Vikings

For the North Germanic ethnic group from which most Vikings originated, seeNorsemen.For other uses, seeVikings (disambiguation).

Depiction of Vikings sailing a longship fromc. 1100

AViking Agedepiction from theTjängvide image stone,onGotland.

Vikingswere seafaring people originally fromScandinavia(present-dayDenmark,Norway,andSweden),who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.They also voyaged as far as theMediterranean,North Africa,theMiddle East,Greenland,andVinland(present-dayNewfoundlandinCanada,North America). In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as theViking Age,and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on theearly medievalhistory of Scandinavia,theBritish Isles,France,Estonia,andKievan Rus'.

Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristiclongships,Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in theBritish Isles,theFaroe Islands,Iceland,Greenland,Normandy,and theBaltic coast,as well as along theDnieperandVolga trade routesacross modern-day Russia,Belarus,andUkraine,where they were also known asVarangians.TheNormans,Norse-Gaels,Rus' people,Faroese,andIcelandersemerged from these Norse colonies. At one point, a group of Rus Vikings went so far south that, after briefly being bodyguards for the Byzantine emperor, they attacked the Byzantine city ofConstantinople.Vikings also voyaged toIranandArabia.They were the first Europeans to reach North America, brieflysettling in Newfoundland(Vinland). While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines, and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, influencing the geneticand historical development of both. During the Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

The Vikings spokeOld Norseand made inscriptions inrunes.For most of the period, they followed theOld Norse religion,but laterbecame Christians.The Vikings had their ownlaws,art,and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of theNorsementhat emerges fromarchaeologyand historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings asnoble savagesbegan to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-centuryViking revival.Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. These representations are rarely accurate—for example, there is no evidence that they worehorned helmets,a costume element that first appeared in the 19th century.

Etymology

Runestone raised in memory of Gunnarr by Tóki the Viking.

The etymology of the wordVikinghave been much debated by academics, with many origin theories being proposed.One theory suggests that the word's origin is from the Old Englishwicing'settlement' and theOld Frisianwizing,attested almost 300 years prior.Another less popular theory is thatvíkingcame from the femininevík'creek', 'inlet', 'small bay'.

Another etymology that gained support in the early 21st century derivesVikingfrom the same root as Old Norsevika'sea mile', originally referring to the distance between two shifts of rowers, ultimately from theProto-Germanic*wîkan'to recede'.This is found in the early Nordic verb *wikan 'to turn', similar to Old Icelandicvíkja'to move, to turn', with "well-attested nautical usages", according to Bernard Mees.This theory is better attested linguistically, and the term most likely predates the use of the sail by the Germanic peoples of northwestern Europe.

TheStora Hammars Iimage stone,showing thesaga of Hildr,under what may be the rite ofblood eagle,and on the bottom a Viking ship

In the Middle Ages,vikingcame to refer to Scandinavian pirates or raiders.The earliest reference towicingin English sources is from theÉpinal-Erfurt glossary(c. 700), about 93 years before the first known attack by Viking raiders in England. The glossary lists the Latin translation forwicingaspiraticum'pirate'.InOld English,the wordwicingappears in theAnglo-SaxonpoemWidsith,probably from the 9th century. The word was not regarded as a reference to nationality, with other terms such asNorthmenandDene'Danes' being used for that. InAsser's Latin workThe Life of King Alfred,the Danes are referred to aspagani'pagans'; historianJanet Nelsonstates thatpaganibecame "the Vikings" in standard translations of this work, even though there is "clear evidence" that it was used as a synonym, whileEric Christiansenavers that it is a mistranslation made at the insistence of the publisher.The wordwicingdoes not occur in any preservedMiddle Englishtexts.

The wordVikingwas introduced into Modern English during the 18th-century Viking revival, at which point it acquired romanticised heroic overtones of "barbarian warrior" ornoble savage.During the 20th century, the meaning of the term was expanded to refer not only to seaborne raiders from Scandinavia and other places settled by them (likeIcelandand theFaroe Islands), but also any member of the culture that produced the raiders during the period from the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries, or more loosely from about 700 to as late as about 1100. As an adjective, the word is used to refer to ideas, phenomena, or artefacts connected with those people and their cultural life, producing expressions likeViking age,Viking culture,Viking art,Viking religion,Viking shipand so on.

History

See also:Scandinavian prehistory,Battle Axe culture,andNordic Bronze Age

Viking Age

Main article:Viking Age

Sea-faringNorsemendepicted invading England.Illuminatedillustration from the 12th-centuryMiscellany on the Life of St. Edmund(Pierpont Morgan Library)

The Viking Age in Scandinavian history is taken to have been the period from the earliest recorded raids by Norsemen in 793 until theNorman conquest of Englandin 1066.Vikings used theNorwegian SeaandBaltic Seafor sea routes to the south.

TheNormanswere descendants of those Vikings who had been givenfeudaloverlordship of areas in northern France, namely theDuchy of Normandy,in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, KingHarold Godwinson,the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors. Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, withSweyn Forkbeardclaiming the English throne in 1013 until 1014 and his sonCnut the Greatbeing king of England between 1016 and 1035.

Geographically, the Viking Age covered Scandinavian lands (modernDenmark,Norwayand Sweden), as well as territories underNorth Germanicdominance, mainly theDanelaw,including Scandinavian York, the administrative centre of the remains of the Kingdom ofNorthumbria,parts ofMercia,andEast Anglia.Viking navigators opened the road to new lands to the north, west and east, resulting in the foundation of independent settlements in theShetland,Orkney,and Faroe Islands; Iceland;Greenland;andL'Anse aux Meadows,a short-lived settlement inNewfoundland,circa 1000.The Greenland settlement was established around 980, during theMedieval Warm Period,and its demise by the mid-15th century may have been partly due toclimate change.The VikingRurik dynastytook control of territories inSlavicandFinnic-dominated areas of Eastern Europe; they annexedKievin 882 to serve as the capital of theKievan Rus'.

As early as 839, when Swedish emissaries are first known to have visitedByzantium,Scandinavians served as mercenaries in the service of theByzantine Empire.In the late 10th century, a new unit of the imperial bodyguard formed. Traditionally containing large numbers of Scandinavians, it was known as theVarangianGuard. The wordVarangianmay have originated in Old Norse, but in Slavic and Greek it could refer either to Scandinavians or Franks. In these years,Swedishmen left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law, theVästgötalagen,fromVästergötlanddeclared no-one could inherit while staying in "Greece" —the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire—to stop the emigration,especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians:Kievan Rus'c. 980–1060and London 1018–1066 (theÞingalið).

There is archaeological evidence that Vikings reachedBaghdad,the centre of theIslamic Empire.The Norse regularly plied theVolgawith their trade goods: furs, tusks, seal fat for boat sealant, andslaves.Important trading ports during the period includeBirka,Hedeby,Kaupang,Jorvik,Staraya Ladoga,Novgorod,and Kiev.

Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation, and conquest. In this period, voyaging from their homelands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden the Norsemen settled in the present-dayFaroe Islands,Iceland,Norse Greenland,Newfoundland,the Netherlands,Germany,Normandy,Italy,Scotland,England,Wales,Ireland, theIsle of Man,Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania,Ukraine,Russia and Turkey, as well as initiating the consolidation that resulted in the formation of the present-day Scandinavian countries.

In the Viking Age, the present day nations of Norway, Sweden and Denmark did not exist, but the peoples who lived in what is now those countries were largely homogeneous and similar in culture and language, although somewhat distinct geographically. The names of Scandinavian kings are reliably known for only the later part of the Viking Age. After the end of the Viking Age, the separate kingdoms gradually acquired distinct identities as nations, which went hand-in-hand with theirChristianisation.Thus, the end of the Viking Age for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages.

Intermixing with the Slavs

Slavic and Viking tribes were "closely linked, fighting one another, intermixing and trading".In the Middle Ages, goods were transferred from Slavic areas to Scandinavia, and Denmark could be considered "a melting pot of Slavic and Scandinavian elements".Leszek Gardeła, of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at the University of Bonn, posits that the presence of Slavs in Scandinavia is "more significant than previously thought",while Mats Roslund states that "the Slavs and their interaction with Scandinavia have not been adequately investigated".

A 10th-century grave of a warrior-woman in Denmark was long thought to belong to a Viking. However, new analyses suggest that the woman may have been a Slav from present-day Poland.The first king of the Swedes,Eric,was married toGunhild,of thePolishHouse of Piast.Likewise, his son,Olof,fell in love withEdla,a Slavic woman, and took her as hisfrilla(concubine).They had a son and a daughter:Emund the Old,King of Sweden, andAstrid,Queen of Norway.Cnut the Great,King of Denmark, England and Norway, was the son of a daughter ofMieszko I of Poland,possibly the former Polish queen of Sweden, wife of Eric.

