xvllt Acbnoledgennts

Wolfe. My obligations in respect of illustrations are in gencral ex- pressed where the plates, text figures, and maps are listed. I am much indebted to the following for the use of copyrighr material: Columbia University Press for F. J. Tschan's translatir:n of The History oJ the Archbkhops of Hamburg-Bremen, I9J9; the Medieval Academy of America for the Cross and Sherbowitz-\Tetzor trans- lation of The Russian Primary Chronicle, I9J3; the late Professor G. N. - Garmonsway for his translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; anci the late ProfeSsor A. H. Smith for his place-name map. Introduction Also, no one can write a general history of the Vikings without levying a viking-style tribute on other men's riches. I am conscious ,T of my many exactions, and trust that every bibliographical refercnce IHE SUBIECT OF THIS BOOK IS THE VIKING REAL}IS, will be held indicative of eratitude and esteem. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, their emergence and develop- ment, civilization and culture, and their many-sided achievement University College GWYN JONES at home and abroad. It is an extensive field to survey. For even Cardiff when we set aside the almost trackless millennia of my opening pages, there remain a thousand years ofhistory to be charted in an For timely assistance during the revision of my Hktor"y I stand, as e vcr, area of Norse activity extending frorn the North Cape and White in debt to many. Of institutions I would mention the American- Sea to the Pillars of Hercules, from Newfoundland and Baffin Island Scandinavian Foundation, the Archaeological Institute ofAmerica, the to the Volga Bend and Byzandum. However, mv concern is prim- Archaeological Association of Canada, the York Archaeological arily with ihe'Viking AgL' proper, equated as this g"n.r^liy is with Trust, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Cornell the three-hundred-year period c. 78e-ro7o-the period, that is, of University, the University of Iou.'a, and the British Council; and of the.so-called'Viking Mivement' overseas. The Viking Volr..n..rt and colleagues Hilmar Foss, Loyn, Else friends Henry Olaf Olsen, is that maniGstatio*n of the Viking Age which mosipo.nerfully, Roesdahi; Eleanor Guralnick, Robert McGhee, Patricia Sutherland, because_ most painfully, imp.essei it#lf upon non-Siand.inavian Birgitta Wallace; R. T. Farrell, Howard Laster, Kathleen Campbell, chroniclers abroad. Ay'iheir emphasis on thi destructive effects of Richard Lloyd-Jones, Dick Ringler, Thomas H. McGovern, and the the Movement in western Eurtpe, and their neglect of its con- lateJohn Parry. To my wife Mair I owe my thanks of ali. H. warmest tributions to. trade, discovery, c6lonization, and ihe political and cultural G.j institutions of the countries affected, these chroniclers produced for the contemporery rvorld and posterity alike a picture lr.on... incomplete, lurid^, and distorted. Th.y *.d" little inquiry :::::\.lands, peoples, beliefs, and civilizationi fro- which (asihey :1Y^,tr) priest-murderers and robbers of churches emirged- alack ol^these dispassionate comment made more serious by the sho"rt"ge oI records ^contemporary in Scandinavia itself, with its attendait Rljt:f of an abundance of late, unreliable',v.iiten sources, rnainly L::,^lh. hands of rwelfth- ani thirteenth-century Icehnii. [H:t^Ad historians. Consequently, to see the Viking Age"nti- in Viq1g. Movemeni, and-this last through th"e elies of ;::':'"::_:n.EUroPe?n "'or Christian annalists and chroniclers, Is to see'it, in 2 Introduction Introduction every,sense of the word, partially. It turns a many-faceted and and fragrant Pasture of the west Greenland fiords. It was an durably important contribution to our European heritage r*d win land and wealth to reward into a ffiU;rion to distinguish,themselves, sensational tale ofraid, rapine, and conquest, and an interplay of ild"nt*g.lh'toI'i:d,-91"*15::li1llryl99-q'T*l:1:: complementary aspects ofthe European genius into a brutil sagq. freratioi of northern.kings, jarls, and sea-captains to assault the Not least, it gives the Age a sudden, inexplicable beginninfa a;4 iloitoti.r of their southern and south-western neighbours. It was a offers inadequate reasons for its end, whereas on examination it rvill desire for profit and material goods which encouraged the vikings be found to evolve out of the cenruries preceding it and merge with to trade and ctrry in the Baltic and North Seas, the Black Sea and the years which followed. Caspian, across the Atlantic Ocean and along the great Russian Who were the vikings (rikinga), whose name is used descript- riveis. They'il/ere particularly well placed to mect the inexhaustible ively for this significant period of European history? They wire European and Muslim demand for furs and slaves, but turned their men of the North, the inhabitants of Scandinavia, and it is import- h"nd to any saleable commodiry: grain, fish, timber, hides, salt, ant to see them in fair perspective. The Norirnenn or Nordn)anni, .-hdne, glass, glue, horses and cattle, white bears and falcons, walrus despire southern witness and the image-making of their own ,' floryirory andano seal oil, oone|rhoney, wax,\r'4x, malt,rnal[, silkssuKs andano woollens'woollens, amberamDer andancl authors and artists, were, one almost apologizes for saying, first and , b:f,jl nuts, soapstone dishes and basalt millstones, wrought weapons, foremost men. Second, they were the men of Rogaland, Vestfold, : qrnaments, and silver. For this alone the viking peoples vould be Traland, Skine, Sddermanland, or whatever other region or patria ::-: rworthloffame,iworthyoffame, for to this end thevthey built ships and eitablishedestablished marketmarke t gave them liG and nurture. As time went on and the northern sownsfreveloped trade rout., ,nd maintained spheres of influence, kingdoms took vague, prophetic shape, no doubt a proportion of grdfortified mercantile practice with piracy and conquest abroad. them felt themselves to be subjects of the king of the Danes, it To,So viking was a trade_ or profession, a means r-o the good IiG, Swedes, or Norwegians. But though they had manly ties, including fu at least to a living. Its threC main elements, trade, piiacy, and those oflanguage and religion, to remind them ofa shared northern- ford-taking, often cloiely blended, had been no.ih.rn long ness, they had but little sense of a separate Danish, Swedish, or e the Vrking Age, and would long outlast it. One".Uuiti.r moves back Norwegian nationalify. For the rest, they were neither super- no sense of dislocation from the commencement of the Vikinq human nor sub-human; but precisely and generically human-in oent shortly before 8oo to the purposeful mastery of seal their greed, treachery, cruelty, and violence, as in their energy, techniques by the Scandinavian^peoples and the eastward generosity, loyalty, and familial kindness, and recognizably one and lon ot the Swedes into the Baltic lands soon after the year the same species as their neighbours, whether Franks and Germans, these lay the movements of the Angles, Giats, nru[$ii"d Jutes, Petchenegs and English, Wends and Bulgars, Bretons and Irish, associated with the fourth, fifth, and siith clnturies, and Eskimos and Amefican Indians, Muslims and Greeks, whenever and farther.back ttt. pott w"nderings ,i Migirri"rs of ,o nlany vrhercver encountered. It was the pressures of history, geography, I r. or peoples. Historiani haverraYL loigrvrtE debatedu! whether snouldl:::l,,1ibo and economics, and their religion and seafaring arts, which rnade see more thin superficial resemblancJs between the late them distinctive in their day, not original sin or primal virtue' j]lY,T"niestadons ofnorthern unresr, and that there rvere ruantul intermissions-is Being men, they lived under a compulsion to make life bearable and evident, but though we shall be rvise to if possible good. In an agrarian wbrld they needed land for their ;e^,t!1wora'viking' Ib, it"Gi...d r"r,:;;; ;;;;ext, there are rea:o,ns for children and grass for their stock; in an era ofopening trade-routes T.:It-g seeing nortfr'ern history, ho*..ve. iiv"rsified, a and the they craved silver and the chattels silver could provide; in *ruty' northern"excursus as a continuing--o rather than a hieiarchical, warlike, and still part-tribal society'their leaders or coincidental pro.rrr. ftlsllJenetidveiniin sought fame, power, wealth, and sustenance through acdon. Thus 1!ree rori..r'oii"formation about the viking and it was chiefly land-hunser which led them to the windy sheep-runs are archaeology, numismatics, 19-^1,:tllraea[y and *iitt.n of the Faroes, the buttir-laden grass ofhabitable lceland, and the they should compftment and illuminate each other. 4 lntoduction Introduction so that hardly a corner ofdoubt or ignorance remains to us; in fact- - wrth his distinctive Pgrlonal ornaments and ship-burials. all three are imperGct **a instruments to knowledge and understanJ] ,,ff"T;o;hf h*::.ry:'::,"'-1*:,t::1."