These
raids were the result of a fresh outburst of Viking activity over the whole
of the British Isles.
raids were the result of a fresh outburst of Viking activity over the whole
of the British Isles.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
He conquered
North Ireland and raided Meath and Connaught, while his wife Ota (O. N.
Auðr) gave audience upon the altar of Clonmacnois. His power cul-
minated in 841, when he usurped the abbacy of Armagh. In 845 he was
captured by the Irish and drowned in Lough Owel. By this time so
numerous were the invading hosts that the chroniclers tell us
this there came great sea-cast floods of foreigners into Erin, so that
there was not a point without a fleet. ” In 849 the invasions developed
a new phase. Hitherto while the Irish had been weakened by much
internecine warfare their enemies had worked with one mind and heart.
Now we read: “A naval expedition of seven score of the Foreigners
came to exercise power over the Foreigners who were before them, so
that they disturbed all Ireland afterwards. ” This means that the Danes
were now taking an active part in the Scandinavian invasions of Ireland,
and we soon find them disputing supremacy with the earlier Norwegian
settlers. At the same time we have the first mention of intrigues
between Irish factions and the foreign invaders, intrigues which were
destined to play an important part in the Irish wars of the next fifty
years. For a time Dublin was in the hands of the Danes, but in 853
one Amhlaeibh (i. e. Olaf), son of the king of Lochlann (i. e. Norway),
came to Ireland and received the submission of Danes and Norsemen
alike, while tribute was given him by the native Irish. Henceforward
Dublin was the chief stronghold of Norse power in Ireland.
This Amhlaeibh was Olaf the White of Norse tradition, the repre-
sentative of that branch of the Yngling family who, according to Ari
Fróði, settled in Ireland. Affairs were now further complicated by the
fact that many Irish forsook Christianity and joined the Norsemen
in their plunderings. These recreant Irish, who probably intermarried
with the Norsemen, were known as the Gall-Gaedhil, i. e. the foreign
Irish, and played an important part in the wars of the next few
years. One of their leaders was Caitill Find, i. e. Ketill the White,
à Norseman with an Irish nickname. Usually they fought on the
side of the Norsemen but at times they played for their own hand.
Olaf was assisted by his brothers Imhar (O. N. Ívarr) and Auisle (O. N.
Auðgísl), and married the daughter of Aedh Finnliath (MacNiall), King
of all Ireland. Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and occasionally Cork
CH. XIII.
## p. 318 (#364) ############################################
318
Ragnarr Loðbrók
were the centres of Norse activity at this time, but there seems to have
been no unity of action among their forces. In 866 Olaf and Auðgísl
made a successful expedition to Pictland, and again in 870–1 Olaf and
Ívarr made a raid on Scotland. Olaf now returned to Norway to assist
his father Goffraidh (O. N. Guðfriðr) and possibly to take part with him
in the great fight at Hafrsfjord against Harold Fairhair. We hear
nothing more of Olaf, and two years later Ívarr, “ king of the Norsemen
of all Ireland and Britain," ended his life.
There now appear on the scene Viking leaders of a different family,
which seems to have over-shadowed that of Olaf. They were the sons of
one Raghnall, who had been expelled from his sovereignty in Norway.
Raghnall had remained in the Orkneys, but his elder sons came to the
British Isles, “being desirous of attacking the Franks and Saxons. ”
Not content with this they pushed on from Ireland across the Canta-
brian sea until they reached Spain. After a successful campaign
against the Moors in Africa they returned to Ireland and settled in
Dublin. So runs the story in the Fragments of Irish Annals edited by
Dugald MacFirbis, and there can be little doubt of its substratum of
truth or of the identification of this Raghnall and his sons with the well-
known figures of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons. In 877 Raghnall's son
Albdann (O. N. Halfdanr) was killed on Strangford Lough, while
fighting against the Norse champion Baraidh (O. N. Barðr) who was
attached to the house of Olaf.
At this point the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall notes a period
of rest for the men of Erin, lasting some forty years and ending in 916.
This statement is substantially true. We do not hear of any large fleets
coming to Ireland, and during these years Viking activity seems chiefly
to have centred in Britain. Trouble was only renewed when the success
of the campaigns of Edward the Elder in England once more drove the
Vikings westward.
We have traced the history of the Vikings in England down to
the first settlement in 851 and 855. During the years which followed
there were raids on the south made by Vikings from Frankish territory,
but the great development took place in 866, when a large Danish army
took up its quarters in East Anglia, whence they advanced to York in
867. Northumbria was weakened by dissension and the Danes captured
York without much trouble. This city was henceforward the stronghold
of Scandinavian power in Northern England, and the Saxon Eoforwíc
soon became the Norse Jórvík or York. The Danes set up a puppet
king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the Tyne and reduced Mercia
to submission. Thence they marched into East Anglia as far as Thetford,
and engaged the forces of Edmund, King of East Anglia, defeating and
slaying him, but whether in actual battle or, as popular tradition would
have it, in later martyrdom is uncertain. The death of St Edmund
soon became an event of European fame, and no event in the Danish
## p. 319 (#365) ############################################
Settlement of the Danelaw
319
invasions was more widely known and no Danish leader more heartily
execrated than Ívarr, their commander on this occasion. After their
victory in East Anglia the Danes attacked Wessex. Their struggle with
Aethelred and his brother Alfred was long and fierce. In the end Danes
and English came to terms by the peace of Wedmore (878), and the
ensuing “ peace of Alfred and Guthrum” (885) defined the boundary
between Alfred's kingdom and the Danish realm in East Anglia. It ran
by the Thames estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of
London), then up the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then east-
wards along the Ouse to Watling Street, somewhere near Fenny or Stony
Stratford. The northern half of Mercia was also in Danish hands, their
authority centring in the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester and Stamford. Northumbria was at the same time under Viking
rule, its king until 877 being that Halfdanr (Halfdene) who was killed
on Strangford Lough. There can be little doubt that the chief Viking
leaders during these years (Halfdanr, Ívarr and Ubbi) were sons of
Ragnarr Loðbrók, the greatest of Viking heroes in Scandinavian tradition,
but it is impossible to say how much truth there may be in the story
which makes their attacks part of a scheme of vengeance for the torture
and death of Ragnarr at the hands of Aella, King of Northumbria.
One incident is perhaps of interest in connexion with the family of
Loðbrók. When Ubbi was fighting in Devonshire in 878 the English
captured from him a raven-banner which, say the Annals of St Neot,
was woven for the sons of Loðbrók by their sisters.
Though Alfred had secured an enlarged and independent kingdom,
his troubles were not at an end, and during the years from 880-896
England suffered from attacks made by raiders issuing from their
quarters on the Seine, the Somme and other Continental rivers. The
Northumbrian and East Anglian settlers remained neutral on the
whole, but they must have been much unsettled by the events of these
years, and when they commenced raiding once more, Alfred built a
fleet of vessels to meet them, which were both swifter and steadier than
the Danish ships. After 896 the struggle between English and Danes
was confined almost entirely to those already settled in the island, no
fresh raiders being mentioned until 921.
During all this time the Vikings were almost continuously active on
the Continent; raids on Frankish territory continued without cessation,
and it was only on the Eider boundary that a permanent peace was
established by a treaty between Louis the German and King Horic. In
845 a Danish fleet of some 120 vessels sailed up the Seine under the
leadership of Reginherus, i. e. probably Ragnarr Loðbrók himself. Paris
was destroyed and the Viking attack was only bought off by the pay-
ment of a large Danegeld. The years from 850–878 have been said, not
without justice, to mark the high tide of Viking invasion in Western
Frankish territory. We find Danish armies taking up more or less
a
CH. XIII.
## p. 320 (#366) ############################################
320
The Vikings in France, Spain and Italy
permanent quarters on the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Somme, the Seine,
the Loire and the Garonne, prominent among their leaders being one
Berno, or Björn Jarnsíða (Ironside), another son of Ragnarr Loðbrók.
A curious light is thrown on the effect of these raids upon the peasantry
by an incident in 859, when we hear of a rising of the populace between
the Seine and the Loire in the hope of expelling the Danes. The annals
are not quite clear as to whether it was the Frankish nobles or the
Danes who crushed the rising, but the outbreak indicates dissatisfaction
with the half-hearted defence of the country by the nobility.
In the years 859-862 a second great expedition to Spain and the
Mediterranean took place. Sailing from the Seine under the leadership
of Björn Jarnsíða and Hasting (O. N. Hásteinn), they made an unsuc-
cessful attack on Galicia and sailed round the coast through the
straits of Gibraltar. They attacked Nekur on the coast of Morocco.
There was fierce fighting with the Moors but in the end the Vikings were
victorious, and many of the “Blue-men," as they called the Moors, were
ultimately carried off prisoners to Ireland, where we hear of their fate in
the Fragments of Irish Annals. Returning to Spain they landed at
Murcia and proceeded thence to the Balearic Islands. Ravaging these
they made their way north to the French border, landed in Roussillon,
and advanced inland as far as Arles-sur-Tech. Taking to their ships,
they sailed north along the coast to the mouth of the Rhone and spent
the winter on the Island of Camargue in the Rhone delta. Plundering
the old Roman cities of Provence, they went up the Rhone as far as
Valence. In the spring they sailed to Italy, where they captured several
towns including Pisa and Luna, at the mouth of the Magra, south of
the bay of Spezia. The conquest of Luna was famed both in Norman
and Scandinavian tradition.
It is represented as the crowning feat of
the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, who captured it under the delusion that
they had reached Rome itself. From Luna they sailed back through
the straits of Gibraltar and finally returned to Brittany in the spring of
862. The Vikings had now all but encircled Europe with their raids,
for it was in the year 865 that the Swedish Rôs (Russians) laid siege to
Constantinople.
In France itself the tide began to turn by the end of 865. In
November of that year the Vikings finally abandoned Aquitaine, and in
the next year
the Seine was for a time left free. The tide had now set
towards England, and at the same time the Franks commenced fortifying
their towns against Viking attack, a policy which was pursued a little
later by Edward the Elder in England. For our knowledge of this
period we have to rely almost entirely upon the chronicles of various
monastic writers compiling their records in isolation from one another,
so that it is almost impossible to trace any definite or general design in
Viking attacks. The leaders change continually and almost the only
constant figure is that Roric, brother of Harold, who was settled in
## p. 321 (#367) ############################################
The Vikings in France and England
321
Friesland. For some forty years he remained there, now in friendly,
now in hostile relations with both Charles the Bald and Louis the
German, and he does not disappear from our records until after 873.
About the same time Horic the Younger must have died, for we find two
new kings reigning simultaneously in Denmark, the brothers Sigefridus and
Halbdenus. Both were probably sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, the former
being the famous Sigurðr Snake-eye and the latter the already-mentioned
Halfdanr.
