A Brief History of the Vikings

by Jonathan Clements

  Scandinavian scholars immediately dismissed the Kensington Stone as a forgery, but away from the groves of academia, others found Holand’s arguments very persuasive. There were, of course, plenty of reasons for the Minnesotans to want to believe in an earlier visit by their ancestors. The 1893 voyage of the Viking had swelled them with ancestral pride, and there was always some mileage to be gained by claiming America to have been discovered by Protestant Norsemen instead of Catholics led by Christopher Columbus. It was not until the 1950s that the hoax was exposed, the mysterious rune-carver established not as a beleaguered explorer from the fourteenth century, but a modern Minnesotan hoaxer with a well-thumbed dictionary of runes.

  In 1940, Reider Sherwin published The Viking and the Red Man, a misguided attempt to prove that the Old Norse language had made a considerable contribution to the vocabulary of Algonquin Indian. If this were true, it would mean that the Vikings had played a significantly greater part in the history of North America than was previously believed. Unfortunately for Sherwin, his thesis held little water – his book was largely a comparative dictionary of Scandinavian and Native American languages, and demonstrated little grasp of historical linguistics. Many of his supposed cognates are mere coincidences or laughably different, while others can be explained by simple onomatopoeia.

  In 1957 an Italian bookseller began hawking yet another artefact around antiquarian booksellers in Europe. It was a battered book, The Tartar Relation, purportedly from sometime around 1440, containing a fragment of a report by a Franciscan monk who had visited the court of the Mongols in the 1240s. Friar Carpini’s 21-page account of China was interesting enough in itself, and constituted a rare find, but what interested Scandinavian scholars was the map that accompanied it. It showed the known world of Carpini’s time, including Japan, Tartary, what was known of Africa, and, with increasingly more accurate detail, Europe. Most crucially of all, far to the west of Europe, past Iceland and Greenland, was the unmistakable outline of Newfoundland and Labrador, marked Vinilanda Insula – the isle of Vinland. If the map were genuine, it represented conclusive proof, not only that the Vikings had visited America, but also that the discovery had been appreciated and accepted in Europe itself. Such a find would destroy much of the historical achievement of Columbus and his successors.

  Some historians were sceptical from the outset. The wormholes on the map did not match those on the rest of the book, nor did the ink used to draw it. If the map was not associated with the manuscript that accompanied it, then its date could not be established, and that rendered its inclusion of a ‘Vinland’ almost worthless. It was, however, regarded as an interesting enough find to be worthy of exhibiting at Yale University, its eventual owner. The manuscript was displayed for a decade, until modern forensics advanced to the stage where it could be examined not just for its content, but also for its material. Sadly for its creator, whoever he may have been, the Vinland Map was pronounced a forgery, with a high ink content of titanium dioxide, not found in inks before the early twentieth century.

  Despite such muddying of the academic waters, the twentieth century did see a Vinland finding of undeniable importance, in the small Newfoundland village of L’Anse aux Meadows. Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian Arctic biologist, spent 1959 scouring the American coast north of New England, in search of any island redoubts that could conceivably fit the descriptions left in the Vinland sagas. In 1960, he heard of the Anse aux Meadows site – a series of humps and hollows known to the locals as the ‘Indian Camp’. It had indeed once been a campsite for Indian hunters, but at some point in the distant past, a different kind of settler had briefly occupied the windswept ground. These mystery visitors had stacked turf sods in order to create temporary shelters, presumably roofed over with tarpaulins from their ships.

  At the time of its construction, around AD 1000, the time of Leif Eriksson’s voyage, the Anse aux Meadows site had been a beachfront – the intervening millennium has let a hundred metres of boggy ground silt up in between it and the sea. It was not an obvious place to site a settlement, but would have been ideally suited for the beaching of ships and their maintenance. In a separate enclosure were found relics of a small smith’s workshop, presumably set aside from the living quarters to avoid a risk of accident – and wisely so, since the building had caught fire at least once during its brief use.

  In terms of tangible objects, there is not all that much at the Anse aux Meadows site. There is, however, definite evidence of human habitation, very clear residue from metal smithing, cracked flagstones in what appears to have been a sauna building, and a pin designed to hold a Norse cloak. Whoever had lived there had not been Native American, and their habitation had been brief. Ingstad believed that he had finally located the site of Leif Eriksson’s camp, and with it, proof of a Viking visitation.

  There was, understandably, some doubt in the academic community that such a fantastic site should be found by a man who was not even a professional (Helge’s wife Anne Stine Ingstad was the archaeologist of the team, Helge more the publicist), but extensive surveys have backed up the majority of the Ingstads’ claims. A later excavation by Bengt Schönbäck determined that the Ingstads had been overzealous in believing that some natural depressions in the ground were ‘boat-sheds’, but that their findings were otherwise sound. In fact, the Schönbäck excavation uncovered even more material of Viking origin – mainly wooden fragments of furniture and household items. It was established to the satisfaction of Schönbäck that the Ingstads were essentially correct in their findings. Europeans of Norse origin had lived at L’Anse aux Meadows for a few years, before presumably departing whence they had come.