Expansion

Main article:Viking expansion

Viking expeditions (blue line): depicting the immense breadth of their voyages through most of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Northern Africa,Asia Minor,the Arctic, and North America.Lower Normandy,depicted as a "Viking territory in 911", was not part of the lands granted by the king of the Franks toRolloin 911, butUpper Normandy.

Guests from Overseas(1901) byNicholas Roerich,depicting aVarangianraid

Colonisation of Iceland by Norwegian Vikings began in the 9th century. The first source mentioning Iceland and Greenland is a papal letter from 1053. Twenty years later, they appear in theGestaofAdam of Bremen.It was not until after 1130, when the islands had become Christianised, that accounts of the history of the islands were written from the point of view of the inhabitants in sagas and chronicles.The Vikings explored the northern islands and coasts of the North Atlantic, ventured south to North Africa, east to Kievan Rus (now – Ukraine, Belarus),Constantinople,and the Middle East.

They raided and pillaged, traded, acted as mercenaries and settled colonies over a wide area.Early Vikings probably returned home after their raids. Later in their history, they began to settle in other lands.Vikings underLeif Erikson,heir toErik the Red,reached North America and set up short-lived settlements in present-dayL'Anse aux Meadows,Newfoundland, Canada. This expansion occurred during theMedieval Warm Period.

Viking expansion into continental Europe was limited. Their realm was bordered by powerful tribes to the south. Early on, it was theSaxonswho occupiedOld Saxony,located in what is now Northern Germany. The Saxons were a fierce and powerful people and were often in conflict with the Vikings. To counter the Saxon aggression and solidify their own presence, theDanesconstructed the huge defence fortification ofDanevirkein and aroundHedeby.

The Vikings witnessed the violent subduing of the Saxons byCharlemagne,in the thirty-yearSaxon Warsof 772–804. The Saxon defeat resulted in their forced christening and the absorption of Old Saxony into theCarolingian Empire.Fear of theFranksled the Vikings to further expand Danevirke,and the defence constructions remained in use throughout the Viking Age and even up until 1864.

The southern coast of the Baltic Sea was ruled by theObotrites,a federation of Slavic tribes loyal to the Carolingians and later theFrankish empire.The Vikings—led byKing Gudfred—destroyed the Obotrite city ofRericon the southern Baltic coast in 808 AD and transferred the merchants and traders to Hedeby.This secured Viking supremacy in the Baltic Sea, which continued throughout the Viking Age.

Because of the expansion of the Vikings across Europe, a comparison ofDNAand archeology undertaken by scientists at theUniversity of CambridgeandUniversity of Copenhagensuggested that the term "Viking" may have evolved to become "a job description, not a matter of heredity", at least in some Viking bands.

Motives

The motives driving the Viking expansion are a topic of much debate. The concept that Vikings may have originally started sailing and raiding due to a need to seek out women from foreign lands was expressed in the 11th century by historianDudo of Saint-Quentinin his semi-imaginaryHistory of The Normans.As observed by Adam of Bremen, rich and powerful Viking men tended to have many wives and concubines;and thesepolygynousrelationships may have led to a shortage of women available to the Viking male. Consequently, the average Viking man may have felt compelled to seek wealth and power to have the means to acquire suitable women.Several centuries after Dudo's observations, scholars revived this idea, and over time it became a cliché among scholars of the Viking Age.Viking men would often buy or capture women and make them into their wives or concubines;such polygynous marriages increasemale-male competitionin society because they create a pool of unmarried men who are willing to engage in risky status-elevating and sex-seeking behaviors.TheAnnals of Ulsterstates that in 821 the Vikings plundered an Irish village and "carried off a great number of women into captivity".

One common theory posits that Charlemagne "used force and terror to Christianise all pagans", leading to baptism, conversion or execution, and as a result, Vikings and other pagans resisted and wanted revenge.ProfessorRudolf Simekstates that "it is not a coincidence if the early Viking activity occurred during the reign of Charlemagne".The ascendance of Christianity in Scandinavia led to serious conflict, dividing Norway for almost a century. However, this time period did not commence until the 10th century. Norway was never subject to aggression by Charlemagne and the period of strife was due to successive Norwegian kings embracing Christianity after encountering it overseas.

Viking-era towns of Scandinavia

Another explanation is that the Vikings exploited a moment of weakness in the surrounding regions. Contrary to Simek's assertion, Viking raids occurred sporadically long before the reign of Charlemagne; but exploded in frequency and size after his death, when his empire fragmented into multiple much weaker entities.England suffered from internal divisions and was a relatively easy prey given the proximity of many towns to the sea or to navigable rivers. Lack of organised naval opposition throughout Western Europe allowed Viking ships to travel freely, raiding or trading as opportunity permitted. The decline in the profitability of oldtrade routescould also have played a role. Trade between Western Europe and the rest of Eurasia suffered a severe blow when theWestern Roman Empirefell in the 5th century.The expansion of Islam in the 7th century had also affected trade with Western Europe.

Raids in Europe, including raids and settlements from Scandinavia, were not unprecedented and had occurred long before the Vikings arrived. TheJutesinvaded the British Isles three centuries earlier, fromJutlandduring theAge of Migrations,before theDanessettled there. TheSaxonsand theAnglesdid the same, embarking from mainland Europe. The Viking raids were, however, the first to be documented by eyewitnesses, and they were much larger in scale and frequency than in previous times.

Vikings themselves were expanding; although their motives are unclear, historians believe that scarce resources or a lack of mating opportunities were a factor.

The slave trade was an important part of the Viking economy, with most slaves destined to Scandinavia although many others were shipped east where they could be sold for large profits.The "Highway of Slaves" was a term for a route that the Vikings found to have a direct pathway from Scandinavia to Constantinople and Baghdad while traveling on the Baltic Sea. With the advancements of their ships during the 9th century, the Vikings were able to sail to Kievan Rus and some northern parts of Europe.

Jomsborg

Curmsun Disc– obverse, Jomsborg, 980s

Jomsborgwas a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of theBaltic Sea(medievalWendland,modernPomerania), that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known asJomsvikings.Jomsborg's exact location, or its existence, has not yet been established, though it is often maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of theOderestuary.

End of the Viking Age

While the Vikings were active beyond their Scandinavian homelands, Scandinavia was itself experiencing new influences and undergoing a variety of cultural changes.

Emergence of nation-states and monetary economies

By the late 11th century, royal dynasties were legitimised by theCatholic Church(which had had little influence in Scandinavia 300 years earlier) which were asserting their power with increasing authority and ambition, with the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden taking shape. Towns appeared that functioned as secular and ecclesiastical administrative centres and market sites, and monetary economies began to emerge based on English and German models.By this time the influx of Islamic silver from the East had been absent for more than a century, and the flow of English silver had come to an end in the mid-11th century.

Assimilation into Christendom

Christianity had taken rootin Denmark and Norway with the establishment of dioceses in the 11th century, and the new religion was beginning to organise and assert itself more effectively in Sweden. Foreign churchmen and native elites were energetic in furthering the interests of Christianity, which was now no longer operating only on a missionary footing, and old ideologies and lifestyles were transforming. By 1103, the first archbishopric was founded in Scandinavia, atLund,Scania, then part of Denmark.

The assimilation of the nascent Scandinavian kingdoms into the cultural mainstream of EuropeanChristendomaltered the aspirations of Scandinavian rulers and of Scandinavians able to travel overseas, and changed their relations with their neighbours.

One of the primary sources of profit for the Vikings had been slave-taking from other European peoples. The medieval Church held that Christians should not own fellow Christians as slaves, sochattel slaverydiminished as a practice throughout northern Europe. This took much of the economic incentive out of raiding, though sporadic slaving activity continued into the 11th century. Scandinavian predation in Christian lands around the North and Irish Seas diminished markedly.

The kings of Norway continued to assert power in parts of northern Britain and Ireland, and raids continued into the 12th century, but the military ambitions of Scandinavian rulers were now directed toward new paths. In 1107,Sigurd I of Norwaysailed for the eastern Mediterranean with Norwegian crusaders to fight for the newly establishedKingdom of Jerusalem;the kings of Denmark and Sweden participated actively in theBaltic Crusadesof the 12th and 13th centuries.

Culture

A variety of sources illuminate the culture, activities, and beliefs of the Vikings. Although they were generally a non-literate culture that produced no literary legacy, they had an alphabet and described themselves and their world onrunestones.Most contemporary literary and written sources on the Vikings come from other cultures that were in contact with them.Since the mid-20th century, archaeological findings have built a more complete and balanced picture of the lives of the Vikings.The archaeological record is particularly rich and varied, providing knowledge of their rural and urban settlement, crafts and production, ships and military equipment, trading networks, as well as their pagan and Christian religious artefacts and practices.