*-"::'"lt:*-:l't':: ing. For,a start, there is no contrast here between the exactitude of :l* *t*p of construitional principles at the great strongholds of science (archaeology and numismatics) and the subjectivity of the laigahd-Flrrkat, as well as at centres of trade like Birka and writteir word. Tnit Archaeologists, like other men, are not always free g"J.Uy. i carbo:r-r4 dating 9f " IoT- for some of the artefacts from nationalism, mysticism, or overconfidence, as is shown'by the Ar.""Jr.a at L'Anse-aux-Meadows in Newfoundland is crucial for long debate over the extent and significance ofscandinavian maierial Ih" Norcr discovery of North America; the examination and in Russian graves, the sad story of viking finds in America, the J"rinn ofburied treasure in Scandinavia is one key to the warlike continuing argument over the origin and chronology ofviking art pr pei'ceful nature of particular decades back home. And not least, sfyles, and the uncertainty as to'ilrhat objects came out ofwhat layer *uJtTttring brought to light by the archaeologists is a check on the in_ so many nineteenth-century archaeological investigations. Even written records. when the material evidence is agreed on it must be intelpreted, and i,' fhrt is no less true of numismatics, the study of coins and here again scholars ofdeserved reputation do not always see eye to ,coinage. Much northern history is characterized by chronological eye. The dating of objects and iites is often difficuli, and ciose, 'lrrprecision, and here, eventually' numismatics will solve many approximations than a century or halflcentury are hard to come by. ms. Thus it is the record of the coins struck by various rulers Nature, which has been so prodigal ofdisasters, has even so been'a of York in the middle of the.tenth 1vo1s.e.ki1Sdom $ec.ades Iittle niggardly of such terminatory phenomena as a flow of lava, entuf which does most to bring sense and order into the whirligig a drift of sand, or a river's change of course. Again, as we see at ,4f change there; and by analogy, the close connection befween Hedeby, the archaeologists may have so huge alask in hand that lsolnageeoinage and royal power,portrer, or at least royal pretensions, holds out they. can do little mor€ than issue interim reports, ofgreat interesr fope for a closer understanding ofhow royal power developed in the and importance, but disconcertingly open to revision in the light of &andinavian countries during the Viking Age. Coin-making was a next year's dig. lintroduction into all three lands, beginning with copies ofcoins nthe . -Yet, for all this, the contribution of archaeology to our know- mint at Dorestad, the famous silver coinage of the emperor ledge of the viking world is immense.. Inv.estigatois., grown more rlemagne, with its obverse legend CARO-LUS and its reverse and more masters of their art, and drawing increasingly on scientific I-STAT, both highly srylized in Scandinavia over the years, aids, have uncovered thousands of grav6s and maiy hundreds of at timestrmes replaced by animal, bird, or human motifs (Plate rz). dwellings; they have identified ani somerimes explo.ed Viking re such copies were minted has been much argued: Hede\ Age towns; and can inform us with confidence of pibughed fields, the_likeliest places, in that ord.r]But the first Fit\" "pp... cattle byres, middens, drainage systems, farmsteads and smithies. al coinagii of norrhern kings owed much to England. Towards They have found warriors with their weapons, horses; of his reign, boats and -end possibly 7. sAS, the Danish kilg Guthrum of merchants with scales and weights; greit ladies furnished and Anglia had coini struck bearing his baptismal n"ame Edelia or provisioned out of this world for the next. They have found sleighs, :a9 (,'Ethelstan); berween 8go"and 8i5 East Anglia saw an carts, chests, spades and picks, horse-harness, dog-collars and leads; ,srve coinage associated with the name of king E-dmund the spinning weights and scraps of silk and woollen; garments, yr' rmportant evidence incidentally for the Conversion of the brooches, combs and other toiletry. We have a good idea of what Danelaw; an unidentifiable tlilftlan-Halfclene has left his : people wore, and what tools they used from broad-axe to eating' on three coins of the 89os; and during the same decade there knife, from spear to needle. We are sufficiently well informed about ltghtweight coinage in the Five B6roughs which did not )le-1 the viking ship to build a replica and cross ihe Atlantic in it. We to use the name of an English not a Daiish king. It was a know something of Norse religion and much of Norse funerary years. later, in the ggosfthat the Irish vikingJ began to practice. We can study the viking at home, and accompany him a tocal coinage, again in close imitation of English models. Introduction Introdaction royal_currencies .The of scandinavia itself start late. In Denrnark .ra?ney in Lincolnshire and two pennies ofEadgar from a rubbish-pit coins with a king's name begin rvjth Svein Forkbeard, c. qgs*rorz, Clearly little impact was Glt in England from the resurgence in Sweden "',";;;1. witli olaf Sktitfonung,^ c. and ii N"-.;; lirl. po*.t of the southern o'Neil which in 98o scotched the power scantily and maybe -gg4-ro22i transiently wittr-Olaf Tryggvason, 995_rooo, and Iith" bublin Norse and of their allies from Man and the Isles, and in !t gFe rori-3o. English influence is strong. Svein is the fi.rt Iii* *"v coin-hoards may be said to mirror the contrast between the world in the heyday of Maelsechlainn Scandinavian king to appear in some kind ofportraiture, by *.u oi il.l"ta.i of the Hiberno-Norse the Collar of Gold') and of Anlaf ('olaf of the a bust on a coin inscribed partly in Latin, partly in rough_an,l- Z,v.lachy of Qgaran the calm progress of the Anglo-Danish rapprochement ready Old English, Rex Addener,.Svein king of ihe Danei'. Th. iandal') and ,Godrr-ine iulminated in the reign ofEadgar the Peaceful.l rcvcrse hrs an Old English legend naming (monever) of which incidence of kufic coins Scandin- thc Danes', but no minr. The first Norwe"gian coins w'ere ."ir;.i No less striking is the throughout O1d English pennics, nradc by Old Englisf, moneyers for thc ,lJns"i avia, with the healy concentrations in eastern Sweden and Gotland mercantile of Norway'; \\re must rvait for the secJnd half of the ..ntu.y fo, I indicative of the military and roles of those peoples in The drying-up of the flow of kufic silr,'er clear indication of Norwegian mints at Nidarnes, Hamar, and Russia and the Caliphate. I(aupang in the Trondelag. Harald Hardradi, as befitted a srrons. northrn/ards helps explain the collapse of Birka c. 97o, and the ensu- rmbitious king rvho had seen the civilization of the Brrzantinl. ing shortage of this precious and coveted metal throughout Scandinavia makes significant the heary exactions of tribute and, Muslirn, and lv{editerranean worlds, did much to develop a Norvegian currency, manage it in his own interest, and give it later, sotdiers' wages from eleventh-century England, and the permanence. The Swedish coinage of Olaf Skcitrkonung ,nd h;, acquisition of German silver by loot and trade after c. 95o. It is no severe criticism numismatist successor Onund Jacob rvas likewise strongly influenied from of the to r€cosnize that like archaeology his science is less than perGct as a g"uide to early lngland, and much of it was produced by Eriglish moneyers ar chronolog-f and viking conquesr, coionization, atid trade. Like After O-nund Jacob's-time (he ieignJd till ro_5o) this ligryl?. books, cJins have their"fat"s, Swedish coinage failed to rnaintain irsei[ cithir because theie was ih.r. often obscure. To take an exffeme example, "nd ".. too much silver about for a coinage to have much meaning, or the discovery of three Roman copper coins trom the period because of a_pagan reaction against bhristian innovations, or,'r-irl.tt z7o-3o5 in the south-eastern corner oflceland does notprove that the Romans coins with their religious sym-bols and legends might appear one of visited that country. They are far more Iikely to have been carried there the more obvious. In Denmark, on the other hand,*S.,reints successor bv a Norseman aftir 8zo. Dated coins supply for the Knut managed his coinage well, and we have an impressive list of most part one ierminal date only: that before w_fuch they could not have mints working for him:-Ribe and Viborg in Odense on arrived in a country, beenused in trade -Jutland, orstolen as loot, Fy-n, Slagelse, Roskilde, and Ringsred ii zeiland, and Lund in or had their career suspended'by being buried in a gly: hoard. Ideally it is their conjunction o"ther objects Skine. Coins were minted likewise at Hedeby, Arhus, Alborg, and "T. with 'ih. wtuch allows a fair defree Randers. After Knut's death rve observe ,r*. Bvzintine ofchronological exactitude.2 D!!!,V, influences on the designs of Danish coins as on Norwegian. ; l j::::l r'!t\tt Coins of tbe Danelap and of Dubtin, r96J, pp. 9-ro. Like archaeology, numismatics Bolin, 'Mohimmed, Charlema'gne'and l{uric', in Scandin- is a check on the *r"itt"n urord, "#if:"-'.Ylllt,"t.s,-!re Ihe period ofconquest and unrest in easrern and southern England {;?, liii' ?; };,i ; ?;r;i;#,: ; ; 1f,;ifr; i ? ;t,i) !:f Kf::; is attested by no Gwer than eighteen hoards from the decide c. !ft:;,:i 865-75, containing between them ahnost z,5oo English coins. In the same way, che numismatist knows of a rotal of rwenrv hoards with more tlran z,ooo English pennies deposired round the shor.s_of the Irish Sea during the detade 97o-8o, *hil. fro.n Eneland east ofthe Pennines the tally is a solitary hoard offever than 4fo pennies frorn #*1fu*n'miu,*#q#:ffi 8 Introduction