  In June 2000, on the estimated 1,000th anniversary of Leif’s supposed arrival, crowds flocked to the tiny L’Anse aux Meadows settlement for a double millennial celebration. The replica Viking vessel Islendingur led a small flotilla of Norse vessels back to the place the Vikings had left so long before, accompanied by captain Gunnar Eggertsson, a modern descendant of Leif the Lucky. The celebrations were even attended by representatives of the local Native Americans, happy to remind visitors that while the celebration was of the Vikings, the Vinland settlement had been chased away by the Indians, who had ‘discovered’ America considerably earlier than anyone else.

  The modern replica houses built near the original L’Anse aux Meadows site are slightly misleading. They are not the turf ‘booths’ of saga and archaeological record, but buildings with stone foundations and turfed roofs and despite their supposed educational function, they give a far more permanent and lasting impression of the Vinland voyages than is perhaps warranted; they have probably already been occupied for longer than the originals. This willingness of the people of the twenty-first century to adapt Viking culture to their own ends is typical. When the Norse men and women first came to America, there were perhaps no more than 150 of them with their plans for a colony. A thousand years later, 15,000 people, a hundred times the headcount of the original settlers, turned out at L’Anse aux Meadows to welcome the Islendingur and its accompanying ships. The empire of the Vikings has faded, but their influence lives on – they are fictional creations today, the creatures of movies and comics, and figures of fun or lurid horror. Our impression of them is created largely through literature – the tales, tall and otherwise, spun by their isolated Icelandic descendants, and the retellings of the sagas by Victorian authors.

  Modern research into DNA has established a heavy Viking presence in many places outside Scandinavia. Unsurprisingly, the prevalence of Y-chromosomes with a Danish or Norse origin runs in close correlation to the Norse place names to be found on an English map. The further north one goes in Britain, the more likelihood there is of Viking ancestry, and once into the Scottish isles, Norwegian genes are dominant. Such racial relics are less obvious in other places; the Rus, for example were bands of single men who most often took local wives and concubines, thus swiftly diluting the Scandinavian genes in their descendants.

  The Vi
kings do not, should not, exist any more. The last vestige of the Viking spirit can be found in criminals and chancers, and hopefully, that is where it will stay. They are a part of our nature that we would like to deny – robbers, thieves and pirates, that we like to believe are expelled by modern times.

  If anything can be learned from more recent studies of history, it is the role that climate and ecology can play in population movements. In the Viking Age and the centuries that preceded it, northern Europe’s unpredictable climate periodically forced barbarian tribes to go in search of new resources. In our supposedly enlightened age, the search for such resources has been sublimated, corporatized, sanitized perhaps, but it has not receded. You did not, I hope, steal this book from someone else. The clothes on your back were not snatched from Irish monks, and you did not appropriate your money by smashing up priceless holy relics, but there is still a perilously thin line that separates you from the hungry and the cold, and from the need to secure food and warmth. Few of us are more than a few months away from bankruptcy. We hand over new forms of manngjöld, hoping to shield ourselves against misfortune by paying tax and insurance. Our faith in our governments and welfare systems keeps us from having to consider what we would do if they were not there.

  While the Vikings are inhabitants of the past, the forces that created them are not. Ours is still a world with famines, floods and incidents of overpopulation. Our battles over resources are fought by proxy in distant lands, but they are still fought. You do not lead a band of men to take from those less able to protect themselves, but somewhere far away, others do on your behalf. It takes only the tiniest turn of fate, the slightest lapse of law, to make Vikings of us all.

  APPENDIX

  RULERS DURING THE VIKING AGE

  Kings of Norway

  Harald Fairhair

  ?–930s (SW Norway)

  Erik Bloodaxe

  ?–c.948 (SW Norway)

  Hakon the Good

  c.940–c.960 (S Norway)

  Harald II Greycloak

  c.960–c.968 (S Norway)

  Olaf ‘Crowbone’ Tryggvason

  995–999

  Olaf II the Stout (St Olaf)

  1015–28

  Svein Alfivason (regent for Denmark)

  1030–34

  Magnus the Good (see Denmark)

  1035–46

  Harald III the Ruthless

  1045–66

  Magnus II

  1066–69

  Olaf III the Peaceful

  1067–93

  Hakon Magnusson

  1093–95

  Magnus III Barelegs

  1093–1103

  Kings of Denmark

  Gorm the Old

  c.936–58

  Harald Bluetooth

  958–87

  Svein Forkbeard

  987–1014

  Harald II

  1014–18?