Literature and language

See also:Old NorseandSaga

One of the few surviving manuscript leaves from theHeimskringla Sagas,written bySnorri Sturlusonc. 1230. The leaf tells ofKing Ólafur.

The most important primary sources on the Vikings are contemporary texts from Scandinavia and regions where the Vikings were active.Writing inLatinletters was introduced to Scandinavia with Christianity, so there are few native documentary sources from Scandinavia before the late 11th and early 12th centuries.The Scandinavians did write inscriptions inrunes,but these were usually very short and formulaic. Most contemporary documentary sources consist of texts written in Christian and Islamic communities outside Scandinavia, often by authors who had been negatively affected by Viking activity.

Later writings on the Vikings and the Viking Age can also be important for understanding them and their culture, although they need to be treated cautiously. After the consolidation of the church and the assimilation of Scandinavia and its colonies into mainstream medievalChristian culturein the 11th and 12th centuries, native written sources began to appear in Latin and Old Norse. In the Viking colony of Iceland, extraordinary vernacular literature blossomed in the 12th through 14th centuries, and many traditions connected with the Viking Age were written down for the first time in theIcelandic sagas.A literal interpretation of these medieval prose narratives about the Vikings and the Scandinavian past is doubtful, but many specific elements remain worthy of consideration, such as the great quantity ofskaldicpoetry attributed tocourt poetsof the 10th and 11th centuries, the exposed family trees, the self-images, and the ethical values that are contained in these literary writings.

Indirectly, the Vikings have also left a window open onto their language, culture and activities, through many Old Norse place names and words found in their former sphere of influence. Some of these place names and words are still in direct use today, almost unchanged, and shed light on where they settled and what specific places meant to them. Examples include place names likeEgilsay(fromEigils eymeaning Eigil's Island),Ormskirk(fromOrmr kirkjameaning Orms Church or Church of the Worm),Meols(frommerlmeaning Sand Dunes),Snaefell(Snow Fell),Ravenscar(Ravens Rock),Vinland(Land of Wine or Land ofWinberry),Kaupanger(Market Harbour),Tórshavn(Thor's Harbour), and the religious centre ofOdense,meaning a place whereOdinwas worshipped. Viking influence is also evident in concepts like the present-day parliamentary body of theTynwaldon the Isle of Man.

Many common words in everyday English language stem from the Old Norse of the Vikings and give an opportunity to understand their interactions with the people and cultures of the British Isles.In theNorthern Islesof Shetland and Orkney, Old Norse completely replaced the local languages and over time evolved into the now extinctNorn language.Some modern words and names only emerge and contribute to our understanding after a more intense research of linguistic sources from medieval or later records, such asYork(Horse Bay),Swansea(Sveinn's Isle) or some of the place names in Normandy likeTocqueville(Toki's farm).

Linguistic and etymological studies continue to provide a vital source of information on the Viking culture, their social structure and history and how they interacted with the people and cultures they met, traded, attacked or lived with in overseas settlements.A lot of Old Norse connections are evident in the modern-day languages ofSwedish,Norwegian,Danish,FaroeseandIcelandic.Old Norse did not exert any great influence on theSlavic languagesin the Viking settlements of Eastern Europe. It has been speculated that the reason for this was the great differences between the two languages, combined with the Rus Vikings' more peaceful businesses in these areas, and the fact that they were outnumbered. The Norse named some of therapidson theDnieper,but this can hardly be seen from modern names.

Runestones

Main article:Runestone

TheLingsberg Runestonein Sweden

Runic inscriptions of the larger of theJelling Stonesin Denmark

Two types of Norse runestones from the Viking Age

The Norse of the Viking Age could read and write and used a non-standardised alphabet, calledrunor,built upon sound values. While there are few remains of runic writing on paper from the Viking era, thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found where Vikings lived. They are usually in memory of the dead, though not necessarily placed at graves. The use ofrunorsurvived into the 15th century, used in parallel with the Latin alphabet.

The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none.Sweden has as many as between 1,700and 2,500depending on the definition. The Swedish district ofUpplandhas the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereasSödermanlandis second with 391.

The majority of runic inscriptions from the Viking period are found in Sweden. Many runestones in Scandinavia record the names of participants in Viking expeditions, such as theKjula runestonethat tells of extensive warfare in Western Europe and theTuringe Runestone,which tells of a war band in Eastern Europe.

Other runestones mention men who died on Viking expeditions. Among them are theEngland runestones(Swedish:Englandsstenarna), which is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30Greece Runestonesand the 26Ingvar Runestones,the latter referring to a Viking expedition to the Middle East.They were engraved inOld Norsewith theYounger Futhark.

Piraeus Liondrawing of curvedlindworm.The runes on the lion tell of Viking warriors, most likelyVarangians,mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor.

TheJelling stonesdate from between 960 and 985. The older, smaller stone was raised by KingGorm the Old,the last pagan king of Denmark, as a memorial honouringQueen Thyre.The larger stone was raised by his son,Harald Bluetooth,to celebrate the conquest of Denmark and Norway and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity. It has three sides: one with an animal image; one with an image of the crucified Jesus Christ; and a third bearing the following inscription:

King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.

Runestones attest to voyages to locations such asBath,Greece (how the Vikings referred to theByzantiumterritories generally),Khwaresm,Jerusalem,Italy (as Langobardland),Serkland(i.e. the Muslim world),England(including London), and various places in Eastern Europe. Viking Age inscriptions have also been discovered on theManx runestoneson the Isle of Man.

Runic alphabet usage in modern times

The last known people to use theRunic alphabetwere an isolated group of people known as theElfdalians,that lived in the locality ofÄlvdalenin the Swedish province ofDalarna.They spoke the language ofElfdalian,the language unique toÄlvdalen.The Elfdalian language differentiates itself from the other Scandinavian languages as it evolved much closer to Old Norse. The people ofÄlvdalenstopped using runes as late as the 1920s. Usage of runes therefore survived longer inÄlvdalenthan anywhere else in the world.The last known record of theElfdalianRunes is from 1929; they are a variant of theDalecarlian runes,runic inscriptions that were also found inDalarna.

Traditionally regarded as aSwedishdialect,but by several criteria closer related to West Scandinavian dialects,Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard ofmutual intelligibility.Although there is no mutual intelligibility, due to schools and public administration in Älvdalen being conducted in Swedish, native speakers are bilingual and speak Swedish at a native level. Residents in the area who speak only Swedish as their sole native language, neither speaking nor understanding Elfdalian, are also common.Älvdalencan be said to have had its own alphabet during the 17th and 18th century. Today there are about 2,000–3,000 native speakers ofElfdalian.

Burial sites

See also:Norse funeralandShip burial

Burial mounds (Gamla Uppsala)

Funerary stone settings (Lindholm Høje)

Examples of Viking burial mounds and stone set graves, collectively known astumuli

There are numerous burial sites associated with Vikings throughout Europe and their sphere of influence—in Scandinavia, the British Isles, Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Russia, etc. The burial practices of the Vikings were quite varied, from dug graves in the ground, totumuli,sometimes including so-calledship burials.

According to written sources, most of the funerals took place at sea. Funerals involved either burial or cremation, depending on local customs. In the area that is now Sweden, cremations were predominant; in Denmark burial was more common; and in Norway both were common.Viking barrows are one of the primary sources of evidence for circumstances in the Viking Age.The items buried with the dead give some indication as to what was considered important to possess in the afterlife.It is unknown what mortuary services were given to dead children by the Vikings.Some of the most important burial sites for understanding the Vikings include:

• Norway:Oseberg;Gokstad;Borrehaugene.
• Sweden:Gettlingegravfält; the cemeteries ofBirka,a World Heritage Site;Valsgärde;Gamla Uppsala;Hulterstad gravfält, nearAlby;Hulterstad,Öland,Gotland.
• Denmark:Jelling,aWorld Heritage Site;Lindholm Høje;Ladby ship;Mammenchamber tomb and hoard.
• Estonia:Salme ships– The largest and earliest Viking ship burial ground ever uncovered.
• Scotland:Port an Eilean Mhòir ship burial;Scar boat burial,Orkney.
• Faroe Islands:Hov.
• Iceland:MosfellsbærinCapital Region;the boat burial inVatnsdalur,Austur-Húnavatnssýsla.
• Greenland:Brattahlíð.
• Germany:Hedeby.
• Latvia:Grobiņa.
• Ukraine: theBlack Grave.
• Russia:Gnezdovo,Staraya Ladoga.