."." important Introduction g n,rr1},""oi?O#vrfl'. d1u.glo,n facing^ roday,s sources.wr,;r.,,.r, jloi#J:.-JjHF_il::i;l:ii,i:: j,l# (tilndnga b6fr, c..rj!z),,th.e Hittor ia de ant iqui tate rc gum Noroa gien- iM, c. rruor. or tneoooncus Monachus, the synoptic historiei of written ?srl'il T::lnl the Nonyegi- F-ng: by Icelanders, oi which Snorri !? Sturluson's Heinthringla, c. r2z,, ij the best-known and inscriprion, has irou*.ffi exemDlar. and been qg.pifri"f..". fi ?ir:rst.* Tff (Getta Danorum, t::"*f the Danish.History c. ng5-rz4) of Saxt C.""r_ t,ramitiaip.,,on,g.,,',',1it::i:tilffiT".,'; maticus. There are substantial compilations of purpor.ful-*d l""lt;ffi " - cardedt;',ilru'il,ir:*."i' j*lilt#o"ih:ffiT.l,X*i responsible nature, like the zngli-saxon Cbronicie, in )r*t* krtiniani' ancl the ama! oI to which the epithet must expect to see all things Vlttlr, indispen_ darkly, their sable may be forthrightl{.a-npfiea, and lucky intelp'otatioJ conrent tbr.u.., J.i, shrp.i airtort.d.-i-i.;:fi:r:l#."*, ULJ;i; ilH narrauves concernlng ohthere and wulfStan inserted in kine Allied's translation of Orosius's History of the W;;ld,--;rlh: {.:{:il}Hr*:m[:,elltn*tKy*ffi';*jd{ accpunr ofHarald Hardradi's war service in Byzantium ,h.v .Book to 6. rounJ ,,:i,',il :ffi:y,r:"lT ';;:;;;;; il"i1;-.:::f-y-ls ofAdvice,, kno*o;'ou, J"y Uy;;;i $' ?""'f rrs rate nrneteenth_century publication i n ven tion : ffi with the Ceciuneni Strategi- to th e * r;:F, f."3"*:l*,T:q'di" [,ll' an_of c.]o7o-So. There.are Hardradi from runic inscriftionr'to S*.a., *to-aiia Stiklr in Russi*.and the Muslim_ counrries, Rus who descended the.Volga "riJ-vurf;. offifin ,."r.i,".;";;';irh; of silks and i:1r*1,T*::,;T,{-l"}i:,ff".t::iE.'[?d;*'"*'i':# are inscriptions-ro "na impgr.tanl :i-l^v^:r.Jhere men who received Danegeld in the to the historry or no.th..n west, gave meat to h;;;;#:T:%r"P#:llf eagles in the east, .I.*.Jio"d, u""iit .".r.- ., hg.:, no"t flee ", Itli','#ffJ'ffi me,ha, 1 n,he I?: ${ upprif"^*i,tl'tf,.y held sword in :f [:t i *m:'*ji:*-',o hand, or died while the drengs", #U;j iil.Uyi ;"r.ripit;;;;; rathers, morhers, wives and f;;rbil3;;"i"ilrny a mourned_for ffi :'nr,xil"T$lr$:s;1#ifuLflrF,*T#*t son; rnscriptions to comraa." Department properfv a-.'*rr"il ,"g"'"f ;kld stares back at us from ;;;;;;; ,,qgi"s ,io#iiff?il Hrieby in oster_ ',*, j',.r:'# " ", I;:",#*#!'Yi'.ili1?I;J.:f"r3::l',,ff qsJ1J",T:1".i:ir:#.;:.:ii*:j:#*',.il.._:H ffi*'!,floono *ough in the Gutti. The brave,soidii;.ffi;,i?ii'"i"ryriq sheer bulk of the material. tneeast ozur died in in the land of the ""ff;;rtt "X,,*.ilrt Greeks, rr"ifa"" *.sslain on Bornholm. n'i'r$$+*#f:isfl*fflif pifi'*{TJI'H{ :*4,.",,',:l,,lp;ll:f Jr[:;:::Ti**,,Ji,ffi n# ffi i","i:il.T',i:il$:t',T'""$',,y$:,*,;fii:,*f,'"',:l*f rl mFx**fitu:***ffi ffi ff :*T",f .',7,:'*:ii;;t.ti:$ilT*:Isffi jj;l: described as ,hisrories', *:' f;!. aa"_;B;;#;,, History of the t:;:;':#:i%ffi:T.P.+ffi;;::i/#:rc!wi.!^:: ffffriH'ml**.**l*,ffi ro Introduction Inh'ohtction r I have been swept from northern hisrory books and can never who has thenr all at co'rt'and. There ho h" e veritrrble Tongue-Master reinstated. This remains the most fundamental contribution ii T^"r^,-,"-rtruding iheory that by the time an actress is equippcd to viking_ history made from any quarter during this century.r yyi ;],""r"i., she ii too old for the part' The viking historian--may place far less reliance than we did on the faith?ulness ofn.ri ,r.nr- Y,!"i"- l*, that before he acquires all the languages, reads all the mission, and are increasingly conscious of the lirnited o. prrUrr. flushes all the coverts of all the.periodicals, he will have aims ofmany #"[t]r"a chroniclers. Indeed, the historical validitv of ti-," ,,,"1" ,.r.f,.a the blarneless.hlugl sf.5snllity.without a word rendered. is today less well is on eternity' _regarded than it was even a decade ago.z f-[i fri.nrty, to wait on definitive knorvledge. to wait most significant change is in respect of Snorri Sturlusofs Helrrur_ gur in ui"ru ofthe marked advances ofthe last forty years, the need kringla, which can no longer be held to give coherence ro earlv ior a fresh explication' and one would hope, synthesis, anci the Norrvegian history; but all the Icelandic historians and sagarnei, soectacular increase ofinterest in the vikings during recent decades are.yfgr suspicion and scrutiny. (The sagas relating to GreJnland (iurrently rcinforced by Mr. Hclge Ingstad's discovery of Norse and vinland are exceptional in that their qeneral theiis is receivinc iemains in Newfoundland, tl're pubiicity attendant on the discovery confirmation from archaeology and, possibly, cartography.) Erstl and publication of the Vinland Map, and the celebration of the nine wards, the Muslim sources descriptirc of thi Rus clEariy iequire a hundredth anniversary of the Norman Conquest, rvith its Norse new evaluation. But our awareness of all this is gain not loss, in that preliminaries at Gate Fulford and Stamlord Bridge), this seems a it frees us from error and conducts to truth. Foi when the heaviest better time than most to offer the student and general reader a discount has been made on grounds of error, confusion, origin, view oftle subject's present state and lasting valJe. transmission, invention, bias, propaganda, sources, influenies, -A substantial part of my History is by intention narrative, a analogues, and dating; when entiie korks are jettisoned, lik; progress through tirne, and deals with the growth and continuing Jdnsvikinga Saga, or sunk in historical estimation) Llke Landnimabtjk; political history of the three viking kingdorns at home and their or subjected to the higher criticisrn, like the .4nglo-Saxon Cbronicle, warlike, mercantile, and colonizing activities abroad. I believe this Heirnskringla, the Printarl or Nestorian Cbronicle, thtlrish and Muslim to be essential in what is only tle second viking history to be sources, northern lausapinr and skaldic verse, and the Latin written for the English reader. it follows that I givehir space to the chronicles of the Empire-when all this is done, a not too dis- main figures of the"Age. These were not al*"yi, or time the "t "ny appointing_resid_ue of icceptable material remains. in tire prges that only, makers of powei, but they were, or representative o[ "pp."t follow I offer what must be scores of observations on tle accepr- tnos-e who acquired and employed it. We must be careful not to think ability of the sources dealt with in particular conrcxrs. Here I shall ofeven ihe best-known north.rn kings as rulers ofnations in a modern b.e content to emphasize, then re-emphasize, the rigour with u'hich sense. The kingdon-rs establishid in Denmark at the all written souries musr be tested and ieGr th'" inquiring, or of the ninth ..n"rury, in Sweclen some fifty years larer, Sqiyilgt.Norway possibly the relieved, reader to the recent books of Theodore M. 1nl a little before'the year 9oo, were obviously more Anderson, Fr. P. Walsh, P. H. Sawyer, and Lucien Musser listed in lll.n:1u., powerful, and more indicative of national porribiliti", my Bibliography; and to the decisive studies of Curt and Lauritz :11n,,h,. petty kingdoms and independent lordships *hi.h pt.- them, Weibull and Halvdan Koht already referred to. fffled but thire was nothing truly 'nationai about thom. were A related problem is the enormous modern bearing personal aggrandisementi of reiritory and wealth, based literature ^rnel not only on the written sources but on every aspect ofthe subject. 31-5*n9*.t, unstabTJ in narure, eccenrric of duration. In other This, too, is to be found in a wide variety he must 'marauders of the great international trade-routes', of ianguages, and dsI"ofXtl-rh., Lonnroth calls thern, wore mich the same colours at home ai 1 Their more important essays and collections are listed in the Bibliography, late as the reigns of Knut or his regent in Denmark, olaf PP' 433' 434,444. iil?11_At "and 2 and onundJacob in Sweden, Harald Hardradi A representative bibliography of the long debate on the historicity of the il"J,lllu"g'" trotwayr srgas will be found ;n the miin'gibliograph"y, pp.44r.2. there rvere et best only the most rudimentary rotions I2 Introduction Introdaction r3 ofnationality currenr in the north, and practically nothins fm".,, scholars. would.say. nothing u'harever) in the way of i.'ri*i rnstrtutlons, natronal adnrinistration, or a national policv. A lin._ dom was what belonged to a king, and it is in thiiconfin.a fi fr;ftT:ffi ilr:#Lr,#*i;l;:'1'r':,:'],:jffitiitrT?l: ,..,i" Greenland, and the discovery:nd exploration of part only.that w: c.an speak of.the king?om oithe Danes, the ffi-;;;il king of the coast_of North America. Eastwards there was a Swedes, and the Norwegian realm.r i?ii.