CAM BRIDGE UNIVE RS IT Y PRE S S gu mb o“ FETTER L E : AN , C . F . C Y M ANAGE R LA , QE T Mnburgb : 100, PRINCE S S T RE E B erlin : A . AS H E R. AND 0 0 . i A S i eim g : F . A. B RO CKH U T AM ’ 1mm 35 0 t h : G. P . PU N S SO NS ( T D B umb ag ant E ul cutta : M ACM ILLAN AND CO L . ' Al l ri g hts res erved A . ALLE N M AW E R M . n d Professo r of E nglish Lang ua g e a C o e e Litera t ure i n A rmst rong ll g , t Fe ow University of D urham la e ll Gonville a nd Caius ‘ C a mbridg e Ca m b ridge U n iversity Press CONT E NT S Introduction CH AP Ca us es of the Viking movement The Viking movement down to the middle of the 9th century The Vikings in E ngland to the dea th of H arthacnut The Viking s in the Fr ankis h E mpire to the founding of Nor mandy (9 1 1 ) The Viking s in Ireland to the battle of Clontarf The i in s in the Or ne s S cot an the Wes tern V k g k y , l d, Islands and M an The Viking s in Ba ltic lands and Russia Viking civilisation S can inavian infl ence in the Or ne s S et an s d u k y , h l d , the Western Islands a nd M a n S candi navian influence in Ireland S candinavian influence in E ngla nd S ca ndinavian influence in the E mpire and Iceland Bibliography Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ’ The Goksta d s hip F r onti sp z ece PLAT E i in s i fro the Ba e x ta estr a cin a e 100 I . V k g h p m y u p y f g p g II Orna ents of the i in erio . m V k g p d III Th J in n . e ell ge sto e The frontispiece is reproduce d by kind permission of r M O eerin of C ristiania a II d II oto ra e r . tes an I ph g ph , V g , h ; pl ' r n fro o hus Mfillef s N or di sch e A lter mm s kun d e a e take m S p . INTRODUCTION TH E term Viking 1s derived from the Old Norse wi fe , a bay, and means one who haunts a bay, creek 1 or fjord In the 9th and l oth centuries it came to be used more especially of those warriors who left their homes in S candinavia and made raids on the chief European countries . This is the narrow, and ‘ ’ technically the only correct use of the term Viking, ’ the but in such expressions as Viking civilisation, ’ ‘ ’ ‘ in Viking age, the Viking movement, Viking ’ fluence, the word has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity and S l influence of the candinavian peoples, at a particu ar period in their history, and to apply the term Viking in its narrower sense to these movements would be as misleading as to write an account of the age of ’ Elizabeth and label it The Buccaneers . 1 T h e word is older th a n th e a ctu al Viking age : it is found in A o-S a xon th e o wi ci n S o e w te h a ve a d th a t it ngl in f rm g . m ri rs s i ‘ ’ ea eo e o th e d t ct of th e Vi k in S o th No wa s o m ns p pl fr m is ri u r y , ca ed o th e o o d- k e e n wh ch i s o d th e e b ut th e ll fr m l ng fj r li Op ni g i f un r , - o early Anglo S a xon us e of the term fo rbids thi s de rivati n . M . THE VIKINGS It is in the broader sense, that the term is P d employed in the present manual. lun ering and harrying form but on e aspect of Viking activity and it is mainly a matter of accident that this aspect is r the on e that looms largest in ou minds . Our know of m ledge the Viking ovement was, until the last - half century, drawn almost entirely from the works of L medieval atin chroniclers, writing in monasteries and other kindred schools of learning which had only too often felt the devastating hand of Viking raiders . They naturally regarded them as little better than p l ra tes and they never tired of expatiating upon their cruelty and their violence . It is only during the last fifty years or so that we have been able to revise our ideas of Viking civilisation and to form a juster conception of the part which it played in the history of Europe . two The change has come about chiefly in ways . In the first place the literature of S candinavia is n o longer a sealed book to us . For our period there are three chief groups of native authorities : ( 1) the prose sagas and the H i s tor i an D a n i ca of Saxo Gram on 2 3 . mati s, ( ) the eddaic poems, ( ) the skaldic poems The prose sagas and Saxo belong to a date considerably b ut later than the Viking age, they include much valuable material referring to that period . The chief poems of the older Edda date from the Viking period itself and are 1nval ua b le for the information they INTRODUCTION give us as to the religion and mythology of the v S candi na ian peoples at this time, the heroic stories current amongst them, and their general outlook on life . The skaldic poems are however in some ways v the most aluable historical authority for the period . The ska lds or court- poets were attached to the courts s of kings and jarls, shared their adventures, prai ed their victories, and made songs of lament on their death, and their work is largely contemporary with the events they describe . l S econd y, and yet more important in its results s l perhap , archaeological science has, within the ast - va half century, made rapid ad nce, and the work of archaeologists on the rich finds brought to light ' during the last hundred years has given us a vast body of concrete fact, with the aid of which we have been able to reconstruct the material civilisation of the Viking period far more satisfactorily than we could from the scattered and fragmentary notices foun d in the sagas and els ewhere . The resultant picture calls for description later, but it is well to remember from the outset that it is a v ery different one from ’ that commonly associated with the term Viking. With this word of explanation and note of warning we may proceed to our main subject. THE VIKINGS CHAPTER I CAU S ES OF T H E VIKI NG M OV EM ENT TH E period of S ca nd1na v1a n history to which the term V iking is applied extends roughly from the middle of the 8th to the end of the l 0th or the first half of 1 1 h the t century. Its commencement was marked by the raids of Scan dinavian freeboote rs upon the coasts of a nd England, Western Scotland Ireland and upon a e Frankish territory. Its clim x was reach d when in the course of the 9th and l oth ce nturies Scandinavian rule was established in Ireland, Man and the Western s i of Island , the northern and midland distr cts England, of a . Normandy, and a great part Russi Its close was marked by the consolidation of the Scandinavian kingdoms in the late 1 0th and early 1 1th centurl es under such mighty s overeigns as Olaf Tryggvas on S k otk onun and Olaf the Holy in Norway, Olaf g in r of Sweden, and g eatest all, king Knut in Denmark, who for a brief time united the whole of Scandinavia a n d a great p art of the British Isles in one vast ‘ r confede acy. The extent and importance of the move ment is indicated from the first by the almost simultaneous a of a on of appe ar nce trouble in Engl nd, the coast on a France, and the Eider bound ry between Denmark and the Frankish empire . I] CAUSE S or THE VIKING MOVE ME NT 5 Beorhtric 86 In the reign of , king of Wessex (7 three ships of the Northmen coming from H oroala nd (around Hardanger Fjord) landed near Dorchester, 93 L 800 in June 7 indisfarne was sacked, in March Charlemagne found himself compelled to equip a fleet and establish a stronger coastguard to defend the Frankish coast against the attacks of the North S men, and from 777 onwards, when the axon patriot Widukind took refuge with the Danish king S ig efridus N i r oor l n .