Ships

Main article:Viking ships

Prowof theOseberg ship,at OsloMuseum

There have been several archaeological finds of Viking ships of all sizes, providing knowledge of the craftsmanship that went into building them. There were many types of Viking ships, built for various uses; the best-known type is probably thelongship.Longships were intended for warfare and exploration, designed for speed and agility, and were equipped with oars to complement the sail, making navigation possible independently of the wind. The longship had a long, narrow hull and shallow draught to facilitate landings and troop deployments in shallow water. Longships were used extensively by theLeidang,the Scandinavian defence fleets. The longship allowed the Norse togo Viking,which might explain why this type of ship has become almost synonymous with the concept of Vikings.

The Vikings built many unique types of watercraft, often used for more peaceful tasks. Theknarrwas a dedicated merchant vessel designed to carry cargo in bulk. It had a broader hull, a deeper draught, and a small number of oars (used primarily to manoeuvre in harbours and similar situations). One Viking innovation was the 'beitass', a spar mounted to the sail that allowed their ships to sail effectively against the wind.It was common for seafaring Viking ships to tow or carry a smaller boat to transfer crew and cargo from the ship to shore.

A reconstructed longship

A model of theknarrship type

Two typical viking ships

Ships were an integral part of Viking culture. They facilitated everyday transportation across seas and waterways, exploration of new lands, raids, conquests, and trade with neighbouring cultures. They also held a major religious importance. People with high status were sometimes buried in a ship along with animal sacrifices, weapons, provisions and other items, as evidenced by the buried vessels atGokstadandOsebergin Norwayand the excavated ship burial atLadbyin Denmark. Ship burials were also practised by Vikings overseas, as evidenced by the excavations of theSalme shipson the Estonian island ofSaaremaa.

Well-preserved remains of five Viking ships were excavated fromRoskilde Fjordin the late 1960s, representing both the longship and theknarr.The ships were scuttled there in the 11th century to block a navigation channel and thus protectRoskilde,then the Danish capital, from a seaborne assault. The remains of these ships are on display at theViking Ship Museum in Roskilde.

In 2019, archaeologists uncovered two Viking boat graves in Gamla Uppsala. They also discovered that one of the boats still holds the remains of a man, a dog, and a horse, along with other items.This has shed light on the death rituals of Viking communities in the region.

Social structure

A large reconstructed chieftainslonghouseatLofotr Viking Museum,Norway

Reconstructed town houses fromHaithabu(now in Germany)

Viking society was divided into the three socio-economic classes:thralls,karlsandjarls.This is described vividly in theEddic poemofRígsþula,which also explains that it was the godRíg—father of mankind also known asHeimdallr—who created the three classes. Archaeology has confirmed this social structure.

• The lowest ranking class werethralls,Old Norsefor slaves, who comprised as much as a quarter of the population.Slavery was vital to Viking society – for everyday chores and large-scale construction, and also for trading and for the economy.Thrallswere servants and workers on the farms and in larger households of thekarlsandjarls,and they were used for constructing fortifications, ramps, canals, mounds, roads and similar projects built by hard labour. According to theRígsþula,thrallswere despised and looked down upon.Newthrallswere supplied by either the sons and daughters ofthralls,or were captured abroad by the Vikings on their raids in Europe. Thethrallswere brought back to Scandinavia by boat, used on location or in newer settlements to build needed structures, or sold, often to the Arabs in exchange for silverdirhamsorsilk.

• Free peasants (karlar). They owned farms, land and cattle, and engaged in chores like ploughing the fields, milking the cows, and building houses and wagons, but used thralls to make ends meet. Other names forkarlswerebondeor simply free men. Similar classes werechurls andhuskarls.

• Aristocracy(jarlar). They were wealthy and owned large estates with huge longhouses, horses and many thralls. Thethrallsdid most of the daily chores, while thejarlscarried out administration, politics, hunting, and sports – they also visited otherjarlsor went abroad on expeditions. When ajarldied and was buried, his household thralls were sometimessacrificially killedand buried next to him, as many excavations have revealed.

In daily life, there were many intermediate positions in the overall social structure and it appears that there was some social mobility between them. These details are unclear, but titles and positions likehauldr,thegn,andlandmand,show mobility between thekarlsand thejarls.

Other social structures included the communities offélagin both the civil and the military spheres, to which its members (calledfélagi) were obliged. A félag could be centred around certain trades, a common ownership of a sea vessel or a military obligation under a specific leader. Members of the latter were referred to asdrenge,one of the words for warrior. There were also official communities within towns and villages, the overall defence, religion, the legal system and theThings.

Status of women

Typical jewellery worn by women of thekarlsandjarls:ornamented silver brooches, coloured glass-beads and amulets

Like elsewhere in medieval Europe, most women in Viking society were subordinate to their husbands and fathers and had little political power.However, written sources portray free Viking women as having independence and rights. Viking women generally appear to have had more freedom than women elsewhere,as illustrated in the IcelandicGrágásand the NorwegianFrostatinglaws andGulatinglaws.

Most free Viking women were housewives, and a woman's standing in society was linked to that of her husband.Marriage gave a woman a degree of economic security and social standing encapsulated in the titlehúsfreyja(lady of the house). Norse laws assert the housewife's authority over the 'indoor household'. She had the important roles of managing the farm's resources, conducting business, as well as child-rearing, although some of this would be shared with her husband.

After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to asmaerandmey,reached legal majority and had the right to decide her place of residence and was regarded as her own person before the law.An exception to her independence was the right to choose a husband, as marriages were normally arranged by the family.The groom would pay abride-price(mundr) to the bride's family, and the bride brought assets into the marriage, as adowry.A married woman could divorce her husband and remarry.

Concubinagewas also part of Viking society, whereby a woman could live with a man and have children with him without marrying; such a woman was called afrilla.Usually she would be the mistress of a wealthy and powerful man who also had a wife.The wife had authority over the mistresses if they lived in her household.Through her relationship to a man of higher social standing, a concubine and her family could advance socially; although her position was less secure than that of a wife.There was little distinction made between children born inside or outside marriage: both had the right to inherit property from their parents, and there were no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children.However, children born in wedlock had more inheritance rights than those born out of wedlock.

A woman had the right to inherit part of her husband's property upon his death,and widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women.The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter, referred to asodalkvinna,all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man.A woman with no husband, sons or male relatives could inherit not only property but also the position as head of the family when her father or brother died. Such a woman was referred to asBaugrygr,and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a familyclan,until she married, by which her rights were transferred to her new husband.

Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses (gydja) and oracles (sejdkvinna).They were active within art as poets (skalder)andrune masters,and as merchants and medicine women.There may also have been female entrepreneurs, who worked intextileproduction.Women may also have been active within military offices: the tales aboutshieldmaidensare unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds such as theBirka female Viking warriormay indicate that at least some women in military authority existed.

These liberties of the Viking women gradually disappeared after the introduction of Christianity,and from the late 13th century, they are no longer mentioned.

Examination of Viking Age burials suggests that women lived longer, and nearly all well past the age of 35, as compared to earlier times. Female graves from before the Viking Age in Scandinavia hold a proportionally large number of remains from women aged 20 to 35, presumably due to complications of childbirth.

Examination of skeletal remains also allows the relative health and nutritional status of boys and girls in the past to be reconstructed, usinganthropometrictechniques. Burials from Scandinavia and other European countries suggest that, in comparison with other societies at the time, female equality was remarkably high in rural Scandinavia. Females in the rural periphery of Nordic countries during the Viking period and the laterMiddle Ageshad relatively high status, resulting in substantial nutritional and health resources being allocated to girls, enabling them to grow stronger and healthier.

Appearance

Reconstructed Vikings costume on display at Archaeological Museum in Stavanger, Norway

Scandinavian Vikings were similar in appearance to modernScandinavians:"their skin was fair and the hair color varied between blond, dark and reddish". Genetic studies suggest that people were mostly blond in what is now eastern Sweden, while red hair was mostly found in western Scandinavia.Most Viking men had shoulder-length hair and beards, and slaves (thralls) were usually the only men with short hair.The length varied according to personal preference and occupation. Men involved in warfare, for example, may have had slightly shorter hair and beards for practical reasons. Men in some regions bleached their hair agolden saffroncolour.Females also had long hair, with girls often wearing it loose or braided, and married women often wearing it in a bun.The average height is estimated to have been 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) for men and 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) for women.

