Barbarians- Secrets of the Dark Ages

by Richard Rudgley

  A host of theories have been put forward to explain the seemingly sudden and explosive impact of the Vikings. Overpopulation has been suggested, but not demonstrated conclusively. A climatic change of some kind has also been proposed, but is likewise unsupported by sufficient evidence. An increase in technological sophistication (concentrated in the sphere of ship-building) has been thought to have allowed the Vikings to undertake journeys that would previously have been unfeasible. Yet we know that crossing at least the North Sea was nothing new – the Scandinavian-built Nydam boat of the fourth century being a case in point.

  Yet others refer to the fact that the many petty kingdoms in Scandinavia that characterised its political landscape in early times were replaced by fewer but more powerful kingdoms. All these theories are plausible in certain respects and there is probably some truth in them all. All we can say on this point with any real degree of certainty is that an expansion did happen in the eighth century, and the Vikings were to be a force to be reckoned with until the eleventh century, when their story ends. Their early raids centred on the acquisition of portable wealth for practical reasons. This usually took the form of precious metals (coins included) and jewels, or slaves who could be delivered to their masters by boat while working for their passage by one means or another. Kidnapping was also one of their money-making ventures – aristocrats, bishops and other notables could earn them very substantial amounts in the form of ransoms.

  The Viking campaigns caused problems not only to the inhabitants of the British Isles but also to those of France (or Francia as it was called at that time). The Vikings were masters not just of the sea; they had vessels that could easily travel far inland up the major rivers of Europe. Danish Vikings were behind a series of dramatic raids in the 840s. In consecutive years, beginning in 843, their ships went up the Loire and raided Nantes, then the river Garonne from which they proceeded overland to plunder Toulouse, and the pièce de résistance – a force of 120 ships up the Seine that required paying off to the amount of 7,000 pounds of silver to save Paris from being sacked. To the Vikings, distance was no object: while some of them were engaged in these campaigns in Francia, others were plundering and looting as far south as Seville and Lisbon, both of which were then under Islamic rule.

  Their spectacular raids on rich monasteries and cities make for dramatic reading, but they actually tell us very little about the Vikings themselves apart from their love of looting and slave-taking. Lurid and garbled tales of their unsurpassed cruelty have also added to their reputation as one of the most forbidding of all the barbarian peoples of the Dark Ages. The best example of this concerns the supposed actions of a ninth-century Viking leader named Ivarr the Boneless, who was very powerful in the British Isles at the time. He is supposed to have been the fiendish devisor of a particularly imaginative and sadistic way of killing, which became known as the 'blood eagle'. According to one account, it involved the carving of an eagle shape into the back of the still living king of Northumbria, Aella, as a sadistic finale to the conquest of York in 866. The tale got taller in a later version in which Ivarr is reported to have killed not only Aella but also Edmund, his counterpart in East Anglia; this time it involves ripping out the lungs of the victim and draping them over his shoulders in a grisly imitation of the folded wings of an eagle.

  Leading modern scholars of the Viking Age such as Else Roesdahl reject the truth of such stories, which seem to derive from nothing more sinister than a misinterpretation of a complex piece of Nordic verse that somehow was transformed into this much repeated anecdote that was said to epitomise Viking barbarity. Such anecdotes highlight the image of the typical Viking as known to most people. We have seen on repeated occasions that the history of 'civilised' and barbarian interactions usually involves the latter being portrayed as outsiders coming from the edge (whether the steppes of Russia, the lands to the north of Hadrian's Wall or from across the seas) to disrupt the centres of civilisation.

  Certainly, when we look from the perspective of the monks of Lindisfarne and the Christian kings of the Anglo-Saxon world, the Vikings fit this bill. The British even today have a stereotypical view of the Vikings raping, pillaging and plundering – in short they are still represented as archetypal barbarians. And they did do most, if not all, of the things they were accused of doing in Britain and, indeed, many other places too. But such behaviour was hardly the exclusive prerogative of the Vikings – during these times barbarians and Christians alike were equally ruthless and violent in their political affairs. The Norsemen indisputably came from outside of the Anglo-Saxon and Christian sphere and threw it into disarray.