In the year 879 the tide of invasion turned once more towards France,
chiefly owing to two causes. The great attack on England had failed
or at least had led to a peaceful settlement, which furnished no outlet for
Viking energy,
while at the same time affairs in France were once more
unsettled. Charles the Bald died in 877, followed 18 months later by
his son Louis the Stammerer, who left two youthful children, Louis and
Carloman, and a posthumous son Charles. Factions arose and the
Vikings were never slow to hear and take advantage of them. When a
great fleet which had wintered at Fulham found no opening in England,
it crossed to France. There the young Louis won a decisive victory over
a
it at Saucourt on the Somme, and the victory finds its record in the well-
known Ludwigslied. An attack by the Northmen on Saxony and the
lower Rhine was more successful. In a great fight which took place
somewhere on the Lüneburg Heath 2 February 880, there fell Duke Bruno
of Saxony together with two bishops, eleven counts and eighteen royal
vassals. In 882 the Emperor Charles the Fat came to terms with the
Viking leaders, Sigefrid and Guðröðr. King Guðröðr, who was probably
a son of the Harold of Mayence, himself accepted Christianity and
was granted lands on the lower Rhine, and at the same time undertook
to defend Charles's territory from attack. King Sigefrid retired with a
heavy payment of money. Guðröðr received his lands on much the same
conditions as Charles the Simple granted Normandy to Rollo, but
intriguing with the enemies of Charles he aroused hostility and was slain
in 885. He had thrown away the chance of establishing a Normandy in
the Low Countries. Viking rule was now brought to an end in Frisia,
and henceforward we hear only of sporadic attacks which continued into
the tenth century. So also from 885 Saxony was free from attack, and
when trouble was renewed in the tenth century the attack was not made
by sea but across the Eider boundary.
The West Frankish kingdom was still in the midst of the storm.
Louis III and Carloman and the local magnates offered a stout resistance,
but it seemed impossible to throw off the yoke of the here which ravaged
the whole country between the Rhine and the Loire. The contest cul-
minated in the great siege of Paris by King Sigefrid in 885–7. The
Viking army numbered some 40,000 men with 700 vessels, and it was only
through the stout resistance of Count Odo, and Bishop Joscelin and the
withdrawal of the Vikings to Burgundy by an arrangement with Charles
21
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 322 (#368) ############################################
322
Founding of Normandy
the Fat, that the siege was raised. With the overthrow of Charles in
887 the West Frankish realm fell into anarchy, and the Vikings ravaged
Burgundy and eastern France almost without a check, while Brittany and
the Cotentin fared no better. Finally the great here concentrated its
attack on the valley of the Scheldt. In the autumn of 891 they were
defeated on the banks of the Dyle in Brabant by the new King Arnulf,
and after more desultory fighting they sailed for England in the autumn
of 892. They had been in France some thirteen years, ravaging and
plundering, and now for the first time since 840 France was free of the
Northmen. In England, after three years' hard fighting, the greater
number settled down to a peaceful existence in East Anglia and North-
umbria, but a few in whom the spirit of roving was still strong returned
to the Seine in 896. Twenty-five years earlier the Vikings had seemed
in a fair way to conquer Europe, but now the battle of Edington in
England (878), the siege of Paris in France (885–7) and the battle of
the Dyle in Germany (891), were significant of failure in these three
kingdoms alike.
The West Frankish realm was weakened by the dissensions of the
rival kings Odo and Charles the Simple, and soon all the old troubles
were renewed. Unfortunately the Annals provide us with very meagre
information about events during the next fifteen years, and we know
almost nothing about the critical period immediately preceding the
cession of Normandy to the Northmen. The Vikings would seem to have
settled themselves in the lower basin of the Seine, with Rouen as their
centre, and by 910 they appear under the leadership of the famous Rollo
(O. N. Hrollaugr). This Viking was probably of Norse origin (the Heims-
kringla describes him as one Hrólfr, son of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre), though
the main body of the settlers were certainly Danes, and he had already
made himself a name in England, where he was closely associated with
Guthrum of East Anglia. He probably came to France soon after 896 and
gradually became the chief person among that band of equals. For some
time he carried on a hard struggle with Charles the Simple, and then,
towards the end of 911, each party frankly recognised the other's strength.
Charles could not oust the Northmen from the Seine valley, while they were
unable permanently to extend their settlement, so at St Clair-sur-Epte
it was agreed that the part of the Seine basin which includes the
counties of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux, together with the country lying
between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea, should be left in the hands
of the Northmen on condition that they defended the kingdom against
attack, received baptism and did homage to Charles for their lands.
To these were added in 924 the districts of Bayeux and Séez, and in 933
those of Avranches and Coutances, thus bringing the Normans right up
to the Breton border. With the establishment of Normandy, Viking
activity was practically at an end in the Frankish kingdom : there were
still Northmen on the Loire who ravaged far inland, while the settlers
## p. 323 (#369) ############################################
Scandinavian kings in Northumbria
323
a
in Normandy freely raided Brittany, but no fresh settlements were made
and the Viking here had become a recognised part of the Frankish ost.
We must now turn our attention to the Danish settlements in
England. We have seen that already by the year 880 they had attained
the same measure of independence which was granted to Normandy in
911, but their later fortunes were by no means so peaceful or uneventful.
The Danes in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were not willing to
confine themselves to their settlements, and soon Edward the Elder and his
sister Aethelfleda, the “Lady of the Mercians,” established a line of fortified
towns in Southern Mercia preparatory to an advance on Danish territory.
By the year 917 all was ready. Derby fell in that year and Leicester in
918 before the advance of Aethelfleda, while in the same years
Northampton, Stamford and Nottingham were captured by Edward, and
East Anglia made its submission. By the end of his reign Edward was
master of the whole realm, including English, Danes and Norwegians.
These last were settled chiefly in Northumbria, where we find towards
the close of the ninth and in the early years of the tenth century a line
of kings closely associated with the Norse kingdom of Dublin. The
Norsemen were often in alliance with the Scots, and matters came to
a crisis in 937 when a great confederation of Scots, Strathclyde Welsh,
and Norsemen was formed against Aethelstan. The confederates were
defeated in the famous battle of Brunanburh (perhaps the modern
Birrenswark in Dumfriesshire), and England was freed from its greatest
danger since the days of King Alfred and his struggle with Guthrum
(O. N. Guðormr) and the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. The Norse leaders
retired for a time, but trouble was renewed in 940 by an Anlaf (? Olaf
Guðfridson)'. Next year the famous Anlaf Sihtricsson (O. N. Olafr Sig.
tryggson), nicknamed “Cuaran," is found at York. He marched south and
endeavoured to conquer the district of the Five Boroughs. King Edmund
advanced to their help, and soon drove Anlaf out of Northern Mercia
and relieved the Danish boroughs from Norse oppression. During the
next twelve years Northumbria was in a state of anarchy. At times
Anlaf was acknowledged as king, at others English sovereignty was
recognised. Twice during this period Eric Blood-axe, son of Harold
Fairhair, appeared as king, but was finally expelled in 954. Later
Scandinavian tradition tells us that Aethelstan was on friendly terms with
Harold Fairhair, and that when Eric was expelled from Norway in 934
he was welcomed to England by Aethelstan and given charge of North-
umbria, where he ruled at York. Edmund was less favourably disposed
towards Norwegians and appointed one Olaf in his stead. Ultimately Eric
was defeated and killed by his rival. Eric may have been appointed to
rule Northumbria after the defeat of Anlaf-Olaf at Brunanburh, while the
appointment of Olaf as ruler of Northumbria may refer to the partition
of England between Olaf and Edmund in 942. With the expulsion of
1 These Anlafs are variously identified ; but cf. infra, p. 368.
CH, XIII.
21-2
## p. 324 (#370) ############################################
324
The battles of Clontarf and Maldon
Eric in 954 (Olaf had already retired to Dublin) Norse rule in Northumbria
was at an end. Henceforward that district was directly under the rule
of the English king, and earls were appointed in his name.
We have seen that during these
years
there was intimate connexion
between the Norsemen in Ireland and Northumbria, and that the kings
of Northumbria often ruled in Dublin at the same time. Viking rule in
Ireland was in a state of flux. The chief centres of influence were Dublin
and Limerick, but their rulers were often at variance with one another
and a succession of great Irish leaders, Niall Glundubh, Muirchertach
and Brian Borumha (Boru), made bold and often successful attacks on the
Viking strongholds. Brian was the greatest and most famous of these
leaders, and when he became chief king of all Ireland, he built a great
fleet and received tribute from Northmen and Irish alike. His power
was threatened by the treachery of his wife Gormflaith, who intrigued
with her brother Maelmordha, King of Leinster, and Sigtryggr of the
Silken Beard, King of Dublin, against Brian. A great confederacy of the
western Vikings was formed, including Sigurðr, the earl of the Orkneys, and
men from the Shetlands, the Western Islands, Man and Scandinavian
settlements on the Continent. Dublin was the rendezvous and thither
the great army gathered by Palm Sunday 1014. Brian had collected a
vast army, including Vikings from Limerick, and on Good Friday the two
forces met in the decisive battle of Clontarf, just north of Dublin. For
some time the fortune of battle wavered, both Brian and Sigurðr fell, but
in the end the Irish were completely victorious, and the Vikings had lost
their last and greatest fight in Ireland. They were not expelled from
their settlements, but henceforward they led a peaceful existence under
Irish authority and the Norse kingdoms of Dublin, Limerick and other
cities either lost all power or ceased to exist.
After the fall of the Northumbrian kingdom in 954 England had
peace for some five-and-twenty years, especially under the strong rule of
Edgar, but with the weak Aethelred II troubles were renewed and from
980 onwards the whole of the English coast was open to attack.
These
raids were the result of a fresh outburst of Viking activity over the whole
of the British Isles. Danes and Norsemen united under one banner and
their leader was the famous Olaf Tryggvason. In 991 after ravaging
the east coast Olaf engaged Brihtnoth, the ealdorman of East Anglia,
near Maldon. The struggle was heroic and gave occasion to one of the
finest of Old English poems, but Brihtnoth fell, and an ignominious
peace was made whereby for the first time since the days of Alfred
“Danegeld” was paid to buy off Viking attacks. Svein Forkbeard now
united forces with Olaf and together they besieged London in 994: the
siege was a failure, but all southern England was harried and once more
a heavy Danegeld had to be paid. In 995 Olaf went to Norway hoping
to gain the kingdom by the overthrow of the tyranny of Earl Hákon, while
Svein returned to Denmark. The raids continued but England saw nothing
## p. 325 (#371) ############################################
King Svein and King Knut
325
more of King Svein until he returned in 1003 to avenge the ill-advised
massacre of St Brice's day. Year after year the kingdom was ravaged,
Danegeld after Danegeld was paid, until in 1013 Aethelred fled to
Normandy and Svein became King of all England. A few months later
he died suddenly at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire (February 1014).
His English realm went to his younger son Knut. On the death of
Aethelred in 1016, his son Edmund Ironside offered so stout a resistance
that for a few months, until his death by treachery, he compelled Knut
to share the realm with him. Knut then ruled alone, firmly and well
until his death in 1035, having succeeded to the Danish throne also in
1018. On his death the succession was not settled but, after some
difficulty, Harold Harefoot succeeded his father in England. He was
succeeded in 1040 by his brother Harthacnut (O. N. Harðacnútr), but
neither king was of the same stamp as their father and they were both
overshadowed by the great Godwin, Earl of Wessex. When Harthacnut
died in 1042 the male line in descent from Knut was extinct and,
though some of the Danes were in favour of choosing Knut's sister's son
Svein, Godwin secured the election of Edward the Confessor, who had
been recalled from Normandy and highly honoured by Harthacnut
himself. With the accession of Edward, Danish rule in England was at
an end, and never afterwards was there any serious question of a Scan-
dinavian kingship either in or over England.
