The Vikings Quotes

“Rollo, and especially his son William Longsword, revived and strengthened churches and monastic communities with very large gifts. Both were buried in the cathedral in Rouen and it appears that most of the Vikings quickly became Christians.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumbria.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“An element of the burial custom which today seems particularly macabre was the possibility of being buried with a companion, a male or female follower, presumably usually a slave, killed for the burial.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Bee-keeping was no doubt important in many places in Scandinavia. Honey was the only known sweetener, was used as a preservative and was an important ingredient in alcoholic drinks, while beeswax was necessary for certain metal-casting processes and it was also the best material for candles.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Cattle die, kindred die, every man is mortal: but the good name never dies of one who has done well.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The enormous energy which characterized the Viking Age and which had sent waves of people across many parts of Europe had now dwindled, but the deeds of the Viking Age inspired Scandinavian literature, history and politics, and enhanced national pride and identity.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The world of the Vikings was extensive. It stretched round the whole of Europe: from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, along both easterly and westerly routes, and to the north-west to Iceland, Greenland and America. Throughout the Viking Age many sought their fortune in distant lands. Some remained there, others returned home and the tough life took its toll.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The Vikings were normally buried in cemeteries among the local people, which indicates that the relationship was often good.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“furs, walrus tusks (‘fish teeth’), slaves, wax, honey, amber.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Arabic silver was to provide the impetus for the expanding economies of Russia and Scandinavia for most of the Viking Age. Huge amounts reached Scandinavia between about 800 and 1015. Much was melted down and made into jewellery, but more than 85,000 coins, mostly from the tenth century, have been found there: more than 80,000 in Sweden, particularly in Gotland; about 4,000 in Denmark; and 400 in Norway. Although these figures reflect to some extent the degree of involvement of the various regions in the Baltic areas and Russia-Ukraine, they are, as far as Sweden and Denmark are concerned, also determined by the local economic systems: where it was more common to pay with silver and coins than with goods, the silver remained in circulation rather than being hidden as hoards, as on Gotland (cf. p. 112). The coins were obtained along the Baltic and in Russia-Ukraine in various ways.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“In 983 a great alliance of Slav tribes and Danes joined forces against the German realm, which had expanded both eastwards and northwards, but was now decisively repulsed. Around this time marriages took place between Scandinavian kings and the daughters of West Slav princes. For example, Harald Bluetooth married a daughter of the Abodrite prince Mistivoj.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Erik called the land Greenland because the name would encourage people to go there.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Others were translated, for example, Churchton became Kirkby.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The Vikings concentrated on monasteries, not because they had a vendetta against Christian religious communities, but simply because they could get the greatest loot here.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“During the tenth century the Vikings must have become Christians, for there are very few pagan graves from this period but many highly decorated stone crosses. Runic inscriptions of several of them tell that sometimes there were very close relations between Vikings and the local population, for some sons had Celtic names.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“It is not known precisely when the earldom of Orkney became Christian, for the saga account of King Olaf Tryggvason’s forced conversion in c. 995 may not be reliable. It may have happened gradually here and elsewhere in Scotland, according to personal choice, during the tenth century, when pagan burial customs were abandoned (Plate 24) and Christian funerary monuments were adopted.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The chieftain Rollo and his men were given the town of Rouen and the surrounding region as far as the sea and possibly some way up the Seine. Rollo was probably also baptized. This became the basis for the Duchy of Normandy.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The year 845 was a fateful one. The region around the Seine was plundered. Paris, including the town’s fortified centre on the Île de la Cité, was conquered and looted on Easter Sunday, 28 March; Charles the Bald paid the Vikings 7,000 lbs of silver to withdraw – the first of many payments to them. The Vikings did not get much joy from their ‘heavy-laden ships’, however. Their leader Ragnar (who brought back a bar from the city-gate of Paris”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The classic example of Viking cruelty is the practice of carving the eagle on a victim’s back, the ‘blood eagle’. This was in fact invented during the twelfth century, probably as the result of a misinterpretation of a complicated scaldic verse, which says that King Ælla was killed by Ívar (the scene was the Viking conquest of York in 866). This developed into an exciting story to the effect that Ælla had the figure of an eagle carved into his back. In even later stories ‘eagle-carving’ develops into a pagan ritual associated with Odin, in which the victim’s back is cut open, the ribs bent outwards and the lungs pulled out, so that it is reminiscent of an eagle. This literary pagan sadism has fascinated many.