Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages

by Dirk Meier, Angus McGeoch (Translator)

The first sailors braved the North Sea and the Baltic in open wooden their aims were varied - to fish, to trade, to conquer and plunder. Without maps or compasses, they steered by the sun or by landmarks on the coast. Nevertheless they discovered Iceland and North America and explored the rivers that flowed through Europe and Russia into the Black Sea. With the Frisians and the Vikings, extensive trade routes, better ships, larger harbours and wealthy coastal towns developed. The pinnacle of these advances was the Hansa, a commercial network that ran from Bruges to Riga. In recent years archaeologists have discovered much about the development of their the elegant Viking longboat, the ubiquitous cog, the carrack and the caravel. Much, too, has been revealed about life in Viking settlements and the bustling Hanseatic cities. In this engaging and highly-illustrated volume, Dirk Meier brings to life the world of the medieval seaman, based on evidence from ship excavations and contemporary accounts of voyages. Dr Dirk Meier teaches ancient and medieval history and is Head of Coastal Archaeology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.

Genres: History, Medieval History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 17, 2006

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

At around page 50 I had almost given up on this book. Bland, uninspiring chapters that did not go an inch beyond simply drumming out events, rambling off names and listing some trade goods. But then, I reached chapters 9 and 10 on the hanseatic league and the Vitalienbrüder privateers. All of a sudden this felt like a totally different book! It suddenly had fire, a passion that severely lacked until then. I still do rate the end result as a text book quality or perhaps a museum shop book to be sold on the cheap though.

What frustrated me immensely is to see such wasted opportunities. While in chapter 9 and 10 the author makes the effort to recreate the life of hanseatic league merchant and how they operated, the early chapters on medieval trade towns and their merchants are so lackluster. While after reading the Hanseatic chapter, I could reasonable form an idea of what the dynamics were of this association and historical entity as well as its inhabitants, I simply can’t do the same for the early medival trade towns such as Dorestadt. Why this is, is due to three reasons.

First is Source material, we simply have less then we would like for northern europe in the period between 600 and 1000. That is a fact and more often then not the sources we do have tend to ignore trade or mention it briefly as a side note. But Dirk Meier does seemingly no effort to do something interesting with what we do have. So many of the towns he desribe read as if one could replace the town name and that’s about it. Small town, a description of layout, a few trade connections, a list of their trade goods and then some hightlights in the history and then it lost its importance, move on to the next. While I do think that Dirk Meier is a more then capable historian when It comes to the later ages it feels as if he was a bit out of his comfortzone here in early medieval europe. He does not seem capable to use archeological evidence (which he does refer to) creatively to reconstruct these communities.

Secondly needless filler or overlong prologue. Why is their a need to add chapters on the Viking attacks on western europe and their exploration in the Atlantic? It feels and reads as forcefully added stuff as if the author was obliged to add it. Like his publisher was like: “I don’t know Dirk, this Hanseatic stuff is great and all but people like vikings a lot more…..” . His interest clearly lies with the growth of trade and the growing influence of merchants, not raids nor norse settlements in Iceland. It adds little to nothing to what is clearly the main event, naimly the Hanseatic league and germanic baltic trade. It was particularly these chapters on vikings in the north sea that feel so lackluster and they reminded me of my high school text book. Brief, dry, shallow rambling of all the highlights and then move on with no lasting impression.

Thirdly the lack of a meaningful or interesting analytical overarching framework. What Frustrates me more then anything in a historical book; is lies and propaganda but second behind that what frustrates me the most is authors that don’t use an overarching framework. One would expect some form of analysis of the hows and why’s from Dorestadt to Lübeck but we really don’t get that. What I want to know is when the shift came from tradetowns springing up and dying out due to fluvial conditions to merchants actively adapting to changing conditions, when we go from raids destroying towns that have to rebuild to cities that enforce protection for their merchants miles at sea. All of it is there but never does Dirk Meier even attempt to tell any of these stories of change. It reads, as I said before, as an overlong prologue but because so much of it focus’s on the north sea it all feels so wasted when the meat of the dish is Baltic sea trade and the Hanseatic league.

When one starts to really compare the chapters this difference in passion becomes crystal clear. Take for example the impact of trade. While in chapter 9 we get insights to the impact of herring fishing and salting on communities in the Baltic, in the earlier chapters trade is often described as thusly: in this town grains, cattle, combs and glassware was traded, a few craftsmen lived here. What does that tell you really? I fail to see what relevance these towns had to their regions or how they differed in style. In chapter 10 on the pirates of the Baltic one learns the double role of Bremen who allowed the pirates to sell their stolen goods on their markets while at the same time pretending to be on the same hanseatic league’s page condemning piracy. This gives a reader a sense of identity, a glimpse If ever so briefly on the dynamics at play how this city tried to position itself in the region and the trade networks. Or better yet, these pirates later bunker down in Visby on Gotland and later make deals with Frisian towns for safe harbors. This would be a perfect time to compare the interactions of the Swedish gotlanders with maritime trade networks in the 9th century with those the 14th and this angle of raid or trade, but no. Neither do we get an appraisal of the change in importance of the Frisians who went from dominating trade in the 6-7th century to providing safe harbors to pirates as a way to attract some revenue from the burgeoning maritime trade. Or heck why not a comparison of how the utilization of raids and seaborne marauders by ambitious political actors differed between the viking age and the hanseatic period, it is right there is it not??

Then there are some little weird things. Race, Dirk Meier used the word race constantly to describe groups of people like Franks and Germans and English and come on this is really outdated is it not? It is used so casually as if it does not mean anything, while it certainly does!! Then there is this weird comment on the Dutch having not yet gained the aptitude for trade, which is an outdated bizarre essentialist notion.

In conclusion the book should have been about the Baltic trade. Trowing out the vikings of the west and expanding the chapters on the Swedish vikings in the lands of the Rus and the early medieval trade towns, I would also add an analytical framework and some connections to times that follow. I can’t help but wonder what the impact of the baltic pirates showing up in Holland and finding refuge there for some time had on the later emergence of the sea beggars and privateering by Dutch sailors in the 15th and 16th centuries. I will look further into the hanseatic league which did fascinate and intrigue me before this book, but these VitalienBrüders I had never heard off and I will definitely keep in mind for the future.

[Damien Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and translated account of seafaring in the Middle Ages, focusing on the North Sea and Baltic regions. More details of ship construction, crew and life on board would have been welcome, but given the lack of literacy this is hardly surprising and the author cannot be held to blame.

A lot of interesting details too: for instance the wheeled cranes that were used to load and unload ships and the progression of seafaring merchants from risk-takers who travelled with their goods to stay-at-home bean-counters who realised it made more sense to employ others to undertake dangerous voyage on their behalf.

A useful overview of nautical life and culture in northern Europe, spanning the Viking Age and taking the reader right up to the early Renaissance.

[Hilmar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein absolut glänzendes Sachbuch!

[Athena Bean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read. I'm on a search for historical references for medieval maritime so I can get a better understanding of lifestyles in hopes of applying that toward my own fantasy writing. This was very interesting, and the writing is not in order of dates like a text book, so it doesn't get boring. The theme is specifically on piracy and early sailing in the Baltic, with only a few references to trading outside of the area. There is a lot of emphasis on how maritime effected communities and lifestyles in the time period, so this book is a great reference in that regard. It is also short, so it is concise for a quick understanding of the period.