moorish control, prompted the Caliph of Cordoba to militarize more aggressively. This further militarization put the weak Christian kingdoms in the region of Asturias at risk for disappearing. Luckily for the Asturians, the Vikings continued to attack islamic cities as far as North Africa, which kept the Moors of Spain preoccupied to the south.

Sources:

- Stefansson, Jon, “The Vikings in Spain. From Arabic (Moorish) and Spanish Sources.” In Saga-Book of the Viking Club: Vol. VI Proceedings. University of London King’s College, 1909.

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