The three classes were easily recognisable by their appearance. Men and women of the Jarls were well groomed with neat hairstyles and expressed their wealth and status by wearing expensive clothes (often silk) and well-crafted jewellery likebrooches,belt buckles, necklaces and arm rings. Almost all of the jewellery was crafted in specific designs unique to the Norse (seeViking art). Finger rings were seldom used and earrings were not used at all, as they were seen as aSlavicphenomenon. Mostkarlsexpressed similar tastes and hygiene, but in a more relaxed and inexpensive way.

Archaeological finds from Scandinavia and Viking settlements in the British Isles support the idea of the well-groomed and hygienic Viking. Burial with grave goods was a common practice in the Scandinavian world, through the Viking Age and well past the Christianisation of the Norse peoples.Within these burial sites and homesteads, combs, often made from antler, are a common find.The manufacturing of such antler combs was common, as at the Viking settlement at Dublin hundreds of examples of combs from the tenth-century have survived, suggesting that grooming was a common practice. The manufacture of such combs was also widespread throughout the Viking world, as examples of similar combs have been found at Viking settlements in Ireland,England,and Scotland.The combs share a common visual appearance as well, with the extant examples often decorated with linear, interlacing, and geometric motifs, or other forms of ornamentation depending on the comb's period and type, but stylistically similar to Viking Age art.All levels of Viking age society appear to have groomed their hair, as hair combs have been found in common graves as well as in aristocratic ones.

Farming and cuisine

Thesagastell about the diet and cuisine of the Vikings,but first-hand evidence, likecesspits,kitchen middensand garbage dumps have proved to be of great value and importance. Undigested remains of plants from cesspits atCoppergatein York have provided much information in this respect. Overall, archaeo-botanical investigations have been undertaken increasingly in recent decades, as a collaboration between archaeologists and palaeoethno-botanists. This new approach sheds light on the agricultural andhorticulturalpractices of the Vikings and their cuisine.

Pot of soapstone, partly reconstructed, Viking Age (FromBirka,Sweden)

The combined information from various sources suggests a diverse cuisine and ingredients. Meat products of all kinds, such ascured,smokedandwhey-preserved meat,sausages, and boiled or fried fresh meat cuts, were prepared and consumed.There were plenty of seafood, bread, porridges, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts. Alcoholic drinks likebeer,mead,bjórr(a strong fruit wine) and, for the rich, importedwine,were served.

Certain livestock were typical and unique to the Vikings, including theIcelandic horse,Icelandic cattle,a plethora of sheep breeds,theDanish henand theDanish goose.The Vikings in York mostly ate beef,mutton,and pork with small amounts of horse meat. Most of the beef and horse leg bones were found split lengthways, to extract the marrow. The mutton and swine were cut into leg and shoulder joints and chops. The frequent remains of pig skull and foot bones found on house floors indicate thatbrawnandtrotterswere also popular. Hens were kept for both their meat and eggs, and the bones of game birds such asblack grouse,golden plover,wild ducks, and geese have also been found.

Seafood was important, in some places even more so than meat.Whalesandwalruswere hunted for food in Norway and the northwestern parts of theNorth Atlanticregion, andsealswere hunted nearly everywhere.Oysters,musselsandshrimpwere eaten in large quantities andcodandsalmonwere popular fish. In the southern regions,herringwas also important.

Milk andbuttermilkwere popular, both as cooking ingredients and drinks, but were not always available, even at farms.Milk came from cows, goats and sheep, with priorities varying from location to location,and fermented milk products likeskyrorsurmjölkwere produced as well as butter and cheese.

Food was often salted and enhanced with spices, some of which were imported likeblack pepper,while others were cultivated in herb gardens or harvested in the wild. Home grown spices includedcaraway,mustardandhorseradishas evidenced from the Oseberg ship burialordill,coriander,andwild celery,as found incesspitsat Coppergate in York.Thyme,juniper berry,sweet gale,yarrow,rueandpeppercresswere also used and cultivated in herb gardens.

Everyday life in the Viking Age

Vikings collected and ate fruits, berries and nuts. Apple (wildcrab apples), plums and cherries were part of the diet,as wererose hipsandraspberry,wild strawberry,blackberry,elderberry,rowan,hawthornand various wild berries, specific to the locations.Hazelnutswere an important part of the diet in general and large amounts ofwalnutshells have been found in cities like Hedeby. The shells were used for dyeing, and it is assumed that the nuts were consumed.

The invention and introduction of themouldboard ploughrevolutionised agriculture in Scandinavia in the early Viking Age and made it possible to farm even poor soils. InRibe,grains ofrye,barley,oatandwheatdated to the 8th century have been found and examined, and are believed to have been cultivated locally.Grains and flour were used for making porridges, some cooked with milk, some cooked with fruit and sweetened with honey, and also various forms of bread. Remains of bread from primarily Birka in Sweden were made of barley and wheat. It is unclear if the Norse leavened their breads, but their ovens and baking utensils suggest that they did.Flaxwas a very important crop for the Vikings: it was used for oil extraction, food consumption, and most importantly, the production oflinen.More than 40% of all known textile recoveries from the Viking Age can be traced as linen. This suggests a much higher actual percentage, as linen is poorly preserved compared to wool, for example.

The quality of food for common people was not always particularly high. The research at Coppergate shows that the Vikings in York made bread from wholemeal flour—probably both wheat andrye—but with the seeds of cornfield weeds included. Corncockle (Agrostemma), would have made the bread dark-coloured, but the seeds are poisonous, and people who ate the bread might have become ill. Seeds of carrots,parsnip,andbrassicaswere also discovered, but they were poor specimens and tend to come from white carrots and bitter tasting cabbages.Therotary quernsoften used in the Viking Age left tiny stone fragments (often frombasaltrock) in the flour, which when eaten wore down the teeth. The effects of this can be seen on skeletal remains from that period.

Sports

Sports were widely practised and encouraged by the Vikings.Sports that involved weapons training and developing combat skills were popular. These included spear and stone throwing, building and testing physical strength throughwrestling(seeglima),fist fighting,and stone lifting.In areas with mountains,mountain climbingwas practised as a sport. Agility and balance were built and tested by running and jumping for sport, and there is mention of a sport that involved jumping from oar to oar on the outside of a ship's railing as it was being rowed.Swimmingwas a popular sport–Snorri Sturlusondescribes three types: diving, long-distance swimming, and a contest in which two swimmers try to dunk one another. Children often participated in some of the sport disciplines,and women have also been mentioned as swimmers, although it is unclear if they took part in competitions. KingOlaf Tryggvasonwas acclaimed for his skill in both mountain climbing and oar-jumping, and reputedly excelled in the art ofknife jugglingas well.Skiingandice skatingwere the principal winter sports, and also provided transport on snow and ice for adults.

Horse fighting was practised for sport, although the rules are unclear. It appears to have involved two stallions pitted against each other, within smell and sight of fenced-off mares. Whatever the rules were, the fights often resulted in the death of one of the stallions.

Icelandic sources often mentionknattleik,a ball game similar tohockey,played with a bat and a small hard ball, usually on a smooth surface of ice. Popular with both adults and children, it was a rugged game that often led to injuries. Knattleik appears to have been played only in Iceland, where it attracted many spectators, as did horse fighting.

Hunting was practiced as a sport only in Denmark, where it was not an essential food source. Deer andhareswere hunted for meat, along with partridges and sea birds, while foxes were hunted to stop their killing of farm animals and for their furs. Spears, bows, and later crossbows, were the weapons used; stalking was the most common method, although game was also chased with dogs. Numerous kinds of snares and traps were used as well.

Games and entertainment

Rook,Lewis chessmen,at the National Museum of Scotland

Archaeological finds and written sources indicate that the Vikings participated in social gatherings and festivities.Board games and dice games were a popular pastime. Game boards were made of ornately carved wood, with gaming pieces fashioned mostly from wood, bone, or stone. Pieces were also made of glass,amber,and antler, along with materials such aswalrustusk and ivory from foreign sources. The Vikings played several types oftaflgames;hnefatafl,nitavl(nine men's morris) and the less commonkvatrutafl.

Hnefataflwas probably the oldest type of board game played in medieval Scandinavia.The archaeological record indicates thathnefataflwas popular by the early medieval period, with the Vikings introducing it to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.TheOckelbo Runestoneshows two men possibly playinghnefatafl,and one saga suggests that dice games involved gambling.

Beer and mead were served on festive occasions, where music was played,poetrywas recited, and stories were told.Music was considered an art form and musical skill was viewed as suitable for a cultivated man. The Vikings are known to have played instruments including harps,lutes,lyresand fiddles.

Cultural assimilation

Elements of a Scandinavian identity and practices were maintained in settler societies, but they could be quite distinct as the groups assimilated into neighbouring societies. Assimilation to theFrankishculture inNormandyfor example was rapid.Links to a Viking identity remained longer in the remote islands of Iceland and theFaroes.