  The sudden appearance of the Vikings right at the end of the eighth century is, as has already been mentioned, really an illusion. We have seen that in the preceding centuries there was much interaction across the North Sea. Yet for whatever reason, trading had turned into raiding and the designation of the Scandinavian barbarians as Vikings begins. As far as we can tell, they were not a disciplined fighting force but were cunning and relied on advance intelligence which would reveal points of weakness that they could exploit. Their swift and sleek ships were highly manoeuvrable, making them masters of the surprise attack. Yet these raiders were not representative of Scandinavian life as a whole. Things must have looked very different from the other side of the North Sea.

  The Vikings at Home

  The violence that seems to overshadow the Viking raiders does not appear to sit well with their actions at home. The information that we have concerning the old laws of Norway (which have their origin in the time of the Vikings) paints a very different picture. Acts of murder and violence would not go unpunished, and the Vikings had strict codes of conduct. As with many ancient systems of law, homicide was often punished by heavy fines. One source tells us that the murder of a farmer was punishable by a fine of 189 head of cattle. Such hefty fines, coupled with the fact that the murderer's entire extended family were held legally accountable for their kinsman's offence, were considered to act as a deterrent. A murderer could ruin his whole family as a result of his crime.

  Laws were made and justice meted out by an assembly of freemen known as a thing. Civil disputes and criminal cases were heard at thing sites, usually out in the open air. It seems that in early Viking times the most preferred thing site would be one of the numerous stone circles that had been erected by their prehistoric ancestors. Many Scandinavian names indicate places that were once used by the assemblies. For all their roaming on the high seas and the rivers, the Vikings were also a people with a distinct sense of place. The foundation of both their economy and family life was the farmstead. This solid infrastructure allowed a thriving trading network to be built up even before the Viking age.

  There is firm evidence to indicate that they ran their economy along very precise lines. A pair of scales and ten weights dating from the second century were discovered at an Iron Age burial ground near Hønefoss in Buskerud, western Norway. They are the oldest yet discovered in Norway. The three heaviest weights were 79.4 grams, 53 grams and 26.4 grams respectively. The old Norwegian øre was a basic unit of value that weighed 26 grams. Allowing for very minor inaccuracies, the three weights mentioned above correspond to 1 øre, 2 øre and 3 øre. The fact that the other weights go down to a mere 1 gram shows that accurate measurement was very important. Such scales and weights were used to weigh precious metals. The Viking trading systems that will be explored later in this book patently grew out of the earlier economic interests of the Scandinavian barbarian cultures.

  The social world of the Vikings was clearly defined but not absolutely rigid – there was a chance to climb the social ladder or indeed to fall down it. Different variants existed at different times and places in the Viking world, but fundamentally there were three social classes: slaves, freemen and nobles. The slaves were called traells and usually had their heads shaved as a mark of their lowly status. They were in some ways similar to the serfs of the later Middle Ages, and worked hard on the
farms of their masters and mistresses. They lived modestly and died modestly, being buried in the Viking equivalent of a pauper's grave unless they were 'lucky' enough to be interred with their owner (a dubious honour which usually meant being killed before their time).

  There are clear instances where this is verified by archaeology. A tenth-century burial from Stengade on Langeland (one of the Danish islands) revealed the skeletal remains of two men, a master and his slave. The skeleton of the latter is in a strange position which strongly suggests that his feet were bound and that he had been beheaded. There are similar finds, showing that this was not an isolated incident. Although the slaves had no legal rights and could be bought or sold at the whim of the owning classes, their lot does not always seem to have been an unhappy one. They were not typically treated with brutality and often lived fairly secure and comfortable lives. There are even accounts of slaves gaining their freedom. Skilled craftsmen were often in a position to use their talents to buy their way to freedom. On the other hand, a freeman could also become a slave by committing certain crimes.