We have now traced the story of Viking activity in its chief centres
in the British Isles and the mainland of Europe. A word remains to be
said about other settlements in Western Europe, in the Orkneys, the
Shetlands, the Western Islands (or as the Norsemen called them
“Suðreyjar” (i. e. Sodor), the southern islands) and Man, and the Scottish
mainland, and then we must turn our attention to Eastern Europe, to the
famous Jómsviking settlement in North Germany and to the important
but little known movements of the Vikings through Russia down to the
shores of the Mediterranean. We have seen how early the Shetlands were
settled, and there is no doubt that it was not long before Vikings made
their way by the Orkneys round the coast of Scotland to the Hebrides.
From the Orkneys settlements were made in Sutherland and Caithness,
while Galloway (possibly the land of the Gall-Gaedhil, the foreign Irish)
was settled from the Hebrides. In the ninth century the Norse element
in the Hebrides was already so strong that the Irish called the islands
Innsi Gall (i. e. the islands of the foreigners) and their inhabitants were
known as the Gall-Gaedhil. Olaf the White and Ívarr made more than
one expedition from Ireland to the lowlands of Scotland, and the former
was married to Auðr the daughter of Ketill Flat-nose, who had made
himself the greatest chieftain in the Western Islands. When Harold
Fairhair won his victory at Hafrsfjord he felt that his power would still
be insecure unless he gained the submission of these Vikings who belonged
to the great families in rivalry with him. He made therefore a mighty
CH, XIII.
## p. 326 (#372) ############################################
326 The Orkneys, the Shetlands, Western Islands and Man
a
expedition to the Shetlands, the Orkneys and the west coast of Scotland,
received their submission and gave the Northern Islands to Sigurðr,
brother of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre, as his vassal. Sigurðr's successor
Einar, known as Turf Einar because he first taught the islanders to cut
peat for fuel, founded a long line of Orkney earls. Warrior and skald,
he came into collision with Harold Fairhair, but made his peace on
promise of a heavy fine. When the peasants declared themselves unable
to pay it, Einar paid it himself and received in return all the óðal
(the holdings of the freeholders) as his own property. The most
famous of the Orkney earls was Sigurðr Loðvesson, who succeeded c. 980.
Though he acknowledged the overlordship of Earl Hákon, he ruled with
almost independent power, and made himself popular by the return of
the óðal. After a reign of thirty years he fell fighting for the Viking
cause at Clontarf in 1014. Of the Vikings in the Western Islands from
Lewis to the Isle of Man we have less definite and continuous record.
There was a line of kings in the tenth century, of whom the most famous
were Maccus or Magnus and Guðröðr, the son of one Harold. They
are found ruling with certain officers known as “lawmen" by their side.
The Isle of Man, which had kings of its own, was at times under their
authority, at others under that of the kingdom of Dublin. It was
probably from the Isle of Man that the extensive Norse settlements in
Cumberland and Westmorland were made, and either from here or from
Ireland came the various Viking raiders who throughout the tenth
century made attacks on Wales. There they founded no permanent
kingdom, but left a mark in place nomenclature along the coast from
Anglesey to Pembrokeshire and in some districts of South Wales.
From the days of Guðröðr in the beginning of the ninth century to
those of Harold Gormson (Bluetooth) in the middle of the tenth, Denmark
had paid little heed to her Slavonic neighbours, but the rivalry between
Harold Gormson and the Emperor Otto probably turned the Danish
king's attention eastwards, and it was in his days that the great Viking
settlement of Jómsborg was established at the mouth of the Oder. For
many years there had been an important trading centre at Julin on the
island of Wollin, where merchants from Scandinavia, Saxony and Russia
were settled. Large finds of Byzantine and Arabic coins belonging to the
tenth century have been made both in Denmark and in Wollin, bearing
witness to the extensive trade which passed through Julin between
Denmark and the Orient, using as its high road the broad stream of the
Oder and the great Russian rivers. To secure to Denmark its full share
in the products of the rich lands south of the Baltic and in the trade
with the East, Harold built the fortified town of Jómsborg close to
Julin and established there a famous Viking community. He gave
them certain laws, and we probably find their substance in the laws given
by Palnatóki to his followers in the unhistorical account of the founding
of Jómsborg given in Jómsvíkingusaga No one under 18 or over 50
## p. 327 (#373) ############################################
The Jómsvikings
32
was admitted to their fellowship, no woman was allowed in their towi
and none of the warriors might be absent for more than three days.
They were bound by oaths of fidelity to one another and each must
avenge the fall of any of his companions. No word of fear was allowed
and all outside news must in the first place be told to their leader. All
plunder was divided by lot among the community. The harbour of
Jómsborg could shelter a fleet of 300 vessels and was protected by a
mole with twelve iron gates. The Jómsvikings played an important part
in the affairs of Denmark and Norway in the late tenth and early eleventh
centuries, and made many Viking expeditions both in Baltic lands and in
the West. In 1043 their stronghold was destroyed by Magnus the Good
of Norway. Other Vikings from Denmark made raids still further east
than Jómsborg, but the true Viking conquest of those districts was due not
to the Danes but to the Swedes.
In the chronicle of the Russian monk Nestor (c. 1100) we read how
in the middle of the ninth century certain Varangians came from beyond
the sea and that one band of them, the Rus, was soon invited to rule
among the Slavs and put an end to their mutual quarrels. Their leader
Rurik (O. N. Hrærekr) settled in Novgorod, while two of his men,
Askold (O. N. Höskuldr) and Dir (O. N. Dyri), sailed down the Dnieper
and settled in Kiev. These events probably took place in the half
century preceding 862. Twenty years later Kiev was conquered by
Rurik's successor Olég (O. N. Helgi), and Kiev, the mother of all Russian
towns, was henceforward the capital of the Russian state. From Kiev
the Rus advanced down the Dnieper and in 865 ravaged the shores of
the Black Sea (soon to be known as the Russian Sea) and the Sea of
Marmora. They appeared with a fleet of 200 vessels before Constan-
tinople, but the city was saved by a sudden storm and the greater part
of the fleet of the “Rhôs," as Byzantine historians call them, was
destroyed. Olég made a more successful attack in 907 with a fleet
of 2000 vessels, and the Greeks were forced to pay a heavy ransom.
Attacks of this kind continued down to the middle of the eleventh
century. At the same time the Rus secured valuable trading privileges
from the Eastern emperors and exchanged furs, slaves and honey for the
luxuries of the East. From Arab writers we hear of these Rus in
districts still further east, on the banks of the Volga and the shores
of the Caspian.
Though the point has been hotly contested by Slavonic patriots,
there can be no doubt that these Rhos or Rus are really Swedish
Vikings. Some of them accompanied a Greek embassy to the Emperor
Louis the Pious in 839 and, though they called themselves Rhos, Louis
made inquiries and found that they were really of Swedish nation-
ality. They were detained for some time under suspicion of being
spies: the Emperor no doubt feared some fresh design against the
Empire on the part of the Northmen. A few years later, when the
a
CH, XIII.
## p. 328 (#374) ############################################
328
The Swedes in Russia
Vikings attacked Seville (844), an Arab writer calls them Rūs, using
probably a name for the Vikings which was already well known in the
East. The descriptions of the life of the ancient Rus, which we find in
Greek and Arabic writers, tally in remarkable fashion with those of the
Vikings in the West, and archaeological and philological evidence tends
to strengthen the belief that their original home was in Scandinavia.
Certain types of fibulae found in Western Russia are derived from
Scandinavia, and the hoards of Anglo-Saxon pennies and sceatts found
there are probably our Danegeld. One runic inscription, belonging to
the eleventh century and shewing evidence of connexion with Gothland,
has been found in a burial mound in Berezan, an island at the mouth
of the Dnieper. Professor Braun says that no others have been found
because of the rarity of suitable stone. The names of the Dnieper
rapids as given in their Russian form (side by side with the Slavonic)
by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (c. 950) are undoubtedly Scandinavian
in origin. Exactly how the term Rus came to be applied to the Swedish
nation (or a part of it) has been much disputed'. Still more difficult is
the question of the origin of the term Varangian or Variag, to use the
Russian form. We have seen that it is applied to the whole of the
nation of whom the Rus formed part. It is also given to the guard of
the Byzantine emperors. It is probable that the term Varangians was
first applied to the whole of the Scandinavian peoples, but more espe-
cially to the Swedes with whom the Slavs had chiefly to deal, and later
to the Emperor's guard recruited from these hardy Northerners. Most
famous of such Varangians was the great Harold Hardrada, who after a
career of adventure in the East ultimately fell at Stamford Bridge in 1066.
Of the later history of the Scandinavians in Russia we know little,
but it is probable that by the year 1000 they were largely Slavised
and by the end of the eleventh century they were entirely absorbed by
the native element.
We have now traced the main outlines of Viking activity in eastern
and western Europe: it remains to say something of their civilisation
and its influence on the development of the various countries in which
they formed settlements.
During the years of Viking activity the Scandinavian peoples stood
at a critical period in the history of their civilisation : side by side with
a large element of primitive barbarism we find certain well-developed
forms of civilisation, while throughout their activity the Vikings shewed
an eager understanding and appreciation of the culture of the older
civilisations then prevailing in western Europe. This strange blend
of barbarism and culture finds its clearest illustration in their daily life
and in the slow and halting passage from heathendom to Christianity.
i The form Rus is probably the Slavonic version of the Finnish Ruotsi, the name
given by the Finns to the Swedes generally, and taken from the district of Uppland,
known as Roþr, with which they were most familiar.
## p. 329 (#375) ############################################
Viking civilisation
329
а
Dr Alexander Bugge has pointed out for us how many characteristic
features of Viking life find their closest parallel among uncivilised peoples
of the ancient or of the modern world. Their cruelty in warfare finds
illustration in their custom of exposing the heads of their enemies
outside their camps and towns, or in the strange picture given us in
some Irish annals of Danes cooking their food on the field of battle on
spits stuck in the bodies of their fallen foes. The custom of human
sacrifice was fairly common, while that of cutting the blood-eagle in
the back of the fallen foe is well known from the vengeance for their
father taken by the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. Children were not spared
in warfare and were often tossed on the spears of their foes. A curious
survival of primitive habit is found in the famous Berserk fury, when
men in the heat of battle were seized with sudden madness and, according
to the popular belief, received a double portion of strength and lost all
sense of bodily pain. There is of course much that is superstitious in
this idea, but it finds its parallel in the “running amok” of the races
of the Malay peninsula. Side by side with these traits of primitive
barbarism we find certain well-developed forms of culture, an extensive
commerce, a mastery of the whole art of shipbuilding, and great artistic
skill, shewn not only in articles of personal adornment but also in the
sculptured memorial stones to be found from Gothland in the East to
Man in the West. In warfare their cavalry were skilled, and they under-
stood the construction of siege engines with the whole art of fortification.
Above all the Northmen had a genius for law, and few early communities
shew their aptitude in the making of laws or such strictness in their
observance.
The passage from heathendom to Christianity at this critical period
is in some ways even more interesting. We have already seen how in
the middle years of the ninth century Christianity was preached in
Denmark and Sweden, but it had little effect on the main body of the
nations concerned. The best evidence of this is to be found perhaps in
the fact that it is in all probability to the ninth and tenth centuries
that we owe the poems of the elder Edda, the main source of our
knowledge of Old Norse mythology and cosmogony. It is true, no doubt,
that in some of these poems we find a note of detachment, touches of
irony and even of burlesque, which remind us that the belief in the old
gods is passing away, but in the great body of those which deal with
the world of the Aesir, there is no question of fading beliefs or of
insincere statement. The greater number of the Vikings were undoubted
heathen, and like the impious Onlafbald when defying the power of
St Cuthbert would have sworn by their great gods Thor and Othin.