Weapons and warfare

Main article:Viking Age arms and armour

Viking swords

Knowledge about the arms and armour of the Viking age is based on archaeological finds, pictorial representation, and to some extent on the accounts in theNorse sagasandNorse lawsrecorded in the 13th century. According to custom, all free Norse men were required to own weapons and were permitted to carry them at all times. These arms indicated a Viking's social status: a wealthy Viking had a complete ensemble of ahelmet,shield,mailshirt, and sword. However, swords were rarely used in battle; they were probably not sturdy enough for combat and most likely only used as symbolic or decorative items.

A typicalbóndi(freeman) was more likely to fight with aspearand shield, and most also carried aseaxas a utility knife and side-arm. Bows were used in the opening stages of land battles and at sea, but they tended to be considered less "honourable" than melee weapons. Vikings were relatively unusual for the time in their use of axes as a main battle weapon. TheHúscarls,the elite guard of KingCnut(and later ofKing Harold II) were armed with two-handed axes that could split shields or metal helmets with ease.

The warfare and violence of the Vikings were often motivated and fuelled by their beliefs inNorse religion,focusing onThorandOdin,the gods of war and death.

Violence was common in Viking Age Norway. An examination of Norwegian human remains from the Viking Age found that 72% of the examined males and 42% of the examined females had suffered weapon-related injuries. Violence was less common in Viking Age Denmark, where society was more centralized and complex than the clan-based Norwegian society.

The Viking warrior is often associated with violent fits of rage and frenzied fighting in modern popular culture, as reflected in meanings attached to the wordsberserkergangandberserkerthat would not have been the meanings understood by medieval Norse society.Such a fighting style may have been deployed intentionally byshock troops,and it has been proposed that the berserk-state may have been induced by consuming large amounts of alcohol,or through ingestion of materials withpsychoactiveproperties, such as the solanaceous plantHyoscyamus niger,as speculated by Karsten Faturor by consumption of thehallucinogenicmushroomAmanita muscaria,as first hypothesised by the Swedish theologian Samuel Ødman in 1784 and later by the botanist F.C. Schübeler in 1885.The Norwegian battlefield archaeologist Are Skarstein Kolberg asserts that "...Ödman's hypothesis is not supported by the saga literature or by the archaeological record",and according to Roderick Dale, there is no evidence for it from the Viking Age or from Old Norse literature.

Trade

See also:Trade during the Viking Age,Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks,Volga trade route,andBukhara slave trade

The scales and weights of a Viking trader, used for measuring silver and sometimes gold (From theSigtuna box found in Sweden)

The Vikings established and engaged in extensive trading networks throughout the known world and had a profound influence on the economic development of Europe and Scandinavia.

Other than in such trading centres asRibeHedebyin Denmark, Scandinavia was unfamiliar with the use of coinage. Therefore, its economy was based onbullion;that is, the purity and weight of precious metals used in exchange.Silverwas the precious metal most commonly used, althoughgoldwas also used. Traders carried small portable scales, enabling them to measure weight precisely, which allowed an accurate medium of exchange, even lacking a regular coinage.

Goods

Organised trade covered everything from ordinary items in bulk to exotic luxury products. The Viking ship designs, like that of theknarr,were an important factor in their success as merchants.Imported goods from other cultures included:

• Spiceswere obtained from Chinese and Persian traders, who met with the Viking traders in Russia. Vikings used homegrown spices and herbs likecaraway,thyme,horseradishandmustard,but importedcinnamon.
• Glasswas much prized by the Norse. The imported glass was often made into beads for decoration and these have been found in the thousands.Åhusin Scania and the old market town of Ribe were major centres of glass bead production.
• Silkwas a very important commodity obtained fromByzantium(modern dayIstanbul) and China. It was valued by many European cultures of the time, and the Vikings used it to indicate status such as wealth and nobility. Many of the archaeological finds in Scandinavia include silk.
• Winewas imported from France and Germany as a drink of the wealthy, augmenting the regularmeadandbeer.

To counter these valuable imports, the Vikings exported a large variety of goods. These goods included:

The Rus' trading slaves with theKhazars.

Mjölnir,hammer of Thor, made ofamber(Found inSweden

• Amber—the fossilised resin of the pine tree—was frequently found on theNorth SeaandBalticcoastline. It was worked into beads and ornamental objects, before being traded. (See also theAmber Road).
• Fur was also exported as it provided warmth. This included the furs ofpine martens,foxes,bears,ottersandbeavers.
• Cloth andwool.The Vikings were skilled spinners and weavers and exported woollen cloth of a high quality.
• Downwas collected and exported. The Norwegian west coast supplied eiderdowns and sometimes feathers were bought from theSamis.Down was used for bedding and quilted clothing.Fowlingon the steep slopes and cliffs was dangerous work and was often lethal.
• Slaves.The Muslim writerAhmad ibn Rustahdescribed how the Viking Rus' had "no cultivated fields and lived by pillaging alone". They were ruthless in their enslaving of many people. Most of the slaves were taken to Scandinavia, but others were sold in the markets ofAtilthat fed the demand in many cities of Asia and North Africa. The surge in the slave trade of the 9th century is reflected in the amount of coins minted in Central Asia, that have been unearthed in Scandinavia.

Other exports included weapons,walrus ivory,wax,saltandcod.As one of the more exotic exports,hunting birdswere sometimes provided from Norway to the European aristocracy, from the 10th century.

Many of these goods were also traded within the Viking world itself, as well as goods such assoapstoneandwhetstone.Soapstone was traded with the Norse onIcelandand inJutland,who used it for pottery. Whetstones were traded and used for sharpening weapons, tools and knives.There are indications from Ribe and surrounding areas, that the extensive medieval trade with oxen and cattle from Jutland (seeOx Road), reach as far back as c. 720 AD. This trade satisfied the Vikings' need for leather and meat to some extent, and perhaps hides forparchmentproduction on the European mainland. Wool was also very important as a domestic product for the Vikings, to produce warm clothing for the cold Scandinavian and Nordic climate, and for sails. Sails for Viking ships required large amounts of wool, as evidenced by experimental archaeology. There are archaeological signs of organised textile productions in Scandinavia, reaching as far back as the earlyIron Ages.Artisans and craftsmen in the larger towns were supplied withantlersfrom organised hunting with large-scale reindeer traps in the far north. They were used as raw material for making everyday utensils like combs.

Legacy

Medieval perceptions

Exploration and expansion routes ofNorsemen

In England the Viking Age began dramatically on 8 June 793 when Norsemen destroyed theabbeyon the island ofLindisfarne.The devastation ofNorthumbria's Holy Island shocked and alerted the royal courts of Europe to the Viking presence. "Never before has such an atrocity been seen", declared the Northumbrian scholarAlcuin of York.Medieval Christians in Europe were totally unprepared for the Viking incursions and could find no explanation for their arrival and the accompanying suffering they experienced at their hands save the "Wrath of God".More than any other single event, the attack on Lindisfarne demonised perception of the Vikings for the next twelve centuries. Not until the 1890s did scholars outside Scandinavia begin to seriously reassess the achievements of the Vikings, recognising their artistry, technological skills, and seamanship.

Norse Mythology,sagas, andliteraturetell of Scandinavian culture and religion through tales of heroic and mythological heroes. Early transmission of this information was primarily oral, and later texts relied on the writings and transcriptions of Christian scholars, including theIcelandersSnorri Sturluson andSæmundur fróði.Many of these sagas were written in Iceland, and most of them, even if they had no Icelandic provenance, were preserved there after the Middle Ages due to the continued interest of Icelanders in Norse literature and legal codes.

The 200-year Viking influence onEuropean historyis filled with tales of plunder and colonisation, and the majority of these chronicles came from western European witnesses and their descendants. Less common, although equally relevant, are references to Vikings in chronicles that originated in the east, including theNestorchronicles,Novgorod chronicles,Ibn Fadlanchronicles,Ibn Rustachronicles, and brief mentions byPhotius,patriarch of Constantinople, regarding the first Viking attack on theByzantine Empire.Other chroniclers of Viking history includeAdam of Bremen,who wrote, in the fourth volume of hisGesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum,"[t]here is much gold here (inZealand), accumulated by piracy. These pirates, which are calledwichingiby their own people, andAscomanniby our own people, pay tribute to the Danish king. "In 991, theBattle of Maldonbetween Viking raiders and the inhabitants ofMaldonin Essex was commemorated with a poem of the same name.

