Useful Notes / The Viking Age

The only known surviving Viking Helmet. Note the lack of horns.

A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine
( "Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord.")

The Viking Age stretches from the 8th Century to the mid-11th Century. It's an era of history that belongs to the so-called Dark Ages and The Low Middle Ages, taking place after the fall of The Western Roman Empire and the formation of Moorish Spain, and ending just before The Crusades properly began.

The era made a sizable impact in song, memory, language, and culture, but is notorious among historians, both academic and popular, for leaving precious little information in hard historical facts. The warriors came from Scandinavia and charted a course that took them to areas further and beyond their land of origin. They were raiders (okay, pirates), explorers, and traders whose famous iconic longships allowed them to serve simultaneously as a merchant, marine, and riverine power, navigating both deep and shallow waters. They made inroads into Britain, France, Spain, Sicily, the Byzantine Empire and the area of land known as Kievan Rus'. They settled in Greenland and also sent an expedition into North America that failed to become a permanent settlement, known today as "L'Anse aux Meadows" in Newfoundland in Canada. Their many names illustrates how wide they spread their net. Initially, they were simply called Danes or heathens; the Irish distinguished between 'white' and 'black' foreigners (Finngall and Dubgall respectively). In Eastern Europe, the Slavs called the Scandinavian invaders Rus, a Finnish word for the Svear Swedish settlers, which means "rowers" or "oarsmen", and which was perhaps a source for the name of Russia. The Eastern Romans called them Varangians and the Frankish called them Normanni (Northmen), and the region of France where one of the Vikings settled and gained a Dukedom is known as Normandy. The English were the first to call them Vikings, which was a Scandinavian word for raider, which referred to only one aspect of their society but in Pop Culture Osmosis, is the name for an entire people, civilization and an era.^note As a result, some historians have suggested "The Late Germanic Iron Age" or "The Scandinavian Expansion Period" as alternate and more fitting names for describing the period.

The Viking Age begins with the 793 CE raid on the Lindisfarne Monastery. This attack was far from the first of its kind^note There are quite a few older historical records describing both Germanic and Gaelic tribes making similar sea-based raids. Some of these were even conflated with early Viking activity, until later scholars attempted to apply a more "strict" definition., but it captured in much Purple Prose how the medieval chronicles cemented the legend of the Northmen, as pagans and heathens whose lust for riches and plunder did not waver before any act of blasphemy and impiety. A major frustration for historians until very recently, is the fact the primary sources of the Viking Era come from the perspective of their enemies. The earliest known written materials from the views of the Northern peoples is from the medieval era after they had assimilated and converted to Christianity and become part of their native and/or settler kingdoms. Modern historians use numismatic studies of coins, relics (such as the Runestones across Sweden and England, graves and other markers across Russia and Ukraine), and other materials (such as the few surviving longships and the famous helmet) to reconstruct aspects of their culture.

The period is commonly seen as coming to its end in 1066, with the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which took the life of the ambitious Norwegian king, Harald Hardrada, and thereby ended his attempt to claim the English throne. Although further major Scandinavian campaigns in Britain and Ireland took place in the following decades, such as those of King Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark in 1069-1070 and King Magnus Barefoot of Norway in 1098 and 1102-1103, it is generally understood that Hardrada's death was the endpoint for any serious attempt from the Scandinavians to regain their old foothold on the British Isles. With William the Conqueror gaining the English throne in 1066 (by a twist of historical irony, Hardrada's invasion attempt had inadvertently helped his victory along^note William's invasion pretty much arrived just a few days after the Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson defeated Hardrada, forcing Harold to march over 200 miles in a week while gathering forces on the way to reach the Normans. It is debated whether the Anglo-Saxon forces were actually exhausted from their march (the Battle of Hastings still lasted a day) or if it was just their smaller numbers and less diverse variety of troops which could have been bolstered by taking more time to muster that could have conceivably changed the battle's outcome (feigned retreats were performed in the battle by the Normans, and the Anglo-Saxons' lack of cavalry or archers prevented them from effectively punishing such tactics)...not helped by how Harold was forced to disband his southern militia so they could make it to harvest a month before the battle started despite knowing the Normans were going to invade to that direction and he probably advanced toward Hastings with all speed to prevent the Normans from breaking from their beachhead (who already built fortifications and were raiding nearby).), the following century of the Isles would instead be defined by The House of Normandy, themselves descendants of the vikings. Meanwhile, in the East, the Scandinavian colonisers had by this time long since settled down and more or less blended into the local populations, having adopted Slavic languages, customs, and names.