When the Danes made peace with Alfred in 876 they swore an oath on
the holy ring, which would be found on the altar of every heathen
temple : such a ring sacred to Thor was taken by the Irish from a
temple in Dublin in 996. There was a grove sacred to Thor just north
CH, XIII.
## p. 330 (#376) ############################################
330
Christianity and heathendom
of Dublin and place-names throughout the British Isles and in Normandy
bear witness to the worship of this god. At the same time, in religion
as in everything else, the Vikings shewed themselves very ready to seize
new ideas and, more especially, to avail themselves of any advantages
which adhesion to the Christian religion might give. Scandinavian
merchants settled in the various European countries were often “prime-
signed,” i. e. received the sign of the cross, preliminary to baptism, which
raised them to the rank of catechumens and enabled them to live in
trading and social intercourse with Christians, while they did not
necessarily proceed to the full renunciation of their heathen faith. Even
in the ninth century, when the Danes were fighting the Norsemen
in Ireland, we hear how they invoked the aid of St Patrick, thinking
that he must take vengeance on those who had done him such
injury. When victorious they gave him large offerings, for “the Danes
were a people with a certain piety, whereby they could refrain from
flesh and from women for a time. ” As was to be expected in a time of
transition from one faith to another, superstition was rife and more
than once the Viking hosts fell a prey to it. When the army of Ragnarr
Loðbrók was besieging Paris in 845 his followers were attacked by a
mysterious sickness : prayer to the heathen gods was unsuccessful, but
when, on the advice of a Christian prisoner, they prayed to his God,
wisely abstaining at the same time from flesh and mead, the plague was
removed. The blending of the old and new is happily illustrated in the
sepulchral stones of the Isle of Man and Gothland: here we have stones
in the shape of a cross, or with the sign of the cross on them, decorated
with scenes from Valhalla or with an inscription praying at the same time
for the repose of the dead man's soul and that God may betray those who
betrayed him. More than once do we hear of men who believed neither
in the heathen gods nor in Christ and had faith in nought but their own
strength: the nickname “the godless” is by no means unfrequent
among the settlers in Iceland. Throughout the period, however,
Christianity made steady advance : by the year 921 we find the Vikings
sparing hospitals and churches when sacking Armagh; the great king
Olaf Cuaran, who died in 981, spent his old age as a monk in Iona; at
one time in the tenth century the primates of York and Canterbury were
both of Scandinavian family, and in the later tenth and early eleventh
centuries the Roman Church had no more faithful sons than the
Normans.
Their general philosophy of life was that every man must rely on
himself and his own wisdom; he must place no reliance on others, least
of all upon women. The great aim in life is to attain fame and fair
speech from men after death. Though their beliefs were strongly tinged
with fatalism, this brought no weakening of character or gloom of out-
look. “ Joyous and happy must every man be until death comes upon
him,” is the counsel of Hávamál, and the highest ideal of the end of life
## p. 331 (#377) ############################################
Ideals of life and material civilisation
331
for the hero is found in the picture of Ragnarr Loðbrók who when
tortured in the snake-pit goes laughing to his death. With their
enemies the Vikings had an evil reputation for cunning and deceit, but
the incidents cited in illustration (such as the feigned desire for baptism
on the part of a dying leader, which led to the capture of Luna, and
the frequent mention of feigned retreats) hardly support this: the
enemy were outwitted rather than deceived. Two common but widely
different aspects of Viking character are reflected in the portraiture of
their two chief gods; on the one side Othin (Odin), whose common
epithets are “the wise, the prudent, the sagacious," on the other, Thor,
endowed with mighty strength, but less polished and refined. The
besetting sins of the Vikings were too great love of wine and women.
The rich vine-lands of the Rhine were ceded to the Vikings at their
special request, in 885, and one of the best known examples of Viking
cruelty is the murder of Archbishop Aelfheah (Alphege) at a drunken orgie
in 1012, when he was pelted to death with the skulls of oxen slaughtered
for the feast. Many are the references to their immorality. Wandering
from country to country they often had wives in each and polygamy pre-
vailed, at least among the leaders. From Ireland in the west to Russia in
the east the same story is told. In Ireland we hear of what would seem to
be harems for women, while in Russia we are told of the Grand Duke
Vladimir, great grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian kingdom,
that he had more than 800 concubines, Such excesses were unknown in
Scandinavia itself. Legitimate wives were esteemed and took part in
the national life to an unusual extent. Women at times took part in
fighting, and heroic figures are found in the sagas and other historical
records : such are Ota (Auðr), the wife of Turgeis, who, as a völva or pro-
phetess, gave audience on the high altar at Clonmacnois, and Auðr the
Deep-minded, wife of Olaf the White, whose figure stands out clear among
the early settlers in Iceland.
In outward appearance the Vikings were marked by a love of “purple
and fine raiment. " Foreign, and more especially English, clothing was
much sought after, and when in 968 the Irish plundered Limerick we
hear how they carried off from the Norsemen “their choicest possessions,
their beautiful foreign saddles, their gold and silver, their woven cloths of
every kind and colour, their silk and satin raiment, beauteous and
variegated, both scarlet and green. ” From John of Wallingford we
learn how much attention the Vikings paid to the care of the body,
indulging in Sabbath baths and daily hair-combing. The graves of the
period have often yielded rich finds of ornaments in silver and bronze,
and the geographical distribution of the famous Viking brooches, oval
and convex in shape, can be used as an index of the extent of the
conquests of the Northmen. The style of decoration is that derived
from the interweaving of heads and limbs of animals which is found in
Northern Europe in the preceding age, but the influence of Irish art is
:
CH. XIII.
## p. 332 (#378) ############################################
332
Ships
now often discernible, more especially in the use of spiral and interlacing
designs. English and Carolingian influences are also to be traced. The
same style of ornamentation is to be found in the memorial stones,
as for example in the famous Jellinge stone at the tomb of Gorm the
Old in Jutland. Their houses were wooden but often richly decorated
with carvings and tapestries. In the latter half of the tenth century we
hear how the house of Olaf the Peacock in Iceland was decorated with
scenes from the legends of gods and heroes, such as the fight of Loki
and Heimdallr, Thor's fishing, and Balder's funeral. Traces of tapestry
hangings are found in grave-chambers. The dead chief was often buried
in his ship, and ship-graves have been found not only in Norway but also
at Groix in Brittany. In Denmark grave-chambers of wood seem to
take the place of ship-graves.
Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from
archaeological finds. The Oseberg ship is a vessel for time of peace and
coast-navigation only, but in the Gokstad ship we have an example of
the ordinary war vessel. It dates from about 900, is of oak, clinker-
built, with seats for 16 pairs of rowers, 78 ft. long and 16 ft. broad
amidships, with the rudder at the side. The gunwale was decorated
with shields painted alternately black and gold, and there was a single
sail. In the course of the Viking period their size was greatly increased
and in the famous dragon- and snake-boats of Olaf Tryggvason and
Knut the Great we hear of 34 and even 60 pairs of oars. The trading
vessels probably differed very little from those of war, just as the line
of division between merchant and Viking was often a very thin one.
Time and again we read how, when merchants visited a foreign land,
they arranged a definite time for the conclusion of their business and
agreed after that to treat each other as enemies. The most remarkable
feature about the Vikings as sailors was the fearless way in which they
crossed the open sea, going boldly on such stormy journeys as those to
the Hebrides and Ireland, to Greenland, and even to Vinland or America.
Hitherto, seamen both in peace and war had confined themselves as
much as possible to coasting voyages. The sea was indeed their element,
and the phrase which William of Malmesbury uses (quoting probably
from an old poem) when describing the failure (after four days' trial) on
the part of Guðfrið of Northumbria to settle down at the court of King
Aethelstan, “he returned to piracy as a fish to the sea,” is probably as
true as it is picturesque.
The chief trading centres in Scandinavia itself were Skiringssalr on
the Vík in Norway, Hedeby-Slesvík in Denmark, Bjørkø, Sigtuna and
Lund in Sweden, besides a great market in Bohuslän on the Götaelv where
the three kingdoms met. The chief articles of export were furs, horses,
wool and flesh: those of import would consist chiefly in articles of luxury,
whether for clothing or ornament. The slave-trade also was of the highest
importance: one incident may be mentioned for the vivid light which it
## p. 333 (#379) ############################################
Trade and Social organisation
333
sheds on the international character of Viking trade. Once, in the market
on the Götaelv, the Icelander Höskuldr bought a female slave from the
merchant Gille (a Celtic name), surnamed the Russian (because of his
journeys to that country). The slave proved to be an Irish king's
daughter made captive by Viking raiders. The Scandinavian countries,
like Rome, are very rich in Anglo-Saxon coins, and though many of these
must represent our Danegeld, the fact that they are most frequent in
Eastern Sweden, on the shores of Lake Mälar and in the neighbourhood
of the great waterways connecting Sweden and the Baltic, but above all on
the islands of Öland and Gothland, whence, in all probability, very few of
the Viking raiders came, would seem to shew that there was extensive
peaceful intercourse with England in Viking days. Yet more interesting
are the frequent finds of Oriental coins. They first made their way to
Scandinavia about the end of the ninth century, and are most common
in Sweden. There can be no doubt that the vast majority of these coins
reached Sweden overland through Russia, where extensive finds of
Arabian coins mark the route along which trade at that time travelled
from Asia to the north. The greater number of these coins were
minted at Samarcand and Bagdad.
In social organisation the Viking communities were aristocratic. !
The famous answer of the followers of Rollo when asked who was their
lord: “We have no lord, we are all equal,” was essentially true, but
with their practical genius the Vikings realised that leadership was
necessary if any military success was to be gained, and we find through-
out their history a series of able leaders, sometimes holding the title of
jarl, but, if of royal birth, commonly known as kings. That the title
did not have its full modern connotation is evident from their numbers
and from the frequency with which they changed. When, however, the
Vikings established permanent settlements, hereditary kingship became
common, and royal houses bore sway in Dublin and other Irish towns :
thence a hereditary line of kings was introduced into Northumbria. The
rulership of Normandy was hereditary and so possibly was the kingship
in East Anglia, but in the districts grouped round the Five Boroughs
the organisation was of a different kind, the chief authority resting with
the Lawmen. We find frequent mention of these Lawmen both in
Scandinavia itself and in those countries where Scandinavian influence
prevailed. Originally men skilled in the law, who could state and interpret
it when required, they often presided in the Thing or popular assembly
and represented the local or provincial community as against the king
or his officers, though they do not themselves seem to have exercised
judicial functions. They are usually mentioned in the plural number
and probably acted as a collective body. In England and the Western
Islands they attained a position of yet greater importance. In Man and
the Hebrides they became actual chieftains and are mentioned side by
side with the kings, while it is probable that they were the chief judicial
а
>
CH, XIII.
## p. 334 (#380) ############################################
334
Influence in Ireland
authorities in the aristocratic organisation of the Five Boroughs and other
parts of the Danelaw. They were usually twelve in number, and their
presence may be definitely traced in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. The office would seem as a rule to have been hereditary.
The influence of the Vikings varied from country to country, not
only according to the political and social condition of the lands in which
they settled, but also to some extent according to the nation from which
they came. In Ireland the settlements were chiefly Norse, though there
is some evidence for the presence of Danes in Cork and Limerick.