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Many Vikings joined the armies of foreign princes, and some chieftains achieved high rank. In Western Europe and the British Isles Christianity had to be accepted before any such office could be held and in order to marry a nobleman’s daughter. Religion was the most important cultural distinction between Scandinavians and foreigners.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“The violence of many Viking raids must not obscure the fact that the Vikings also enjoyed peaceful relations with the world around them, based on accepted norms for social behaviour and on special agreements.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Christianity brought completely new rituals, beliefs and rules of conduct, such as baptism, church services, bell-ringing, burial in consecrated churchyards without grave-goods, a belief in one God (or the Trinity), very strict regulations about marriage between relatives, while exposing unwanted children, eating horseflesh and worshipping the old gods were prohibited.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Norway’s first Christian king was Hákon Aðalsteinsfostri. He grew up and was baptized in England and remained a Christian after he became king of his native pagan country c. 935. According to the scalds, he did not destroy sanctuaries, but he brought priests from England and churches were built in the coastal area of western Norway. Further north and in Tröndelag Christianity did not take root. When Hákon was killed c. 960 he was interred in a mound in traditional pagan fashion; the scald Eyvind described his last great battle, his death and his reception in Valhalla in the poem Hákonarmál. Ironically, this poem about a Christian king gives some of the best information about Odin’s realm of the dead. Olaf Tryggvason became the next Christian king of Norway when he returned home c. 995 with much silver after many years abroad. He had also been baptized in England and brought clerics back with him. A systematic and ruthless process of conversion was initiated in conjunction with efforts to unify the realm. The greatest success was in western and southern Norway and around the year 1000 Olaf was responsible for the conversion of Iceland, probably under threat of reprisals. Shortly after this he was killed in the battle of Svöld. The conversion of Norway was completed during the reign of Olaf Haraldsson. He had also become a Christian on expeditions abroad and his baptism is said to have taken place in Rouen in Normandy. On his return to Norway in 1015 clerics were again in the royal retinue, among them the bishop Grimkel, who helped Olaf mercilessly impose Christianity on the people.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Christian documents praised missionaries for their sincere preaching of the Gospel, their piety, learning, good sense in daily life, chastity and good deeds. That they lived according to their teaching impressed the pagans. On a purely practical level, they often bought boy slaves in order to bring them up in the Christian way of life, and acquire acolytes. As Christianity is an exclusive religion, it was considered important to destroy pagan sanctuaries.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“good missionaries practised these qualities in their way of life, by redeeming prisoners of war and slaves, for example, and giving alms to the poor. They also preached non-violence and man’s equality in the face of God. They stressed that it was a person’s own actions that decided whether they did well in life and came into ‘light and paradise’, as it says on an Uppland rune stone; it was not the thread of the Norns, nor Odin’s arbitrary decision. In the one true realm of the dead all would meet again if they had lived as they ought.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“good missionaries practised these qualities in their way of life, by redeeming prisoners of war and slaves, for example, and giving alms to the poor.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“the body of a wagon, to symbolize a whole wagon. Food and drink were usually placed in the graves. All this indicates that the realm of the dead was reached by a journey,”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Odin’s Valhalla was for chosen warriors,”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“On the coast the mild climate meant that cattle and sheep could stay outside all the year round and find their own food. If food supplies such as heather were plentiful, considerable numbers of animals could be supported. In other places on the coast and on the islands, fishing was the main source of food, supplemented by a few animals and a little grain. Settlements along the fjords would also exploit the mountain pastures during the summer and build up supplies of winter fodder from there.”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings

“Each building probably had a different function: dwelling, byre, store, barn, cook house (for baking, ale brewing, washing, preparing large quantities of food for feasts, or for slaughtering).”
― Else Roesdahl, The Vikings