-Arf""ric commercial p_resence carried by way of the Baltic lands However, if not shapers lilii"rr of kingdoms and moulders of events (a ""i to the Russian rivers, the maintenance on their case can be made our that they irt. i"aoga were), such men as Godfred aiJ ""j posts, of which. Novgorod and Kiev had the Harald Fairhair, Harald Blueiooth, ;;;k";i"r..d"trading bhf tryggrrason and Olaf history,1fre contact with Islam and Byzantium,.and Haraldsson, Svein Forkbeard and king fnuti"were ,ignifi.roi 'n"ri-*"Ut"R;r share in bringing into being the great Slav kingdom-whose catalysts in their day and place. The en*during iealities ;; *il.h t"u nm. p.1p.,uates their own' There was the significant.Danish behind them, ofgeography, race, language, soclal order, livelihooj, .ontributi^on to the making of the English people, and the infusion trade, town, c.ountryside, and the yital harvests of land and water, of Danish and Norwegian blood, thought, and practice into the along with religion, art, lirerature, and law I have brought undei whole of the British Isles and much of western Europe. There was review in three chapters on Scandinavian 'The Corimunitv'. the important viking contribution to European trade, and the though some of them recur more or less continuously throughorlt. equally-jmportant refigious, artistic, mercantile, and institutional To that other ultimate reality of the viking situation, shiis and b6tro*ingi from Eurofe, which ensured the northward expansion seafaring, I have devoted a half chapter, for"these and their end- of the bounds of Chrisiian European civilization. Finally there was product, power along coasts and seiJanes, are fundamental to an the clear demonstration that blcause of dissension af home, the understanding^ of the nature of northern kingship, the polirical superior resources of their neighbours, an inability to evolve an vicissitudes the of northern realms, and vikin[ tride and pira.y, orportable political and social system, and above all a lack of man- colonization and war overseas. Parts ofthe narritive ar" n.c.ssrtiiy Powgr-, no Scandinavian king in viking times would achieve a signposted with a maybe, a we-presume, or an aiunt, and much of durable empire held togetherby the Noith Sea and Baltic, or even the detail is obscure-including detail as considerable as the identity a purely Scandinavian hegemony. of the Geats and the mixtuie of peoples in the Danela,,v, the These are the matterJwhich we must now seek to cover in a administrative measures of Harald Fairhair and the lesal improve- more or less chronological order. ments of Hakon the Good, the dynastic, political, aid background of the early ienth-c"ntury'S'wedish'domination"conori. in southern Jutland, the situation in Denmirk which earned disfavour for Harald Bluetooth and led to the accession ofhis son Syein, and those events in Norway which ensured the overthrow of iarl Hakon and the downfall of OlafTryggvason. But when every difficulty has been acknowledged, ."e"{ doubt confessed, we Lnow thai tht "nd period under discussion saw the first shaping, admittedly incom- plete, still largely personal, and subject tohaish vicissitude, ofthe I There are brief summaries ofpresent Scandinavian ooinion on these matters in Erik Ldnnroth, 'Probleme dir Wikingerzeit', in lziifu+lnpoiet fiir bittlritkl petenskaper, 1965; the same author's 'Govemment in Medieval Siandinavia . in Recueils de la Soci4tiJean Bodin, Brussels, 1966; and Else Roesdahl, y'r&itrj Age Denmark, ry82, p. z5 end passim. Tbe kgendary Historl of tbe Swedu and tbe Danet 3J

ing to.answer the question, Significant ofwhat? ,uE *. end we must begin with the classical synthesis of *.rr.r, English kooulf schblar, R' W. Chambers, outlined iustained by him inhis Introduction to-this.greates.t of Old Lh po.*r.t'It proceeds from an identification of the Geats poem with. the Gauts.(OI. Gautar, OSw. Gotar) 2. Geita) of the Th9 Legendary History of the Swedes as'we havejust said, in the provinces south ofthe Swedes. and the Danes tunately we have still less knowledge of the Gauts at this than oi the Swedes, and outside Beowulf and Wtidsitb no at all of the Geats. But it would be overgloomy to con- rtr ROM THESE WANDERINGS ABROAD BY ROAD AND thit we therefore survey the problem out of two blind eyes' flood we return to scandinavia and the emergent kinsdoms n-f that the tone of the Beowalf passages is always serious and the Swedes and Danes. Initially the progress ful, sometimes brooding and melancholy. In this respect nationhood was "FN;r;;;;;;r;; slower, and with the frossible .-;d;iil;i;h; is,orro difference between the poem's account of the wars conquests of Halftlan Whiteleg rve shall see scanr app;ach to ,ny- the Swedes and Geats and its account, retailed above, than regional kinfdoms an thing.qor; in that long, narrow, sea_and_ s expedition to Frisia. Both are offered to intelligent lTfultr,_n-:Pgundaried, northward-running eel_s-tripe of a counrry informed audience in good faith as a record of deeds wrought .:r:-_vlkrng jtl, fg! frrs darvned and llalfclan the-Black, frther of destiny endured. It is not history in our modern sense, we shall Harald F'airhair, is fighting hjs yay to the overlordship of the south in vain for political and economic causation: deeds are done, and west. Nor have we much in ihe way of firm historical fact for heir consequences borne, by great men, kings andJeaders: the the developing supremacy of the Swedes Upt;;J-rnJ tn. Fes toaction are pride, greed, revenge, though these are usually l)anes-mainly signs and pointers in poetry and"f lieend. rhe story i in conventional disguises, th; defenc; or enriching ofa ol the graves and other archaeologicil finjs, and ih" unarguablb loyalty to a king o, finrrn"n, the inexorable demarids of circumstance that the. ir was the_se two feoples, ,ni no ottorr, ,r-l3 rfr., workings of fuyrd. But iseowulf in its Geat-Swedish ..tlI rhi.$g andbalances of poweiimpor.d th.i, rule on rhe areas es ls' we believe, more than a tale of who killed whom, and which still bear their names. The rwo cardinal facts of homeland Swedish history during the I after the sixth cenrury opened the Swedes of Uppland were first millennium ofour era are, first, that ,t. ula. roo"thry !y an aged but formidable monarch, the anglicized form of v/ere, on the testirnony of Tacitus, more"Uout po*.rful and betrer Ongentheow.In Old Norse this be repre- organized in ilT..Y_.Tfgrm lh::14 their Upplind province ih"n ,nvifthe tribes rhar sur- .a like Anganryr (Anganr,.ir, Anganpir), but this is rounded them, and second, that at a datl which still remajns ln the two essential enumerations of the kings of Sweden, bewilderingly uncertain (it might be as earlv ;; or aslate as c. rooo) they would "r;;;; io impair the strensth'of tli.i, southern ;:T.?..t' pooulf, an Introduetion to tbe Study of the Poemrete.rrg2r, netghb-ours a Supplement in Vister- and Ostergritland thatlhereafrcr, apaftftorn T -Ytth by C. L. Wrenn, i9j9. The Supplement on'the some forced interchanges of terrltory with Denmark, thly would iifiltl.l significlnce ofthe Suttln rtoo finds foi'Beooug otherwise ."#;i;;;ii;th dissentient Scandinavian opiniJn Prove masters in their own part ofScandinavia. The most sig nifrcant rh-Geat written reladons. See, too, Ritchie Girvan, Beowulf ind the source of informaiion for the beniehted si*th atrd ,arly rP35' especially "English l the chapter 'Folk-Tale and Hist6ry'; and seventh centuries in Sweden is the Old heroic elegy n, Det ncn*a rike'tt uppkonsti Stockholm, edition of r94r. A History of tbe Vihings rhe Swedes anrJ tbe 36 The Legendarl History of Danes 37 the verse Trclr,"g! Ial composed at an early date by the ninth_cent,,,.. 'l'here was no.long peace \-etrvcen the pcoples' pngen- poet ThjodolfofHvin, ; son. and the prose Tnglingasa[a of c.rrrS, in fr"lJ 'h;;'t.." succeeded by his son ohthere (the poern does not ofwhich.his place in the list is occupiedby-tjng"ngitt. N"r"i,;;il: fi;,"b;, it is a fair.aszurnption), but on ohthere's death the outside documentary confirmationbf any savJoni of th...r"r"^l' *r, urutp.a by his-younger brother On*,. and Ohthere's of of p9r"ry.kings .the Geats. The earliesi menrioned ;;il ri,l e"dgilt R'ea foitrelp to th-e traditional enernies Hrethel, whose three sons were Herebeald, "r.rr.r.'*1. of those-sealHeardred king of.the Geats, then died, leaving the.kingdom to Hrthcyn. let Beowulf hold the throne, The Swedei ,"d C;; l?Lr. rou ght his own country,'and were natural enemies, andHathcyn, Gud in inswer to th. onrlrughtr rii irn" C*"i But the chain of hmily, dynastic, and national ambushes of Ongentheow's sons, led a raid into Swedish t".r.lr*" run out. The Geats supported Ohthere's surviving son ,old ri *, and.carried offOngentheow's aged wjG. But the Swede, *l ;; ;;"ry eithe-r 'across the. wide sea' or 'across,the wide lake' terrible', gave pursuit, killed Hathcyn, and rescued the lady, itidt\.'^"d after a campaign described as cold and grievous though strrpped ot her ornaments of gold. The Geat survivoii *rr'rltin and Eadgils be.itt.t. king of the Swedes. And still escaped to an unidentified Ravenswoodr-where the.ending Beowulf he surrounded and g was compounded', for it is implicit in .of throughout the night taunred them with a prospect ofthe eallows er wili wait upon the Geat people, that their maidens in the morning. But before first light they'herid th" warh"orns of a path ofexile,ind the raven and wolf contend over their

