The vikings, lecture 1 (2011)

The Vikings
Scandinavian Expansion, Political Relations, Economy
and Culture Between ca. AD 700 - 1100

Introduction
 This course concerns the 'Viking
Age', a period often considered to
begin sometime around AD 700 and
conclude at AD 1100
 In this period, profound changes
occurred in Scandinavian society
 The Scandinavians moved from a
political organisation based on
small, tribal bands to recognisable
kingdoms similar to those of her
neighbours in Christian Europe
 Moreover, the Scandinavians
became Christians themselves and
entered fully into European culture
and politics
 It is therefore important to bear in
mind that the 'Viking Age' was not
static

Course Structure
 This course endeavours to outline the
main aspects of Scandinavian culture
and their impact on their neighbours
 It begins by considering the sources and
the nature of the evidence
 This is followed by a definition of the
'Vikings' and provides the reasons for the
'Viking Age' being considered to be the
period between AD 700 – 1100
 The subsequent lectures look at how the
Scandinavian settlement in different
regions developed, underscoring the
relations between Scandinavians and
those that they encountered whilst
trading, fighting, and colonisation
 We see considerable variability in
different parts of Europe and the North
Atlantic as the process of assimilation
varied depending on the nature of the
political structure and cultures the
Scandinavians encountered

Advances in the Studies
 Our perceptions of the Scandinavians in
the Viking Age have changed profoundly
in the last three decades
 This has occurred under the impress of
new evidence—some of it afforded by the
advances in scientific techniques that
have resulted in better dating of sites and
the recovery of material that has was
formerly unknown
 More importantly, however, have been
the new paradigms and perspectives that
have been borrowed from historians,
social theorists, and so on
 We are now far more inclined to look at
the complexities of political and social
relations than merely to regard the
Vikings as pirates or barbarian despoilers
of civilisation

Historical, Literary and Linguistic
Sources

Literacy and Distribution of Evidence
 The Scandinavians were largely illiterate in
the Viking Age, with the exception of those
that composed runic inscriptions (which
were principally used for commemoration)
 This means that most of the contemporary
records concerning the Scandinavians and
their exploits were composed by those in
the literate cultures that they encountered
 Accounts by the neighbouring peoples were
often written by the clergy and therefore
were both pejorative and biased
 In many instances, they contain a complex
admixture of factual accounts of military
and political affairs and inaccurate
descriptions of the Scandinavians
 Some are, nonetheless, quite valuable and
provide incidental information on dress,
custom, names and so forth that correspond
with the archaeological and linguistic
evidence

Historical Sources
 The most reliable sources are the chronicles
that were composed in France, England and
Ireland
 Nonetheless, the passages relating to the
Scandinavians are mainly concerned with
their military enterprises, with occasional
mention of the political manoeuvres of the
leaders
 As an example, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
describes attacks and battles and has little
to say regarding culture, language, and so
forth
 The same obtains for the French sources
that describe the assaults on Normandy and
the Low Countries, and the Annals of Ulster
that have accounts of Scandinavian attacks
and settlement in Ireland (with occasional
mention of Scotland and England)

Biases in the Historical Sources
 It must be recognised at the outset that the
historical sources are profoundly biased
 Firstly, there is the bias of commission: the
recording of perspectives, opinions and
events by those observing the
Scandinavians as outsiders. Usually, they
were clerics or court scribes that were
hostile to them because they were heathens
that were attacking their lands
 Secondly, there is the bias of omission: the
clerics and scribes were often unfamiliar
with the traditions, objectives and
perspectives of the Scandinavians and
therefore did not record their views
 Another bias is temporal: almost all of these
sources refer to the period of aggressive
assaults on Western Europe by the
Scandinavians and the subsequent period of
conversion and assimilation

Ecclesiastical Records
 Although the clerics composed
biased records, they also sought to
faithfully record the beliefs of the
pagan people they encountered
 This occurred, of course, through
the prism of their own beliefs and
their cultural milieu, but the records
that were composed regarding the
religious rites and the pantheon of
those whom they set out to convert
are often valuable sources of
information
 The attempts at conversion in
Scandinavia and the settlements in
Western Europe often resulted in
vivid descriptions of the rituals that
do much to advance our knowledge

