Norse travellers reached every corner of the known world, but they were not tourists. The ‘racially pure’ of stereotype were, in fact, cultural chameleons adopting local habits, languages and religions. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough VIKINGS WARRIORS OF NO NATION

Viking ship carrying Harold III of Norway against his half-brother Olaf II in 1030, c.1375.

2 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 3 n January 2018, President Trump Odinism and white supremacy are bedfellows. expressed a preference for immigrants Such ideas of racial and cultural purity from affluent nations such as Norway, as would have been alien to the inhabitants of the opposed to those from what he termed medieval Nordic world. They may have come ‘shithole countries’. The indignant from the northernmost fringes of Europe – and Iresponse was on a global scale. Photos of in the case of Icelanders, in the middle of the beautiful African sunsets and wildlife were North Atlantic – but Norse travellers reached posted. One Norwegian woman tweeted: ‘We every corner of the known world. are not coming. Cheers from Norway.’ Trump was not the first to misuse Blond men in boats Scandinavian countries as a poster child for Thanks to chronicles and letters written by racism. The Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy Christian holy men, perpetuated by modern rested on the premise of the Nordic race as books, cartoons and films, an enduring Viking superior to all others. Particularly disturbing stereotype is engrained in our collective was the ‘Lebensborn’ programme initiated by cultural imagination: blond men in boats with the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler to secure beards and battle-axes, sailing slate-grey seas the racial purity of the Third Reich. The under northern skies. There is some truth in programme was particularly active in Norway, this. Technically speaking ‘viking’ simply where around 10,000-12,000 children were means ‘raider’ (which is why we tend to use the born to Norwegian mothers and German broader term ‘Norse’ to describe medieval fathers. The roots of this ideology lay in Nazi Scandinavian peoples, their culture and perceptions of ’s past. When language). From the late eighth century Norway and Denmark were occupied, SS onwards, the coastal and river monasteries of recruitment posters appeared featuring Viking the British Isles and Western Europe were warriors and dragon-headed longships. As war vulnerable to hit-and-run attacks from raged, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his son seaborne Scandinavians. bemoaning ‘that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf It is likely that, for most of us, the first image Hitler’ for: ‘ruining, misapplying, and making that springs to mind is not traders bumping forever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a over the desert sands to Baghdad on camelback supreme contribution to Europe, which I have or indeed of men of Norse descent out on the ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.’ Russian steppes, worshipping the Slavic gods Shadows of the past persist. The modern of thunder and lightning. It is also probably not growth of Odinism and Ásatrú – the modern bored Christian converts carving runic graffiti worship of Norse pagan gods such as , into the stone of Hagia Sophia, the magnificent Thor and Freyja – has been shadowed by an basilica in Constantinople (now Istanbul). But ideological subculture that emphasises racial as is often the case, truth is far more interesting heritage and ethnic separatism. In US prisons, than fiction. Over the centuries, Norse men and

Waffen-SS propaganda poster to recruit Norweigan men during the Nazi occupation of Norway, 1943.