st Norse sources, more particularly Tnglinga Tal, Tnglinga and ArngrimurJ6nsson's late sixteenth-century Latin abstract

,lf the Learned of Hvin was a Doe t of kine Harald Fairhair [of Nor- , made a poem about kins l{ognvald thJ Glorious which is called Tdl, the iist or Count ofthc Ynglinqs. Rognvald was tlte son of stada-Alf.rda-Al(, brother of Halfdan the"slaikthe Black [HaraldtHaiald Fairhair'sFSirhair's latherl.father]. r are named thirty ofhis forebears, wiih a word about the death ,lace of each . . .' Ilr{vl Lives of the Ynglings are written in the sc lromfrom Thiodolf"lnlodolt's p'o.rn'andpoem and augmenteoaugmented- frJmlrom the.accountsflle of men.' (Snorii Sturlu;on, Hein*.rinlla, Prologus.) Twenty-seven of 'sstanzas, ulrolly or in part, have been preservcd in Tnglinga Sagara :ount of thc Ynflings viith *hi.h Snorii opened his H"einslUppsala and mrde lris chief F tlr^-- ,, i'< r 3. HUMAN MASK FRoM var,scAnpr there. Anothcr^---r namc of FrJy'*as Yngvi,"and the-t name----- of^rv---.: Yngvi for a long whilc thereafte, i,i hit litte rls a-royrl name, and the nien ' were.thercafter called Ynglings'. Historically speaking, no reliance as he came hastening along their bioody ffr.k *ith tl'tt pla-ced on the first serenicen"of these. Even in t.rtir of 6ction, YIg"l". their chivalry of the Geats. It was the Sweie's turn to selk a frstn.rr, but lives became them like the leaving ofit. King Fjolnir rose in to make water, instead; in vain; Hygelac's warriors overran his entrenchments and brought fell into a vat of rneid and drorvned dter a dwarfwhen drunk and vanished into a boulder; Vanlandi hirn to bay: he died under the protecting shield. the Geats Then l to death by a nightmare; Domaldi was sacrificed lor good withdrew to their own dJl country and Hygelac was their ruler vas sftuck on the hlad with a pitchlork when seeking revenge he was killed south among the Hctware.'fri, sr.."rror was Heard- ; and so on down to the fifth century. ?8 ,4 Hittorl of tbe Viftingr of the Swedes and tbe Dancs Tbe Lrgmdary Historl 39 or vcrsion of the losr t!:,j:r.y of.c. rr8o_rzoo). quarrels with the called Ali th-e-,Upp- in general confirm ,h-.:igll,il places-theylff:(presurnably Arhils had great .king vary rnrs. uro eng5r6 Norway' fhey had a battle on the o! [l4ke] accounr of Geat-Swedish relations. .. he rvxs liom -ice For a itarr no i s a ron g lJeowulf * r'"'.. q s in the Norse sources, yer paradoxicallv he i, , " +'i !l ;,19..1: lt: l: i ;*,: i'"'?lv-;saga, 11T' ,lr^'::::^T oi-*ir U"itt. in shjiildunga saga lTnglixga z7l' ;; ;.","^r-r*ii o r ihe ceat kirigs. Hi s i?fl,- jl $;ft *.,. Y.i *: : is as.strong in.error as,Tnglinga Saga be accounted a fiction: he is the o.."rion or,ir" tiirioii.;i;"r:#::' ldangt Sagarhowever, .con' jns'th."n"tionaliry of,Ali, whom it describes as opplando.rum but no true parr of them. And there are furrher diffi.;i;;;i,Jii: the West Norse sources. Instead of a war between S*;J;";l i',ii,1"1r*;1Tol1lfj!!:s:'i'!:-::-','i.::::::i1but the poets and have not dealt Gautar rnglyg Sa^ga makes the antagonists ,"a i";. ;i d. horses, .sagamen, (ohthere). -swedes Orr.i, him: it is a grotesque and baffied mischief-maker who even f ures. ottar the swede iook a fleet ii" *iitt ro o."rrr[.ni Even with horses his touch was not devasta ted in tr; ;;;;r;.*i.i-.a ;;k;;; us from their-pages. -Vendil Jutlani, in a naval battle the Kilfsoha he fell off-one, a in the Lim$ord. The victorious il b. infallible: a..ording to n"n.r .tri;.Jrrir u"ar*rr"* to exposed ,"j . L"k. Viner,'rvhen thJy rode to the icer'and according it on a mound for beasts and birds to ravage. Thev rooL " "t off"nother at a sacrifice and knocked his brains out on a tree-c^row (o1 a c19w ofwood) and sent it to srvederirvrrn ti f.ll trr.'trr'*, Uppsala, and he was buried in a mound ,heir ling was ofno . This happened at ,rjrl,^9:,:I more account ,t ,fr"i.'f_r".#r, It has been argued that this part of Tnglinga Saga"" is. .h.p,., oi of three Swedish kings of this period that error. Orrar was nicknamed not from Tnslirya Saga records Vlnd"il inlutland b; i_;; "were rs Fy rre howed at Uppsala:UppsaE: Aun, Egill,.Lglll) ansand -t\tnus;Athils; andano itlr is Jenajt (modern Vendel) in Uppland in Sweden, ulh.r. th. .hi.i bunal a coincidence thit there stand at Gamla Uppsala, OId mound has tradirionally been known as Orrars Hcig, King rla, three mighty grave mounds on a line north-east to south- ottar's Howe, or the mound'of ottar vendel-crow. is pgill It ottar's known as Odinnti Howe, Thor's Howe, and Frey's Howe. In 616.1 who is- called pendilkrika, vendel_crow, such by com- two ofthese which have been excavated there were found the paratively. reputable, authorities as the twelfth-..ntr.iry t..ma;. remains of a man of rank and wealth, without question i-t1s|o1an Ari Thorgilsson and the Hittoria Norwegie,rvhich appears ish kings, and almost without question two of those named. to denve from an original ofabout rr7o. Inevita6ly there hai be.n burial ilound of Ottar twenty *il.t to the north at Vendel speculation wherher Egill the father of Ottar and dnsenrheorv (i.e. etes a roll of kings covering most of the sixth century. These anry.nltr).father of Ohthere are one and the same"m"n, and ihe t monuments at bld Uppsila, each thrown up over_the place possibiliry is surprisingly strong.l But first let us note that Tnglinga s burning, are impieisive witness to the martial dynasry Jaga,.has_atso managed to distorr the Eadgils_Onela In srory. vas busy extendins the power of the Swedes over their Athils is Ortar's son and immedlately !,5!,rg!,.Siy succeeds'hirn. ours in mainland C"Otahni and offshore Gotland; while a That AIi (Onela) was.his uncle and a Swede had'been forgotren. sion of Vendel and Valsgdrde graves from the sixth to the Ali was still described as a king, but over Uppland in N*orway, show great lords laid to rest without cremation in erroneously, not Uppland in Sweden. Ho*e.,r"..^the of their -TntTt.t issue 3o Get and up"wards, harness, dog and leash contest was the same: with horse and one case a hunting falcon), fine weapons, bronze plates for horse-trappingri.ook#[-pot, 1 ,nd food. In othlr graves The philological progression, ir h;rs been suggested, is form ofAnqrnryr rAngila r e Deriod and region there are glass beakers, ornamentation ) (an affectionare diminutive) ;> Ilgilali > Esiil. This ls less convincing than th-e genealogical coincidence irk.n *irh l,$ecious stones ind dnamel, ring-swords whose pommel- ln .Jnlun.rion gold, Bcoou$'s account_ of Ongenrheow,s death at the hand of Eofor (,Boar,) and 'ot and magnificent h;het"s on the Roman cavalry Inglnga.Tttl's. relerence to Egill's blood redderring the boar's inout, farilt rs would have us believe that he died of strong drink, tri6no..Tho'tgh Snorri Sturlus-on in his Tnglinga sfg, ,ead as iirr^;iiy faia 'with immoderate joviality' the death of his enemy tbe The Legendary Hittorl o.f tbe Swedes and Danzs 4r This is the world of Beooulf: graves and poem are parallel s ofan age'1. those passage s of Beowulf which in conjunction with .tell c,."i on Frisia c. 5zr fup. 3o-3r above), this is a J and "td.tattractive synthesis of o1d English qoe1ry'.I.\orse and iirental documentary sources, and archaeological evidence' But ;;t"". believes in.it. A great many Danish and Swedish Lrc ho not accept the Geat-Gaut equation' and the most oi t.hool of Swedish historians, led by the Weibulls-and speak- from Skine, dismisses all notion of a collapse of the Gautish dom to.".ds the year 6oo.2 Their viewpoint may be crudely