  The class of freemen were farmers who owned the land they worked on. They were sometimes further divided into two groups. The more well-to-do were the hauld yeomen who could show that they had lived on their family farms for six generations or more; the bonde free farmers were those who were not able to boast that they came from such stable stock. The structure of society became more complex as the Viking culture expanded, resulting in a more specialised division of labour. Smiths, ship-builders and other craftsmen became highly prized members of society and were to become a new type of freeman. Freemen, as has been noted, were able to attend and contribute to the thing.

  The Viking aristocracy were the leaders of their society and the kings would be drawn from their ranks. Traditionally, members of this class would be large landowners but with the increasingly profitable opportunities for merchants (or their less scrupulous counterparts – that is, pirates) who were willing to travel far to seek their fortune, a new class emerged – a Viking nouveau riche who could buy their way to the top.

  Women were not exactly on an equal level with men, but nevertheless had a comparatively high position compared with that which was to be their lot in the later Middle Ages. The most lavish Viking grave that has ever been unearthed is the Oseberg ship burial, and this was the final resting place of a woman (see the next chapter). Female status was largely expressed through the family and home, and there are no records suggesting that women became merchants although, of course, Viking women tended to travel to many of the places that their menfolk visited. Like the Vikings, the Arabs were great travellers and traders. An Arab visitor to the Viking trading centre of Hedeby on the east coast of Jutland (now part of Germany) in the latter part of the tenth century noted that divorce was a woman's right which she could exercise at her own free will. The churchman Adam of Bremen, who visited Denmark a century later, reported that adultery by a man was a capital offence whereas for a guilty woman the punishment was to be sold into slavery.

  There was much cultural expression in the sports, games and other pastimes of the Vikings. Horse fighting was more than a sport for them – it was an aspect of their fertility rituals. The winning stallion was traditionally chosen as a sacrifice to the gods. Horse flesh was prized as a meat at pagan feasts, so much so that it was banned in the later Christian era on account of its role in heathen practices. It was not just the dramatic and often bloody sports that were appreciated by the Vikings. Board games were also very popular, as the twelfth-century Isle of Lewis chessmen demonstrates. These pieces, of Scandinavian origin, were carved from walrus ivory. By this time chess had all but replaced an earlier game of subtle strategy named hnefatafl. In some respects it is similar to chess in that there is a king and other, minor, pieces. The Vikings would have played it to pass the time on long sea voyages, and the discovery of boards in York and Ireland shows that the game was played in their colonies abroad as well as at home in Scandinavia.

  The trading networks built up by the Vikings and their ancestors over the generations brought them in contact with a remarkable range of objects. One of the most dramatic examples of their acquisitions is a small statuette of the Buddha that somehow found its way to Helgö, an island trading centre in Lake Mälaren (to the west of Stockholm) even before the Viking Age. When it was found, it had a leather thong tied round the neck and an arm, which has led scholars to believe that it was worn as a lucky charm or amulet. Exotic and rare items have attracted humanity since the dawn of time and the Vikings were no different, but the amazing distances they travelled to get them demonstrate the extraordinary pioneering spirit of the Norsemen. The native craftsmen of Scandinavia were skilled in their own right but also open to foreign influences. The type of object known as a bracteate, a large golden disc pendant, was based upon imperial Roman medallions. Despite this origin it became a characteristically Scandinavian artefact, starting in the Age of Migration that preceded the Viking era. It was believed to give its wearer protection from harmful forces.

  The spirit of the Vikings is embodied in their rich oral tradition of epic tales and poems that were eventually written down in the Christian era. There are the countless sagas that recount the achievements of the Viking leaders and intrepid voyagers. Even more important are the Eddas, the sacred poetic repository of the central body of myths of the most northerly of the barbarian peoples. This inner pagan world will be explored in the last chapter of this book; yet even this brief survey of the social world of these people helps to dispel some of the stereotypes that have been built up around them. By looking at the Viking societies in their Scandinavian homeland, we can see their culture in a much more complete way. In addition to a minority of Vikings being infamous pirates, we have shown that some of them were also chess players, antique collectors and poets.