North Ireland and raided Meath and Connaught, while his wife Ota (O. N.
Auðr) gave audience upon the altar of Clonmacnois. His power cul-
minated in 841, when he usurped the abbacy of Armagh. In 845 he was
captured by the Irish and drowned in Lough Owel. By this time so
numerous were the invading hosts that the chroniclers tell us
this there came great sea-cast floods of foreigners into Erin, so that
there was not a point without a fleet. ” In 849 the invasions developed
a new phase. Hitherto while the Irish had been weakened by much
internecine warfare their enemies had worked with one mind and heart.
Now we read: “A naval expedition of seven score of the Foreigners
came to exercise power over the Foreigners who were before them, so
that they disturbed all Ireland afterwards. ” This means that the Danes
were now taking an active part in the Scandinavian invasions of Ireland,
and we soon find them disputing supremacy with the earlier Norwegian
settlers. At the same time we have the first mention of intrigues
between Irish factions and the foreign invaders, intrigues which were
destined to play an important part in the Irish wars of the next fifty
years. For a time Dublin was in the hands of the Danes, but in 853
one Amhlaeibh (i. e. Olaf), son of the king of Lochlann (i. e. Norway),
came to Ireland and received the submission of Danes and Norsemen
alike, while tribute was given him by the native Irish. Henceforward
Dublin was the chief stronghold of Norse power in Ireland.
This Amhlaeibh was Olaf the White of Norse tradition, the repre-
sentative of that branch of the Yngling family who, according to Ari
Fróði, settled in Ireland. Affairs were now further complicated by the
fact that many Irish forsook Christianity and joined the Norsemen
in their plunderings. These recreant Irish, who probably intermarried
with the Norsemen, were known as the Gall-Gaedhil, i. e. the foreign
Irish, and played an important part in the wars of the next few
years. One of their leaders was Caitill Find, i. e. Ketill the White,
à Norseman with an Irish nickname. Usually they fought on the
side of the Norsemen but at times they played for their own hand.
Olaf was assisted by his brothers Imhar (O. N. Ívarr) and Auisle (O. N.
Auðgísl), and married the daughter of Aedh Finnliath (MacNiall), King
of all Ireland. Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and occasionally Cork
CH. XIII.
## p. 318 (#364) ############################################
318
Ragnarr Loðbrók
were the centres of Norse activity at this time, but there seems to have
been no unity of action among their forces. In 866 Olaf and Auðgísl
made a successful expedition to Pictland, and again in 870–1 Olaf and
Ívarr made a raid on Scotland. Olaf now returned to Norway to assist
his father Goffraidh (O. N. Guðfriðr) and possibly to take part with him
in the great fight at Hafrsfjord against Harold Fairhair. We hear
nothing more of Olaf, and two years later Ívarr, “ king of the Norsemen
of all Ireland and Britain," ended his life.
There now appear on the scene Viking leaders of a different family,
which seems to have over-shadowed that of Olaf. They were the sons of
one Raghnall, who had been expelled from his sovereignty in Norway.
Raghnall had remained in the Orkneys, but his elder sons came to the
British Isles, “being desirous of attacking the Franks and Saxons. ”
Not content with this they pushed on from Ireland across the Canta-
brian sea until they reached Spain. After a successful campaign
against the Moors in Africa they returned to Ireland and settled in
Dublin. So runs the story in the Fragments of Irish Annals edited by
Dugald MacFirbis, and there can be little doubt of its substratum of
truth or of the identification of this Raghnall and his sons with the well-
known figures of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons. In 877 Raghnall's son
Albdann (O. N. Halfdanr) was killed on Strangford Lough, while
fighting against the Norse champion Baraidh (O. N. Barðr) who was
attached to the house of Olaf.
At this point the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall notes a period
of rest for the men of Erin, lasting some forty years and ending in 916.
This statement is substantially true. We do not hear of any large fleets
coming to Ireland, and during these years Viking activity seems chiefly
to have centred in Britain. Trouble was only renewed when the success
of the campaigns of Edward the Elder in England once more drove the
Vikings westward.
We have traced the history of the Vikings in England down to
the first settlement in 851 and 855. During the years which followed
there were raids on the south made by Vikings from Frankish territory,
but the great development took place in 866, when a large Danish army
took up its quarters in East Anglia, whence they advanced to York in
867. Northumbria was weakened by dissension and the Danes captured
York without much trouble. This city was henceforward the stronghold
of Scandinavian power in Northern England, and the Saxon Eoforwíc
soon became the Norse Jórvík or York. The Danes set up a puppet
king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the Tyne and reduced Mercia
to submission. Thence they marched into East Anglia as far as Thetford,
and engaged the forces of Edmund, King of East Anglia, defeating and
slaying him, but whether in actual battle or, as popular tradition would
have it, in later martyrdom is uncertain. The death of St Edmund
soon became an event of European fame, and no event in the Danish
## p. 319 (#365) ############################################
Settlement of the Danelaw
319
invasions was more widely known and no Danish leader more heartily
execrated than Ívarr, their commander on this occasion. After their
victory in East Anglia the Danes attacked Wessex. Their struggle with
Aethelred and his brother Alfred was long and fierce. In the end Danes
and English came to terms by the peace of Wedmore (878), and the
ensuing “ peace of Alfred and Guthrum” (885) defined the boundary
between Alfred's kingdom and the Danish realm in East Anglia. It ran
by the Thames estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of
London), then up the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then east-
wards along the Ouse to Watling Street, somewhere near Fenny or Stony
Stratford. The northern half of Mercia was also in Danish hands, their
authority centring in the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester and Stamford. Northumbria was at the same time under Viking
rule, its king until 877 being that Halfdanr (Halfdene) who was killed
on Strangford Lough. There can be little doubt that the chief Viking
leaders during these years (Halfdanr, Ívarr and Ubbi) were sons of
Ragnarr Loðbrók, the greatest of Viking heroes in Scandinavian tradition,
but it is impossible to say how much truth there may be in the story
which makes their attacks part of a scheme of vengeance for the torture
and death of Ragnarr at the hands of Aella, King of Northumbria.
One incident is perhaps of interest in connexion with the family of
Loðbrók. When Ubbi was fighting in Devonshire in 878 the English
captured from him a raven-banner which, say the Annals of St Neot,
was woven for the sons of Loðbrók by their sisters.
Though Alfred had secured an enlarged and independent kingdom,
his troubles were not at an end, and during the years from 880-896
England suffered from attacks made by raiders issuing from their
quarters on the Seine, the Somme and other Continental rivers. The
Northumbrian and East Anglian settlers remained neutral on the
whole, but they must have been much unsettled by the events of these
years, and when they commenced raiding once more, Alfred built a
fleet of vessels to meet them, which were both swifter and steadier than
the Danish ships. After 896 the struggle between English and Danes
was confined almost entirely to those already settled in the island, no
fresh raiders being mentioned until 921.
During all this time the Vikings were almost continuously active on
the Continent; raids on Frankish territory continued without cessation,
and it was only on the Eider boundary that a permanent peace was
established by a treaty between Louis the German and King Horic. In
845 a Danish fleet of some 120 vessels sailed up the Seine under the
leadership of Reginherus, i. e. probably Ragnarr Loðbrók himself. Paris
was destroyed and the Viking attack was only bought off by the pay-
ment of a large Danegeld. The years from 850–878 have been said, not
without justice, to mark the high tide of Viking invasion in Western
Frankish territory. We find Danish armies taking up more or less
a
CH. XIII.
## p. 320 (#366) ############################################
320
The Vikings in France, Spain and Italy
permanent quarters on the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Somme, the Seine,
the Loire and the Garonne, prominent among their leaders being one
Berno, or Björn Jarnsíða (Ironside), another son of Ragnarr Loðbrók.
A curious light is thrown on the effect of these raids upon the peasantry
by an incident in 859, when we hear of a rising of the populace between
the Seine and the Loire in the hope of expelling the Danes. The annals
are not quite clear as to whether it was the Frankish nobles or the
Danes who crushed the rising, but the outbreak indicates dissatisfaction
with the half-hearted defence of the country by the nobility.
In the years 859-862 a second great expedition to Spain and the
Mediterranean took place. Sailing from the Seine under the leadership
of Björn Jarnsíða and Hasting (O. N. Hásteinn), they made an unsuc-
cessful attack on Galicia and sailed round the coast through the
straits of Gibraltar. They attacked Nekur on the coast of Morocco.
There was fierce fighting with the Moors but in the end the Vikings were
victorious, and many of the “Blue-men," as they called the Moors, were
ultimately carried off prisoners to Ireland, where we hear of their fate in
the Fragments of Irish Annals. Returning to Spain they landed at
Murcia and proceeded thence to the Balearic Islands. Ravaging these
they made their way north to the French border, landed in Roussillon,
and advanced inland as far as Arles-sur-Tech. Taking to their ships,
they sailed north along the coast to the mouth of the Rhone and spent
the winter on the Island of Camargue in the Rhone delta. Plundering
the old Roman cities of Provence, they went up the Rhone as far as
Valence. In the spring they sailed to Italy, where they captured several
towns including Pisa and Luna, at the mouth of the Magra, south of
the bay of Spezia. The conquest of Luna was famed both in Norman
and Scandinavian tradition.
It is represented as the crowning feat of
the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, who captured it under the delusion that
they had reached Rome itself. From Luna they sailed back through
the straits of Gibraltar and finally returned to Brittany in the spring of
862. The Vikings had now all but encircled Europe with their raids,
for it was in the year 865 that the Swedish Rôs (Russians) laid siege to
Constantinople.
In France itself the tide began to turn by the end of 865. In
November of that year the Vikings finally abandoned Aquitaine, and in
the next year
the Seine was for a time left free. The tide had now set
towards England, and at the same time the Franks commenced fortifying
their towns against Viking attack, a policy which was pursued a little
later by Edward the Elder in England. For our knowledge of this
period we have to rely almost entirely upon the chronicles of various
monastic writers compiling their records in isolation from one another,
so that it is almost impossible to trace any definite or general design in
Viking attacks. The leaders change continually and almost the only
constant figure is that Roric, brother of Harold, who was settled in
## p. 321 (#367) ############################################
The Vikings in France and England
321
Friesland. For some forty years he remained there, now in friendly,
now in hostile relations with both Charles the Bald and Louis the
German, and he does not disappear from our records until after 873.
About the same time Horic the Younger must have died, for we find two
new kings reigning simultaneously in Denmark, the brothers Sigefridus and
Halbdenus. Both were probably sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, the former
being the famous Sigurðr Snake-eye and the latter the already-mentioned
Halfdanr.