same is true of Beooalf and the c. mid-seventh century ship-burial,of a 6-ersonage at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia' The lull implications of the ori.r rt Sutton Hoo are as yet not understood, but the correspondence vsen-theen the treasuresrreasures found thirethere and the wavway oflifeof life thevthey repreientrepresent (the sHficenotaph or mound, the weapons, ihield, and banded (*walu) lct,'silver spoons and dish, the man-with-monster(s) motill the gold- S's and jeweller's work, the coins, the harp and royal standard)_ and those ;estn Beowulf which tell of similar things is extraordinarily close. Some grave goods had travelled far to their long resting-place: the silver dish the hallmark of the emperor Anastasius of Byzantium (ol. 5t8); the ,re gold coins flrom the royal purse are Merovingian tremisses; the and shield closely resemble Swedish work ofthe early sixth century. rr Birger Nerman speculated whether the warrior-king for whom the Hoo ship-b-urial was was a Swede ('Sqlgn Hoo; en sv.ensk planned^in eller hiivdinggrav', Fornvdnnen, 1948),- which seems unlikely; 'Sune Lindqvist believes thpt kooulf and the Sutton_Hoo burial may secn against a background of the Swedish origin of the East Anglian ruse of the Wuffing"as or Wulfingas ('suttoriHoo and BeorvulF, in I ts+A). The English reader will be best helped by Charles Green, oo' 1963; R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford, The Suuon Hoo Ship Burial,I, r975, T-he Sutton PICTURED Hoo Ship-Burial. Rejlections after Thirty Years, rg79; aid 4. STONE FROM ALSTAD, NORWAY retl,'BeowulJand the Northem i{eroic Age' in his T&e Vikings, 1982, It appears to porrray the Sigurd l.g.nd.in"io*l far-ge ornamenr- ?16. I" our present context the parallels between Sutton Hoo br,rd., possibly of jymbouc rel are hardly ,al rmporr, rs a man on a horse_wirh a less striking than those between either place and nawK ln tus hand and followed by his dogs. The man is oossibly Sigurd setting our on his fateful j'ournry"il.;;#i:';.:;;;;', to the books listed in the footnote on p. 3j above the indispens- norse wrthout x.are C. Weibull,'Om det svenska och det danska rikets upp- a nder: Grani coming home afrer the death of his Iriuori* ,ti*rtyr'|iiin":innd, yil, L. wadstein, Norden ocb lord.,Lastly.comes a man riding *iri; ;is;;^r"is.d *."pon, rgzr; wnlcn coutd be the murderer, T!,-s:Kl,rt{Stockholm, r9z5; rimp Malone,'The idintity of the Hogni., ThJreverse side wiih its zcta-Pbilologiu scoodinoiiaii', ,The tendrils is.a good example orih. igri; e-. wrjrt.in, Beowulf ftng"ii[;;i;. The pictures National Epos', ibid., VilI, r933; O. Moberg,'svenska rp re red rNt6E]i'^T_q$ t&nif"lif ; ; i. i.,i r r,lornuAnwn,,. .--_41tu1' L>++rt944, Theret is a succinct statement in Lucien H:, :l'J,|.,? il;ii ;, ", "r 4',-- rcu?let- Scandinapet au Moyen Age, paris, rg5rr pp. z3-6, and a 42 A Hittorl of tbe llikingt Tbe I.e gendarl Historl of the Swedes and tbe Danet 43 expressed thus: when. the statements ofa poet who for the most n",. this at best is inconclusive' At this. point deals.in legendary and folktale materi"l in,rapit Getit-though may #fl,11;j;i;i;; ffi::ilT be assum.d * *:*-Istoricalg, g.opoti.r."r,srruaflon o^li?""'i"ti'disio"o'y"r*rv.:"ii{:tulht:\t1*g:*":*":: jn sixth. Gauts, the historical and economic facts are, in century Sweden, rhose statement, the ,hofrla i_,ot expedition to Frisia, strong.for theJutes'. #.f3fllygaac's , g.ffi wars remain, arrd .T:J,:d,ili,i"tff ,t th. prit"g.s concerning.theGeat-Sw^edish '"i:;Tffi ;i:f tiiil'f,':,-j.;lY to believe that by the Geats the English poet series of posrulatibns gr4g rf i. i &m*L k rhr; ;i rk , on., oeople other than the Gauts. The view that they were thrs rs preserved in Old English .rid"fpi",.i.n.r.r" W.rt Jfi :lll Xo, (Iuti, Iute, in northern would reconcile the opposed This pro-fute ; ;d."f Jutland Po, TLt'u,a 1ii,j,i'ta). ,hit':"^13:',t:s there is next to no evidence for it' On the whole we thewhole.o,,i,n.niiit,;i'i,;;;f ::11'p,-u1.nton ,.ntr, but possi ;iil ;|ji|Tfl for a prolonged war during the bi I i ry that t he or'J,qtq,,:n' settli either Jutish-Swedish ie',;f T:i,T impossible, or a Gautish- than we in ours, confused.the iiJ ;::::il:.; -century, which is-certainly not rwo peoples, Gauts, names he found Jutes_and whose ,ish war, which is highly probable. The'facts'can be -+ !o not too dissimilar,';e;ilrr; whose location, it is hvpothesis, bul gb more naturally with the second, in !|g.ges1ed, he was not well i"lb;;;_b; rith"r ,t itwouid appear wellnigh impossible for our s9a-i9nsc1o1 n311 y !f;. w.irr N"rrl" rour.., have their -supposition. ..ror, ,i1f-1 ships ind naval encounters in his account of Jutland, v"" Jii, i-*.i*, c"uti"nail; avoid mention of ';t ;:'jtr Jiff :ilfr h rce of selborne expedition: the E3'lish sources "oabe generations .b.y:* i:.J".* .old . h.ld ;-b;;; :prcron if . . or invariably sought in Vdstergdtland, bu-t receive a favourable explication? eri Gautish origins are to be N"*;f ;hi, is notablv heloful p-eople steadily into Ostergdtland, to theJutish case, but g-d were a strong and spread If ;il e; #; Ndrke, Vermland, and part of Smlland. They were the Jutes, their desceni-upoo"rgu*.r;;;; Friri. rnd, ,...,I fit.fi., itably rivals of the Swedes, and warfare berween the two peoples especially when we considei the kind ;hrp, it thei, disposal"-..;;;.; early thesis, if not surely right, is in. the sixth century, th"n thai-tt.-a;;Tr""f -shourd noi be avoided. The Chambers Ji s*.a.n be likelv to anv of its rivals. But what we need not de- raiding there. There r,"g U.* be so than L;;p;ri"d J;rade and other con_ from'Beowulfis that the Gauts rvere so decisively overthrown in tact berween the roouths. tf,." nfti" i'f,. y"rr"nd peninsula, rter control of their and a clash berween tt.i,"f p.ofb, ;;;;r"{#ring."ii sixth century that the Swedes then assumed recorders The Frankish tories. In Curt Weibull's view they kept their independence till ofit speak of the raideis as Danes, iani, notGauts, and the the year rooo, and it may well have bien Olaf Skijikonunq *ho Liher Morctrorin describes H.it;;t;^;;'6ns of rh" Gete the Gauti' though mr enjoyed the title rex Speorurtt Gotborumque. West Norse sources it is difficurt t" 6.ti.* trr" t"cLo ,oaamean Jutes. numerous reGrences to the Gauts and Gautland down to that whaq it is worth we hlve f9i ..er.n..ln V.n"nuu, Forrunarus, including the not necessarily reliable ones in bishop of poiticrs (530609), ,"" well-known but ;h. [c;;f o"nirr, fleet in Frisia i's Heinsdringla jarl realm in Gautland and Olaf c. 565; and Vikins Aee " to Rognvald's gvjjelce. fo, ,;"dirg and polrical re- conGder- Iations berween Denriark,(i15lua$l"ir""a)"lor. 's hope ofeniisting'him as an ally against the ila Frisia is so srrong uding olif Skdt\onun!.l Others lay stress on the circum- that.it encourages us to beLeve that "whereas this was the continuation ol that ...iy '.Jtho.ities' speak of many tribes in ."irgn g: i, 1", ."."" ffi rirr rr,, anqent::l*y[o,:_alieady tradrnq toum Gil' of Hollingstedt in Slesvig pr3serves in the medieval forrn*of its n"*. 6nu'gl*;il; ;;;j reminiscence ot a Huiglaucus-Hugteik-Hygelac who may or mii;;;;;;u""" rr,

in V._Starcke,_ Derynlin philadelphia, lTr:l "i. World Hinor6,tw;s"onrin, t962, pp. Wro7. See tooJ. A. Leake, Tbe Gcat ,1 *"ilij- 1907. 44 4 Historl of tbe Vikingr the Swedes and tbe Tbe Legendary Historl of Danet 45 Sweden, visirors in the ninrh century like Anskar speak onlv of nr war and fragmentation; but some Swedes, a Prey to,civil thus sussesti: g,:_qi,,t'. r iru ggl. frequently fo; ;#;; ily"ih:; rusness there must have been oiof a DanishDanlsh identitytclentlty concluded.r In case rt rs -llo.onsciousness more reasonabl, from the Swedes and Norwegians. This was Glt C;;;.;#' "n"VJd, parrner in the swedi sr,',!?, illfll,i'J} ill: by leading individuals and families: ir was to were ground out ofexistence. we rlnJl,tong.tt " hear of their rr;r"d hi;"rk.{ the"concipt of nationhood, that ordinary Glt their Thing and theirjarls, to ;;;; .folk the ."J oiri. serviie. Also, with every allowance made for the swedes bei"me *or. "i i1".. gave io*"rrur *"" irr. drr;;Tr".?fi11,:tf,T:*: ""a of the Eruli,l and the emigration of the.Angles unsure ofthe decisiveitages and dates ofthe ilr. process. il"r.j"*pition ll,.t, we. do not know to what extent the Dani filled the of other peoples, or whether their name came to Ifnow we turn to the realm ofDenmark ,)i"J r'."" our first, if spurning, steps of tribes resident in Traland, the lesser islands, must still be taken on Swedish_soil, ,ir*.oni.a.t"ry whether we.oegrn wrthJor_ with names of their own. What we do know dane^s' puzzling lliUna, originally srarement that the D";;;;; or the same stock as itt" peoile or'collectionof peoples b:{lig the name Dari the Swedes, at an unstated time ia, lport o.o. zoo or c. 5oo), took or J"rinirii" geographical Denmirk and Skine soon after the recovered possession of the Eruliai lands in Den.