The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings

by Lars Brownworth

The fact that the word ‘Viking’ still conjures up that image of blond-haired barbarians leaping off of dragon ships to plunder a monastery – is a testament to the trauma inflicted on Western Christendom during the three hundred years of the Viking Age. It is burned into our collective memory.

Indiscriminate killing was frowned upon, but mercy was not a quality that befitted a warrior. One Icelandic man was apparently mocked as a ‘child-lover’ because he refused to participate in the sport of tossing captured babies into the air and catching them on the point of a spear.9

Women, although by no means equal, probably had greater rights in Viking culture than anywhere in Western Christendom. Many girls married as young as twelve, but when the husband was away, the wife ran every aspect of the home and made all important

decisions.11 If she remained married for twenty years – and either partner could dissolve the union at will – she had a legal right to half of the wealth her husband had accumulated.12 Unlike in the rest of Europe, she could inherit property, divorce her husband, and reclaim her dowery when the marriage ended. Several touching rune stones have been found raised in women’s honor – from the Danish king Gorm the Old who praised his wife as ‘the ornament of Denmark’ to an anonymous carving proclaiming that there was ‘no better housewife than Hassmyra’.13

Where Thor walked – or flew in a chariot pulled by two magical goats – storms followed, and his battles could be seen in the flashes of lightning in the mountains

The man responsible for Hedeby’s growth was a Viking warlord named Godfred. Frankish chronicles called him a ‘king’, but he was less a ruler of Denmark than a ruler in Denmark. Many Danes may have recognized his authority, but there were rival figures with their own halls even in the Jutland peninsula that makes up the bulk of modern Denmark.34

Some believe this pushed out lesser rulers, created tendency for piracy and lead to Viking expansion.

His second wife Aslaug – a woman so beautiful that bakers would let their bread burn while staring at her – was, according to these stories, his equal in cunning. Ragnar, still grieving the death of his first wife, agreed to marry her if she could visit him ‘neither dressed nor undressed, neither fasting nor satisfied, and neither in company nor alone'. She won his heart by appearing naked, but covered by her long hair, having eaten an onion the previous night, and with a sheepdog for company.

Danegeld – literally ‘Danish Money’ – a series of increasingly ineffective bribes by desperate monarchs to get the Vikings to go away. Most of the money to pay for it would be commandeered from the church and then later from the people by means of a special tax. The very people who were bearing the brunt of the Viking attacks were now called upon to pay their tormentor's bribes. To add insult to injury, the Danegeld tended to increase rather than prevent Viking raids, since the offer of protection money simply attracted other Vikings.

off the English coast in a freak storm. The Anglian king Aella of Northumbria, whose lands had been a favorite target of Viking raids, overwhelmed the survivors as they scrambled up the beach, and seized Ragnar. Relishing the opportunity to dispatch his tormentor, the king came up with a unique form of execution. Ragnar was thrown into a pit of vipers and left to die.45 When

"It gladdens me to know that Odin makes ready the benches for a banquet. Soon we shall be drinking ale from the curved horns. The champion who comes into Valhalla does not lament his death. I shall not enter his hall with words of fear upon my lips. The Æsir will welcome me. Death comes without lamenting. Eager am I to depart. The Valkyries summon me home. I laugh as I die." The Thirteenth century Icelandic Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok

Instead of marching out to meet the two kings, he lured them into the city by purposely neglecting a section of the walls. The Anglo-Saxon army poured in, only to find a labyrinth of carefully prepared traps, and confusing dead-ends. In the street fighting that followed, the English were wiped out and both kings were killed. What was left of the royal court fled north to Scotland.

The king had realized that a literate force – or at least an officer corps who could read – would give him an advantage. He couldn't be everywhere at once, so it was vital that he could communicate exact and detailed plans to his underlings. With that in mind he issued a command that all commanders should 'be able to read and write or else surrender their offices of worldly power.'

Alfred

Most of them had no king because they were outlaws of some form or another, looking to carve out a name and some wealth for themselves. They were inspired by plunder, not patriotism or feudal obligations, and were only loosely held together by clan or family ties.

Sviatoslav's head was cut off and made into a drinking cup as a warning to the Rus in any future dealings.156

wounds. On January 6, 1017, Cnut was crowned, becoming the first Viking king of England. Little more than a century after Alfred had defeated the Vikings, his descendants had ceded it all to the Danes.

Cnut was a man caught between two worlds. He was too Christian to be immortalized by the pagan skalds, and too pagan to serve

as a Christian hero. In many ways, the greatest of the Viking sea-kings wasn't really a Viking at all.

Cnut's ambiguous place in English history was mirrored by the

Vikings themselves, whose world was rapidly changing. The restless days of adventuring young men, plundering monasteries, exploring the oceans, and returning as sea-kings were over. Although Christ had not yet completely vanquished Odin, the pirates had largely turned to merchants, and the skalds to priests. The Viking skill at shipbuilding had been turned to the construction of magnificent wooden churches, and missionaries were active throughout the north.189

whose own appetites had begun to get him into trouble. He was arrested at least twice, although both accounts of his punishments are somewhat fanciful. The first time, on the emperor's command, he was "exposed to a lion for debauching a woman of quality". As befitted a Viking hero, Harald responded by strangling the beast, and was released by his astonished guards. The second arrest, was more serious. He was accused of keeping a larger share of booty than he was entitled too, a serious – and quite believable – charge.197

Harold Godwinson's march from London to Stamford Bridge remains one of the most impressive military feats of the early medieval period. The king had been in London when word of the invasion had reached him, and he had immediately bolted north, covering the nearly two hundred miles in just four days. He had then taken the precaution of posting guards on the main roads to stop any news of his arrival from reaching the Vikings. When he suddenly appeared therefore, he took them completely by surprise.

The later saga Eriksmal has a grand description of Bloodaxe entering Valhalla and being welcomed by the gods.