Table Of ContentVOYAGERS OF DISCOVERY AND PLUNDER
VOYAGERS OF DISCOVERY AND PLUNDER
Foreword by Magnus Magnusson
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY MAGNUS MAGNUSSON 6
CHRONOLOGY 9
A HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS
10
THE VIKING HERSIR
82
THE VIKING LONGSHIP
142
GLOSSARY 196
BIBLIOGRAPHY 198
APPENDIX 200
INDEX 202
FOREWORD
By Magnus Magnusson
I had better come clean at once: I am a professional Viking apologise. I ha"e
long laboured in rhe groves of Viking revisionism. In shorr, as far as I am
concerned, Vikings Rule.
The so-called 'Viking Age' began around AD 800 and lasted for nearl)' three
cenruries. In the pagesofhistor),. it is presenred as aclearl)'defined period ofhigh
drama. with a theatrical currain-raiser. a long middle acr of mounring power
and ferocit)' all over Europe, and a spectacular finale on a battlefield in England.
The dates are clear cut. too: 793 ro 1066. And throughour rhat time. war
correspondenrs in the shape of literate monks and clerics kept their goose-quill
pens sharpened with alarm, their gloss)' inks d)'ed bright with indignation. The
Vikings were cast in the role of Anrichrisr: merciless barbarians who plundered
and burned their wa)' across the known world, heedless of rheir own lives or the
lives ofothers, inrenr onl)' on destruction and pillage.Theirsinisteremblems were
Thor's hammer and Odin's raven, s)'mbolizing the "iolence and black-hearred evil
of their pagan gods.
It was never as one-sided as that - hisror)' seldom is. But it made agood srorr
at the time. and it makes a good sror)' still. It was by no means the whole story.
however. Toda)' there is emerging a much fuller and rounder version (mainly
through modern archaeology, but with the help of other scienrific and literary
disciplines as weln - a version that presenrs theVikings in a less lurid and more
objective lighe. It is a matter of emphasis: less emphasis on the raiding, more on
the trading; less on the pillage, more on the poetr)' and the arristr)'; less on the
terror, more on the technolog)'of these d)'namic people from the northlands and
on the positi"e impact the)' had on the countrics thc)' affectcd.
This book - Thr IIk/llgs: loyagm oj DISCO"")' alld Plllllder - is presented in
three sumptuousl), illustrated parrs. The profuse photographs are given
informati"e captions. and the historical reconstructions are sensible and do not
srrive for melodramatic effece.The 'apparatus' is equallr effective: a chronology,
6
Foreword
a glossary of rechnical rerms, a selecr bibliography and an appendix naming rhe
major rele"anr museums in Brirain and Scandinavia.
From ir. a clear picrure emerges of rhe changing face of rheViking world, and
rhe changing face of rheVikings. 'Who were rhe Vikings?' asks rhe firsr secrion.
:;;,. Hisrory of rhe Vikings'. And nor only who were rher bur whar were rhey? In
shorr, rhey were pirarical opporrunisrs of Norse srock, from rhe rhree major
Scandinavian countries, which became Norse kingdoms- Denmark, lorwayand
Sweden. In rhe same way as rhe Elizaberhan Age in England could be called rhe
'Pri"areering Age'. so rhe Viking Age in rhe norrhlands could be labelled rhe
'Piracy Age'.
Socially, rhese Norsemen were primarily independent farmers or fishermen;
merchants or crafrsmen; blacksmirhs or carpenters.They owed allegiance ro local
arisrocraric chiefrains, orjarls(earls), who in rum owed loyalry ro rhe king. Righr
ar rhe bonom of rhe social p)Tamid were rhe rhralls (slaves), who were owned
bod)' and soul by rheir masrers and lived liws of back-breaking servirude. The
slave-rrade was highly lucrarive, and slave markers flourished as far afield as
Dublin and Consrantinople.