Their travels and territorial reach spread far and wide, becoming the first civilization to explore four continents (North America, Europe, Northwest Asia, North Africa). They also revived and built trade routes between Western and Eastern Europe; playing a key role in the Christianization of the Slavic Tribes and the founding of Russia. For a long time, historians and chronicles, basing themselves on their medieval reputation and inspired by nationalist accounts of defending the homeland against invaders have deprecated the Vikings and their culture. This changed in the age of The Enlightenment and Romanticism, first in the Scandinavian nations and then in Victorian England. Modern views tend to be more balanced about the role played by the Vikings. The historian Fernand Braudel noted in his A History of Civilizations that "Economic historians" are "indulgent towards the Vikings" because "by putting back into circulation the treasures that they pillaged, especially from the Church, they reactivated capital" and trade which had been dormant since the end of The Roman Empire.

Trope Namer for Horny Vikings, Viking Funeral and Black Vikings. Also, check out the "Viking Age Swords" subsection of Swords.

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Expansion and Settlements

• Eastern Expansion
  • The Svear peoples of Sweden in the same time as the Danes and Northmen had expanded West, moved East across the Baltic Sea, moving inland through the river Volkhov. Settlers in this area were peaceful and largely driven by trade, serving as mercenaries or bodyguards to the local Slavic tribes who traded with Arabic merchants through markets on the Don and Volga rivers. They eventually established contact with the Byzantine Empire who called them the Rus peoples. Derived either from the word for rowing or a shortening of Norse. A permanent settlement known as Gorodische (Old Town) populated by Slavs and Scandinavians became an important trading center in this era.
  • The settlers traded heavily in silver with Arab Kingdoms which led to further development of towns and villages in the Volga, Oka and Dniepr rivers. The biggest settlement became Kievan Rus', and much like their Western counterparts, the Vikings assimilated into Slavic customs, for instance Scandinavian names such as Ingvar, Helge, and Helga becoming Igor, Oleg, and Olga.^note That is not say there there wasn't some cultural exchange back and forth; Valdemar, a popular Danish name that was prominently carried by four Danish Kings, as well as one Swedish, was derived from the Slavic name Vladimir. Prince Vladimir of Kiev began the tradition of sending a retinue of Scandinavian warriors known as Varjagi to serve the Eastern Roman Emperor. Eventually, they became the famous Varangian Guard. One of the famous members of this guard was Harald Hadrada who became King of Norway in 1046.