Post-medieval perceptions

Amodern reenactmentof a Viking battle

Early modern publications, dealing with what is now called Viking culture, appeared in the 16th century, e.g.Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus(History of the northern people) ofOlaus Magnus(1555), and the first edition of the 13th-centuryGesta Danorum(Deeds of the Danes), bySaxo Grammaticus,in 1514. The pace of publication increased during the 17th century with Latin translations of theEdda(notably Peder Resen'sEdda Islandorumof 1665).

In Scandinavia, the 17th-century Danish scholarsThomas BartholinandOle Wormand the SwedeOlaus Rudbeckused runic inscriptions and Icelandic sagas as historical sources. An important early British contributor to the study of the Vikings wasGeorge Hickes,who published hisLinguarum vett. septentrionalium thesaurus(Dictionary of the Old Northern Languages) in 1703–05. During the 18th century, British interest and enthusiasm for Iceland and early Scandinavian culture grew dramatically, expressed in English translations of Old Norse texts and in original poems that extolled the supposed Viking virtues.

The word "viking" was first popularised at the beginning of the 19th century byErik Gustaf Geijerin his poem,The Viking.Geijer's poem did much to propagate the new romanticised ideal of the Viking, which had little basis in historical fact. The renewed interest ofRomanticismin the Old North had contemporary political implications. TheGeatish Society,of which Geijer was a member, popularised this myth to a great extent. Another Swedish author who had great influence on the perception of the Vikings wasEsaias Tegnér,a member of the Geatish Society, who wrote a modern version ofFriðþjófs saga hins frœkna,which became widely popular in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Viking long shipsbesieging Parisin 845, 19th century portrayal

Fascination with the Vikings reached a peak during the so-calledViking revivalin the late 18th and 19th centuries as a form ofRomantic nationalism.In Britain this was called Septentrionalism, in Germany "Wagnerian"pathos, and in the Scandinavian countriesScandinavism.Pioneering 19th-century scholarly editions of the Viking Age began to reach a small readership in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britain's Viking past, and linguistic enthusiasts started to identify the Viking-Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. The new dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled theVictoriansto grapple with the primary Icelandic sagas.

Until recently, the history of the Viking Age was largely based on Icelandic sagas, the history of the Danes written by Saxo Grammaticus, thePrimary Chronicle,andCogad Gáedel re Gallaib.Few scholars still accept these texts as reliable sources, as historians now rely more on archaeology andnumismatics,disciplines that have made valuable contributions toward understanding the period.

In 20th-century politics

The romanticised idea of the Vikings constructed in scholarly and popular circles in northwestern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries was a potent one, and the figure of the Viking became a familiar and malleable symbol in different contexts in the politics and political ideologies of 20th-century Europe.In Normandy, which had been settled by Vikings, the Viking ship became an uncontroversial regional symbol. In Germany, awareness of Viking history in the 19th century had been stimulated by the border dispute with Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein and the use of Scandinavian mythology byRichard Wagner.The idealised view of the Vikings appealed to Germanic supremacists who transformed the figure of the Viking in accordance with the ideology of a Germanic master race.Building on the linguistic and cultural connections between Norse-speaking Scandinavians and other Germanic groups in the distant past, Scandinavian Vikings were portrayed inNazi Germanyas a pure Germanic type. The cultural phenomenon of Viking expansion was re-interpreted for use as propaganda to support the extreme militant nationalism of the Third Reich, and ideologically informed interpretations of Viking paganism and the Scandinavian use of runes were employed in the construction ofNazi mysticism.Other political organisations of the same ilk, such as the former Norwegian fascist partyNasjonal Samling,similarly appropriated elements of the modern Viking cultural myth in their symbolism and propaganda.

Sovietand earlierSlavophilehistorians emphasised a Slavic rooted foundation in contrast to the Normanist theory of the Vikings conquering the Slavs and founding theKievan Rus'.They accused Normanist theory proponents of distorting history by depicting the Slavs as undeveloped primitives. In contrast, Soviet historians stated that the Slavs laid the foundations of their statehood long before the Norman/Viking raids, while the Norman/Viking invasions only served to hinder the historical development of the Slavs. They argued thatRus'composition was Slavic and thatRurikand Oleg's success was rooted in their support from within the local Slavic aristocracy..After the dissolution of theUSSR,Novgorodacknowledged its Viking history by incorporating a Viking ship into its logo.

In modern popular culture

Main article:Norse mythology in popular culture

Viking reenactment training (Jomsvikings group)

Led by the operas of German composerRichard Wagner,such asDer Ring des Nibelungen,Vikings and the Romanticist Viking Revival have inspired many creative works. These have included novels directly based on historical events, such asFrans Gunnar Bengtsson'sThe Long Ships(which was also released as a1963 film), and historical fantasies such as the filmThe Vikings,Michael Crichton'sEaters of the Dead(movie version calledThe 13th Warrior), and the comedy filmErik the Viking.The vampireEric Northman,in the HBO TV seriesTrue Blood,was a Viking prince before being turned into a vampire. Vikings appear in several books by theDanish AmericanwriterPoul Anderson,while British explorer, historian, and writerTim Severinauthored a trilogy of novels in 2005 about a young Viking adventurer Thorgils Leifsson, who travels around the world.

In 1962, American comic book writerStan Leeand his brotherLarry Lieber,together withJack Kirby,created theMarvel ComicssuperheroThor,which they based on the Norse god of the same name. The character is featured in the 2011Marvel StudiosfilmThorand its sequels. The character also appears in the 2012 filmThe Avengersand its associatedanimated series.

The appearance of Vikings within popular media and television has seen a resurgence in recent decades, especially with theHistory Channel's seriesVikings(2013), directed byMichael Hirst.The show has a loose grounding in historical facts and sources, but bases itself more so on literary sources, such asfornaldarsaga Ragnars saga loðbrókar,itself more legend than fact, and Old Norse Eddic and Skaldic poetry.The events of the show frequently make references to theVöluspá,an Eddic poem describing the creation of the world, often directly referencing specific lines of the poem in the dialogue.The show portrays some of the social realities of the medieval Scandinavian world, such as slaveryand the greater role of women within Viking society.The show also addresses the topics of gender equity in Viking society with the inclusion of shield maidens through the characterLagertha,also based on a legendary figure.Recent archaeological interpretations and osteological analyses of previous excavations of Viking burials have given support to the idea of the Viking woman warrior, namely the excavation and DNA study of theBirka female Viking warrior,within recent years. However, the conclusions remain contentious.

Vikings have served as an inspiration for numerousvideo games,such asThe Lost Vikings(1993),Age of Mythology(2002), andFor Honor(2017).All three Vikings fromThe Lost Vikingsseries—Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout—appeared as aplayable heroin the crossover titleHeroes of the Storm(2015).The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim(2011) is anaction role-playingvideo game heavily inspired by Viking culture.Vikings are the lead focus of the 2020 video gameAssassin's Creed Valhalla,which is set in 873 AD, and recounts an alternative history of the Viking invasion of Britain.

Modern reconstructions ofViking mythologyhave shown a persistent influence in late 20th- and early 21st-century popular culture in some countries, inspiring comics, movies, television series, role-playing games, computer games, and music, includingViking metal,a subgenre ofheavy metal music.

Since the 1960s, there has been rising enthusiasm forhistorical reenactment.While the earliest groups had little claim for historical accuracy, the seriousness and accuracy of reenactors has increased. The largest such groups includeThe VikingsandRegia Anglorum,though many smaller groups exist in Europe, North America, New Zealand, and Australia. Many reenactor groups participate in live-steel combat, and a few have Viking-style ships or boats.

TheMinnesota Vikingsof theNational Football Leagueare so-named owing to the large Scandinavian population in the US state ofMinnesota.

During the banking boom of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Icelandic financiers came to be styled asútrásarvíkingar(roughly 'raiding Vikings').

Experimental archaeology

Experimental archaeologyof the Viking Age is a flourishing branch and several places have been dedicated to this technique, such asJorvik Viking Centrein the United Kingdom,Sagnlandet LejreandRibe Viking Centerin Denmark,Foteviken Museumin Sweden orLofotr Viking Museumin Norway. Viking-agereenactorshave undertaken experimental activities such as iron smelting and forging using Norse techniques atNorsteadin Newfoundland for example.

On 1 July 2007, the reconstructed Viking shipSkuldelev 2,renamedSea Stallion,began a journey from Roskilde to Dublin. The remains of that ship and four others were discovered during a 1962 excavation in the Roskilde Fjord. Tree-ring analysis has shown the ship was built of oak in the vicinity of Dublin in about 1042. Seventy multinational crew members sailed the ship back to its home, andSea Stallionarrived outside Dublin's Custom House on 14 August 2007. The purpose of the voyage was to test and document the seaworthiness, speed, and manoeuvrability of the ship on the rough open sea and in coastal waters with treacherous currents. The crew tested how the long, narrow, flexible hull withstood the tough ocean waves. The expedition also provided valuable new information on Viking longships and society. The ship was built using Viking tools, materials, and much of the same methods as the original ship.