*( *rr.ri., .nine of the sixth century. we cautiouslv gro'e our way into "i the mirage-strewn hinterrand of *"ort..l.btated of thi legendary kings of Denmark were the legend, to nnd"thi eoonymous ,. Dan son of ?pp.r, kJd;i6;# (SkiiildungaD, the Scyldings of Beowu$ Men of the in^Sweden,'from whom [i... O*],,o;,h # ended from Skjold, who according to Tnglinga Saga orou.t ingr irt" ii"*.a in grorious r.ri.r, tit .tXilt?i.tt:"*1i'3iff: dre son of Odinn, accoiding to Saxo the grandson of Dan, and who _q'j_tl,*.t.9an left Sweden ro take p"rr;;ri;;;i rding to Beowulf either the son-of Shea[ Scyld Scefing, or 91:::,tq:lLealand and rts sister isles of Falster, Lolland and Mon. Together th.d scyld 'with the Sheaf'. According to Beowulf, too, these formed the realm. of Vith.rl.rf,, th. wid. ;ilr. ;;;JJ*l#; to the"s Danish shore a helpless child, no one knew from Fyn and Skine accepted the authoriry of nan, and ,f,. rurgi;;rJ or across waters, but with a heap of treasures about named Danmcirk what after him. A".o.di,ig to S"io, l"n had a brother passage inJordanes relating to the Dani and Eruli is as follows: Sunt Angul, who;r*o.t"l"irJ ii;';r.. by attaching ir lf.1|.y,:of 'exrcriores Ostrogothr, [Raumariciae, rag- to the people known afterwards as Angles, .Raumarici.r .Aeragnarici and in the Lnprophesrted , Finni mitissimi] Scandzr cultoribus omnibus mitiores [minores]; as En gtish. This is *Tld ;"J;ii;ri;;;ilf,;;;;; n et pares eorum Vinoviloth; Suetidi, cogniti in hac gente reliquis ::"1::De pressecl :f li::ory to a meaning, much less a conclusion (thlre is no con_ I eminendores: fotantit et DanL ex ipsorun $irpe progressi, H.erulos tt;.!.1.y even in vdibu extttlerurt. omnes Scandia nationes nomen sibi ob the leglnd: according to tii ctronicle of tbe Kings oui inter proceritati affectint^precipium (ed. Mommsen, MGH, V, Much the eponymous sons of ypper were 58). !! !t/* Nori, Osten,'and Dan), ent hasnas Deen thetne yet tt may belatedly poinr 'r, been .oncenir"tedconcentrated on Jordanes'.lordanes' text, and particularlypartrcularly on to the strength, *..lth. and strategic here ofrr;rpr and proprius; whetherJordanes und.rstood the Danes rmportance of Z,ealand, the isles, and Sk-ine on the one hand, and Svcdish.deicent,6r a'long *ith the Swedes of Scandinavian descent; (possrbly ethgJordanes Jutland with Fyn) on the other, divided as rhey are by the is informin[ us that the Danes expelled the Eruli from ureat 5elc, as contnbutory to the creation 'c. Erulian] dwelling-placis, or from their orvn [Danish] dwelling- ofa kingdo- ofD.nmark. vhich -Eruli This does not mean that ,Greater the had"siized or maybe encrorched on, .., for .*amp[", t;r;;;k;";;i.il"r.rrl.".a tgnttJrave have definitive boundaries done soon after th.the r""iyeai 5o5Lejre t\atis.ltre theii rou"i r# iii"itr 11sL11-{ subje*s placed,h.im on a ship, their glorious lord by ,h;;;:;:,r:: iJ r.**n so. Nor has anything been found of the sacrificial navrng neaped Chronicle, where hrm wlth no lesser dowry of weapons.ana ,r"arur..- .cribed in Thiettnar's early eleventh-century than he had brought "iinrh men and the with him, and set a golden srandard hish o,^, y.t-t, in the month bf;anuary, ninety-nine his,head, they Iei the sea take him, g"; hi; ;;;;;..r?:il:: ourrb.t ofho.ses, dogs, and tocks, were sacrificed to the gods' could any ma1 {rom that day to this, whether hero under t.ru.n'J, rhir ltt, is not surPrising. counsellor in hall, tell who received that load. For the nanes of the kings who followed him there are mnra authorities than authoriry : Sixo Grammaticus, shortl; ;f;;; ;;;: Sven Aggeson, c. rr85; the Cbronicle dfue frngs,rf kj;r,-;;;;;#: after^r16o (later incorporated in the'fourteenrn-centun/ Awah of Lo0; the Chronicle of iHeorot, or Harr, lofty and wide_ga6led, at Lejre in Zealand. Garyl_e Lejre today is to be found some five miles west- south-wesr of the cathedral city of Roskilde, quiet a littre viilage on RE FRoM THE wEST (olaus woRrurrUs) a quiet littlestream..(the Kornerup A; the r.j.. A tm al.jrpl rum Haraldi Hyldctandi; C. I-ocus ubi Regia olim erat; whlch tlows three miles or so ro the southern extremiw of Roskilde main skibsrtning. $ord. Today's student of Beowulf and its Norseanrfol*r;, fitay to visit it with emorion: like many other places in , pl*i n.nfilrrt , let us again remind ourselves that rvhile it rvould be timor- of burial since the Stone Age, so that iis ancient are approachei to draw"from such an abundance oflegendary and pseudo- watched by *."ny." tre"ed and gr*rry ,nounJ; orrht 9L"r ,l!rir. material the conclusion that Halfdan-Healfdene, Hroar- orggesr tkrbtetnrrg rn the country; by Thietmar of Merseburg's rthgar, Helgi-Halga, and Hrolf-Hrothulf were kings who y,].t",.:t a sanguinary shrine. th9 heathen; of rhe gf royal sear and ruled in Denmark, we know hardly an unchallengeable Sk;oldungs; and in saga tradition the never_to_be_forsotren scene t them. We do not even know whether Halftlan's name, of the nurture and desrruction of Hrolf Kraki and his"champions. presumably'HalllDane', implies that the Skjoldungs were He is likelv to leave it deeply impressed-ana Urm.a. reji y1s clearly tnhabrted some rime in the tenth century bv a chiefrain ncn Ie bjenlos'is Haral,l Andcrsen's phrase, the leader ofthe excavations enough to be given a fine burial, but of Hrolf,r'ri*ih_..nrur.ourt Fra Nationalmuteett -lrbeiknarh, r96o, rnd Skalk, t958,: and 4. tbe Swedes and tbe Darcs bgadzrl Hi$or1 of 49 whatsoever-more indeed..than any had. ever obce northern lands, 'ili"vrcarne champions from all the Bothvar Bj arki,. who married i n to ii"-Al'ir-argotten . .'"-i *;rtt tlie freg{opfreedom ptopeitoproper to a kinsman suggestedsug,gested ?.rror.",,a?lirt,ti. the Danish image in Sweden'.What followed il";*h Ride, in vhich he carried.offa large helping of Jtiitt;tr" court, but was forced to abandon it, in a iiiy;"gt":ti:, on the plain of Fyrisvellir, before Upp- u r rcr c, .' ro rh u I r and n.lJ,l*j:^fl, us that Hrolf's attack on ity n-.ri.,,";:il.T:[:] 1n woiutf.allows l jltlk interveniion on behalfofAli'sll'idow' a kinswoman of l;l rJil;i,"[y", r.l J, u, n g,,.d, ffj.f::ffi :1" j5:::&;ffi;f li :m:" :lf i" ji f6t Athils kept his throne, though Hrolf, with the L";?T ,l,.i i1?3giJ?tg:nl of"iLd, the story-tellers, snatched t-he glgry. Thjs Swedish ,:r .na^io'fi, Tg ",id. ;;i;;;d;,;'fri:i ?::::1"":on., ,*.r th. turning-point of his liG, in legend because an him, in fact, one suspects, because his "d;;fti:"1*tts rgnore or obscure tttit g.i.|""t inn now deserted * Ibt"rd';; th'lttt^:r ition led his enemies to combine against him. Their dispose ""rir and reputauoi, rl.*"i6..'111, tui. his first cousin Hjorvard, according to Skjt)ldunga Saga r"it jl: g'o".i,cc,. tion, or *r. ?,""5"rii' ;t-il,lfsd Hr6lf:r i island of Oland offthe south-eastern coast of Sweden, m"".i Saga KraLa museumu se u m oofsrr^t'\ I s u ch), ,t-^,",!t''lttc it ;;;;.; u'.o r ft ,oi"ln t"Ji;*r,fi army of Swedes and Gauts to Lejre, and in a night attack +i#k ffi",Tf ; his entire bodyguard, none ofwhom chose to survlve t'ris i,l. tlvo ilTffi;:';:ilLf11f:t e{p.""'.'r., sens, Hn likewise fell, Lejre perished by hostile killed.by his pr"ii,'i and 'the mmonarch on a rch brother ofo r a sen,"orose para te kfsJ;;,,r,-oj:l{ geance. ],iii, lr,.i'j,?iTi.i,i,lir;l Helgi, the .no.. ry history such as this is a heady brew, and still headier ,r!.rdn.lIri. *"j,"rhen becrme uenmark. In his dealinr liins with Harald Wartooth, Sigurd Hring, and their bloody y,"*y-r,*J"al;::il1?',#r'l#t::fJfi .-Bravellir. ?1,:f Briefly, then, let us remind ourselves that Instrumenrs to plaeue i:j*!i; ls and dynastic struggles, confusedly if excitingly re- u'is ,;;;,r#glon,ius Hrolf, was tl rssue of his unwitiingl 1iry. never the whole of the story. Something real and un- yrsa. y"o. rnarriige with his drughn rrsa. Laterl.arer yrsa, hero I in..rtuous * on in Denmark and Sweden during rhese same "^__ ;ffi. if,:.^x1,i.ff,":ilj Fging tDenmark' king of ili;4rjf]*the.^S#"a.r_non"lti., unllt tlmes. The general area of was taking il?['*^Jllll tr,,n tr,,, r clude Zealand 9:i:t.i:-r,r,o,.,._rouin jaiiid;ff;F*?Tr"jl"'^i!ili#,i$i (iti heart and centre), Falster, Lollani then other islands, and the terriiories irnmediately yn tr,." ru n ,;"_ l;,f: U.ppsara l,ytud- l, f *l d s a t or d Uppsara. rnd, i.e. I: y":.,"""*":*:"f " ,r,., runlli.til;jJ; Skine and Halland, but, not in all probabiliry, iilHil::,#lnlfl# Later there again. He wenr ashore would bsa *"".-"ri b"n.i *.r, inio l.lil""-::l^i:-le with i,r"ir.i ,,.",ila th oftheEider, "r " which cventually would play as important toi,lil'::l*::q,hr'"J;i;;,;.-#:;H#L?,f hls shrps ilfT,l#ii;; Danish Athils had him anrbushea', afhirs as Zealand. The Great Littli n.lts, i""f.'ii#Uerween anvilar tth the "nj Danes p..irh"J-ii';ili# Oresund, bound these lands together; the effective heri1g!,i:f*..:Ji.the man. so H,otf i and bult ,,p ;;rfi;:.d,H ffir|.:l _ill,:I:fr: [email protected],, and therefore to expansio'n, weie the swamp ,1,: neck of the Jutlani peninsula and the im- :illlJlI*T::l*'lti,r'Lt'.!;"riJ'i1#'riifiii;a rore_stsTl " 'rhatis^ino.n*"rk,-l-;il';'"{,:fi j:1"::;"?;r:;;i; of Smiland in Swiden. naily in the Christian era aspect f i'J,T"ff sk{ney), of munificence there"*r, ' Uouna.J Uu *ater and wilderness. vas to all ,";; p""*p'";;?,lJ;;;n; ' PurPoses itself an isiand, a circumstance *hi.h "lon. A Hittory of tbe Vileings makes Hitorlt of tbe Soedu and tbe Danet 5I irs early attachme The ltgendarl i[TiJ:,ii:3ilfi the discussion of other matters affecting the well- il".;",::,^::dffi i,l*1:*:::,I1lf ,rr,,, mzrketingrand i'i'i, *iir" men and owners of land and chattels' The importance fftfi;;;",re and of its.leading family would grow together' As riii],r a i,iio*t and,sweden, the unrest of ihe times either rcmoved r^-l chiettatn altoqetner or fostered his strength and prestige' The 4tff#fifffr#,$ffi{il#fr#ffi and people h1d to, be defended."g'int! liilr,r weali-h in,land iI" had "*ity"aggressronr ano when ociasibn offered outside wealth ^,rrside i"i..