In the year 879 the tide of invasion turned once more towards France,
chiefly owing to two causes. The great attack on England had failed
or at least had led to a peaceful settlement, which furnished no outlet for
Viking energy,
while at the same time affairs in France were once more
unsettled. Charles the Bald died in 877, followed 18 months later by
his son Louis the Stammerer, who left two youthful children, Louis and
Carloman, and a posthumous son Charles. Factions arose and the
Vikings were never slow to hear and take advantage of them. When a
great fleet which had wintered at Fulham found no opening in England,
it crossed to France. There the young Louis won a decisive victory over
a
it at Saucourt on the Somme, and the victory finds its record in the well-
known Ludwigslied. An attack by the Northmen on Saxony and the
lower Rhine was more successful. In a great fight which took place
somewhere on the Lüneburg Heath 2 February 880, there fell Duke Bruno
of Saxony together with two bishops, eleven counts and eighteen royal
vassals. In 882 the Emperor Charles the Fat came to terms with the
Viking leaders, Sigefrid and Guðröðr. King Guðröðr, who was probably
a son of the Harold of Mayence, himself accepted Christianity and
was granted lands on the lower Rhine, and at the same time undertook
to defend Charles's territory from attack. King Sigefrid retired with a
heavy payment of money. Guðröðr received his lands on much the same
conditions as Charles the Simple granted Normandy to Rollo, but
intriguing with the enemies of Charles he aroused hostility and was slain
in 885. He had thrown away the chance of establishing a Normandy in
the Low Countries. Viking rule was now brought to an end in Frisia,
and henceforward we hear only of sporadic attacks which continued into
the tenth century. So also from 885 Saxony was free from attack, and
when trouble was renewed in the tenth century the attack was not made
by sea but across the Eider boundary.
The West Frankish kingdom was still in the midst of the storm.
Louis III and Carloman and the local magnates offered a stout resistance,
but it seemed impossible to throw off the yoke of the here which ravaged
the whole country between the Rhine and the Loire. The contest cul-
minated in the great siege of Paris by King Sigefrid in 885–7. The
Viking army numbered some 40,000 men with 700 vessels, and it was only
through the stout resistance of Count Odo, and Bishop Joscelin and the
withdrawal of the Vikings to Burgundy by an arrangement with Charles
21
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 322 (#368) ############################################
322
Founding of Normandy
the Fat, that the siege was raised. With the overthrow of Charles in
887 the West Frankish realm fell into anarchy, and the Vikings ravaged
Burgundy and eastern France almost without a check, while Brittany and
the Cotentin fared no better. Finally the great here concentrated its
attack on the valley of the Scheldt. In the autumn of 891 they were
defeated on the banks of the Dyle in Brabant by the new King Arnulf,
and after more desultory fighting they sailed for England in the autumn
of 892. They had been in France some thirteen years, ravaging and
plundering, and now for the first time since 840 France was free of the
Northmen. In England, after three years' hard fighting, the greater
number settled down to a peaceful existence in East Anglia and North-
umbria, but a few in whom the spirit of roving was still strong returned
to the Seine in 896. Twenty-five years earlier the Vikings had seemed
in a fair way to conquer Europe, but now the battle of Edington in
England (878), the siege of Paris in France (885–7) and the battle of
the Dyle in Germany (891), were significant of failure in these three
kingdoms alike.
The West Frankish realm was weakened by the dissensions of the
rival kings Odo and Charles the Simple, and soon all the old troubles
were renewed. Unfortunately the Annals provide us with very meagre
information about events during the next fifteen years, and we know
almost nothing about the critical period immediately preceding the
cession of Normandy to the Northmen. The Vikings would seem to have
settled themselves in the lower basin of the Seine, with Rouen as their
centre, and by 910 they appear under the leadership of the famous Rollo
(O. N. Hrollaugr). This Viking was probably of Norse origin (the Heims-
kringla describes him as one Hrólfr, son of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre), though
the main body of the settlers were certainly Danes, and he had already
made himself a name in England, where he was closely associated with
Guthrum of East Anglia. He probably came to France soon after 896 and
gradually became the chief person among that band of equals. For some
time he carried on a hard struggle with Charles the Simple, and then,
towards the end of 911, each party frankly recognised the other's strength.
Charles could not oust the Northmen from the Seine valley, while they were
unable permanently to extend their settlement, so at St Clair-sur-Epte
it was agreed that the part of the Seine basin which includes the
counties of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux, together with the country lying
between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea, should be left in the hands
of the Northmen on condition that they defended the kingdom against
attack, received baptism and did homage to Charles for their lands.
To these were added in 924 the districts of Bayeux and Séez, and in 933
those of Avranches and Coutances, thus bringing the Normans right up
to the Breton border. With the establishment of Normandy, Viking
activity was practically at an end in the Frankish kingdom : there were
still Northmen on the Loire who ravaged far inland, while the settlers
## p. 323 (#369) ############################################
Scandinavian kings in Northumbria
323
a
in Normandy freely raided Brittany, but no fresh settlements were made
and the Viking here had become a recognised part of the Frankish ost.
We must now turn our attention to the Danish settlements in
England. We have seen that already by the year 880 they had attained
the same measure of independence which was granted to Normandy in
911, but their later fortunes were by no means so peaceful or uneventful.
The Danes in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were not willing to
confine themselves to their settlements, and soon Edward the Elder and his
sister Aethelfleda, the “Lady of the Mercians,” established a line of fortified
towns in Southern Mercia preparatory to an advance on Danish territory.
By the year 917 all was ready. Derby fell in that year and Leicester in
918 before the advance of Aethelfleda, while in the same years
Northampton, Stamford and Nottingham were captured by Edward, and
East Anglia made its submission. By the end of his reign Edward was
master of the whole realm, including English, Danes and Norwegians.
These last were settled chiefly in Northumbria, where we find towards
the close of the ninth and in the early years of the tenth century a line
of kings closely associated with the Norse kingdom of Dublin. The
Norsemen were often in alliance with the Scots, and matters came to
a crisis in 937 when a great confederation of Scots, Strathclyde Welsh,
and Norsemen was formed against Aethelstan. The confederates were
defeated in the famous battle of Brunanburh (perhaps the modern
Birrenswark in Dumfriesshire), and England was freed from its greatest
danger since the days of King Alfred and his struggle with Guthrum
(O. N. Guðormr) and the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. The Norse leaders
retired for a time, but trouble was renewed in 940 by an Anlaf (? Olaf
Guðfridson)'. Next year the famous Anlaf Sihtricsson (O. N. Olafr Sig.
tryggson), nicknamed “Cuaran," is found at York. He marched south and
endeavoured to conquer the district of the Five Boroughs. King Edmund
advanced to their help, and soon drove Anlaf out of Northern Mercia
and relieved the Danish boroughs from Norse oppression. During the
next twelve years Northumbria was in a state of anarchy. At times
Anlaf was acknowledged as king, at others English sovereignty was
recognised. Twice during this period Eric Blood-axe, son of Harold
Fairhair, appeared as king, but was finally expelled in 954. Later
Scandinavian tradition tells us that Aethelstan was on friendly terms with
Harold Fairhair, and that when Eric was expelled from Norway in 934
he was welcomed to England by Aethelstan and given charge of North-
umbria, where he ruled at York. Edmund was less favourably disposed
towards Norwegians and appointed one Olaf in his stead. Ultimately Eric
was defeated and killed by his rival. Eric may have been appointed to
rule Northumbria after the defeat of Anlaf-Olaf at Brunanburh, while the
appointment of Olaf as ruler of Northumbria may refer to the partition
of England between Olaf and Edmund in 942. With the expulsion of
1 These Anlafs are variously identified ; but cf. infra, p. 368.
CH, XIII.
21-2
## p. 324 (#370) ############################################
324
The battles of Clontarf and Maldon
Eric in 954 (Olaf had already retired to Dublin) Norse rule in Northumbria
was at an end. Henceforward that district was directly under the rule
of the English king, and earls were appointed in his name.
We have seen that during these
years
there was intimate connexion
between the Norsemen in Ireland and Northumbria, and that the kings
of Northumbria often ruled in Dublin at the same time. Viking rule in
Ireland was in a state of flux. The chief centres of influence were Dublin
and Limerick, but their rulers were often at variance with one another
and a succession of great Irish leaders, Niall Glundubh, Muirchertach
and Brian Borumha (Boru), made bold and often successful attacks on the
Viking strongholds. Brian was the greatest and most famous of these
leaders, and when he became chief king of all Ireland, he built a great
fleet and received tribute from Northmen and Irish alike. His power
was threatened by the treachery of his wife Gormflaith, who intrigued
with her brother Maelmordha, King of Leinster, and Sigtryggr of the
Silken Beard, King of Dublin, against Brian. A great confederacy of the
western Vikings was formed, including Sigurðr, the earl of the Orkneys, and
men from the Shetlands, the Western Islands, Man and Scandinavian
settlements on the Continent. Dublin was the rendezvous and thither
the great army gathered by Palm Sunday 1014. Brian had collected a
vast army, including Vikings from Limerick, and on Good Friday the two
forces met in the decisive battle of Clontarf, just north of Dublin. For
some time the fortune of battle wavered, both Brian and Sigurðr fell, but
in the end the Irish were completely victorious, and the Vikings had lost
their last and greatest fight in Ireland. They were not expelled from
their settlements, but henceforward they led a peaceful existence under
Irish authority and the Norse kingdoms of Dublin, Limerick and other
cities either lost all power or ceased to exist.
After the fall of the Northumbrian kingdom in 954 England had
peace for some five-and-twenty years, especially under the strong rule of
Edgar, but with the weak Aethelred II troubles were renewed and from
980 onwards the whole of the English coast was open to attack.
These
raids were the result of a fresh outburst of Viking activity over the whole
of the British Isles. Danes and Norsemen united under one banner and
their leader was the famous Olaf Tryggvason. In 991 after ravaging
the east coast Olaf engaged Brihtnoth, the ealdorman of East Anglia,
near Maldon. The struggle was heroic and gave occasion to one of the
finest of Old English poems, but Brihtnoth fell, and an ignominious
peace was made whereby for the first time since the days of Alfred
“Danegeld” was paid to buy off Viking attacks. Svein Forkbeard now
united forces with Olaf and together they besieged London in 994: the
siege was a failure, but all southern England was harried and once more
a heavy Danegeld had to be paid. In 995 Olaf went to Norway hoping
to gain the kingdom by the overthrow of the tyranny of Earl Hákon, while
Svein returned to Denmark. The raids continued but England saw nothing
## p. 325 (#371) ############################################
King Svein and King Knut
325
more of King Svein until he returned in 1003 to avenge the ill-advised
massacre of St Brice's day. Year after year the kingdom was ravaged,
Danegeld after Danegeld was paid, until in 1013 Aethelred fled to
Normandy and Svein became King of all England. A few months later
he died suddenly at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire (February 1014).
His English realm went to his younger son Knut. On the death of
Aethelred in 1016, his son Edmund Ironside offered so stout a resistance
that for a few months, until his death by treachery, he compelled Knut
to share the realm with him. Knut then ruled alone, firmly and well
until his death in 1035, having succeeded to the Danish throne also in
1018. On his death the succession was not settled but, after some
difficulty, Harold Harefoot succeeded his father in England. He was
succeeded in 1040 by his brother Harthacnut (O. N. Harðacnútr), but
neither king was of the same stamp as their father and they were both
overshadowed by the great Godwin, Earl of Wessex. When Harthacnut
died in 1042 the male line in descent from Knut was extinct and,
though some of the Danes were in favour of choosing Knut's sister's son
Svein, Godwin secured the election of Edward the Confessor, who had
been recalled from Normandy and highly honoured by Harthacnut
himself. With the accession of Edward, Danish rule in England was at
an end, and never afterwards was there any serious question of a Scan-
dinavian kingship either in or over England.