  One of the underlying themes of this book has been to seek out the other side of the story – that of the barbarians. The lack of historical records made by the Vikings at this time makes the reconstruction of their own perspectives a difficult task but not a hopeless one. Many of the artefacts and much other archaeological evidence of the Viking Age survives in Scandinavia and beyond. This, in conjunction with the records of those who came in contact with them, can open many doors into their world. I felt that the best way to attempt to see the story from the barbarian point of view was to travel to Scandinavia, to the centre of their world.

  Chapter Twenty

  WARSHIPS AND PLEASURE YACHTS

  When you look at a ship like this, you can see that they are not made overnight. It takes thousands of years' experience to make something like this.

  Knut Paasche, curator of the Viking Ship Museum

  There is surely no city in the world with more ship museums than Oslo. This in itself is a clear testimony to the enduring seafaring traditions of the Norwegians. One of the museums holds the Fram ship used by the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, and another houses Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra II and his Kon-tiki balsa raft – these are just recent examples of an age-old Scandinavian fascination with the ship-building tradition. I had come to Oslo to see the most famous Viking vessels of them all: the Gokstad ship and the Oseberg ship, both now housed in the Viking Ship Museum. The first had been discovered in 1880 and the other in 1903. Both ships had been buried in mounds with what seem most likely to be their owners inside them.

  There must have been literally thousands of Viking ships, but very few remain. There are only three altogether in the Viking Ship Museum – the Tune ship as well as the Oseberg and Gokstad (all were discovered in the environs of the Oslo fjord). The last two are in a wonderful state of preservation; they have been fully restored, as was common practice in the past, and give us an insight into the diversity of vessels that would have existed in the Viking Age. The Tune ship, in contrast, has been left unrestored, even though it was discovered in 1867. However, its time is still to come as the present curator of the museum, Knut Paasche, is n
ow undertaking a full investigation of this neglected poor cousin of the Oseberg and Gokstad ships. The museum also houses the meagre remains of another vessel, the Borre ship (also from the Oslo fjord region), of which only a few rivets and nails survive – as little as that of the Sutton Hoo ship.

  The museum was the brainchild of the architect Arnstein Arneberg, who planned it in 1913, but until the museum was completed in 1926 the Oseberg ship was stored at the University of Oslo were it was being restored. This was an extremely difficult job; there were thousands of fragments of the boat that had been damaged and distorted by the pressure of the weight of the mound over a period of more than a thousand years. Yet the jigsaw puzzle was put back together after each piece had been steamed and bent back to its original shape. Frederik Johannessen, its restorer, was later to apply the same techniques to restore the Gokstad ship which, until the end of the 1930s, was displayed in a temporary shed on the grounds of the University of Oslo.

  The restored Oseberg ship was moved into the museum in 1926, and the Gokstad and Tune ships joined it in their own respective wings in 1932. In 1957 the fourth and last wing was added to the building and now houses the spectacular collection of artefacts that were found with the Oseberg ship. On 12 June 1975 there was a fire on the external part of the roof, which was made of wood, but thanks to the vision of the original architect the flames were unable to penetrate the inner concrete lining of the vaulted ceiling. The ships that had survived for a millennium were not damaged.

  Boat-building has its roots thousands of years back in the Stone Age. By the Bronze Age in Scandinavia (1,800 BC to around 500 BC) both rock carvings and alignments of stones in the shape of boats show their cultural significance to the ancestors of the Vikings. In the early Scandinavian Iron Age, from around 200 BC, the makers of clinker-built boats were already using nails, and the strakes they fashioned were of very similar form to those of the Viking Age ships. The fourth-century Nydam boat and the seventh-century Sutton Hoo ship also provide us with further links to this evolutionary chain that links the prehistoric boats to the Viking ships.