Travellers Accounts
 Some very important accounts were
committed to paper by travellers,
usually merchants that encountered
the Scandinavians in other parts of
Europe
 Not all were by Christians in Western
Europe—one of the most important
described the customs and religious
observances of Swedes on the River
Volga, compiled by the Muslim
emissary from the Caliphate of
Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan
 Other accounts come to us from
merchants that described their
travels to Scandinavian markets,
such as that by Ottar (or Othere) at
the court of the English king Alfred

Sagas and Medieval Accounts
 In the Medieval era—that is to say,
after the Viking Age had ended—
historical literature began to be
produced in Scandinavia
 The most remarkable accounts are the
Icelandic sagas, which record many
traditions and events from the Viking
Age
 We have, however, become hesitant in
accepting their historical accuracy as
they were often compiled as literature
and do not faithfully record events
 Nonetheless, there is much in the
literature that is valuable and can be
teased out through studies of grammar
and correlation with archaeological
evidence

The Sagas and Religion
 Some of the sagas are especially
valuable, such as the descriptions of
religious beliefs recorded in the Prose
Edda and the Poetic Edda
 It is important to bear in mind that these
were Icelandic documents and therefore
describe beliefs and traditions current in
western Scandinavia
 The beliefs of those in eastern
Scandinavia, although likely sharing
some broad similarities, differed for
there some cults were more popular
than in Norway and Iceland
 Only the rather turgid Gesta Danorum of
Saxo Grammaticus in Denmark affords
information on the religious customs of
eastern Scandinavia

Runic Inscriptions
 The rune stones provide a special class
of literary evidence
 Such stones were principally erected to
commemorate a death or some sort of
significant personal event and offer
little historical information
 Most follow the model of proclaiming
that a certain individual died abroad
and the name of the person that raised
the stone
 Some of the runes, such as that at
Jelling, do record significant political
occurrences such as the
Christianisation of Denmark
 Other runes are encountered on
weapons and were intended as
magical charms

Place Names
 Important evidence for Scandinavian
settlement in the Viking Age is
provided by place names, or
toponymic studies
 This indicates the intensity of
settlement and also affords a sense of
whether the colonists were rapidly
assimilated or retained their identities
 It is also possible to distinguish older
and later settlements by the place
names, and the nature of the site
 The place names in Scandinavia also
indicate the function and scale of the
site, but more information can be
gleaned here: the place names also
reveal political and religious structure
as well as topographical information

Survival of Scandinavian Words in Dialect
 Another source of information regarding the
extent and influence of Scandinavian
settlement in the Viking Age are the number
of loan words
 Many Scandinavian loan words have been
incorporated into English, but some regional
dialects preserve more of these than others
and reflect the intensity of settlement
 In Scotland, the number of loan words in the
dialects of the Orkney Islands and the
Shetland Islands are the largest
 Nonetheless, Lowland Scots has also
incorporated a large quantity of
Scandinavian words, possibly through an
influx of Anglo-Scandinavian settlers
sometime around AD 1000 in the Borders
and the Lothians
 We should not forget that Scandinavian
words are more prevalent in some
specialised occupations such as sailing and

Advances in Dating Techniques
 The development of techniques by which we can
accurately date features has been one of the most
important developments in archaeological research
 Although the significance of this is perhaps least for
the study of the Medieval period (including the Viking
Age), it has transformed the approach to excavation of
sites entirely
 We were formerly only able to date sites in relation to
one another—that is to say, we could say if they were
older, younger or roughly contemporary with another
site
 This required us to dig trenches through sites to
establish the stratigraphic situation of finds in relation
to one another, or in other words, their relationship
expressed as z on a graph
 A series of trenches, however, often missed vital
evidence of the relationship between features as
expressed as x and y
 Without the relationship between features expressed
as x and y, the structure of settlements is poorly
understood