We have now traced the story of Viking activity in its chief centres
in the British Isles and the mainland of Europe. A word remains to be
said about other settlements in Western Europe, in the Orkneys, the
Shetlands, the Western Islands (or as the Norsemen called them
“Suðreyjar” (i. e. Sodor), the southern islands) and Man, and the Scottish
mainland, and then we must turn our attention to Eastern Europe, to the
famous Jómsviking settlement in North Germany and to the important
but little known movements of the Vikings through Russia down to the
shores of the Mediterranean. We have seen how early the Shetlands were
settled, and there is no doubt that it was not long before Vikings made
their way by the Orkneys round the coast of Scotland to the Hebrides.
From the Orkneys settlements were made in Sutherland and Caithness,
while Galloway (possibly the land of the Gall-Gaedhil, the foreign Irish)
was settled from the Hebrides. In the ninth century the Norse element
in the Hebrides was already so strong that the Irish called the islands
Innsi Gall (i. e. the islands of the foreigners) and their inhabitants were
known as the Gall-Gaedhil. Olaf the White and Ívarr made more than
one expedition from Ireland to the lowlands of Scotland, and the former
was married to Auðr the daughter of Ketill Flat-nose, who had made
himself the greatest chieftain in the Western Islands. When Harold
Fairhair won his victory at Hafrsfjord he felt that his power would still
be insecure unless he gained the submission of these Vikings who belonged
to the great families in rivalry with him. He made therefore a mighty
CH, XIII.
## p. 326 (#372) ############################################
326 The Orkneys, the Shetlands, Western Islands and Man
a
expedition to the Shetlands, the Orkneys and the west coast of Scotland,
received their submission and gave the Northern Islands to Sigurðr,
brother of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre, as his vassal. Sigurðr's successor
Einar, known as Turf Einar because he first taught the islanders to cut
peat for fuel, founded a long line of Orkney earls. Warrior and skald,
he came into collision with Harold Fairhair, but made his peace on
promise of a heavy fine. When the peasants declared themselves unable
to pay it, Einar paid it himself and received in return all the óðal
(the holdings of the freeholders) as his own property. The most
famous of the Orkney earls was Sigurðr Loðvesson, who succeeded c. 980.
Though he acknowledged the overlordship of Earl Hákon, he ruled with
almost independent power, and made himself popular by the return of
the óðal. After a reign of thirty years he fell fighting for the Viking
cause at Clontarf in 1014. Of the Vikings in the Western Islands from
Lewis to the Isle of Man we have less definite and continuous record.
There was a line of kings in the tenth century, of whom the most famous
were Maccus or Magnus and Guðröðr, the son of one Harold. They
are found ruling with certain officers known as “lawmen" by their side.
The Isle of Man, which had kings of its own, was at times under their
authority, at others under that of the kingdom of Dublin. It was
probably from the Isle of Man that the extensive Norse settlements in
Cumberland and Westmorland were made, and either from here or from
Ireland came the various Viking raiders who throughout the tenth
century made attacks on Wales. There they founded no permanent
kingdom, but left a mark in place nomenclature along the coast from
Anglesey to Pembrokeshire and in some districts of South Wales.
From the days of Guðröðr in the beginning of the ninth century to
those of Harold Gormson (Bluetooth) in the middle of the tenth, Denmark
had paid little heed to her Slavonic neighbours, but the rivalry between
Harold Gormson and the Emperor Otto probably turned the Danish
king's attention eastwards, and it was in his days that the great Viking
settlement of Jómsborg was established at the mouth of the Oder. For
many years there had been an important trading centre at Julin on the
island of Wollin, where merchants from Scandinavia, Saxony and Russia
were settled. Large finds of Byzantine and Arabic coins belonging to the
tenth century have been made both in Denmark and in Wollin, bearing
witness to the extensive trade which passed through Julin between
Denmark and the Orient, using as its high road the broad stream of the
Oder and the great Russian rivers. To secure to Denmark its full share
in the products of the rich lands south of the Baltic and in the trade
with the East, Harold built the fortified town of Jómsborg close to
Julin and established there a famous Viking community. He gave
them certain laws, and we probably find their substance in the laws given
by Palnatóki to his followers in the unhistorical account of the founding
of Jómsborg given in Jómsvíkingusaga No one under 18 or over 50
## p. 327 (#373) ############################################
The Jómsvikings
32
was admitted to their fellowship, no woman was allowed in their towi
and none of the warriors might be absent for more than three days.
They were bound by oaths of fidelity to one another and each must
avenge the fall of any of his companions. No word of fear was allowed
and all outside news must in the first place be told to their leader. All
plunder was divided by lot among the community. The harbour of
Jómsborg could shelter a fleet of 300 vessels and was protected by a
mole with twelve iron gates. The Jómsvikings played an important part
in the affairs of Denmark and Norway in the late tenth and early eleventh
centuries, and made many Viking expeditions both in Baltic lands and in
the West. In 1043 their stronghold was destroyed by Magnus the Good
of Norway. Other Vikings from Denmark made raids still further east
than Jómsborg, but the true Viking conquest of those districts was due not
to the Danes but to the Swedes.
In the chronicle of the Russian monk Nestor (c. 1100) we read how
in the middle of the ninth century certain Varangians came from beyond
the sea and that one band of them, the Rus, was soon invited to rule
among the Slavs and put an end to their mutual quarrels. Their leader
Rurik (O. N. Hrærekr) settled in Novgorod, while two of his men,
Askold (O. N. Höskuldr) and Dir (O. N. Dyri), sailed down the Dnieper
and settled in Kiev. These events probably took place in the half
century preceding 862. Twenty years later Kiev was conquered by
Rurik's successor Olég (O. N. Helgi), and Kiev, the mother of all Russian
towns, was henceforward the capital of the Russian state. From Kiev
the Rus advanced down the Dnieper and in 865 ravaged the shores of
the Black Sea (soon to be known as the Russian Sea) and the Sea of
Marmora. They appeared with a fleet of 200 vessels before Constan-
tinople, but the city was saved by a sudden storm and the greater part
of the fleet of the “Rhôs," as Byzantine historians call them, was
destroyed. Olég made a more successful attack in 907 with a fleet
of 2000 vessels, and the Greeks were forced to pay a heavy ransom.
Attacks of this kind continued down to the middle of the eleventh
century. At the same time the Rus secured valuable trading privileges
from the Eastern emperors and exchanged furs, slaves and honey for the
luxuries of the East. From Arab writers we hear of these Rus in
districts still further east, on the banks of the Volga and the shores
of the Caspian.
Though the point has been hotly contested by Slavonic patriots,
there can be no doubt that these Rhos or Rus are really Swedish
Vikings. Some of them accompanied a Greek embassy to the Emperor
Louis the Pious in 839 and, though they called themselves Rhos, Louis
made inquiries and found that they were really of Swedish nation-
ality. They were detained for some time under suspicion of being
spies: the Emperor no doubt feared some fresh design against the
Empire on the part of the Northmen. A few years later, when the
a
CH, XIII.
## p. 328 (#374) ############################################
328
The Swedes in Russia
Vikings attacked Seville (844), an Arab writer calls them Rūs, using
probably a name for the Vikings which was already well known in the
East. The descriptions of the life of the ancient Rus, which we find in
Greek and Arabic writers, tally in remarkable fashion with those of the
Vikings in the West, and archaeological and philological evidence tends
to strengthen the belief that their original home was in Scandinavia.
Certain types of fibulae found in Western Russia are derived from
Scandinavia, and the hoards of Anglo-Saxon pennies and sceatts found
there are probably our Danegeld. One runic inscription, belonging to
the eleventh century and shewing evidence of connexion with Gothland,
has been found in a burial mound in Berezan, an island at the mouth
of the Dnieper. Professor Braun says that no others have been found
because of the rarity of suitable stone. The names of the Dnieper
rapids as given in their Russian form (side by side with the Slavonic)
by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (c. 950) are undoubtedly Scandinavian
in origin. Exactly how the term Rus came to be applied to the Swedish
nation (or a part of it) has been much disputed'. Still more difficult is
the question of the origin of the term Varangian or Variag, to use the
Russian form. We have seen that it is applied to the whole of the
nation of whom the Rus formed part. It is also given to the guard of
the Byzantine emperors. It is probable that the term Varangians was
first applied to the whole of the Scandinavian peoples, but more espe-
cially to the Swedes with whom the Slavs had chiefly to deal, and later
to the Emperor's guard recruited from these hardy Northerners. Most
famous of such Varangians was the great Harold Hardrada, who after a
career of adventure in the East ultimately fell at Stamford Bridge in 1066.
Of the later history of the Scandinavians in Russia we know little,
but it is probable that by the year 1000 they were largely Slavised
and by the end of the eleventh century they were entirely absorbed by
the native element.
We have now traced the main outlines of Viking activity in eastern
and western Europe: it remains to say something of their civilisation
and its influence on the development of the various countries in which
they formed settlements.
During the years of Viking activity the Scandinavian peoples stood
at a critical period in the history of their civilisation : side by side with
a large element of primitive barbarism we find certain well-developed
forms of civilisation, while throughout their activity the Vikings shewed
an eager understanding and appreciation of the culture of the older
civilisations then prevailing in western Europe. This strange blend
of barbarism and culture finds its clearest illustration in their daily life
and in the slow and halting passage from heathendom to Christianity.
i The form Rus is probably the Slavonic version of the Finnish Ruotsi, the name
given by the Finns to the Swedes generally, and taken from the district of Uppland,
known as Roþr, with which they were most familiar.
## p. 329 (#375) ############################################
Viking civilisation
329
а
Dr Alexander Bugge has pointed out for us how many characteristic
features of Viking life find their closest parallel among uncivilised peoples
of the ancient or of the modern world. Their cruelty in warfare finds
illustration in their custom of exposing the heads of their enemies
outside their camps and towns, or in the strange picture given us in
some Irish annals of Danes cooking their food on the field of battle on
spits stuck in the bodies of their fallen foes. The custom of human
sacrifice was fairly common, while that of cutting the blood-eagle in
the back of the fallen foe is well known from the vengeance for their
father taken by the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. Children were not spared
in warfare and were often tossed on the spears of their foes. A curious
survival of primitive habit is found in the famous Berserk fury, when
men in the heat of battle were seized with sudden madness and, according
to the popular belief, received a double portion of strength and lost all
sense of bodily pain. There is of course much that is superstitious in
this idea, but it finds its parallel in the “running amok” of the races
of the Malay peninsula. Side by side with these traits of primitive
barbarism we find certain well-developed forms of culture, an extensive
commerce, a mastery of the whole art of shipbuilding, and great artistic
skill, shewn not only in articles of personal adornment but also in the
sculptured memorial stones to be found from Gothland in the East to
Man in the West. In warfare their cavalry were skilled, and they under-
stood the construction of siege engines with the whole art of fortification.
Above all the Northmen had a genius for law, and few early communities
shew their aptitude in the making of laws or such strictness in their
observance.
The passage from heathendom to Christianity at this critical period
is in some ways even more interesting. We have already seen how in
the middle years of the ninth century Christianity was preached in
Denmark and Sweden, but it had little effect on the main body of the
nations concerned. The best evidence of this is to be found perhaps in
the fact that it is in all probability to the ninth and tenth centuries
that we owe the poems of the elder Edda, the main source of our
knowledge of Old Norse mythology and cosmogony. It is true, no doubt,
that in some of these poems we find a note of detachment, touches of
irony and even of burlesque, which remind us that the belief in the old
gods is passing away, but in the great body of those which deal with
the world of the Aesir, there is no question of fading beliefs or of
insincere statement. The greater number of the Vikings were undoubted
heathen, and like the impious Onlafbald when defying the power of
St Cuthbert would have sworn by their great gods Thor and Othin.