  Canute the Great (K. of England)

  1019–35

  Harthacanute (K. of England)

  1035–42

  Magnus the Good (K. of Norway)

  1042–46

  Svein Estridsen

  1046–c.1075

  Harald III

  c.1074–80

  Canute the Holy

  1080–86

  Olaf Hunger

  1086–95

  Erik the Evergood

  1095–1103

  Kings of Sweden

  Erik the Victorious

  980–95

  Olaf Skötkonung

  995–c.1018

  Onund Jacob

  c.1018–c.1050

  Emund the Old

  1050–60

  Stenkil Ragnvaldsson

  1060–66

  Halsten

  1066–70

  Law-Speakers of Iceland

  Hrafn Haengsson

  c.930–49

  Thorarin Oleifsson

  c.950–69

  Thorkel Moon Thorsteinsson

  970–84

  Thorgeir Thorkelsson

  985–1001

  Grim Svertingsson

  1002–3

  Skrafti Thoroddsson

  1004–30

  Stein Thorgestsson

  1031–3

  Thorkel Tjorvason

  1034–53

  Gellir Bolverksson

  1054–62

  Gunnar the Wise Thorgrimsson

  1063–5

  Kolbein Flosason

  1066–71

  (post survives until 1271, when Iceland is annexed to Norway)

  Princes of the Rus

  Rurik

  c.862–79 (legendary)

  Oleg

  c.879–913 (legendary)

  Igor (Ingvar)

  c.913–45

  Svyatoslav I

  945–72

  Jaropolk

  972–c.980

  Vladimir the Great (Valdemar)

  c.980–1015

  Jaroslav the Wise

  1019–54

  Svyatopolk II

  1093–1113

  Rulers of Normandy

  Hrolf the Walker

  911–c.925

  William Longsword

  c.925–42

  Richard the Fearless

  942–96

  Richard the Good

  996–1026

  Richard III

  1026–7

  Robert the Devil/Magnificent

  1027–35

  William the Bastard

  1035–87

  (King of England, ‘the Conqueror’ 1066)

  Kings of Wessex and the English

  Aethelred I, King of Wessex

  866–71

  Alfred the Great (Wessex)

  871–99

  Edward the Elder (Wessex)

  899–924

  Athelstan (England)

  924–39

  Edmund I

  939–46

  Eadred

  946–55

  Eadwig

  955–59

  Edgar

  959–75

  Edward the Martyr

  975–79

  Aethelred II Unraed (‘Unready’)

  979–1016

  Svein Forkbeard

  1013–14 (5 weeks)

  Canute the Great

  1016–35

  Harold I

  1037–40

  Harthacanute

  1040–42

  Edward the Confessor

  1042–66

  Harold II Godwinson

  1066

  William I ‘the Conqueror’

  1066–87

  FURTHER READING

  Abels, R. Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England, Harlow: Longman, 1998.

  Abu-Chakra, F. Vikings Through Arab Eyes: ‘Ibn Fadlan’ A.D. 922, Helsinki: Ammatour, 2004.

  Adam of Bremen. History of the Archibishops of Hamburg-Bremen [trans. Francis Tschan], New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

  Alliott, S. Alcuin of York, York: William Sessions, 1974.

  Anon. ‘Viking Famines Echoed in Japan,’ in New Scientist, vol 131, issue 1779, 27 July 1991. p.21.

  _______ The Saga of the Jómsvíkings [trans. Lee Hollander], Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955.

  Austin, D. and Leslie Alcock, eds, From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Studies in Medieval Archaeology, London: Routledge, 1997.

  Barlow, F. The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty, Harlow: Pearson, 2002.

  Bell-Fialkoff, A., ed., The Role of Migration in the History of the Eurasian Steppe: Sedentary Civilization vs ‘Barbarian’ and Nomad, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Blackburn, B. and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Blöndal, S. ‘The Last Exploits of Harald Sigurdsson in Greek Service,’ in Classica et Medievalia, I, 2, 1939, pp.1–26.

  Brønsted, J. The Vikings [trans. Kalle Skov], Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

&
nbsp; Christiansen, E. The Northern Crusades, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1997.

  Davidson, H. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.

  ___________ The Viking Road to Byzantium, London: Allen & Unwin, 1976.

  DeVries, K. The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999.

  DuBois, T. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 1999.

  Duczko, W. Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004.

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, DVD-ROM edition, 2002.

  Faulkes, A., ed., Stories from the Sagas of the Kings, London: Viking Society for Northern Research/UCL, 1980.

  Fleming, F. Barrow’s Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude and Outright Lunacy, London: Granta, 2001.

  Fletcher, R. Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002.

  Gilbert, T. ‘Death and Destruction,’ in New Scientist, vol. 178, issue 2397, 31 May 2003, p.32.

  Godden, M. and Michael Lapidge, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.