4 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 5 women set out from their homelands bound for Finally, in 911, a Norwegian raider called Rollo suggests that the newcomers were in the remarkable about the events of 1066 is that all distant lands. Through activities such as was granted lands in northwest France in minority and did not take long to adopt three major players were of Nordic descent. trading, raiding, fighting, colonising and return for converting to Christianity and Frankish material culture and burial practices. The first casualty was Harald Hardrada, killed settling, their travels took them west to swearing loyalty to Charles the Simple, king of By the early 11th century, it would have been by Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Greenland and the edge of North America, the West . This region included a unusual to hear anyone local speaking the Bridge just outside York. As King of Norway, north beyond the Arctic Circle, east down the portion of the , meaning that Charles had Norse language. his Scandinavian credentials were well Russian waterways and south to the made himself a convenient Norse ‘plug’ to stop established. Leading the Normans, William the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. The other northern pirates sailing down the river Age of the Conqueror Conqueror was the great-great-great-grandson medieval world could be a brutal place and the and attacking further inland. The king had set By the time William the Conqueror crossed the of Rollo, the Norse-raider-cum-royal-vassal Norse played their part in making it so. But a thief to catch a thief: Rollo would not want Channel to shatter Anglo-Saxon England in who was given Normandy. Even Harold they were cultural chameleons, adopting local his newly acquired lands crawling with 1066, the Normans were Northmen only in Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of habits, languages and religions. river-borne looters any more than the Franks name. But visual remnants of their cultural England, was of Scandinavian heritage: his While the Norse raids on the British Isles did. Now he was Christian, he would not attack heritage are woven – literally – into the Bayeux mother was Gytha, daughter of the Danish are perhaps best known – the attack on the any monasteries. And since he answered Tapestry. One clue is the hairstyles that many of nobleman Thorgil Sprakling (‘strut-leg’). island monastery of Lindisfarne in 793 is often directly to the king, he was on his best the Normans sport, shaved at the back and long However the battle had transpired, a king of used as a convenient date for the start of the behaviour. That, at least, was the idea. Before at the front. Writing a few decades earlier in Scandinavian descent would have ended up on – Western Europe also experienced they settled into their new role, Rollo and his England, Aelfric of Eynsham had complained the English throne. its share of violence. The Royal Frankish men changed allegiances a few times, raided that the English were adopting a similar sort of The Nordic cultural and political influence Annals record pirate-infested waters at the the coastline and generally made nuisances of Scandi-chic look, dressing like Danes and on the British Isles was substantial. Off the edge of ’s kingdom from around themselves. Despite his conversion to cutting their hair with ‘bare neck and blinded northern coast of Scotland, the Northern Isles AD 800, probably Danish raiders. A few years Christianity, Rollo is said to have sacrificed eyes’. Elsewhere in the tapestry, Normans hold of Orkney and Shetland were under Norse rule later, a Danish king called Godfred laid waste slaves to the pagan gods Odin and Thor on his up war banners depicting ravens, a design until the 15th century. For hundreds of years to the northern regions of the Carolingian deathbed, just in case. Old habits die hard. associated with the Norse rulers and warriors. afterwards, a form of – Norn – was Empire. The scale of this activity grew, with the Even so, it was not long before the The Norse were keen on ravens, not least spoken in the islands. The Norse heritage is still Seine, Loire, Elbe and Rhine – acting as routes immigrants known as Nordmanni because the pagan god Odin was said to be visible in the landscape, in everything from into the heart of Western Europe. The first (‘Northmen’) assimilated, marrying local accompanied by two named Huginn (‘thought’) place names [SUCH AS?] to runic graffiti siege of in 845, saw 120 ships sail up the women [FROM WHERE?] and speaking the and Muninn (‘memory’). As carrion birds, carved onto prehistoric cairns and stone Seine. Reports stated that they defeated the local language [WHICH?]. Despite the fact ravens were also emblems of corpses and circles. Before the Norse arrived, the Northern king’s army and hanged 111 of his men as a that the Norse were in the minority the region battles and, in Norse poetry, ravens are Isles had been occupied by the Picts, but sacrifice to Odin, before occupying the city. became known as Normannia (‘Land of the described hovering over the corpses of warriors evidence for cultural assimilation of the sort we Northmen’), or as we know it today, Normandy. and feasting on their flesh. It would have been see in Northern France is limited. Were they Christian Converts But evidence for the Norse cultural roots of the appropriate to march into battle with images of simply wiped out, or did the Norse come to Over the years the Frankish rulers tried Normans is relatively scarce. Norse place ravens fluttering above the army – a reminder dominate the socio-cultural landscape so different tactics: paying Vikings off, converting names tend to be concentrated around the to their enemies of what awaited them. completely that little evidence of other them to Christianity, allying with their leaders, coast, where Scandinavian settlement was The Norse connection to the Normans is inhabitants survived? pitting them against each other, even ignoring most concentrated. There is not much well known. But in terms of Scandinavian Elsewhere in the British Isles, the situation them in the hope that they would go away. archaeological evidence to go on, which cultural assimilation, what is even more was more fluid. Today the Isle of Man might

Historiated initial ‘E’ with Effigy of Rollo, Duke of Æthelstan enthroned Normandy, Rouen from ‘Liber Legum Cathedral, France. Antiquorum Regum’, English, c.1321.

6 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 7 seem rather remote, geographically, but for the Norse, with their superior ship technology, Man lay at the centre of the waters that connected England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is hardly surprising that Scandinavians chose to settle there, but they did not wipe out the pre-existing population. Stone sculptures and crosses dotted across the island testify to the cultural and religious mix of the island’s Viking Age inhabitants, incorporating Celtic and Norse names as well as Christian and pagan imagery. Some depict stories from : Sigurd the dragon-slayer roasting the heart of the dragon Fafnir, or the one-eyed god Odin being swallowed by the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarok, the doom of the gods. But some stones also include Christian crosses, while others mix languages and scripts: Celtic names written in Norse runes, or stones with both Norse runes and Celtic ogham inscriptions. Viking Age activity in England began with sporadic raids at the end of the eighth century. Settlement began decades later, following the arrival of the ‘Heathen Army’ in 865. By the end of the ninth century, much of northern and eastern England was controlled by Scandinavians, an area that later became known as the . But despite a concentration of place names that betray their Norse origins (‘by’ is a farm, ‘thorpe’ is a village or farmstead, ‘thwaite’ is a cleared area of land), there is not much other evidence for long-term Norse cultural dominance. Once they started bringing over their wives and children – or forming relationships with local women – Norse concerns would have been more about

The Viking attack on Paris, 885, unknown artist, c.1882-84.