Rescue Excavations
 Another important advances has come through
government development policy, requiring
some construction work to be preceded by
archaeological investigations
 This has provided an opportunity to investigate
sites that would ordinarily be inaccessible,
chiefly those in urban environments
 The excavations at York, for instance, have
contributed profoundly to our understanding of
the Scandinavian occupation of the city and the
nature of urban sites
 Similar policies have been followed in most
nations, resulting in a tremendous increase in
our knowledge
 Moreover, the requirement for excavations
before major infrastructure projects has also led
us to investigate areas that were formerly not
the object of research and has led to a steady
accretion of evidence

Palaeoenvironmental Studies
 The advances in the study of the ancient
environment have provided vital
information concerning the economy of the
Viking Age and the human impact on the
landscape
 We can clearly distinguish the episode of
the first settlement on the marginal
landscapes of the North Atlantic, such as
Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands
 An expansion of settlement, and a change
in economic structure, is also detectable in
the Hebrides and the Northern Isles
 Nonetheless, the methods have been
applied widely and have afforded important
information on the economy and conditions
of settlement throughout the region
impacted by the Scandinavians in the Viking
Age
 We are able, for instance, to discuss
hygiene, forest management, fuel supplies,

Other Scientific Developments
 Archaeologists seldom develop scientific methods
for the analysis of material themselves, so they
are largely dependent on the innovations of other
disciplines for novel methods of investigating
their finds
 One of the disciplines that has advanced quickly
is genetics and we are only now beginning to see
the applications of these studies to the
archaeological record
 It is now possible to extract DNA from ancient
human remains and the genetic codes of
different populations are being compared, as well
as the scale of genetic flow into different regions
 Work by those in nuclear medicine, using stable
isotopes and chemical trace elements, have been
important to the reconstruction of the diet and
also the identification of the birthplace of those
whose human remains are under analysis

Social Structure
 Although the advances in scientific
techniques for the study of archaeological
remains has had a profound influence on
our understanding of the Viking Age, the
changing perspectives of the Scandinavians
themselves has been of paramount
significance for the new insights into this
era
 We have been slowly discarding the image
of the Vikings as little more than pirates—
we have a more nuanced appreciation of
the structure of Scandinavian society
between AD 700 – AD 1100 and have begun
to look at internal relations
 Moreover, we have also come to see the
Scandinavians as merchants and peaceful
colonists that quickly assimilated into many
cultures and left an indelible mark on their
host societies

Vikings and the East
 The Scandinavian expansion into Eastern
Europe has also risen to the forefront of
research interest, as it is clear that this
occurred before the Viking Age began
and was of considerable importance in
the creation of wealth in Scandinavia as
it provided access to the wealth of the
great civilisations of the Middle East
 We are becoming more familiar with the
Scandinavian contribution to the
opening of Russia and the Ukraine, but
also with their activities in the Baltic at
large
 The absorption of the Scandinavians into
Russian culture and the part they played
in the emergence of the Medieval state
of Russia is a point of tremendous
controversy and is the subject of great
interest

Vikings and Their Neighbours
 The raids on different nations is also being
seen differently, namely, as a response to
opportunities afforded by the social
structure of those people that were attacked
or the large markets of Continental Europe
 Many of the assaults on Scotland and
Ireland are now regarded as raids designed
to acquire slaves for sale in the Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms or in France, where there was an
insatiable appetite for this commodity
 Similarly, the weakness of some of the
kingdoms provided an irresistible attraction
to some of the Scandinavians, but it must
not be forgotten that there was an internal
compulsion in the Scandinavian homelands
for expansion because of political instability
and violence
 Much of this had to do with the nascent
state formation occurring in Scandinavia

State Formation
 One of the most important changes in
our view of the Viking Age concerns the
process of state formation in
Scandinavia
 This has been seen as one of the main
reasons for the sustained attacks on
their neighbours—the homelands
provided little opportunity for low-level
nobles and many residents found life
brutal, short and uncertain
 A trend towards warlords dominating
larger and larger regions, undoubtedly
through warfare, also afforded an
opportunity for greater levels of
organisation
 It must be remembered, too, that the
prestige based society that arose also
required large quantities of wealth for
distribution to loyal retainers, forcing
further assaults

The vikings, lecture 1 (2011)

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