*fili,..a. In both Zealand andJudand w€ can from tirne to the existence of a number of 'kingdoms', each with.its iir]x11 *,fi fi ;;;;;;,it. f.5:ii},{ffi 'i **l*, ii]'"";. rnd in lutland we know that some of them survived, fitfully' 'ff the key Jtt .', i.rr, the time of Gorm in the tenth century. Probablv io-r furut knowledge of this pattern of small kingdoms lies in the *, linked with a market-place. A backward glance trom .,u.*H*frn$ff{fififfiffi# regional Thing ,tE u.., rooo"confirms what in any case seems the safe deduction ittrr'ru.tr key-places included tledeby, Ribe, Arhus, Viborg, Aggersborg, tnd Undhol* Hoje inJutland, Roskilde and Ringsted lilnalandl Odense on Fyn, and no doubt Lund in Sk&ne-though ;,g*fifi#ft**tat''ffi;'iT**: we know ihtt to*. of ihese acquired different characteristics as the result of political change, or even in course of time removed to a different site. Also, the early petty kingdoms, however entitled, were subject to vicissitude. By ionqu.rt,'inheritance, coalescence, or act of god, #ru*rfiruffi their boundaries and fottun.r chaneed. Probably many individual anddynastic episodes which attain e[i., or leasi heroii, dimension Second, "t ,, the kingdom of Den^..l, r^-s in the legendiry sources were locai and contained. occasionalry a n"Ji::lJ;il-ilTf ruling ho-use had a run of successes which made it overlord of sub- Hiiii'.:it15,5:il":r"seorswcdenrnr'#l**,:"],:"ii1"iilil stantial parts of Denmark. Hrolf Kraki and Harald Wartooth, if we cannot accept that they were flesh and blood and conquering kings, is*:;;;y,r,rr*,r:,qipffi may- serve is leeendary exemplars. Expansion and triumph de- pended less on shi"eld-bitins berserks and ihe deceptivefavour of this ;l:j*ri*E,:tk'l*!ii;,"i.,l:'lffi *::*,rr#,t: 8od or that valkyrie than"on gained from agriculture and wealth -the jrade, then used'to sustain th" proce"s of war. In legendary ;:lr,u:jh?,-*#rtrU{i::"'i:ll6H4*i',T*,Tfl of Denmark a durable- suprem- a9'ThisTIof no ruling house established I!;: g::rl;'1 conforms not onlvio the requirement of heroic liteiature ;t : ;,?t disaster"It conforms also to the broad iii::;agry:?gift',":,'iI the sole and the exception-of ,^" H,:t"'i:fttlj:i1",r,tr|;*i:o Jurla^nd, or*rnllll*' "with "rr.rn ot^tnat.laid, we return to the heroes and kings, and conGss that : :i J# ; i ramifications "X :ns,': f #:i::yitil,: t,A* "te of Danish history for a hund'red and fifty years .o'"po,"aoi-,;*H:":f, .::.1";;#;H*:"rn*:";l*:",i:1,..r illffi ',T1,?i#Tl'[:.'"f '),*.::ri:H:yl*:r',:::::i of tbe Swedu and tbe Daws 53 52 A Historl of tbe l/ihingt Tbe kgendary History painful disintegration his rivals in Denmark, including the followed by sharp struggles for power within Lino who overcame the h19 power over the country, but the personalities, t"rritJi,es, and proce.il,,-^ rkilAil;ipCii:"l""*yvj;f::-Yl"1l::0"'i';'l:Tifrl?";^;;i skt;;, and then extended involved are unknown.f Ey.n with lvar viaaam Wide-grasper) 1nl;;.'",i:.r: ruler of a loose-strung emPrre or in the- seventh ..rrtury *"- aJrrwrrh lan rasies. old age, the l-r- l-r'ofr;;, in which sub-kings yasty" h-ear, king ofskine when Ingjald, called ,h" W;il,;i;: .r'cv rather than a compacted kingdom' Yngling line, wai king of. the s*3d.r'"t j"g;rij'#; and *hen occ"esion favour!$, y9"t1 6;;;1". ffHffi;h;iity, him came-!: widened his.kingdom 6y.slaying tryelv_e it. it'" challelge that finallv-undid kings, alt ot them rre:,- H"i;";'h;1ilg. Corfr6n ted *i th tli. #.",n l""r'fi Hiin g: al so.,s tvled sig"d g e withdrewi; ; ni; ii' l,'ii ; li"H:::' i:: nau:i::::ll wlrh hrs daughter and people, "r Hrii g as Hir"ald'9 nlnhe* ;,i1,f and when the company was dead ilH;;'-l;"do.'ibiis"+.* drunk he had firJhid to it, ,o thar tt.y *itness mi'k's a tcls ill D:iT::h p.rirh"d:;.i";&;;; ffi ;;;;i; irim 1 1b : Tnglinga-Saga, "it "f Sweden and Eas t Giutlan d to gether' this pyromanic. imbeciliry cjrt rh. y;gl;;g;';f,# i'ieT' IC*; ;;; ; ;; ; t'i, at all' he realm of Uppsala, and-future kings S*!a." *d Denn'"rrk?rnr# tJiof rrct" appears the least likely' If Hring existed rne une oI "f rvar, though what Ivar could be except another ynrrlino i" ed east of the Oresund' hard to the batdeof Bravellir' a to l3y. We hear that he now conquered'S*eden ,na .?rn.". ;;ffi; t"a Hring led "iH"i.ra last.sta'd at Lejre' and possess all Denmark. Also he won for himselfa large parr ofcerrnanv. ;r ffi;,lt;^;t.tn t,oty ai Hrolf's the entire Austrriki (presumably th. Irni, .?;r';i;h"'li;ilil ,llv .*b.llished with fictions' Harald, we hear' came to earn rncluctrng.a cruelty, and they planned htle of Russia), and the fifth part of Enelend_a iiiiri. Jiitrlft..it r"t age and traditional description iome ignoble"u strajage1' He prelerred of Northumbri". vu.[ ol iil, ;r" pt rid of him bf 1," 1l:-,'i mbnarch collected a nonsense. The aurhors of Skjdldunga Saga and Heimkringla #;"rr]"r" t; ;d io king Hri-n[. Each these ';;;;;i"i.;t from every- northern natlon' conqueror's la-urels 6n thE legendary Ivaiin prccisely host, with champions drawn :::*"d with bermans and slavs' lh. :1T..*^y a_s Geoffrey of Monmouth ascrlbed to our Bri tisir,qrthur ;ih;;;;;;dlr.ou.r.d Iceland, (and Malgo), amazons and the one-eyed the conquest of Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, rhe Faroes, t- ironclad and "tJ'Li*tians' of Harald's charioteer' The $/aters Lory3y Denmark: it sounded well and who could disprove I himself, in the guise Harald's fleet that him ? Saxo, surprisingly, does nor mention Ivar. Zealand and Skin"e were so packed with But E* the unfurled sails of the Swedes of Ivar's. grandson, Harald Hilditonn or Wartooth, he has couiJ;; a;Iil, while much armies came formally to,the to tell. With Harald, still more than with Ivar, we rnust prise Fred all ui.* o".'. the'ocean. The g, a few facts and conclusions from the concretei leeend in which we of slaught:r, probably near Brivikel'-T1l..3l_T"*t: ping, boundary of East Gautland' Here find them embedded. If he existed at all, he,w*?, ,rnUirious and o"n the nirth-easiern ".ltt*n by Harald and l Thc Danish i. up in battle order and harangued king: of the Chronicle of tbe Kingt of Lelre and, tbe Ann,tlt of Lun,l yrelo nothlng Then the sounded and the fef inceni6d P?iltt"9f rn plcturesqueness to the Swedish kinss of Tnslittsa Saed.Frve. trl-p.t, sky seemid to fall are not to be passed over in silence: thejittle do'g tirtt i *hont oppotit.t Uo..'furiously together. 'Tfe tne.Jw€des.:l^P:l.t.ilrl rmposed on the Danes as their king lor a while, riii he grcw oucr- ybir the earth, fields ,nb toodt to sink into the.ground; all ex,clted jumped and from table to hall floor, whire hounds of lo*..i.gr.. but i vere confounded, and old Ch"ot come again; lieaven and taller stature tore him to Hel (the same ol well-artested folktale is toldlater mingling in one tempestuous turmoil' ,!t: world rushing the Tronds); his successor king Snio *t *", ."r*lfi*'t ftthg u fi.. sil rtin.'r ended only when"$ Harald was dead, rn Jutland.; and, mosr lamous of all, Amblothae" the "r1Amleth' The cainaee lutlandei(Saxo's from who thus Amlethus), Horwendil's son, Fengis n.ph;,-hr;;;;"i. of Brirain, his chariot and"clubbed to dlath by Odinn, pera.mour. of a Scottish queen,*Rorik funqslinqer's ariLr,rry,"ri),..r, Wigleik's d. him to his peers in Valhalla' Hring ireated his uncle's vlctrm' Shakesp_eare's inspiration, Hamlet piince"of Denmark.' Rakka "nl with honour; ai.ording to Icelandic soui..t he was conveyed S_nto preceded- Hrolfi Hamlet came somewhat later. Later again came blind K)' Book quotations Saxo are taken lrom oliver Wermund and his son Offa, who, says against VItr. All mv from H/iditb.,dre* ih. b|undary translation, 1979) the Myrgings people 1894. (Nlw trans. by Peter Fisher, ed. Davidson, [a related to the Saxons] at Fifledor [the Eidir]'. A History of the Vikingt

6. snavnr,l,tn in his chariot into a cairn filled with the donated rreasures ofthe victors; according to Saxo he was burned on a sumptuous pyre and his ashes transGried to Leire.l 'So ended the Bravic wai.' And so ends a chapter. Dead reckonine places- Bravellir in the early eighth centuryr'but guesses hard{ more hazardous have placed it as far back as the seventh and even the sixth. All we can be sure ofis that'it was a famous victory', and that with the death of Harald W'artooth another Oanish-Swedish confederacy had fallen to pieces. In Norway all this while there were stirrings, gropings towards the amalgamation of various petff kingdoms, evidence of European connections, elaborate burials' splendid works ofart in favoured centres ofhabitation, and perhaps the first indications that from Vestfold on the western shorl ofthe Oslofiord would come the chief moulders of the future kingdom of Norway, and from Halogaland by way of the Trondelafi, three hundred miles north of Vestfold, their most important rivali. But it is still too early to detect significant political movement north of the Skagerrak, and Norway's story miy be postponed to its place in our chapter on the ninth- and tenth-cenrury history ofthe viktn9 realms. rThe of Se2*lcbrum Haraldi rylfutandi of Olc Worm's famous 'prospect' l*jre, 1643, the Hyldetandslioje whose mangled remains are visitle ioday' rs noi a burial mound of the scventh or eighth cin tury but a langdlse of theStote Ag..