8 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 9 keeping their farms and families safe rather signed, a pre-baptism ritual – or ‘baptism lite’ than looting and battling. Recent – that meant Christians were allowed to trade archaeological studies suggest that female with them. Others were utterly shameless when immigrants expressed their Scandinavian it came to their religious affinities. Writing in heritage through jewellery they had brought the 880s, the Frankish scholar Notker the with them, which may have once belonged to Stammerer describes an event that took place their mothers or grandmothers. These were not during the reign of , particularly high status, but were rich with Charlemagne’s son. Every year Danes would emotional and cultural worth. arrive demanding to be baptised, not because Often incomers were very good at adapting of their piety but because of the free gifts that to the local social landscape and creating accompanied the ceremony: expensive clothes, hybrid identities. When Alfred the Great baptismal robes and weapons. On one occasion defeated the Danish leader Guthrum in 878, he no fewer than 50 Danes turned up. Louis had granted him the kingdom of East Anglia. One to cut up some old shirts to use as robes. When condition was that he convert to Christianity. the officials reached one elderly Dane, he was At his baptism Guthrum adopted an Anglo- unimpressed: ‘Look here!’, he responded. ‘I’ve Saxon name and ruled as Æthelstan II. The gone through this ablutions business about 20 silver pennies issued during his reign are times already, and I’ve always been rigged out Anglo-Saxon and Christian in style, imitating with a splendid white suit; but this old sack those produced in Alfred’s own kingdom. Coins makes me feel more like a pig farmer than a from the Danelaw often include Christian soldier!’ [THIS SOUNDS TOO MODERN. IS symbols and inscriptions and many feature THERE A MORE ACCURATE both the name of a Norse ruler and an Anglo- TRANSLATION?] Saxon moneyer. Coins issued at St Peter in York depict an image of Thor’s hammer along with Rise of the Rus the name of St Peter, reflecting the cultural and It was not just the Norse in Western Europe religious hybridity of the time. We see similar and the British Isles who displayed such ambiguity in a Viking Age smith’s mould from cultural – not to mention moral – flexibility. To Denmark, which could forge both Christian the east, the Russian rivers were home to a crosses and Thor’s hammers depending on the people called the Rus, the people who gave religion of the customer. Russia its name (meaning ‘Land of the Rus’). A ninth-century Arab writer called Ibn Pragmatic Pagans Khordadbeh, the caliph’s spymaster, described When it came to matters of cold hard cash, the how Rus traders took their merchandise to Norse could be remarkably pragmatic with Baghdad on camelback. Once inside they their cultural heritage and religious beliefs. pretended to be Christian, presumably because Pagan Norse traders would often be prime- it gave them a business advantage (even if it

Further reading Right: William, Duke of Judith Jesch The Viking Diaspora (Routledge, Normandy, sends messengers to Count Guy 2015) de Ponthieu, Bayeux Stefan Brinks and Neil Price (eds) The Viking Tapestry, 11th century. World (Routledge, 2011) This page: St Peter D.M. Hanley The Viking in England: Settlement, coin from York with the last ‘t’ in the shape of Society and Culture (Manchester University Thor’s hammer. Press, 2010)