Women in rhe Viking Age played an unusually posirive role in sociery by
medieval srandards.The)' were feisry frontierswomen in spirir and aerion, and in
almosr every respecr held equal srarus wirh their menfolk. They had complere
authoriryoverall household maners, and had'Iiberated'legal rights far in advance
ofrhe times, such as rhe righrto divorce and aclaim ro halfthe mariral properry.
They made their presence felt - ofren, quire literally, wirh a vengeance.
Parr rwo, 'TheViking Hersir', opens wirh rhe heading, 'A culrure of violence'.
Violence was undoubredly rhe srock-in-rrade of rhe Norsemen. In rime, ir was
channelled inro controlled srare "iolence, as rhe Scandinavian countries embraced
Chrisrianiry one by one and embarked on imperialisr milirary adventures.
Denmark, under Svein Forkbeard and his son Cnur (Knurr), conquered much of
England and forced the parririon of England wirh rhe crearion of rhe 'Danelaw'.
Sweden made inroads inro the deprhs of Russia, founding cir)'-srares like
Novgord and Kiev, pioneering new rrade routes along formidable rivers like rhe
Volga and rhe Dnieper, and opening the route ro Asia ro exploit the exotic
markets of Persia and China.
The third secrion:TheViking Longship', traces rhe srory ofViking seafaring.
The Norsemen were extraordinary mariners.They criss-crossed halfrhe world in
their open boats and vastl)' extended its known boundaries; the)' "opged farrher
norrh and west rhan any Europeans had ever been before, founding new and
lasting colonies in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. and discO\'ering, exploring and
making settlements in Greenland and "'en North America.
7
The\'ikings
Their lightweight ships ga,'e them enormous ractical mobility, Their na,'al
engagements were simpl;' extensions of land barrles: their fleets were roped
together, gunwale to gunwale, to form floaring platforms, Ftom rhen on, rhe
fighring was agrim process ofattrition until rhe opposing ship had been cleared
and all its crew killed,
Bur it was nor the lean and predator;' longship, lordly and menacing, rhar played
the starring role in the last Oing ofViking expansion westwards; ir was rhe srurdy,
swan-breasted cargoship, the kllarr, the maid ofall work ofthe high seas, It lVas the
kllarr thar carried the explorers and would-be settlers of lorch America in search
of Vinland the Good, '\Vineland', the fabled Promised Land somewhere on rhe
eastern shore of Canada and the United Stares, The barr lVas the last heroine of
the astonishingViking seafaring adventure,
\Vhararapesrryrhis bookpresents!\Vharasplendid pageantofhistoryand story'
8
CHRONOLOGY
{.350 Be Hjortspring boat sunk in abog in 886 Treaty between Guthl'llm and Alfred.
southern Denmark as a "oti,'e offering. Siege of Paris.
{.AD 350-400 rdam ship sunk in south Jurland as a {.890 Gokstad ship built.
sacrificial offeting. 895-905 Egil Skallagrimson born.
{.700 Kvalsund ship built. 930-937 Resurgence of\Vessex dynasty to
789 Killing of King Beorhtric's ree"e br unitary monarchy.
Vikings. 937 Barrie of Brunanburh.
792 Offa prepares defences of Kent against 940-954 Intermirrent independence for the
pagan seamen'. Viking kingdom ofYork.
793 Raid on Lindisfarne. 978 Accession of Ethelred 11.
795 Raid on lona. 980 RenewedViking raids on England.
799 Viking raiders off the mouth of the {.985 Death of Egil Skallagrimson.
Loire. {.986 Erik rhe Red founds Eastern and
{.800 Oseberg ship built. \\'esrern colonies in Greenland.
810 Danish assault on Frisia. 991 Batrle of Maldon.
830-850 Raids on the French coast and sourhern 991-1015 Extorrion of massive Danegelds.
England. Thorkell rheTall (Jomsviking active in
{.834 Oseberg ship interred in Vesrfold, England. Swein asserrs Danish masterr
Norway. of England.