• Western Expansion
  • The Vikings had probably traded with the British Kingdoms and Francia before their famous attack on Lindisfarne. The motivations for their expansionism is a subject to debate. The economic and social ones are overpopulation and lack of opportunity in the Scandinavian isles and ambition for the second sons who could not inherit the titles of their elders. The political and religious reasons cited is the inroads of Christianity into Norway in the eighth century, and the campaign of Charlemagne against the Saxon pagans and other Germanic Norsemen. This motivation is accepted by some scholars but not seen as sufficient by others since it didn't explain the campaigns against British monasteries who had done nothing to the Northmen.
  • After the raids in the North-Eastern coasts on England, Vikings navigated, raided, and in some cases traded in Orkney, Channel islands, Hebrides and especially Ireland until the 830s. Their longships worked for hit-and-run raids and they mostly attacked the costs of Britain and Francia. Later on they would ally with local rulers during The Heptarchy, as well as with various other Irish rulers. Unlike in Britain, however, the Vikings were unable to make any kind of substantial headway into the Irish heartlands, so instead they built permanent settlements, primarily along the Irish eastcoast, which subsequently became Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, and Limerick. The plunder from their raids, included coins, artifacts, and people who were often traded into the Mediterranean and North African slave trade. The Viking settlements in Ireland often clashed with each other as much as it did with rival kings. Eventually though, the Vikings' power in Ireland started gradually, but surely waning after 1014, especially spurred on by the Battle of Clontarf, which resulted in a decisive victory for the Irish. The process was not just a result of warfare, but also the Scandinavian settlers living in Ireland losing their interest in fighting and raiding and instead becoming increasingly cosmopolitan (for lack of a better term) and mercantile in their outlook. Slowly but surely, they started rehabilitating themselves by converting to Christianity and mingling with the local Irish population, now taking to calling themselves "Ostmen" (Men of the East), and a fusion of Norse and Gaelic culture started flourishing in the old Viking settlements, especially amongst Dublin's elite. Trade with Scandinavia, especially Norway, also flourished, contributing to the towns steadily growing in wealth, gaining them great influence and prestige which allowed them to remain somewhat independent of other Irish rulers. This would be the case until the English invasion of Ireland in 1172, which decisively removed the Norse-Irish elite in the trade cities from power, and for the next many centuries, Ireland, and especially Dublin, would instead be pulled in a more Anglo-Irish direction culturally.
  • A Succession Crisis in Francia in 841, provided enough regional instability for the Vikings to pilfer happily from underdefended monasteries and towns located in the Rhine, Seine, Rhone and the Loire valleys. Of course, the raiders were not a unified group, and some of them became mercenaries hired by local lords and bishops to protect their land from others. This situation changed when Charles, King of West Francia, asserted himself to better defend his Kingdom. He built bridges in the Seine and the Loire and fortified towns and abbeys. In response to this, the Vikings turned their attention back to England.
  • In 865, they landed in East Anglia forming "the Great Heathen Army" which conquered the Kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and partitioned Mercia, controlling the stretch between York and London, with only Alfred the Great's Wessex resisting. This is the era of Northmen colonization and settlement, whereas a result of conquest, intermarriage and assimilation, a good number of new words entered the Saxon language. Eventually, after defeating the Danish warlord Guthrum in battle, Alfred was able to negotiate a treaty with the Danes in 878, where he promised not to interfere in the Norse controlled northeastern part of England, if the Norsemen promised to leave the southwestern part, controlled by him alone (also, he demanded that Guthrum would let himself be baptized as a Christian). The area ceded to the Danes thus became known as the Danelaw. Meanwhile, other Scandinavians in the region, began colonizing Iceland while their settlements in Ireland fell into factionalism and self-destruction, ending permanently by 902, after which most of them were expelled, going either to England, Iceland or to the Channel Islands. Back in England, Alfred and his descendants would gradually chip away at the Danelaw territory over the years and back bring it under Anglo-Saxon control, thereby laying the grounds for the Kingdom of England. The area of Yorkshire/Northumbria (or Jórvík) was the last area to fall to the English in 954, with the violent death of its king, the Norweigan Eric Bloodaxe, ending almost a century of Scandinavian rule over the province.
  • At the end of the ninth century and the start of the tenth, the Vikings kept shuffling between England and France, raiding and pillaging as per the stability and instability of either Kingdom. Their raidings in France stopped after one Viking chieftain Rollo was given land, territory and titles in Rouen, eventually forming the Duchy of Normandy. Linguistic studies show that Rollo and his fellow settlers were raiders who came from Ireland and had much contact with England. Rollo's famous descendant William the Conqueror in 1066 would subsequently become the last and most successful invader of the British Isles. Other Vikings and their descendants in turn became fully assimilated into England, Ireland, France and Flanders.
  • Famous raiders in this era include the legendary figure Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons, of whom Ivar the Boneless has strong historical basis. Other raiders include Rollo, Erik the Red, Erik Bloodaxe and Leif Erickson. The latter is celebrated in Icelandic sagas for sailing to Vinland (now part of Canada), an achievement confirmed in 1960 by the discovery of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
  • On account of the Viking Invasions and assimilation, the English Days of the Week are based on Norse Mythology rather than the Roman and Greek mythology in the Continent: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are named after Moni, Tyr, Woden/Odin, Thor and Freya respectively.