10 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 11 meant they had to pay tax like the Christians). individual who would later visit bloody revenge Scandinavian kings who fled to the Kievan Rus butcher a family: the two little daughters are Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is Associate Another Arabic account described how the Rus on her husband’s murderers. Their names may court to escape their enemies. There is even told to throw themselves into the sea rather Professor of Medieval History and Literature at attacked settlements on the Caspian Sea in 913: seem Russian, but actually they are Norse in one outlandish tale of two Russian princesses than let the foreigners capture them. Another Durham University and author of Beyond the ‘The Rus spilled rivers of blood, seized women origin: Igor comes from ‘Ivarr’ or ‘Yngvarr’ and spirited away to supernatural lands ruled by cheerier story describes cordial relations Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse and children and property, raided and Olga comes from ‘Helga’. But the pair called nymphomaniac giant women (this may not be between the two groups, with fast friendships Sagas (OUP, 2016). everywhere destroyed and burned.’ If this their son Svyatoslav, a decidedly Slavic name. entirely accurate). Even Harald Hardrada, king formed, friendly competitions and mutual seems reminiscent of the early Viking attacks In the decades since Igor and Helga were of Norway until his death in 1066, had a Rus language learning. on the British Isles, it is no coincidence. The themselves named, something seems to have wife, Elisiv of Kiev. The sagas preserve poetry Further west, on the edge of the North Rus were descended from Norse traders – shifted in terms of the dominant cultural he composed for her before they married, American continent, the sagas report that mostly Swedes – who had set off east, crossed affiliation. When he came to power, Svyatoslav mostly lamenting the fact that she did not seem Norse explorers encountered locals whom they the Baltic Sea and sailed down the waterways styled himself as a typical Slavic ruler, to be particularly interested in him. also called skraelings. Diplomatic relations got of the Russian steppes. In 862, according to worshipping the Slavic gods Perun (god of Not all Norse far-travellers were masters of off to a promising start, with the two groups later accounts, a Norse prince called Rurik was thunder and lightning) and Volos (god of cultural assimilation. For instance, when Norse trading goods such as furs and cloth, but it did said to have established his base in Novgorod. flocks). Later sources describe how he was hunters in Greenland discovered the country’s not take long before the bloodshed began. In time, the centre of power shifted south to killed by enemies who did him the great Inuit population in the far north, reports are Perhaps the clue to what went wrong lies in the Kiev. As Rurik’s descendants consolidated their honour of covering his skull in gold and using it not encouraging. A 12th-century text called name the Norse gave to the inhabitants of both position in the region they formed a state that as a drinking vessel. The History of Norway states ominously: Greenland and America – skraelingar – a came to be known as Kievan Rus. This sort of cultural fluidity has posed derogatory term roughly translated as The Rus, too, were operating in a decidedly historians numerous problems but also Beyond the Greenlanders some little people ‘wretched ones’. Offensive names and cultural multicultural world [IS THAT THE allowed for selective readings of the past. have been found by hunters, who call them stereotypes are precisely the sort of building CORRECT PHRASE?]. In fact, the 10th During the Soviet era, Russian historians were skraelings. Weapon wounds inflicted on them blocks used to erect invisible walls between century Persian explorer and geographer Ibn keen to play down the role of European from which they will survive grow white people and groups: the Norse certainly were Rustah described the Rus as being particularly Scandinavians in the founding of their nation, without bleeding, but if they are mortal the not immune to this sort of thinking and friendly towards foreigners and strangers in favour of the Slavic tribes. Adolf Hitler blood hardly ceases to flow.’ categorisation. seeking refuge. As in France and England, the exacerbated the situation, declaring over Even so, forget twisty political messages and Rus were the minority and the further they dinner that ‘unless other peoples, beginning Bloody Feuds dark ideologies that misrepresent and misuse ventured down the Russian rivers, the more with the Vikings, had imported some It does not require a great deal imagination to Nordic culture past and present. Forget they found themselves in a landscape rudiments of organisation into Russian guess how the hunters discovered the bleeding popular images of the Vikings based on dominated by Slavic tribes. There would humanity, the Russians would still be living habits of these people. Oral stories collected cartoons, television shows and Hollywood certainly have been Rus of Scandinavian like rabbits’. As is so often the case, the from Greenlanders in the 19th century also films. The reality of Viking Age history is far extraction, but also non-Scandinavians in the historical truth is probably somewhere in hint at a complex, sometimes violent broader, far deeper and far more profound than mix. It is not always easy to work out how between. Over time the Rus became more relationship between the Inuit and a this. Yes, they were violent, brutal warriors people from the past defined themselves multicultural, more Slavic. Even so, links mysterious people they called Kavdlunait intent on expansion and slippery politicians, culturally, but sometimes they leave clues. One between Scandinavia and Russia were (‘foreigners’), who may be the Norse. In one too. But they were also masters of cultural example is the names they give their children. maintained. The Old Norse sagas – stories story, a bloody feud ends with an Inuit adaptation and integration and this is where From 912 to 945, the ruler of Kievan Rus was recorded in 13th-century Iceland but often chopping off the arm of aKavdlunait . In their enduring legacy lies. Igor. His wife was Olga, a formidable looking back to the Viking Age – tell tales of another, a group of Kavdlunait attack and

Detail from the Viking runes on neolithic Skogchurch Tapestry burial tomb, Maeshowe, depicting the Norse gods Orkney. Odin, Thor and Freyr, Sweden, 12th century.

12 | History Today | April 2018 April 2018 | History Today | 13