835 Vikings land in West Country. defeated {.1000 Viking setrlement at L'Anse aux
br Egbert, king ofWest Saxons. Meadows. Newfoundland.
(.850 Birrh of Harald Harfagri. 1014 Batrle of ClontarF.
851 First time aViking arm)' winters in 1016-35 Reign of Cnut.The 'Viking Empire' of
England - atThanet. the orrh Sea.
865 First English Danegeld paid br {.1025 Roskilde 6 built.
inhabirants of Kent. {.1030-50 Skuldeb' I built in western Norway.
867 Ragnar's sons arrack and takeYork. {.1040 Skuldelev 3 built.
{.870 Harald HarF.,gri sole king of Ofway. 1043-66 Reign of Edward the Confessor.The
Vikings reach and setrle Iceland. batrle of Stamford Bridge.
{.872 Batrle of Hafrsfjord. 1085 Collapse of Swein Estridson's
877 Fall of Mercia toVikings. expedition to eastern England.The end
879 Fall of East Anglia. of the Scandin"'ian threat.
9
A History of the Vikings
WHO WERE THE VIKINGS?
789: In thIs yoat Kmg Boorhtric took to wifo Eadburh. daughtor of King Offa.
And 10 his days thoro camo for tho first timo thr« ships of lorthmm. from
H6rthaland:and thor«"orodothithorand triod tocompd thom togototho rOl'al
manor- for hedid norknow what rheywere- and rhe~' slewhim.These were the
first ships of tho Danos to C0l110 to England.
Thus rhe A"glo-Sax,'" Chrolllrl,reporrs rhe firsr raid, and rhe firsr \'icrim, ofrhe
Vikings. Four rears larer. in AD 793, rhere followed rhe much more famous
raid on rhe island monasrery ar Lindisfarne: The harrying of rhe hearhen
miserablr desrrored God's church in Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughrer:
ever before has such rerror appeared in Brirain as we have now suffered
from a pagan race'. wrore rhe conremporarr scholar Alcuin. 'nor was ir
rhoughr possible rhar such an inroad from rhe sea could be made. Behold rhe
church of r Curhbert. spattered wirh rhe blood of rhe priesrs of God.
despoiled of all irs ornamenrs; a place more venerable rhan anr orher in
Brirain has fallen prer to pagans:
This depicrion of rhe Vikings as blood-rhirsry pagans had irs roors in
an earlier conceprion of rhe 'barbaric north'. To classical aurhors of rhe
Medirerranean. rhe world was balanced perfecrion. The hor. dry. brighr and
civilized sourh found irs opposire in rhe cold, wer, dark and barbaric north.
The firsr inkling rhe Romans had rhar rhe rwo were nor in perfecr harmon)'
was when rhe Cimbri and Teurones moved inro sourhern Gaul in around
100 Be. The Romans understood rhese rribes to have originared in rhe
Danish peninsula. bur rhe nen'C cenrre of rhrear to rhe empire was locared
furrher north. The desrrucrive Osrrogorhs and Visigorhs arc described br
Jordanes as economic refugees from rhe o\'Crcrowded Balric island ofGorland.
Tbtsf.:tb'Jnff \"'·,U°r/(lrs '" th,s
,Jlustmth'"jrfJtIl fhf'Lift~f ThisScandinaviandimension to rhe barbarian menace survived rhe collapse
Sf Aubw'pr(Jbc1b~"gH'(ai.\)l"/
11IlprfSSIt;>1l ~rrhiappt'.1r.wu01ttt of rhe Roman Empire. The Frankish successor srare. rhe main inheriror
mort'pr':!rsSlotlal'warn""soJ]rtf' of Roman rradirions, found rhe far northerners increasingl), rhrearening as
[.1ft" ,tklllgA~. B,J'/,Othi'l'U
,wlloII••I,d, Fmnu/.\IlL I )f){j rime passed. The expedirion of Hygelac rhe Gear ro rhe Rhineland. recorded
10