When the Danes made peace with Alfred in 876 they swore an oath on
the holy ring, which would be found on the altar of every heathen
temple : such a ring sacred to Thor was taken by the Irish from a
temple in Dublin in 996. There was a grove sacred to Thor just north
CH, XIII.
## p. 330 (#376) ############################################
330
Christianity and heathendom
of Dublin and place-names throughout the British Isles and in Normandy
bear witness to the worship of this god. At the same time, in religion
as in everything else, the Vikings shewed themselves very ready to seize
new ideas and, more especially, to avail themselves of any advantages
which adhesion to the Christian religion might give. Scandinavian
merchants settled in the various European countries were often “prime-
signed,” i. e. received the sign of the cross, preliminary to baptism, which
raised them to the rank of catechumens and enabled them to live in
trading and social intercourse with Christians, while they did not
necessarily proceed to the full renunciation of their heathen faith. Even
in the ninth century, when the Danes were fighting the Norsemen
in Ireland, we hear how they invoked the aid of St Patrick, thinking
that he must take vengeance on those who had done him such
injury. When victorious they gave him large offerings, for “the Danes
were a people with a certain piety, whereby they could refrain from
flesh and from women for a time. ” As was to be expected in a time of
transition from one faith to another, superstition was rife and more
than once the Viking hosts fell a prey to it. When the army of Ragnarr
Loðbrók was besieging Paris in 845 his followers were attacked by a
mysterious sickness : prayer to the heathen gods was unsuccessful, but
when, on the advice of a Christian prisoner, they prayed to his God,
wisely abstaining at the same time from flesh and mead, the plague was
removed. The blending of the old and new is happily illustrated in the
sepulchral stones of the Isle of Man and Gothland: here we have stones
in the shape of a cross, or with the sign of the cross on them, decorated
with scenes from Valhalla or with an inscription praying at the same time
for the repose of the dead man's soul and that God may betray those who
betrayed him. More than once do we hear of men who believed neither
in the heathen gods nor in Christ and had faith in nought but their own
strength: the nickname “the godless” is by no means unfrequent
among the settlers in Iceland. Throughout the period, however,
Christianity made steady advance : by the year 921 we find the Vikings
sparing hospitals and churches when sacking Armagh; the great king
Olaf Cuaran, who died in 981, spent his old age as a monk in Iona; at
one time in the tenth century the primates of York and Canterbury were
both of Scandinavian family, and in the later tenth and early eleventh
centuries the Roman Church had no more faithful sons than the
Normans.
Their general philosophy of life was that every man must rely on
himself and his own wisdom; he must place no reliance on others, least
of all upon women. The great aim in life is to attain fame and fair
speech from men after death. Though their beliefs were strongly tinged
with fatalism, this brought no weakening of character or gloom of out-
look. “ Joyous and happy must every man be until death comes upon
him,” is the counsel of Hávamál, and the highest ideal of the end of life
## p. 331 (#377) ############################################
Ideals of life and material civilisation
331
for the hero is found in the picture of Ragnarr Loðbrók who when
tortured in the snake-pit goes laughing to his death. With their
enemies the Vikings had an evil reputation for cunning and deceit, but
the incidents cited in illustration (such as the feigned desire for baptism
on the part of a dying leader, which led to the capture of Luna, and
the frequent mention of feigned retreats) hardly support this: the
enemy were outwitted rather than deceived. Two common but widely
different aspects of Viking character are reflected in the portraiture of
their two chief gods; on the one side Othin (Odin), whose common
epithets are “the wise, the prudent, the sagacious," on the other, Thor,
endowed with mighty strength, but less polished and refined. The
besetting sins of the Vikings were too great love of wine and women.
The rich vine-lands of the Rhine were ceded to the Vikings at their
special request, in 885, and one of the best known examples of Viking
cruelty is the murder of Archbishop Aelfheah (Alphege) at a drunken orgie
in 1012, when he was pelted to death with the skulls of oxen slaughtered
for the feast. Many are the references to their immorality. Wandering
from country to country they often had wives in each and polygamy pre-
vailed, at least among the leaders. From Ireland in the west to Russia in
the east the same story is told. In Ireland we hear of what would seem to
be harems for women, while in Russia we are told of the Grand Duke
Vladimir, great grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian kingdom,
that he had more than 800 concubines, Such excesses were unknown in
Scandinavia itself. Legitimate wives were esteemed and took part in
the national life to an unusual extent. Women at times took part in
fighting, and heroic figures are found in the sagas and other historical
records : such are Ota (Auðr), the wife of Turgeis, who, as a völva or pro-
phetess, gave audience on the high altar at Clonmacnois, and Auðr the
Deep-minded, wife of Olaf the White, whose figure stands out clear among
the early settlers in Iceland.
In outward appearance the Vikings were marked by a love of “purple
and fine raiment. " Foreign, and more especially English, clothing was
much sought after, and when in 968 the Irish plundered Limerick we
hear how they carried off from the Norsemen “their choicest possessions,
their beautiful foreign saddles, their gold and silver, their woven cloths of
every kind and colour, their silk and satin raiment, beauteous and
variegated, both scarlet and green. ” From John of Wallingford we
learn how much attention the Vikings paid to the care of the body,
indulging in Sabbath baths and daily hair-combing. The graves of the
period have often yielded rich finds of ornaments in silver and bronze,
and the geographical distribution of the famous Viking brooches, oval
and convex in shape, can be used as an index of the extent of the
conquests of the Northmen. The style of decoration is that derived
from the interweaving of heads and limbs of animals which is found in
Northern Europe in the preceding age, but the influence of Irish art is
:
CH. XIII.
## p. 332 (#378) ############################################
332
Ships
now often discernible, more especially in the use of spiral and interlacing
designs. English and Carolingian influences are also to be traced. The
same style of ornamentation is to be found in the memorial stones,
as for example in the famous Jellinge stone at the tomb of Gorm the
Old in Jutland. Their houses were wooden but often richly decorated
with carvings and tapestries. In the latter half of the tenth century we
hear how the house of Olaf the Peacock in Iceland was decorated with
scenes from the legends of gods and heroes, such as the fight of Loki
and Heimdallr, Thor's fishing, and Balder's funeral. Traces of tapestry
hangings are found in grave-chambers. The dead chief was often buried
in his ship, and ship-graves have been found not only in Norway but also
at Groix in Brittany. In Denmark grave-chambers of wood seem to
take the place of ship-graves.
Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from
archaeological finds. The Oseberg ship is a vessel for time of peace and
coast-navigation only, but in the Gokstad ship we have an example of
the ordinary war vessel. It dates from about 900, is of oak, clinker-
built, with seats for 16 pairs of rowers, 78 ft. long and 16 ft. broad
amidships, with the rudder at the side. The gunwale was decorated
with shields painted alternately black and gold, and there was a single
sail. In the course of the Viking period their size was greatly increased
and in the famous dragon- and snake-boats of Olaf Tryggvason and
Knut the Great we hear of 34 and even 60 pairs of oars. The trading
vessels probably differed very little from those of war, just as the line
of division between merchant and Viking was often a very thin one.
Time and again we read how, when merchants visited a foreign land,
they arranged a definite time for the conclusion of their business and
agreed after that to treat each other as enemies. The most remarkable
feature about the Vikings as sailors was the fearless way in which they
crossed the open sea, going boldly on such stormy journeys as those to
the Hebrides and Ireland, to Greenland, and even to Vinland or America.
Hitherto, seamen both in peace and war had confined themselves as
much as possible to coasting voyages. The sea was indeed their element,
and the phrase which William of Malmesbury uses (quoting probably
from an old poem) when describing the failure (after four days' trial) on
the part of Guðfrið of Northumbria to settle down at the court of King
Aethelstan, “he returned to piracy as a fish to the sea,” is probably as
true as it is picturesque.
The chief trading centres in Scandinavia itself were Skiringssalr on
the Vík in Norway, Hedeby-Slesvík in Denmark, Bjørkø, Sigtuna and
Lund in Sweden, besides a great market in Bohuslän on the Götaelv where
the three kingdoms met. The chief articles of export were furs, horses,
wool and flesh: those of import would consist chiefly in articles of luxury,
whether for clothing or ornament. The slave-trade also was of the highest
importance: one incident may be mentioned for the vivid light which it
## p. 333 (#379) ############################################
Trade and Social organisation
333
sheds on the international character of Viking trade. Once, in the market
on the Götaelv, the Icelander Höskuldr bought a female slave from the
merchant Gille (a Celtic name), surnamed the Russian (because of his
journeys to that country). The slave proved to be an Irish king's
daughter made captive by Viking raiders. The Scandinavian countries,
like Rome, are very rich in Anglo-Saxon coins, and though many of these
must represent our Danegeld, the fact that they are most frequent in
Eastern Sweden, on the shores of Lake Mälar and in the neighbourhood
of the great waterways connecting Sweden and the Baltic, but above all on
the islands of Öland and Gothland, whence, in all probability, very few of
the Viking raiders came, would seem to shew that there was extensive
peaceful intercourse with England in Viking days. Yet more interesting
are the frequent finds of Oriental coins. They first made their way to
Scandinavia about the end of the ninth century, and are most common
in Sweden. There can be no doubt that the vast majority of these coins
reached Sweden overland through Russia, where extensive finds of
Arabian coins mark the route along which trade at that time travelled
from Asia to the north. The greater number of these coins were
minted at Samarcand and Bagdad.
In social organisation the Viking communities were aristocratic. !
The famous answer of the followers of Rollo when asked who was their
lord: “We have no lord, we are all equal,” was essentially true, but
with their practical genius the Vikings realised that leadership was
necessary if any military success was to be gained, and we find through-
out their history a series of able leaders, sometimes holding the title of
jarl, but, if of royal birth, commonly known as kings. That the title
did not have its full modern connotation is evident from their numbers
and from the frequency with which they changed. When, however, the
Vikings established permanent settlements, hereditary kingship became
common, and royal houses bore sway in Dublin and other Irish towns :
thence a hereditary line of kings was introduced into Northumbria. The
rulership of Normandy was hereditary and so possibly was the kingship
in East Anglia, but in the districts grouped round the Five Boroughs
the organisation was of a different kind, the chief authority resting with
the Lawmen. We find frequent mention of these Lawmen both in
Scandinavia itself and in those countries where Scandinavian influence
prevailed. Originally men skilled in the law, who could state and interpret
it when required, they often presided in the Thing or popular assembly
and represented the local or provincial community as against the king
or his officers, though they do not themselves seem to have exercised
judicial functions. They are usually mentioned in the plural number
and probably acted as a collective body. In England and the Western
Islands they attained a position of yet greater importance. In Man and
the Hebrides they became actual chieftains and are mentioned side by
side with the kings, while it is probable that they were the chief judicial
а
>
CH, XIII.
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334
Influence in Ireland
authorities in the aristocratic organisation of the Five Boroughs and other
parts of the Danelaw. They were usually twelve in number, and their
presence may be definitely traced in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. The office would seem as a rule to have been hereditary.
The influence of the Vikings varied from country to country, not
only according to the political and social condition of the lands in which
they settled, but also to some extent according to the nation from which
they came. In Ireland the settlements were chiefly Norse, though there
is some evidence for the presence of Danes in Cork and Limerick.