Other vessels, often replicas of theGokstad ship(full- or half-scale) orSkuldelevhave been built and tested as well. TheSnorri(aSkuldelev IKnarr), was sailed from Greenland to Newfoundland in 1998.

Common misconceptions

Horned helmets

Magnus Barelegs Viking Festival

Apart from two or three representations of (ritual) helmets—with protrusions that may be either stylised ravens, snakes, or horns—no depiction of the helmets of Viking warriors, and no preserved helmet, has horns. The formal, close-quarters style of Viking combat (either in shield walls or aboard "ship islands" ) would have made horned helmets cumbersome and hazardous to the warrior's own side.

Historians therefore believe that Viking warriors did not wear horned helmets; whether such helmets were used in Scandinavian culture for other, ritual purposes, remains unproven. The general misconception that Viking warriors wore horned helmets was partly promulgated by the 19th-century enthusiasts ofGötiska Förbundet,founded in 1811 inStockholm.They promoted the use of Norse mythology as the subject of high art and other ethnological and moral aims.

The Vikings were often depicted with winged helmets and in other clothing taken fromClassical antiquity,especially in depictions of Norse gods. This was done to legitimise the Vikings and their mythology by associating it with the Classical world, which had long been idealised in European culture.

The latter-daymythoscreated bynational romantic ideasblended the Viking Age with aspects of theNordic Bronze Agesome 2,000 years earlier. Horned helmets from the Bronze Age were shown inpetroglyphsand appeared in archaeological finds (seeBohuslänandViksohelmets). They were probably used for ceremonial purposes.

Modern "Viking" helmets

Cartoons likeHägar the HorribleandVicky the Viking,and sports kits such as those of theMinnesota VikingsandCanberra Raidershave perpetuated the myth of the horned helmet.

Viking helmets were conical, made from hard leather with wood and metallic reinforcements for regular troops. The iron helmet with mask and mail was for the chieftains, based on the previousVendel-age helmets from central Sweden. The only original Viking helmet discovered is theGjermundbu helmet,found in Norway. This helmet is made of iron and has been dated to the 10th century.

Barbarity

The image of wild-haired, dirty savages sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture is a distorted picture of reality.Viking tendencies were often misreported, and the work of Adam of Bremen, among others, told largely disputable tales of Viking savagery and uncleanliness.

Use of skulls as drinking vessels

There is no evidence that Vikingsdrank out of the skullsof vanquished enemies. This was a misconception based on a passage in theskaldicpoemKrákumálspeaking of heroes drinking fromór bjúgviðum hausa(branches of skulls). This was a reference todrinking horns,but was mistranslated in the 17th centuryas referring to the skulls of the slain.

Genetic legacy

Margaryan et al. 2020 analysed 442 Viking world individuals from various archaeological sites in Europe.They were found to be closely related to modern Scandinavians. The Y-DNA composition of the individuals in the study was also similar to that of modern Scandinavians. The most common Y-DNA haplogroup wasI1(95 samples), followed byR1b(84 samples) andR1a,especially (but not exclusively) of the Scandinavian R1a-Z284 subclade (61 samples). The study showed what many historians have hypothesised: that it was common for Norseman settlers to marry foreign women. Some individuals from the study, such as those found inFoggia,displayed typical Scandinavian Y-DNA haplogroups but also southern European autosomal ancestry, suggesting that they were the descendants of Viking settler males and local women. The five individual samples from Foggia were likelyNormans.The same pattern of a combination of Scandinavian Y-DNA and local autosomal ancestry is seen in other samples from the study, for exampleVarangiansburied nearlake Ladogaand Vikings in England, suggesting that Viking men had married into local families in those places too.

The study found evidence of a Swedish influx into Estonia and Finland; and Norwegian influx into Ireland, Iceland and Greenland during the Viking Age. However, the authors commented "Viking Age Danish-like ancestry in the British Isles cannot be distinguished from that of the Angles and Saxons, who migrated in the fifth to sixth centuries AD from Jutland and northern Germany".

Margaryan et al. 2020 examined the skeletal remains of 42 individuals from theSalme ship burialsin Estonia. The skeletal remains belonged to warriors killed in battle who were later buried together with numerous valuable weapons and armour. DNA testing and isotope analysis revealed that the men came from central Sweden.

Female descent studies show evidence of Norse descent in areas closest to Scandinavia, such as the Shetland andOrkney islands.Inhabitants of lands farther away show most Norse descent in the maleY-chromosomelines.

A specialised genetic and surname study inLiverpoolshowed marked Norse heritage: up to 50% of males of families that lived there before the years of industrialisation and population expansion.High percentages of Norse inheritance—tracked through the R-M420 haplotype—were also found among males in theWirralandWest Lancashire.This was similar to the percentage of Norse inheritance found among males in the Orkney Islands.

Recent research suggests that theCelticwarriorSomerled,who drove the Vikings out of western Scotland and was the progenitor ofClan Donald,may have been ofViking descent,a member of haplogroup R-M420.

Margaryan et al. 2020 examined an elite warrior burial fromBodzia(Poland) dated to 1010–1020 AD. The cemetery in Bodzia is exceptional in terms of Scandinavian and Kievian Rus links. The Bodzia man (sample VK157, or burial E864/I) was not a simple warrior from the princely retinue, but he belonged to the princely family himself. His burial is the richest one in the whole cemetery. Moreover, strontium analysis of his teeth enamel shows he was not local. It is assumed that he came to Poland with the Prince of Kiev,Sviatopolk the Accursed,and met a violent death in combat. This corresponds to the events of 1018 AD when Sviatopolk himself disappeared after having retreated from Kiev to Poland. It cannot be excluded that the Bodzia man was Sviatopolk himself, as the genealogy of the Rurikids at this period is extremely sketchy and the dates of birth of many princes of this dynasty may be quite approximative. The Bodzia man carried haplogroup I1-S2077and had both Scandinavian ancestry and Russian admixture.

See also

• Faroese people
• Geats
• Gotlander
• Gutasaga
• Oeselians
• Proto-Norse language
• Scandinavian prehistory
• Swedes (Germanic tribe)
• Ushkuiniks,Novgorod's privateers
• Viking activity in the British Isles
• Viking raid warfare and tactics
• Wokou

Bibliography

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Further reading

• Askeberg, Fritz (1944).Norden och kontinenten i gammal tid: studier i forngermansk kulturhistoria.Almqvist & Wiksells boktr.Archivedfrom the original on 2 February 2023.Retrieved17 October2015.
• Blanck, Dag. "The Transnational Viking: The Role of the Viking in Sweden, the United States, and Swedish America."Journal of Transnational American Studies7.1 (2016).onlineArchived5 December 2021 at theWayback Machine
• Downham, Clare (2007).Viking kings of Britain and Ireland: the dynasty of ́Ívarr to A.D. 1014.Dunedin Academic Press.ISBN978-1903765890.Archivedfrom the original on 2 February 2023.Retrieved17 October2015.
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• Hadley, Dawn (2006).The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture.Manchester University Press.ISBN978-0719059827.Archivedfrom the original on 2 February 2023.Retrieved17 October2015.
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• Hodges, Richard(2006).Goodbye to the Vikings: Re-Reading Early Medieval Archaeology.Gerald Duckworth & Company Limited.ISBN978-0715634295.Archivedfrom the original on 2 February 2023.Retrieved17 October2015.
• Melleno, Daniel (2014).Before They Were Vikings: Scandinavia and the Franks up to the death of Louis the Pious.UC Berkeley.Archivedfrom the original on 20 September 2022.Retrieved17 September2022..onlineArchived16 October 2022 at theWayback Machine
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• Wamers, Egon (1985).Insularer Metallschmuck in wikingerzeitlichen Gräbern Nordeuropas. Untersuchungen zur skandinavischen Westexpansion.Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz.ISBN978-3529011566.
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• Wawn, M.A. (2000).The Vikings and the Victorians: Inventing the Old North in Nineteenth Century Britain.Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.ISBN978-0859916448.

External links

• Vikings– View videos at The History Channel
• Copenhagen-Portal – The Danish Vikings
• BBC: History of Vikings
• Borg Viking museum, Norway
• Ibn Fadlan and the Rusiyyah, by James E. Montgomery, with full translation of Ibn Fadlan
• Reassessing what we collect website – Viking and Danish LondonHistory of Viking and Danish London with objects and images
• Wawm, Andrew,The Viking Revival– BBC Online, Ancient History in Depth (updated 17 February 2011)