List of works depicting the Viking Age

Anime & Manga

• Vinland Saga

Comic Books

• Northlanders by Brian Wood, which features many different stories taking places in different times and locations during the Viking Era. Notable for having done a pretty fair amount of research and frequently showing it.

Fan Works

• A Thing of Vikings, a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic that blends the movie with real-world history.

Film - Animation

• The Secret of Kells

Film - Live-Action

• The 13th Warrior, a heavily fictionalized tale about the historical Arab Muslim traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan accompanying a group of Varangians.
• The Long Ships, a loose 1964 adaptation of the novel of the same name.
• A Deleted Scene in The Mask reveals that the titular McGuffin was left in place by Leif Erikson.
• The Northman, a revenge story based off the legend of Amleth.
• Outlander, a sci-fi indie film about Vikings fighting a crash-landed alien.
• Pope Joan depicts the 834 Viking attack on Dorstadt, now the Netherlands.
• Pathfinder (2007), an American remake of Pathfinder (1987) that changes the premise to a Native American tribe attacked by Vikings.
• The Raven Trilogy, an Icelandic film series.
• Valhalla Rising, depicting conflict between Christian and Pagan Norsemen at the end of the era.
• The Vikings, a Hollywoodian adaptation of The Viking, itself loosely based on Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons.

Literature

Medieval Literature:

• Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson, written several centuries later is one of the sources for this era.
• Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons, one of the Icelandic Sagas used as a source for this age.

20th-21st Century Literature:

• The Viking, 1951 novel loosely based on Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons.
• The Long Ships, a Swedish novel.
• The Saxon Stories
• The Monk and the Viking
• Eaters of the Dead (a.k.a. The 13th Warrior) by Michael Crichton

Live-Action Television

• American Gods (2017) which adapts Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name, begins with the prologue showing the Viking landing at Newfoundland. The rest of the show is unconnected to it, but the prologue is necessary because the Viking arrival at the New World is still not as widely known as say, later arrivals to the Americas.
• The flashbacks in the Ghosts (US) episodes "Viking Funeral" and "The Baby Bjorn" are set in this era.
• The Last Kingdom, based on The Saxon Stories.
• Norsemen is a parody, imagining historical Vikings with the outlook and disposition of modern Scandinavians.
• Vikings, by The History Channel. Perhaps the most high profile and successful Vikings-related live-action work in recent memory. It begins with the Lindisfarne raid in 793 and follows the destinies of Ragnar Lodbrok and his descendants.
  • Vikings: Valhalla is the sequel to the above by Netflix, taking place one hundred years after its conclusion.

Video Games

• Ancestors Legacy has a tutorial which gives a fictional spin on the Lindisfarne Monastery raid.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Assassin's Creed Rogue has Juhani Otso Berg mention reliving the memories of a Viking ancestor of his who raided the Lindisfarne monastery at the start of the Viking Age.
  • Assassin's Creed: Valhalla primarily takes place in England from 872 to 878 AD during the Dark Age of Europe. The Wrath of the Druids and The Siege of Paris DLC packs focus on the Norse-Gaelic culture of Ireland and Rollo's Siege of Paris respectively.
• Crusader Kings:
  • Crusader Kings II: With The Old Gods DLC, Pagans are now playable, including Norse Pagans. It also adds the start date of 867 AD, The Viking Age, though Vikings have already spread far and wide through Europe by this point.
  • Crusader Kings III: Continues the tradition, with one of the two starting dates in the base game being 867 AD. The Northern Lords adds some unique features for Viking factions in the game such as the inclusion of shieldmaidens.
• Expeditions: Viking
• Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga: An entry in the Total War franchise, set in Britain and Ireland during the invasion of the Great Heathen Army.

Web Animation

• Extra History
  • "Lindisfarne" deals with the attack on the Monastery and the start of the age of the Vikings.
  • "Viking Expansion" deals with the entire era, and covers in detail the different Viking expeditions to France, Russia, Byzantine Empire, Ireland and Canada.
• The Saga of Biorn

Web Comics

• Vápnthjófr saga

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